] It was once the stuff of science fiction movies: soldiers
] equipped with high-tech gear that made them stronger,
] swifter and smarter %u2014 invulnerable to bullets and
] able to survive the harshest conditions.
]
] On Thursday, the U.S. Army and the Massachusetts
] Institute of Technology unveiled a joint project that
] generals and scientists said could make fiction a reality
] within this decade.
]
] The new Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies at MIT
] will use a five-year, $50 million grant from the Army to
] develop tiny machines that are the size of molecules to
] give U.S. military personnel an edge on the battlefield.
]
] Some of the ideas being explored include battle suits
] that are embedded with tiny devices that can seal against
] chemical attack, administer immediate medical care and
] even %u2014 no joke, scientists say %u2014 give soldiers
] the power to leap small buildings.

Can't they just make a damn pair of pants to make me look thinner?

High-tech project aims to make super-soldiers

] Sharman Networks said its Kazaa file-sharing software was
] on track to set a record Friday as it becomes the
] most-popular free program on the Web with over 230
] million downloads.
]
] By hitting that total, Shaman said Kazaa would surpass
] the popular ICQ instant messaging program, owned by CNN's
] parent company AOL Time Warner.

Fuck Kazaa and its spyware. http://www.winmx.com for your P2P file sharing needs - spyware free! Spread the good word!

Most downloaded program on the Web?

] Until last week, it appeared that Apple Computer Inc.'s
] iTunes Music Store had solved the problem of how to sell
] music over the Internet with just enough digital security
] to satisfy nervous record labels but not so much as to
] deter consumers from using it.
]
]
] But a few enterprising Mac hackers figured out how to get
] more mileage from one of the built-in features of iTunes
] 4, streaming music between Macs on a local network (such
] as a home network).
]
]
] Within a week of iTunes 4's introduction, Web sites such
] as ShareiTunes.com and Spymac were offering lists of song
] collections that could be streamed from the hard drives
] of dozens of online Mac users who made their collections
] available.
]
]
] Streaming, it should be noted, is distinct from
] downloading. When you stream a file, it's like listening
] to the radio; no file is transferred to your hard drive.
] Many Mac users doing this believed that since they were
] just listening and not downloading, the activity was
] legal.
]
]
] Before anyone could start debating the legality of
] streaming, however, other clever hackers devised a way to
] use the sharing function to download songs from one
] another's drives.

Hackers bite Apple in its iTunes

] The Senate agreed Tuesday to lift a 10-year-old ban on
] the research and development of low-yield nuclear
] weapons. The vote was a boost to the Bush
] administration's goal of expanding the U.S. nuclear
] arsenal.
]
] The Senate voted 51-43 to table and thus kill
] an amendment to keep the ban in place.
]
] The ban prohibits the research and development of nuclear
] weapons with an explosive force of 5 kilotons of less.
] That is one-third the power of the nuclear bomb used at
] Hiroshima in August 1945.
]
] "Don't think low-yield, think small apocalypse," said
] Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I. "There is no military need today.
] What we do here will be emulated by other countries. That
] is the nature of world leadership."
]
] But Sen. James Inhofe, R-Okla., said the ban means
] scientists cannot even start developing new weapons.
]
] "With many of the new and emerging threats in the world,
] we cannot afford to be ill-prepared," he said.

Why? Why why WHY?? Why are we trying to develop more nuclear weapons? "low yield" weapons are not needed - the recently developed MOAB is as powerful as a low yield nuke, and doesn't have the fallout associated with it - either nuclear OR political fallout. If we use a tactical nuke in battle, thats a "green light" for every rogue nation to use them, and then all hell breaks loose. We need to keep the nuclear genie in the bottle where it belongs.

Laughing Boy

Senate OKs ending ban on nuclear research

] SAN DIEGO Rarely is an invention so unique, so
] visceral and so simple that in 15 seconds most people who
] experience it realize it could alter everyday life.
]
] But that's what happens to just about anyone who steps
] out to the back parking lot of American Technology Corp.
] (ATC) here for a demonstration of its invention called
] HyperSonic Sound (HSS).
]
] Essentially, HSS for the first time does for sound what
] the laser did for light %u2014 intensely focuses and
] channels it so it can travel great distances without
] dispersing. In the demo, a technician points a speaker
] the size of a cereal box at someone standing 100 yards
] away. Amid the din of the nearby freeway, the technician
] plays a recording of ice cubes clinking into a glass.
]
] To the listener, the sound comes across as if it were
] through headphones, totally unlike a sound blaring from a
] distant speaker over oppressive car noise. Take two steps
] to the side, out of the sound beam, and you hear nothing
] at all. Step back in, and there it is again.

Their stock is trading at $4.09 right now. Anybody got half a mil to drop?

Sound technology turns the way you hear on its ear

A fairly accurate timeline, er, from some points of view, of the progression that the internet has taken over time.

Enjoy!

The Lemon: History Of The Internet

] I fully expected ISS to respond with a "we have
] identified the administrator that failed to patch the
] system in question, and have forced him to drink
] buttermilk while watching home movies of Janet Reno in a
] leather teddy. We are confident that this will not happen
] again."
]
] But they didn't.
]
] Instead, ISS revealed that the hacked site, the one from
] which students and universities around the world
] downloaded free versions of BlackICE to protect
] themselves from hackers, was in reality a cleverly
] disguised, purposefully vulnerable honeypot,
] strategically placed in this hostile environment to
] collect and analyze the actions of evil hackers.

The Register | 'Relax, It Was a Honeypot'

] With videotape systems, the recorder is typically turned
] on when the law-enforcement officer switches on a police
] car's flashers. With the digital video system, the two
] minutes to four minutes of video captured before an
] incident will be instantly written to the hard drive,
] essentially storing a glimpse into the past.
]
] Such pre-event recording is important, Schneider said.
] "You have a violation that occurred, but what you capture
] now is the officer turning on his light, and that's only
] half the piece of the pie," he said. "Wouldn't it be nice
] if you could get the guy running the red light in the
] first place? That's what this system gives us."
]
] The system also includes a way to protect the chain of
] custody, so the video evidence will be admissible in
] court. The recorder authenticates all the video to
] prevent changes, and it will have a checkout system to
] keep track of which officers have checked out which hard
] drives.
]
] Still, the system will raise some sticky policy
] questions, said Lou Latham, a research analyst with
] business-tech research firm Gartner.
]
] "It's a fair witness, as (science fiction writer Robert
] Heinlein) used to say," he said. "Everything is
] recorded--and there are ups and downs to that--but it's a
] powerful sociological tool."

TiVos for police surveillance. I'm not sure if this is good or bad, but I think it'll make it harder to 'lose' video evidence. Slightly.

News: Cop cams to put infractions on record

"...To the plaaaaanet core!" Boss Nass

] A Hollywood-like proposal to explore the center of the
] Earth calls for exploding a crack in the planet's surface
] and dropping a probe in behind tons of molten iron, which
] would sink and forge a path to the core.
]
] The plan is not ready for primetime, its creator told
] SPACE.com, but neither is it pie-in-the-sky.
]
] Exploring Earth's belly is ambitious in a scientific
] sense and could yield valuable data. The solid inner core
] rotates faster than the outer core, which is fluid and is
] responsible for Earth's magnetic field. But scientists
] don't know exactly why all this is so, nor do they know
] the exact composition or temperature of the core.
]
] A schematic shows how the probe would descend with molten
] iron, all in a crack that closes up behind the mission.
]
] If further research showed the core mission could
] actually work, it would be comparable in dollar terms
] with many space projects, says David Stevenson, a Caltech
] planetary scientist who has worked on several missions
] for NASA. Stevenson explains his idea in an article
] titled "A Modest Proposal" for the May

SNIP

NASA Meets Hollywood: Real Mission Proposed to Earth's Core

] In a step toward electronic newspapers and wearable
] computer screens, scientists have created an ultra-thin
] screen that can be bent, twisted and even rolled up and
] still display crisp text.
]
] The material, only as thick as three human hairs,
] displays black text on a whitish-gray background with a
] resolution similar to that of a typical laptop computer
] screen.
]
] The screen is so flexible it can be rolled into a
] cylinder about a half-inch wide without losing its image
] quality.
]
] Although it's not quite the dream of single-sheet,
] electronic newspapers or books that can display hundreds
] of pages of text, its creators said it's the first
] flexible computer screen of its kind.

Cool! Where do I get one?

Laughing Boy

Paper-thin screen created