Identity thieves may want to go back to dumpster diving as a way of getting useful information. Just a week after Radio Shack was sued for throwing out all sorts of customer info (including credit card and social security numbers) where anyone walking by could just grab it out of the trash, telco Rogers Communication was found doing the exact same thing in Toronto. The company is blaming a sales company they had hired for dumping the content without considerations for customer privacy. You would think big companies like Radio Shack and Rogers would know better than to have such information even stored on paper like that, let alone to allow it to be thrown out in the trash.

How do illusions fool the brain? In a study that could help reveal how illusions are produced in the brain's visual cortex, researchers have found new evidence of rapid integration of auditory and visual sensations in the brain. Their findings provide new insight into neural mechanisms by which visual perception can be altered by concurrent auditory events.

In a new study, researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health analyzed the costs and health outcomes of control and eradication options for polio. They found that the relatively high short-term costs of global polio eradication will ultimately be much lower than the long-term financial and human health costs required to control polio forever.

Working with fruit flies, scientists have discovered a protein required for two neighboring cells to fuse and become one "super cell." Most cells enjoy their singular existence, but the strength and flexibility of muscles relies on hundreds or even thousands of super cells that make large-scale motion smooth and coordinated, such as flexion of a bicep.

For the first time ever, NASA researchers have successfully demonstrated in the laboratory that a space telescope rigged with special masks and mirrors could snap a photo of an Earth-like planet orbiting a nearby star.

In the current Fox television adventure series, "24," a terrorist explodes a small nuclear bomb in Los Angeles. In a May 2007 issue of the journal Health Physics, Carnegie Mellon researchers offer simple advice that ordinary citizens can use when faced with such threats.

Filed under: Displays, Home Entertainment, Portable Video, Transportation

If you're in the market for a particular gadget and you're unable to find a Disney-themed version, well, you're just not looking hard enough. Second only to Hello Kitty as shameless animated shills for cheap electronics, Mickey and friends have just released yet another portable DVD player -- now with 10% less explosions! -- along with a digital photo viewer, Princess and Cars swag to go along with yesterday's Pirates of the Caribbean silliness, and new skins for nearly all of its five million MixPixMaxClixStix devices. The Dual-Screen Mobile DVD System, as it's known, features two seven-inch LCDs that hook onto the back of both front seat headrests; the kiddies still have to watch the same movie, but now there's less of a chance that they'll give each other concussions fighting for the best viewing angle. As for the Show Pix photo frame, you're getting a keychain-sized, um, keychain with a 1.1-inch LCD that can store 50 of Junior's best in-class pics of his teacher slowly being tormented into insanity. Finally, the Mix Max PMP, Mix Stix and Mix Clip DAPs, and Pix Micro, Pix Click, and Pix Max digital cameras (try saying that even two times fast) are all getting hot new looks courtesy of Pirates and undercover pop star Hannah Montana (pictured, and we swear we had to look that up). Available immediately, the DVD system bundled with a sampler disc is going for $180, the Show Pix will run you $40 apiece, and the gazillion other models cost the same as they always did.

[Via PMP Today]

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