Animals enjoy a good laugh, too.

"A 'bionic eye' may one day help blind people see again, according to US researchers who have successfully tested the system in rats."

"Meet Harriet Klausner, Amazon.com's most prolific reviewer... The only days she doesn't read four books are the days she reads five." (Via Tom McMahon.)

ID theft is inescapable.

"World's most sensitive scales weigh a zeptogram: The world's most sensitive scales can now detect a cluster of xenon atoms a billion, trillion times lighter than a gram. A zeptogram (10 exp-21 g) is roughly the mass of a single protein molecule and its detection has set a new record."

The California Court of Appeal has ruled that calling someone a "Dumb Ass" on the internet does not constitute defamation.

Invention of the day: The SleepTracker wristwatch, which "monitors your sleep and wakes you at the moment that your body would best adjust from moving from a sleeping state to being awake." (Via BBspot.)

Classics of graphics: Napoleon's March of 1812. Here's another version. Posters (in English or French) available here.

"Employers Relying On Personality Tests To Screen Applicants". Personally, I think the Google Labs Aptitude Test would be more applicable for tech jobs.

Cool Penny Sculptures. "All stacks of pennies were done without any glue. Only the weight of the pennies provides the support." (Via Boing Boing.)

Why rats can't vomit. (Via Linkfilter.)

The MS Word grammar checker is pretty unreliable. In fact, it's very unreliable. Hence, something like this goes through just fine:

Know sweat. I can due tomorrow, but I knead to leaf by 1pm. Due you want to due that? If sew, I'll just be hear and we can do it on the fly. Don't make eh special trip though - :)

"The robot doctor will suture you up now..."

Laptop reviews from the "future". (Via Techdirt.)

"Snake-like robot conquers obstacles". (Via Linkfilter.)

"The Lyrics to the Billy Joel Song We Didn't Start the Fire If They Were Written by a Muskrat Instead of by Billy Joel"

Lego sculpture of the day: "Han Solo in Carbonite". For more works by the same artist, click here. (Via Madville.)

"Why the U.S. Needs More Nuclear Power". (Via ALDaily.)

Collaborative filtering recommender algorithms - how do they work?

The Spinach-Powered House.

In honor of Easter Sunday, it's the complete script to Monty Python's Life of Brian. (Via Linkfilter.)

Redneck haiku. (Via Rand Simberg.)

Prankster smuggles art into 4 New York museums: According to this article,

Many a visitor to New York's Museum of Modern Art has probably thought, "I could do that."

A British graffiti artist who goes by the name "Banksy" went one step further, by smuggling in his own picture of a soup can and hanging it on a wall, where it stayed for more than three days earlier this month before anybody noticed.

The prank was part of a coordinated plan to infiltrate four of New York's top museums on a single day.

Speaking by telephone from an undisclosed location in Britain, Banksy said he conducted all four operations on March 13, helped by accomplices who filmed him and provided distractions where necessary.

"They staged a gay tiff (lovers' quarrel), shouting very loudly and obnoxiously," said the artist, declining to give his real name or any personal details beyond his occupation as a professional painter and decorator.

The article also links to photographs of Banksy "wearing an Inspector Clouseau-style overcoat, a hat and a fake beard and nose" hanging up his work at the four museums.

"Two tiny species of tropical octopus have demonstrated a remarkable disappearing trick. They adopt a two-armed 'walk' that frees up their remaining six limbs to camouflage them as they slink away from trouble." Here's a related story.

Self-assembling machines.

Confuse your party guests with this gravity-defying room. (Via Boing Boing.)

Fake transparent screensaver illusion: Here are some great examples. (Via Backwards City.)

"Top 11 Reasons a Messy Office is Better Than a Clean One"

"Bad e-mail habits sustains spam"

Elephants do impressions.

"Political bloggers would continue to be exempt from most campaign finance laws, according to highly anticipated rules that federal regulators released Wednesday..."

Top 100 City Skylines. (Via Metafilter.)

Portable computers have gone from 50 pounds to a few ounces in just 30 years. The article is worth checking out, even if you just want to look at the pictures. (Via Ars Technica.)

Does your workplace block access to certain websites? TheVirtualBrowser can help you get around the restriction. (Via Linkfilter.)

Bizarre online debate of the day: "How many 5 year-olds could you take on at once?"

"The motion sensor in the latest Mac portables is supposed to be used to minimize hard drive damage, but creative developers are tapping it for some cool effects."

Japanese Scientists will clone a mammoth before your very eyes. (Via SciTechDaily.)

The new Zoominfo website will let people find out an awful lot about about you. Try it here.

Partition problem solved.

Jimmy Wales has given yet another good interview about Wikipedia, this time for Nature.

"A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole"...

Going to Antarctica for a scientific mission? Here's everything you need to know (in either PDF format or HTML format), including:

"Are there ATM machines in Antarctica?"
"What and how much should I pack?"
"Is there e-mail and Internet access in Antarctica?"

I want to know who replenishes the ATM machine.

How to make a duct tape wallet. (Via Boing Boing.)

Nice overview of neuroeconomics -- namely the application of functional brain imaging to economic decision making. What's especially interesting is learning when people make decisions based on reason, and when they let their emotions take over. (Via Linkfilter.)

"How does a coin-op pool table know to return the cue ball when you scratch?"

Admin note: The Google search box at the top of the page that lets you perform site-specific searches within the GeekPress archive was giving bad results, but it's fixed now. Thanks for your patience.

"A self-replicating 3D printer that spawns new, improved versions of itself is in development..."

One step closer to plasmonic computer chips.

"Does Your Wi-Fi Hotspot Have an Evil Twin?"

"Why does moving your hands in front of the TV or radio antenna influence the reception?"

NASA is facing a critical shortage of fake moon dirt. (Via Obscure Store.)

How astronauts stay clean without taking a bath.

Google Sets.

Invention of the day: Clocky. "Clocky is a clock for people who have trouble getting out of bed. When the snooze bar is pressed, Clocky rolls off the table and finds a hiding spot, a new one every day." (Via Linkfilter.)

"Wedgie" has been added to Webster's Dictionary

"Creative Commons Is Rewriting Rules of Copyright"

Invention of the day: Emergency concrete shelters, aka "Building in a Bag" -- just add water and inflate.

Is string theory an intellectual dead end?

The Zero-Gravity Diet

"Could you jump off a bridge or a tall building and survive the fall?"

Admin note: Posting may be a bit lighter than usual for the next week.

Poetic justice story of the day: Overly aggressive attorney accidentally sues himself. (Via Fark.)

Talk to aliens on your cell phone. Only $3.99/minute. No guarantee that they'll answer back, however. Here's the corporate website.

"How tunes get stuck in your head."

Top 11 Geek Adages.

USB flash drive are everywhere. What's especially interesting is the trend where more people are keeping their personal documents and data on on their USB drive, then turning any other computer they use into a functional copy of their home machine.

The secrets of the Google cookies.

Now this is a shredder. The best were probably "boat" and "couch". "Computers", "mattresses", and "washing machine" were also impressive.

Top Corporate "Sucks" Websites.

SnailMail 2.0.

Update on the Stanford project to create a mouse with brain cells that are 100% human. (Via Linkfilter.)

"Why your iPod knows what you're playing"

How to track a PC anywhere on the internet. Here's the full paper (.pdf format).

Handy Latin phrases. (Via BBspot.)

"Peeking into Google."

"No give, no take": Given that we don't have a true market in organ transplants, this is probably the second best approach - namely the Dutch plan to give priority on organ transplant waiting lists to those people who have also signed organ donor cards (a system which economist Alex Tabarrok calls "no give, no take"). According to the article:

The Liberal VVD minister defended his proposal by pointing out that Muslims often refuse to donate organs based on religious beliefs. This is despite the fact they are willing to receive an organ if they are ill. "That creates a bad feeling," he said.

"If you say: 'I refuse to donate an organ because of my religion, but I don't want to receive one either', than I will respect it. But I won't respect a one-sided attitude of receiving and not giving. I find that problematic," Hoogervorst said.

(Via Marginal Revolution.)

How to use your Gmail account as a personal file server.

Video store "Who's On First"

"Is it impossible to open a refrigerator door from the inside?"

"Quantum Computers May Be Easier to Build Than Predicted..." (Via Linkfilter.)

Quiz of the day: The Commonly Confused Words Test.

Collapsing bubbles can reach temperatures as high as 20,000 degrees Kelvin or 35,000 degress Fahrenheit, i.e., 4 times hotter than the surface of the sun. Of course, this does not indicate that there's any merit behind so-called "table-top fusion", but hope springs eternal... Here's a related article.

Getting "slashdotted" just isn't what it used to be.

Real world fight club. (Via Fark.)

Stupid computer tricks. (Via BBspot.)

"A new study of climate in the Northern Hemisphere for the past 2000 years shows that natural climate change may be larger than generally thought." (Via David Jilk.)

Cool Dragon Optical Illusion. (Via Memepool.)

Physicists in Europe and the US have performed a novel version of the double-slit quantum-interference experiment with single electrons, except that the double slits are separated in time, not space. (Via Linkfilter.)

What do your science fiction tastes reveal about you?

Great profile of Jimmy (aka Jimbo) Wales, the founder of Wikipedia.

"Computer enthusiasts have worked out how to reprogram Apple's iPod music player with their own code using an ingenious acoustic trick."

How To Make Objects Invisible. Here's a related article.

Invention of the day: Chainless bicycles. (Via Linkfilter.)

Americans are racking up a huge "sleep debt". (Via Cosmic Log.)