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Feed Researchers Develop Technique For Bacteria Crowd Control (sciencedaily.com)

A surprising technique to concentrate, manipulate and separate a wide class of swimming bacteria has been identified by scientists. This device could have enormous applications in biotechnology and biomedical engineering including use in miniaturized medical diagnostic kits and bioanalysis.
Google

Submission + - Google Docs and Spreadsheets Expanding

dhinckley writes: "Google announced today that they will indeed be adding Presentation software to their Docs and Spreadsheets package. With the announcement they revealed that they have purchased Tonic Systems to help them with the new Presentation software and hope to have it ready by sometime this summer. Google's office package is starting to look a bit more comparable to Microsoft Office."
Patents

Submission + - Prior art on Verizon patents

greenbird writes: Techdirt has information from Daniel Berninger documenting prior art in the Verizon patents being used to destroy Vonage. So a successful company and possible an entire market may be undermined or destroyed by blatantly invalid patents. From the article:

"In particular, the claims in both patents were anticipated by open standards assembled by the VoIP Forum (H.323) in 1996 and published in January 1997 with the participation of members from Cisco Systems, Microsoft, IBM, Nortel, Intel, Motorola, Lucent, and Vocaltec Communications, among others."

and

"The Eric Voit patent applications reflect, in particular, contributions made by VocalTec Communication to the VoIP Forum during 1996 and formally published at the same time as a separate document."

Feed Did Apple junket inspire "no iPod left behind" initiative? (engadget.com)

Filed under: Portable Audio

Michigan's much-derided initiative to give iPods to every student in the state just seems to be getting curiouser and curiouser, with word now coming out that some of the lawmakers involved in the proposal went on a junket to California that was paid for at least in part by Apple. As The Detroit Free Press reports, both Representative Matt Gillard and House Speaker Andy Dillon took part in the 2 1/2 day trip earlier this year, where they apparently discussed classroom technology and the educational benefits of iPods, sneaking in some time to discuss wine distribution and business taxes as well. While it's not clear exactly how much of an influence the junket had on their decision, it certainly doesn't seem to have hurt things, with Dillon unveiling the $36-million iPod proposal not long after he returned.

[Via The Inquirer, photo courtesy of Anti iPod]

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BOLD MOVES: THE FUTURE OF FORD A new documentary series. Be part of the transformation as it happens in real-time

Office Depot Featured Gadget: Xbox 360 Platinum System Packs the power to bring games to life!


Google

Submission + - Google Earth highlights Darfur

jc42 writes: NPR, PCworld, and some 400 other news sources (according to Google News) are reporting on a new Google feature: Google Earth, in cooperation with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum now presents details of the growing disaster in Darfur. They give a virtual tour of the area, with details of events in many villages in the words of local residents. So in addition to their "Do no evil" motto, they apparently now have a policy of exposing evil. Needless to say, the Sudan government didn't exactly cooperate with this project.
Google

Submission + - Google assists Indian goverment censorship

An anonymous reader writes: Google's Orkut has made a deal to provide IP addresses of posters of content deemed objectionable by Bombay police. They object to, among others, posts against certain Indian personalities, young women admiring Indian mobsters, and, amazingly, "anti-Indian words" (!).
Space

Submission + - New Horizons Probe Returns New Images of Jupiter

SeaDour writes: "The Pluto-bound New Horizons space probe, launched a little over a year ago, recently succeeded in passing through a narrow navigational keyhole by Jupiter. Using the gas giant's tremendous gravity, the craft now has a significant boost toward its final destination, shaving three years off its journey. As it passed through the Jovian system, the probe took some fantastic images of the neighborhood, including detailed observations of erupting volcanoes on Io, time-lapse photography of Jupiter's tumultuous atmosphere, and even the faint ring system that was first discovered in Voyager photography. These new images prove the tremendous capabilities of the small probe, which is set to reach Pluto in 2015."
Microsoft

Submission + - Ballmer repeats threats against Linux

daria42 writes: Steve Ballmer has reissued Microsoft's patent threat against Linux, warning open-source vendors that they must respect his company's intellectual property. In a no-nonsense presentation to New York financial analysts last week, Microsoft's chief executive said the company's partnership with Novell, which it signed in November 2006, "demonstrated clearly the value of intellectual property, even in the open-source world."

Feed News: Here we go again (penny-arcade.com)

Gabe: You might have seen this story on CNN about the teens that murdered a homeless guy and then equated it to the sort of thrill one might get from a violent video game. There will be plenty of articles focusing on these kids and their crime. I"d like to take a second and talk about the parents of these teenagers instead. It is the job of a parent to teach their children certain rules. Obviously the rules themselves and the emphasis each family places on them will vary, but there are certain universal constants that these parents obviously failed to pass on.

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