Iraq’s interim government ordered Qatar-based Al Jazeera satellite television network to close its Baghdad office for one month Saturday, a move criticised as unjustifiable by the channel. Iraqi police officers arrived in the early evening at the Baghdad office to implement the closure decision. The station’s lawyers said police officers did not carry an order from a court as the country’s law requires in such a case
There’re so many Prozac-takers in the UK that urine-borne traces of unmetabolised antidepressent have contaminated the drinking-water supply. The exact amount of Prozac in the nation’s drinking water is not known — via Rogue Sun
A major upgrade for Microsoft Internet Explorer may be imminent. Apparently in response to the recent mass migration away from MSIE, top Microsoft developers have been soliciting for improvements in the old browser at a weblog and at Channel 9. InternetNews.com speculates that improvements could possibly include support for tabbed browsing, better security, more PNG and CSS compliance, and RSS integration — which Firefox and Opera Mail already support
A German court ruled excessive use of meta-keywords in HTML unlawful. Meta-tag keywords may still be used if they are in strong relation to the page. The decision does not address more popular search engine spamming methods of today — as meta-keywords are ignored by Google, they are rarely used as core strategy for Search Engine Optimisation
airpwn is a utility demoed at Defcon 12. It replaces every image loaded by a user of a WiFi network with a choice the infamous, mentally scarifying goatse
or equally scary tubgirl
— via boingboing
The International Electrotechnical Commission has formed a working group to draw up standards that will ensure compatibility between micro fuel-cells. Toshiba is among several that are developing such devices as alternative power sources for handheld electronic devices. Development of a standard could mean the micro fuel cell could be launched in music players, digital cameras, and other devices as early as next year
Telstra is eyeing its 33,000 public payphones for new wireless base stations as part of a plan to create a national high-speed wireless data network
Hungry summer picnickers will soon be able to tuck into their sandwiches, sausages and pork pies without having to take the clingfilm off first.
Scientists have developed a wrapping that not only keeps food fresh but can also be safely eaten.
The film, which contains natural preservatives, can be fortified with vitamins and minerals. Used in liquid form, it can also be sprayed on fresh foods such as fruit to keep them fresher.
The Phone Safe is a work-through phone-sheath that you wear on your forearm. Worn with a jacket, it can also act as a concealment device — via boingboing
In response to a 24 year old prize challenge from the , a number of engineering students at the University of British Columbia have designed a human powered helicopter. The prize requirements are three minutes flight at three metres, with only human power, and the team, led by UBC’s Mike Georgallis, plans a test flight next Tuesday. Unfortunately, before the rotors were able to produce enough buoyant force they hit each other and the attempt failed
The FBI have questioned Benjamin Vanderford, a San Francisco computer expert, who duped international media into believing Islamist kidnappers had executed an American hostage in Iraq, by staging his own mock beheading on the Internet. The video showed a hand with a large knife apparently slicing the neck of a limp body. But the blood was dye, the setting was a friend’s garage, the Koran reading was a tape and the knife was held by a friend. Mutilated bodies and sound effects were edited in from photos on web sites and the video was purposefully blurred to make it seem even more amateur, Mr Vanderford said. A major motivation for his action, an unrepentant Mr Vanderford told Reuters, was to see how the world media would react and to see if they would be fooled — via Rogue Sun
The legendary island nation Atlantis, the existence of which has sparked debate for thousands of years, was actually Ireland, according to a new theory by Swedish geographer Ulf Erlingsson
Yes, hear Simon, Theodore and Alvin at their true speed, sounding respectively like an accountant, a hot-dog vendor, and a lunatic. Put it on repeat and you’ll drift gradually into madness — it’s like an acid flashback to foetal languor, the surreal sounds that filtered through the uterine wall.
Don’t blame me if you need to poke your eardrums out with sharpened sticks after listening to it — via said the gramophone
He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named has been named. Ralph Fiennes, who played memorable evil guys in Red Dragon
and Schindler’s List
, has signed on to portray the wicked warlock Voldemort in the next Harry Potter
movie
MySQL has created a version of its popular open-source database software for Linux on IBM’s Power processors
Sony have announced that the PlayStation 3 will use Blu-Ray technology, a next-generation optical disc format which can hold 25GB on a single layer and 50GB on the dual-layer discs
, as many people have been speculating. What Sony hasn’t said for sure is whether the PS3 will be backwards compatible with DVD movies and PS2 games
British citizens who want a new passport are told to look straight at the camera and keep their mouths shut
The BBC’s Dr Who revival has been saved: the Beeb has reached an agreement with the estate of Terry Nation, the creator of the Daleks, who will be making an appearance in the new Who episodes after all — via BoingBoing
321 Studios, the maker of software that enabled users to copy DVDs and computer games, folded Tuesday under the mounting weight of lawsuits by deep-pocketed movie studios and video game producers
A Mowgli-like wild boy who appears to have been raised by a dog since he was three months old has been discovered living in a remote part of Siberia seven years after he was abandoned by his parents
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