Osama bin Laden is in the pay of the CIA and that President George Bush summoned up the al-Qaida leader whenever he needed to increase the fear quotient.
Just as we thought that the giant blue balls of Fox's marketing department were all out of juice we are thrown another 3D amazement that seems very familiar. Avatar is returning to theaters and this time it's special: 8 minutes more special in fact and if that doesn't intice you well... there's nothing else to report. You'l still have to pay $20(AU) to get in and see the thing and even though I'll most likely go and see the finest 3D film ever made it nerks me that I'll still have to pay stupidly high prices for the privilege. Wasn't $2,740,405,721 from the box office enough? What about all the people who have bought the BluRay and now will have to go get another one so they can see what they origionally paid for. Errggg.... comes out December 18th 2010.
Here’s something David Copperfield can’t make disappear: a lawsuit filed by Apple in California Northern District Court. At issue: the word magic. Apple claims ownership of magic, demanding that Copperfield immediately cease using the word, and seeking $4.2 million in punitive damages.
No question, magic has been in the air in Cupertino. Following Steve Jobs’ introduction of the “magical and revolutionary” iPad, Apple has used magic to describe iPad on its website as well as in videos, press releases, newspaper/magazine ads and TV commercials. Apple also sells a Magic Mouse, Magic Trackpad and only last week introduced the Magic Footpad. Indeed, The Academy of Magical Arts in Los Angeles tells us they’ve already discussed dropping their use of the word, simply because Apple has run it into the ground.
But David Copperfield is standing his ground. “I’m a magician. I do magic. End of story,” reads his 9-word statement. 16 words, if you include “Tell them where they can shove it,” which Copperfield gracefully added following his statement.
Apple’s press release explains, “David Copperfield has every right to entertain, but no right to confuse. In the public eye, magic equals Apple. Mr. Copperfield dilutes the Apple brand and profits by his use of an Apple asset.”
Our source inside Apple expresses frustration with the famous illusionist. “Copperfield went way over the line when he started using the magic word. That’s Apple territory. There are plenty of other words to choose from. Sorcery… legerdemain… thaumaturgy. He’s a creative fellow, he’ll figure it out. He just needs to keep his mitts off of our word.” Linky to article
Oh, and I might just add... this is all fake! Not surprising if you were paying attention... it does sound like something Apple would do though.
The police find at their apartment came weeks after the discovery of the more than 30-year-old mummified corpse of a man who had been thought to be celebrating his 111th birthday sparked concern about the very old in Japan.
Officials have fanned out nationwide since then to check on the whereabouts of citizens registered to be over 100, amid concern that some relatives have failed to report their deaths in order to draw their pension payouts.
In the latest find, made by police Thursday in an apartment in Tokyo's Ota ward, the dead woman's 64-year-old son told officials that his mother had died nine years ago, but that he hadn't been able to afford a funeral for her.
Japan had more than 40,000 registered people aged over 100 at last count, but by last week, officials had found that nearly 200 of them were missing.
One of the best things about modern astronomy is that we can "see" with our instruments a whole lot that our eyes could never see. This very cool new image from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory, along with a radio image from the Very Large Array, shows the galaxy-altering power of the active supermassive black hole in the center of M87.
We all knew the writing staff of Futurama was brainy, but this is something else. To work out the ridiculous brain switching plot line from last night’s hilarious episode, writer Ken Keeler (who also just happens to have a PhD in mathematics) ended up writing and proving an entirely new theorem. This is probably the most impressive bit of side work from a TV writer since a writer of Desperate Housewives discovered a new species or the staff of Full House developed a vaccine for a specific strain of syphilis. In the episode “The Prisoner of Benda,” the Professor and Amy use a new invention to switch bodies. Unfortunately, they discover that the same two brains can’t switch twice and have to come up with some equation to prove that, with enough people switching, eventually everyone will end up in their rightful form. This, of course, leads to much hijinks as well as the grossest sex scene the show has ever done (take that, Prof. Farnsworth and Mom!).
Check out anything to do with the show at the infosphere.
Citing a German news report, Techeye.net reports that Google has purchased small UAV "microdrone" aircraft manufactured by Germany's microdrone GmbH, perhaps for use to augment the company's Street View mapping data. Techeye says: The UAVs being flogged are mini helicopters with cameras attached that can be flown about all over the place. They're quiet and resemble sci-fi UFOs for the vertically challenged alien.
They can fly up to 80km per hour, so Microdrone CEO Sven Juerss suggests they'll be brilliant for mapping entire neighbourhoods really quickly and relatively cheaply.
Even before Google started data mining on open web networks its Street View operations were controversial, with Google Maps picking up on people who didn't exactly want their faces plastered all over the internet. With the kind of high-angle aerial shots this sort of kit can achieve, it boggles the mind as to the sort of images that may be accidentally captured.
Our take: Skepticism is warranted, and outrage is probably premature.
Our understanding is that FAA certification procedures for civilian UAVs operating in domestic airspace are not yet in place, so it is not clear that the regular operation of such UAVs would be legal -- never mind prudent from a privacy or public-relations point of view.
Meanwhile, the Techeye report, while fascinating, is also single-sourced, with the news of the UAV sale to Google coming from the manufacturer of the UAV -- which is to say, he's hardly a disinterested conduit for information. There has been no confirmation of the sale from Google, so far as we know. (Indeed, Forbes reports a Google spokesperson says, ""This was a purchase by a Google executive with an interest in robotics for personal use.”)
So, while curious and exciting, Telstar Logistics suggests keeping cool pending further information about Google's plans and the regulatory environment that may or may not make such plans viable.
UPDATE: Our friends at BoingBoing link to more information about Google's UAV denial, as well as further detail about the air-certification challenges such UAVs would present.)
TorrentReactor, listed among the five most popular torrent sites on the Internet, has surprised friends and foes by acquiring a small town in central Russia. The town formerly known as Gar has reportedly been bought for the equivalent of $148,000 and was quickly renamed after the Russian-based torrent site.The last time a torrent site attempted to buy some land, the plan miserably failed. Early 2007 The Pirate Bay launched its ‘Buy Sealand” campaign. The plan was to raise enough money so they could buy the micronation of Sealand and offer “high-speed Internet access, no copyright laws and VIP accounts to The Pirate Bay.”
Within a few weeks the campaign raised some $20,000 from potential citizens, but this wasn’t enough. Sealand turned out not to be an option as it was prized at 750 million euros, which equals to nearly one billion US dollars. Other alternatives were considered but most islands lacked a proper Internet connection.
Now, three years later the Russian based torrent site Torrentreactor has reportedly bought some land of their own, without any help or funding from the outside. TorrentReactor founder Alex informed TorrentFreak about the peculiar move which puts the torrent site on the map in rural Russia.
Full article...
It looks like Google isn’t the only one gearing up for a social network battle. Rumors surfaced in June that the search giant was developing a Facebook competitor called Google Me, and the company’s social networking ambitions became even more certain this week with its acquisition of social app maker Slide. TechCrunch has called Google’s efforts a war on Facebook, and said Vice President of Engineering Vic Gundotra is the company’s general.
Now we’ve heard from a source close to Facebook’s plans that the social network is working hard to fend off Google. Specifically, chief executive Mark Zuckerberg has declared that the company is on “lockdown” for the next 60 days, with the office open on weekends as the company tries to revamp Photos, Groups, and Events in advance of the Google launch. We hear Zuckerberg even has a neon sign saying “Lockdown” on his office door.
The phrase is a callback to Facebook’s early days, as described in David Kirkpatrick’s book The Facebook Effect. During a lockdown, if someone wanted to leave the office Zuckerberg would reportedly pound the table and say: “‘No! We’re in lockdown! No one leaves the table until we’re done with this thing.”
The current "solar tsunami" may create a dazzling aurora in the night sky — but could it also mark the beginning of a long, dangerous cycle of sun storms?Is this week's event a solar storm?
Yes, and it's the first to be directed at Earth for "quite some time," say astronomers. It is predicted to cause a "killer light show" in northern regions of the globe, and may be visible from some parts of the United States.
What are solar storms?
Also known as a solar flare, a solar storm is a series of large explosions in the sun's atmosphere caused by magnetic instability.
Could this weekend's explosion pose a threat?
This one will provoke nothing more extreme than a dazzling light show. But scientists say this could be the start of a low in the sun's 11-year life cycle, making this potentially the first in a long season of solar storms. More serious ones could cause immense damage to our infrastructure.
How could sun storms damage our infrastructure?
A serious sun storm emits massive amounts of radiation capable of creating havoc with our technological systems. The X-rays and UV radiation emitted by powerful solar flares could, in theory, disable satellites and communications equipment.
So our cell phones might not work?
Correct. But a massive burst of energy could also fry electrical grids. Power in wide areas might fail, or surge dangerously, causing fires. Navigation systems — such as those on commercial airliners — could be disabled, and the global financial system brought to a grinding halt. Such an event, warns NASA, might "cause 20 times more economic damage than Hurricane Katrina."
Has it ever happened before?
There was a "solar tempest" in 1859 that caused telegraph wires to short out across the U.S. and Europe, starting multiple fires. With today's modern technology, the effects would be much, much worse. A minor solar flare in 1989, for instance, caused a massive power outage across Quebec, Canada.
In order to understand what motivates "fanboys" and "fangirls," we investigate the behaviors behind video-game fanaticism with the help of esteemed psychologists, authors, and experts on the subject.
a group of people with similar beliefs and ideals together, it becomes harder for them to leave individually," says Hanlon, who has worked with Bungie on Halo's advertising campaigns. "If they stop, they lose the respect of the other members of the community. They feel like a member of a community there and nowhere else, and this exaggerated sense of belonging is the same as the communities that battle over Democrats vs. Republicans or Mac vs. PC." He adds that this perceived loss of camaraderie can cause people to remain part of a community against their best interests. "It's the same case with any kind of zealotry."
