Today, we are especially happy to bring you “People Got A Lotta Nerve,” the first single from Neko Case’s forthcoming album Middle Cyclone (out March 3), because for every blog that reposts the song and/or iLike user who adds it to their profile, Neko Case and ANTI- will make a cash donation to Best Friends Animal Society.

Neko Case’s “PEOPLE GOT A LOTTA NERVE” - Blog it for a Worthwhile Cause

- A father is accused of trying to sell his 14-year-old daughter for marriage in hopes of getting money and 150 cases of beer in return, Greenfield police said.

Father Accused Of Selling Daughter For Beer

LOS ANGELES — Believe it or not, that roll of sticky tape on your desk emits X-rays. Don't worry, you're not getting irradiated when you use it, unless you work in a vacuum.

Take an X-Ray With Your Office Sticky Tape

Former MIT President ['71-'80] Jerome Weisner coined a colorful and often quoted description of the MIT educational experience

Haha! Take a look...

IHTFP Hack Gallery: Fire Hose Drinking Fountain

Adam Savage answers a question about RFID Censorship at the Last H.O.P.E. Hacker Conference (www.HOPE.net) which took place on July, 18-20 2008 ...

Mythbusters Gagged: Credit Card Companies Kill Episode Exposing RFID Security Flaws

Matter is built on flaky foundations. Physicists have now confirmed that the apparently substantial stuff is actually no more than fluctuations in the quantum vacuum.

The researchers simulated the frantic activity that goes on inside protons and neutrons. These particles provide almost all the mass of ordinary matter.

Each proton (or neutron) is made of three quarks - but the individual masses of these quarks only add up to about 1% of the proton's mass. So what accounts for the rest of it?

Theory says it is created by the force that binds quarks together, called the strong nuclear force. In quantum terms, the strong force is carried by a field of virtual particles called gluons, randomly popping into existence and disappearing again. The energy of these vacuum fluctuations has to be included in the total mass of the proton and neutron.

But it has taken decades to work out the actual numbers. The strong force is described by the equations of quantum chromodynamics, or QCD, which are too difficult to solve in most cases.

So physicists have developed a method called lattice QCD, which models smooth space and time as a grid of separate points. This pixellated approach allows the complexities of the strong force to be simulated approximately by computer.

It's confirmed: Matter is merely vacuum fluctuations ...

Astronauts living on the International Space Station next month will install what could be a life-saving gadget -- an electronic nose.

The ENose will be unpacked and installed on the space station on Dec. 9. Its job is to sniff out dangerous chemicals like ammonia, mercury, methanol and formaldehyde that could escape into the air in the space station.

The ENose, which has an array of 32 sensors, will have a six-month test run, according to an alert issued last night by NASA. If the device works well, it will be used in future space missions, including manned missions to Mars or the moon.

"This ENose is a very capable instrument that will increase crew awareness of the state of their air quality," said Carl Walz, a former astronaut and director of NASA's Advanced Capabilities Division, which funds ENose development. "Having experienced an air-quality event during my Expedition 4 mission on the space station, I wish I had the information that this ENose will provide future crews. This technology demonstration will provide important information for environmental control and life-support system designers for the future lunar outpost."

NASA noted that there have been past air quality problems in the space station, the space shuttle and the Russian Space Station Mir. The problems largely went undetected until after crew members were exposed to the contaminants. The sensors, which will run autonomously, are designed to detect the leaks as they happen, allowing astronauts to quickly protect themselves.

NASA noted that the device's sensors are polymer films that change their electrical conductivity depending on what chemicals they come into contact with. The ENose, which is the size of a shoe box and uses about 20 watts of power, also is designed to collect data and stream it to computers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory for analysis.

The ENose that will be used in the space shuttle is a third-generation instrument. The first one had a six-day test onboard a space shuttle in 1998. The second one was tested on Earth.

NASA sniffs out trouble with electronic nose on space station

Everyone has seen a picture of a Saber-tooth Tiger. It is easy to envision it as being the King Carnivore of the Prehistoric era, with its menacing elongated canines.

The first remains of a Saber-tooth, (more commonly known as Smilodon, meaning Knifetooth) were discovered in Brazil in 1842.

At the turn of the century almost 2000 Smilodon skulls were discovered in the La Brea Tar Pits of Los Angles California. Smilodon remains have been discovered in many places in both North and South America.

In May of 1971 while excavating the foundation for the First American Bank Complex, now the AmSouth Bank Complex, in Downtown Nashville, workers discovered a prehistoric cave system, which contained a 9-inch fang and foreleg bone from a Smilodon Fatalis.The importance of this find is in the fact, that of all the previous remains, by use of Carbon Dating, revealed that the Saber-tooths became extinct around 11,000 years ago. The Carbon Dating of the Nashville find indicated that this cat was alive 9,500 years ago and to date no other Smilodon remains have been dated more recently.

I guess Nashville could claim to possess the remains of the last known Smilodon. From being a lifelong resident and living among its citizens, I know that they are not that presumptuous. Someone did however, in 1997 think to associate a newly arriving NHL expansion team with a artifact that few were aware Nashville possessed and thus the Nashville Predators were born, complete with a logo depicting a mighty Smilodon.

Was Nashville the Dying Ground for the Last Sabertooth?

Google's been known to track all sorts of stuff, including search trends, wildfires, and the flu. Now Google Maps and Google Earth are being used to record the locations of what might qualify as an even more interesting thing: pirate attacks.

Arrr, but where be the dragons?

Google Maps Used To Mark Pirate Attacks

Populous will be a free, and incredibly powerful, content management system specifically tailored to the needs of a college newsroom. In addition to the CMS our project has two more components: a digital newsroom, and a social network. Our ultimate goal is to provide any, and every, college newspaper with the tools necessary to have a great website that easily incorporates web 2.0 features and industry trends.

We want to make it easy for college newspapers to upload and play video, audio, slideshows, flash content and anything else that might come up. We will also include software that will allow a newsroom to plan and organize content, and that will allow a community to organize itself. We know most schools don't have the resources to develop the kind of software they need to have a great website, and with the help of the Knight Foundation we're answering that call.

Phase I: CMS
Our CMS will be released in beta this fall. Features include calendar, photo and video uploads and blogging. We hope to create a space where collegiate and small town newspapers alike can create and publish content easily online.

Phase II: Digital Newsroom
Our Digital Newsroom will be released in beta this Winter. It includes story planning, communication features and personalized calendars. This aspect will allow student editors to use laptop computers and mobile devices to communicate and plan both locally and remotely

Phase III: Community News Network
The Community News Network will be released in beta in the Spring. It will complete Populous with a social network used to make and distribute community news and allow users to interact with newsroom content and also create their own.

Populous