Wealthiest Americans ever, adjusted for inflation.

I'd love a 40 Gigabit per second internet connection:

Sigbritt Löthberg's home has been supplied with a blistering 40 Gigabits per second connection, many thousands of times faster than the average residential link and the first time ever that a home user has experienced such a high speed.

But Sigbritt, who had never had a computer until now, is no ordinary 75 year old. She is the mother of Swedish internet legend Peter Löthberg who, along with Karlstad Stadsnät, the local council's network arm, has arranged the connection.

Sigbritt will now be able to enjoy 1,500 high definition HDTV channels simultaneously. Or, if there is nothing worth watching there, she will be able to download a full high definition DVD in just two seconds.

The secret behind Sigbritt's ultra-fast connection is a new modulation technique which allows data to be transferred directly between two routers up to 2,000 kilometres apart, with no intermediary transponders.

According to Karlstad Stadsnät the distance is, in theory, unlimited - there is no data loss as long as the fibre is in place.

..."The most difficult part of the whole project was installing Windows on Sigbritt's PC," said [network boss Hafsteinn] Jonsson.

(Via /.)

"Scientists find way to teleport atoms on optic fibres". (Via Engadget.)

Cynical-C has also made The Switch.

(Now that I'm 2 weeks post-Switch, I'm also very pleased. I've had no problems adjusting to the Mac OS X. And the Parallels 3.0 software allows me to run my work-related Windows software without any problem. My biggest concern was whether I could get into my office VPN from home through Parallels and it worked perfectly on the first try.)

"Top [Australian] cop predicts robot crimewave":

Technology such as cloned part-robot humans used by organised crime gangs pose the greatest future challenge to police, along with online scamming, Australian Federal Police (AFP) Commissioner Mick Keelty says.

..."Our environmental scanning tells us that even with some of the cloning of human beings -- not necessarily in Australia but in those countries that are going to allow it -- you could have potentially a cloned part-person, part-robot," he said.

"You could (also) have technology acting at the direction of a human being, but the human being being distanced considerably from the actual crime scene."

Um, right... (Via Bruce Schneier.)

Some ingenious/unscrupulous Europeans are making money by trading drivers license points on the internet:

It is the latest ruse on the roads of France: drivers are avoiding disqualification by trading licence points on the internet.

Complete strangers are taking the rap for speeding offences in return for up to €1,500 (£1,000), and police admit they are powerless to intervene. Even pensioners who have not driven for many years are getting in on the act.

...The technique is simple. In return for money, the seller provides his or her name and licence number in response to the speed camera ticket. The notice that is automatically sent to the owner of the offending vehicle includes a form for identifying another driver. Checks are extremely rare.

More details in this article.

Robot that walks on water.

"Second Life's virtual conference rooms might be more useful if they didn't resemble their real-world counterparts."

Invention of the day: Hands-free toilet paper dispenser. (Via Fark.)

iPhone software upgrades? (Via GMSV.)

"Joke comprehension may decrease with age". That's not funny...

When coins are worth more as metal than as currency. (Via Bruce Schneier.)

"The Geek Comic: The iPhone excuse."

Of the multiple iPhone reviews, this is one of the most informative and useful that I've read. (Via IPList.)

Evolution of the Apple form factor, 1976-2007. (Via Boing Boing.)

Competitive eating injuries.

Dutch museums are selling some of their surplus national art collection on eBay.

Sudoku and Graph Theory

Adding new meaning to the genetic code. It's like adding new letters to the alphabet.

Why ATM machine PIN numbers have 4 digits:

One by-product of inventing the first cash machine was the concept of the Pin number.

Mr Shepherd-Barron came up with the idea when he realised that he could remember his six-figure army number. But he decided to check that with his wife, Caroline.

"Over the kitchen table, she said she could only remember four figures, so because of her, four figures became the world standard," he laughs.

(Via Bruce Schneier.)

Time lapse photographs show the exact moment of when one embryo becomes two identical twins. (Via KevinMD.)

Admin note: Due to external obligations, posting may be light and/or irregular for the next week.

"A robot controlled by a simulated rat brain has proved itself to be a remarkable mimic of rodent behaviour in series of classic animal experiments."

"Catching Cheaters With Their Own Computers"

The business and marketing of bottled water. (Via IPList.)

Jefferson's last letter: Thomas Jefferson was invited to attend a celebration in Washington DC on July 4, 1826, to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence. He had to decline due to reasons of health, but he did write the following in his last letter:

I should, indeed, with peculiar delight, have met and exchanged there congratulations personally with the small band, the remnant of that host of worthies, who joined with us on that day, in the bold and doubtful election we were to make for our country, between submission or the sword; and to have enjoyed with them the consolatory fact, that our fellow citizens, after half a century of experience and prosperity, continue to approve the choice we made.

May it be to the world, what I believe it will be, (to some parts sooner, to others later, but finally to all,) the signal of arousing men to burst the chains under which monkish ignorance and superstition had persuaded them to bind themselves, and to assume the blessings and security of self-government.

That form which we have substituted, restores the free right to the unbounded exercise of reason and freedom of opinion. All eyes are opened, or opening, to the rights of man. The general spread of the light of science has already laid open to every view the palpable truth, that the mass of mankind has not been born with saddles on their backs, nor a favored few booted and spurred, ready to ride them legitimately, by the grace of God. These are grounds of hope for others. For ourselves, let the annual return of this day forever refresh our recollections of these rights, and an undiminished devotion to them.

(Via Marginal Revolution.)

World map of social network dominance. (Via Clicked.)

"The Medical Tricorder Comes Two Steps Closer to Reality".

Best dog suit ever. (Via Neatorama.)

Mars or Earth? Can you tell which landscape is from Mars and which is from Earth? (Via BBspot.)

"Why do banks use that awful robotic looking type font for routing and account numbers?"

Molecular surgery:

A single hydrogen atom has been snipped off a molecule and then added back on again, marking the first time a single chemical bond has been broken and reforged in a controlled, reversible way.

Turning peanut butter into diamonds.

Eating strategy and birth order? Here's an interesting tidbit from Marginal Revolution:

Do you eat the best thing first or save the best for last? Most people fall into one of these two categories and according to Brian Wansink's Mindless Eating there is a simple economic explanation. The people who eat the best thing first tend to have grown up as younger children from large families. The people who save the best for last are more often first borns. Need I say more?

Timelapse "light graffiti":

Using LED glowsticks, flashlights, even fireworks, combined with time-lapse photography, light graffiti artists create a unique tagging that wraps around objects dimensionally, allowing them to tag in a way they'd never be able to with spraypaint.

(Via MeFi.)

Diana did get her iPhone last night, after a wait of less than one hour at the Park Meadows Apple Store. So far, she's pretty pleased with it, but she is having trouble connecting it to our local home WiFi network. (It does connect to the AT&T EDGE network, but our EDGE reception is spotty where we live.)

So if anyone has any suggestions for her, please contact her directly at: diana(at)dianahsieh.com.

Update:Diana was able to figure out the problem based on some suggestions she found online. Thank you all!

Why you don't want to sit in seat 29E on an airplane. Actual complaint received from an airline customer.

"Taser, iRobot team up to arm robots."

Classic ad from 1977 features disk drive system with "80 Mbytes for under $12k". (Via Fark.)

"Brain Boosters": Technology Review writer David Duncan gives a first-person account of what happens when he tries neuro-enhancement with chemicals and electricity.

"100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English". (Via BBspot.)

"This man is not happy with Verizon."

"Life at Google: The Microsoftie Perspective". (Via MeFi.)

Bionic arm update. (Via Neatorama.)

Self-mummification. Includes a somewhat gruesome picture. (Via Cynical-C.)

Capitalism, globalization, and sushi. (Via ALDaily.)

MythBusters Results. (Via BBspot.)

"3 Famous Psychology Studies That Would Be Illegal Today":

Stanley Milgram's Obedience Studies
Stanford Prison Experiments
Little Albert

"The Science of Gaydar": What we know about the biology of various traits that are thought to be associated with people who are gay. (Via Clicked.)

"Death of the Clickwheel". (Via Instapundit.)

Betting markets for various iPhone related events. Here are some of the current odds:

Consumers are reported camping out waiting for an iPhone: 3/1
Initial iPhones get recalled: 30/1
Consumers pay at least 3x the original price ($1,500) on ebay: 2/1
The screen breaks/cracks like Apple's 1st Gen Nano iPod: 150/1
Mass reports of the battery life less than promised 8 hours: 10/1
Someone is trampled while trying to get an iPhone: 20/1
iPhone spontaneously combusts: 150/1

(Via Marginal Revolution.)

Older siblings are smarter.

Why settle for a mere iPhone when you can get the rPhone? (Via BBspot.)

"The top 10 dead (or dying) computer skills"

"The DIY Guide to Becoming a (Real) Cyborg."

Admin note: Blogging is going to be light to non-existent for the next few days. I just purchased a new MacBook Pro to replace my old Dell Latitude D610 laptop, and I'll be making "The Switch".

Here are the specs:

Processor: 2.2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory: 4GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x2GB
Hard Drive: 160GB Serial ATA Drive@5400rpm
Optical Drive: SuperDrive 8x
Display: 15" Widescreen Display (Matte)

BTW, it looks gorgeous.

Microphotograph of the day: "Velcro being pulled apart".

Top 10 bizarre Japanese soft drinks.

Lasers that vaporize matter without creating heat.

Unofficial review of Mac OS 10.5, aka Leopard.

"The Ten Most Common Photographic Mistakes". (Via BBspot.)

Which nations have not adopted the metric system?

You can buy a jet pack nowadays. Unfortunately, they have short flight times of less than a minute. (Via Instapundit.)

Rachel Lucas has written another scathingly funny post on, "The drama and intrigue of medical transcription".

"How Many Ways Can You Spell V1@gra?: Spam mutates, and the Internet community mounts an immune response". (Via ALDaily.)

Physicists are looking for "stuff" made of "unparticles".

Noise cancelling headphones: The NY Times reviews 9 sets of headphones (including the Bose QuietComfort 2 and 3), and gives its recommendations. For best performance (comparable to the Bose) but for a far lower price, they recommended the Panasonic RP-HC500 and the Audio-Technica ATH-ANC7.

Scientists create the most perfect spheres. (Via Fark.)

Patenting artificial life.

"Baby monitor picks up live NASA video". (Via Alexander D. Mitchell IV.)

"What Really Happens In A Gunfight?" (Via BBspot.)

"A robot on Sunday acted as master of ceremonies at a South Korean wedding in what its creators claimed as a world first."

Funny insurance claims.

Can you clean keyboard in a dishwasher?

"Has anybody really 'sold' the Brooklyn Bridge? Plus this man "sold" the Eiffel tower (Con #3).

Clever shadow sculptures. The shadows look very different from the sculpture materials. (Via Neatorama.)

Mechanical fingers.

Random close packing: "Computer simulations reveal an underlying structure for the disordered state of a large number of spheres dumped into a box."

Update on invisibility technology.

"Polish man wakes up after 19 years in coma":

When Jan Grzbebski woke up after 19 years in a coma the Polish railway worker found himself living in the future.

The Soviets had disappeared. So had food rationing. The only thing that stayed the same was his doting wife, Gertruda.

..."When I went into a coma there was only tea and vinegar in the shops, meat was rationed and huge petrol queues were everywhere," Grzebski tells TVN24, according to Reuters. "Now I see people on the streets with cellphones and there are so many goods in the shops it makes my head spin."

Lakes and Islands and combinations thereof. Includes listings for the following:

"Largest island"
"Largest lake"
"Largest lake on an island"
"Largest island in a lake"
"Largest island in a lake on an island"
"Largest lake on an island in a lake"
"Largest lake on an island in a lake on an island"
"Largest island in a lake on an island in a lake"
"Largest island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island"

(Via BBspot.)

Update on time travel research by University of Washington physics professor John Cramer.

"27 Confessions Of A Former Circuit City Worker" (Via Fark.)

"Eye-Tracking Device Lets Billboards Know When You Look at Them"

Zoologist disguises himself as a crocodile to enter their lair. Includes some entertaining pictures. (Via Cynical-C.)

The UK is experiencing a rise in the crime of license plate cloning:

Tony Bullock's car was cloned even though his plates were not physically stolen, and he was threatened with prosecution after "his" car was repeatedly caught speeding in Leicester.

He said: "It was horrendous. You are guilty until you can prove you're not. It's the first time that I've thought that English law is on its head."

Metropolitan Police Federation chairman Glen Smyth said the problem has grown because of the amount of camera-based enforcement of traffic offences, which relies on computer records on who owns which car.

(Via Bruce Schneier.)

3-D websurfing.

"The first liquid camera lens with no moving parts, and that can switch between two levels of magnification, has been designed by a German research team."

What the Earth looks like during a solar eclipse.

If you want to avoid catching a contagious disease on an airplane, you should sit in an aisle seat. Here's why. (Via Marginal Revolution.)

How Japan sees America: "This map is basically what would happen if you got a bunch of Japanese guys in a room, got them drunk, and then asked them to draw what they could remember about America on a bar napkin... Anyhow, I feel the map speaks for itself." (Via Neatorama.)

"Fuel of the future": Sam Dinkins notes this description from the May 1857 Scientific American of a potential new energy source:

We believe that no particular use is made of the fluid petroleum, from the 'tar springs' of California, except as a lotion for bruises and rheumatic affections. It has a pungent odor, and although it can be made to burn with a pretty good light, its smell is offensive. This, perhaps, may be obviated by distilling it with some acid; we believe that this is not impossible in this age of advanced chemistry. If the offensive odor could be removed, a valuable and profitable business might be carried on in manufacturing burning fluid from it.

Excellent high-speed photographs. (Via BBspot.)

Wireless power transfer. At 45% efficiency!

"Blackout leaves coaster riders dangling":

A dozen riders on a roller coaster spent half an hour hanging upside down -- 150 feet above the ground -- after a power outage shut down the attraction.

It took about 30 minutes for the city Fire Department to rescue the riders using a ladder truck Saturday evening, said Aundrea Crary, spokeswoman for the Springs & Crystal Falls amusement park.

Spectators cheered when the riders were brought to the ground from the highest point of a loop on the X-Coaster, but one passenger threw up after reaching safety.

Rachel Lucas explains in her own inimitable way that, "They Don't Teach Dictation In Medical School". (As a practicing radiologist, I can vouch for the fact that what she writes is both very funny and 100% accurate.)

"Origin of Deja Vu Pinpointed"

Real-time maps of global internet traffic and attacks.

"Let's touch base": What that office jargon really means. (Via BBspot.)

"30 Days With Mac OS X"