Brazilian Breast Implant Heist

Armed bandits in Brazil robbed a postal service van carrying more than 400 breast implants. Margaret Figueiredo, director of silicone implant manufacturer Silimed, explained demand is the highest in July, during the southern hemisphere winter, as women schedule surgery during the winter school holidays, which precede the beach season. Figueiredo said the implants, each bearing an individual number, could now only be sold for clandestine surgeries. Horrific stories abound in Brazil about the illegal operations, which can cause gangrene and death — via BoingBoing

US Troops Banned from London

Thousands of United States military personnel based in Britain have been banned from visiting London until further notice after last week’s bombings. A US Air Force spokeswoman says military members are forbidden from going inside the M25 ring road around London. Thanks to some serious criticism from police, politicians and tourism officials the ban has been lifted — via Paul Mellen

Build Your Own Solar Powered Hotspot

Popular Science has a how-to article up on turning a backpack into a portable, solar-powered Wi-Fi hotspot. Its secret ingredient: the Junxion Box. Plug a cellular-network card into the book-size open-source-based device and you have an instant Wi-Fi hotspot, with speeds averaging around 700 kilobits per second. Just the thing for sharing bandwidth with your mates on a roadtrip

London Blasts

Brian Paddick from the London Metropolitan Police says three bombs exploded in the Underground system and one on the bus in Tavistock Square. In one of the attacks a bomb destroyed a wall between two Underground tunnels and three trains were affected. Mobile and fixed-line telephone networks were severely congested as panicked Londoners called relatives in the city, but there were no initial reports of more widespread communications damage

Sleepwalking Teen Rescued from Crane

A teenage sleepwalker was rescued after being found fast asleep 40 metres up on the arm of a crane in London. Emergency services were called to a building site in London after a passer-by spotted the 15-year-old girl curled up on top of a concrete counterweight high above the ground. The teenager, who has not been named, had climbed up the crane and walked across a narrow metal beam while fast asleep

Henry’s Music Released Online

Henry Warwick has been actively involved with the creation and performance of electronic music since the mid 1970s, when he first delved into musique concrète techniques in high school. Always experimenting with new ideas, sounds, and techniques, he works with a variety of materials ranging from the completely digital realm of computer music in Max/MSP to much more organic and acoustic practices, such as the Armenian duduk.

He has decided to release the bulk of his music to the public for free download.

Go. Listen. Enjoy — via S P A R K !

Secure Data Storage… On Your Fingernails

Secure optical data storage could soon literally be at your fingertips thanks to work being carried out in Japan. Yoshio Hayasaki and his colleagues have discovered that data can be written into a human fingernail by irradiating it with femtosecond laser pulses. Capacities are said to be up to 5 mega bits and the stored data lasts for 6 months — the length of time it takes a fingernail to be completely replaced