Basically, it fires a bolt of lightning. It can be tuned to blow up explosives, possibly to stop vehicles and certainly to buzz people. The strike can be made to feel as gentle as "broom bristles" or cranked up to deliver a paralyzing jolt that "takes a few minutes to wear off."

Bitar, who is of Arab descent, believes StunStrike would be particularly intimidating in the Middle East because, he contends, people there are especially afraid of lightning.

At present, StunStrike is a 20-foot tower that can zap things up to 28 feet away. The next step is to shrink it so it could be wielded by troops and used in civilian locales like airplane cabins or building entrances.

Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet!

Real life Red Alert Tesla Coil?

The in-house magazine of the digital underground, Phrack is closing after 20 years as its editorial team steps down.

an end to an era that's already ended?

Key hacker magazine faces closure

GM is considering moving both of the Saturn vehicles assembled at the massive plant here to other GM factories, but it would build different vehicles in Spring Hill for other GM brands, according to Automotive News, an industry trade journal.

Here it comes...

Spring Hill braces for life after Saturn

Dave Lewis will not be behind the Detroit Red Wings' bench when the NHL makes its return.

The Red Wings on Friday announced that Lewis, who served as coach for two seasons, will not return.

=( =( =( =( =( =( =( =( =( =( =(

Red Wings fire coach Dave Lewis

I'm sad to have learned, as did the mailing list of SEAMUS (Society for Electro-Acoustic Music US), that the esteemed Dr. Robert Moog is ill.

=(

Dr. Robert Moog is Ill

An American newspaper is reporting the National Hockey League and its players' union have reached a tentative deal that could lead to the end of the 10-month hockey lockout.

an end to this saga?

Deal reached to end NHL lockout: report

Since 1998, the second-party market for MMORPG loot has steadily grown. Last year alone, this newfound industry grossed roughly $500 million, according to Bob Kiblinger of UOTreasures.

WOW!!!

Wage Slaves from 1UP.COM

As sounds, recording methods and technologies were blended and reshaped, the entire history of recorded sound was up for grabs, and listeners were (potentially) as aware of Louis Jordan as this week’s hottest mash-up. The result has been a new sort of temporal distortion, one completely bereft of historical and social context — suddenly any music ever recorded is “now.”

All the more reason to not fear a streaming network of every piece of music ever recorded.

Pocket Revolution

A special, free news feature in Science explores 125 big questions that face scientific inquiry over the next quarter-century; accompanying the feature are several online extras including a reader's forum on the big questions.

Which ones are YOU going to help answer???

125th Anniversary Issue: Science Online Special Feature

Bobier found a way to put one bit of data on one radio frequency cycle and recover that weak signal with a newly invented filter. If xMax uses a powerful carrier signal--which does require a dedicated, albeit very narrow radio band--it can even extend its range and capacity.

The first xMax network is currently being built in Miami and Fort Lauderdale where one base station can deliver broadband Internet over a 40 square mile area.

The capacity of that wireless network is not bigger than any other wireless technology, which means that more base stations need to be added if a certain number of people are using the network--typically several hundreds to a 1,000 users.

Sounds a lot like the DTMD technology that Bob Cringely turned me onto a few years back.

New wireless broadband 'whispers' below the radar