The man who sings the Yahoo! yodel is suing Yahoo! for $5 million. He says that they paid him $590 for the rights to use the now-famous yodel for one commercial only, then they've continued to use it in thousands of subsequent TV ads without his permission. (After the lawsuit is resolved, will he be singing "Woo-hoo-o-o-o-o...!" or "Boo-hoo-o-o-o-o..."?)

Today's Dumb Internet Idea is the new game in which 5 contestants from Great Britain will allow lurkers on the internet to vote on how they should live their lives for the next 15 days. The internet users will decide all sorts of major life decisions for these people such as whom to date, whether to buy real estate, what sort of permanent tattoo to get, etc. (For the morbidly curious, the website for the game is here.)

An infrared remote control wristwatch can be useful for all sorts of practical jokes. (Via WonkoSlice.)

In a merging of two future technologies, Georgia Tech researchers have used self-assembling nanoparticles to create photonic crystals with precise optical properties. The hope is that these may be useful someday in developing optical computers.

Australian scientists claim to have invented a real-life thinking cap that can increase one's brain power. Other scientists are skeptical and say they need a time-out.

"Are You Hot or Not?", the Russian version. The best part is running the URL through the Babelfish translator and reading its rendering of the 1-10 rating scale. (Via Fark.)

Andrew Sullivan argues that "weblogs are to words what Napster was to music".

Random noise can be converted to one-way rotational energy with this clever device. It doesn't violate any of the laws of thermodynamics, but it is somewhat counterintuitive. These sorts of "Browning ratchets" are also the basis of Parrondo's Paradox, in which it is possible for someone to switch back and forth at random between two games which are mathematically losers, and generate a net win.

Are beepers obsolete? This article argues that they will be soon, given the rise in advanced cell phone services. But I personally like the relatively low-tech approach. My friends who have Blackberries or cell phones are virtual slaves to their communications devices (or at least they feel that way), whereas I have no problem answering my pager on my own schedule.

Why should we fool around drilling for oil on Earth when we can get all the electricity we need from the Moon?

Inventor of Pong honored: The University of Utah recently honored Nolan Bushnell for inventing Pong and reshaping (some would claim destroying) American entertainment culture. (It's hard to believe that we've gone from Pong to Everquest in little over 30 years. It should be interesting to see what happens in the next 30 years of computer gaming.)

NASA is trying to get more African-Americans into astrophysics and the other space sciences. Unfortunately, they'll have a hard time doing so as long as bright young black students face denigration from their own peers, such as this:

Some top students lifted their faces from difficult physics textbooks only to receive what amounted to a slap from a black hand. One example: Two African American undergraduate students on the Harvard University wrestling team were walking from the gym. The younger one, a kid from the Bronx named Neil, complained that his astrophysics courses weren't leaving him time to sleep. The banter stopped as abruptly as their footfalls. "Blacks in America do not have the luxury of your intellectual talents being spent on astrophysics," declared the elder student, waving his hand in front of Neil's chest.

(Link via Rand Simberg.)

"Blog Nation": James Wolcott asks, "Are weblogs the blinking neurons of an emerging, chatterbox superbrain? Or are these proliferating online diaries merely podiums for bush-league blowhards? Truth be told, they're a bit of both..." (Yet another writer marvels at the popularity of weblogs. I wonder if these same people marveled at the popularity of Usenet in its heyday?)

Resistance is futile: Speaking of Argentina, a species of Argentine ants that were introduced into Europe 80 years ago have grown into a single "super-colony" over 3700 miles long, consisting of billions of ants in millions of nests. These ants have taken over large parts of coastal Portugal, Spain, France, and Italy from the various species of native European ants. The only potentially threatening rival is a second supercolony of Argentine ants based in the Catalan region of Spain.

Computer cracking is legal in Argentina, because the law only forbids attacks against "people, things, and animals" but not digital attacks. Apparently, the courts don't regard a computer as a "thing".

Which "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" character are you? Take this quiz to find out.

iDrive: Kuro5hin has a thought-provoking review article about the new driver interface for automobiles developed by BMW for their 7-series cars. Instead of multiple buttons, levers, and dials to control a car's functions, the BMW iDrive uses a single "haptic" force feedback controller to take the place of the gearshift, handbrake, and the numerous other input devices that control a car's navigation, entertainment, and driver environment. Although the learning curve takes several hours, it could significantly alter the driving experience in the same way the GUI's revolutioned computer user experience for those used to the command line interface. Or given that it's based on Windows CE, it could just turn out to be a huge marketing flop.

I hate when this happens: In one of the most bizarre medical mishaps that I've ever read about, a Danish man farted while his physician was in the middle of removing a mole on his buttocks with an electric scalpel. A spark from the scalpel ignited the gas which then set his genitals on fire, because they had been washed with "flammable surgical spirits". As WonkoSlice says, "It's funny because he's Danish"...

US Supreme Court strikes down child pornography law: In a very sensible decision, the US Supreme Court struck down the "virtual child pornography" law which made it illegal to distribute-computer generated images that appeared to be that of children engaging in sexual acts, even if no real children were involved. The text of the ruling is available here. (This is excellent news. As much as I think that child pornography is despicable, mere computer simulations of children having sex don't violate any child's rights. Plus if the law were allowed to stand, then one could argue that line drawings of child pornography or text-only descriptions should be just as illegal - a clearly ridiculous conclusion.)

Teenage mutant ninja noodles: For the astronaut on a budget, a consortium of Japanese companies is developing a version of ramen instant noodles safe for outer space. (Link via Solsberg.)