The US military is funding development of an energy-pulse weapon, designed to deliver a jolt of excruciating pain from up to 2 kilometres away. Intended for use against rioters, it is meant to leave victims physically unharmed. The device fires a laser pulse that generates a burst of expanding plasma when it hits something solid, like a person, producing pain and temporary paralysis. Right now, researchers are attempting to optimise pulse parameters to evoke peak nociceptor activation
or, to put it in plain English, cause the maximum pain possible. The potential for abuse of such a device have not gone unremarked
Falling under the category of things I deperately want, this voodoo knife rack, which depicts a human form pierced by your knife collection in many strategic locations, is one of the best kitchen things I’ve seen for quite some time.
Unlike the shiny, red KitchenAid mixmasters that I want but will never use, I can never be without too many knives — via boingboing
As someone who loathed the campiness of Moore’s Bond and prefers a darker character, I was amused by Warren Ellis’ take on Bond. Now if only someone with a backbone will take him on and I can have the Bond I’ve always wanted.
I’ve read most of the Ian Fleming novels, seen most of the films once they’ve come to TV. I’m not a fanatic by any means. But James Bond exerts a terrible fascination nonetheless. I even did an interview piece on how I’d write Bond for a Texan newspaper a couple of years ago. So did Bruce Sterling, who offered a disturbing opinion about Bond as a shaven-headed Ibiza DJ. You’re going to hell for that one, Bruce, and you will discover that Satan is English.
The books are notably less spectacular and far more low-key than the films. Dr No was a crazed guano millionaire and had no nuclear missiles, spaceship-eaters or any of the good stuff we associate with Bond Villains. Tiger Tanaka’s great test of Bond was making him compose a naff haiku. It’s often quite bland stuff, great long travelogues and pages describing banquets and furniture. In the guts of it, though, is Bond as a scarred man with clear psychological damage, often on the edge of being removed from service by M on mental health grounds. It’s made stridently obvious that being on the 00 detail of the Secret Service is a job that fucks you up.
Bond is not a superman. He prevails because he is quite simply nastier and more determined to wreak utter bloody havoc than the next guy. In some ways — and I don’t think Fleming was unaware of this — he is what Allen Ginsberg called
bleak male energy, causing and taking immense damage in single-minded pursuit of what he wants. At the conclusion of You Only Live Twice, the front end of his personality essentially rubbed out by torture, drugs, multiple trauma and a sequence of horrible mental hammerblows, there is an almost disturbing glimpse of an amnesiac Bond as gentle, open, devoted, and almost sweet. And his lover dreads the day that he recovers.He is England’s blunt instrument of international assault — the spiteful, vicious bastard of a faded empire that still wants the world to do as it’s bloody well told.
Most importantly; he beats people up and makes stuff explode.
If legend is to be believed, the future of the British monarchy lies in the hands of a sharp-shooting warder at the Tower of London. For the six ravens who roam one of Britain’s landmark fortresses are under threat from up to 200 crows who have invaded their royal domain, spreading disease and stealing food. So every Sunday at dawn, before the daily tourist invasion begins, Yeoman Warder Derrick Coyle roams The Tower with his .22 air rifle to cull the crows. For the beefeater, it is a weighty responsibility securing a haven for the ravens. Legend has it that if the ravens leave, The Tower of London will fall and so will the monarchy
A pair of New York inventors believe they can thwart music pirates by secretly burying an anti-piracy warning in a track, which is disinterred if the copyright has been abused. Let’s see how long that lasts before it’s thwarted
Around 200 Victorian households are acting as the guinea pigs for Telstra’s broadband-based home voice over IP service, which is due to be commercially available by mid-year
A 44-year-old Anchorage man had his penis surgically reattached after it was cut off by an angry girlfriend and flushed down a toilet
Seems that the Aryan Brotherhood has taken up making meth labs for themselves across Texas, apparently many of which are in Dallas. The cops have been busting up the skinhead kitchens pretty regularly, so the AB has apparently gone all cop-killer fatwa on the Texas PD. Trouble is, they’re morons. Why? Because they take the time to steal different cars every other day… And then park them in the same motel space every time. Yeah. They check into the same motel, even if one of their own got busted the night before — via Warren Ellis
Efforts to stamp out online piracy could give Hollywood a veto over new technology and stifle innovation, peer-to-peer software companies and their supporters told the US Supreme Court. Copyright holders have long sought to quash innovations from the printing press to the videocassette recorder to the CD burner that they have found threatening
Kevin Kelly has posted a detailed explanation of the process by which you can get your self-published DVD, CD or book listed on Amazon.
1 Get an ISBN (for a book), or a UPC (for a CD or DVD). For one book it costs $125, for one CD, $55, for one DVD, $89
2 Get a barcode based on the ISBN or UPC. Costs $10, or may be included in UPC
3 Sign up with Amazon, $30 per year
4 Duplicate your stuff; include the barcode on the outside
5 Ship two copies to Amazon
6 Send cover scan
7 Track sales
8 Register it (optional)
Canadian publishers, including self-publishers, can get ISBNs for free by going to the Library and Archives Canada. Australian publishers can get a one off ISBN for AU$33 plus registration from the ISBN Agency, blocks of ISBNs are cheaper and barcodes are AU$38 each — via boingboing
William Poole, a George Rogers Clark High School junior, was arrested Tuesday for making terrorist threats. The terrorist threats
turned out to be a short story he wrote for English class about a high school overrun by zombies. Unfortunately for Poole, the local plods are so thick they can’t tell the difference between fact and fiction and the kid is still locked up — via Ben Templesmith
People who rely on older versions of Quicken to download their financial data from banks and brokerages must upgrade to Quicken 2005 or lose this time-saving feature. In letters and e-mail messages sent to its customers in late January, Intuit said it was ending online services and tech support for Quicken 2001 and 2002 as of 19 April, effectively crippling the program
Telstra has begun upgrading its ADSL equipment to deliver internet services at speeds up to 16 times faster than are currently available. And, in an attempt to kill off competition from wireless ISPs, Telstra have switched on blanket WiFi coverage across the Sydney and Melbourne CBDs
An Iranian weblogger has been jailed for 14 years on charges of spying and aiding foreign counter-revolutionaries. Arash Sigarchi, who also edits a newspaper in northern Iran, was arrested last month after using his blog to criticise the arrest of other online journalists — via Politechbot
For US$39 a month, you can receive bizarre environmental disaster stuffed animals; bunnies with three ears, animals wrapped inside other animals, furry things that talk, packed in leaves or string or paper or whatever’s on Morbid Tendencies’ living room floor — via boingboing
Something dreadful in the mail each month to brighten your life. I encourage you to have them delivered to your office
The Holy Grail of researchers in the field of solar photovoltaic electricity is to generate it at a lower cost than that of grid electricity. The goal now seems to be within reach. A Palo Alto start-up, named Nanosolar claims that it has developed a commercial scale technology that can deliver solar electricity at 5 cents per kilowatt-hour. Ussume this is marketing hype until proven otherwise
Tony Tang and Eric Pattison from the University of Calgary introduce a new method of transferring files and possibly shooting your eye out. Using RFID and a toy dart gun — DartMail lets people physically shoot electronic information at others
John Gilmore, the millionare who cofounded the EFF, has been prohibited from travelling because he refused to show an ID while boarding an airplane. He’s been under this self-imposed ban since 2002. When a gate agent asked for his ID. Gilmore asked her why. It is the law, she said. Gilmore asked to see the law. Nobody could produce a copy. To date, nobody has. The regulation that mandates ID at airports is Sensitive Security Information
. The law, as it turns out, is unavailable for inspection. What started out as a weekend trip to Washington became a crawl through the courts in search of an answer to Gilmore’s question: Why?
The retarded monkey boy won the Razzie
worst actor of the year award on Saturday for his performance as president in Fahrenheit 9/11
but his moment in Hollywood’s dubious spotlight was eclipsed by Halle Berry, who actually turned up to receive her embarrassing accolade. Berry was named worst actress of 2004 by the Golden Raspberry Award Foundation for her performance in Catwoman
and she showed up to accept her Razzie
carrying the Oscar she won in 2002 for Monster’s Ball
. She thanked everyone involved in Catwoman
, a film she said took her from the top of her profession to the bottom. I want to thank Warner Brothers for casting me in this piece of shit,
she said as she dragged her agent on stage and warned him next time read the script first
— via Warren Ellis
Two British students, Richard Smith and Luke Bateman, have researched America’s stupidest laws and are spending this summer travelling from state to state, violating them — via boingboing
Starting in the liberal state of California, they hope to evade the attention of local police officers when they ride a bike in a swimming pool and curse on a crazy-golf course.
In the far more conservative — and landlocked — state of Utah, they will risk the penitentiary when they hire a boat and attempt to go whale-hunting.
If they manage to outwit state troopers in Utah, and perhaps federal agents on their trail, they will be able to take a deserved, but nevertheless illegal, rest when they have a nap in a cheese factory in South Dakota
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