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for
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December 20 to 31, 2005
Have a very happy New Year's, everyone. Thus ends the
fi
rst full year of Kev's News...
An of
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cial collection of satellite photos of the tsunami sites...
The winner of the second Dwell eco-prefab house contest: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2004/12/dwell_home_ii_t.ph...
This is a working graphic design of a computer, the
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rst I've seen. Have there been other designs like this, either recently or in the ancient past? I envision a lot of interactive modern art in thi...
The "gallery of computation" has gotten both larger and more varied over the last year or so. Great stuff! http://www.complexi
fi
cation.net...
Cutting-edge graf
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ti art by Mr. Totem...
Detailed, richly colored scienti
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c photography...
The greatest opening song lines: http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressof
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ce/pressreleases/stories/2004/05_may/04/r2_vote.shtm...
The Black Keys make some great lo-
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blues rock. Some say they're better than the White Stripes...
In a pioneering survey, most artists and musicians think that
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le sharing is not a threat...
The RIAA and MPAA are intentionally putting adware into Windows Media
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les to thwart
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le sharing...
April 25 to May 1, 2005
I think the news behind the big news is the introduction of high- de
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nition video to the masses. Upgrade to QuickTime 7 and you may be able to view movies in the new QuickTime HD Gallery...
And Hoku Scienti
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c plans a $58 million IPO...
Biodegradable packaging tape: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/biodegradable_p.ph...
Super-strong flip flops, developed by surfers: http://www.metaef
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cient.com/metaef
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cient/archives/clothing/splaff-flopps.htm...
I just want to make a phone call - the new Nokia N91 has a 4GB hard drive, camera, Wi-
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/Bluetooth, mp3 player, headphone jack, USB connector, FM radio, Web browser, and records video...
And they're closer to making a quantum-based computer by
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guring out how to make atom lattices...
"The Wal-Mart 'Foundation' is nothing more than a front group for Wal-Mart Stores Incorporated, and should not be confused for a real charitable non-pro
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t"...
Now classi
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ed military research is making inroads into the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dozens of students and faculty have occupied the administration building in a rare sit-in...
"U.S.
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gures Show Sharp Global Rise In Terrorism - State Dept. Will Not Put Data in Report"...
Canada once took in 50,000 Vietnam-era draft dodgers. But today it's denying political asylum to those who refuse to participate in the Iraq war...
Some privacy measures are at least being considered for the new R
fi
D-enabled U.S. passport...
Anti-terror laws are resulting in sophisticated software that can track every
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nancial transaction no matter how small...
46 bene
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ts of building green...
Bamboo bikes could be a great industry for bamboo-
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lled regions...
The all-wood musical door/doorchime based on the African tongue drum. What a great concept! http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/a_doorway_to_pa.ph...
Doonesbury's take on
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le sharing...
The beautiful long-lost music of Red Hash, circa 1973: http://blog
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les.wfmu.org/BT/Gary_Higgins_-_Thicker_Than_A_Smokey.mp...
21st Century Music Videos http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/gate/archive/2005/04/29/notes042905.DT...
April 18 to 24, 2005
If you have a used mobile phone, you could try shipping it to this non-pro
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t...
The
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rebox is the most compact, fully-featured
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reWire recording interface I've ever seen. Looks like it should be excellent for recording on the road with a laptop...
The EU last year
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ned Microsoft $700 million for abusing its near-monopoly in the software industry. Meanwhile, an EU Commissioner who could affect the amount of these
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nes was invited to a lavish...
Another case of copyright law going too far - in Ghana, folk artists could be imprisoned,
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ned, or both...
"By approving liquid marijuana, the Canadian government has just certi
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ed that virtually everything our own government has been telling us about marijuana is wrong"...
Partly thanks to its sale of hybrid cars, Toyota expects to see its best
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rst quarter in 48 years. GM expects to lose $850 million that same quarter due to short term bets on "cheap" and "plentiful...
Power utilities can fund the migration to greener technologies by selling "green power", like the Tennessee Valley Authority is doing: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/green_power_in.ph...
The DIY solar cycle holds its own solar panels: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/don_dunkees_diy.ph...
Ecologically responsible hostels can be ef
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cient and beautiful (and a source of income and workers for organic farms)...
April 11 to 17, 2005
This week saw a number of pro
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les of a new generation of activists. Some use the latest technology to promote the environment, some are resorting to radical measures to make their voices heard, an...
I get some traf
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c to this site from people looking for information on Devendra Banhart. Here's a great beginner's overview of "freak folk", with information on artists, albums, influences, and musi...
Here's the
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refox logo in SVG...
It's of
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cial - all the greatest new technology will be here in
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ve years...
"Half of U.S. taxpayers
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ling online"...
If case you're wondering why I'm so concerned about this topic, that's because I work for an R
fi
D startup and know full well the problems this can cause...
Did you know that samples of a flu virus were mistakenly sent to 3,700 labs around the world and that some have gone missing? This normally would not cause worry except for the fact that the virus i...
Ef
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cient hydroponic growing - did you know that clorophyll runs on red light? Lettuce matures three times faster when growing under red LEDs, which also cut electric bills by 60%...
A request for proposals to turn health
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tness centers and gyms into power plants...
Hey, developers - check out the Green Building Products directory: http://www.metaef
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cient.com/metaef
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cient/archives/building/green-building-products-released.htm...
The Mother Jones graphic expose on the modern house: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/this_new_house.ph...
A reader poll reveals the ugliest cars of 2005. I de
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nitely agree with the top four...
Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails made a song available in Apple's GarageBand format. This is likely the
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rst time a musician has released the editable digital raw tracks to a song online. Let's se...
April 4 to 10, 2005
Low-power FM (LPFM) radio, devised by the FCC to provide an alternative to corporate-centric radio, is now being dominated by Christian radio networks, effectively limiting the diversity of loca...
This may promote the growth of more Earth graf
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ti though, not to mention (ugh) advertisements. I can easily see ad campaigns making use of this...
A pro
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le on one of the
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rst real 21st century superstars, journalist, blogger, polyglot, and hot babe Xeni Jardin...
How well is the U.S. doing regarding the 14 de
fi
ning characteristics of fascism? You may not agree with all of the points, but a few sure hit the mark...
Scientists are
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guring out ways to stimulate neurons remotely with laser beams and are already controlling fruit flies...
China spends three times the world average on energy to produce $1 of gross domestic product - and 70% of its energy comes from coal. Because the U.S. isn't in the Kyoto accord, imported Chines...
A more balanced, scenario-laden view of the U.N.-backed Millenium Ecosystem Assessment, mentioned last week: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/millenium_ecosy.ph...
With 99% con
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dence, researchers have found that planetary biodiversity comes and goes roughly every 62 million years, and may be due to astrophysical causes. Looking at the graph, I think we're at ...
Meanwhile, Swiss biotech
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rm Syngenta was
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ned for "mistakenly" selling hundreds of tons of experimental GMO corn seed not yet approved for human consumption to the U.S. and Europe...
Hey developers! Use Ecoglo, non-radioactive, non-toxic, non-battery-using technology for your emergency lighting systems: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/passive_emergen.ph...
Art made via electromagnetic
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elds...
March 28 to April 3, 2005
What blows my mind is that many of the documents I examined and commented on came from the 1992 hypertext www-talk archives, which I helped archive in the
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rst place, using software that I wrot...
Also, info about the vanadium battery, which retains its energy inde
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nitely with 100% charge/discharge cycles...
For Web developers - this new simple PHP Bayesian
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lter allows one to develop spam
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lters, categorization tools, and technology that learns by example...
Here's a slightly new way to visualize large graphs - topological
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sheye views...
In 2001 Poland hired a marketing
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rm to rebrand themselves. Focus groups said Poland made them think of the words gray, cold, vodka, poor, white, unsmiling, sad, and car-stealing...
Derren Brown uses basic psychological principles to perform amazing "mind-reading" and mass hypnotism tricks: http://www.iht.com/articles/2005/03/27/news/pro
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le.htm...
Homeland Security is now calling its R
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D chips in U.S. passports "contactless chips" because it sounds safer. Unfortunately, without encryption they'll make it easier than ever for terrorists to
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n...
"The Making of the Twenty-
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rst-Century Soldier...
G.M.'s vice-chairman, on why he thinks people will still buy big SUVs: "Rich people don't care": http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/04/from_the_cuttin.ph...
Things to use when clean water gets scarce - the AquaPak costs a dollar to make, runs on solar, and can purify up to four gallons of water a day: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/03/aquapak_1.ph...
Here's a package for turning empty roofs into green ones: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/03/instant_green_r.ph...
This new book provides a visual guide to sprawl: http://www.metaef
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cient.com/metaef
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cient/archives/book-reviews/book-review-
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eld-guide-to-sprawl-demetaef
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cient.htm...
Jared Tarbell's Gallery of Computation continues to get more beautiful and eerily biological at the same time: http://www.complexi
fi
cation.net/gallery...
Sin City is the
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rst true movie/graphic novel hybrid. Here's a comic-to-screen comparison...
March 21 to 27, 2005
This was a top item in news all over the world this week: Banksy, an artist mostly known for his quality graf
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ti work, snuck into New York's most famous museums and af
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xed his anti-war work to th...
Rock group Franz Ferdinand's music video "Take Me Out" won the "Breakthrough Video" award at the 2005 MTV Video Music Awards. It uses high-tech techniques to create dense living collages patterne...
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nally, indie rock group the Decemberists released a high-res version of their music video "Sixteen Military Wives" via
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le sharing. They are among the
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rst musicians to release a music vide...
Two hand-cranked blenders are tough enough to chop ice: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/03/lehmans_handcra.ph...
Here's a cool new food trend - food balls! They can be very healthy, can be dipped, they're easy to pack and store, make good snacks, and require no utensils to eat...
Los Alamos National Lab scientists
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nd a way to detect
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ngerprints via their chemical residue...
Environment Hawaii, an independent, nonpro
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t, award-winning publication that has been around for nearly 15 years may be going out of business due to lack of
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nancial support. It's the last 100...
At last, "rising gas prices threaten viability of biggest SUV sales". Note that many Americans are still buying inef
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cient vehicles and driving them farther to boot...
Renting a car on Maui or Oahu? Try the Bio-Beetle, the
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rst all-biodiesel rental cars in the world...
A new newspaper column only reviews cars that do better than 30 mpg. Let's see more columns like this: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/03/ecodriver_1.ph...
The bene
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cial powers of darkness and listening to one's body clock...
"The Basics on Genetically Modi
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ed Foods...
Here's the best article on the walking octopus I could
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nd...
U.S. music sales rise, despite massive amounts of
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le sharing action on the net...
March 14 to 20, 2005
A nice quote from the Molokai land flap mentioned last week: "The controversy is hard to explain from the Western perspective that land is something to be bought, owned and sold to make pro
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t.....
The
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rst modern robotic shoe changes shape to match the terrain you're running on...
The 4GB hard-drive camcorder: http://www.gizmodo.com/gadgets/digital-cameras/jvc/
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rst-impressions-jvc-everio-hard-disk-camera-036324.ph...
The
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rst R
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D reader/writer in SD card format...
For the
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rst time, people can visualize the characters in most of the written languages of the world at once...
Here's the
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refly cell phone for kids...
Here's the story of Simlish, the
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ctional language of the very popular video game "The Sims", and the people behind it...
A planned device allegedly "destroys" R
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D tags...
Breast-enhancing bubble gum is popular in Japan these days: http://timeso
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ndia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1056493.cm...
March 7 to 13, 2005
Trashing Hawaii http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/g/a/2005/03/09/gree.DT...
The totally customizable Ergodex DX1 Input System.
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nally, we can design our input devices to
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t how we think, instead of the other way around...
The S.F. Chronicle
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nally gets RSS feeds...
Power to the people? For the
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rst time a blogger is given access to a White House press brie
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ng...
One of my pet topics - what happens to your data and online personality after you die? This article uses the case of Aaron Huth, who still has an online presence (and bank account) a year after hi...
China is
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ghting the Tibetan exile administration with computer virii...
A salmon may be the "
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rst genetically enhanced animal sold for consumption in the United States"...
Learning From Nature http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/03/london_antiflye.ph...
There's lots of great interface ideas and art in the Flash
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lm Festival
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nalists...
"I don't see / the point of Haiku / in English" - the
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rst(?) haiku poetry slam...
For the
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rst time, a music festival has released its entire live content online - 2.6GB worth...
February 28 to March 6, 2005
Howard Stringer becomes Sony's
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rst non-Japanese CEO, after
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ve years of stock declines and poor business decisions. The beginning of the end was circa 1998, when the mp3 community (then a loos...
The Vectrix electric scooter gets up to 62mph: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/03/vectrix_electri_1.ph...
More TV shows should do this - you can watch "Battlestar Galactica" while listening to this podcast with show commentary at the same time: http://www.sci
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.com/battlestar/downloads/podcast...
There are now at least 50 million Web sites on the net: http://news.netcraft.com/archives/2004/05/03/may_2004_web_server_survey_
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nds_50_million_sites.htm...
More on T-Mobile's security - an undocumented backdoor in their systems allowed a hacker to gain access to extremely con
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dential customer information, including people's data from their Sidekicks...
"A man who recently had received radiation treatment... set off a nuclear alert detector on a
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re engine, prompting police to close down a roadway in Escondido while authorities searched for ...
This biometric pen veri
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es your signature...
A friend wrote this article about the Kolea, a
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ve ounce bird that has been flying from Alaska to Hawaii annually for the last 120,000 years...
Meanwhile, a man convicted of copying Oscar
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lms online died in prison...
The online rerelease of the acclaimed animated short "Balance": http://www.put
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le.com/media.php?n=balanc...
February 21 to 27, 2005
To those electronics manufacturers who have been talking trash about the iPod, I would counter: stop burdening your devices with needless features and design bling bling - usable elegance is the ne...
The late Hunter S. Thompson often visited Hawaii and wrote many infamous things there. Here's the best take on him, by Honolulu-based writer William Moake: http://starrbooks.net
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rms.com/thompson.ht...
New super-cool solar roof tiles blend invisibly into housetops. Let's see these around town! http://www.metaef
fi
cient.com/metaef
fi
cient/archives/independent-power/new-solar-tiles-introduced.htm...
Decomposable pod-like eco-cof
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ns...
Canada's Oscar-winning animated short
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lm "Ryan"...
It isn't perfect, but I like the clean, no-frills information design of Metacritic: http://www.metacritic.com/
fi
lm...
The
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rst Grammy winner in the Best Hawaiian Music Album category, "Slack Key Guitar Volume 2", hit number one on Billboard's World Music chart and number two on the New Age chart. If you buy it, kee...
February 14 to 20, 2005
I went to the last meeting of 106 Miles, a new Silicon Valley entrepreneur's group organized by Joyce Park, my colleague at CommerceNet. If you'd like to get your
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nger on the pulse of the Valle...
New groovy stuff from the DEMO 2005 conference! Here's Bubbler, an app that allows you to make your own multimedia blogs, from
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ve Across...
Scientists create the
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rst deafness "cure" using gene therapy...
The mating scent of the German cockroach has been found - here's the clever methods scientists used: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/news/archive/2005/02/17/national/w110206S34.DT...
The
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rst sub-$100
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ve-megapixel digital camera...
The transparent TV, projected on holographic
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lm...
GoDaddy is offering free one-year SSL certi
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cates to open source projects...
Chloroflourocarbon-free expanded polystyrene housing can withstand the worst earthquakes recorded and is energy-ef
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cient too...
The Gra
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k Dynamo assembles random words and images from the Web into strangely compelling and surreal comic strips...
Funny
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nger artistry. Select "GB" and then "videos"...
Jazz composer Maric Schneider is likely the
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rst artist ever to win a Grammy for an album that was solely distributed on the Web...
February 7 to 13, 2005
Want to make something that can help others? Consult 43 Things
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rst to see what people want to do...
The battery-free wind-up remote control: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/02/battery_free_re_1.ph...
An Ikea store opening in London turns into a riot, leaving 20 with heat exhaustion and
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ve in the hospital...
Careful, identity thieves can masquerade as legitimate wireless hotspots: http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&u=/usatoday/20050207/bs_usatoday/identitythievescanlurkatwi
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spot...
44% of U.S.
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sh and Wildlife Service scientists feel
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ndings were suppressed that would require greater protection of endangered species...
Genetically modi
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ed plants are proving to be an excellent way to clean up toxic soils...
A pretty good study of the contents of the Red Bull energy drink, recently approved for sale in Canada: http://www.cbc.ca/consumers/market/
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les/health/redbull/index.htm...
A new study shows that melatonin may have broader effects in the brain than previously thought: http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2005/02/07_melatonin
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n.shtm...
This man has converted 15 diesel Mercedes to run on biodiesel, with 15 to go: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/g/a/2005/02/09/mrcedeswrang.DT...
View all of the 2005 Super Bowl ads here, including the rejected and/or censored ones: http://dyn.i
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lm.com/superbowlads...
Reality Is Subjective http://www.optillusions.com/dp/
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les/1-67.jp...
January 31 to February 6, 2005
It's sad how behind the times car stereo manufacturers are when it comes to portable digital music. All I want is a cheap $50 preamp with a minijack line-in and perhaps a USB port to stick my shuffl...
The
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rst arti
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cial neon sky show. Unfortunately, implications for advertising...
Microsoft is mad about all the Apple iPods that employees are buying and using at work: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/gate/archive/2005/02/04/notes020405.DT...
The music industry sued an 83-year-old dead woman for
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le sharing...
The Rich Get Richer http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/c/a/2005/02/03/MNG6UB51391.DT...
One in three high school students think the
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rst Amendment "goes too far" in the rights it guarantees...
This Week's Gloom and Doom http://scienti
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camerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa003&articleID=00075CA5-47E3-11E4-87E383414B7F000...
Make your own
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res in the coming apocalypse with this gadget...
California's explosion of autism cases worsened last year: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
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le=/c/a/2005/02/04/MNGH2B60I41.DT...
Cool little animated movies from sheep
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lms...
Fantasy cof
fi
ns in Ghana...
A
fi
lm about Nomi, the strange yet influential bleeding-edge 80's artist...
January 24 to 30, 2005
It's time for Hawaii to promote innovate mixed-use businesses that foster community development. Mentioned last week was the concept of "bike stations", which could be placed next to mas...
How about a wi-
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cafe combined with a print-on-demand bookstore? Now that so many book sales are online, how about putting the bookstore in the cafe instead of the cafe in the bookstore? A suitabl...
The high cost of
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lming in Hawaii is leading productions to think twice about shooting in the islands. This article compares Hawaii's incentives to other locations...
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nally, an MP3 player with a swappable 2.5-inch hard drive...
Bio-nano
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bers and bio-luminescent transistors are allowing the development of transparent, flexible displays...
Scientists
fi
nd a way to create petri
fi
ed wood in days. Implications for new types of
fi
lters...
This was the week of world-wide coincidences that could only happen thanks to the wonder of the Internet. Now that so many are sharing photos online, people are beginning to
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nd interestin...
The
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rst feature
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lm to be delivered via wireless internet technology was shown at the Sundance
fi
lm Festival...
Whole-grain foods are becoming an industry trend. Wonder Bread now makes a whole-grain alternative, following "unprecedented consumer interest in healthier foods"...
Why don't local supermarkets sell reusable shopping bags at time of checkout? Here's how some towns in Australia managed to ban disposable plastic bags at supermarkets, saving 350,000 bags in th...
The wind-up cell phone charger: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/01/windup_charger_1.ph...
The Pack 'n' Chair, a foldable chair/backpack/cooler: http://loose-
fi
t.com/product_info.php?cPath=45_25&products_id=299&osCsid=4cebe08aa4a90409b3643bd7f247096...
"A Scanner Darkly", which may be the most faithful adaptation of a Philip K. Dick novel ever made. The style is similar to but goes far beyond that of Linklater's previous
fi
lm "Waking Life"...
January 17 to 23, 2005
I had the pleasure of listening to XM Satellite Radio all week (which was bundled with my Alamo rental car) while working in Mountain View, CA. It sounds great and the music choices are wonderful...
I went to the Palo Alto Apple Store, which until 1995 used to be Swain's House of Music, where the Grateful Dead played a few times and where it's rumored that Jerry Garcia bought one of his
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rs...
UK scientists
fi
nd the natural human-produced chemicals that repel mosquitos...
Cornell researchers
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gure out how to make plastic from citrus fruits and CO2, eliminating the need to use petroleum to make plastics...
A new solar hot water heater is 30 to 40% more ef
fi
cient than flat plate solar systems...
Need thermal or acoustic insulation? Use eco-friendly itch-free insulation products: http://www.treehugger.com/
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les/2005/01/bonded_logic_sm.ph...
Never mind the U.S. - electronics companies are using less lead in products thanks to European Union regulations...
January 10 to 16, 2005
If you're an average PC user, you'd be insane to keep a Windows machine at this point. I've spent more time removing viruses and
fi
xing problems on one friend's Windows XP box than the combined tim...
Remember last year when an onboard Windows system crashed, trapping the
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nance Minister of Thailand in his BMW...
Of course, note that you can create installations of hundreds of Mac minis (for computer labs and of
fi
ces), all remotely (and centrally) upgradable and managed via Apple Remote Desktop...
The makers of the popular Stuf
fi
t compression application have found a way to compress JPEG image
fi
les by up to 30%...
The new 555-seat Airbus A380 is the world's biggest airliner ever built. And it's more fuel ef
fi
cient than your car...
A new book, "Collapse", explores the reasons behind the fall of once-great civilizations. It outlines
fi
ve causes: environmental damage, climate change, hostile neighbors, loss of trade partners, an...
Some avid video game players are having dif
fi
culty separating reality from the game, thanks to the increasing quality of such technology...
The Web and the Internet are enabling more direct soldier-to-family communications that ever before. Hopefully, this will make societies more aware of the real costs of war...
The new vortex dehydration system turns trash into a
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ne dry powder and can reduce land
fi
ll volume by 90%. Those in Hawaii pondering the land
fi
ll problem should take note...
Unfortunately, it looks like the GM power train in Hawaii's new hybrid buses is not quite as fuel ef
fi
cient as promised...
One in
fi
ve FDA scientists were pressured to approve drugs they thought were unsafe. One described his work as "junk science". Not a good thing for our pill-popping society...
Another crack in the suburban facade: In the Bay Area, 50% of residents want new homes built closer to job centers...
How about introducing "bike stations" into areas, for commuting and socializing? http://www.treehugger.com/
fi
les/2005/01/bikestaions_com.ph...
Paper or plastic? Neither. Here's a great answer to this question: http://www.treehugger.com/
fi
les/2005/01/qa_retail_carry.ph...
Here's a link to a torrent
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le of ALL the USGS images in this archive...
The detailed and pretty scienti
fi
c art of Ernst Haeckel, 1899-1904...
January 1 to 9, 2005
Organic printable electronics give rise to printable R
fi
D tags that cost less than
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ve cents each...
The genome of a pollution-eating bacterium has been decoded, leading to more ef
fi
cient garbage-eating biotools...
The recently opened Tropical Island Resort in Germany, a manmade environment in a massive modi
fi
ed hanger that could
fi
t the Statue of Liberty...
Nothing lasts - Buddhist monks who have meditated on corpses
fi
nd themselves well-suited to help with cremating thousands of tsunami victims. "We just sort of live in denial of the fact that we hav...
The top ten war pro
fi
teers of 2004...
Do SUVs make you stupid? http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/g/a/2005/01/07/notes010705.DTL&type=printabl...
Has Somender Singh, a mechanic from India, developed an invention that makes conventional engines 20% more fuel ef
fi
cient...
Monsanto paid a $1.3 million penalty to settle charges of bribing the Indonesian government to help facilitate the cultivation of its genetically modi
fi
ed crops...
An architecture
fi
rm is turning the considerable amount of waste from Boston's massive Big Dig project into of
fi
ce buildings and groovy-looking modern housing...
For the ultra-sustainable lifestyle, refer to http://www.metaef
fi
cient.com/metaef
fi
cient/archives/book-reviews/using-urine-to-grow-plants.htm...
New eco-friendly cork tiles resist mildew naturally: http://www.treehugger.com/
fi
les/2005/01/cork_mosaic_til.ph...
December 13 to 19, 2004
Hawaii Transportation Systems Get Digital http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/12/13/daily32.htm...
Researchers
fi
nd a new ef
fi
cient way to convert water into hydrogen by using high temperature...
A detailed technical analysis of the BitTorrent
fi
le sharing protocol, which consumes 35% of ALL internet traf
fi
c...
Yahoo! Maps now overlays live traf
fi
c conditions on its maps. How about antialiasing those map lines
fi
rst before doing any new, folks...
A nice-looking homemade iPod ad is the
fi
rst true homebrew ad on the net...
Technology that helps
fi
ght "griefers", or people in online multiplayer games that do nothing but kill and loot, frustrating everyone else. Implications for social systems...
A dialect map of American English. I had a suspicion that "San Francisco Urban" was a dialect, but didn't know it was of
fi
cial...
Why the Portland REI store is one of the greenest retail stores in the U.S.: http://www.treehugger.com/
fi
les/2004/12/rei_portland_go.ph...
Precast concrete walls that use recycled material and are up to 50% more energy ef
fi
cient than regular walls...
100% corn-based packaging now in use: http://www.metaef
fi
cient.com/metaef
fi
cient/archives/news/100-cornbased-packaging-now-in-use.htm...
Famous sci-
fi
writer Ursula K. Le Guin on how the Sci-
fi
Channel turned her Earthsea trilogy into racist dreck...
The ten most accurately rated artists in rock music history: http://www.spin.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&
fi
le=article&sid=52...
Create your own mini of
fi
ce cubicle hell with the Cubes plastic
fi
gure set...
December 6 to 12, 2004
I really like the design sense of the architects behind it, but am continually frustrated by the design of architects' Web sites. Architects typically have the least usable sites on the Internet ...
Aligned nanotubes improve arti
fi
cial joints...
"
fi
lm use fading like an old photo...
John Perry Barlow's
fi
ght against Homeland Security may set a legal precedent regarding searches...
"In sworn af
fi
davit, programmer says he developed vote-rigging prototype for Florida congressman; Congressman’s of
fi
ce silent"...
Place a remote camera on an eagle and this is what you get. See an eagle dog
fi
ght from the eagle's point of view...
An inspiring account of an organic farmer in Marin County, CA. - this is the future of farming: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/c/a/2004/12/11/MNGEPAAHR81.DT...
Here's a good resource for the enviro-conscious - treehugger.com: http://www.treehugger.com/
fi
les/2004/12/paper_vase_from.ph...
The Eiffel Tower has a skating rink for the
fi
rst time in 115 years...
Mark Morford details the long history of rock and roll selling out to corporate interests: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/gate/archive/2004/12/10/notes121004.DT...
November 29 to December 5, 2004
I've added a couple of experimental features to the blog which I'm still re
fi
ning - one is a "Topics" link which analyzes all the words I've written. The larger the word, the more common it is. Also...
"Anti-evolution teachings gain foothold in U.S. schools": http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/c/a/2004/11/30/MNGVNA3PE11.DT...
Rumors of Exeem, the true P2P evolution of BitTorrent. This will be the ultimate in
fi
le sharing...
"R
fi
D skills shortage predicted"...
Scientists
fi
gure out how to make hydrogen from sunflower oil. Does this mean that one day I'll be able to power my car from my cell phone compost pile...
November 22 to 28, 2004
I just
fi
nished watching "The End of Suburbia", a great and disturbing DVD I mentioned here previously. You can watch one of the included bonus movies "In the Suburbs" for free at the Prelinge...
Today a new blog is created every 5.8 seconds - here's the latest statistics on the state of the blogosphere. Over 90% of bloggers are 13 to 29 years old...
Brilliant! Blog Torrent, written in PHP, enables one to serve large
fi
les from their servers using BitTorrent...
November 15 to 21, 2004
New businesses are sprouting up to meet demand for the new
fi
refox browser, now used by 19% of users according to some...
Timekeeping has just become more accurate, and the second is rede
fi
ned for the
fi
rst time in 37 years...
Tyranny of the few: A $1.2 million indecency
fi
ne levied against Fox by the FCC was brought on by only three people, of the millions that watched one show...
The arti
fi
cial disc - "the
fi
rst major breakthrough in back surgery since the 1940s"...
The band Wilco had so much success with giving away their
fi
rst album online, they've done it with their second. Here's an enlightening interview...
November 8 to 14, 2004
"The Persuaders" - now: This show aired on Frontline this week exploring advertising's latest evolution - it's all about narrowcasting and emotional advertising that speaks to your "inner lizard" an...
Ever need to do a little research yourself on the latest trends? Just go to Google News and search for a few key phrases, sorted by date. Here are four: "international survey", "scienti
fi
...
Scientists have created the "photocapacitor", a more ef
fi
cient solar cell/battery combination...
The
fi
rst 15-minute charger that will recharge any NiMH battery...
"Creative Consequences of the Rights Clearance Culture for Documentary
fi
lmmakers" - the
fi
lm "Tarnation" may have cost $200 to make, but it cost $500,000 to clear the rights for it. Stric...
The story behind the
fi
ve-year development of Half-Life 2, which could be one of the greatest PC videogames of all time and make over $700 million in revenues worldwide...
Unemployment among IT workers is higher than the overall jobless rate for the
fi
rst time in over 30 years...
Yes, you can
fi
lter cheap vodka to make it taste better than expensive vodka, all with a Brita water
fi
lter pitcher and one hour...
This Dutch
fi
lm caused the murder of its director on November 2. The Netherlands is now experiencing attacks on Islamic mosques, churches, and schools. Can fundamentalism ever coexist with worl...
So maybe that "who voted by IQ" article last week was a little bogus. But here's a veri
fi
able list of the most charitable states versus how they voted...
An interesting interview with a man that has collected over 900,000 mp3
fi
les online, for posterity's sake...
November 1 to 7, 2004
fi
rst, the best analysis, as given by Stephen Colbert of "The Daily Show" (movie)...
Fear and Ignorance http://chrisevans3d.com/
fi
les/iq.ht...
Boeing's high-tech 7E7 jetliner slated for a 2008 launch will
fi
nally allow cabin humidity to approach humane levels...
"The world is on the verge of a water crisis as people
fi
ght over ever dwindling supplies"...
Things That Return To Bite Us http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/c/a/2004/10/31/MNG5O9JIJQ1.DT...
"Ag-tourism becomes $35 million business for Hawaii" http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/11/01/daily1.html?jst=b_ln_h...
Healthy Clothing http://www.metaef
fi
cient.com/metaef
fi
cient/archives/news/wholefoods-to-start-selling-organic-clothing.htm...
October 25 to 31, 2004
Ready for the election? "Tight race turns world spotlight on Hawaii": http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/10/26/daily1.htm...
Yes, the same Hart eSlate voting machines used in Hawaii caused Democratic votes to turn into Republican ones in Austin, Texas: http://www.kevcom.com/kevsnews/
fi
les/hart...
The world's
fi
rst single atom-thick fabric...
The
fi
rst spring water to be packaged in a compostable bottle. We need more biodegradable packaging...
The
fi
rst CD/DVD hybrid discs appear in stores...
The
fi
rst Networked Open Source Community...
What We Actually Have In Common Dept. http://condor.depaul.edu/~m
fi
ddler/hyphen/humunivers.ht...
Yes, the U.S. knows where Osama is. And he's still getting "only" $1 million a year from his family: http://timeso
fi
ndia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/898084.cm...
Who Plays Osama? http://www.hummingbird
fi
lms.com/whoplaysosama...
"Energy and America's Future" http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/chronicle/archive/2004/10/24/MNG4C9FF1L1.DT...
Guess we'll all be eating squid in the future. There are more squids than humans by biomass now, thanks to over
fi
shing and climate change...
Sustainable flooring made with cork and bamboo: http://www.metaef
fi
cient.com/metaef
fi
cient/archives/flooring/expanko-regenerative-flooring.htm...
A series of funny, thoughtful short
fi
lms about people and technology...
The RIAA issues its
fi
rst gold, platinum, and multiplatinum certi
fi
cations for digitally downloaded music...
October 18 to 24, 2004
Re-establishing the Ancient Internet http://www.bluecoast.org/nonpro
fi
t/kanaloa/k19.htm...
New printable R
fi
D labels meet Wal-Mart requirements...
USB flash drives with a thumbprint reader: http://news.com.com/Memory+stick+turns+
fi
ngerprints+into+passwords/2110-1041_3-5421645.html?tag=prntf...
Ever needed a private room for adults? Yamaha's got one: http://www.techjapan.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&
fi
le=article&sid=59...
R.I.P. shirts are popular in high-homicide areas, where rappers wear shirts with the names and photos of victims they don't even know...
About Blake Ross, the 19-year-old lead architect of
fi
refox, the browser downloaded by almost 3 million...
Indymedia is still no closer to
fi
guring out who seized their servers via subpoena two weeks ago...
"Heavy traf
fi
c bad for your heart"...
Warm of
fi
ces are linked to higher productivity...
fi
ve trips that can change your life, part
fi
ve - volunteer vacations...
The
fi
rst 100% solar-powered winery...
A living neural network taken from a rat's brain interacts with an F-22
fi
ghter jet flight simulator...
October 11 to 17, 2004
The
fi
rst waterless dishwater uses supercritical carbon dioxide...
The
fi
rst hotel with iris identi
fi
cation. One day you'll just walk into your room, no check-in needed...
Adam Rifkin's great summary of the recent Web 2.0 conference: http://i
fi
ndkarma.typepad.com/relax/2004/10/web_20.htm...
"Center for the Digital Future Identi
fi
es the 10 Major Trends Emerging in the Internet’s
fi
rst Decade of Public Use" - TV down, net up, averaging 12.5 hrs/week...
"Alarming trend in spyware could undermine IT industry" http://www.
fi
nancialexpress.com/fe_full_story.php?content_id=7166...
CARLSON: You need to get a job at a journalism school... STEWART: You need to go to one. Jon Stewart blasts big media on "Cross
fi
re"...
Printer forensics can now trace documents to speci
fi
c (laser) printers...
The American health care system continues to flounder, with employer insurance increasing 11% in 2004: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/c/a/2004/10/11/MNGII96CVP1.DT...
Can nano
fi
ltration solve the world's water problems...
Transparent ventilator bricks keep 85% of noise out: http://www.reactual.com/metaef
fi
cient/archives/materials/silenceair-noise-blocking-bricks.htm...
Crate & Barrel switches to "Geami", a new tissue-based biodegradable, recyclable, ef
fi
cient packing material...
Absolutely beautiful photography at
fi
le Magazine...
October 4 to 10, 2004
Most visitors to Hawaii come in twos and stay on one island. Why not provide an alternative to space-hogging rental cars in Waikiki? And you could
fi
t a lot more of these things on the upcomin...
fi
nally, a startup uses BitTorrent-like tech for online movies...
Podcasting puts audio content you want to hear on your iPod. One day you can podcast Howard Stern from XM Radio! http://www.idealog.us/2004/10/grif
fi
n_radiosh.htm...
"A senior U.S. military intelligence of
fi
cer says that information obtained from prisoners at Guantanamo has proved useless in the war on terror"...
JibJab's new "Good to be in DC!" short: http://atom
fi
lms.shockwave.com/content/goodtobeindc/frameset.html?track=0&ratingBar=of...
Another proposal for plasma arc/gasi
fi
cation technology in Hawaii. Could it solve Oahu's "land
fi
ll crisis"...
September 27 to October 3, 2004
Hart Intercivic makes those evoting machines that people in Hawaii will be using in the upcoming general election. Here's a recent article about a letter written by a former Hart technician wh...
Suburbia is a health hazard - a new study has found that not only are people less healthy due to overdependence on cars, but from a community design perspective, it's a very inef
fi
cient way to live...
"Greenlanders Mysti
fi
ed by Incredible Shrinking Glacier"...
Ooh, cool jelly
fi
sh lights.....
Sarah McLachlan's video "World On
fi
re" breaks down the cost of making a music video vs. contributing to charities...
September 20 to 26, 2004
Hawaii's special-effects industry has some heavy hitters. Kai Bovaird, who set up a local shop, made effects for the Matrix. "There's de
fi
nitely skilled people (in Hawaii) but you need serious an...
IBM scientists
fi
gure out how to make single-atom magnetic measurements, possibly leading to super-dense storage media...
A new permanent coating prevents glass from fogging up and can make solar cells more ef
fi
cient...
The
fi
rst dental chair to use bone-conducting speakers, preventing patients from drill noises...
The
fi
rst half of 2004 saw 5,000 new Windows viruses...
Due to high-priced dorms, Berkeley students are
fi
nding it cheaper to rent mansions...
In response to online classi
fi
eds, newspapers are holding their own local auctions...
A new report
fi
nds that wood is one of the most environmentally-sensitive building materials...
Researchers are
fi
nding ways to reduce buckyball toxicity...
The state-of-the-art in scienti
fi
c visualization...
Time-lapse road trip - LA to New York in
fi
ve minutes...
September 13 to 19, 2004
Ditch buggy Internet Explorer! Spread
fi
refox...
PCs are getting hotter and hotter as their complexity and power consumption increases: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/chronicle/archive/2004/09/13/BUG2M8N2GB1.DT...
Why are political polls "a sham"?
fi
rst, they don't call people with cell phones...
"While a student at Southern Methodist University in the 1960s,
fi
rst lady Laura Bush was known 'as a go-to girl for dime bags of marijuana.'...
Beer may have the same bene
fi
ts as wine...
More links to ecological burial resources: http://www.meta
fi
lter.com/me
fi
/3566...
September 5 to 12, 2004
Hawaiian man
fi
ghts to reclaim family's lan...
The CyberLite LED is one of the products made with the above methods: http://www.electronicproducts.com/ShowPage.asp?SECTION=3130&PRIMID=&
fi
leName=marHL1.mar200...
"Bush: 'Our Long National Nightmare of Peace And Prosperity Is
fi
nally Over'...
August 30 to September 5, 2004
Last year's Labor Day vigil at the sacred hill Pu'u Ohau, at the edge of the un
fi
nished elite Hokulia estate and golf course development on top of ancient Hawaiian burial grounds. Kupunas calle...
Disney creates a revolution in
fi
reworks by creating a compressed air launching system. Air-launched
fi
reworks are more precise, less polluting, safer, and can be launched higher. How about using thi...
The
fi
rst room temperature plastic magnets are created...
The world's
fi
rst detailed view (and reconstruction) of an Egyptian mummy's face, without disturbing the wrappings, thanks to multidetector computed tomography...
Over the last 20 years 4,000 corrupt Chinese of
fi
cials have fled with over $600 million...
Are you an inef
fi
cient hypertasker? Workplace pressures, inadequate tools cause stress. I say this is a technology problem, not a brain problem...
This week's 12 and 16-year-olds marked as terrorists and apprehended by the Secret Service: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/c/a/2004/09/01/DDGUR8GVCN1.DT...
Do you like Jim Woodring's surreal comic Frank? Here's the
fi
rst animated short based on same...
New anime
fi
lms from the masters are coming...
August 22 to 29, 2004
All about the Hawaii Superferry, which starts service in 2006 and will change island life as we know it: http://paci
fi
c.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/08/02/story3.htm...
The world's
fi
rst movie recording on a preformatted holographic disc...
fi
nally, Coke vending machine offers cashless purchases via cell phones...
fi
ve photons have been linked in an milestone experiment that will lead to full-scale quantum computing...
Yet another "revolutionary spam
fi
rewall"...
A new poll shows growing support for voter-veri
fi
ed paper trails in elections...
Enterprise housing - creating affordable, sustainable housing in urban, mixed-use environments: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/gate/archive/2004/08/24/carollloyd.DTL&type=printabl...
"Breakthrough reached in
fi
ght against fruit fly"...
The
fi
rst interior commercial space in Hawaii to get gold certi
fi
cation from the U.S. Green Building Council...
August 15 to 22, 2004
Idea of the Week: Nature Cemeteries What a great concept: there's less cost and waste for the industry, there's a pent-up demand, land is conserved (and preserved), and it's cheaper for consumers...
Everything you wanted to know about the Natatorium
fi
asco...
I was in line at the Kalihi DMV for two hours getting a replacement license. Three of six clerks are working, and those working spend about 30 seconds each transaction just retrieving paper-base...
Movie Studios Lose In Case Against
fi
le-Sharing App...
The
fi
rst invisible barcode system, using spray-on DNA-encapsulated inorganic nanomaterial (whew)...
New technologies ease the pain of (hospital) needles: http://web.mit.edu/newsof
fi
ce/2004/sonoprep.htm...
Unpatched PCs are compromised in 20 minutes. Someone should make a tiny USB-powered
fi
rewall device for upgrading PCs...
The Olympics is selling a lot less tickets than desired: http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/c/a/2004/08/18/OLYEMPTYSEATS.TM...
"If the US Wants to Restore Con
fi
dence in Its Voting System It Must Learn Lessons from the Recent Elections in Venezuela"...
Hawaii lumber should be sustainable, especially these days when housing materials are in such demand! The HI Lumber Products Association launches a site...
Make your own mathematical
fi
dget-toy from paper...
The smallest guitar ampli
fi
er...
Got a Mac, guitar, and a microphone? Here's the cables: http://grif
fi
ntechnology.com/products/garageband_cables...
August 8 to 14, 2004
What to do about the War Memorial/Natatorium on Kaimana Beach, an unlabeled hazardous collapsing eyesore that's confused tourists and annoyed locals for 25 years? The one that will cost untol...
Revitalize the Waterfront and Downtown http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/02/02/daily50.htm...
Land-rich Hawaiians can no longer afford to live on Maui due to zooming property taxes. Such is the inevitable spiral of selling land, development, gentri
fi
cation, and overcrowding. "We're no...
The
fi
rst(?) chip to use ultrawideband technology...
"MIT study may hold key to boosting brainpower": http://web.mit.edu/newsof
fi
ce/2004/sheng.htm...
Fearful of viruses, hospitals running Windows-based medical systems are applying security patches, which themselves may lead to life-threatening situations...
The
fi
rst mobile phone virus...
E-commerce turns 10. Don't believe the hype-the
fi
rst secure online Web-based shopping transaction was done via Randy Adams' Internet Shopping Network, which I developed the interface for in 1994...
An analysis of
fi
les taken from a hard drive used in Al-Qaeda's operations. Insightful...
In what may be a
fi
rst, Warner Brothers encourages the distribution of online album tracks as part of a marketing campaign. Are they starting to get a clue...
August 2 to 8, 2004
The state will be left with no other mid-sized downtown venue for locals with a stage layout that can pull in 300 to 500 (restaurants don't count), meaning that small local acts and events won't b...
4) Implement arts-speci
fi
c loan programs and small-business assistance...
Casio develops the world's
fi
rst transparent ceramic lens, enabling smaller, thinner cameras...
New foot pontoons actually allow you to walk on water. Great for
fi
shing, water testing, workouts, and tourism...
All manner of new stamps have been appearing! The
fi
rst stamps to use lenticular printing (which gives an interlaced 3D effect)...
The story behind the Internet Movie Database, one of the most popular, useful Web sites ever made: http://www.laweekly.com/ink/04/37/features-
fi
nke.ph...
As seen in recent floods in Hawaii, storm drainage systems can clog up due to improper use. Could the use of permeable pavement systems help alleviate flooding in areas such as Manpunapuna? It'...
July 26 to August 1, 2004
In the meantime, check it out. I've got searching, archives, topic
fi
lters, and an RSS feed for syndication. You can search for things like "nytimes 2003 tech", which searches for all technology item...
They're not inspiring. The dif
fi
culty in developing a pat symbol for higher learning in Hawaii is a symptom of the loss of core, uniquely Hawaiian values and culture. Logo makers should look into th...
The
fi
rst debut of an entire TV show episode over the Internet...
The
fi
rst magazine for technology projects, "Make"...
The
fi
rst true city-wide wireless network...
Woohoo! The
fi
rst digital accordion...
A $230 million acquisition of an R
fi
D reader company. This technology is hot, hot, hot, people...
Kona Brewing Co. in Hawaii Kai is now a free wireless network hotspot! I'm spending more time there: http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/07/26/daily12.htm...
A great idea - putting city maps on traf
fi
c control boxes. Let's see these around town...
About the
fi
rst truly effective shark repellent, A-2...
July 19 to 25, 2004
An LED research breakthrough may lead to LEDs replacing lightbulbs in
fi
ve years...
Verizon debuts
fi
os, its broadband-over
fi
ber service, 30 times faster than DSL...
A very cool design concept - the circular printer. It's ef
fi
cient, fast, and small...
An inside look at the birth of the iPod. Its manager quit because he had no con
fi
dence it would be popular. He works for Microsoft now...
"Worship My Radiant iPod" http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/gate/archive/2004/07/23/notes072304.DTL&type=printabl...
The fascinating story of East Germany's most embarrassing defection - an intelligence of
fi
cer, a 16 year-old, and his mother. Here's a taste of what it's like to grow up in an atmosphere of povert...
A UH breakthrough - vegetable colorants show cancer-
fi
ghting properties...
Interesting comparisons between the latest digital SLRs and
fi
lm scans...
July 12 to 18, 2004
Tired of Hotmail and other free mail services that bombard you with junk mail and don't let you send large attachments? Try Spymac's new "Spymac mail", with a 3GB inbox, a 20MB attachment limit, jun...
Recent progress in 3D visualization technology allows "virtual excavation", in this case, the ability to completely examine the contents of a 3,000 year-old mummy without touching it...
One of my favorite sci-
fi
authors, Bruce Sterling, gives a hilarious, philosophical, and insightful talk about the "singularity", the point at which the pace of technology becomes too fast t...
The Stork - an animated
fi
lm...
During the summer, Of
fi
ce Depot is allowing people to drop off and recycle one electronics product per day, for free...
What globetrotting Laurie Anderson is up to these days, NASA's
fi
rst artist in residence...
The
fi
rst Vienna Vegetable Orchestr...
According to European copyright law, Elvis'
fi
rst big hit will enter the public domain in 2005, along with a lot of other still-selling music...
July 5 to 11, 2004
Have you ditched Internet Explorer yet? It's lost 1% in popularity so far, its
fi
rst recorded decline in
fi
ve years. That's about 300,000 people...
Will libraries be illegal? Brewster Kahle's Internet Archive aims to be the modern Library of Alexandria - here's a fascinating recent talk on his
fi
ght to archive digital media and create a fre...
After two years of noodling, Ford announces the
fi
rst hybrid SUV...
Genetic algorithms can help evolve a faster, more ef
fi
cient Internet...
"I think he's a big jerk" http://
fi
lm.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1256962,00.htm...
With this Mac application you can view the current top ten most purchased tracks from the iTunes Music Store in your menubar: http://www.wonderwarp.com/nine
fi
gures...
Steve Winwood's label "has seen a noticeable increase in record sales" thanks to putting a free track on
fi
le sharing networks...
June 28 to July 4, 2004
fi
nally, the U.S. government is "pleading" users to stop using Internet Explorer...
Instead, use the faster, better
fi
refox browser...
The
fi
rst(?) application for turning your cellphone into a universal remote control...
Car VIN (vehicle identi
fi
cation) numbers are running out. This is a much thornier problem than the Y2K issue. With fascinating information about how VIN numbers are encoded...
An Antarctic scienti
fi
c research vessel gets equipped with two heavy-caliber machine guns to
fi
ght
fi
sh poaching off of Australia...
Grow your own (nearly) all-grass armchair: http://www.
fi
rebox.com/index.html?dir=
fi
rebox&action=product&pid=85...
June 21 to 27, 2004
This week's theme: the Fahrenheit 9/11 effect Why should you move away from DSL to cable?
fi
rst, there's the new Supplier Federal Universal Service Fund (FUSF) Recovery Fee, which only applies to DS...
Second, the Carlyle Group is looking to buy Verizon Hawaii - this is just part of their recent massive purchases of telecoms in the Paci
fi
c region. The deal is "complex", as it involves a number o...
...while the Verizon deal will likely go through, people in Hawaii should see the
fi
lm and take the opportunity to reflect how the war will soon be affecting their lives in a very direct way...
The
fi
rst HDTV tuner PC card is here - get HDTV signals for free and watch 'em on your computer...
Texas is putting wireless net access into rest stops to encourage breaks - a great idea! http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=528&e=3&u=/ap/20040621/ap_on_bi_co_ne/wi_
fi
_rest_stop...
Real-time
fi
le sharing music popularity results reside at BigChampagne - this blows SoundScan out of the water, or could if the RIAA doesn't sue everybody...
Now here's a secondary BigChampagne report that indicates that "artists receiving little or no radio play are still gaining very signi
fi
cant activity on
fi
le sharing networks". Meaning...
June 14 to 20, 2004
Theme of the week: Humanity I just
fi
nished watching "The Corporation", an amazing
fi
lm that traces the roots, rights, and wrongs of the corporate entity. It ties together politics, global issues...
What does the military have to say about humanity? Here's a booklet carried by Vietnam soldiers which they were told to keep at all times: http://www.kevcom.com/kevsnews/
fi
les/humanity.pd...
This has been popular, but I love the quote: "[Defense]
fi
rms are about to pitch "a frightening new breed of stun gun" to police in America and Europe that has left human rights groups appalled abou...
"The
fi
ght of Our Lives...
Could this be the
fi
rst commercial Zeppelin of the 21st century...
Wal-Mart's R
fi
D-using suppliers exceed 100...
BusinessWeek reports that privacy battles are being won over R
fi
D...
"Genetically-modi
fi
ed virus explodes cancer cells"...
CD Origami http://www.sci.
fi
/~tenu/diag/2CD.gi...
June 7 to 13, 2004
New, smaller antennas can reach 100% ef
fi
ciency...
Lessons from the Wolf http://scienti
fi
camerican.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&colID=1&articleID=00076914-0667-10AA-84B183414B7F000...
May 31 to June 6, 2004
"BBN Tech Unveils World's
fi
rst Quantum Cryptography Network...
"For the second straight year, an Internet unknown won the famed World Series of Poker on Friday, ravaging a
fi
eld of professional players on his way to glory and riches....
"Childhood obesity in the United States looks signi
fi
cantly worse than previously believed, suggests the largest assessment ever of public school students....
Personal photos by the master Russian
fi
lmmaker Andrei Tarkovsky...
"Bad Hair Year" http://www.saywerd.com/
fi
les/badhairyear.htm...
May 24 to 30, 2004
A legend in urban design, octogenarian Jane Jacobs has written a new book analyzing North American culture called "Dark Ages Ahead"...
A growing trend - Dance Dance Revolution (DDR)! I
fi
rst saw this video game in a mall about eight months ago and was mesmerized by the dance moves of the teenager playing it. Basically, you have t...
The (
fi
rst?) roll-up electronic keyboard...
This site was down for a week or two due to popularity - it's better than the last "in
fi
nite spiral" picture I mentioned a month or so ago...
May 17 to 23, 2004
The
fi
rst 40-inch organic LED display...
Arti
fi
cial muscle technology is coming along...
Here's how Apple's nifty spam
fi
lter makes use of latent semantic analysis to successfully mark 98% of spam mail...
Two teen poetry students give a public anti-Iraq/Bush reading. Their teacher is
fi
red and the poetry club shut down...
Spain clubgoers are implanted with R
fi
D chips...
Rupert Murdoch's
fi
rst commercial waste-to-oil plant launched and makes 200 barrels a day from the turkey processing plant next door. It's 80% ef
fi
cient and runs on its own energy...
LANL researchers have
fi
gured out how to use nanotechnology to boost solar cell ef
fi
ciency as much as 37%...
The "organic" food label is losing its
fi
ght to mainstream mediocrity...
More pictures of the eco-prefab Glidehouse: http://www.fabprefab.com/fab
fi
les/fablist/031_Glidehouse_FL/glidehousestatus/sunsetglidehouse-interior.ht...
One of my favorite movies, THX-1138 (George Lucas'
fi
rst
fi
lm) is being rereleased on DVD. Hope he doesn't screw it up like he did Star Wars...
Will the RIAA create arti
fi
cial scarcity in the $3 billion cellphone ringtone market...
The New World Symphony uses Internet2 videoconferencing for orchestra training: http://news.com.com/Classical+
fi
nally+cracks+the+Internet/2100-1025_3-5218629.html?tag=nefd.to...
May 10 to 16, 2004
Topic of the week: More architecture! Architect Michelle Kaufmann is an American hero. She's the
fi
rst person to
fi
nally begin to ful
fi
ll Frank Lloyd Wright's dream of cheap quality homes, a goa...
"Thousands tour
fi
rst Glidehouse at Sunset - Interest in affordable, 'green,' modern prefab runs high:...
Better than the Pringles can! Use $3 Chinese cooking vat scoops to create wireless connections spanning about 7 miles! http://www.usbwi
fi
.orcon.net.nz/usbscoop.jp...
"They Rule" - a nifty way to visualize and
fi
nd connections between the leaders of the world's most powerful companies...
"E-
fi
ling nears 50 percent mark...
A study
fi
nds that people who don't work for their money are less satis
fi
ed than those who do...
A high school prom committee falls under legal
fi
re from the RIAA when it distributes a song played at the prom to students as a souvenir...
More about the RIAA fudging numbers to claim sales lost to
fi
le sharing...
More groovy green efforts from San Francisco: an ink jet cartridge recycler and an industrial composting company. This is a great model for cities to follow to get small businesses recycling compos...
May 3 to 9, 2004
* Sampo Bank in
fi
nland, shutting down 130 branche...
Over ten years since the
fi
rst Web survey mentioned women, marketers still have misconceptions about what women want online...
A new circular
fi
shing hook snags
fi
sh but not turtles...
The Volkswagen ball, from the Berkshire Botanical Garden. Sculpture by Lars-Erik
fi
sk...
Funny lists from a publisher on sci-
fi
and horror plots that are submitted too often...
April 26 to May 2, 2004
More news about the amazing Toyota Volta (the
fi
rst hybrid sports car) which looks great, goes from 0 to 60 in 4 seconds, and gets 40 mpg...
The Bose L1 is a revolutionary new PA system that points the way to new ampli
fi
cation technology - it eliminates poles, monitors, and bulky equipment, and is causing a stir in the music industry...
The portable Q barbecue is the best- designed small hibachi/grill I've ever seen: http://www.
fi
rebox.com/index.html?dir=
fi
rebox&action=product&pid=79...
Laser-based retinal imaging technology is
fi
nally maturing, with over 100 such displays now in use by the Army's Stryker Brigade...
A new open-source software kit turns batches of old, obsolete PCs into wireless community networks: http://wi
fi
netnews.com/archives/003279.htm...
The
fi
rst criminal charges under the nation's "can-spam" laws have been
fi
led...
"Green is good for tech
fi
rms - 'Clean' technologies drawing larger share of venture dollars"...
Before you laugh, try a little thinking outside of the box: Hawaii needs low-cost housing solutions - how about using used shipping containers? Many well-designed structures have been made worldwide...
Some are raising babies without diapers just
fi
ne...
April 19 to 25, 2004
This week's theme: helping Hawaii be more eco-tech-friendly. 1) Keep Act 221 to high-tech, and make a new act speci
fi
cally for television and movie production. The two industries have different needs...
A company has found a way to develop ethanol from waste straw and wood chips on a commercial scale, a world
fi
rst...
4) Endorse the use of lead-free computer systems, at least by government: The world's
fi
rst lead-free motherboard (the main component in personal computers) has been developed...
The
fi
rst fully-sustainable house has been developed - it's powered by solar and runs entirely on hydrogen...
Taking another cue from nature, airplane wings that morph in flight like a bird's with
fi
sh-like scales are being developed...
A review of the
fi
rst electronic paper- based reading device and its implications for libraries, books, and traditional reading habits...
With
fi
ve million installed systems, the open-source database MySQL is the most popular database in the world. Its corporate site receives more traf
fi
c than IBM's, and large companies are migrating t...
Some of the best entries in a Photoshop contest. Theme: merge two animals! http://wire
fi
sh.com/fark/iguana_eagle.jp...
Due to a budget crisis in California, the U.C. college system is turning away eligible students for the
fi
rst time in over 40 years...
Dissatis
fi
ed with the mainland, a lot of people are moving to New Zealand these days, leading to a housing boom and sketchy developments...
Gone are the days of the
fi
x-it-yourselfer - new cars are getting too complicated to
fi
x...
A fellow dot-com veteran invents a new "Clip-n-Seal" product in hopes that it will
fi
nally get him out of Web design...
Technology has been developed that takes images of old, damaged vinyl records and produces restored music. Many rami
fi
cations for the historical preservation of recordings...
April 12 to 18, 2004
Remember, April 19 to 25 is "TV Turnoff Week"! A survey
fi
nds that people watch less TV after letting go of the boob tube for a week...
It's the 10th anniversary of unsolicited commercial email, aka spam. Yay, not. On my servers I got about 1,500 spams daily until I installed a custom
fi
ltering system. Now it's down to about 20, bu...
Noisy cell phones are becoming a problem in national parks: http://www.mtstandard.com/articles/2004/04/15/outdoors/hjjfj
fi
ejcefef.tx...
A study
fi
nds that the average (Windows) PC has 28 spyware programs on it, each of which may send your private information to other parties without your knowledge...
The youngest writer ever to win an Agatha Award for a mystery novel collaborated with his uncle using Apple's new videoconferencing technology - this may be the
fi
rst award-winning book ever mad...
AT&T's new music identi
fi
cation service seems to work pretty well...
The Pixies played together in public for the
fi
rst time in about 12 years...
This is the logical progression of hampsterdance.com, which took the net by storm
fi
ve years ago, gathering over 60 million visitors worldwide...
Here's a project that removes toxins from mining sites with crops and makes a pro
fi
t from gold harvested with the process...
A new
fi
re
fi
ghting chemical looks and acts just like water, but it doesn't get things wet...
April 5 to 11, 2004
Bad singing - it's in fashion again! William Hung is a plucky 21-year-old U.C. Berkeley engineering student who tried out for American Idol and was kicked off halfway through his audition. His
fi
rs...
William Hung: Racism, Or Magic? http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?
fi
le=/gate/archive/2004/04/06/eguillermo.DT...
"For the IRS There's No EZ
fi
x...
Kids can now pretend they're hunting shoe bombers with the Playmobil Security Check-In set...
Last month saw the
fi
rst arrest made possible by routine U.S. monitoring of email traf
fi
c...
Aspiring
fi
lmmaker? Make your own Steadycam (camera stabilizer) for $14...
A good review of a new book that refuses to take sides - it's about David Chain, the
fi
rst casualty in the war between environmentalists and the timber industry in Northern California...
"Scotts Testing Genetically Modi
fi
ed Grass...
March 31, 2004
Magazines about homes - called "shelter magazines" - are taking off despite an overall decrease in magazine sales, with 40 launched in 2002 alone...
In the Bay Area, multiple offers over 10 are not uncommon. Houses have gone for $300,000 over the asking price. Median home prices in San Francisco are $200,000 over that of Oahu and $100,000 ove...
March 29 to April 5, 2004
Do you not
fi
nd it funny that nipples are also prohibited on TV, but charred bodies are OK...
A brawl involving 750 students that resulted in two arrests and eleven suspensions broke out during an anger management assembly at a suburban high school...
Scubadoo, the
fi
rst underwater motorcycle! Will it revolutionize scuba diving...
The
fi
rst key ring gadget that's also a camcorder, USB storage device, and 2-megapixel digital camera...
United Airlines announced that more than 2 million customers used their self-serving kiosks in a single month. No modern airline can survive without them. Actually, that could be a great business ...
A material widely used in nanotechnology research has been found to trigger organ damage in
fi
sh...
"Study:
fi
le-Sharing No Threat to Music Sales...
Some bands
fi
nd their fans are donating thousands to charities to make up for their
fi
le sharing...
"Dogs do resemble their owners,
fi
nds study...
March 22 to 28, 2004
"Ghost Town" - notes from the dead zone This was actually popular a month or two ago, but it was so popular the site was taken down. A beautiful, epic pictorial essay from a Russian woman who report...
Is your identity safe? The story of how American medical records and credit histories are being exposed outside the U.S. with no privacy guarantees. One reporter's fascinating detective work throug...
Thanks to a new bill just drafted. Read the book "Free Culture"
fi
rst and then see if this makes sense to you...
The
fi
rst device ever with an electronic paper display, a reading device, hits the shelves next month, with a 170dpi screen...
Check out the videos, using hot dogs as replacement
fi
ngers...
"Citizen Kubrick" http://
fi
lm.guardian.co.uk/features/featurepages/0,4120,1177734,00.htm...
Musician Kevin Shields created one of the most expensive, influential and highly praised albums of the last two decades - "Loveless". Here's his
fi
rst interview in 12 years...
Banksy, who puts the "grr" back into graf
fi
ti - here's how to mix revolution with art...
Less is more A 3D art contest, made with code no bigger than 256 characters: http://astronomy.swin.edu.au/~pbourke/povray/scc3/
fi
nal...
March 15 to 21, 2004
Of
fi
ce workers are exposed to more germs from phones and keyboards than toilet seats...
There is NO excuse not to buy a PC (non-laptop) larger than a shoebox any more. Anything larger is wasteful, ugly, energy and noise polluting. Here's the Nanode, the
fi
rst Nano-ITX-based PC...
Samsung introduces the
fi
rst 2-megapixel camera phone...
"Shocking" videos of closed-door meetings show Diebold (electronic voting machines manufacturer) representatives mention that data gets lost, machines are not certi
fi
ed, and that things generally jus...
A Diebold (Windows-based) ATM crashes and gives everyone free access: http://www.meta
fi
lter.com/me
fi
/3185...
Some independent music stores are
fi
nding that "
fi
le sharing can help create a buzz online that can lead to more sales"...
March 8 to 14, 2004
And remember one of the core facts of human nature (now scienti
fi
cally proved) - when people are presented with more, they will take more, consciously or not...
Attached to your iPod, it will take any of six different digital
fi
lm media types and store the photos on your iPod so you can reuse the card. Now you can use your iPod as a bootable backup drive, ...
These fake tattoo sleeves look pretty cool - would be great for Halloween, parties, or
fi
tting in at the local biker bar...
George Michael will offer his songs freely online from now on, a music industry
fi
rst for an established artist. Actually this is a great strategy for someone with an already popular back catalog...
There's an interesting architectural trend towards "green roofs" - creating mini-ecologies in unused urban areas, mainly, roofs...
It's of
fi
cially true! Thanks to con
fi
rmation from China's
fi
rst astronaut, you CANNOT see the Great Wall from space...
March 1 to 7, 2004
Cinergy becomes the
fi
rst electric utility in the U.S. to offer high-speed Internet service via its power lines. The bene
fi
ts of using such as service in Hawaii are obvious (reach rural areas, les...
To save money, school systems and other organizations are building their own DIY
fi
ber networks and selling off the excess bandwidth instead of paying up the nose to regional operators (such a...
The
fi
rst car designed by women for women was launched at the Geneva Auto Show, with emphasis on comfort, storage, and low maintenance...
Also (to be) shown at the show, the
fi
rst hybrid sports car from a major automaker (Toyota). It looks groovy, gets 31 mpg, and goes from 0 to 60 in four seconds...
The
fi
rst music video ever to be entirely shot using a cell phone. Reminds me of the
fi
rst movies made for the Web ten years ago - in another ten directors may be viewing dailies on their phones...
Heating trend in North Paci
fi
c baffles researchers...
"For the
fi
rst time, a microbial fuel cell has generated electricity while cleaning wastewater, a development that could make sewage treatment more affordable for both industrialized and developin...
Remember that photojournal on shipbreaking, one of the most toxic and dangerous jobs on earth? Here's a short summary of some new technologies (including a wash that neutralizes PCBs) being used i...
Did you know that Jerry Garcia, Django Reinhardt, and Tony Iommi all had missing or damaged
fi
ngers...
February 23 to 29, 2004
Congratulations! You may be a content provider! "Nearly half of U.S. Internet users have built Web pages, posted photos, written comments or otherwise added to the enormous variety of materia...
The cat's out of the bag: the
fi
rst decent mainstream article on the brilliant BitTorrent, the
fi
le sharing network that "makes trading movies a breeze". As well as gigabytes of other stuff as well...
An HP study of the transmission of ideas via blogs (online journals), with visuals. For future research: How is the spreading of ideas like the transmission of virii? Can one reliably predict the mos...
Face recognition technology will be incorporated into the MPEG-7 standard, allowing one to retrieve a scene with a speci
fi
c person in a 24-hour video in one second. Of course, this has far-reachin...
A nice overview from Popular Science on current brain-machine interface research. "If you think about using superconducting magnets, maybe you could
fi
gure out how to make a helmet," says [forme...
Video game studies are making their way into college curricula - what is their form and impact on culture? What is a game? http://timeso
fi
ndia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/522375.cm...
The Transportation Security Administration, which handles airport terrorist checks, mistakenly identi
fi
ed one of its employees as a sex offender and
fi
red him, despite the fact that the correc...
10 million Paci
fi
c giant crabs are invading Norway's coast and destroying the local ecology. "But Glenn, a 30-year-old car mechanic, replied: 'It's true the seabed now looks like the Sahara but the...
February 16 to 22, 2004
Hoo boy, lots of news this week. You heard it here
fi
rst, folks! Leaked Pentagon report warns climate change may bring famine, war "LONDON (AFP) - A secret report prepared by the Pentagon warns tha...
Exposure To Low-level Magnetic
fi
elds Causes DNA Damag...
Apple had the largest earnings increase of tech companies last year, with a 552% jump in annual pro
fi
ts...
I didn't know Hoku Scienti
fi
c was based in Kalihi! If they do well, can this be the start of turning Kalihi into a high-tech area (as HCC Provost Ramsey Pedersen would like to see)? The area's got ...
I always knew that UH grads got a good computer science background. The trick is, how to get them back to HI working at great software tech jobs? I sure can't
fi
nd any... Hawaii needs experience...
Polaroid Warns
fi
lm Users Not to 'Shake It...
The Pentagon researches ways for GIs to
fi
ght for up to
fi
ve days without a break. Have they not heard of crack? "The question is: 'Are there temporary biochemical approaches we can use to squeeze th...
Brain
fi
ngerprintin...
Add wireless to your business! At Schlotzsky's in Texas, a survey
fi
nds that more than 40 percent of customers say that free wireless access is a factor in choosing the restaurant to dine at...
Ibogaine (illegal in the U.S.) and its miraculous effect on long-term hard-core drug addicts... "Our
fi
rst round in St. Kitts, we treated six individuals, and I will go to my grave with the memory o...
February 9 to 15, 2004
For Valentine's Day, another fascinating "science and love" article - "Scientists are
fi
nding that, after all, love really is down to a chemical addiction between people"...
The SPAMmobile hits Hawaii for the
fi
rst time: "It's like God has landed on the earth," a local man said, shaking my hand, taking in the glory of the SPAMmobile. "I promised myself I wouldn't cry....
A movie with four vignettes that explore what it means to be human in a world where robots are commonplace. It won the "Special Jury Award for Emotional Truth" at the Florida
fi
lm Festival as well a...
20% of this beer's pro
fi
ts go to the non-pro
fi
t World Turtle Trust, which is currently
fi
nancing four international projects. I tried it recently and it's very good (and I am a beer snob)...
There was a little buzz around the net last week regarding "peak oil". The term refers to the point at which worldwide oil production will peak, which is currently predicted to happen in 2015. Jo...
Can technology save us from the future oil crash? "Researchers say they have produced hydrogen from ethanol in a prototype reactor small enough and ef
fi
cient enough to heat small homes and powe...
February 2 to 8, 2004
A new art form! Combine caroling with shouting - and you have this
fi
nnish group of men that wears black suits with ties made of car tires...
Advertisers are now using MRIs to correlate image af
fi
nity to brain activity: "Big government and big companies have been trying to manipulate us since the start of time," [says a study volunteer]...
The market for luxury cars (which cost up to $1 million) is booming nationwide. "There are more rich people every day, and the spread between the people who have money and those who don't is gettin...
A new paint eats smog for
fi
ve years - it's been shown to reduce pollution up to 60 percent at street level...
Make an ef
fi
cient, cheap camping stove out of aluminum cans...
The image of Buddha, automatically generated by a simple mathematical algorithm that plots points on the real and imaginary planes: http://www.complexi
fi
cation.net/gallery/machines/buddahbrot...
January 26 to February 1, 2004
Well, the last week has been short on news, due to my being stuck in California at a crappy hotel - Crowne Plaza - the toilet's broken, the hot/cold faucets are reversed, the vending machine doesn'...
China Tightens Web Control http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-paci
fi
c/3434115.st...
"UH to host world conference on future of Internet" http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/01/26/daily9.htm...
Yet another serious flaw in Microsoft software that may not even be
fi
xable...
January 19 to 25, 2004
A
fi
lmmaker decides to make a documentary - he'll eat nothing but McDonald's food 3 times a day for 30 days. The result? 25 more pounds, liver toxicity, high cholesterol, headaches, depression, an...
The Dutchtub, a plastic outdoor hot tub that requires no electricity, plumbing, or hot water. Faster and easier setup than a wood-
fi
re tub...
This Star Wars fan turned his Honda into an "H-Wing"
fi
ghter. It's the best car-to-starship conversion I've ever seen...
An aspiring
fi
lmmaker made a splash at Sundance with the
fi
rst feature-length
fi
lm ever made with nothing but iMovie. Total cost of the production: $218...
"Study con
fi
rms sleep essential for creativity"...
"Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee in
fi
ltrated opposition computer
fi
les for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media"...
January 12 to 18, 2004
fi
nally, Verizon announces that it will convert its entire nationwide telecommunications network to packet switching, "the protocol on which the Internet runs". This, over 40 years after AT&...
I used to get about 500 to 1000 spams a day. Now it's down to about 100 now that I put tough anti-spam
fi
lters in.....
A new joystick combination
fi
tness machine gives you a real workout.....
"This experience encapsulated so many bene
fi
ts about technology that I don’t really know where to begin...
January 5 to 11, 2004
"I.M.F. Report Says U.S. De
fi
cits Threaten World Economy...
Here on Oahu, Wallace Theatres (at Restaurant Row) is abandoning its art house movies (sigh): http://www.bizjournals.com/paci
fi
c/stories/2004/01/05/daily82.html?jst=b_ln_h...
"Counterpoint: Downloading Isn’t Stealing...
A behind-the-scenes article on illegal online movie-swapping teams...
The FBI can now obtain
fi
nancial records without requiring a judge's permission...
December 29 to January 4, 2004
"The
fi
sh that threatened national security"...
Did you know that 20 billion tampons/sanitary pads went into land
fi
lls in 1998? Encourage females to try the Diva Cup...
December 22 to 28, 2003
Favorite antipop CDs of 2003 Tired of mainstream music? How about great jazz/world/folk/acoustic fusion? Highly recommended are David Tanenbaum, Tord Gustavsen, and the Be Good Tanyas. Of course...
A new electric "in-wheel" engine can make vehicles up to 50 percent more ef
fi
cient and is being tested on a city bus in the Netherlands...
December 15 to 21, 2003
Multiple studies have con
fi
rmed that there is at least 10% less sunlight striking the Earth than 30 years ago. A special session on "global dimming" is being formed for the next joint meeting of th...
At least
fi
ve convicted felons secured management positions at Diebold, the maker of those electronic voting machines. One of them is a programmer who was jailed for falsifying computer records.....
A Texas housewife is busted for selling a vibrator... she faces up to a year in jail and a $4,000
fi
ne...
The
fi
rst federal law regulating spam was passed, but it may do more harm than good...
Spammers can do what terrorists can't - military hardware turned into spamming machine: Thanks to the US Navy choosing Microsoft as their of
fi
cial operating system for vessels, a hacked Microsof...
Nanoscale
fi
bers smaller than the wavelengths of light have been developed - see the picture of one winding around a human hair...
Sony has developed the
fi
rst autonomous running robot...
* August 12:
fi
rst reported at an international symposium at Fermilab...
December 8 to 14, 2003
It's legal (and has been for years) in over half the states to sell your voter registration information - including name, race, email, street address, phone number, birth date, political af
fi
liation...
Details behind the
fi
rst National Geographic cover story ever to be completely shot digitally...
When Apple opened its
fi
rst non-U.S. store in Tokyo, it created the longest line ever seen in the Ginza district, with 2,400 people spanning 10 long city blocks...
A new way to
fi
lter out toxins from the blood has been invented. It uses magnetized nanoaparticles, and may revolutionize current dialysis techniques as well as eliminate certain classes of diseases...
The
fi
rst 5 nanometer transistor has been developed...
"Light brought to a halt in scienti
fi
c
fi
rst...
Cerritos, CA becomes the
fi
rst entire city to go completely wireless...
"Motorist gets vehicle registered online during traf
fi
c stop...
Keiko, the killer whale that starred in "Free Willy", has died of sudden pneumonia, exacerbated by moves to Canada and Mexico: http://www.picturehistory.com/
fi
nd/c/359/mcms.htm...
A nice slide show on "Aging in America". For the
fi
rst time in the U.S., there will soon be more people over 55 than 18 and under...
December 1 to 7, 2003
Are you a "pack rat"? "Facing jail because his house is
fi
lled to the brim, a hoarder
fi
nds hope in a woman with a talent for organizing...
The woman who claimed to be trampled at Wal-Mart after Thanksgiving has been found to have
fi
led 16 previous claims from various businesses...
How Michael Jackson would have looked without the plastic surgery: http://www.forartist.com/forensic/modi
fi
cation/mj/jackson.ht...
A great
fi
ve-part essay on the homeless problem in San Francisco, which has the nation's worst problem with "hard-core homelessness". What to know what life is really like on the street...
In an effort to thwart modern spam
fi
lters, spammers are now using excerpts of classic novels and poetry in their emails...
November 24 to 30, 2003
Have you ever wanted your own Death Ray? Check out the commercial at Brotron Labs! http://www.brotron.com/
fi
lm.htm...
Abercromie &
fi
tch got in hot, steamy water last week for their R- and X- rated clothing catalog. Their
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rst sweater doesn't show up until page 122. The people in their catalog aren't wearin...
"My
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rst DNA Sequencer...
November 17 to 23, 2003
We now return you to our weekly broadcast. Lots of new science/tech this week for some reason... Things got a little heated in London...
A working nano-transistor has been self-assembled using biology for the
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rst time. A
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rst step to building self-assembling molecular computers...
The
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rst genetically engineered pet goes on sale - glow-in-the-dark
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sh (called Glo
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sh)...
November 10 to 16, 2003
A study of the Web sites of the ten presidential candidates found that most violated speed and accessibility guidelines. The worst offender with the most code-bloated, inef
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cient, inaccessible We...
A new study of love con
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rms that the brain patterns made when people
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rst fall in love are the same one gets when eating chocolate...
Mark Morford of the San Francisco Chronicle has always been a great columnist, but this column in particular shows him at his best...
A British reporter
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nds Bush protesters are a diverse crowd...
Some popular news stories: Scientists have created the
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rst arti
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cial virus (and it reproduces)...
November 3 to 9, 2003
Kev's News: No matter what happens, there it is! Did you know that this is the Year of the Hawaiian Forest? In honor, here's a picture from last week of what they're replacing the forests with.....
A very promising cancer-
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ghting virus (the Reovirus) has received funding for studies...
Will noisy, hot computers be a thing of the past? Electricity leakage is why current microchips (and therefore your computer) runs hot, requires fans, and contributes to the entropy of the universe...
Forbes did a multi-part series on "The New Cash Crop" - marijuana! This series also pro
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les a Tokyo store that sells ayahuasca for "$70 a dose"...
The world's
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rst disposable cellular phone just hit the market. It comes with 60 minutes of prepaid time, its own phone number, and you can add more minutes as needed...
But some of these healers are refusing to divulge information, saying they are not fairly compensated for their information - which could make some biotech
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rms millions of dollars...
October 27 to November 2, 2003
The
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rst optical processor, which computes at the speed of light.....
"Many legitimate, genuine, brilliant, and
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nancially successful, contemporary musicians are selling out...
October 27, 2003
Kev's News: None of the news you want to hear, all the news you need to hear! Electricity from water The
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rst new method of generating electricity in 150 years...
Sanyo is making corn-derived biodegradable CDs - they'll hit stores in December. Much better for land
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lls. They degrade after 50-100 years...
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nally.....
A school has begun tracking students with R
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D devices, the
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rst known school to identify and track its children. Good? Bad...
Coming in January from Sony, the world's smallest
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ve-megapixel camera...
The
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res in Southern California as seen from space (picture)...
October 20, 2003
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nally, on an artistic note, beautiful painterly abstract photos taken from the sides of boxcars...
October 14, 2003
The world's
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rst motorized surfboard This is quite a revolutionary device - it's to sur
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ng what snowboards are to skiing. This August it won approval for U.S. distribution after a 16-yea...
Spread of AIDS among Young ‘A Global Catastrophe’: http://timeso
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ndia.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=22572...
Homeland Defense employee has his German
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ance detained, handcuffed, jailed, and after 20 hours without food, shipped back to Germany, without being of
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cially arrested, a la "The Patriot Act".....
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nally, on a lighter note, a partial Latin translation of Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back": "Large buttocks are pleasing to me, nor am I able to lie concerning this matter....
October 6, 2003
* The soundtrack was mixed by Moby and features the music of Radiohead, U2, Coldplay, Queens of the Stone Age, David Bowie, The Flaming Lips, Stereolab,
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scherspooner, and Boards of Canada...
September 30, 2003
The student who ate only wild foods for 80 days in suburbia: http://egullet.com/?pg=ARTICLE-bland
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g...
You heard it here
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rst folks. Windows is indeed a threat to national security...
Michael Moore
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nally responds to all the criticism, and well, with outtakes from "Bowling from Columbine" and damning evidence against his detractors...
September 22, 2003
A great essay on MP3s and intellectual property by sci-
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writer Orson Scott Card...
Some young teens attitudes towards
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le sharing. Good take on the state of the next generation...
September 15, 2003
Of all people, the Chief Technical Of
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cer of InfoWorld (long a Windows/UNIX-oriented publication) has moved to a Mac and wrote two articles about the experience... "It just works... an option that'...
September 8, 2003
The best article so far on the Aquada, the
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rst amphibious sports car that actually looks sporty...
India's struggles with genetically modi
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ed crops.....
Thanks to the human genome project, researchers are pioneering the
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eld of ionomics, the study of how genes regulate ions. That can lead to plants that soak up heavy metals.....
September 2, 2003
"Urban Sprawl Makes Americans Fat, Study
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nds...
An award-winning British journalist leaves the US after six years but
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nds it again at a Patti Smith concert. Lots of nice little facts in this article.....
August 25, 2003
Ocean Sponge May Be Best for
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ber Optic...
Disney is laying off its traditional 2D animators, opting instead to only do 3D (computer generated) animated
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lms from now on. A passing of an era.....
Affected by the recent computer viruses? The solution: 1) Don't use Outlook. 2) Don't use Windows. I just spent a couple hours cleaning up a friend's infected Windows machine this week. In over 1...
* ABB (a European engineering
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rm...
August 12, 2003
Slow news week. Most of the new good stuff popped up today. This week's theme: trends on the edge of culture. http://ssshotaru.homestead.com/
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les/aolertranslator.htm...
August 4, 2003
This is a great article which points out: http://www.prorec.com/prorec/articles.nsf/
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les/8A133F52D0FD71AB86256C2E005DAF1...
It is of
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cial U.S. policy to encourage people to buy larger, less ef
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cient cars: "The Senate rejected a proposal to require a sharp increase in automobile fuel economy Tuesday after concerns wer...
July 28, 2003
The latest in the Kealakekua
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ght, in which protected trails are being erased, kupuna burial sites are being bulldozed, and dirt runoff is killing coral in order to keep a development for th...
It's scienti
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cally proven than Kansas is flatter than a pancake...
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nally, technology has brought us virtual bubble wrap...
July 21, 2003
Reading the wrong thing in public gets man in trouble with the FBI: http://atlanta.creativeloa
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ng.com/2003-07-17/rant.htm...
But still "up to
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ve Americans per day" are waiting in London hotel rooms to meet people about "liberating funds" (12/2002)...
July 16, 2003
Also, the 2003 winners of the Bulwer-Lytton
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ction Contest, which celebrates the world's worst writing:...
July 8, 2003
If you don't know what R
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D is, read here
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rst:...
I can't provide a link to this information since the sites in question are undergoing heavy traf
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c. So the text is below...