"April Fool's Pranks For Nerds". GeekPress is not responsible if you get the crap beat out of you by your less computer-savvy office mate as a result.

"Philips Electronics is introducing a mobile phone with a built-in compartment for an ordinary AAA battery to power the device when the main battery runs low."

The AAA battery inserted into the phone can be of any brand or type, whether rechargeable or disposable. In the case of a rechargeable, the phone will recharge both the main battery and the backup AAA when it is plugged into an electrical outlet.

The companies say the AAA battery can provide up to three extra hours of talk time.

Two cool videos: Slow motion katana-vs-egg and katana-vs-tomato. (Via Neatorama.)

"Worlds with Double Sunsets Common"

Why do we sleep?

The new gold rush: "Companies are flocking to market themselves in virtual worlds..."

Flaming space junk: "Pieces of space junk from a Russian satellite coming out of orbit narrowly missed hitting a jetliner over the Pacific Ocean overnight." (Via Instapundit.)

"Children of Hurin": "The last, unfinished book by the 'Lord of the Rings' author [JRR Tolkien] has been completed by his son." Release date is April 17. Here's the Amazon link. (Via BBspot.)

How to recover from identity theft: A 24-point checklist. (Via Bruce Schneier.)

"If Ancient Rome Had The Internet..."

"Bizarre Hexagon Spotted on Saturn"

There's a good reason that OK Go won the YouTube's "Most Creative" music video award for "Here It Goes Again". Here are the winners in the other categories.

"Al-Qaeda plot to bring down UK internet":

Scotland Yard has uncovered evidence that Al-Qaeda has been plotting to bring down the internet in Britain, causing chaos to business and the London Stock Exchange.

..."Without these services, the UK could suffer serious consequences, including severe economic damage, grave social disruption, or even large-scale loss of life," the MI5 website says.

The Telehouse hub is nicknamed CTU after the counter-terrorist headquarters in the American television series 24. It is designed to provide back-up power for all Britain's vital network services in the event of a large-scale terrorist attack elsewhere.

Filter physics.

Time waster of the day: Boomshine. (Via Ari Armstrong.)

Guide to power napping.

Political operatives are scared to death of a "YouTube Swiftboat". Of course, some of them are asking for more regulation of free speech on the internet.

Keyboards are disgusting.

The US Department of Defense is funding research into "soft robotics", i.e., robots that can change shape drastically and rapidly to suit their environment:

The Phase I milestone is:

1. Demonstrate a ChemBot, approximately the size (but not necessarily the form-factor) of a regulation softball (i.e., 30 cm circumference; 10 cm diameter; 500 cm3 volume), that can:
a) travel a distance of 5 meters at a speed of 0.25 meters/minute;
b) achieve a 10-fold reduction in its largest dimension; and
c) traverse through a 1 cm opening of arbitrary geometry and reconstitute its original size and shape, in 15 seconds.

Not quite the T-1000 from Terminator 2, but getting there. (Via IPList.)

Michael Williams has some criticisms of Bruce Schneier's risk article.