Hiding a backwards voice in one's music is so passe, now that some musicians are hiding pictures of "devilish faces" in their songs.

There is no natural limit to human life expectancy according to some Duke researchers. In the developed countries such as US, Japan, and western Europe, life expectancy is "steadily increasing by three months a year, per year[sic]". I'm just waiting for medical science to advance to the point that life expectancy increases by one year per year -- then I'll never die! (Malignant cackling in the background...)

Toilets are cleaner than your workstation. (Via Megarad.)

Salon has a pair of articles on blogging that don't just rehash the usual tripe about blogs-vs-"real journalism". Take a look at them here and here.

Today's tasteless game: Russian Roulette. (Via BBspot.)

Dead cell phone saves a man's life.

Banner ads we'd like to see. Some more banner ads we'd like to see. And a third batch. (Via Madville.)

An astronomical catastrophe will almost certainly destroy all life on earth. Fortunately, it won't happen for about one hundred million years.

Londoners love using e-mail to stab their coworkers in the back. In a related article, Salon describes how office e-mail wars work in the US.

Stupid people (aka "Persons of Density") need to stand up for their rights! (Via Ryan Edwards.)

Airbus is planning to install hidden cameras on its airpanes in the light fixtures above passenger seats -- in the name of passenger security, of course. (Perhaps I missed it, but how exactly does this stop a dedicated suicide hijacker? And unless these cameras are also planted in the bathrooms, this leaves a bad guy an obvious place to prepare any weapons or explosive devices unobserved by the flight crew.)

The bionic retina has helped restore partial sight to several blind or near-blind patients.

Robofalcon: Wilfred Emonts has invented a 7-foot robotic falcon that can scare away real birds from airports. Given that airplanes are more likely to be brought down by a "bird strike" (when a bird gets caught in an airplane engine) than by a terrorist attack, this seems like a very useful invention.

The Midwestern Mailbomber was traced because he turned his cell phone on.

When one computer virus infects a second computer virus, you end up with a very "nasty piece of code".

Some Aibo owners get a little too obsessive about their robotic dogs.

The latest conspiracy theory is about the "rash" of recent mysterious deaths among the world's leading microbiologists. Of course, the skeptics insist on taking all the fun out of it...

Today's tasteless game: Boy Band Blast-a-rama.

Thermogenerators can tap the temperature differential between a human body surface and the clothing a person is wearing to generate enough electricity to run "smart clothes"

Undetectable "Son of Cookies": Scottish Enterprise is developing a new, advanced "sensor" system to monitor websurfers without relying on computer cookies. These "sensors" can monitor individual keystrokes, can be altered remotely, and are "almost impossible to detect". But privacy advocates should fear not, for the developers assure us that "[s]afeguards to prevent misuse of the software will be developed at the same time as the program itself." Ok, I feel much better now. (Links via The Register.)