IPTV Business Case: A Mirage or Reality?

Studio 54-Inspired Lighting - 'Glam Rock Chandelier' by Erickson Beamon (GALLERY)

EFF To Apple: Free Speech Isn't a DMCA Violation

Pioneer announces the BDR-S03J 8x Blu-ray burner; still a while away

In case Sony’s 8x Blu-ray recorder isn’t for you, Pioneer is soon to have its own super-fast Blu-ray PC burner. The BDR-03J can author Blu-ray media at 8x speeds, DVD-R at 16x and CD-Rs at 32x; not that you’re burning the later that much anymore. The serial-ATA optical drive is dropping in Japan sometime in January, but will hopefully hitch a ride ‘cross the Pacific shortly after.

UPDATE 1-Novartis CEO sees higher dividend in future - TV

UPDATE 2-Lilly pulls FDA application for Cymbalta for pain

Guns Disguised as Antiques - Club Littlegun Curios (GALLERY)

Researcher Reveals Dining Habits Of Humpback Whales

Don’t forget about Cyber Monday!

Black Friday gets all the press but Cyber Monday might have just as good deals this year. The Monday after Thanksgiving was dubbed Cyber Monday a few years ago retailers started offering Black Friday-ish deals following the big shopping weekend. According to Shopzila 84 percent of online retailers plan on having a promotion this year so expect some good deals from retailers like Newegg, Buy, and Amazon. So, if you can deal with shopping without huge crowds and rabid moms, just wait ’till Monday. I am.

Restaurant Owner Tracks Down Thieves On Facebook

CrunchGear’s Best of Black Friday: Almost $300 Off Apple Gear

CrunchGears Best of Black Friday: Almost $300 Off Apple Gear

CrunchGear: Get almost $300 off Apple gear

Get thee to the Applery - or MacMall, MacConnection, or, better yet, Amazon - for some great deals on MacBooks, MB Pros, and iMacs. The Mac Pro, for example, is going for $284 off list at Amazon, making it about $2,500.

MacRumors has a full list of Apple deals.

CrunchGear is following most of the Black Friday sales including our Best Of that we launched last night.

Best Buy is posting some of their Black Friday sales online so you don’t have to leave the house this morning, ensuring those of us whose bellies have fallen over your belt and onto your legs won’t have to go flopping down the mall promenade.

Estonian ISP Shuts Srizbi Back Down, For Now

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

UPDATE 2-Premiere wins pay-TV rights for Bundesliga matches

Sling.com To Give Hulu Competition

Chipmakers squeezed as downturn bites harder

Foxconn to lay off 1,500 in Hungary as orders drop

Are You Searching Yourself ... - InternetNews.com

NewsOXY

Are You Searching Yourself ... InternetNews.com - 2 hours ago By Judy Mottl: More stories by this author: According to a new study, human nature prevails when it comes to searching for health-related information, with users often jumping to conclusions and assuming the worst. Cyberchondria: Go Online For What Doesn't Ail You CRN Microsoft Examines Causes of ‘Cyberchondria’ New York Times Search Engine Land - The Sun Daily - VNUNet.com - Ars Technica all 85 news articles

Harion: Japanese company sells $168,000 glass speaker set

Tokyo-based glassware manufacturer Hario (which means “the king of glass”) today unveiled a newly developed set of glass speakers that costs 16 million yen (US$168,000).

The so-called Harion speakers are made of heat-resistant material and took three years and eight months to design and produce. It took 23 subcontractors to create the hand-made set. The company claims it’s the first resistant-glass model of its kind.

The set consists of two middle range speakers, one woofer, one center speaker and two tweeters. Hario also created a fully-functional violion made of glass. The violin, which is as Japan-only as the speakers, is priced at $3,500.

Yahoo's New VideoTagGame Lets You Tag Within Videos

How to Build an Igloo

Freestyle Airborne Film Directing - The Balloon Project (VIDEO)

Researchers find clue to aging

When Everyone Is A Blogger, Nothing You Say Is Off The Record

65 Enjoyable Ideas for a Night on the Couch

Nokia gives up Japan (almost), will possibly focus more on China and India

Nokia, the world’s leading mobile phone maker, announced it would stop selling and marketing its handsets in Japan because the market share remained flat over too many years (hovering at around 1% vs. around 38% worldwide).

One of Nokia’s vice presidents said: “In the current global economic climate, we have concluded that the continuation of our investment in Japan-specific product variants is no longer sustainable.” They are right. Now is the right time to pull out of Japan without losing too much face.

And Nokia is very successful in China and India so they might not need the Japanese market at all (the plan to enter Nippon with their Vertu brand will not be abandoned). The company sold 38.5 million handsets in China in the first six months of this year alone.

Boing Boing's Holiday Gift Guide part three: Gadgets and stuff

Don't miss part one: kids' books and books and media about kids and part two: fiction!

Uranium Ore

Uranium ore for sale on Amazon
Original Boing Boing post

Gloom

Gothy card-game challenges your ability to create misery
Original Boing Boing post

Fluxx

Nomic card game
Original Boing Boing post

Alice in Wonderland Tattoos

Alice in Wonderland temporary tatts
Original Boing Boing post

Gerber 22-41770 Artifact Pocket Keychain Tool

Adorable Gerber pocket multitool
Original Boing Boing post

Leatherman 830850 Skeletool CX Multitool

A full-featured Leatherman tool whose every non-essential surface has been swiss-cheesed with holes to lighten its weight to a mere five ounces.
Original Boing Boing post

Nexcare Duct Tape Bandage

Nothing butches up your wounds like an official duct tape band-aid.
Original Boing Boing post

686 Original Snow Toolbelt

Belt buckle with integrated toolkit
Original Boing Boing post

MSI Wind U100 Netbook Most netbooks have about the same specs, but the Wind is a favorite for how easily it can be hackintoshed into running OS X. Original BBG coverage
Lippi Selk' Bag 1 It's a sleeping bag you can wear around the house, footie PJs for adults. Original BBG review
Sanyo Xacti VPC-CG9 Camcorder More functions than a Flip Mino, with replaceable flash memory and a real optical zoom. Original BBG Coverage

What to do with that spare €10bn - VNUNet.com

The Money Times

What to do with that spare €10bn VNUNet.com - 3 hours ago In a meeting in Holland this week, members from the European Space Agency (ESA) agreed on a new €10bn investment in their space budget. Space robot research station to land in Oxfordshire Register UPDATE 1-Europe to spend $13 bln on Mars rover, space plans Reuters The Associated Press - DailyNewsOnline - Cordis News - BBC News all 298 news articles

HP Seeks to Block Competitor From Revealing Its Pricing

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Elbowing Into the Set-Top Scene: Q and A With Blockbuster CEO Jim ... - E-Commerce Times

ABC News

Elbowing Into the Set-Top Scene: Q and A With Blockbuster CEO Jim ... E-Commerce Times - 4 hours ago By Walaika Haskins In entering the set-top box scene, Blockbuster has joined the likes of Apple, Netflix, Vudu and other outfits offering to bring video to viewers' TVs almost instantly via broadband. Blockbuster Takes On Netflix, Apple With Direct-To-TV Player InformationWeek Netflix's direct-to-TV option low on content Akron Beacon Journal BusinessWeek - TG Daily - Slashdot - Computerworld all 545 news articles

Hands on With the HTC Touch HD - PC World

The Age

Hands on With the HTC Touch HD PC World - 4 hours ago Taiwanese smartphone developer High Tech Computer (HTC) debuted its biggest threat to the iPhone 3G yet earlier this week, the HTC Touch HD, and I had a chance to use one for a few hours on Friday. BlackBerry Battle Royale: Storm vs. Bold TechNewsWorld BlackBerry Storm: Epic Fail To Impress eFluxMedia SlashGear - Gainesville Sun - Dealerscope - Evansville Courier & Press all 119 news articles

When Everyone Is A Blogger, Nothing You Say Is Off The Record

There’s a lot of buzz here in the Belgian blogosphere and mainstream media about an incident involving a New York-based blogger, who was fired from her job as a bartender after publishing a post on the bar visit of a Belgian politician. I’m generally hesitant to share ‘local’ stories here because I want to keep it relevant. In this particular case, I think it is.

Current Belgian Minister of Defense Pieter De Crem apparently stumbled into a Belgian bar in New York City on Monday evening with his entourage. Following his visit, bartender Nathalie Lubbe Bakker blogged about their visit (in Dutch), talking about how disgusted she was of how drunk De Crem was and how embarrased she was about his behavior. Worst part, she wrote, was the fact that one of the politician’s advisors admitted to her that the meetings they were there for on taxpayer’s money were in fact cancelled because the UN was meeting in Geneva (which is about 330 miles from Brussels). He reportedly told her they had decided to come to NY anyway despite being aware of the cancellation because the policital situation here was ‘calm’ and that he’d ‘never visited the city anyway’.

A couple of days later, someone from De Crem’s office had a telephone call with Nathalie’s boss, after which she was promptly fired. This was initially denied by the politician, and it remains unclear if her termination was a direct result of the call or the blog post in question.

Somehow, the story was picked up and got a lot of attention from local bloggers and the mainstream media, which ultimately lead to the Minister having to defend himself about the NY trip in Parliament. Yesterday, he made a statement to the Parliament admitting that a call was made but that there was never any insinuation about the girl getting fired from her job (which makes me wonder why the call was made at all then).

He also stated:

I want to take this opportunity and use this non-event to signal a dangerous phenomenon in our society. We live in a time where everybody is free to publish whatever he or she wants on blogs at will without taking any responsibility. This exceeds mud-slinging. Together with you, other Parliament members and the government I find that it’s nearly impossible to defend yourself against this. Everyone of you is a potential victim. I would like to ask you to take a moment and think about this.

De Crem added that he’s asked his legal counsel to see which measures could be taken to ‘defend his integrity’.

Needless to say, his statements indicating that ‘blogging is a dangerous phenomenon’ spurred a lot of angry (and funny) reactions in the local blogosphere, making the situation for him much worse than it already was (much like that German politician who blocked the local wikipedia.de website).

People, and especially politicians representing them, need to wake up and smell the coffee. The world is changing, and blogging is now a big part of it, with all of its good sides as well as its bad ones. Live and learn. The sooner you get the hang of social media, the more you’ll see the opportunities in there rather than the threats.

Feel free to share your opinion on this story, or blogging in general, in the comments.

(Not sure who to credit for that last picture, but I found out at Bart Claeys’ Flickr account who got it from this blog)

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

OpenStreetMap Is Creating A Free, Editable World Map

This is a guest post by Ed Freyfogle, co-founder of the Nestoria property search engine: OpenStreetMap started four years ago in the UK as a project to create a free and editable world map. What began as a few geogeeks wandering the streets with their GPS’s has turned into a global movement with over 75,000 registered contributors. The database has improved rapidly in quality and comprehensiveness, as have the tools and services around it. OSM is becoming a viable datasource for complex projects. The project’s stats are another demonstration of the awesome power of a motivated online mob. The passion of some of the volunteers is shocking; there’s even a student attempting to go his entire time at uni using only OSM maps.

Crunch Network: CrunchGear drool over the sexiest new gadgets and hardware.

As Carl Icahn Buys More Yahoo Shares, Is It the Sign That a CEO Choice Is Near? [BoomTown]

When everyone else has been selling, it seems Carl Icahn has decided to throw good money after bad–as in nearly $1 billion bad–by buying almost seven million more of Yahoo shares, according to a regulatory filing.

Why is he doing it? BoomTown is guessing that the billionaire investor thinks he can recoup some of his massive losses in Yahoo, as Jerry Yang prepares to step down and the board, on which Icahn sits, and names a new leader.

That’s why my guess is that the choice of a new CEO is likely to be sooner than later and much more Icahn-friendly.

That could point more clearly to perhaps one of two execs whom Icahn brought with him to the Yahoo (YHOO) board–either former media exec Frank Biondi Jr. or, more likely, former Nextel exec John Chapple.

Another theory is that Yahoo will pick a more low-key, tech-oriented outsider, an operational star who can get things turned around at Yahoo without a lot of fuss, similar to choices made for eBay (EBAY) in its pick of John Donahoe and Mark Hurd at Hewlett-Packard (HP) recently.



One of the names being bandied about in that regard is H-P exec Todd Bradley (pictured here).

Bradley is in charge of its massive Personal Systems group, a $28 billion annual business, which include personal computers, mobile devices, technical workstations, digital televisions, personal storage solutions and Internet services.

Interestingly, another top H-P exec Vyomesh (VJ) Yoshi, who runs its Imaging and Printing group, is currently a director on the Yahoo board.

In any case, the purchase of 6.7 million more Yahoo shares for about $65 million by Icahn over the last several days is definitely a move to watch.

Icahn, who waged a proxy fight against the Internet giant, owns stock that has lost about $900 million in value, since he bought about five percent of Yahoo earlier in the year.

That loss comes from his purchase of about 70 million shares in the spring, at about $25 a share, of Yahoo stock, right in the midst of its takeover battle with Microsoft.

Yahoo shares close Friday at $10.58, up 33 cents.

With the new purchase, Icahn now owns about 5.4 percent of Yahoo, which–combined with three board seats–gives him a lot more clout over decision-making and in forcing the current board to make a CEO pick who will be more interested in doing some sort of deal with Microsoft (MSFT) quickly.

Icahn has long agitated for Yahoo to sell all or part of itself off to the software giant, a move that has been resisted by Yahoo leadership. Instead, Yang tried to pull off a deal with Google (GOOG), which failed.

But that leadership is about to change, as the board searches for a new CEO to replace Yang, who said he was ready to step down a few weeks ago.

Lots of names have been floated for the job–from News Corp. (NWS) COO Peter Chernin to DoubleClick head David Rosenblatt to Google exec Tim Armstrong, as well as former Yahoo COO Dan Rosensweig.

Most sources inside and outside the company do not expect its current President Sue Decker, who is also up for the job, to be selected.

But many point to a current Yahoo board member as a quick choice, in order to get some key initiatives moving, such as a Microsoft deal or a merger with Time Warner (TWX) online unit, AOL.



That points to someone like Chapple (pictured here), who has been querying a range of mid-level Yahoo execs of late, presumably to get a lay of the land at the company for the board.

He or perhaps even board member Maggie Wilderotter could be picked as an interim CEO, in order to signal to investors that true change is on the way at Yahoo.

Whoever is chosen needs to move quickly said many I spoke to about the Yahoo CEO job.

Wrote one experienced Internet exec in an email to me, reflecting a very common sentiment:

“Whoever comes in is going to have one shot to define the product to the consumer in a way that differentiates it from the rest of the market and provides unique value. Their brand is fuzzy right now. And they’ll have to find a uniqueness in their ad sales so they are not relegated to being the also-ran.”

Well, with all the money riding on it, Carl Icahn certainly has to hope that does not become the case.





Source: All Things Digital | 28 Nov 2008 | 10:19 am

My iPhone Is a Mac, My Android Is a PC



I’ve been using an Android G1 phone for more than a month now on a daily basis, but I still haven’t given up my iPhone. The more I use them both, the more that I realize my iPhone is a Mac and my Android is a PC.

That is not necessarily a bad thing—except for when my Android crashes (which is a lot). Okay, it does not actually crash so much as it freezes up, forcing me to wait until it figures things out. Which it usually does. Except that one time when I plugged it into the wrong mini-USB charger and it gave me the screen of death: a white danger triangle with a cell phone flat on its back next to it. (Sorry for the fuzzy picture, I took it with my iPhone).

Whose fault was that crash? I’m sure it was mine. But believe me, I’m equally careless with my iPhone. It’s just a lot more stable. That’s kind of what you’d expect since Apple goes to such lengths to control every aspect of the device, including the kinds of apps that can run on it. Android apps also have to go through a vetting process, but it does not seem to be as strict as Apple’s.

I make this judgment simply by looking at what is available in its app store, which seems to have been flooded recently. Sifting through all the Android apps, the bar for admittance seems to be pretty low. Some of the descriptions of the apps include messages from the developers. One typical plea:


If it does not install, please try uninstalling old version first. I am working on figuring out why this happens. Please let me know if you have a clue.

A lot of apps in there still feel experimental, which is both a good thing and a bad thing. The quality of the apps is even more mixed than for the iPhone, which might have apps that are just as useless but you can at least count on them to work. The Android apps have more of a free-for-all attitude.

Android is a much more open development environment than the iPhone (or than a PC, for that matter). There aren’t as many restrictions on what parts of the phone an app can access. Right now, that makes for a messier overall experience. But it also opens the door to a much richer set of apps over time.

It almost harkens back to the hobbyist days of the PC. In fact, at the Android launch event, Google co-founder Sergey Brin talked about how he loved to tinker with the Android phone as a programmer:


The first app I wrote was one where you throw the phone up in the air and it calculates how much time it takes to hit the ground, using the accelerometer.

That one thankfully never made it into the Android app store. We’ve covered some that did and that are worth checking out. Among some of the newer ones that I really like are:

ParkMark—Helps you mark where you parked your car so you can find it later.
Orienteer—taps into the internal compass to give you a virtual needle reading.
Translate—uses Google Translate to turn phrases from one language into another.
Pintail—Let’s you SMS your phone if you lose it, sends back its ocation.
JOYity—a game of GPS tag.
Punch-O-Meter—measures how fast you punch.

So if mobile phones are where computers were 30 years ago, which would you rather be?

Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors







Source: TechCrunch | 28 Nov 2008 | 10:13 am

NASA and DoE Team On Dark Energy Research

Roland Piquepaille writes "NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy have teamed up to operate the future Joint Dark Energy Mission. As you probably know, recent astronomical measurements have showed that about 72% of the total energy in the universe is dark energy, even if scientists don't know much about it, but speculate that it is present almost since the beginning of our Universe more than 13 billion years ago. The JDEM 'mission will make precise measurements of the expansion rate of the universe to understand how this rate has changed with time. These measurements will yield vital clues about the nature of dark energy.' The launch of a spacecraft for the JDEM mission is not planned before 2015."



Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2008 | 10:08 am

CrunchBase: Are You In It?

CrunchBase, our free database of startup and people information, continues to grow thanks to countless additions and corrections by the community. The site now has entries on 20,000 people, 10,000 companies and over 1,000 venture funds.

The majority of content is added by the community (CrunchBase has wiki features to allow unlimited versioning control to step back if bad entries are made). When an important deal or milestone about a person or startup is reported on any site, people add it to Crunchbase for others to find.

We’re starting to see grass roots efforts by local startup communities to make sure their data is in CrunchBase and up to date. We also have an open API that lets developers grab CrunchBase data. And we’ve written about some of our favorite applications to access that data here and on the CrunchBase blog.

But there still isn’t nearly enough data in CrunchBase. We want you to be in there too. Just add a few sentences about yourself to the database, upload a picture and put in a link to your blog or website (see “contribute” links on the right sidebar). And if you are at a startup, please make sure you add your information, or check to see if the information already there is up to date.

The team continues to add features weekly. If you have any feedback, please let us know.

Crunch Network: CrunchBoard because it’s time for you to find a new Job2.0







Source: TechCrunch | 28 Nov 2008 | 8:04 am

Newspaper Death Spiral Continues; Industry Advertising Contracts $5 Billion So Far This Year



The newspaper industry in the U.S. continues to shrink at an alarming rate. According to the Newspaper Association of America,, total industry advertising (both print and online) in the third quarter was $8.9 billion, down 18 percent from the year before. The online portion of that was $750 million, down 3 percent. So far in the first three quarters of 2008, the industry’s total advertising revenues have shrunk by $5 billion to $27.8 billion.

Print advertising has been declining for ten straight quarters, but this marks only the second quarter that online advertising also went down. More concerning is that the overall rate of decline seems to be accelerating, a trend we noted in September. Here is the percentage change in total newspaper advertising for the past five quarters:

3Q07: -7.4%
4Q07: -10.3%
1Q08: -12.85%
2Q08: -15.11%
3Q08: -18.11%

The fourth quarter will probably be worse.

(Photo by Scott Glovsky).

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.







Source: TechCrunch | 28 Nov 2008 | 7:33 am

IT Cutbacks For 2012 London Olympics

Slatterz writes "The IT backbone for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games is to be cut. According to the Games' chief integrator, Michele Hyron of Atos Origin, each section of the computing infrastructure will be made more efficient in order to minimise redundant equipment and hopefully reduce energy consumption. Unlike the Beijing Games, the results will be relayed via the public wireless network which will be available in the Olympic Park — this means cutting out the 2,500 results terminals. The team of workers will deliver more than 1,000 servers, 10,000 PCs and 4,000 printers."



Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2008 | 7:09 am

Online retailers ramp up deals to capture dollars (AP)

AP - Online retailers are ramping up heavy-duty deals to turn skittish shoppers into buyers during the crucial Thanksgiving weekend and "Cyber Monday" — but even so, online sales are expected to be fairly flat after years of strong growth.



Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 28 Nov 2008 | 6:42 am

Little Brother UK launch at Forbidden Planet tomorrow

A reminder that tomorrow is the UK launch and signing for Little Brother at Forbidden Planet in London -- 1PM! You can also pre-order signed copies through the Forbidden Planet site. Hope to see you there!

Saturday 29, November, 1:00PM - 2:00PM
Forbidden Planet London Megastore,
179 Shaftesbury Avenue, London, WC2H 8JR

Our Price: £6.99


Little Brother UK launch/signing at Forbidden Planet London, Nov 29





Source: Boing Boing | 28 Nov 2008 | 5:47 am

Speck offers Black Friday / Cyber Monday deals for previous-gen iPhone/iPod/MacBook owners

FROM APPLETELL - Owners of older Apple products haven’t been forgotten this holiday season. Speck has announced a 25% to 75% sale on their previous-generation iPhone, iPod and MacBook cases. MORE »

Full Story » | Written by NEWS for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gizmodo | 28 Nov 2008 | 5:01 am

Vaporware 2008: A Call for Submissions

Among the scents of fresh pine garlands, pumpkin pie, mulling spices and roast turducken filling your home this holiday season, you may catch a whiff of that old familiar vapor.

Yes, that special time of year has come again. We are officially accepting nominees for the annual Wired.com Vaporware awards, our yearly showcase of the products pitched, promised and hyped, but never delivered.

2008 is actually gearing up to be much more exciting than years past.

Some of last year's favorites won't be eligible this time around.

The Tesla Roadster is rolling off the assembly line, albeit slowly. Spore sprung to life. The Optimus Maximus keyboard successfully separated overpaid design fetishists from their Google stock dividends just in time for the market crash.

Even poor Axl Rose managed to perform his six millionth ProTools edit and get Chinese Democracy onto shelves after a 14-year wait.

All that action cleared the way for a whole new crop of crap. So, let's get to it and fill up the list with some fresh FAIL.

Got a nominee for Vaporware '08? Here are the rules:

• The product must have been promised to ship during 2008.
• No rumors. That means no Mac Netbooks, Apple iTablets or 50-inch Sony OLEDs. It has to have been announced with a 2008 release date attached.
• If you can buy it, it doesn't count. If it shipped — even if it sucked — it's not vaporware.
• Software stuck in a never-ending, pre-release, beta-testing stage can be considered vaporware.
• Likewise hardware prototypes. It may exist in some company's lab or trotted out at trade shows, but it's vaporware until it hits store shelves.

Send your submissions to wiredvaporware@gmail.com. To make it easier on us, please put the name of the company and product in the subject line of your e-mail, as well as in the message body. And don't forget to include a couple of acerbic comments we can quote. Links are a big help, too.

The final list will be assembled by Wired.com's editors. Awards will be handed out in late December.








Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Found Photoshop Contest: Truck Stop of the Future

For the past six years, Wired magazine's Found page has presented our best guess at what lies over the horizon, from touchscreen windshields to organ farming. Turns out, this little exercise in futurism is one of your favorite pages (as we learned recently when it took a short sabbatical). So we've decided to turn Found over to our readers — what do you think our world will look like in 10, 20, or 100 years?

Each month, we'll propose a scenario. Then it's up you: Sketch out your vision, then go to wired.com/wired/found to upload your ideas, see other submissions, and vote for your favorites. We'll use the best suggestions as inspiration for a future Found page (giving full credit to the creators, of course). We’ll also select one (image-based submission) as our favorite, and note it in an update at the bottom of this text block. This week's assignment: Imagine the future of the truck stop.

Use the Reddit widget below to submit your best Found idea and vote for your favorite among the other submissions. The image must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. Please submit images that are relatively large, the ideal size being 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side. Please include a description of your idea and how you made it.

We don't host the images, so you'll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you're using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it's displayed. If your photo doesn't show up, it's because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).

Please bookmark this page and check back periodically over the next few weeks to vote on new submissions, and look for an update announcing our favorite submission!

Vote on Found ideas submitted by other readers.

Show entries that are: hot | new | top-rated. Submit your found idea.





Submit your Found image.

(No more than one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.)

Back to top








Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

Artifacts From the Future: Wall Street 2013 — Brother, Can You Spare a Yuan?

:

Here's our vision of the future of Wall Street in 2013. The logo of the New York Stock Exchange is written in English and Chinese. Ticker tapes, blaring cable news network updates, and new advertising overlays all bespeak a bummed out bear market that never bounced back.

We'll continue to create a new Artifacts from the Future in upcoming issues of Wired magazine. But we'd like to see your prognostications too. What do you think our world will look like in 10, 20 or 100 years? Each month, we'll propose a scenario. Then it's up you: Sketch out your vision, then return here to upload your ideas, see other submissions and vote for your favorites. Check out this month's Truck Stop of the Future challenge.

The concept and most of the text for this Found came from Senior Editor Jason Tanz. Contributing Wired magazine designer Walter Baumann, photo assistants Sarah Filippi and Daniel Salo, deputy photo editor Anna Goldman Alexander, senior editor Chris Baker and production director Jeff Lysgaard helped create the image.

:

The Chinese flag hangs side by side with the stars and stripes.

:

Bloomberg reports Cramer's hunger strike enters third week.

:

Refill your 401K with Schwab's Scratch and Win Ultra-Lotto!

:

CloneCo announces 2-for-1 split.

:

Suze Orman's latest book, Solvency Is a State of Mind, tops the charts.

:

Time machine futures collapse.

:

Finish this sentence: Bioterror is....








Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Nov 2008 | 5:00 am

SpaceX Falcon Update With Pictures

Toren Altair writes "SpaceX made good progress with their Falcon 9 rocket. Check the progress with pictures. 'Today we fitted the F9 skirt to the fuel tank end of the 1st stage. Also had movement on the erector, with the upper aluminum truss just coming back from being painted. Activity on the floor is constant and will remain so throughout the week and weekend as we prepare the F9 structures for shipping to Texas for testing before they head to the Cape.'"



Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Source: Gizmodo | 28 Nov 2008 | 4:19 am

iriver upgrades their E100 series

Section: Audio, Portable Audio, Video, Portable Video



To commemorate 1 million of their E100 MP3 players being sold, iriver has decided to upgrade them by releasing what they call the E100 Season 2. 

Basically, the Season 2 doesn’t add that many new upgrades, but each MP3 player is now offered in more colors and more storage capacities.  They all come in different color variations of white, orange, and silver.  Also, they are available in 2GB, 4GB, and 8GB models.  Otherwise, expect features and format support to be essentially the same.  One thing I imagine to be different is the current pricing.  Since these models would be a little more advanced, pricing would probably go up a little bit. 

Read [iriver] Via [Akihabara News]

Full Story » | Written by Natesh Sood for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Nov 2008 | 3:21 am

Google's IPhone App Sets Trend Rebelling Against Apple's Rules - DailyTech

Canada.com

Google's IPhone App Sets Trend Rebelling Against Apple's Rules DailyTech - 13 hours ago Google's new voice-powered search lets you search for things on your iPhone without tiring your thumbs. It also breaks Apple's developer agreement. Google admits that its iPhone voice search breaks Apple's rules BetaNews Google confirms its iPhone voice search violates Apple’s terms TopNews Reuters - Macworld - CNET News - Register all 110 news articles


Source: Google News - Sci/Tech | 28 Nov 2008 | 2:13 am

NYT on Guantánamo "Nothing has been more damaging to the United States than the violation of the legal principles at the heart of the American idea."

Today's NYT has an op-ed by Roger Cohen giving thanks that our next president is a constitutional lawyer.

Of the 770 detainees grabbed here and there and flown to Guantánamo, only 23 have ever been charged with a crime. Of the more than 500 so far released, many traumatized by those “enhanced” techniques, not one has received an apology or compensation for their season in hell.

What they got on release was a single piece of paper from the American government. A U.S. official met one of the dozens of Afghans now released from Guantánamo and was so appalled by this document that he forwarded me a copy.

Dated Oct. 7, 2006, it reads as follows:

“An Administrative Review Board has reviewed the information about you that was talked about at the meeting on 02 December 2005 and the deciding official in the United States has made a decision about what will happen to you. You will be sent to the country of Afghanistan. Your departure will occur as soon as possible.”

That’s it, the one and only record on paper of protracted U.S. incarceration: three sentences for four years of a young Afghan’s life, written in language Orwell would have recognized.

We have “the deciding official,” not an officer, general or judge. We have “the information about you,” not allegations, or accusations, let alone charges. We have “a decision about what will happen to you,” not a judgment, ruling or verdict. This is the lexicon of totalitarianism. It is acutely embarrassing to the United States.

That is why I am thankful above all that the next U.S. commander in chief is a constitutional lawyer. Nothing has been more damaging to the United States than the violation of the legal principles at the heart of the American idea.

Roger Cohen on Guantánamo





Source: Boing Boing | 28 Nov 2008 | 2:02 am

National Guard Gets Spying, 'Flying Beer Keg' for Iraq

A Pennsylvania National Guard unit will get a new toy before it deploys to Iraq in January — an odd-looking robotic recon aircraft, sometimes referred to as "the flying beer keg."






Source: Wired Top Stories | 28 Nov 2008 | 2:00 am

Fring cuts staff by 20 percent (CNET)

CNET - Fring.com, a provider voice over IP and instant messaging applications, has laid off 20 percent of its staff, or about 10 people, according to a report Thursday on Tech Crunch.
Source: Yahoo! News: Technology News | 28 Nov 2008 | 2:00 am

Black Friday starts early (but double-check the specs)

According to the Internet, the retail industry's collective nerves snapped like cartoon guitar wire today, and most stores are already offering their black friday deals. Online, at least.

They perhaps planned it all along, but hey, this is how the hype goest. Blackfriday.info and bfads.net are as good as any place to start, but black-friday.net seems to have the best "everything on one page" list.

Remember to look twice. Acer's Aspire One netbook is a mere $250 at Newegg, but it's dismally configured: only 512MB of RAM and a 3-cell battery. Similar caveats apply to Amazon's $300 HP 2133.



Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 28 Nov 2008 | 1:47 am

18% of Consumers Can't Tell HD From SD

An anonymous reader writes "Thinking about upgrading to an HDTV this holiday season? The prices might be great, but some people won't be appreciating the technology as much as everyone else. A report by Leichtman Research Group is claiming that 18% of consumers who are watching standard definition channels on a HDTV think that the feed is in hi-def." (Here's the original story at PC World.)



Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Source: Slashdot | 28 Nov 2008 | 1:35 am

Thanksgiving Update: We Rank the Best Early Black Friday TV Deals



The biggest shopping day of the year is at hand and manufacturers are trying to spur TV sales by highlighting massive price markdowns online. In the last week, we’ve even seen some of the most discount-averse companies offer eye-opening sales of their best displays.

But with the economic recession on everyone’s mind, is anyone taking advantage of the discounts? Or are there deals out there that are just too good to pass up?

We’ve been watching the early Black Friday deals roll in and we can safely say that if you have the money to spend, you should definitely consider the top crop of displays. The bottom ones, well, not so much, even if it seems like a great deal to buy a massive 67-inch DLP TV for less than $2,000 (yes, we’ve changed our mind on that one).

These recommendations are based not only on the initial large price drops, but also with the understanding that when buying the TVs, you should make sure to get a 30-day price guarantee from the retailer, as we mentioned last week. Follow the (likely) continual price drops over the next month and you’ll be sure to get the best price without leaving your couch.

Check out a screenshot of our top TV deals below, and then check out our Google Docs spreadsheet with the larger list. We based our rankings on overall quality of the display, type (LCDs usally fare better than Plasmas in the near-term), and general savings. If you disagree with the rankings, let us know in the comments.

And if you find any new deals propping up on the net throughout the day (in between the gravy chugging), let us know and we’ll add it to the list.










Source: Wired: Gadget Lab | 28 Nov 2008 | 12:35 am

Gadgetell Review: TeleNav Shotgun

Section: Gadgets / Other, GPS/Navigation, Reviews, Features



Gadgetell Quick Review:

What is it?

The TeleNav Shotgun is the first stand alone GPS unit from TeleNav, known for their on-phone GPS

Pros:

Connected search, superior POI, smart traffic updates,  beautiful screen, Best mounting I’ve seen in some time, future possibilities

Cons:

No ETA, only time to destination and quarterly updates on POI information.

I’ve mentioned before that I use TeleNav on my Windows Mobile phone and am quite happy with it.  For me, it is the simplicity of one device that is always with me, smarter than many stand alone boxes that I love.  I wasn’t sure how this review would go, given that bias.  Would I abandon this box or is there something here that is different enough to make this box stand out?

Well connected

Being a gadget guy, I love being connected.  Having a GPS that isn’t connected these days, just seems dumb.  So, I was keen to see how this feature would get on.  Searching on this unit was super easy for me.  Maybe it is my familiarity with the TeleNav menu tree, but I find most others cumbersome to search for businesses.  Take the local Ikea as an example.  Navigon wants me to enter in the state, city, business type before I can even enter the name.  I hate that.  I want to treat a search like Google—enter in as much or as little as I want and let the data come to me. 

The Shotgun behaves more like Google.  You simply hit “Business” then nearby and you are off and running.  While I hope they continue to get more Google-like in their searches, this one is at the top of my favorites for searches.

What I love the most about this device is I’ve found it to be the most complete and up to date POI database out there.  There isn’t a GPS out there that I found that surpasses TeleNav’s database.  It is that good.  The database is updated four times a year.

Darn that traffic jam

Traffic is no fun.  That is why the Shotgun goes out and checks on traffic every five minutes in route.  One thing that does annoy me about TeleNav’s phone GPS service is the “Checking for traffic” audio that tells me when she is making the call out for traffic. 

One thing I really like is the Shotgun’s ability to touch and drag the map around, so you can check traffic on other roads with ease.  Of course, the unit will suggest reroutes as well.

Bread and butter

As a GPS device, the Shotgun speaks turn by turn directions as well as street names.  As you advance to your turn, the screen counts down the miles, then feet until your turn.  That works pretty well, though I do like Navigon’s graphic of a metered bar graph that lets you know when your turn is instead of relying on your ability to apply yardage to your visual surroundings.

Another thing I like about TeleNav is its audio notifications.  The “dings” let you know you’ve moved off your suggested route and the unit is working on a reroute.  Other units don’t give you notification they are changing your directions and just show you the next move.  The immediate notification the Shotgun provides is quite handy and lets me know where that turn I missed is instead of having to guess at it again at tricky intersections.

The screen deserves special mention here, it is top notch.  Bright colors, clear display, and simple on screen keyboard make it pretty simple to use.  I found the sensitivity to be good and had the usual spelling issues I always do on GPS devices. 

I found the Shotgun less needy than the phone GPS.  GPS makers have to decide how needy their drivers are.  Do drivers want to be updated you are on the right road every 5 minutes or 10?  How long is too long without any notifications?  Is “turn onto highway entrance ramp” enough to imply get on the highway or does a “merge onto highway” needed when you have no other option?  The Shotgun did an excellent job at allaying my misguided fears while the phone steps over this line and updates me too much sometimes.  That is a fine and personal line, I am sure of that.

Make no mistake, the Shotgun performs basic GPS functions well as well as any other out there.

Future plans

While many units have current gas prices (which I always find out of date with today’s volatility in gas prices), TeleNav is working on some fun things that will integrate into Shotgun, making it an even more feature rich device.  They are looking to add in simple things like weather and restaurant reviews, as well as functional things like address share and commuter alerts.  There is much they are working on.

Costs

While the unit costs $299, the connectivity fee is as much as $11.99 per month.  To sweeten the deal on Cyber Monday:

Customers who purchase a TeleNav Shotgun on Cyber Monday, December 1, and use Cyber Monday coupon code ‘sgcybermonday’ (case sensitive) will automatically receive six free months of TeleNav Connected Service - three more than they would normally receive if they purchase the TeleNav Shotgun on another date or without using the Cyber Monday coupon code.

So, am I a convert?


If any box was going to do it, it was this one.  While the Shotgun works as well as (if not better) than my cell phone version, I still like having it on my phone.  Natesh Sood (Gadgetell’s GPS expert) tells me I am an odd duck for this line of reasoning, but the fact remains there is no chance of someone smashing my windows to steal my GPS.  I don’t leave my phone behind and therefore always have GPS with me.  Obviously, I am one of the few that feels this way as GPS unit proliferation is at an all time high.  If I were to get a stand alone, it would be the Shotgun.

Full Story » | Written by JG Mason for Gadgetell. | Comment on this Article »

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Source: Gadgetell | 28 Nov 2008 | 12:17 am

Stephen Hawking Going To Canada

thepacketmaster writes "A previous Slashdot article I posted mentioned the possibility of Stephen Hawking coming to Canada. The Toronto Star now reports that he has accepted the position. Hawking will hold the title of distinguished research chair at the prestigious Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics."



Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Source: Gizmodo | 27 Nov 2008 | 11:00 pm

Oil Exploration Leads To Video of a Mysterious Elbowed Squid

eldavojohn writes "A rare glimpse from Shell Oil of a giant squid brings to light the strange relationships some deep sea marine biologists have with drilling companies. The video of the squid (Magnapinna) is very rare as this creature remains largely a mystery to science. While some are concerned of a conflict of interest, biologists and big oil sure make for strange bedfellows. The video is from 200 miles off the coast of Houston, TX and about 4,000 feet down." Looking at this creature gives me the willies, frankly.



Read more of this story at Slashdot.




Source: Slashdot | 27 Nov 2008 | 10:41 pm

Virginia freezes crab licenses

Virginia says it plans to refuse crab license renewals for 800 fishermen who did not catch any crabs between 2004 and 2007.






Source: Gizmodo | 27 Nov 2008 | 9:00 pm

Excavations uncover 15th century coins

Excavations in the Netherlands have uncovered 30 coins that date back to the 15th century, archaeologists say. Radio Netherlands said Thursday that archaeologists suspect a traveling salesman may have left the silver coins in the Dutch town of Coevorden at one point in history. The coins were minted between 1380 and 1425, archaeologists say.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 8:22 pm

PlayStation Store Update: Black Friday and Thanksgiving 2008 edition

FROM GAMERTELL - With the Thanksgiving holiday rapidly approaching, Sony has decided to gift gamers early with enough games and content worthy of a feast.  Digitally speaking, that is. MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 Nov 2008 | 8:09 pm

Finally, µTorrent Releases A Mac Version

Right on time for Thanksgiving day, µTorrent - client of choice for many BitTorrent users - has released a Mac version in beta, after a rudimentary alpha release was leaked a couple of months ago (on a BitTorrent tracker, at that).

The lightweight µTorrent client for Windows was first publicly released in September 2005, and was acquired by BitTorrent in 2006, who continued development on the application and promised to release a Mac version. It has now arrived, but as Torrentfreak points out, the Mac release only runs on Leopard/Intel Macs at the moment and may still contain serious bugs.

Alternatives include Vuze (formerly Azureus) and Transmission.

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.








Source: TechCrunch | 27 Nov 2008 | 7:37 pm

Lori Drew convicted of computer fraud after MySpace taunts

Lori Drew, 49, who used a fake MySpace identity to taunt 13-year-old Megan Meier, was convicted yesterday of computer fraud. Meier killed herself after being bullied online by 16-year old "Josh," who turned out to be a sockpuppet created by Drew to humiliate her.

Jurors aquitted her of felony charges and were deadlocked on a conspiracy charge, returning misdemeanor verdicts on three counts of accessing a computer without authorization.

For Meier's family, it's justice. Evidence at the trial demonstrated that Drew was responsible for a campaign of harassment—against a child—unbelievable in its depth and cruelty. Drew's conviction could be a valuable stepping stone to better laws targeting online harassment.

The court's ruling, however, is a problematic one. Here's Rebecca Lonergan, a law professor at University of Southern California, as interviewed by Reuters:

"The thing about this case that really bothered members of the public is the teenager's suicide, and the involvement of a grown woman in (allegedly) causing that suicide," she said. "And the main problem is that the charges weren't about the suicide. They were about computer hacking, essentially."

Drew's a callous sociopath, but she's not a hacker. In using the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to successfully prosecute Drew, prosecutors have established breaking a website's terms of service as a criminal offense. The accused had to travel to MySpace's jurisdicton to defend herself, thanks to another clause in the unread, unsigned 4,350-word legal document that one "agrees" to whenever visiting MySpace.

Legislatures are working to ensure that harassment laws apply to the internet, but "in the meantime" decisions like have a legislative effect of their own. Here are a just a few examples from MySpace's Terms that now seem open to abuse by zealous prosecutors — even if MySpace itself would rather see the whole story just go away.

1. Obscuring MySpace's ads, or putting up your own ads.

2. Being "patently offensive."

3. Posting nudity or violent materials, or posting a link to a website that contains adult content.

4. Posting an email address, telephone number or home address.

5. Glorifying "illegal activities."

6. Promoting a commercial activity without MySpace's prior written consent.

7. Posting a photograph of someone without their consent

8. Promoting your band using sexually suggestive imagery.

9. Asking other MySpace users to embed your music player in their own profiles.

10. Copyright infringement

Dead Teen's Mother: Misdemeanor Convictions a 'Stepping Stone' in Cyberbullying Case [Wired: Threat Level]



Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 Nov 2008 | 7:15 pm

Some Columbia Pictures movies return to NXE streams

FROM GAMERTELL - Some Columbia Pictures movies return to NXE streams on Xbox Live although not all is good in the word of competitive corporations… MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 Nov 2008 | 7:14 pm

Koornk Blatantly Rips Off Twitter

There are a lot of Twitter clones out there, often built by companies outside the US trying to steal the company’s thunder by creating local communities with a translated application, something the San Francisco startup has focused little on so far. That this isn’t always a direct road to success, proved German Twitter clone Duduku last year when it put itself for sale on eBay. Not that being inspired is necessarily a bad thing.

In the case of Yammer and Present.ly, it’s about taking Twitter’s core functionality and doing something with it that benefits teams in a business environment rather than individuals. There are other examples of clones that take the concept of sharing short messages with other people and do something fresh with it, like Gospelr (yup, for Christians), Blip.fm (for music lovers) or - why not - catering those interested in adult content (Twatr). There are also projects like Identi.ca taking a decentralized approach to the Twitter concept, and even stuff like Twingr or Revou which let you build / host your own Twitter communities.

What I have much less respect for is services like Koornk (yes, that really is spelled correctly) that clone everything about Twitter without adding anything of value nor approaching the concept from a novel business perspective. In fact, what’s even worse about Koornk (again, yes that’s really the name) is that they steal so much of Twitter’s lay-out and wording that it’s not even fun anymore. From the typical bird logo to the color scheme, the icons and even the font, the whole thing just screams Twitter to me. I’ll save you the trouble of signing up for the service and add some screenshots below so you can judge for yourself.





Crunch Network: CrunchBase the free database of technology companies, people, and investors








Source: TechCrunch | 27 Nov 2008 | 7:00 pm

Freakin' Friday's Silver Lining

Mark posted on Boing-Boing last year this article on Fake News that I wrote, which examined the retail numbers cited by the National Retail Federation about sales over Thanksgiving, and so-called Black Friday. I made the point that this news is fake news, coming from a press release generated by a retail trade organization and then spoon-fed to us by uncritical reporters. While the stories credit the source, the headlines give the impression that the retail industry wants, using numbers they provide. (Reporters like a story with specific numbers, no matter how contrived they are. Independent backup for the numbers is never provided.) There's every reason for NRF to present numbers that favor their view that consumers will be buying more. It's like asking the fox to count the eggs in the hen house and report on the health of the chickens.

This is the post-Thanksgiving weekend story last year, written almost whole-cloth from the NRF press release.

Blockbuster Black Friday Weekend Sees Sales Near $28 Billion
145 Million Shoppers Hit Stores and Internet, Up From 133 Million in '04

Washington, DC, November 27, 2005--The ceremonial kickoff to the holiday season began with a great deal of fanfare as 145 million shoppers flooded stores and the Internet hunting for popular electronics, clothing, and books. An NRF survey conducted by BIGresearch found that the average shopper spent $302.81 this weekend, bringing total weekend spending to $27.8 billion, an incredible 21.9 percent increase over last year's $22.8 billion.

A year later, the retail outlook is a little different with a little less fanfare. I wondered what the NRF website was saying in advance of Black Friday. Do they still want you to believe more people are going to come out and buy? The answer is "yes, but." Instead of "more than last year," the idea is "more than you think."

Here's the pre-Thanksgiving press release, which prepares us for a "big surprise", saying the Black Friday will have a silver lining.

Preliminary Black Friday Survey Suggests Lower Gas Prices, Pent-Up Demand Offer Silver Lining for Weekend Shopping


Washington, November 25, 2008 – As retailers prepare to open their doors at the crack of dawn this Friday, many could be in for a welcome surprise. According to a preliminary Black Friday shopping survey conducted by BIGresearch for the National Retail Federation, up to 128 million people will shop this Friday, Saturday or Sunday. According to the survey, 49 million people will definitely hit the stores while another 79 million are waiting to see the weekend deals before making any decisions. This number is down slightly from the 135 million people who said they would or may shop over Black Friday weekend last year.

I went to Google News, typed in "Black Friday Silver Lining" and a CNNMoney story popped up. A cut-and-paste specialist, I mean, reporter, Julianne Pepitone made this story for CNN:

Black Friday retailers hope for silver lining

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Black Friday shopping is expected to decline slightly, but pent-up demand and lower gas prices may provide a small silver lining for the suffering retail industry, according to a survey released Tuesday.

Up to 128 million people said they will shop on the Friday, Saturday, or Sunday after Thanksgiving, down from 135 million the previous year, according to a survey by National Retail Federation (NRF).

Seriously, CNN should just cite NRF as the author of the story.

Now, look at last year's story which cited 145 million shoppers. This year the number for last year is down to 135 million, which means they overestimated last year by ten million or this revised number allowed them to say that numbers would be "down slightly" when comparing it their equally fictional 128 million for this year.

Here's my favorite part of the fairly literal PR-to-news translation:

In fact, a full 49 million people said they would "definitely" head to stores, while 79 million said they would decide after seeing the weekend deals.

Imagine asking that many "full" people, "in fact", people full from Thanksgiving, saying "definitely." If this were an election story, and you had this kind of poll data, you wouldn't write that "up to 128 million" had made up their mind to vote. You'd write that two-thirds were undecided.





Source: Boing Boing | 27 Nov 2008 | 6:54 pm

Thanksgiving 2008 Mashup: A few (more) of our favorite uses of food in videogames

FROM GAMERTELL - As a special, tasty treat for this holiday, here’s a look at some the Gamertell staff’s favorite uses of food in videogames… MORE »

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Source: Gadgetell | 27 Nov 2008 | 6:00 pm

Riveting Tragedy=Boring Twitter Debate [MediaMemo]



This is now clockwork: Some kind of calamity happens somewhere. Shortly after, an Internet debate breaks out about who did a better job of breaking and/or covering the story–citizen journalists/bloggers or boring old mainstream media.

The new variation on an old theme: Does Twitter constitutes a “news” source?

If you want to read about that at length, be my guest–there’s plenty over at Techmeme. But Dave Winer has summed it up pretty well in a couple of words:

What you see on Twitter, when: 

1. People witness events that others are interested in; and 

2. They’re posting about it on Twitter; and 

3. The interested people are reading their posts… 

It certainly is news. Whether it’s journalism or not isn’t a very interesting discussion, to me. 

To the user, both extremes, Twitter and the most vetted pro news, require skepticism. The reader triangulates

The Indian police, meanwhile, seemed to take Twitter seriously, at least according to the Times “Lede” blog, which reported that cops asked that both reporters and Tweeters “do not discuss their movements, because they are concerned that the terrorists in the Taj and Oberoi Hotels are watching television to monitor the situation.”

What I haven’t seen on the blogosphere–or any news outlet–is a reasoned and thoughtful discussion of why India is seemingly beset with terror attacks. But I don’t expect to read or hear that a day after a news event, in any medium, because that’s not fast-twitch material.

Meanwhile, if you want to see what actual Twitter users are actually saying about the Mumbai attacks, head over here (even though Twitter spent some $15 million buying a search engine, it makes its search function inexplicably hard to find).

From what I can see, at this point Twitter is basically a good place to find quick links to other people’s coverage of the event, but maybe I’m missing something. (Click on image to enlarge)



[Image Credit: Stuti, which seems to have lifted the image from NDTV India]






Source: All Things Digital | 27 Nov 2008 | 5:56 pm

Climate Change Puts Forest And People At Risk

Large areas of forests could succumb to climate change; scientists urge local adaptation responses to avoid disaster for environment, forest-dependent people in new report
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 5:40 pm

Happy Thanksgiving from BBtv: "Hazy Day" music video fave




Today, the Boing Boing tv crew takes the day off for time with family, friends, and food. We revisit one of our favorite good-vibe animation episodes, a lovely video from Bill Barminski. Perhaps you missed it? Do watch now.

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Butterflies, wah-wah pedals, and one-eyed yeti, ahoy! The Boing Boing tv crew is proud to return to the work of one of our favorite multi-media savants, Bill Barminski of Walter Robot Studios. The filmmaker, composer, illustrator and animator shares this new video work, a hypnotic flight of fancy for his music project, the Subatomic Nixons. Enjoy the "Hazy Day," and happy weekend, everyone. Special thanks to Barminski and Christopher Louie, and all of the Walter Robot team. Here are previous BBtv episodes featuring their work.





Source: Boing Boing | 27 Nov 2008 | 5:20 pm

India: Mumbai Attacks, Day Two; tech speculation




This post is an open thread for folks who'd like to share coverage, insight, or first-person accounts of the attacks in Mumbai. Some Boing Boing readers in yesterday's comment thread had friends or loved ones in the area at the time -- I hope all are well.

Global Voices has special coverage of the ongoing events -- a very comprehensive feature with links is here, and Sameer has an update here.

Looking through coverage last night, I noticed some speculation about an email said to have been sent to news organizations in India identifying the attackers as "Deccan Mujahideen" -- specifically, there are reports that this email was traced back to an IP address in Russia. Apparently, some state officials in India are saying that this is one of the pieces of evidence that suggests foreign involvement, but I don't know enough to judge whether that's likely (and I haven't seen the email). The fact that email evidence and IP analysis are now part of the story is an interesting new development, though. 24 hours after the first attack, the identity of those responsible has not been confirmed, and the crisis is ongoing.

Who knows, though -- the whole "Deccan Mujahideen" thing may be smoke. This Foreign Policy article is worth a read, on that note.

One must always be suspicious when a "new" terrorist organization crops up. Today's horrific attacks in Mumbai were claimed by a previously unknown group calling itself the Deccan Mujahideen. But one India journalist claims the pattern of the attacks suggests that Lashkar-e-Taiba, a nasty Islamist organization based in Lahore, Pakistan, and with a significant presence in Kashmir and links to al Qaeda, may be to blame.

Here's where it gets interesting -- and I stress here that I am just speculating. Lashkar-e-Taiba's main goal is to expel India from Kashmir. In the past, some have accused elements of the Pakistani military and intelligence services of having ties to the group. Pakistan's government has always hotly denied such accusations.

(thanks, Oxblood)

Previously on Boing Boing: India: 80+ Reported Dead, 200+ injured in Bombay Terror Attacks







Source: Boing Boing | 27 Nov 2008 | 5:14 pm

Science slipping in Britain, group says

The Royal Society of Chemistry in Britain said the public school system is failing science students due to an erosion of standards on science tests. More than 1,300 students took part in a recent study comparing modern science tests with tests from the 1960s, The Times of London reported Thursday. Students,
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 5:02 pm

Turkey-shaped Jell-O® Mold: 2008 Competition




Boing Boing buddy Danielle Spencer points us to the winners of the "Turkey-shaped Jell-O® Mold: 2008 Competition," which we've posted here on Boing Boing for several years. My favorite is the S'Mores Turkey, above, because I can imagine myself eating it and rather enjoying it. Danielle's lofty writeups make the list even more fun. Behold, her appreciation of "Bubby's Matzoh Turkey."




In this stunning mis-en-matzoh-ball-soup, we are brought back to the original site of sustenance: the womb. Floating, trussed, lulled in a warm bath of chicken broth, we experience the original state of undifferentiated oneness, of satiety. Grand Prize Winner [by popular election] for "Best Overall Turkey" By Satya K. & Frank H.

Below, another outstanding entry, showcased in video: Turkey Festorama From Nepal!, by Michael Daube and William Purcell.





Previously:

• Ceci n'est pas un turkey. - Boing Boing (2007)
• Turkey-shaped Jell-O Mold Competition - Boing Boing (2006)
• Jell-o turkey facsimile - Boing Boing (2005)







Source: Boing Boing | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:57 pm

Polymer Solar Cells Gain Higher Efficiency Levels

Currently, solar cells are difficult to handle, expensive to purchase and complicated to install.
Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:50 pm

Understanding Dancing Atoms

Scientists crack secret of unusual magnetic resonance, key to enhanced MRIsIn developing a model to explain the motion of atoms in a magnetic field, scientists have overcome a decades-old obstacle to understanding a key component of magnetic resonance. The new understanding may eventually lead to better control of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and higher resolution MRI diagnoses.Collaborators at Ohio State University in Columbus and three institutions in France--the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, the Université d'Orléans, and the Université de Lyon--presented their findings in a paper that appears early online Nov. 25, 2008, in the Journal of Chemical Physics. "This is very exciting work", said Tanja Pietraß, the program officer at the National Science Foundation who partially supported this project.  "The fact that the researchers did not set out to work on this problem but more or less stumbled upon it and then used their ingenuity to solve it, demonstrates the importance of conducting basic research.  In this case, the work may have a major impact on magnetic resonance imaging, positively affecting many peoples' lives." The key breakthrough is a new understanding of a type of physical process called adiabaticity.  Adiabatic processes are what physicists and engineers routinely use to control atoms in nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy, and its better known sister, MRI.   "An adiabatic process can be visualized as one where a system is 'held tightly'and slowly dragged by a controlling force from one state to the next," said chemist Philip Grandinetti of Ohio State.  In MRI, magnetic energy holds the atoms in a patient's body in a steady state while radio waves are the controlling force that drags the atoms from one state to the next.  "In a 'perfect' adiabatic process, the controlling force is moved infinitely slowly with the system's trajectory locked to the controlling force's trajectory," said Grandinetti.Both NMR and MRI exploit a peculiar quantum mechanical property of subatomic particles called "spin". The nuclei of many atoms, most notably hydrogen, spin like tiny tops and possess a magnetic moment like a tiny bar magnet. In NMR and MRI the object under investigation--in medical applications, the patient--is placed inside a strong magnetic field that causes these tiny tops to align with the magnetic field and precess (or wobble, much like a child's top), in the direction of the gravitational field. For MRI, the strong magnetic field needed for these techniques is generated inside the all too familiar tube that causes many patients claustrophobia, which can require sedation before a procedure. Once inside the magnet, each nucleus broadcasts its identity by emitting radio waves at its unique precession frequency, which depends on its interaction with surrounding atoms as well as the magnetic field strength. The interaction with surrounding atoms is what makes NMR such a useful tool for chemists and biologists, allowing them to identify different chemical environments and molecular structures. For MRI, it is the interaction of the nuclei with the magnetic field that is key, as magnetic field strength varies with location, enabling a researcher to code different parts of the body with different frequencies. Through the measurement of the atomic precession frequencies, an MRI radiologist can reconstruct a two-dimensional or three-dimensional image that accurately depicts the interior of a patient's body.In performing such measurements, scientists often need to invert the nuclei so they are aligned against the magnetic field. Inverting the nuclei of people inside MRI scanners can reveal such things as cancer tumors, whose slightly different interaction with the nuclear spins can be used to detect their presence amid surrounding healthy tissue.  This is where adiabatic processes come into play.  The inversions are often done "adiabatically", by subjecting the target to low power radio waves that sweep through a specific range of frequencies. If the sweep is performed slowly enough, then all the nuclei will ultimately be inverted.  "The confounding thing", says Grandinetti, "is that for decades adiabatic sweeps worked in many situations, even though the theory predicted that they should not have. To be fair, it wasn't clear that this discrepancy posed a real problem, and most people thought the conventional theoretical approach was doing a fine job in guiding them towards the optimum adiabatic process. It was only after we fully understood the reason for the discrepancy that we realized the conventional theoretical approach contained a flaw that might prevent the optimum adiabatic process from being discovered". In the recent paper, Grandinetti and his colleagues solve this long-standing puzzle by introducing the concept of super-adiabaticity into the problem. Super-adiabaticity was first described in 1987 by Sir Michael Berry, a mathematical physicist at University of Bristol. When applied to magnetic resonance, it uncovers hidden behavior in the nuclear inversions that researchers had previously considered unrelated to adiabaticity.  Grandinetti and his colleagues describe a mathematical algorithm that can be used to predict the previously mysterious paths that the nuclei took on their way to the proper target state. This revelation, and the mathematical algorithm for its discovery, are particularly exciting as they open the door to new approaches for designing adiabatic processes in magnetic resonance as well as in other related fields.  One example is in a search for an MRI technique that does not require a patient to enter the confines of a large tube. Researchers are trying to exploit the stray fields of large magnets to do MRI, where the magnetic field is not contained only in the interior of a contraption but is leaking to the outside. The field becomes weaker as one moves further away from the center of the magnet, but researchers have been working on exploiting this natural non-uniformity as an aid to observe internal structures in objects."The problem is that these stray fields are highly inhomogeneous in nature, and to make up for this deficiency, researchers must control the dance of the spins in a way that compensates for this," said Grandinetti. "And this is exactly where the more precise control of superadiabaticity may prove to be a revolution in MRI. Who knows--may be a few years from now, you will be casually sitting next to the intimidating device, without the need for sedation?"This work was funded by the National Science Foundation and CNRS and Le Studium in France.---Image Caption: Scientists in Ohio and France have explained some strange atomic behavior, and made a discovery that could ultimately make MRI images sharper. This graphic depicts the quantum mechanical principle of super-adiabaticity, which was responsible for the behavior of atoms in some nuclear magnetic resonance experiments. If the trajectory of the atoms during an experiment were mapped on a globe, then the purpose of an adiabatic experiment is to move the atoms being studied from one point on the globe to another--slowly, and following a very carefully designed path (gray line). With super-adiabaticity, the atoms follow a different--sometimes, wildly different--path (orange line), but still end up at the right destination. Credit: Image courtesy of Philip Grandinetti, Ohio State University.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:30 pm

Galapagos Land Iguanas Under Continuing Threat

Scientists encourage 'continuous and effective management' and further study of these 'spectacular and emblematic' reptilesThe Galapagos Islands, which provided impetus and inspiration for Charles Darwin's seminal work, "On the Origin of Species", are home to unique populations of reptiles.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:15 pm

Boing Boing's Holiday Gift Guide part two: Fiction

Here's part two of my Boing Boing Holiday Gift Guide -- wherein I list the bestselling items that have been reviewed here in the past twelve months. Today, it's fiction. Don't miss yesterday's Kids' stuff and stuff about kids post, too! (Note that some of these titles appeared on yesterday's kids' list -- I wasn't sure how to handle cross-referencing for items that qualified for more than one list, so I just duplicated them for people who wanted to dive straight into the fiction list -- say -- rather than picking through the kids' list too)

Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology
(John Kessel and James Patrick Kelly)
Post-Cyberpunk Anthology shows how sf has changed since the Mirroshades era
Original Boing Boing post


Halting State
(Charles Stross)
Halting State: Heist novel about an MMORPG
Original Boing Boing post


Interface
(Neal Stephenson)
Neal Stephenson's underappreciated masterpiece
Original Boing Boing post


Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse
(John Joseph Adams)
Anthology of apocalyptic fiction
Original Boing Boing post


Futures from Nature
(Henry Gee)
100 short-short sf stories from Nature Magazine
Original Boing Boing post


The SFWA European Hall of Fame: Sixteen Contemporary Masterpieces of Science Fiction from the Continent
(James Morrow and Kathryn Morrow)
A chance to read sf from outside of the Anglo Bubble
Original Boing Boing post


Little Brother
(Cory Doctorow)
My bestselling young adult novel about kids who hack for freedom
Original Boing Boing post


The Starry Rift
(Jonathan Strahan)
Science fiction anthology for teens
Original Boing Boing post


Steampunk
(Ann and Jeff VanderMeer)
Steampunk: the anthology
Original Boing Boing post


Distraction
(Bruce Sterling)
Bruce Sterling's visionary novel Distraction: still brilliant a decade later
Original Boing Boing post


The Yiddish Policemen's Union: A Novel
(Michael Chabon)
Wonderful blend of hard-boiled and Yiddish ironies
Original Boing Boing post


Cory Doctorow's Futuristic Tales Of The Here And Now
(Cory Doctorow)
A six-edition series of comics adapted from my short stories by an incredibly talented crew of writers, artists, inkers and letterers
Original Boing Boing post


Goodnight Bush: A Parody
(Gan Golan, Erich Origen)
A Goodnight Moon satire for the electoral season
Original Boing Boing post


Saturn's Children
(Charles Stross)
Stross's robopervy tribute to the late late Heinlein
Original Boing Boing post


Crooked Little Vein: A Novel
(Warren Ellis)
Comic net-perv novel that would make Goatse blush
Original Boing Boing post


Random Acts of Senseless Violence
(Jack Womack)
Unflinching, engrossing, difficult coming-of-age story
Original Boing Boing post


Boy Proof
(Cecil Castellucci)
A compassionate young adult novel about a weird, smart, angry girl
Original Boing Boing post


Cycler
(Lauren McLaughlin)
Smart YA novel about sex and sexuality
Original Boing Boing post


Anathem
(Neal Stephenson)
A great story, set in an alternative reality where people take long-term thinking seriously
Original Boing Boing post


The Armageddon Rag
(George R.R. Martin)
Sex, death, blood and rock-n-roll
Original Boing Boing post


How to Ditch Your Fairy
(Justine Larbalestier)
Hilarious kids book about the problems with fairies
Original Boing Boing post


Nation
(Terry Pratchett)
Moving and sweet young adult novel about science, superstition and decency
Original Boing Boing post


The Graveyard Book
(Neil Gaiman)
Spooky, magical retelling of The Jungle Book in a graveyard
Original Boing Boing post


The Forever War
(Joe Haldeman)
Classic anti-war sf novel to be a Ridley Scott film!
Original Boing Boing post


Zoe's Tale
(John Scalzi)
Scalzi's smart-ass young-adult sf thriller
Original Boing Boing post


Liberation: Being the Adventures of the Slick Six After the Collapse of the United States of America
(Brian Francis Slattery)
A magical road-novel about America in collapse, Bradbury meets Kerouac
Original Boing Boing post








Source: Boing Boing | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:02 pm

European Head Toby Coppel Departs Yahoo [BoomTown]



Yahoo is losing yet another top executive–Toby Coppel, its EVP and managing director of Europe and Canada, is set to announce today that he is stepping down.

The departure, which has been in the works for months, is not related to the recent news that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is also relinquishing his job as soon as the company completes its search for another CEO.

Coppel’s job covers the major Western European markets (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia), as well as Canada, for Yahoo (YHOO).

His successor will be Rich Riley, who is currently SVP of Europe’s Advertiser & Publisher Group, which put him in charge of all revenues for the division. Riley, who came to Yahoo a decade ago, was previously the head of Yahoo’s Small & Medium Business Group in the U.S.

Coppel, who came to Yahoo with former Yahoo CEO Terry Semel in 2001, has run European operations for Yahoo for 18 months. And most of his time has been spent restructuring and making massive cuts.

The unit will have about one-third of the people as when Coppel arrived by the first quarter, after the current round of layoffs. And, if you include Yahoo’s sale of the comparison-shopping site Kelkoo last week, the cuts total 45 percent of its former size.

Coppel also shepherded the move of Yahoo’s European HQ to Switzerland from higher-priced London. Most of its top managers are now located there, although London remains an important Yahoo outpost, since it is the largest online ad market in Europe.

Coppel will remain with Yahoo until the end of the first quarter to ensure a smooth transition. He told BoomTown in an interview that his future plans are undetermined, except to welcome his third child into the world very soon.

“I have been transitioning our European business, restructuring it and making it stronger, as Yahoo is moving to product development on a global platform,” said Coppel. “While there is more work, there is now a strong team in place, focused on going forward and it needs to spread its wings.”

Coppel noted, although a lot of his tenure was occupied by restructuring the European unit, that “we have taken display advertising market share from MSN, AOL and other competitors in almost every one of our European markets in 2008 and we grew our Canadian business over 50 percent this year.”

And, indeed, Yahoo’s online display advertising business is stronger in Europe, although subject to the same vicious economic downturn that has hit the U.S. market.

In addition, Yahoo–and everyone else–lags well behind Google (GOOG) in the more lucrative search business in Europe, even moreso than in the U.S., forcing competitors like Yahoo to streamline to compete.

That has meant layoffs, but also re-architecting Yahoo’s product development towards a global model to cut costs and also getting rid of some non-core assets like Kelkoo.

It was revealed last week that Kelkoo was sold to a U.K.-based private equity firm called Jamplant, at a reported discount from what Yahoo paid for it–$576 million–in 2004.

Now that all these kinds of major changes were made, Coppel said, it seemed a good time for him to go too.

“My value add was not what it was going forward,” said Coppel, who noted that several layers of management in Europe had been collapsed in his tenure. “If we are streamlining and we mean it, it has to also start at the top.”






Source: All Things Digital | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:01 pm

The Entire Internal Yahoo Memo on European Head Toby Coppel’s Departure [BoomTown]



Here’s the internal Yahoo memo from President Sue Decker about the stepping down of Yahoo European head Toby Coppel, which BoomTown wrote about here.

The departure, which has been in the works for months, is not related to the recent news that Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang is also relinquishing his job as soon as the company completes its search for another CEO.

Coppel’s job covers the major Western European markets (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Scandinavia), as well as Canada, for Yahoo (YHOO).

His successor will be Rich Riley, who is currently SVP of Europe’s Advertiser & Publisher Group.

Here’s the memo:

From: Sue Decker
To: XXXX
Sent: Thu Nov 27 09:02:28 2008
Subject: Yahoo! Europe & Canada update

Yahoos,

I want to update you on our Get Fit initiatives in Europe and Canada and to announce a leadership change for Yahoo! Europe and Canada.

Over the past 18 months, under Toby’s leadership, the Agenda2010 strategy has resulted in greater discipline, focus and stronger operating performance in Europe and Canada. There have been a number of important accomplishments and milestones in this time specifically:


• Market share gains in our display business in all markets over the past 12 months
• Growth in the Canadian display business of over 50% in 2008
• Shift towards a global development approach for Front Page, Search and Mail
• Elimination or divestiture of underperforming or non-core businesses such as Kelkoo which was sold last week
• Increased efficiency and higher margins, including reductions in headcount, travel & entertainment and marketing costs
• Establishment of new Switzerland HQ for greater business efficiency
• Higher performing sales organization including a Superstar Inside Sales Team
• Reduction in the number of layers and increase in spans of control

Now that much of this foundation has been built, Toby and I agree it’s a logical time to transition to a more focused management team in Europe. Today I am announcing that Toby will be stepping down as MD Yahoo! Europe & Canada.

I am very pleased to tell you that effective immediately, Rich Riley will assume the position of SVP, Yahoo! Europe & Canada. Toby will work closely with Rich to ensure a smooth transition and will remain with Yahoo! until the end of Q1 2009.

Rich has been with Yahoo! for almost ten years, during which he has held a wide range of roles and ever increasing responsibilities. He joined Yahoo! when we acquired the startup he co-founded which ultimately invented the Yahoo! Toolbar. From there he played important roles in corporate and business development, building and leading our U.S. small and medium business division and most recently leading our Advertiser & Publisher Group in Europe. He has worked closely with Toby and the European and U.S. leadership teams to shape the strategy and has delivered powerful results to our European business. I’m confident that Rich will be a strong and successful leader for Yahoo! Europe and Canada.

Under Rich’s leadership, Europe will continue on the path it has been on for the last year. This transition is a continuation of the Agenda2010 work that is underway.

Please join me in welcoming Rich to this new role and thanking Toby for his leadership, passion and tireless contributions to Yahoo! over the past 7 years.

Sue






Source: All Things Digital | 27 Nov 2008 | 4:00 pm

Shrimp Trawling Could Boost Mercury In Red Snapper

Fishery experts have known for years that shrimp trawling operations in the Gulf of Mexico are contributing to sharp declines in the ranks of Red Snapper, one of the most delicious and popular marine fish on the seafood menu.While it's clear that thousands of young snapper are killed and wasted after being inadvertently "by-caught" in shrimp nets, new research from Texas Christian and Louisiana State universities finds shrimp trawling also may be raising the level of toxic mercury in juvenile snapper."Our study demonstrates that mercury concentrations are elevated in juvenile red snapper in coastal areas where commercial shrimp trawling occurs," says Matthew Chumchal, Ph.D., an assistant professor of biology at Texas Christian University in Fort Worth.Titled the "Effect of Trawling and Habitat on Mercury Concentration in Juvenile Red Snapper from the Northern Gulf of Mexico," the paper is in the November 2008 issue of the journal Transactions of the American Fisheries Society, vol.
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 3:25 pm

Flies Help Researchers Understand Human Sleep, Disorders

Image Caption: Male Drosophila melanogaster. Courtesy André Karwath - Wikipedia
Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 27 Nov 2008 | 2:50 pm

Eat





Source: Boing Boing Gadgets | 27 Nov 2008 | 2:42 pm

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