The third volume of Invader Zim, Horrible Holiday Cheer, is slated for a Christmas release
A Japanese teenager was forced by his teacher to write an apology in blood after dozing in the classroom. The 40-year-old male teacher handed the boy a box-cutter and paper and told him to write an apology in blood. The teacher left the student, who then cut his finger and began to write an apology using his own blood
68-year-old grandmother, Louise Jones, pulled up to her house and saw a police car. She honked, and an officer got out of the vehicle. Jones said the officer went to a call at another home, then returned to her house to give her a ticket for honking. Police said Jones wouldn’t cooperate and hit the officer. That’s when the officer pulled his Taser gun and shocked her — via Die Puny Humans
There’s a new application for RF-absorbing materials: wallpaper that blocks Wi-Fi. BAE, the British defence contractor, has announced that the same material used to foil radar by stealth bombers can be used to selectively block certain frequencies and prevent wireless networking signals from entering or exiting a building. Pass me my tin foil beanie
Nokia has funded a mobile phone browser project at the Mozilla Foundation, breathing new life into the open-source effort once written off as Microsoft roadkill. The resulting project, called Minimo, has produced a workable prototype, or pre-alpha milestone
German police are hunting three bandits who held up a self-service strawberry farm with a pistol and a knife — for a five-pound basket of strawberries
Amnesty International charges of Iraqi prisoners being subject to cruel and inhumane treatment were notified to the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet in June and July of 2003, Australian Defence Forces chief General Cosgrove told a Senate estimates committee
The development of a new breed of electric stun gun that can incapacitate whole crowds of people at a stroke has appalled human rights groups. Today, the commercial stun guns used by the police or the military can target only one person at a time and work only at very close quarters. But the new weapons are being designed to sweep a lightning-like beam of electricity across a swathe of people from distances of 100 metres or more. Amnesty International is calling for exhaustive safety tests of all electroshock weapons
Ever wondered where on earth late-night radio jocks like Stan Zemanek, below, find their motley crew of eccentric, opinionated callers? Some are created by insomnia and too much alcohol, no doubt, but on Zemanek’s show several characters are the creation of the voiceover specialist Bryan Wiseman
A blind man drove a golf cart for two miles through the winding streets of Peachtree City, accompanied by his guide dog — and an inebriated friend giving instructions — before running into a parked car
G-Gnome has finished his amazing Orac case mod, which looks absolutely stunning. For those that don’t know, Blakes 7 was a late 70s/early 80s British science fiction series and Orac was this intellectually snobbish, difficult and incredibly brilliant computer, hand built by an eccentric scientist
Mozilla Firefox 0.9 and Mozilla Thunderbird 0.7 have been officially released
The University of Tokyo has developed the illusion of invisibility, under the name of Optical Camouflage. The system is remarkably simple — you have a mix of light-sensitive and light-emitting devices attached to an adapted reflective surface. The devices are hooked to a computer, which simply projects on each side whatever is on the opposite side. The result is more of a translucent look, than real invisibility, but the potential is there. The inventor’s next objective is to make walls that are invisible, using the same technology. Project a real outside image onto an interior wall without windows. This almost sounds more frightening than the cloak, since there’s no reason why the sensors would have to be placed outside. Imagine a world where PHBs can turn their office wall into a window onto any cube. Zero privacy. The technology is great, but the potential for abuse is definitely there
Music business analyst Phil Tripp is pushing for a change to the Copyright Act that would give consumers the legal chance to copy music for their personal use
ISP iiNet has announced plans to roll out its own DSL broadband infrastructure covering approximately 11,000 ports across Australia. After a three month customer pilot and feasibility study, 32 exchanges will be covered for the initial rollout around the country, replacing part of the capacity currently acquired from iiNet’s wholesale provider
Yahoo began offering 100MB of storage to people who use its free e-mail service. As part of an overall redesign of its mail service, Yahoo also upgraded Mail Plus paid users to 2GB of storage and lowered its subscription rate from $29.99 a year to $19.99. Other a la carte services, such as POP e-mail forwarding, are consolidated under this plan and will no longer be sold on a standalone basis
Makers of the revived Zeppelin airship delivered their first helium-filled craft to a commercial user Saturday, a Japanese company that plans to use the 12-seat craft for sightseeing trips and advertising. The granddaughter of the original airship’s inventor, Count Ferdinand von Zeppelin, was on hand as Japan’s Nippon Airship Corporation took delivery of the 247-foot ship, destined for sightseeing and advertising flights in Japan and a starring role at the 2005 world’s fair in the city of Aichi
A grapefruit-sized meteorite smashed through the roof of a New Zealand house, hitting a couch and bouncing off the ceiling before coming to rest under a computer. The 1.3kg chunk of space debris dropped out of the sky and plummeted through the tiled roof of the Auckland home on Saturday
Muggers in South Africa handed back an Alcatel mobile phone while robbing two terrified women — because they refused to thieve cheap stuff
The best way to get a great deal with Microsoft may be to say you’re seriously considering Linux — which is why Microsoft spent Thursday dispelling the myth
of open source. More companies are using the threat of Linux when negotiating deals with Microsoft. While Microsoft is adamant that open-source software isn’t a serious competitor on the desktop today, it may well be forcing Microsoft’s prices down
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