Bloggers of the world UNITE

Although I do not necessarily support this particular incident , it just goes to show you the power we have as people and bloggers at the grass root level.
Virginia Congressman Resigns Abruptly

Rep. Edward Schrock (R-VA) "abruptly announced Monday that he will not seek a third term in Congress, citing unspecified allegations 'that have called into question my ability' to serve,"
the AP reports.

Schrock's statement "said he would not comment further on his decision, nor did he comment specifically on the allegations he is facing."

Kos says a blog -- Blogactive -- brought down the congressman by claiming he was gay.

Update: The Virginia Pilot notes "no mainstream newspapers, television stations or Web sites published the allegations. As the rumors continued to build, local Republicans began preparing for the worst."

--- Read original story --- --- Blog This ---

In search of Earth, new class of planets found

(CNN) -- Our planet is not alone. It may not even be lonely.

Astronomers on Tuesday announced the discovery of a new -- and possibly abundant -- class of planets that has more in common with Earth than the uninhabitable gas giants previously discovered.

"We are closer to answering the question, 'Are we alone in the universe?'" said Anne Kinney, director of NASA's Universe Division, Science Mission Directorate. "We aim to answer that question by looking for planets, eventually imaging them and ultimately diagnosing the presence of life on those planets."

Astronomers found the two planets, among the smallest ever detected, orbit different stars less then 50 light years from Earth. One planet circles a red dwarf star, the most abundant in our Milky Way galaxy, igniting hope that the discoveries may just be the beginning.

--- Read more --- [CNN]

Australian Air-Powered Engine

An Australian man has invented a vehicle powered by compressed air, although it's not the world's first, despite his claims (I've seen other prototypes before). However, the best part of Angelo Di Pietro's design is that it tosses almost all of the moving parts traditionally associated with engines, instead leaving traditional pistons-in-cylinder designs for a rotary (don't know about its Wankelness, but there you go).

The test vehicle has reached 31MPH, too, so we're not talking a little joke vehicle, although they didn't mention how long a tank would power the little cart. I did notice that Di Pietro's company, EngineAir, also designs roots blowers. Perhaps we'll soon see the world's first forced induction compressed air engine?

Read - Inventor Makes Engine That Runs Off Air [RedNova] Thanx[Gizmodo]

USB Powered Christmas Tree

Ok. I thought I had seen it all. Don't get me wrong, I love a USB powered device as much as the next guy but, I mean really a Christmas Tree. I guess I need to hurry up and put a patent on USB powered Jewish Menorah. If you guys can fine me a USB device I haven't seen I'll give ya a cookie.

Read - Catalog Page [MrGadgetAU] Thanx[Gizmodo]

The Internet: 35 years and still evolving

Stephen Crocker was a graduate student at UCLA when the first network connection was made in what has become the Internet.

NEW YORK (AP) -- Thirty-five years after computer scientists at UCLA linked two bulky computers using a 15-foot gray cable, testing a new way to exchange data over networks, what would ultimately become the Internet remains a work in progress.

University researchers are experimenting with ways to increase its capacity and speed. Programmers are trying to imbue Web pages with intelligence. And work is underway to re-engineer the network to reduce spam and security troubles.

All the while threats loom: Critics warn that commercial, legal and political pressures could hinder the types of innovations that made the Internet what it is today.

Stephen Crocker and Vinton Cerf were among the graduate students who joined UCLA professor Len Kleinrock in an engineering lab on September 2, 1969, as bits of meaningless test data flowed silently between the two computers. By January, three other "nodes" joined the fledgling network.

Then came e-mail a few years later, a core communications protocol called TCP/IP in the late 1970s, the domain name system in the 1980s and the World Wide Web -- now the second most popular application behind e-mail -- in 1990. The
Internet expanded beyond its initial military and educational domain into businesses and homes around the world.

---Read more--- [AP via CNN]

Doctors Grow Man New Jaw Bone

LONDON, England (AP) -- A German who had his lower jaw cut out because of cancer has enjoyed his first meal in nine years -- a bratwurst sandwich -- after surgeons grew a new jaw bone in his back muscle and transplanted it to his mouth in what experts call an "ambitious'' experiment.

According to this week's issue of The Lancet medical journal, the German doctors used a meshm cage, a growth chemical and the patient's own bone marrow, containing stem cells, to create a new jaw bone that fit exactly into the gap left by the cancer surgery. Tests have not been done yet to verify whether the bone was created by the blank-slate stem cells and it is too early to tell whether the jaw will function normally in the long term.

But the operation is the first published report of a whole bone being engineered and incubated inside a patient's body and transplanted.

Stem cells are the master cells of the body that go on to become every tissue in the body. They are a hot area of research with scientists trying to find ways to prompt them to make desired tissues, and perhaps organs.

--- Read more --- [AP via CNN]

Toilet Terroism

PORT OF SWEET GRASS, Mont. - Jesse Huffman insists he didn't do it on purpose, but the toilet he left plugged after "nature called" at this border crossing in north-central Montana has him facing criminal charges.

Toole County authorities charged the 19-year-old college student from Great Falls with criminal mischief after a border agent accused him of intentionally clogging the toilet.

Huffman said the clogged piping was completely unintentional, the result of an urgent, but natural bodily function.

"I've never been arrested before or anything like that, and I get arrested for taking a dump,"
said Huffman, a student at Montana State University in Bozeman.

--- Read more --- [Yahoo News]
--- UPDATE --- [Fox News]

D_Skin Protective Disc Skins

Aight this is what I have been waiting on ...Its simple, slap these little clear plastic covers on your CD's and DVD's with a "Liplock Seal" and BAM you can double your VCD of Pulp Fiction as a Frisbee when you get bored.

The really cool part is that you dont have to remove the d skin to play it in an optical drive. So you can use and abuse your disc's and when one of your d_skins get too damaged, toss it and put a new one on. I like to think of them as little CD/DVD condoms;)

The only downside right now is price. They'll cost you about 6 bucks for a 5 pack. While thats not to bad, I'd like to see them cost about the same per unit as 100 pack spindle of cds.(with rebate of course). Keep an eye on this one.

Read - d_skin review [UGO]
Read - Home Page [d-skin] thanks [Gizmodo]

US tops league of e-mail spammers..[Big F'n Suprise]

TOP SPAM NATIONS 1 - United States 42.53% 2 - South Korea 15.42% 3 - China (& Hong Kong)11.62% 4 - Brazil 6.17% 5 - Canada 2.91% 6 - Japan 2.87% 7 - Germany 1.28% 8 - France 1.24% 9 - Spain 1.16% 10 - United Kingdom 1.15% 11 - Mexico 0.98% 12 - Taiwan 0.91% Others 11.76% Source: Sophos August 2004

The US is the biggest spammer, despite efforts to combat unwanted e-mail, according to net security experts.

Almost 43% of all unwanted e-mails originated from the US in the last month, said anti-virus firm Sophos.

The report suggests that anti-spam laws passed in the US nine months ago have had little impact.

South Korea, the most broadband-connected country in the world, was next in line, firing out 15% of all junk e-mails.

"Almost nine months on from the Can-Spam legislation and the US's attempt to clean up its act appears to have had little impact," Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos said.

"Canada has made some progress, however, cutting the percentage of the world's junk e-mail sent from the country by over half, from 6.8% six months ago to 2.9% today."

The figures also showed that South Korea had tripled the amount of spam mails sent out from its networks since February.

--- Read more here --- [BBC]

NES Controller Hot Pants

Nintendo Hotpants: Hey it just beckons a deep soulful feeling from the past. Available at your local Hot Topic, these hot pants are completely sold out online, I mean come on big suprise I wish I would have thought of this. And there only 12 bucks thats a steal. Now all they need is a wireless controller with a rumble pack ;)

Read- Catalog Page [HotTopic via Gizmodo]

Scream stolen from Norway museum

This really made me sick that things like this can still happen in todays' modern times

Robbers took the work off the wall in broad daylight.

Armed robbers have stolen the iconic Edvard Munch painting, The Scream, from the Munch Museum in Norway.

Two masked thieves pulled the work and another painting, Madonna, off the
wall as stunned visitors watched on Sunday.

One robber threatened staff with a gun before the pair escaped in a waiting
car, a museum officer told the BBC.

The car was later recovered and police also found parts of picture frames near to where a witness reported seeing a suspect vehicle.

The Munch Museum said the two stolen paintings were among its most valuable - worth an estimated $19m (£10.4m) together, according to the BBC's Lars Bevanger.

Norwegian Culture Minister Valgerd Svarstad Haugland described the theft as "dreadful and shocking".

--- Read more here ---- [BBC]

Sling Media SlingBox: Television Place Shifting

Forbes has a short write-up about an interesting upcoming product from startup Sling Media, called the "SlingBox Personal Broadcaster." If it works as advertised, we'll probably be hearing a lot about it.

The idea is simple: hook up the little $200 box to your TiVo or your cable box and connect it to your home internet. Then, when you're out and about, just pull up the client software on your PDA or laptop. SlingBox's software will detect the quality and throughput of your connection and shoot you out a recompressed, digital stream of whatever analog signal you could be watching at home. It would even work on cell phones, they say, if the bandwidth were there (and it will be Real Soon Now).

The company plans to avoid a copyright-infringement suplex from the entertainment industry by limiting the remote viewing to a single stream at a time. I'll definitely keep an eye on this one, and the term "place shifting"

--- Read - Shifting Places --- [Forbes (Yahoo) via Gizmodo]
--- Read - Company Home Page --- [SlingMedia]

The $350,000 Amplifier

You know you have to wonder. What does a 350,000 home audio amplifier sound like? Well to me personally it sounds like financial stupidity, but hey that's just me. But seriously, if you have a third of a mill to throw around then for about the price of 2 Lamborghini Gallardo's u can own this amazing piece of stereo equipment.

Oh, and for all those bargain hunters out there, there's a $70k version.

--- Read more here --- [Stereophile]

Google jumps 18% in debut

No. 1 search engine posts solid gains in long awaited debut, but not like the
late 1990s.
August 19, 2004: 4:36 PM EDT
By Paul R. La Monica, CNN/Money senior writer

NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Google stock jumped 18 percent in its long-awaited but rocky debut Thursday.

Shares of the No. 1 search engine company closed at $100.34 after they opened at $100, a 17 percent increase from its offering price of $85.

More than 22 million shares changed hands on its first day of trading, making Google one of the most actively traded stocks on the Nasdaq. The stock stayed in a fairly tight range throughout the day, hitting a low of $95 and high of $104.06.

The slightly better-than-expected performance was not enough to save other tech stocks though; the Nasdaq composite index fell about 0.6 percent Thursday.

Google, trading under the ticker symbol GOOG (GOOG: Research, Estimates), was supposed to be one of the hottest initial public offerings of stock since the late 1990s. But its gains paled next to some of the hottest names of that era.


--- Read more here ---

Barret's XM109: No-Hassle 25mm Sniper Rifle

Barrett's prototype XM109 packs no-fuss, some-muss light armor penetration into a convenient point-and-shoot form factor that makes lofting 25mm sniper rounds downrange a relative walk in the park for today's workaday infantryman. Going into testing this month, the XM109 uses the computerized sighting-system "BORS" (Barrett Optical Ranging Sighting System) to automatically compensates for changes in air pressure, temperature, and the angle of the weapon towards the target, "taking all the sweat-math work out of first-round shots." Dial in the distance and take your shot - that armored vehicle should go down in the first round.

--- Read more here --- [Gizmodo}

Service Pack 2: It's Out There

Service Pack 2 for XP was released to the public last week and many of you installed it - and wrote to us about your experiences. Lots of you had no problems at all, but others weren't so lucky. Following are some of the most common complaints and kudos we're hearing.

----- Read more ----- {Microsoft via Spelunker}

Destroy Your Data

Make sure there's no signs of your data on your hard drive.
Why do you want to destroy your data in the first place?

• To protect your privacy.


• To prevent others from seeing sensitive data.
  
• To cover your tracks in case you're performing
  confidential activities on your computer.

When it comes to wiping out data, forget about the
Recycle Bin, stupid shareware utilities, or fun little free files.
I'll show you hard-core software and hardware that absolutely,
positively, leaves no trace of the data (or makes the data
practically impossible to use).
--- Read more ---

Metal Rubber

A new material called "Metal Rubber" has been created by a company named NanoSonic. This amazing new material can be stretched, burned, and folded; and still continue to conduct electricity. To top it off, it snaps right back to its original form when your done using and abusing it. I think this will help to bring about all sorts of new gizmo's and gadgets. This is defiantly one of the coolest things I have seen in a while. Now, if they can just make "liquid metal" ;)

Read - A Limber Future [PopSci via Gizmodo]

Wood Block Clock

Finally a clock I can throw against the wall with ease. Gotta thank the good ole Japanese for this one. Man I need to go vacation over there sometime.

Read more --here.

And now for sumthing completly different!

Alright guys ........
thought i would try a little sumthing diffrent.
This is my new blog. Its gonna be a lil diffrent from my xanga in the fact that this will be a more professional site (maybe) lol. So lets see what happens