How pro-WikiLeaks hackers wage cyberwar without hijacking your computer

Botnets, networks of thousands of computers working in tandem, have become one of the most pervasive threats on the Internet – a tool used by criminals for extortion, spamming and identity theft – but also by hacktivist groups that want attention.

Anonymous has taken a different approach with Operation Payback, the name it has given its bid to avenge efforts to shut down WikiLeaks. It is building its own home-grown voluntary botnet, attracting people to put the botnet software on their own computers. About 2,200 or more people have done so by one count — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Frogs pee out foreign objects stuck in their skin

Imagine some buckshot from a shotgun got stuck in your chest or you had a radio transmitter stuck in your side. If you were a frog, your body might be pristine a few weeks afterward — they apparently have the remarkable ability to pee out foreign objects, with their bladders engulfing the intrusions to help get rid of such junk, scientists now find — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Fresh Cement: New Concrete Links Old Stone Barn & Home

Fresh Cement: New Concrete Links Old Stone Barn & Home

What better way to showcase the beauty of natural stone and traditional masonry than to offset it with something strikingly linear and boldly modern? This run-down farmhouse and barn combination and their fresh concrete additions might look too rustic on the one hand or contemporary on the other, but together they pack a powerful visual punch — via Dornob

Prosthetic Tentacle

Prosthetic Tentacle

Kaylene Kau‘s prosthetic arm isn’t your typical robot-arm. It doesn’t even have fingers — it’s flexible tentacle design would make for an excellent replacement hand for wielding a lightsabre.

As a part of a student project, Kau was asked to push the boundaries of current upper-limb prosthetic design. Powered by a small motor and a set of cables, the tentacle shaped prosthetic arm curls its claw to grip objects — via DVICE

Smooth Building / Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

Smooth Building / Jorge Hernandez de la Garza

The Smooth Building is located in a residential area called San Pedro Garza Garcia in Nuevo Leon, Mexico, a place of beauty with an excellent location that gives a gorgeous sight of the Sierra Madre Oriental at its South facade. The challenge of this project was to design an office and a house in the same lot taking advantage of the maximum space of every single area. For this reason it was necessary to mix the uses of house and office between the four levels, obtaining the best location for each space inside of the building — via ArchDaily

DeWitt Twenty-8-Eight Regulator ASW Limited Edition

DeWitt Twenty-8-Eight Regulator A.S.W. Limited Edition | World Watch Review

Like the face of the watch (will come to it in no time,) the DW 8014 movement features beautiful art-deco-style decoration with Cotes de Geneve motif. Its surfaces are satin-brushed, circular grained, polished and beveled.

The caliber, the first in the brand’s history, which is made solely in-house, is protected by a majestic rose gold case that sports DeWitt’s signature imperial columns pattern on the flanks and an oversized rose gold crown at 3 o’clock, which is adorned with a ring made in blackened titanium featuring the “W” monogram — via World Watch Review

1928 Moto Guzzi Corsa 2V

Vintage Moto Guzzi

Exclusive barn finds don’t get much rarer or more exciting than this: here’s a privateer racing motorcycle built to order in 1928 by Moto Guzzi, just seven years after the company began manufacturing. The story comes from Adam Bolton of Italian Motor Magazine, and you just couldn’t make it up — via Bike EXIF

In faith healing trial, Philadelphia father said devil killed son

The autopsy said 2-year-old Kent Schaible died after a two-week battle with bacterial pneumonia.

But to his parents, the cause of the boy’s fatal illness transcended any microbe.

We tried to fight the devil, but in the end the devil won, Herbert Schaible, 42, told a city social worker just days after his son’s death on 24 January 2009 — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Concord C1 Big Date Radar

Concord C1 Big Date Radar

Concord says the new C1 Big Date Radar is endowed with a rugged look, a strong character and a distinctive personality. They have a point. The dial presents an array of levels and textures with hour markers that float above the fray. The 3.3 mm-thick sapphire crystal is secured by a bezel that is is straddled by eight black rubber-clad protective tabs, anchored by side screws — via WatchTime

Great Barrier Island Eco Architectural Gem

Great Barrier Island Eco Architectural Gem

Off the coast of New Zealand, there are several very isolated islands that have no mains electricity. The very few residents eking out a living from farming or tourism here on the Great Barrier Island, live in the same way that people did decades ago – they have long collected rainwater, for example – but now they also use solar to power their simple houses — via Home Design Find

The Tumblr Backup app is ready for beta testing!

Unlike other publishing sites’ approach to backups, our goal was to create a useful copy of your blog’s content that can be viewed on any computer, burned to a CD, or hosted as an archive of static HTML files.

Wherever possible, we use simple file formats. Our backup structure is optimized for Mac OS X’s Spotlight for searching and Quick Look for browsing, and we’ll try to use the same structure and achieve the same benefits on other platforms — via tumblr staff blog