How to zap surveillance cameras with a laser pointer. (Via Boing Boing.)

Resistance is futile: Apparently, it is possible to kill yourself with a 9-volt battery.

Geeks need both tools and toys.

Life imitates The Onion:
The Onion 8/3/2000 - "Hershey's Ordered to Pay Obese Americans $135 Billion".
Orange County Register 10/8/2002 - "New Legal Target: Chocolate".

(Via Best of the Web.)

Astronomers have discovered a new world circling the Sun beyond Pluto. The object is called Quaoar, although it has not been designated a "planet" yet.

Carbon nanotubules may be the key to building a space elevator.

The next political trend may be the SouthPark Republicans. (Radley Balko points out that they sound an awful lot like "libertarians".)

More robots: Self-reconfiguring robots.

Robots aren't (yet) intelligent, self-aware beings. But if/when they do achieve sentience, the American Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Robots (ASPCR) will be there to protect their rights. (Via Neuroprosthesis News.)

Escher Lego. (Via BBspot.)

Online magazine subscription services like Zinio and NewsStand will allow users to download copies of their favorite magazines and newspapers while duplicating the "look-and-feel" of handling paper copies as much as possible on their laptops.

Robotic home appliances may become more widespread as the prices continue to drop. One example is the Roomba robotic vacuum cleaner. According to this article, "The $199 robot independently vacuums carpets, tiles and hardwood floors, scooting beneath chairs and couches in search of dirt, but promising never to crash into freshly painted walls or accidentally suck up the family pet. Roomba has the smarts not only to navigate, but also to find its way out of tight spots when it gets stuck."

"The Shape of the Internet": The Economist explains that the internet as a whole (as well as the World Wide Web) has a scale-free topology and what that means. As a way of illustrating this concept in everyday terms they note, "Research has shown that the network of human sexual partners seems to be scale-free, too. In other words, some people have all the luck, while others have none."

Biology students can now perform a virtual frog dissection online.

Scientific American has a great review article on quantum information theory.

More computer chess news: On the other hand, world human chess champion Victor Kramnik is beating the computer "Deep Fritz" in his match.

"US chess champion Larry Christiansen has been trounced by the Chessmaster 9000 program in a four game match." More details here. Seems like the machines are gaining on us humans...

Gosh, I had no idea that the Sun was going to explode and destroy all life on Earth in the next 6 years.

Italian families are turning into clones of "The Simpsons" according to alarmed Italian health care experts. The article states, "Parents Homer and Marge and children Bart, Lisa, and Maggie from the cult American series have become real-life role models for Italians, say Dr. Loris Moroni and colleagues. The trend is so widespread that linguists, nutritionists, psychologists and sociologists have set up a 'City of Simpsons' conference to look at similarities". I wonder how many of these Italian families also had fathers that were astronauts and won Grammy Awards? (Via Linkfilter.)

"Microsoft Announces Ads for BSOD" (satire)

Time for a good old-fashioned GoogleFight!

The Ig Nobel Prize winners have been announced.

Timewaster of the Day: Bookworm. (Via Madville.)

Secure communications with quantum encryption can now be transmitted via a photon stream for a distance of over 14 miles. Scientists hope to be able to use this technique with communications satellite transmissions within the next decade.

Building a better Moonbase for fun and profit.

These are the world's funniest jokes?

The "Mouse Gesture" and other "kinetic mouse commands" are starting to catch on with interface designers. Could this be the beginning of a real-life version of the fictional user interface featured in the recent science-fiction movie Minority Report?

An automotive "Easter egg" for the BMW M3 allows the driver to activate automated 4000-rpm clutch-drop, clutch-slip "racing start" and "burnout" modes for the manual transmission. (Via GMSV.)

"British scientists have developed a Star Trek style device which measures vital health signs without the need for skin contact." American scientists are also working on a similar device. (Via Techhead News.)

The Internet Weather Report: Animated maps of the current internet lag. (Via Linkfilter.)

The computer game company Acclaim Entertainment has offered to pay the speeding tickets for anyone caught speeding on camera in the UK on October 11, as part of its marketing campaign for its new game Burnout 2: Point of Impact. The British government is not amused. (Via Wonkoslice.)

MIT's Open Courseware is now online.

The French have decided that the iPod is illegal because it is too loud. The current iPods can generate sounds of up to 104 dB through their headphones, which exceeds the French maximum of 100 dB. Legal versions should be available soon. (Via Boing Boing.)

Psychologists say that online dating is good, in part because participants are more likely to reveal their true selves to others online than in conventional dating. Yeah, right. (Via Techdirt.)

Blondes apparently won't become extinct after all. (Via Fark.)

Geeky frame-by-frame analysis of the trailer for upcoming Lord of the Rings:The Two Towers movie. Here's the trailer, as well. This is going to be a great film. (Via Metafilter.)

One more reason to wear contact lenses: According to a recent study performed in a British nightclub, "Swapping glasses for contact lenses can dramatically increase success with the opposite sex"...

Scientists have developed atomic-scale memories allowing extremely dense storage. The current implementation uses a mere 20 atoms to store one bit of information.

Administrative note: Due to internet connection problems at home, GeekPress updates may be sparse for the next few days until Diana can sort things out.

How to make money from the upcoming war with Iraq.

Yakima County in Washington will now let you e-mail your excuses to the judge as to why you shouldn't have to pay your traffic ticket.

If you're an unethical auto mechanic who likes to go joy-riding in customers' cars, don't post about it on the internet. The owner might read about it and get pissed off. (A lengthy discussion on this saga is available here on Kuro5hin.)

Quiz: How geeky are you?

Some unusual materials shrink when heated, rather than expand. Scientists hope to be able to do interesting things with them.

I sure hope that Saddam Hussein doesn't do this.

It doesn't matter if you're in outer space -- you still have to fill out the damned census form. According to this article, "A Russian spaceship carrying census forms is on its way to two cosmonauts so they can take part in Russia's first post-Soviet population head-count... Russia's Valery Korzun and Sergei Treshchev on the orbiting International Space Station will fill out the questionnaires and send them back to Earth, joining millions of their land-based compatriots in the exercise planned for October 9-16."

Sharp has invented an LCD display that shows 3-dimensional images. Unfortunately, only one person at a time can experience the full effect.

German scientists predict that natural blondes are "endangered" and will die out within 200 years.

Take a look at this astounding optical illusion. Here's why it works. The Koffka Ring version is also pretty damned impressive. More Flash demos are available here. (Via Metafilter.)

Michael Malone muses about life, the universe, feedback loops, and the Segway scooter.

The newest edition of the Oxford English Dictionary will include numerous science fiction terms including Jedi, Klingon, and dilithium. The word "wedgie" will also make its first appearance in the OED.

"Lorenzo's Oil" has been proven to work, at least according to this article. Other physicians are more skeptical.

The first big commercial nanotechnology product may be nano-pants. (Via Plastic.)

Michael Malone argues that we're virtually guaranteed to experience another big economic boom in the next decade. Why? Because of rising chip speeds.

How not to do cybersex. (Via Linkfilter.)

Now this is ironic: Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer says that he can't get cable or DSL service to his Seattle house, despite personally begging the heads of AT&T and Qwest. (Via BBspot.)

Science fiction writer David Brin makes "The Case for a Cheerful Libertarianism". In this thought-provoking speech, he skewers a number of libertarian sacred cows, yet reaches a very optimistic conclusion. Well worth reading. (Thanks to Andrew Breese for this excellent link.)

Beer in space. (Via Linkfilter.)

The "Laura Bush" parody of the Nigerian money laundering spams. (Via Boing Boing.)

Would you like to get a copy of your genetic code on a CD? An American company will offer that service for only $600,000. A British company hopes to be able to lower that price to a mere $1000.

I didn't know you could plagiarize silence, but a lawsuit alleging exactly that has been settled for a six-figure amount. (Via Fark.)

Nanotechnology researchers can now weld together individual carbon nanotubules.

Now you can create your own virtual sandart on your computer without the mess. (Via Metafilter.)

Young people are unconsciously slipping into "Instant Messenger English" in their formal school writing assignments.

Everyone on eBay is sniping.

Invention of the day: Self-cleaning glass. (Via Boing Boing.)

Future US soldiers may be able to utilize robotic eyes, ears, and noses.

MirCorp says we need more advertising in outer space, not less. They point to this ad as an example.

Forget the risk of cellphones causing cancer. This poor cellphone user reportedly attracted a bat attack, supposedly because of the "cellphone signal interfering with the bats' sonar sensory system". At least cellphones are helpful in scaring away ghosts.

Forbes lists the Top 15 Richest Fictional Characters of all time. The first four are:

1. Santa Claus $Infinity
2. Richie Rich $24.7 billion
3. Oliver "Daddy" Warbucks $10 billion
4. Scrooge McDuck $8.2 billion

(Link via Boing Boing.)

ObNonGeekPoliticalPost: Victor Hanson answers questions about Iraq. Well worth reading. (Via Volokh Conspiracy.)

Are you colorblind? (Via Madville.)

Salon calls this "the strangest domain-name squabble ever" because it involves "Girl Scouts, domestic violence awareness, and charges of racism and censorship"...

This internet-enabled smart alarm clock will check on local traffic conditions and adjust your wake-up time in order to get to work on time.

Local Denver police officers recently participated in a double-blind scientific taste test comparing the relative merits of products from two donut stores. As the article notes, "Not even a minor traffic accident within sight of the doughnut table distracted the judges from their tasks..."

Vocera is marketing a new system of hand-free voice-activated communication badges that allow anyone on the network to contact anyone else by tapping the badge and speaking the recipient's name. As one analyst notes, "The only thing that I can really compare them to is Star Trek:The Next Generation..."

"A science magazine is offering one reader the chance to have their body frozen after death in the hope that medical science will one day revive them." Here's how to enter. The winner also has the option of choosing a Hawaiian vacation in this current life instead.

CEA's Gary Shapiro argues that P2P file sharing is both moral and legal. (Via Politech.)

Stimulating certain parts of the brain with electrodes can induce out-of-body experiences virtually identical to those attributed to paranormal phenomena.

European scientists have produced mass quantities of antimatter. By "mass quantities" they mean up to 50,000 atoms of anti-hydrogen, which is still pretty damned impressive.

It sure would be cool to get good at speed cup stacking. (Via Memepool.)

"Memo to employees: The dot-com boom is over so everyone has to wear formal business attire again". Translation: we were forced to let you wear what you wanted for a couple of years to keep you from quitting, but now the market has changed so suck it up! (Via Plastic.)

The DNA code with the A, C, G, and T nucleotides has been shown to be structured very much like a computer parity error-correcting code. Full details are available here (HTML version) or here (PDF version).

Airline ticket pricing is now so screwy that it is practically impossible to devise an efficient computer algorithm that can work out the cheapest fare between two cities. As the article states, "the more specific (idealized) problem of finding an optimal fare for a particular route, while theoretically solvable, turns out to very similar to a classical mathematical problem known as boolean satisfiability, which has long been known to be NP-complete -- which means it could take the fastest computer longer than the lifetime of the universe to find the solution." (Via Linkfilter.)

Black holes now come in all sizes -- small, medium, and large.

Looking to make money in the stock market? James Glassman likes these technology stocks.

Where do defense scientists research bizarre or fringe technologies? In the "black world", of course. (Via BBspot.)

A special robotic probe was sent to explore a secret passageway behind a mysterious stone seal in the Great Pyramid in Egypt. And what did it find behind the stone seal? Another mysterious stone seal.

Preventing music piracy with Super Glue. (Via Metafilter.)

Bored at work? Try making one of these exotic paper airplanes. (Via Linkfilter.)

The modern high-tech excuse for being late to an appointment: "Mapquest lied to me".

For the paranoid, there's terror-free parking.

The ultimate guide on how to remove nearly 250 different stains from clothes is available here, thanks to Cornell University. Blood and urine are listed separately, but other potentially incriminating fluids are lumped together as "body discharge".

Yet one more reason why you shouldn't discuss your sex life via e-mail. (Via Metafilter.) Here's another version of the story.

"Equipment found in any college science department can be used to transmit electric signals at four times the speed of light." Buried at the bottom of the article is the disclaimer:

"While the peak moves faster than light speed, the total energy of the pulse does not. This means Einstein's relativity is preserved, so do not expect super-fast starships or time machines anytime soon.Signals also get weaker and more distorted the faster they go, so in theory no useful information can get transmitted at faster-than-light speeds..."

Because of the anticipated rise in space tourism, the International Bar Association will meet next month to discuss necessary modification to current outer space law.

Internet jewelry websites are thriving. And because of successful industry self-regulation, online fraud is apparently not a problem.

A clever array of laser beams can be used to sort microscopic particles by size.

Google's definition of "I love you". (Via Madville.)

Computer historians have tracked down the first use of the "smiley" :-) emoticon. (Via Boing Boing.)