unc0nn3ct3d writes "In a shocking update on the seemingly endless troubles plaguing NCSoft, Richard Garriott — the king of online games, creator of The Ultima Series (and consequentially Ultima Online), as well as the recently troubled Tabula Rasa — has announced that he would be stepping down from his position at NCSoft. Apparently motivated by his recent trip into space, perhaps he has found a higher purpose while orbiting so high above the earth."

The Lower Manhattan Development Corporation has turned to "tobacco detection canine" teams to sniff out workers sneaking away for a smoke. Careless smoking by workers inside the former Deutsche Bank building is blamed for the Aug. 18, 2007, fire that killed two firefighters. "This is just one part of the project team's multifaceted approach to ensuring that all site regulations are strictly followed and enforced," said LMDC spokesman Mike Murphy.

Hugh Pickens writes "A BBC investigation has found that in 1968 the US abandoned a nuclear weapon beneath the ice in northern Greenland after a nuclear-armed B52 crashed on the ice a few miles from Thule Air Base. The Stratofortress disintegrated on impact with the sea ice and parts of it began to melt through to the fjord below. The high explosives surrounding the four nuclear weapons on board detonated without setting off the nuclear devices, which had not been armed by the crew. The Pentagon maintained that all four weapons had been 'destroyed' and while technically true, investigators piecing together fragments from the crash could only account for three of the weapons. Investigators found that 'something melted through ice such as burning primary or secondary.' A subsequent search by a US submarine was beset by technical problems and, as winter encroached and the ice began to freeze over, the search was abandoned. 'There was disappointment in what you might call a failure to return all of the components,' said a former nuclear weapons designer at the Los Alamos nuclear laboratory. 'It would be very difficult for anyone else to recover classified pieces if we couldn't find them.'"

CWmike writes "Ever picked up a cold, frosty beer on a hot summer's day and thought that it simply couldn't get any better? Well, think again. A team of researchers at Rice University in Houston is working on helping Joe Six Pack fight aging and cancer with every swill of beer." Thank you science! Now we just need cigarettes that cure baldness.

rsk writes "It's official: Google has Open Sourced Android. The source code can be downloaded from Android's Git repository. Bugs are handled at the Google Code Android project page with documentation being handled by a collection of Google Site pages. One of the more interesting aspects of Android seems to be the seemingly Eclipse Foundation-like organization of the project, welcoming both Individual and Commercial developers into the Android development pot. One of the benefits of this arrangement is securing the existence of the project by involving commercial interests and their money in the process ... this is also one of the downsides; having commercial entities charter and lead features of a platform that their own commercial offerings provide 'enhanced' versions of, sometimes leaving the free offering always lacking in one obvious way or another. It's hard to say at this point how involved Google will be in this process, or the Open Handset Alliance in general, with managing the health of sub-projects under the Android umbrella as time goes on."

cweditor writes "Like concept cars at auto shows, the computer industry designs 'concept notebooks' to imagine the machines of the future. The 'concepts' may not come to market as-is, but it's likely some of their ideas, components and features will. Take a look at systems you might be using in 7 years. In one, a touch-sensitive screen acts as the system's keyboard and mouse, allowing you to slide your finger across the screen to immediately shut off the display and keep what you're working on confidential. Their associated image gallery includes a prototype for a dual-screen laptop."

An anonymous reader writes "Another straw in the wind: following last week's news that the US Department of Transportation is putting a halt on upgrades to Windows Vista, Office 2007, and Internet Explorer 7, today comes word that the Federal Aviation Administration may ditch Vista and Office in favor of Google's new online business applications running on Linux-based hardware. (The FAA is part of the DOT.) The FAA's CIO David Bowen told InformationWeek he's taking a close look at the Premier Edition of Google Apps as he mulls replacements for the agency's Windows XP-based desktop computers. Bowen cited several reasons why he finds Google Apps attractive. 'From a security and management standpoint that would have some advantages,' he said."

Newsweek's N'Gai Croal continues to offer excellent coverage, running an interview with Jamil Moledina, the Executive Director of GDC. N'Gai and Jamil discuss Apple and the iPhone, and they do a very smooth job of hooking that into games and the current state of the industry. They also discuss Sony's current next-gen positioning, what makes a good keynote, and the gaming event world post-E3. "The interesting thing is that E3 and E For All have split apart. For a long time, a number of people in in the industry, myself included, were advocating a combined event, like Tokyo Game Show, that would have a day of business meetings, then open it up to consumers. Because then all of the key players have an incentive to be there. They need to conduct business. And then it is open to the general public to see what it is that we've all got going on. By splitting them into two separate events, I wonder how that dynamic is going to play out; if the same exhibitors that were at E3 would also want to go to a consumer-only event? I'd love to see how that works out. It's a bold experiment. We'll see how it goes."