I will make no apologies for being excited about this: And by this, I mean a glimpse into The Wizarding World of Harry Potter theme park they’re putting together in Orlando. Sure, it’s a theme park. Natania, you say, it’s not real! You can go to Europe to see real castles. You don’t need to […]
Slime mold may be a pain in the home, but it turns out it can teach us how to build more effective wireless networks. Researchers at Hokkaido University in Japan have just published the results of a study into how the mold spread. The testing was based on the idea that nature would find the […]
Whether or not this has been a long time in coming, the time has come – the New York Times has announced that it will be charging for “frequent” access to its website. Visitors will be able to view a certain number of articles each month for free, after which they can pay a flat […]
The Internet was all a thither yesterday with rumors that Peter Jackson and Guillermo del Toro had finalized casting for Bilbo in The Hobbit… with Tobey Maguire. The Twittersphere went bananas, and after a few hours, we heard directly from the source, and the directors assured the panic-ridden public that they were still a month […]
Universities in four states have agreed to halt schemes to use electronic reading devices until they are fully usable by blind people. The decision concludes a Justice Department investigation over the use of Amazon’s Kindle DX. The National Federation of the Blind and the American Council of the Blind had sued the universities for violating […]
Courtesy of BBC news this morning, two particularly interesting stories that mix science, history, and… cosmetics. First up, let’s talk about eyeliner. Yes, eyeliner. There may be no look as timeless and as oft-copied as the Cleopatra eye, made famous in Egyptian art, culture, and mythology. And while it’s certainly aesthetically pleasing (I’m a personal […]
There are a host of stories today about mind-reading technology being the future of US airport security. But there’s no real suggestion the technology will ever be adopted in the country, and the system actually monitors the body rather than the brain. The attention has come from a syndicated Associated Press story which has appeared […]
Having still not yet entirely conquered my desire for a netbook—mostly staved off by the fact that my iPod Touch gets the job done most of the time—there may yet be good news. It is quite likely that I have simply waited long enough for netbooks to be, well, so last decade. Enter the smartbook. […]
If you’re in trouble with the law, fleeing to Canada is making a pretty good go of it. But now one criminal has learned the hard way that if you’re going to leave your real world behind to escape prosecution, you’d better leave your virtual world behind, too. At the tail end of a two-year […]
With only two days down, it’s already been a great week to be a space geek. First up? Moon news. You might have missed over the weekend, but scientists have discovered a “lunar hole” that experts are saying may make an ideal home for future moon colonists. Yes, you read that right. According to researchers, […]