"Professor reconstructs unfinished Chopin prelude": The AP story is here, but there are more details in this NY Times article. You can listen to the piece here. (Via Linkfilter.)

Is there a rift between the old bloggers and the new "war bloggers"?

Cheating in online games has become such a problem that game companies are looking into "military grade" security to retain honest customers and preserve a pleasant gaming experience.

"My Blog, My Outboard Brain" (Via Neuroprosthesis News.)

Don't like any of the current South Park characters? Then create your own. (Via Metafilter.)

Superstring theory for the layperson.

A Chinese newspaper has inadvertently reported a satire story from The Onion as a genuine news story. The Onion story was entitled "Congress Threatens To Leave D.C. Unless New Capitol Is Built". If only it were true!...

Practice open heart surgery with this online simulator. (Via Linkfilter.)

If you're British, you can donate your excess skin for bioweapons research.

"A Guide to the Appreciation of Robotic Combat Sports"

China is losing its grip on the internet. But not without a fight.

More ways to defeat biometric security systems: Many commercial biometric security systems are surprisingly easy to defeat with attacks even simpler than the Gummi Bear fake finger trick. In one case, merely breathing on a fingerprint sensor allowed unauthorized users access. (Via Ars Technica.)

Japanese kids are so addicted to using their mobile phones for instant text messaging that they have their own name -- "oyayubi-zoku" or the "thumb tribe".

Today's nanotechnology invention is the laser "pea-shooter" that can propel tiny particles along hollow optical fibers.

It's not often that you see a picture of 4 galaxies colliding. (More details here.)

A Florida high school student has admitted hacking into his school's computer and charging $5 to change his fellow students' grades. All the grades now have to be re-examined. He apparently never learned that you shouldn't make obvious alterations like changing a 0 to a 100. (Via ObscureStore.)

The Middle East crisis has created a booming (no pun intended) market for novel security products such as bullet-proof baby car seats.

How many memetic viruses have you been exposed to? Find out with the Human Virus Scanner. (Via Madville.)

The National Security Agency has launched a new ad campaign exhorting our military troops to maintain information secrecy. It includes propaganda posters reminiscent of some of these classic WWII posters.

"What Do You Think?": The Onion's weekly survey tackles the India-Pakistan conflict.

The newer computer viruses can jump back and forth between Windows and Linux platforms and are better able to hide from antivirus software.

UC Berkeley is offering a course on blogging.

Take the National Security Quiz.

A company claims that it can create "a database that differentiates actual child porn from the computer-generated kind".

The US Postal Service has purchased 40 Segway scooters for field testing in six US cities. (Alas, Denver is not one of them...)

For people with too much money: Aircraft Homes. Personally, if I had that much money, I'd go for a Missile Silo House... (Via Redwood Dragon.)

Health care costs aren't too high. For the benefit patients receive, they're too low.

Swarm intelligence: A computer program which models creativity as a swarm of virtual "insects" following simple rules is able to compose music that sounds like that written by human beings.

Oil: The renewable resource.

A new video game from Syria is a big hit with Arab youth. In this game, the player takes the role of a young Palestinian engaged in the intifadah against Israel. He starts with stone throwing, then moves onto shooting Israeli settlers, then finally progresses to engaging the Israeli military in South Lebanon. Interestingly enough, suicide bombing is not an option. And in the game, there is no ultimate victory against the Israelis.

Map of the Blogosphere: N.Z. Bear has published this nice map of the Blogosphere. Based on the data from his Blogosphere Ecosystem analysis, I'm proud to say that Diana and I are both "Insignificant Microbes". But we're in good company, along with Declan McCullagh, Eric Raymond, and Jerry Pournelle. (It looks like Will Wilkinson barely missed the cut into "Lowly Insects".)

New stock market scam: As opposed to the "pump and dump" maneuver of the 1980's, a number of scam artists are using the "short and distort" trick wherein they sell a company's stock short, then spread false malicious rumors about the company's health thus allowing the scammer to pocket the difference. This works especially well in these economically fragile times when many investors are inclined to believe that companies are doing more poorly than is publically acknowledged.

Breaking medical science news: Surgeons who stay up late at night drinking alcohol make more mistakes in the operating room the following morning.

The Virtual Theremin: "The Theremin is a musical instrument that uses the positions of the performers hands to create sound. The Virtual Theremin aims to mimic the Theremin using just a computer and a cheap web camera. It tracks the hands of a performer, using image processing techniques, around a picture of a Theremin superimposed on the video stream. The positions of the hands are then converted to sound that mimics the response of the Theremin." (Via Linkfilter.)

Invention of the day: A new piracy-proof music format. (Via Instapundit.)

When hacking competitions go wrong: "A hacking contest that promised $100,000 as first prize appears to have been weighted so heavily against competitors that some decided to hack the competition rather than the target server."

Turning a side effect into success: Leonard Schliefer tried to develop a drug that would cure ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease), but it failed because patients kept losing too much weight as a side effect. Now, his company Regeneron thinks it could turn into the next big weight loss drug for obese baby boomers. Viagra redux!

IBM is going to make a big push into nanotechnology research.

Players wanted for life-sized foosball: A charity event in England is "looking for teams of five to take part in human table football which involves attaching people to poles and moving them from side to side in the formation of the popular table game." (Via Fark.)

There some things you should not give as Christmas gifts. (Via Madville.)

Some basics of Instant Messaging etiquette.

To prevent hijackings, Eric Raymond argues that we shouldn't be arming the pilots -- instead we should arm the passengers. (Look for his entry dated 6/1/2002.)

"Want to build your own cruise missile? It's easier and cheaper than you'd think": Inventor Bruce Simpson is warning that rogue states or terrorists could build crude-but-effective LCCMs (Low Cost Cruise Missiles) for as little as $6-$10k. (There's lots of discussion on this Plastic thread.)

I almost feel sorry for this poor Nigerian scam artist. (Via BBspot.)

Neoflux has compiled all the crazy "zero-tolerance" school stories in one place.

RISK 2210 A.D. — Not Your Father's RISK Game: The new version of RISK includes "underwater cities and moon colonies as obtainable territories, a futuristic military, and five decks of command cards for tactical surprises". Time to go conquer the world. (Via Plastic.)

The new official soccer ball for the World Cup is built from advanced synthetic high-tech materials and is supposed to be "the most accurate soccer ball ever produced." By the way, the players all hate it.

A lot of cars and minivans are coming equipped with onboard VCR and entertainment systems to keep the kids quiet. Unfortunately, this can create dangers of its own. As one busy LA commuter said, "I've had a person pull up next to me and say, 'Great movie,'... And that was the driver."

I don't want to settle for a mere wearable computer when I can get a bullet-proof wearable computer. (Via Techdirt.)

Wireless technology in chips: Because integrated circuits are getting larger and faster, severe bottlenecks are developing in the flow of information between different parts of a chip. To solve this problem, some Florida researchers are designing chips with built-in wireless technology to send signals to their various internal components.

No more menstrual periods for women? A pharmaceutical company is developing a new oral contraceptive that will all but eliminate the monthly menstrual cycle for women. Assuming that this is proven to be medically safe, it could lead to very interesting psychological and cultural changes for women.

Marketing cellphones for teenagers requires savvy and "prepackaged individuality". I must confess that the airtexting feature does sound pretty cool...

Game of the day: Blast Billiards! (Via Linkfilter.)

Men do talk about relationships. We just do it in code.

Don't smile in public :-( Facial recognition software used to catch terrorists and criminals can match smiling faces more accurately than neutral faces.

The crack of a whip does not come from the tip of the whip as previously thought, but instead "from a loop traveling along the whip, gaining speed until it reaches the speed of sound and creates a sonic boom".

It's all around you: The Matwix has you. Eat the blue doughnut... (Via Solsberg.)

It's time for the post-9/11 baby boom.

Schools who run e-mail science experiments can get more than they bargained for.

John Hiler has written one of the best analyses of the Blogosphere and its relationship to conventional journalism that I've ever read. (Via Neoflux.)

Daniel Pearl murder video: According to this Wired article, "The unedited video of journalist Daniel Pearl being murdered is back online. An Internet hosting company in Virginia, which the FBI threatened last week with federal obscenity charges, said on Monday afternoon that it would resume distribution of the horrific 4-minute video." The ProHosters website explains why they've taken the position they did, citing the First Amendment. (Warning to readers: Diana and I watched the video, and portions are very gruesome. Minors and sensitive viewers should not watch it.)

"Microsoft Nearing Completion of Death Star."

The more older brothers you have the more likely you are to be gay. (The article is careful to note that correlation does not imply causation.)

High-tech eyewear has become much sleeker looking. The display systems from MicroOptical would make any Borg look fabulous...

Physics inside a microwave oven. The experiment with the grape is well worth watching. (Via Metafilter.)

I hate it when tiny airborne microbes perform weather control for their own nefarious purposes.

Anti-sexual harassment invention of the day: Women's panties with an alarm that beeps every time someone pinches the wearer's butt. (Via Aberrant News.)

How to make money from failed dot coms by looking for negative enterprise value. Let's hear it for the "carrion feeders" -- keeping markets efficient!

Send that special someone an Anthrax-O-Gram! (Via Madville.)

Maybe we should go ahead and develop the Moon.

How to fold a great paper airplane.

Power naps in the middle of the day are good for you. (When I was in kindergarten, I used to hate the obligatory afternoon nap. Now I would kill for a job that would let me take a quick nap after lunch each day.)

Scamming Amazon: According to this article, "This 'clever' author of a $3 Self Help PDF has written a program to put his book in as a recommendation 12 times, on every single top seller at Amazon (at least random collection I checked in the first 500 top sellers). As a result he is now the #3 best seller on Amazon."

Invention of the day: An electronic bra that detects breast cancer. Men shouldn't feel neglected, since scientists are also training dogs to detect prostate cancer. (My dogs sniff my crotch a little too much already -- I'm not sure I want to be encouraging them any more...)

Make your workday go by faster with the Office Drinking Game.

Technology success stories are still possible: This 17-year old boy is expected to gross $1 million from his computer startup company. (Via ObscureStore.)

New amino acid discovered: Scientists have discovered a 22nd amino acid, "a discovery that is the biological equivalent of physicists finding a new fundamental particle or chemists discovering a new element." Medical students everywhere groan in dismay at the prospect of more test questions...

Genetically modified grass has been planted in 14 secret golf course locations in the US in an effort to produce greens that are very high quality, yet inexpensive to maintain.

Game of the day: Mini-Golf. (Via Madville.)

Quantum wormholes could carry people.

A new twist: Japanese scientists have grown crystals in the form of a Mobius strip. They still have no idea what they'll use them for...

Do HOV (high occupancy vehicle) highway lanes work? In a word, "no".

The Google toolbar is offering all sorts of nifty new options including a pop-up ad killer.

Turn your laptop into an intelligent personal robot with a kit from Evolution Robotics.

Mike Langenberg reviews the Poma wearable computer and gets a lot of stares from friends and strangers.

FightCloud.com sells free CDs, but still turns a profit because of a shrewd business model.

Computer dating for parrots.

Human cloning can't be stopped.

One of the architects of the notorious Echelon global electronic surveillance system gives an interview. He doesn't divulge any classified secrets, however. (Link via Megarad.)

The US Army is looking for a few good videogamers.

Because so many TiVo and Replay users are skipping the commercials, advertisers are coming up with some special techniques to entice viewers to watch their commercials.

Trekkies Bid on the Holy Grail: "One of the most coveted items in Star Trek lore, Captain Kirk's chair, is expected to be auctioned off next month."

Forget the Nigerian spam scam: Now it's the Afghan-war-scam!

A Hacker Whodunit: Computer crackers have apparently tampered with a key shareholder vote for the Vivendi company. But given the weak security of their system, the article states that "the real mystery is that such an incident didn't happen sooner".

The FCC does not need to allocate broadcast frequencies if this article is correct and there is actually no shortage of usable spectrum. (More information is available on David Reed's Open Spectrum page.)

AT&T's spam filter blocked out its own rate increase notice to its customers. (Via Techdirt.)

Factual error found on the Internet.

Invention of the day: A bald chicken which does not require plucking.

Spend some time on the International Space Station: A 13-day trip is up for sale on eBay, with the current high bid a mere $6 million. (Via GMSV.)

Drug gangs are using cell phones to spy on the police.