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NASA

NASA To Investigate Mysterious 'Space Ball' 192

Posted by Soulskill from the that's-gonna-leave-a-mark dept.
redletterdave writes "In mid-November, a hollow space ball fell from the sky and crashed into the earth in Namibia, the African nation situated above South Africa and west of Botswana and Zimbabwe. Authorities recovered the sphere in a grassy village north of Windhoek, the country's capital. The hollow ball, which appears to be made of 'two halves welded together,' has a rough surface, a 14-inch diameter and measures 43 inches around. The strange globe created a crater 13 inches deep and almost 12.5 feet wide, but was found almost 60 feet from the landing spot. Paul Ludik, the police forensics director investigating the case, says the dense ball weighs 13 pounds and is made of a 'metal alloy known to man.' NASA and the European Space Agency will both help investigate the strange occurrence."

Submission + - Bhagavad Gita facing Ban in Tomsk, Russia (themoscowtimes.com)

Submitted by netchaos
netchaos writes: Bhagavad Gita As It Is, the ISKON version of Bhagavad Gita one of the holiest Hindu scriptures, is facing a legal ban in Tomsk, Russia on charges of religious extremism. The prosecutor's office requested the court to include the book in the Federal List of Extremist Materials along with Hitler's Mein Kampf and other literatures illegal in Russia,and to ban its printing, possession, and distribution.
Android

Submission + - Google releasing official Android 4.0 ICS update f (twitter.com)

Submitted by dell623
dell623 writes: Google is rolling out an OTA upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich for the Nexus S. GSM versions can already be updated manually. An early review is largely positive and comments on the significant visual and performance improvements. The Nexus S upgrade allows for a direct comparison against Gingerbread on the same hardware, and the likely improvement in current phones that will receive the upgrade.
Image

Irish Judge Orders 13-Year-Old To Surrender Xbox Screenshot-sm 445

Posted by samzenpus from the put-down-the-controller dept.
An anonymous reader writes "In Belfast a High Court judge has ordered a 13 year old to surrender his Xbox to the authorities. The boy was charged with a series of robberies and in the bail application the judge asked the boy what he owned that meant a lot to him. The teenager said it was his Xbox games system. The judge told the youth that the surrender of the Xbox would show him what it was like to have something he really valued taken from him."
Facebook

Winklevoss Twins Finally Give Up Fighting Facebook 160

Posted by samzenpus from the keep-on-rowing dept.
An anonymous reader writes "Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg's former Harvard classmates Cameron Winklevoss and Tyler Winklevoss, who accuse him of stealing their idea for the social network, have decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court. In a filing today with the federal court in San Francisco, the duo said that after 'careful consideration,' they decided not to seek Supreme Court review of the $65 million settlement."
Television

Practical "Smell-o-Vision" System Being Developed 210

Posted by samzenpus from the this-show-stinks dept.
cylonlover writes "Researchers have managed to create a proof of concept Smell-o-Vision device potentially capable of pumping out thousands of different odors, yet small enough to fit behind a TV. The device has 200 X-axis controllers and 100 on the Y-axis that could selectively activate each of the 10,000 possible odors stored within numerous non-flammable silicone elastomer compartments."
GNU is Not Unix

Man Creates Open Source Flashlight 172

Posted by samzenpus from the things-we-don't-need dept.
DeviceGuru writes "Not content with revealing the source code to his mom's banana bread, two-time BattleBots champion Christian Carlberg has developed an open source flashlight. Carlberg first achieved notoriety shredding competitors' robots with Minion's 14-inch saw blade on BattleBots. Now he's all fired up to begin shipping what they say could be the 'world's first open source flashlight.' But why in the world would you want a reprogrammable flashlight?"
Programming

Sorting Algorithms As Dances 68

Posted by samzenpus from the dancing-around-the-answer dept.
mikejuk writes "You may well have seen many simulations of sorting algorithms that aim to show how the algorithm works. However I guarantee that you have never seen anything quite in the same league as the videos made by Sapientia University — they are simply crazy but in the nicest possible way. They folk dance their way though bubble sort, shell sort, insertion sort and selection sort. Very, very weird but you find you can't but help checking that they are doing it right. Now anyone want to try quicksort?"
Idle

Full Bladder Improves Decision Making 229

Posted by CmdrTaco from the can't-talk-now-gotta-go dept.
anymouse writes "What should you do when you really, REALLY have to 'go'? Make important life decisions, maybe. Controlling your bladder makes you better at controlling yourself when making decisions about your future, too, according to a study to be published in Psychological Science, a journal of the Association for Psychological Science."
Wireless Networking

Obama's Goal: 98% of US Covered By 4G 324

Posted by Soulskill from the can-you-hear-me-now dept.
alphadogg writes "Ninety-eight percent of US residents would have access to high-speed mobile broadband service within five years under a plan that President Barack Obama detailed Thursday. Obama's proposal, which he alluded to in his State of the Union speech last month, would free up 500MHz of wireless spectrum over a decade by offering to share spectrum auction proceeds with current spectrum holders, including television stations, that have unused airwaves. The cost of the proposal is likely to raise questions from lawmakers, and some backers of government broadband spending have already raised concerns that the plan would give money and spectrum to large mobile carriers."
Power

Spinach Could Be Used For Hydrogen Fuel 105

Posted by Roblimo from the energy-and-vitamins-in-one-healthy-package dept.
An anonymous reader writes "If Popeye had made alternative fuels, he'd have probably come up with something like this. Researchers from Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) have developed a system that converts solar energy directly into hydrogen using the common spinach plant."
Iphone

Confession: There's an iPhone App For That 192

Posted by Roblimo from the Does-Apple-get-30%-of-each-confession? dept.
slshwtw writes "Pope Benedict XVI has recently encouraged priests to blog and promoted Christian Netiquette. Now apparently the Roman Catholic church has sanctioned a 'Confession App,' available through iTunes for $1.99. Apparently it doesn't replace 'traditional,' in-person confession, but walks one through the process, even suggesting sins you may wish to confess."'
Image

Designers Create Meat Eating Furniture Screenshot-sm 120

Posted by samzenpus from the eating-the-couch-potato dept.
Sonny Yatsen writes "NPR's Robert Krulwich explores the work of several designers who are working on carnivorous furniture. These creations, include a clock that feeds on dead flies, and a table that lures mice into a guillotined death. 'We want robots to be able to get their own energy from the environment,' says co-designer Prof. Melhuish. Let's hope they come up with a lounge chair that eats cockroaches sometime soon."

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