Farewell to Sci-Fi Writer William Tenn William Tenn, one of science fiction's most imaginative writers, has passed. Tenn created vivid scenarios of mind-blowing alien worlds in novels and stories that illuminated emotional, political and ethic issues of good old humanity. And as a teacher, he inspired other aspiring writers. Including this one.
After 100 Years, Are The Boy Scouts Still Relevant? February 8 marks the centennial of Boy Scouts in America. At a time when shows like 'Man Vs Wild' and 'Survivorman' are experiencing immense popularity, wouldn’t it make sense that they'd see a surge in enrollment? But Boy Scouts, in many ways, are a struggling organization with membership plummeting annually.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 16:41:00 GMT)
Rewiring Haiti: Patience Wears Thin in Port-au-Prince PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI — With the disaster-relief phase ending, the streets of Port-au-Prince are now crowded with the white SUVs of international aid and development agencies shuttling purposefully around town. But while the focus may have shifted to rebuilding Haiti, rising unrest over aid and food distribution could sideline efforts to begin reconstruction in earnest.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 15:40:00 GMT)
10 Ways to a Geeky Girl's Heart If you’re a geeky guy looking to romance a geeky girl, it doesn’t matter if you’ve been with her forever or if she’s a new interest; realize that conventional romantic overtures won’t always work. Think outside the box. Here's some help.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 14:36:00 GMT)
Google's Super Bowl Ad: A Romance in Search Google debuted a Super Bowl ad Sunday. The ad tells the story of a romance helped along by a series of Google searches conducted by (one is left to imagine) a young man whose simple plan to study abroad in Paris ends with his need to know how to assemble a crib.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 13:27:00 GMT)
Review: Daddy-Daughter Killing Sprees Power 'BioShock 2' By building on the original's creepy setting and tweaking the troubling relationship between Big Daddies and Little Sisters, this sequel becomes a worthy successor to a groundbreaking game.
How Movies Activate Your Neural G-Spot Scott Brown considers the pros and cons of MindSign Neuromarketing's plans to create the "neurocinema," the real-time monitoring of the brain's reaction to movies.
Ad-Network Vets Try to Clean Up Their Act Do you wonder where those ads for work at home, teeth whitening and so on are coming from, and why they appear on otherwise respectable websites? The answer is complicated, but becoming less so.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT)
A Would-Be Spy's Buried Treasure and Uncrackable Code Former Air Force sergeant Brian Regan buried stolen government secrets and encrypted the coordinates, hoping to sell the stash to the highest bidder. Then he had to crack his own code.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT)
21st-Century Shooters Are No Country for Old Men Can aging gamers compete with twitchy teens on today's increasingly complicated virtual battlefields? War is extra hellish when you're too old, or too busy, to fight off the adolescent hordes in games like MAG and Modern Warfare 2.
(Mon, 08 Feb 2010 05:00:00 GMT)
Apple iPad's Tiny SIM Is Just There to Mess With You Evidence suggests that Apple's decision to use a smaller-than-usual micro SIM card in the iPad was motivated by business reasons, not a lack of space. The company is likely trying to prevent iPhone customers from using the same SIM cards in their iPads.
Authors Guild: 'To RIAA or Not to RIAA' The Authors Guild says it supports the proposed Google Books settlement to avoid the same mistakes the Recording Industry of America made in its litigation campaign against music pirates. Namely: if you can't beat piracy, you might as well as join it.
(Fri, 05 Feb 2010 22:39:00 GMT)
'The People vs. George Lucas' Is Really a Twisted Love Letter Star Wars fans unload on the creator of their beloved franchise in the crowdsourced film, which makes its world premiere in March at the South by Southwest film festival. Writer and director Alexandre O. Philippe talks about weeding through thousands of submissions from passionate fans to concoct his "participatory documentary."
Robotic Spider Melds Legos and 3-D Printing A DIY project combines milled plastic pieces with the basic Lego Mindstorms set to create a robotic spider that crawls and turns.
(Fri, 05 Feb 2010 21:04:00 GMT)
Panacea or Poison Pill: Who Gets to Decide About The $10 E-Book? Another publisher denounces Amazon's $10 e-book. The price point has less to do with the inherent value of the content than it does with finding a number most readers cannot resist. But what should an e-book cost-- and who gets to decide?
(Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:30:00 GMT)
First Look: A Drooling 'Alice in Wonderland' Beast Fresh pictures from Tim Burton's madcap 3-D cinematic adaptation of the Lewis Carroll classic show the wicked Bandersnatch and Bayard the bloodhound. Plus, a sketch-to-screen series of images shows the transformation of Tweedledee and Tweedledum, straight out of Burton's mind.
(Fri, 05 Feb 2010 20:28:00 GMT)
Justice Dept to Google Books: Close, But No Cigar Google’s plan to digitize the world’s books into a combination research library and bookstore has hit another snag: The U.S. Justice Department says that 'despite substantial progress made, issues remain' with the proposed settlement agreement of the class-action suit which would let the project proceed.
Pentagon's New Bag: 'Synthetic Organisms' With Self-Destruct The Pentagon's mad science arm may have come up with its most radical project yet. Darpa is looking to re-write the laws of evolution to the military's advantage, creating “synthetic organisms” that can live forever — or can be killed with the flick of a molecular switch.
(Fri, 05 Feb 2010 15:16:00 GMT)
Athletes Confused by Olympic Social Media Rules Some athletes tell their followers they won't be tweeting or posting photos during the Olympics because of a supposed blackout period for posting. Confusion over what the rules do and don't allow may cause more problems than an outright ban.
(Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:00:00 GMT)
Siri Launches Voice-Powered iPhone 'Assistant' iPhone developer Siri launches an artificial-intelligence app that will process voice requests, like "Find nearest gas station," "Will it rain today?" and more. It's the best voice recognition to appear on smartphones.
