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Three cool stories

Thursday, March 27, 2008 9:44 PM
Three very cool stories caught my eye today. 1) Researchers have managed to decipher and play back a recording made nearly two decades before Edison's phonograph. The phonautogram was made in France in 1860 and represents the earliest known recording
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Using JungleDisk

Saturday, March 22, 2008 2:26 PM
Jack Lail posted about JungleDisk the other day; it sounded interesting, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. I like it. The idea is pretty simple, at least in the abstract: using Amazon's S3 online storage service, JungleDisk maps an online storage location
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Give this pilot a raise

Monday, March 03, 2008 8:43 PM
A Lufthansa pilot acted quickly to avert catastrophe as his plane was hit by a cross-wind just as the wheels were touching down on the runway : German airline Lufthansa said on Monday its pilots had averted a crash at Hamburg airport after a strong gust
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The journey back to Saturn

Friday, February 08, 2008 9:40 PM
At last year's TED conference, one of the presenters was Carolyn Porco, the leader of the Imaging Team on the Cassini mission to Saturn. Her presentation focused mainly on a tour of the discoveries regarding two of Saturn's most intriguing moons: Titan
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More awesomeness from TED: amazing underwater life

Sunday, January 13, 2008 11:05 PM
TED is always a site full of provocative ideas. This video clip shows how little we really understand about the undersea world; most of the clip relates to visual camouflage and bioluminescence as tools for attraction, conveying information, and defense.
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Cargo ships to be propelled by kites

Tuesday, January 01, 2008 8:42 PM
This is very cool : One of the first large cargo ships in 100 years to cross the Atlantic with the help of the wind will set off from European shores this month on a voyage which is due to make maritime history. When the 10,000-tonne Beluga Skysail is
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The Last Supper, in 16 billion pixels

Sunday, October 28, 2007 9:14 PM
Whoa : A 16 billion pixel image of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper has been posted on the internet, giving art lovers a detailed view of the 15th Century work. [...] "You can see how Leonardo made the cups transparent, something you can't ordinarily see,"
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Blazin' download speeds coming soon

Monday, October 22, 2007 10:10 PM
Holy crap : IBM (NYSE: IBM) disclosed Monday that it has teamed up with Taiwanese vendor MediaTek to develop computer chipsets that the companies say will allow consumers to wirelessly zap high-definition content to televisions and other devices at push-button
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I'm thinking of buying a laptop

Thursday, September 06, 2007 1:34 PM
I've been toying with the idea of buying a laptop. I don't need one for any specific or imminent purpose, but I think it might come in handy. My criteria are pretty simple: I want performance, portability, and quality for the least cost. I'd likely use
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I'm taking up a collection

Wednesday, August 29, 2007 10:01 PM
I know there are a lot of philanthropic, generous people out there, so this is an appeal to all of you. I've decided to start taking up a collection for a noble, worthy cause: Y'all can buy me an island. For only $12 million, I could have my very own
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Boeing's sexy new Dreamliner 787

Monday, August 27, 2007 9:57 PM
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner is as fast as a jumbo jet, half the size of the Airbus 380, and 20% more fuel efficient. It's also selling like hotcakes : So far, 47 airlines -- including Continental Airlines Inc., Air Canada, Qantas Airways Ltd., Air India
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The Psychozilla Tribune is now live!

Sunday, August 26, 2007 10:05 AM
Pop open the champagne, folks -- the Psychozilla Tribune has gone live! In the spirit of the late, great Weekly World News (which recently ceased publication of its print edition), the PZT seeks to report news that is ... (ahem) ... "slightly off-center."
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Danes sort of apologize for Viking raids, Irish cool with it

Thursday, August 16, 2007 9:04 PM
A replica Viking ship recently embarked from Denmark on a thousand-mile journey to Ireland, recreating one of the many Viking voyages/raids conducted over 1,000 years ago. Here's how The Guardian (among others) reported it : The Havhingsten (Sea Stallion)
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Did life evolve from electrically charged dust?

Friday, August 10, 2007 7:39 PM
This is fascinating : According to a new simulation, electrically charged dust can organise itself into DNA-like double helixes that behave in many ways like living organisms, reproducing and passing on information to one another. Maybe this is how life
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Turning car exhaust into diesel

Thursday, July 19, 2007 8:44 AM
This is fascinating : The world's richest corporations and finest minds spend billions trying to solve the problem of carbon emissions, but three fishing buddies in North Wales believe they have cracked it. They have developed a box which they say can
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The mapinguary, the Amazonian Bigfoot

Saturday, July 07, 2007 9:40 PM
Newscoma and (probably) Joe Powell will love this story : Perhaps it is nothing more than a legend, as skeptics say. Or maybe it is real, as those who claim to have seen it avow. But the mere mention of the mapinguary, the giant slothlike monster of the
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To see a world in a grain of sand

Monday, July 02, 2007 11:19 PM
Microsoft's Photosynth technology is mind-blowing. Imagine a satellite map of the United States; then imagine the ability to drill into a region, a city, a street, a building, and a blade of grass on the lawn. Imagine starting with a full frontal view
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Sights in the night sky

Wednesday, June 20, 2007 11:07 PM
Holy crap! I just saw the International Space Station and the Space Shuttle Atlantis fly directly overhead. The shuttle was first, then the space station followed quickly behind. They grew in brightness as they rose above the western horizon, and by the
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Talking paper!

Tuesday, June 05, 2007 2:28 PM
Some Swedish scientists with way too much time on their hands have invented talking paper : Researchers from Mid Sweden University have constructed an interactive paper billboard that emits recorded sound in response to a user's touch. The prototype display
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The latest creepiness from Google

Thursday, May 31, 2007 9:23 AM
I usually feel a mixture of awe and creepy dread whenever I read about Google's various technologies; those people are way too smart not to be aliens from Planet Genius. Today is no exception. Google's image search now supports basic face recognition
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