Scientists are trying to use nanotechnology to cure diseases, ameliorate the energy crisis and reduce golf scores. Buffalo, New York-based NanoDynamics has come up with a golf ball that can correct its own flight path so it flies straighter than conventional balls. The ball won’t shift 45° in midair, but the design of the ball — and the materials it’s made of — serve to better channel the energy received from the club head and thus correct a wobble or slight drift
A security expert who audited the Japanese National ID Card system and found it to be terribly designed and implemented was prevented from presenting his findings at a technology conference after the Japanese government intervened and threatened the conference organisers — via boingboing
Instead of screaming Jump
, David Lee Roth will be yelling clear!
The former Van Halen frontman is taking up a new trade — paramedic [BugMeNot]. Roth, 50, has been riding for several weeks with a New York ambulance crew in training to become a paramedic. I have been on over 200 individual rides now,
said Roth. “Not once has anyone recognised me, which is perfect for me
There’s a chainsaw-shaped controller for the Nintendo GameCube, intended for use with the new Resident Evil game. It’s spattered with fake blood and emits chainsaw noises, but it also has all the buttons it needs to sub in for your regular GameCube controller — via boingboing
Proving yet again that little Johnny Coward‘s cult of loony fundies are firmly pushing the agenda, the Government has quietly backed a conservative push inside the UN to adopt a treaty banning all human cloning, including the replication of embryos for research into cures for Alzheimer’s and spinal cord damage. The global ban was proposed by Costa Rica and, aside from Australia, has been supported by the US and 59 predominantly Catholic and developing countries
Nineteen countries, including Australia, have agreed to cancel 80% of the debt Iraq owes them. The deal secured for the Paris Club of creditor nations ends a trans-Atlantic dispute and probably sets the framework for debt pardons from other creditors
The parliamentary motion to impeach Tony Blair for gross misconduct
over the war against Iraq will be published next Wednesday, the day after the Queen’s speech. It will be the first to be tabled in 198 years, since Lord Melville, a close friend of the then prime minister, William Pitt the younger, faced impeachment for misusing public money in running the Admiralty. Senior parliamentary officials, including legal advisers to the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin, on Wednesday night approved the wording of the text as meeting parliamentary rules, allowing the motion to be tabled on the first day of the new session
Where there’s muck, there’s gas. Scientists have created genetically modified yeasts and fungi that can turn agricultural waste into fuel for cars and trucks. In future we may take to the roads in vehicles powered by left over plant remains. The technology — created with European Union money — uses corn stubble and other farm waste as basic ingredients for making ethanol. This can then be used as a substitute for petrol
Electron Luv is the culmination of years of dreaming and listening.
The heart and soul behind Electron Luv is Josh Stippich, who brings his unique vision to audio. They’re shiny, they’re chromey, they’re lovingly hand-built creations. Prepare to drool.
A Brazilian woman who suffered a brain haemorrhage that left her paralysed on one side has regained her ability to walk and talk after undergoing a stem cell transplant. Doctors injected the stem cells into the brain of Maria da Graca Pomeceno, 54, five days after a brain haemorrhage left her a hemiplegic. The cells had been extracted from bone marrow in her pelvis. The new therapy is being tested for the first time in Brazil
A low-cost antibiotic which has performed well in tests should be given to all HIV children in developing countries to prevent infections such as pneumonia and reduce deaths. Dr Diana Gibb of Britain’s Medical Research Council said a trial involving HIV-infected children in Zambia was stopped early because it was so successful
Fuji, a 34-year-old mother dolphin that lost 75% of her tail due to a necrotic disease, is jumping once again with the help of what is believed to be the world’s first artificial fin
Hidden Doors manufactures and installs custom secret doors disguised as swinging and revolving bookcases.
I know what I want for Xmas. One for every door. Satisfying my love for secret doors and eternal lack of bookselves in one fell swoop.
That is called ‘sensitive security information’. She’s not allowed to see it, nor is anyone else,
he said. Thus, in a qualitatively new development in US governance, Americans can now be obligated to comply with legally-binding regulations that are unknown to them, and that indeed they are forbidden to know. This is not some dismal Eastern European allegory — via meta-roj blog
Microsoft has been accused of developing policies stressing the systematic destruction of internal e-mail and other documents crucial to lawsuits it has faced in recent years
Starbucks will begin using paper coffee cups made partially from recycled material by the end of 2005. The move comes as the Seattle-based company is in the midst of an aggressive plan to ensure coffee sold in its stores comes from environmentally friendly farms that pay workers a fair wage
The UK’s Office of Communications is publicly toying with the idea of funding a public service publisher (PSP) to complement the BBC’s role as a public service broadcaster. The idea of a PSP is to publicly fund an entity that publishes books, games, interactive material and other published
items that are commissioned from British creators and that reflect and deliver British values. It’s a brilliant idea, and one that’s ripe for Creative Commons licences — the specs say that Content distributed by the PSP must be widely available throughout the UK, with at least near-universal availability
Despite media reports and industry pundits over the years relegating Netscape to Internet history books, AOL has restarted the browser’s development. The company plans to bring back a refreshed Netscape browser based on Firefox
California’s budget problem has led the state to consider desperate measures: taxing you based on how much you drive. The only problem is the way they propose to do it. California is now proposing to put GPS devices on all new cars to track how far people drive and tax them accordingly
Not content with simply outsourcing their call centre, Optus plans to offshore it to India, claiming the move will supplement
its domestic call centre operations. Considering how poor Optus customer service is at the moment, I doubt this move could make it any worse, but it’s still a bad PR exercise from Optus
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