] Autonomous helicopter flight is characterised by
] helicopters that can fly without a human pilot or
] guidance from a remote-controlled device. Although many
] teams worldwide have been working on so-called vertical
] take-off, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), the CSIRO
] helicopter is the first to fly completely independent of
] expensive global positioning systems (GPS) guidance.
] Instead it uses its brain to control its balance and
] orientation.

this thing is *damn* cool...

News in Science - New robot brain takes to the skies - 18/12/2003

Yee-ha! I look forward to upgrading, uh, 6 months from now? Maybe?

Linux 2.6 Released

] In a statement released at the December 17th flight,
] Allen said: "Being able to watch today's successful test
] flight in person was really an overwhelming and
] awe-inspiring experience. I'm so proud to be able to
] support the work of Burt Rutan and his pioneering team at
] Scaled Composites."

SSO/WK is one of the top contenders for winning the X prize, for anyone not following it. I'm not at all surprised to find that Allen is the guy behind the guy.

Paul Allen Revealed as SpaceShipOne Investor

] The president of the United States does not have the
] power to detain an American citizen seized on U.S. soil
] as an enemy combatant, a federal appeals court ruled on
] Thursday, in a serious setback to the bush
] administration's war on terror.

fuck you ABC... try "in a serious setback to the Bush administration's mad grab for complete executive power."

] "Where, as here, the President's power as Commander-in-Chief
] of the armed forces and the domestic rule of law intersect,
] we conclude that clear congressional authorization is required
] for detentions of Americans on American soil...."

thank you. of course, i guess this just means the military & 3 letter agencies will be even more careful and secretive when disappearing people.

ABCNEWS.com : Appeals Court Says Bush Can't Hold U.S. Citizen

] Now Downhill Battle is taking this consumer awareness campaign
] off the internet and into the record stores. We’ve teamed up
] with RIAA Radar to make two awesome stickers.
]
] We’re taking them into stores and plastering major label CDs...

uhm, legal? doesn't seem like it... good site tho... quite a few resources.

Downhill Battle - music activism

] "My milkshake brings all the boys to the yard, and they're like
] it's better than yours."
]
] You don’t know what this means, and you don’t know if they
] know what it means, but you’re pretty sure it’s dirty (and
] it is). You’re never going to stop your kids from hearing
] this stuff, but that doesn’t mean you have to pay record
] companies to make more of it.

ahahahahahahahhahaha! This site is the best!

What a Crappy Present - CD Gift Advice, Parents and Kids

simply stunning.

[[ MemeStreams ]] Phsyco dosent even begin to explain the things I do!!!!!!!!!!! j/k

Decius wrote:
] ] If King remains a one-dimensional grainy black-and-white
] ] figure who utters the same sunny sound bite year after
] ] year until it's a cliche, it's because news networks
] ] won't pay for more, and researchers have been kept from
] ] delving deep into his papers to tell us something new
] ] about the Martin Luther King the man, not the statuette.
] ]
] ] And his family wants it that way.
]
] And once again we are promoting science and the useful arts by
] creating economic incentives for people to engage in
] historical events by preventing people from talking about
] them.

Ryan: This timeI am going to have to drop some science on you. Once again, my Copyright prof represented the Estate of Doctor Martin Luther King Junior versus CBS, a landmark copyright case. There are two quick points to remember on this:

1) The estate only charges *normal* royalty rates to commercial entities who, after the MLK v. CBS, have a vendetta against paying for Dr. King's speechs. For any educational purpose, the King estate has *drastically* reduced rates for licensing the speeches, I believe down to $0. That's versus the hundreds of dollars CBS was charging educational institutions for the use of its video clips of the same speeches.

2) Dr. King copyrighted every one of his speeches. He was very much a supporter of copyright because he wanted to be able to control how his words would be used in the future. They could be reported on then, due to fair use (newsworthiness), but he knew there would come a time in the future where people would try to use it in a commercial manner for their own gain.

Now, as much as I have problems with the current IP restraints, this is a circumstance where someone acted to protect their rights for good reasons, and that should be enforced.

RE: You need a license to quote Martin Luther King Jr. (phillyBurbs.com)

] USC nanotube device uses 'Stochastic Resonance' to
] enhance subthreshold signals

neat

To see the message, just add noise

] Researchers have developed a process to create wires only
] 50 nanometers (billionths of a meter) thick. Made from
] silica, the same mineral found in quartz, the wires carry
] light in an unusual way. Because the wires are thinner
] than the wavelengths of light they transport, the
] material serves as a guide around which light waves flow.
] In addition, because the researchers can fabricate the
] wires with a uniform diameter and smooth surfaces down to
] the atomic level, the light waves remain coherent as they
] travel.

very nice...

pretty pictures here : http://www.nsf.gov/od/lpa/news/03/pr03147_images.htm

Researchers develop nanoscale fibers that are thinner than the wavelengths of light they carry