On entering the factory floor and far from the equipment, Mr. Swenson's 200KV/ft handheld electrometer was found to slam to full scale. When he attempted to walk through the corridor formed by the moving film, he was stopped about half way through by an "invisible wall." He could lean all his weight forward but was unable to pass. He observed a fly get pulled into the charged, moving plastic, and speculates that the e-fields might have been strong enough to suck in birds!

Okay, so I don't know enough to make much sense of the science behind this but it certainly sounds cool...

Force fields via industry accident

I thought I was in halfway not awful shape. Three days later I find out I'm so wrong... The damn thing is kicking my ass.

yourself!fitness; A fitness program combining the best of exercise and video games for your xbox

Elonka wrote:

Recommendations: Include a multivitamin with iron, a calcium supplement, and concentrate on getting fiber into one of the other meals. I'd also recommend switching from 3 packets of mayo, to 1 packet of light mayo, which would bring the protein/carb/fat ratios more into line: 24/42/34, though that would also reduce the calories of one batch from 480 to 260, so it would require several additional batches per day to meet calorie requirements. The next gating factor would be sodium, since at that point you'd be getting 400% of the recommended maximum. Though you might be able to find a place to swipe some salt-free crackers.

Hm.... From health class a long (well, long for me) time ago can't you sustain yourself with more like 1500 calories? Especially if dealing with a smallish, sedentary, techie-type?

Regardless, this thread makes the poor college student very happy -- assuming I remember when I get out of sunny Northern California I'll try to formalize some of my favorite college recipes =)

RE: Lunch for about $1 a day: BumbleBee Tuna

What's a music-download fan to do -- actually pay for music?

If it comes to that, they'll find that a lot has changed in the online music business.

These rental-music outfits are highly conducive to exploring and discovering new music. They're ideal if your taste leans toward what one Internet wag calls Disposable Contemporary.

Britney to Rent, Lease or Buy

When they arrived at his crib, McClain allegedly tried to strike a cop with a four-foot sword. After missing, McClain retreated to his basement, where he donned a chainmail armored vest and leather gauntlets to protect his arms. He also added a giant wooden mallet to his arsenal and beckoned officers to come downstairs and get him. "I'm gonna crush your fucking skulls," McClain warned. Then, in a nice rhetorical flourish (for a lunatic, at least), he added, "I have a thousand years of power." That omnipotence, however, was no match for a police Taser, which felled McClain. He was then carted off and charged with felony assault and a misdemeanor count for failing to remain at an accident scene.

By the Power of Greyskull... I... HAVE... THE {ZZZAAAPPPPPPPPPPP}!

Medieval loser tasered by cops.

This is an additional outrage...

I hope that those people that know technology will step up, and find a way to lobby against this...

The DOJ is trying to get a 'finger' on everyone, so that they can watch your internet habits...As if Carnivore wasn't enough of a intrusion... now we should have "tappable" ISP configurations for the DOJ?

And what's worse, is the DOJ is trying to push the FCC to be the "Bad Guy", by citing a statute designed for telephony networks...

I'm exasperated...

EFF: Breaking News - More attempts to remove your privacy...

For the foodies out there, check out Noriko Takiguchi's (so far) five part series on 'How to Eat Sushi Properly' (links to earlier parts at bottom of the linked post). Not only does the series deliver on the title, but she also passes along tidbits such as the history of our epicurean debt to Yohei Hanaya, and the names of the best sushiyas in the Bay Area, with a little assist from commenters.

Due Diligence: Theory and Practice of Sushi

Every time BME is updated I get many pictures of “corset piercings” sent in. At this point they’ve become one of the most popular forms of surface piercings, and for good reason — they’re a very pretty, sexy piercing that can be extremely complimentary visually.

Okay, so I have no problems with bodymod, I mean, it's your body do what you want, right?

This just seems weird... admittedly, my primary group of friends has never been particularly exciting so maybe I'm just not getting my standard of weird adjusted often enough.

(Didn't know exactly how to file this one)

'Hey, I've got a good idea...' (or, Seriously, WTF?)

Effective immediately, all minors are banned from playing online games in which players are allowed to kill other players, an activity that has been termed Player Kills (PK). China's Ministry of Culture (MOC) and Ministry of Information Industry (MII) have also ordered the country's online game operators to develop identity authentication systems that prevent minors from playing games These authentication systems would require all players to first enter their Citizen ID Card numbers before being allowed to play games that allow Player Kills.
...
Chinese authorities have significantly increased policing of online games since the second half of 2004, as part of government efforts to create a 'healthy' environment for children. As part of that same campaign, regulators have also cracked down on pornographic, violent, gambling, and 'superstitious' content disseminated over the internet and mobile phone networks.

How sweet, China is protecting the children. Hillary would be proud.

China bans violent video games for minors.

Piccolo is a toolkit that supports the development of 2D structured graphics programs, in general, and Zoomable User Interfaces (ZUIs), in particular. A ZUI is a new kind of interface that presents a huge canvas of information on a traditional computer display by letting the user smoothly zoom in, to get more detailed information, and zoom out for an overview.

Kinda cool -- You lose all your basic UI widgets but get a lot of functionality for free. It's subclassed from a JComponent (JAVA) so adding it to an existing app doesn't suck.

Piccolo : ZUI Framework for JAVA & .NET