Rubber Band Gattling Gun

check it out!

2005 was the warmest year on record

2005 was the warmest year on record, according to a new NASA report. And the year's record warmth is more notable than previous record-breaking years as there was no boost from the tropical El Nino phenomenon.
The annual analysis by NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) found the highest global surface temperature in more than a century of instrumental measurements was recorded in 2005. The analysis incorporates measurements on land, satellite measurements of the sea surface and ship-based analyses.
"Recent warming coincides with rapid growth of human-made greenhouse gases, study says.
read article

Largest Fine

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has fined ChoicePoint $10 million for a data breach that allowed identity thieves posing as legitimate businesses to steal social security numbers, credit reports, and other data from nearly 140,000 people. This is the largest fine ever levied by the FTC. ChoicePoint also has to set up a 'trust fund' for people victimized by identity thieves.
read article...

Highest Selling Domain In History

Sex.com, a domain that's been passed around a bit in its checkered history, was sold to an anonymous group of business partners for a reported $12-14 million in cash and stock, making it one of the highest selling domains in history.
The deal is believed to be the largest in history, topping Business.com ($7.5-8m), Beer.com ($7m), and AsSeenOnTv.com ($5.1m).

My Montage

Montage of me (using aircraft images) from a cool montage creator site I saw on nana's blog. Really fun!

create your own montage

Sex Before Stressful Events Keeps You Calm

New Scientist reports:
GOT some public speaking to do? Here is a tip to keep stress at bay: have sex beforehand. But make sure it's penetrative sex - the magic vanishes if you pursue other forms of sexual gratification.

The Value Of Cyber-Friendship

(image from groovy greets)

Cyberspace has given way to a new social dynamic where people make friends from across the globe, but know little of their next-door neighbor. The abandoning of the village mentality disturbs critics, but those who've been won over often find an Internet relationship more satisfying. Some new research is showing also how email and the Internet supplement, rather than replace, the communication people have with others in their network.
Critics say, people are unlearning how to naturally interact with their neighbors creating a social (and assumedly superficial and false) network of strangers (and perhaps creating an alternate reality).
A report suggests a different scenario altogether. Sociologists are suggesting that the Internet helps cultivate social networks and put them into action when it matters most.
Internet and email provide a social and informational repository that help people make difficult decisions and face challenges. The survey found that Internet users are more likely than non-users to have been helped by those in their networks as they faced important events in their life.
"The Internet and the cell phone have transformed communication: Instead of being based on house-to-house interactions, they are built on person-to-person exchanges,... This creates a new basis for community. Rather than relying on a single community for social support, individuals often must actively seek out a variety of appropriate people and resources for different situations," says the report.
read full article...

Top 10 'Seminal' Alternative Albums

Peter Bochan writes: "It was a hard task to pick out just 10 alternative music albums that I'd call 'seminal'...these 10 really paved the way for the alt. music scene of the 90s and all that followed. If you're just starting your alternative music collection, these are the first 10 to buy."
1. Nirvana - Never Mind
2. The Pixies - Doolittle
3. Pearl Jam - Ten
4. Smashing Pumpkins - Siamese Dream
5. Jane's Addiction - Ritual de lo Habitual
6. The Flaming Lips - Transmissions From the Satellite Heart
7. Meat Puppets - Too High to Die
8. Pavement - Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain
9. PJ Harvey - Rid of Me
10. R.E.M - Reckoning
F.Y.I, 'seminal' means 'highly influential in an original way; constituting or providing a basis for further development', according to the The Free Dictionary; just in case you got a different idea. :)

Robot Set Loose To Film Your Insides

(image from aha jokes)

NEXT time you go under the knife, it may not be just the surgeon poking about inside you. A radio-controlled robot could be roaming round in there too, providing an extra eye for surgeons performing minimally invasive "keyhole" procedures.
The robot, developed by Dmitry Oleynikov and colleagues at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, can move around inside the stomach or abdomen to give surgeons a new perspective on the area being operated on. It is also equipped with a retractable needle, allowing it to perform biopsies.
read full article...

$70 Million New York Penthouse

Penthouse located at Fifth Avenue in New York. This 16 room apartment is located within one of the world's best hotel, the Pierre Hotel, and the top three floors can be yours. 5 bedrooms, 7 bathrooms, 5 fireplaces, a grand terrace and a spectacular 360-degree New York view can be yours for $70,000,000.

Ancient Map Suggests Chinese Seamen Were 1st Round The World

THE brave seamen whose great voyages of exploration opened up the world are iconic figures in European history. Columbus found the New World in 1492; Dias discovered the Cape of Good Hope in 1488; and Magellan set off to circumnavigate the world in 1519. However, there is one difficulty with this confident assertion of European mastery: it may not be true.
It seems more likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called "The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft".
In Beijing and London, fresh and dramatic evidence is to be revealed to bolster Zheng He's case. It is a copy, made in 1763, of a map, dated 1418, which contains notes that substantially match the descriptions in the book. "It will revolutionise our thinking about 15th-century world history," says Gunnar Thompson, a student of ancient maps and early explorers.
read this amazing article...

Capt. Kirk Sells Kidney Stone for Charity

Actor William Shatner, who played Kirk on the original "Star Trek" TV show, has sold his kidney stone for $25,000, with the money going to a housing charity. Shatner reached agreement to sell the stone to GoldenPalace.com.
GoldenPalace.com is noted for its collection of oddities, which includes a partially eaten cheese sandwich thought to contain the image of the Virgin Mary.
The stone was so big, Shatner said, "you'd want to wear it on your finger."
"If you subjected it to extreme heat, it might turn out to be a diamond," he added.
The money will go to Habitat for Humanity, which builds houses for the needy.
read full article...

Screws!

There are many screws in the world. The concept was invented by Archimedes in the 3rd century B.C. when he invented the screw drive inside a pipe used for raising water. The name, 'screw', has been given to any cylinder that has spiral, helical threads running up the shaft. Because screws were invented so long ago, they have had many years to mutate. For centuries, screws were all hand made and extremely expensive. It wasn't until the industrial revolution that machinists were able to devise tools precise and strong enough to cut accurate, measurable threads consistently, allowing for mass production.
more about screws and your home...

Very Compact Dining Set

Japanese-style dining-table with chairs that can all be packed in a box.

5 Wierd Habits of Mine (Meme)

Been tagged by AW.

1. Taking a bath after everytime I poo poo. That's the only way I feel clean.
2. Playing my electric guitar till my fingers feel like falling off. I got hold of several lead guitar scales last year, so I do finger exercises - I find it hard to stop.
3. Fast blogging - posting multiple posts at a time. I want to learn new things and be updated with new information. But everytime I browse the web I always find more stuff than I can post. I feel compelled to post good stuff so I dont lose them through my link.
4. I drive my wife nuts everytime I go to the bathroom because I stay there (on average) not less than 30 minutes when I take a bath. Well, I have to make sure every spot is scrubbed clean and that takes time, doesn't it?
5. Nowadays I find myself washing my hands more frequently. I don't know, I think I just got more conscious of bacteria and viruses (especially the H5N1 virus!) lately. That's the downside of being updated with news, I guess.

With this I think Im gonna tag Vasco, Nana, Miguel, Albuquerque, Blogginbizatch, Elisha, and Rob&ZJ.

Satanist Runs For Governor In Minnesota

Boing Boing reports:

Minnesota gubernatorial candidate Jonathan Sharkey prefers to be known as "the Impaler".
Like other politicians, he worships Satan, but Sharkey "doesn't hide his dark side." He claims to speak for the "Vampyres, Witches and Pagans," political party, and most likely does so in a scary-monster voice. He promises that if he's elected, he will impale terrorists on pikes.

Snap and Send Postcard

This is a revolutionary digital postcard designed by Aussie designer, Stuart Calvery. Calvery's "Snap + Send" postcard is a disposable digital camera in the shape of a postcard. The back of the postcard hosts a flat screen, whilst the front is a flash and lens. After snap happily shooting your holiday pics, simply address the digi-card and pop a stamp on the front. The receiver simply snaps off the lower half of the postcard and views the shots from the screen on the back.

Google Is Number 2

According to Alexas traffic rank Google is now the second largest website in the world. It has been ranked as number 3 for many months (actually years), but just a few days ago Google.com passed MSN.com. Yahoo! is still number one.

Misheard

3 entries from am i right's Misheard Lyrics section:

Madonna's "Borderline"
Misheard Lyrics: Lorelei
Original Lyrics: Borderline

Madonna's "Borderline"
Misheard Lyrics: Northern Line
Original Lyrics: Borderline

Madonna's "Borderline"
Misheard Lyrics: Water line
Original Lyrics: Borderline

yuk! yuk! yuk!

Tune Buckle

The Tunebuckle. I would love to have this belt.

Converting an Oral B Flosser Into a Vibrating Lockpick

This webpage teaches how to convert a low-cost Oral B "Hummingbird" flosser into a vibrating lock-pick that can open most popular padlocks in seconds with very little effort.

Chinese Ban On Wikipedia Prevents Research

Chinese students and intellectuals are expressing outrage at Beijing's decision to prohibit access to Wikipedia, the fast-growing online encyclopedia that has become a basic resource for many in China.
Wikipedia, which offers more than 2.2 million articles in 100 languages, has emerged as an important source of scholarly knowledge in China and many other countries. But its stubborn neutrality and independence on political issues such as Tibet and Taiwan has repeatedly drawn the wrath of the Communist authorities.
read full story...

Speed-Sensing Baseball with LCD

Always wonder what is your pitching speed, but you had no way to measure it? The Speed-Sensing Digital Laser Baseball is here. The laser baseball is the standard size and weight of the Major league baseball, it wont start when it is in your hand. But the moment you throw it and it leaves your hand the speed countdown begins. As soon as it is caught the speed is displayed on the LED.

Photosynthesis Robot

The Photosynthesis Robot is designed to move forward through phototropism - the movement of plants towards the direction of the sun. The idea of this experiment is for the cart to move forward slowly as the plant moves toward the direction of sunlight.
Hahaha; couldn't help laughing. Funny experiment.

How Click Fraud Could Swallow the Internet

('stop surfing for clicks' image from fast-answer.com)


This month's Wired Magazine has an excellent article on click-fraud, the practice of generating bogus clicks on Internet ads to either rack up affiliate fees or to rock up spurious charges against a competitor's account. The article explores the major sources of threats from click-fraud, the countermeasures arms-race against click-fraud, and the varying motives of fraud-fighters.
Wired Magazine reports:
Pay-per-click advertising is big, big, big business. So are bogus hits on Internet ads. It's search giants against scam artists in an arms race that could crash the entire online economy.
read entire article...

Oxygen Bars!

I keep wondering where these guys get these kinds of idea.




But really, these may have beneficial uses. My wife, for example, who suffers from PPH (Primary Pulmonary Hypertension), would love sitting in one of these bars.

Wanna Get Dizzy?

From mason inman's blog.

Skydivers Set A Record

CNet reports:

A team of skydivers set a canopy formation world record as dusk descended on rural Florida. The team, with a record 81 people, included three Kennedy Space Center Engineers: Dave Hillebrandt of United Space Alliance, Kevin Keenan of Lockheed Martin and NASA's James Bolton. The skydives took place Nov. 25 and 26, 2005, over Lake Wales, Fla.

Did You Know That....

YAHOO
The word was invented by Jonathan Swift and used in his book Gulliver's Travels. It represents a person who is repulsive in appearance and action and is barely human. Yahoo! founders Jerry Yang and David Filo selected the name because they considered themselves yahoos.
XEROX
The Greek root "xer" means dry. The inventor, Chestor Carlson, named his product Xerox as it was dry copying, markedly different from the then prevailing wet copying.
SUN MICROSYSTEMS
Founded by four Stanford University buddies, Sun is the acronym for Stanford University Network.
SONY
From the Latin word 'sonus' meaning sound, and 'sonny' a slang used by Americans to refer to a bright youngster.
SAP
"Systems, Applications, Products in Data Processing", formed by four ex-IBM employees who used to work in the 'Systems/Applications/Projects' group of IBM.
RED HAT
Company founder Marc Ewing was given the Cornell lacrosse team cap (with red and white stripes) while at college by his grandfather. He lost it and had to search for it desperately. The manual of the beta version of Red Hat Linux had an appeal to readers to return his Red Hat if found by anyone!
ORACLE
Larry Ellison and Bob Oats were working on a consulting project for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). The code name for the project was called Oracle (the CIA saw this as the system to give answers to all questions or something such).
MOTOROLA
Founder Paul Galvin came up with this name when his company started manufacturing radios for cars. The popular radio company at the time was called Victrola.
MICROSOFT
It was coined by Bill Gates to represent the company that was devoted to MICROcomputer SOFTware. Originally christened Micro-Soft, the '-' was removed later on.
LOTUS
Mitch Kapor got the name for his company from the lotus position or 'padmasana.' Kapor used to be a teacher of Transcendental Meditation of Maharishi Mahesh Yogi.
INTEL
Bob Noyce and Gordon Moore wanted to name their new company 'Moore Noyce' but that was already trademarked by a hotel chain, so they had to settle for an acronym of INTegrated ELectronics.
HEWLETT-PACKARD
Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard tossed a coin to decide whether the company they founded would be called Hewlett-Packard or Packard-Hewlett.
HOTMAIL
Founder Jack Smith got the idea of accessing email via the web from a computer anywhere in the world. When Sabeer Bhatia came up with the business plan for the mail service, he tried all kinds of names ending in 'mail' and finally settled for Hotmail as it included the letters "html" - the programming language used to write web pages. It was initially referred to as HoTMaiL with selective upper casings.
GOOGLE
The name started as a jockey boast about the amount of information the search-engine would be able to search. It was originally named 'Googol', a word for the number represented by 1 followed by 100 zeros. After founders - Stanford graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page presented their project to an angel investor, they received a cheque made out to 'Google'
CISCO
Cisco Systems. The name is not an acronym but an abbreviation of San Francisco. The company's logo reflects its San Francisco name heritage. It represents a stylized Golden Gate Bridge.
APPLE
Favourite fruit of founder Steve Jobs. He was three months late in filing a name for the business, and he threatened to call his company Apple Computers if the other colleagues didn't suggest a better name by 5 o'clock.
APACHE
It got its name because its founders got started by applying patches to code written for NCSA's httpd daemon. The result was 'A PAtCHy' server - thus, the name Apache.
ADOBE
The company name Adobe comes from the Adobe Creek, which ran behind the house of one of the company's founders.

-from email

Google New Look

random tech posted different looks of the Google search engine:

1. hacker
2. klingon
3. bork
4. elmer fudd
5. pig latin
6. gizzogle
7. mirror

Cyclops Kitten

Cy, short for Cyclopes, a kitten born with only one eye and no nose, is shown in this photo provided by its owner in Redmond, Oregon, on Wednesday, Dec. 28, 2005. The kitten, a ragdoll breed, which died after living for one day, was one of two in the litter. Its sibling was born normal and healthy. (AP Photo/Traci Allen)

Top Pop Songs of 2005

The 2005 top songs selected by visitors in about.com's poll were as follows:

"Since U Been Gone" - Kelly Clarkson
"Hollaback Girl" - Gwen Stefani
"When I'm Gone" - Eminem
"Don't Cha" - Pussycat Dolls
"Pon De Replay" - Rihanna

2005 Moneymakers

Here's a complete look at 2005's top 10 moneymakers, according to figures compiled by Exhibitor Relations:

1. Star Wars: Episode III--Revenge of the Sith, $380.3 million
2. Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, $277.1 million
3. War of the Worlds, $234.3 million
4. The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, $225.7 million
5. Wedding Crashers, $209.2 million
6. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, $206.5 million
7. Batman Begins, $205.3 million
8. Madagascar, $193.1 million
9. Mr. & Mrs. Smith, $186.3 million
10. Hitch, $177.6 million

Swedish Filesharers Start 'The Piracy Party'

Slashdot reports:
"Tired of being called criminals, a group of Swedish filesharers have started a new political party, The Piracy Party (Piratpartiet in Swedish). The party wants to abolish all intellectual property laws, reverse the data retention directive passed by the EU last month, and protect privacy with new laws. The party expresses no opinion on other subjects. The Piracy Party's webpage is so far only available in Swedish, at piratpartiet.se. The party's goal is to get into to the parliament, which requires 4% of the votes, or roughly 225000 votes. Elections are held in September."
read theinquirer.net article...

India Is Missing 10 Million Daughters

(image from natalie dee)

India is missing about 10 million daughters since the widespread use of ultrasound, estimates a new study.
Over the last 20 years, about 10 million female fetuses may have been selectively aborted following ultrasound results in India, suggest Prabhat Jha at the University of Toronto, Canada, and colleagues.
Their study of 1.1 million households across India reveals that in 1997, far fewer girls were born to couples if their preceding child or children were also female. "There was about a 30% gap in second females following the birth of any earlier females," Jha told New Scientist.
"Female infanticide of the past is refined and honed to a fine skill in this modern guise," says Shiresh Sheth of the Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai, India, in a commentary accompanying the study in The Lancet.
Sheth notes that in India's patriarchal society, daughters are regarded as a "liability", as she will belong to the family of her future husband.

Stackable Cars

This is a brand new concept car from Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). The final concept will be delivered to to General Motors early next year, and they will build a the first real prototype. There might even be a public test in Hong Kong or Singapore.

Top 10 USB Drives Ever

Knock your head with these crazy USB sticks:

Dimsum USB
Sushi USB
Shrimp Fish USB
Barbie USB

Nandor's Exhaustive Chemical Words Pages

Mark Nandor, a teacher of mathematics at The Wellington School, has recently posted a new chemical words page. For those who haven't seen this before, it is a list of English words that can be spelled using chemical symbols.

He writes:
The following pages are dedicated to English words that can be spelled using chemical symbols. Since the list of chemical symbols is changing every few years, I need to make it clear that these lists are good through 12/31/05, and include all elements through element 111, Roentgenium (Rg), which was named on November 1st, 2004.
Who might be interested in this page? Anyone who loves chemistry, certainly. High school teachers could use these words to increase the interest in the subject. How about English lovers who want ONe SUPEr ScHoOLaSTiC PrOCeSS ThAt He/SHe CaN USe In ClAsS? Or what about chemistry teachers trying to help student learn their chemical symbols (Example: Picasso pioneered what short-lived but influential form of art? Answer: Copper, Bismuth, Samarium = CuBiSm).

go to site...

MeHaus

A wonderful site I got from nana:



Click here to view my house

Based on my drawing and answers to some questions, this site gave me the summary of my personality:

Your house tells the world that you ought to be a leader. You are a freedom lover and a strong person. You love your house and family. You are a gifted artist as well. Once you have a problem, you need a friend with you. Your life is always full of changes. You are very tidy person. There's nothing wrong with that because you're pretty popular among friends. son.
You will avoid being alone and seek the company of others whenever possible. You love excitement and create it wherever you go. You have a strong personality and you like to command, influence and control people.
You are not a romantic person by nature. It also safe to say that others don't see you as a flirt. You are self-confident and happy with your life.

hehehe. i like that.

draw your house close to mine

The Coolest Rooms on the Planet

A closet hides a 660-watt Yamaha audio processor, multichannel SpeakerCraft amps, a DVD player, a 400-disc CD changer, an Escient music manager, two HDTV receivers, a video router, and a 32-bit Crestron processor.

Kitchen

From the 58-gallon tub, bathers can use the remote-controlled rooftop cam to pan London's skyline and watch the real-time footage on a 30-inch LCD.

A 30-inch Samsung LCD emerges from the bed's footboard on a motorized lift and is connected to a dedicated 180-Gbyte Windows Media PC for accessing music and videos.
An 8.4-inch AMX Modero touchscreen can access the Web and be used to control lighting, entertainment, heating, and ventilation throughout the house.

see more cool rooms...

Fantastic Voyage Into the Heart

"According to the Journal of Clinical Investigation (JCI), researchers from the Harvard Medical School have written a sequel to 'Fantastic voyage,' the 1966 sci-fi movie. By injecting self-assembling peptide nanofibers loaded with pro-survival factors into rats, they've showed that the animals could be protected from heart failures. So far, the researchers have not extended their experiments to humans."
read full article...

Other heart therapy researches:

Scientists have found a way to turn mouse embryonic stem cells into beating heart muscle cells - a result that could lead to the use of embryonic stem cells in cardiac therapy, and possibly even drugs that can prompt the body to regenerate heart cells on its own.
Because embryonic stem cells can turn into any type of cell in the body, many scientists believe they hold incredible promise for treating a variety of degenerative diseases.
"We have discovered a synthetic chemical, named cardiogenol, which can selectively differentiate embryonic stem cells into beating cardiac muscle cells," says Xu Wu, a graduate student in the lab of Peter G. Schultz, Ph.D, professor of chemistry at The Scripps Research Institute in La Jolla, California.

The 2006 Question From The World Question Center

(image from intervarsity press: Who ought to hold claim to the more dangerous idea--Charles Darwin or C. S. Lewis? Daniel Dennett argued for Darwin in Darwin's Dangerous Idea. In this book Victor Reppert champions C. S. Lewis.)

Every year The Edge asks over 100 top scientists and thinkers a question, and the responses are fascinating and widely quoted. This year, psychologist Steven Pinker suggested they ask "What is your most dangerous idea?" The following appears on their webpage:

The Edge Annual Question - 2006: WHAT IS YOUR DANGEROUS IDEA?

Woman Marries Dolphin

Sharon Tendler met Cindy 15 years ago. She said it was love at first sight. This week she finally took the plunge and proposed. The lucky "guy" plunged right back.
In a modest ceremony at Dolphin Reef in the southern Israeli port of Eilat, Tendler, a 41-year-old British citizen, apparently became the world's first person to "marry" a dolphin.
Dressed in a white dress, a veil and pink flowers in her hair, Tendler got down on one knee on the dock and gave Cindy a kiss. And a piece of herring.
"It's not a perverted thing. I do love this dolphin. He's the love of my life," she said Saturday, upon her return to London.

Huh????? What the.....
read entire article...

Erasable Shower Note Tablet

Record all your big shower-induced thoughts on our reuseable note tablet. Waterproof crayons (included) capture the flow of your creative ideas, to-do lists, and more for easy transport to and from the bathroom. Complete with crayon caddy and suction cup mounts.

6th Annual Weblog Awards

It's time to nominate the weblogs for the 2006 weblog awards. The categories range from best food blog to best computer and technology weblog. So what are you waiting for? Go and nominate your favourite weblogs. The winners will be announced in March.

Nominate your favorite weblogs [Bloggies - Sixth annual weblog awards]

Yuk! yuk! yuk! I voted nana and vasco Best European Blogs; and elisha Best Teen Blog! Cheers! :)

Men Are From Google, Women Are From Yahoo

(image from justkiss.com/)

A report from webpro news:

On the Internet, as in life, men and women have different motivations for doing what they do. According to a recent report from Pew Internet and American Life, women view the Internet as a place to extend, support, and nurture relationships and communities. Men tend to see it as an office, a library, or a playground.
The report found that women are more enthusiastic communicators, using email in a more robust way. Not only sending and receiving more email than men, women are more likely to write to family and friends about a variety of topics, sharing news, joys and worries, planning events, and forwarding jokes and stories. While both sexes equally appreciate the efficiency and convenience of email, women are more likely than men to value the medium for its positive effects on improving relationships, expanding networks, and encouraging teamwork at the office.
The report found that women are more likely to use the Internet for emailing, getting maps and directions (after all, we men always know where we're going), looking for health and medical information, seeking support for health and personal problems, and getting religious information.

Men tend to be more intense Internet users than women, being more likely to go online daily (61% of men and 57% of women) and more likely to go online several times a day (44% of men and 39% of women). Men also tend to go online in greater numbers than women but for a much broader variety of reasons. Men are more likely to use the Internet to check the weather, get news, find do-it-yourself information, acquire sports scores and information, look for political information, do job-related research, download software, listen to music, rate a product/person/service through an online reputation system, download music, use a webcam, and take a class. Note there was nothing about "nurturing relationships."
read full article...

Camera Phone Helps Label Snaps

This phone will allow the growing number of camera phone users to organise their digital photo albums by automatically identifying and labelling the people and places within each snap, as they are taken.
The concept, being developed by Marc Davis of Yahoo's Berkeley research lab in California, is based on a central server that registers details sent by the phone when the photo is taken. These include the nearest cellphone mast, the strength of the call signal and the time the photo was taken.
The system also identifies the other Bluetooth-enabled cellphones within range of the photographer and combines this with the time and place information to create a shortlist of people who might be in the picture. This can then be combined with facial-recognition algorithms to identify the subjects from the shortlist.

read full article and other related articles...

New Brain Scan Technology Could Save Babies' Lives

A revolutionary portable brain scanner under development could aid the treatment, and in some cases help save the lives, of premature and newborn babies in intensive care.
By providing vital information about brain function at the cot side, the scanner avoids the need to move critically ill babies to conventional scanning facilities, which may involve sedating them and has a degree of risk. The data produced by the new scanner can be used to diagnose and assess conditions such as brain haemorrhages and brain damage, and to inform decisions on effective treatment options.
A prototype of the scanner, called MONSTIR, has been developed by researchers at UCL (University College London). The researchers are aiming to reduce the size of the scanner and improve its speed of operation.

Im just wondering why these brilliant minds could not think of a better name. MONSTIR....for God's sakes!!!

Night Fishing Equipment

Japan's Toray Fishing Corp. and Matsushita Electrical Industrial Corp. have developed a gadget for nighttime anglers. The system uses an ultraviolet LED to irradiate the fishing line. The line itself is coated with pigment that’s ten times brighter than ordinary fluorescent paint and will glow for quite a while after casting. The product comes with an LED-equipped storage device that is fixed on the lower part of the fishing rod. When the line shoots through the storage thingie, it lights up and scares fish away, which is good. It will be available February. 2006.

Creating First Synthetic Life Form

Work on the world's first human-made species is well under way at a research complex in Rockville, Md., and scientists in Canada have been quietly conducting experiments to help bring such a creature to life.
Robert Holt, head of sequencing for the Genome Science Centre at the University of British Columbia, is leading efforts at his Vancouver lab to play a key role in the production of the first synthetic life form -- a microbe made from scratch.

Slashdot reports this is not the first group to venture into this territory:
"MSNBC is running a story about bioengineering organisms to do specific tasks such as produce hydrogen or ethenol. Some of the scientists involved are saying it's more of an art instead of a science due to its 'biohacking' style of experimentation."