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Submission + - Skin-based interface makes your arm a touchscreen (newscientist.com)

Submitted by
crowfeather
crowfeather writes: "It goes by Skinput (PDF), and it reads the ultralow-frequency taps on your skin where the "pico" projectors on cell phones shine an interface on your forearm. It exploits the different sounds the skin, musculature and skeleton make in combination to determine just where you're tapping. Currently, it's a little sensitive on placement of the projected interface, but there could be an arm glowing on you in the not-too-distant future."
Science

Submission + - We have to face the music, CSI was right. (wired.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: Do you scoff whenever there's a grainy photograph from a surveillance camera on CSI that they 'zoom in' on and magically the picture clears up? I often deride it as 'magic'. Well, any sufficiently advanced technology I suppose. There's a new algorithm called Compressive Sensing that takes advantage of the mathematical concept of Sparsity to do just that, I hope this doesn't mean CSI is the harbinger of other things.

Submission + - Chilean earthquake shortens days (businessweek.com)

Submitted by ailnlv
ailnlv writes: According to TFA, days just got shorter. In brief, the recent earthquake slightly shifted the Earth's axis by about 8 cm and shortened days by 1.26 microseconds

"The changes can be modeled, though they're difficult to physically detect given their small size, Gross said. Some changes may be more obvious, and islands may have shifted, according to Andreas Rietbrock, a professor of Earth Sciences at the U.K.'s Liverpool University who has studied the area impacted, though not since the latest temblor."
Apple

Submission + - Apple Threatens Man Over Selling Broken Stairstep (gizmodo.com)

Submitted by somanyrobots
somanyrobots writes: A former employee at Apple's Fifth Avenue Store in New York City came into possession of a cracked glass step, after a contractor performed the replacement. At the time, the contractor was preparing to dispose of the replaced step, and he simply asked if he could take one home. The contractors didn't have a problem with it, and even helped him load it into his car. Fast forward a few years later: the man recently put it up on eBay, and is now being threatened with litigation over the "stolen" step. Apple's contractor, Seele, has (ostensibly at Apple's behest) repeatedly threatened to sue over his possession of the glass stairstep. It's back up on eBay with a three-day auction. Any takers?

Submission + - iPad is a "huge step backward" (linuxtoday.com)

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes: FSF's John Sullivan launches the Defective by Design campaign and petition to rain on Steve's parade, barely minutes out of the starting gate.
"This is a huge step backward in the history of computing," said FSF's Holmes Wilson, "If the first personal computers required permission from the manufacturer for each new program or new feature, the history of computing would be as dismally totalitarian as the milieu in Apple's famous Super Bowl ad."
The iPad has DRM writ large, you can only install what Apple says you may, and "computing" goes consumer mainstream — no more twiddling, just sit back, spend your money, and watch the show — while we allow you to... what say you, slashdotters? Are you happy that you can't load "open source" ebooks on the new must-have gadget?
Image

Zombie Pigs First, Hibernating Soldiers Next 193

Posted by samzenpus from the fattening-up-on-brains dept.
ColdWetDog writes "Wired is running a story on DARPA's effort to stave off battlefield casualties by turning injured soldiers into zombies by injecting them with a cocktail of one chemical or another (details to be announced). From the article, 'Dr. Fossum predicts that each soldier will carry a syringe into combat zones or remote areas, and medic teams will be equipped with several. A single injection will minimize metabolic needs, de-animating injured troops by shutting down brain and heart function. Once treatment can be carried out, they'll be "re-animated" and — hopefully — as good as new.' If it doesn't pan out we can at least get zombie bacon and spam."

Submission + - Gingerbread house to crumbles? (google.com)

Submitted by jurgemaister
jurgemaister writes: Sintef Byggforsk, a Trondheim based Norwegian Research institute, reports (via Google Translate) that "Seven out of ten gingerbread has serious defects and deficiencies". They further write "Poor project management and execution, as well as the wrong choice of building materials seems to be the main cause". From the Sintef Building and Contruction seried, they have provided a manual (Norwegian) on how to make proper gingerbread houses.
What's your hot tip for this years gingerbread based constructions?
Announcements

Submission + - Linux Mint 8 "Helena" Released (linuxmint.com)

Submitted by eldavojohn
eldavojohn writes: Linux Mint (a sort of Debian/Ubuntu spinoff) has announced the release of version 8 named "Helena". Mint offers a distinct UI and more importantly a set of 'mint tools' that aim to empower the average user with regards to system management and administration. This additional ease of use and intuitive system tools is the biggest distinguishing feature between Mint and Ubuntu (which it is fully compatible with package-wise). It also provides a very simple user manual. Further down the road, Mint could offer the sensible packaging of Ubuntu/Debian along with a static UI and easier use for non-technical people.
The Courts

Submission + - Suspect Freed After Exposing Cop's Facebook Status (nytimes.com)

Submitted by
longacre
longacre writes: "A man on trial in New York for possession of a weapon has been acquitted after subpoenaing his arresting officer's Facebook and MySpace accounts. His defense: Officer Vaughan Ettienne's MySpace "mood" was set to "devious" on the day of the arrest, and one day a few weeks before the trial, his Facebook status read "Vaughan is watching 'Training Day' to brush up on proper police procedure."

From the article:

"You have your Internet persona, and you have what you actually do on the street," Officer Ettienne said on Tuesday. "What you say on the Internet is all bravado talk, like what you say in a locker room." Except that trash talk in locker rooms almost never winds up preserved on a digital server somewhere, available for subpoena.

"

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The question of whether computers can think is just like the question of whether submarines can swim. -- Edsger W. Dijkstra

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