• Al Jazeera TV says to air new bin Laden tape
  Al Jazeera television said on Thursday it would air a new audio tape of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden at 1800 GMT (1 p.m. ET).
• Bin Laden urges Europeans to quit Afghanistan: tape
  Osama bin Laden urged Europeans to break ranks with the United States and quit Afghanistan, while stressing he alone was behind the 9/11 attacks, in a tape attributed to him on Al-Jazeera television on Thursday.
• Global cell phone use at 50 percent
  Worldwide mobile telephone subscriptions reached 3.3 billion — equivalent to half the global population — on Thursday, 26 years after the first cellular network was launched, research firm Informa said.
• Apple developing mini-disc adapter for slot-loading drives
  reduce shipping and packaging costs by selling software on smaller discs which could then be used in slot-loading optical drives built for standard 12 cm CDs and DVDs, a new filing has revealed.
• Software aims to uncover ‘data discrimination’
  Increasingly worried over Internet providers’ behavior, a nonprofit has released software that helps determine whether online glitches are innocent hiccups or evidence of deliberate traffic tampering.

• ‘My whole back felt like it was on fire’: As a British teacher faces 40 lashes, one man speaks out
  Just what is it like to be lashed? In 1993, Gavin Sherrard-Smith, a computer expert from Cheltenham, received 50 lashes with a bamboo cane in a prison in Qatar.
  (tags: Islam Religion Punishment)
• Don’t blame our teacher. I named bear Mohammed … after MYSELF | Pupil, 7, defends ‘blasphemy’ Brit | The Sun |HomePage|News
  The seven-year-old said he suggested the name – after HIMSELF, not the Islamic prophet.
  And he says he would be upset if jailed Gillian Gibbons never came back to teach at Unity High School in Sudan’s capital Khartoum.
  (tags: Islam Education)
• Overweight? Standing May Be Solution
  Scientists have found intriguing evidence that one major reason so many people are overweight these days may be as close as the seat of their pants. Literally. According to the researchers, most of us sit too much.
  (tags: Health Exercise)
• Taser Responds to United Nations Anti-Torture Committee
  In a release posted on its Web site today, the Arizona-based company claimed that the U.N. Committee Against Torture is “out of touch with the reality that confronts law enforcement officers every day worldwide.”
  (tags: U.N. Taser News)
• Apple to Unveil Faster IPhone, AT&T’s Stephenson Says
  Apple Inc. will introduce a version of the iPhone next year that can download from the Internet at a faster rate, AT&T Inc. Chief Executive Officer Randall Stephenson said.
  (tags: Apple iPhone)
• The Bizarre, Obscene, and Disturbing Hidden Images in Leonardo da Vinci’s Sacred Art
  But if an Italian group calling itself the Mirror of the Sacred Scriptures and Paintings World Foundation is correct, da Vinci and his contemporaries may have been doing a lot more with mirrors than anyone has previously imagined.
  (tags: Art leonardo_davinci)
• Banning Wikipedia at school: good idea or missed opportunity?
  (tags: Education Wikipeida Open_Source)
• Should Spanking Your Child Be Illegal?
  A proposed Massachusetts law would outlaw corporal punishment, including spanking, even for parents disciplining their kids at home.
  (tags: Childcare Laws)
• Remember When Garages Were For Cars?
  Something I’ve noticed more and more as I drive around the neighborhood is that everybody is turning into a frickin packrat. We’re not talking about middle income here, we’re talking $300,000 plus homes and $30,000 vehicles.
  (tags: Blogging)

• Google expands into alternative energy
  Google Inc. is expanding into alternative energy in its most ambitious effort yet to ease the environmental strain caused by the company’s voracious appetite for power to run its massive computing centers.
  (tags: Energy Google)
• Madonna dyes sheep for Vogue Living shoot, RSPCA outraged
  MADONNA has horrified animal activists after dyeing her sheep blue, pink, yellow and green for a Vogue spread at their English country estate, in Wiltshire.
  (tags: celebrity Modonna Marketing Vogue)
• Vivienne Tam MP3 Player TAM MP3walkman
  After a successful crossover in 2006 with a series of handset pouches for Motorola, Vivienne Tam continues to explore a new relationship between fashion and technology.
  (tags: Design Technology)
• Kid-size computers
  Fresno Unified officials buy 1,000 wireless laptops that will fit on students’ desktops.
  (tags: Education Technology u.s.a.)
• ‘Supermouse’ bred to beat cancer
  Mice carrying a gene which appears to make them invulnerable to cancer may hold the key to safer and more effective treatments for humans.

  (tags: Cancer Health News Science)
• Super Rich and Super Cheap
  Some of the World’s Richest People Are the World’s Most Frugal People
  (tags: Business Culture Wealth News)
• New Photos: Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull | /Film
  These photos first appeared on the imdb boards, although I’m not sure where they originated from. They appear to be official production photos.
  (tags: Entertainment Movies Indiana_Jones_4)
• Birds Conservation Real Estate - Glass Wall of Death Around Homes Killing Birds
  an upscale developer in coastal Southern California has plopped a new neighborhood in a beautiful wild setting, only to wrap it in a nearly mile-long glass fence… to keep out the wildlife.
  (tags: Culture Environment Archtecture)
• Cell Phone College Class Opens in Japan
  Japanese already use cell phones to shop, read novels, exchange e-mail, search for restaurants and take video clips. Now, they can take a university course.
  (tags: Technology Education)



• Man Tries to Deposit Fake $1M Bill
  Alexander D. Smith, 31, was charged with disorderly conduct and two counts of forgery after he walked into the bank and tried to open an account by depositing a fake $1 million bill, said Aiken County Sheriff’s spokesman Lt. Michael Frank.
  (tags: News)
• We’re Watching The WATCHMEN!!! Holy Printed Panels!!!
  and I come home to find WATCHMAN photos waiting for me thanks to Game Trailers and our reader Tim T. If you’d like to see bigger versions - click on the Game Trailers link.
  (tags: Entertainment Movies The_Watchmen)
• Moriarty Has Chosen Blu-Ray…For Now… And Here’s Why!
  However, I remain convinced that we are in the waning days of physical media sales. Blu-Ray. HD. It’s all just violins on the Titanic, friends.
  (tags: Entertainment Technology blu-ray hd-dvd)

Submerge your computer in Mineral Oil.

Why not?

• Japanese robot with soft hands chats and serves meal
  A pearly white robot that looks a little like E.T. boosted a man out of bed, chatted and helped prepare his breakfast with its deft hands in Tokyo on Tuesday, in a further sign robots are becoming more like their human inventors.
  (tags: Robotics Technology Japan Tokyo)
• Iran Says It’s Produced New Missile
  Iran said Tuesday it has manufactured a new missile with a range of 1,200 miles capable of reaching Israel and U.S. bases in the Mideast, the official news agency IRNA reported.
  (tags: Iran Tehran War Military Israel Politics)
• Saudi Rape Victim Tells Her Story
  Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Justice is defending a sentence of 200 lashes for the victim of a gang rape, punished because she was in the car of a male who wasn’t a relative when the two were attacked.
  (tags: saudi_arabia Rape Victim Politics Government)
• Hockey brawl between 8-year-olds stuns police
  Six hockey players and two coaches were suspended following a brawl between two teams of eight-year-olds in Guelph last week that has stunned police.
  (tags: Sports Youth Canada Guelph Ontario)
• Taking Marriage Private
  WHY do people — gay or straight — need the state’s permission to marry? For most of Western history, they didn’t, because marriage was a private contract between two families.
  (tags: Government Marriage Religion Culture Laws)
• lib·er·tar·ian
  n. 1. a person who believes in the doctrine of the freedom of the will
  2. a person who believes in full individual freedom of thought, expression and action
  3. a freewheeling rebel who hates wiretaps, loves Ron Paul and is redirecting politics
  (tags: Libertarian Politics U.S.A. Election)

• In Iowa, Clinton Intensifies Attacks
  Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (N.Y.), her status as the front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination in jeopardy, stepped up attacks on her closest rival with fewer than six weeks until the first nominating contest.
  (tags: u.s.a. Politics)
• Hezbollah dismisses Annapolis talks as “media show” - Yahoo! India News
  Lebanon’s Hezbollah militant group said on Sunday a U.S.-hosted Middle East peace conference this week was only a “media show” in suppor Beirutt of Israel.
  (tags: Hezbollah politics Israel Palestine)
• Tasers a form of torture, says UN
  TASER electronic stun guns are a form of torture that can kill, a UN committee has declared after several recent deaths in North America.
  (tags: u.n. politics Police)
• Beauty queen undeterred by attack
  Organisers of a beauty pageant in Puerto Rico are investigating a case of sabotage after a contestant’s dress and make-up were covered with pepper spray.
• Putin says US behind poll boycott
  Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused the United States of pushing Western observers into boycotting Russian elections.

  (tags: Politics Russia)
• Chavez freezes ties with Colombia
  Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez says he has frozen his country’s bilateral ties with neighbouring Colombia.
  (tags: venezuela Hugo_Chavez Politics)
• ‘Super’ scanner shows key detail
  A new scanner has been unveiled which can produce 3D body images of unprecedented clarity while reducing radiation by as much as 80%.
  (tags: Technology medicine Health)
• ‘Perching’ aircraft train for tricky landings
  Robot helicopters and aeroplanes capable of perching on steep surfaces are being developed by two separate US researchers. They say such drone aircraft could land on moving vehicles, unsteady ships or even hide inside caves.
  (tags: technology)
• BRITISH INVENTION SHOWS WAY AHEAD IN NIGHT
  Astucia SolarLite flush road stud uses stored solar power to give a ten-fold improvement in night time road visibility.
  (tags: technology)
• With New Device, Police Shake, Rattle and Roll - washingtonpost.com
  With his lights and sirens blaring, D.C. police officer Lou Schneider raced to an emergency call, past dozens of startled onlookers standing on the crowded streets of the city’s Chinatown area.
  The ground beneath Schneider’s patrol car literally was…
• The world continues to look away. Don’t
  Some stories, as horrific as they are, need to be read by everyone. This is one of them. Brian O’Connell reports.
  (tags: Rape War Congo Africa)
• Bush Bashing Explained
  It makes more sense to conceive of American politics today as a contest between liberty and tyranny, and not between left and right. Perhaps the degree of hatred towards Bush is an indication that - ever so slowly - Americans are drawing new battle lines.
  (tags: Politics U.S.A.)
• Review: Why Assassin’s Creed Fails
  It’s not easy to criticize a game that does so many difficult things right.
  (tags: XBox Games PS3 Review)

• Iraqi bloggers at home and abroad
  Not many of the people who were blogging in English from inside Iraq appear to be still there. Here’s a snapshot of some of them - and of one who has left.
  (tags: Iraq News Blogging)
• In Korea, a Boot Camp Cure for Web Obsession - New York Times
  part boot camp, part rehab center — resembles programs around the world for troubled youths. Drill instructors drive young men through military-style obstacle courses, counselors lead group sessions, and there are even therapeutic workshops on pottery a
  (tags: South_korea Mokcheon Youth)
• WolfKing Launches WARRIOR XXTREME
  Incorporating all the features that made the original WARRIOR a must-have device for laptop gamers and LAN center patrons, the WARRIOR XXTREME adds a second keypad for commands in massively multiplayer games or chatting with clan mates.
  (tags: Gaming Dell)
• New tremors shake UK, Swiss and Freddie
  Spiraling fears on Tuesday about the depth of the global credit squeeze hammered British and Swiss financial firms known to be exposed to the crisis, as America’s Freddie Mac (FRE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) posted a heavy third quarter loss.
  (tags: U.K. Business Economy)
• Iraq reporter faces terror charge
  The US military says it will recommend criminal charges against an Associated Press photographer detained in 2006 on suspicion of helping Iraqi insurgents.

  (tags: Iraq Terrorism Journalism U.S.A.)