"Politicians and Journalists Unclear On Fractions"

Siamese Rubik's Cube. (Via BBspot.)

Michael Malone predicts: "Who Will Be Tech's Next Winners and Losers?"

"Ultrasound Imaging Now Possible With Smartphone"

Computer lie detection with automated analysis of facial micro-expressions.

"The Largest Amateur Rocket Ever Launched". (Via Howard Roerig.)

Star Trek user interface for iPhone.

New Mac-vs-PC banner ad.

"Magic and the Brain: Teller Reveals the Neuroscience of Illusion".

Includes two superb Penn & Teller short videos.

"Touch Screens with Pop-up Buttons"

"Humanity Close to Passing the Hofstadter-Turing Test?"

First, the test itself:

...An entity passes the Hofstadter-Turing Test if it first creates a virtual reality, then creates a computer program within that reality which must finally recognise itself as an entity within this virtual environment by passing the Hofstadter-Turing Test.

Spot the tricky circularity to this test? Players can only pass if they create a virtual intelligence which must then pass the test itself. And since that hasn't been achieved by any human in history, nobody has yet passed.

Second, our current status:

...Neumann [Florentin Neumann at the University of Paderborn in Germany] and co claim that humanity is moving closer to achieving a pass. First of all, we're half way there because we've already built various virtual worlds. And now Neumann and co claim to have implemented a version of the Hofstadter-Turing Test in the Second Life virtual world.

"Top 11 Geek Defenses for Swine Flu"

"Microbe-powered 'fart' machine stores energy". No, seriously:

...[G]iving small jolts of electricity to single-celled microorganisms known as archea prompts them to remove C02 from the air and turn it into methane, released as tiny "farts." The methane, in turn, can be used to power fuel cells or to store the electrical energy chemically until its needed.

"We found that we can directly convert electrical current into methane using a very specific microorganism," said Bruce Logan, a professor at Pennsylvania State University, who details his discovery in the journal Environmental Science and Technology.

We envision this as a way to store electrical energy, to convert electricity into a biofuel," he said.

(Via Rand Simberg.)

Nice animation showing how the International Space Station was assembled. (Via Jeremy Sheetz.)

"4 Things to Consider Before You Try to Join the Amish"

Stunning nature photographs. (Via Joost Bonsen.)

"Artificial Intelligence Cracks 4,000-Year-Old Mystery"

"Computer Program to Take On 'Jeopardy!'"

Twitters from space.

Swarm dyanamics: "How bees, ants and other animals avoid dumb collective decisions"

"64 Things Every Geek Should Know". (Via BBspot.)

Video of the day: Touchtable demo.

The section on the Iranian nuclear "research" facility is especially slick, approximately 40% through the video. (Via Greg Mullen.)

Testing facial recognition software with Star Trek (TOS) episodes. (Via /.)

"The underground world of 'neuroenhancing' drugs." (Via Neuroworld.)

"Army Tests Flying Robo-Sniper"

"How An ATM Skimmer Scam Works". This is why you should always shield your PIN number when using these machines.

Some skimmers can be extremely difficult to detect.

"How do molecules behave at extremely high pressure?"

Update: Missing link fixed. (Thanks HR!)

Laptop vs. axe.

"20 Crimes Caught on Google Street View". (Via Look At This.)

Where's the remotest place on Earth?

Video of the day: "Parkour on a bicycle".

I had no idea that some of those stunts were even physically possible. (Via TreyPeden.)

Bacon contains enough energy to melt metal. (Via Linkfilter.)

Snow rollers. (Via BBspot.)

"Cloaked eye still sees".

25 Reasons Why Twitter is Evil

Off topic: Quote of the day on the subject of torture:

...The United States was torturing prisoners, the professor suggested, because the al-Qaeda detainees were subjected to female interrogators, barking dogs, and loud music. As fundamentalist Muslims, the detainees were not "comfortable" with women "speaking down" to them, the professor contended. Nor were they fans of the heavy metal music played in their cell. Additionally, as Middle Easterners, they were accustomed to a society where dogs are undomesticated, dangerous animals -- think: the way Westerners perceive wolves -- or so the professor’s argument went.

It was at that moment that I realized how similar these "torturous" acts were to my own everyday lifestyle. "Wait a second," I interjected. "Being in the same room with a dog, listening to Metallica, and getting reprimanded by a female for something she thinks I did wrong? That's not torture. That's my Friday night!"

(Before anyone sends me a finger-waggling e-mail, I do recognize that there is a legitimate issue as to what constitutes torture vs. appropriate interrogation techniques in a wartime context.)

xkcd book.

Contextual ad FAIL.

"A Geek Love Story: How new technology is changing the way we think about love, lust and desire in the digital age." (Via Linkfilter.)

Video of the day: "Stop motion with wolf and pig".

1300 printed photographs were used to create this animation!

"Why Minds Are Not Like Computers". (Via MeFi.)

"Blind to be cured with stem cells":

British scientists have developed the world's first stem cell therapy to cure the most common cause of blindness. Surgeons predict it will become a routine, one-hour procedure that will be generally available in six or seven years' time.

(Via RL.)

Crazy sink number 1. And number 2.

Curious effects of fast-forwarded television ads. (Via Neuroworld.)

Invention of the day: Portable hot tub for camping. (Via DRB.)

"13 things that do not make sense".

Future scientists will have no shortage of subjects to study!

Why some people don't like URL shorteners.

"25 Years of Growth in Las Vegas". Fascinating satellite photographs.

(Via Cynical-C.)

Wonkoslice on working from home.

Simpsons postage stamps. (Via BBspot.)

Really bad Star Trek jokes. (Via Neatorama.)

The high costs of running YouTube.

"The origin of 9 popular Web buzzwords".

The physics of pizza tossing.

Military motorcycles.

Video of the day: Fiber optic view of Mel Blanc's vocal cords as he does various cartoon character voices. (Via Cynical-C.)

Are theologians uncomfortable with the idea of a Multiverse?

The sequel to the latest Star Trek movie is already in the works:

Paramount Pictures are so confident about the box office potential of the upcoming Star Trek reboot directed by J. J. Abrams that they're already working on a sequel. Paramount has hired Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof to write a screenplay for the second movie. The writers are aiming to complete a script by Christmas. If they do, we’re looking at a possible 2011 release for the next Star Trek movie with the same cast.

(Via BBspot.)

"Laser-guided microhoverbot"

Ryan Sager has a new blog, Neuroworld:

Neuroworld will cover advances in neuroscience and humanity's ever-expanding understanding of its own irrationality. Topics include: neuroeconomics, neuromarketing, neurolaw, productivity, religion, politics, and more.

It looks promising!

"7 (Crazy) Civilian Uses for Nuclear Bombs"

Time Traveller's Cheat Sheet. (Larger size.)

How to bend a laser beam. Here's a related story.

Update on wireless charging of your gadgets.

"Woman has developed an imaginary, but useful, third arm":

After having a stroke, a 64-year-old woman reports that she now has a "pale, milky-white and translucent third arm" that she can use to scratch itchy parts of her body. She also says the limb can't penetrate solid objects.

...The woman underwent an MRI and when doctors askee her to move her imaginary third limb, her brain responded as if she really had the arm.

More details here.

Here's the abstract to the scientific paper and a media release.

US military snipers like the iPod based sniping software.

What kind of online commenter are you? (Via Transterrestrial Musings.)

"Swedish Tax Office Targets Webcam Strippers":

Sweden's tax authorities are cracking down on unreported webcam stripper income. They estimate that hundreds of Swedish women are dodging the law, resulting in a tax loss of about 40m Swedish kronor (£3.3m) annually.

The search involves tax officials examining stripper websites, hours upon hours, for completely legitimate purposes. A slightly disheveled project leader said 200 Swedish strippers had been investigated so far, adding the total could be as much as 500. "They are young girls, we can see from the photos. We think that perhaps they are not well informed about the rules," he said.

Anything to prevent tax cheats!...

(Via LCB.)

Off topic: "Individual Rights and the Boston Tea Party" (video).

"Spying on someone by hacking into his webcam is disturbingly easy."

Exercise equipment for zero-gravity environments.

"If TV science was more like real science". (Via BBspot.)

Zero Day Exploits.

"Six Mind-Blowing Ideas"

Blockbuster is close to folding and may "soon join Circuit City and CompUSA in the great strip mall in the sky".

"Social Networking Identity Theft Scams"

Israel's special forces geek commandos.

"Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated By Spies":

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. The intruders haven't sought to damage the power grid or other key infrastructure, but officials warned they could try during a crisis or war.

Almost like a bad episode of 24...

Will the Next Big Thing be Flutter? (Via DDTB.)

"Behind the scenes at Netflix." (Via BBspot.)

"The Best Computer Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future"

"10 Gory Surgical Triumphs on YouTube". Examples include:

1. Below-Knee Amputation
2. Surgery on Beating Heart
3. Removing a Fishhook from an Eye
4. Sex-Change Operation - NSFW
5. Open-Heart Surgery on a Baby Orangutan
6. Autopsy - NSFW
7. A Trip through the Digestive Tract
8. The Brain Surgery You Stay Awake For
9. Robotic-Assisted Prostate Surgery
10. Liposuction

Off topic: My friend and fellow Colorado blogger Ari Armstrong has won the 2009 Golden Sammie award "for his relentless—and ubiquitous—defense of free markets and individual liberty in the state of Colorado".

His blog is FreeColorado.com. Congratulations, Ari!

"On new cell phones, QWERTY eases out 1-2-3"

"Implantable Telescope for the Eye":

The device is implanted in only one eye--patients use this eye for detailed vision and the untreated eye for peripheral vision. That takes some getting used to, says [vision scientist Eli] Peli. "Instead of using two parts of the same eye, they must switch between two eyes; if they see someone coming but can't tell who it is, they need to switch to other eye."

Here's the company website.

"Surfing the Internet at work boosts productivity".

The math behind lifelike 3-D rendering. (Via SciTechDaily.)

Erasing specific memories?

Not quite Dollhouse, but perhaps a step in that direction...

"A laboratory robot called Adam has been hailed as the first machine in history to have discovered new scientific knowledge independently of its human creators":

Adam formed a hypothesis on the genetics of bakers’ yeast and carried out experiments to test its predictions, without intervention from its makers at Aberystwyth University.

The result was a series of "simple but useful" discoveries, confirmed by human scientists, about the gene coding for yeast enzymes. The research is published in the journal Science.

...The team has just completed a successor robot called Eve, which is about to work with Adam on a series of experiments designed to find new drugs to treat tropical diseases such as malaria and schistosomiasis.

...In the new experiments, Adam and Eve will work together to devise and carry out tests on thousands of chemical compounds to discover antimalarial drugs.

(Via Drudge.)

"If Homer's Odyssey Was Written On Twitter". (Via Boing Boing.)

Warp drives become unstable when quantum mechanics is factored into the calculations.

"Google Voice: One Number to Rule Them All"

"The iPhone Gold Rush".

One app programmer went from having trouble making mortgage payments in the bad economy to earning $800k in five months.

His finger is a USB drive. No, really:

Jerry Jalava... lost part of his left ring finger in May in a motorcycle accident.

Now, he says, he wears a prosthetic finger made of silicone, which looks fairly natural -- except that he can peel back the tip to uncover a USB drive tucked inside.

Here's his Flickr page. (Via KevinMD.)

Tracking eye pupil response to see if someone is faking amnesia.

Is voicemail obsolete?

"Scientists Make Blackest Material Ever"

Creepy robots.

Data rot. (Via Gus Van Horn.)

Honda's Let It Shine commercial is an animated video made entirely from car headlights.

(The link includes both the commercial itself and a "Making of" video.)

"Building a Brain on a Silicon Chip":

An international team of scientists in Europe has created a silicon chip designed to function like a human brain. With 200,000 neurons linked up by 50 million synaptic connections, the chip is able to mimic the brain's ability to learn more closely than any other machine.

The Hunt For Gollum is a 45 minute independent film inspired by The Lord of the Rings which is to be released to the internet for free on May 3 2009:

The Hunt For Gollum is an unofficial not for profit short film by a group of enthusiast filmmakers. As a Lord of the Rings Fan Film, we are not affiliated with the Tolkien Estate or New Line Cinema and are producing this project as an entirely non commercial film. As with other fan films we are making this purely for the enjoyment of the material and the experience of making a high quality low budget film.

The script is adapted from elements of the appendices of The Lord of the Rings. The story follows the Heir of Isildur -- the "greatest huntsman and traveller in Middle Earth" -- as he sets out to find the creature Gollum. The creature must be found to discover the truth about the Ring, and to protect the future Ringbearer.

Don't forget folks, this production is just an unofficial home movie, made by a bunch of Tolkien enthusiasts for love of the material. The budget has been scraped together by ourselves, nobody was paid and no money will be made from it. So yep it's purely our way to express our tribute to this magical world.

For a home movie, it looks pretty good! You can view the trailer here. (Via BBspot.)