Thousands of German Harry Potter fans who could not wait for the latest JK Rowling epic to be published in their own language have translated the book in less than two days. The hobby translators
were too impatient to wait the 77 days required by German translator Klaus Fritz to complete the task and logged on to Harry-auf-Deutsch.de to finish the job in 45 hours — via BoingBoing
According to the American Red Cross site: The state Homeland Security Department had requested — and continues to request — that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city. Access to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders
—via Warren Ellis
Some US libraries are using Microsoft Media DRM to automatically return audiobooks checked out of their catalogue. A patron with a valid library card visits a library Web site to borrow a title for, say, three weeks. When the audiobook is due, the patron must renew it or find it automatically returned
in a virtual sense: The file still sits on the patron’s computer, but encryption makes it unplayable beyond the borrowing period
Jan Erik Vangen’s Bender casemod is a life-sized version of the robot from Futurama. His eyes glow and he says Bite my shiny metal ass
on demand. He also has a terabyte of storage, WiFi, and a DVD burner — via BoingBoing
The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be legitimate
in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent criminals
from doing so. But who knows their true intentions. We have an inside source in the NOPD who says that command and control is in chaos — via Warren Ellis
Diamond is no longer the hardest substance known to man. Scientists have created a new material, called aggregated diamond nanorods by compressing carbon-60 under high heat. The hardness of a material is measured by its isothermal bulk modulus. Aggregated diamond nanorods have a modulus of 491 gigapascals (GPa), compared with 442 GPa for conventional diamond
Roborior, a house-sitting robot armed with a digital camera, infrared sensors, and a videophone is on sale in select Japanese department stores. The house-sitting robot can detect break-ins with its infrared sensors and then call the owners cell phone and stream video to the tiny screen. At US$2600 each the Roborior is not cheap. For those that require something a little more substantial, Tmsuk, the manufacturer of Roborior, has produced a four legged version called Banryu. This one is the size of a large dog and sells for around US$18,000. It’s not supposed to shed hair or sleep on the furniture which could make it quite popular — via Slashdot
iiNet has revealed that it may expand its DSL network to at least 260 exchanges as part of a $34.5 million upgrade program next year. iiNet, Australia’s third largest internet provider, expects to have DSL equipment installed in 211 exchanges by January when it completes the third stage of its roll-out. The internet provider’s managing director Michael Malone said iiNet was planning a fourth stage which would involve a further 50 to 100 exchanges.
PWNtcha is a package that breaks various on-line captcha algorithms. The site provides numerous examples of easy (Paypal, and an older version of Slashdot make the list) and hard Captcha. It also links various sources explaining why Captcha is a bad idea
The Ministry of Reshelving is a collaborative political prank / game in which participants move copies of books, such as George Orwell’s 1984, to non-fiction sections, such as US History or True Crime — via BoingBoing
Last year, the US Air Force dropped US$25k on a Teleportation Physics Study to examine whether it might be possible to beam people and objects from one place to another. The report [pdf] was written by Eric W Davis who holds a PhD in astrophysics. Not mentioned in the article is that Davis apparently has also been affiliated with the National Institute for Discovery Science, a private research organisation that studies aerial phenomena, animal mutilations, and other related anomalous phenomena
— via BoingBoing
The tibetan sky burial involves the body being fed to vultures. Once the spirit leaves the body there is no longer any need for the body. The body (wrapped in white cloth) is placed on a platform of stones (in a fenced off area designated as a burial site). It is then unwrapped and sliced up with huge cleavers by a butcher (the Tomden), to expose flesh and bone. The butchers are often monks who specialise in the task of butchery. The butchers work methodically and professionally. Vultures are attracted by juniper smoke and the exposed flesh and begin to eat the body. The Tomden then returns to the body cutting off arms and legs and feeding it to the vultures.
The Tomden may work with other Tomden and throw pieces of flesh to the vultures. He also smashes and pulverises bones (with rock or sledgehammer), including the skull, feeding the brain (after it has been mixed with flour) and marrow to the crows and other birds, until nothing is left. The Tomden may also create skull bowls or thigh bone trumpets from the remains.
Eventually, nothing is left of the body. This act of giving one’s body is the last generous act of the deceased to living beings — via Paul Mellen
Xtreme Alternative Defense Systems claims it has developed a nonlethal weapon that shoots lightning bolts; Lightning guns, heat rays, weapons that can make you hear the voice of God. This is what happens when the war on terror meets the entrepreneurial spirit
Mark Forman, a podcaster, is reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom on his podcast with regular, chapter-by-chapter readings, mixed in with music — via boingboing
Australias pay more for their home telephone services than anywhere else in the developed world, apart from Hungary. The Paris-based OECD estimates that a typical set of home telephone services, including calls to mobiles and international numbers, costs the equivalent of $975 a year in Australia. That is 50% more than is paid in Britain and 25% higher than the OECD average
iiNet today started offering its long-awaited Voice over Internet Protocol service to the public, billing it as a free second phone line
An old polymer may be the spaceship material of the future [podcast]. Polyethylene is in household garbage bags, and it is also an effective solar radiation shield. Polyethylene is used in the sleeping quarters on current orbiting space vehicles, but now NASA has developed a way to toughen the polymer into a product they call RXF1 which is even stronger and lighter than aluminum
. Radiation in space is currently a major obstacle to manned missions outside of the Earth’s magnetic field, so better radiation shielding is essential to planned manned missions to Mars and beyond
Scientists in the United States seem to have discovered a gene which controls aging. By stimulating this gene, which when malfunctioning causes premature aging, researchers have managed to prolong the average life span of lab mice from 2 to 3 years. Because a very similar gene is present in humans it is quite possible it will do the same thing for people But there may be downsides with Klotho. The long-lived mice in the new experiments tend to be less fertile. And the gene may also predispose people to diabetes. The trick for researchers will be to find ways of getting the life-enhancing results of Klotho while avoiding the drawbacks
The DVD of Sin City came without any director’s commentary, so the Spoilers, a podcast of podcasters, made their own and released it as an MP3 intended to be played simultaneous with the movie. You could even load it onto an MP3 player and wear noise-cancelling headphones to the cinema and get their commentary instead of the film’s audio — via boingboing
Owner Mike Taitt lost sight of Archie at Inverurie Station near Aberdeen in eastern Scotland and was hoping someone would spot the dog’s tag and return the much-loved mutt. He is a very intelligent dog,
Mr Taitt said. When he could not find me, he simply took the right train home. He’s been on that train before. I am convinced he knew it was the right one. But who knows?
Closed-circuit television footage shows the dog waiting for his master at the station before watching the Aberdeen to Inverness train pull in. Unable to find his owner, the black labrador decided to avoid a long walk home by nipping aboard the 20:38
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