What do I have to do to get one of these into my house? I think im a big enough geek. I can give some great technical feedback, since after all I am a developer. I could probably make some usage suggestions that you haven't thought of... But alas, I'm sure I will never see one. Why do I think this thing is so cool you ask? Well, its because I can see this type of system being in place in multiple locations within your house. Hell, lets go further, put a few in each home. Now you can have your surface networked to other surfaces. Share the space. Keep it always open. Friends sharing surfaces, from afar. The idea of being able to "locally network" devices like cellphones and digital cameras is a very interesting idea. Instead of hoping that the two devices will play nice with each other directly, using a visual layer, such as the surface computer, to act as the intermediary, and allowing you to choose what you want to transfer, is brilliant. Add to that some extensible functionality, and you could move the image off the camera to the table then to your phone, or how about throwing it to your network drive. But what if you just want to copy the image, leaving the original on the camera? How do you get an interface that the camera can understand? I'm thinking an XML envelope of some kind could provide control information, and would be requested by the Surface Computer. Similar to the one touch security button of Cisco wifi routers, you would press the button to authorize the table to have access to control your camera. Better yet would just to be contact required, or very near proximity. Only downside to no security would be the possibility for someone to skim your data from a few feet away, like skimming RFID data. Im sure some security expert will come up with an easily crackable system that will suck and be impossible to use, with little to no security advantage. But imagine some of the possibilities. Remote control for your TV that doesn't suck. Photo album controller, which then can display on the table, or, better yet, throw it to your TV so people can sit back and relax. Reminder system. Security system. Gaming. Interactive eating (i'm gonna keep that one secret for now). Central calandaring, note center, todo, etc. The biggest I think is if it acts as a middle man to allow more ubiquitous networking of devices, like the moving of photos from camera to phone. Mostly though, for now, I can see that the major appeal would be for commercial interests. Furniture stores to let you draw out your room. Car dealers to let you customize your car. Probably an infinite list of ideas. The problem is that I don't think it really improves any of the existing systems that are currently used. Buying a cellphone? Why do I need this? Just seems excessive, but then again, people are simple. via Popular Mechanics

Junk parts and like 50 bucks is what they apparently should be spending. Aside from the continuation of the stupidity gene in these guys hopefully being terminated with each blast, these guys are accomplishing the death ray, at concept at least. By no stretch should anyone ever do this since the microwaves can harm you, badly. After all, you cooked your microwave pizza using it last night... So lasers, check. Ray gun, Check. Flying car.... MICROWAVE TECHNOLOGY HOMEMADE - video powered by Metacafe via Gizmodo

A bunch of crazy Christians are opening a "museum" on monday that chronicles creationism. Yea. Thats right. A Creationist Museum. Kinda makes your head hurt doesn't it? If it doesn't, then you should go donate everything that you can here, so god will love you more. I don't care if you believe some magical being created things,you,the universe, etc, but for the love of pete... Would you please learn to at least adapt a little bit of your thinking? Dinosaurs and humans did not live together. Let alone in peace and harmony. Sure, go ahead and believe Noah built a big fucking boat and put two of each on it, but seriously, stop thinking they all got along... Those lions were eying the zebras. Also, why does changing the timelines on things somehow destroy your beliefs? You believe that the universe and man were created at the same time and are 6000-10000 years old. Why did it have to be at the same time? Does that make it more miraculous? Why cant the universe have been created 14billion years ago, by god or not? Does that make it any less miraculous? Why did man have to live with the dinosaurs? Why can't there have been a progression of life? Even if god just sparked the start of life, but let it run its course, why is that so dirty to you? Oh because no one banged their sister to create humanity... So fine, lets say god waved his magic pixie wand and, poof, we appeared. Why couldn't that have been 14billion years after he made the universe? I mean it makes sense, that had to have been alot of work. Probably needed a 14billion year long beer break to get his energy back. If you don't take such a simplistic view of the world and you don't think a magical being controls you like a puppet, you might be interested in become a Bright. Via Boing Boing

I am going to assume this woman was born into the wealth that allows her to by a segway... Because she ain't smart. Aside from how wrong this is on so many levels of lazy bad parenting, this person is dumb. I would have attached the stroller behind the segway. But thats me. Oh wait, no i wouldn't, because I would have WALKED. Via LiveJournal

Jack Thompson is the man who loves to blame game publishers for all the world's ills. It couldn't be absentee parents, or failing school systems, or lack of good public kids activities, or umpteen other direct influences on the quality of children's enrichment and growth into adults? Could it? Nope, its games says the fucktard. And now, its Halo3 that he has loaded into his PR cannon. Awesome for Bungie and Microsoft since this is probably going to boost the interest in the game, though im not sure the interest can get much higher. Halo3 is in his mind, is apparently going to make all kids into crazed "DC beltway snipers", because after all, the prior version of Halo accomplished that, so he claims. Look Jack(ass), are you tripping on the spotlight? Have you spent so much time staring into the evil hole you believe to be there, that you actually now are seeing devils in it and believe that they really do exist? Of course the game was rated M, you blow shit up, and you kill shit. But its aliens. So, if this is going to train our kids to kill, it will at least be aliens, which means that when the armada arrives to cull its crop, we will at least have a few millions kids (and adults) who will be able to shoot them. Do i believe that the game should be sold to minors? Yes and no. I think games are arbitrarily rated, with little to no common sense about it. But I do believe the rating should be respected while it stands. You should not sell an M rated game to a minor, sure, i agree. But to hold the publisher accountable is ridiculous. They have no way to control how their retailers sell the product, nor would it be reasonable to expect them to police it. Thats the job of the ESRB, not the publisher. The publisher distributes it to retailers on behalf of the game maker, and it is their responsibility to properly label it, not to enforce sales methods. Do cigarette companies enforce sales methods? No. The retailer and police do. Going after Microsoft is just a way for you to grandstand and make everyone believe you have the biggest balls in the world. You don't. You're a bully. And if experience has taught us anything, bullies are bullies because they have nothing productive to contribute and are frightened little punks who are desperately trying to hide their feelings of inadequacy. Are you feeling inadequate Jack? Come on, I'll give you a hug if you need one, its ok. Though I will give you one point of credit. You are going after violence instead of sex. Movies have it backwards, PG movies with 500 decapitations, but see a boob and oh my, rate it R. But trust me jack, its only 1 point, and its worth about 50 cents for a can of soda. GameAlmighty.com

Wyeth Pharmaceuticals announced today that the FDA has approved its new birthcontrol pill that eliminates menstruation in most women who take it. Named Lybrel (90 mcg levonorgestrel/20 mcg ethinyl estradiol) and specifically for the prevention of pregnancy, but it does not contain placebo or "dummy" pills like traditional birth control pills do. It is similar to any other birth control pill, however, since there are no dummy pills, women will never have their period, or at least most women won't. The significance is that the pill is now legal to prescribe in a manner that other pills have been prescribed before, off-label, by willing doctors when a patient requests it. You would take 17 packs a year, in stead of the "expected" 13 packs a year, since you would start a new pack of "active" pills instead of continuing with the dummy pills. So now to the point of my post. First, I am a man. I have no idea the pain of PMS, though I can empathize. I have no idea of the discomfort of bleeding, or the feeling of un-cleanliness many women complain of during menstruation. I don't care about the physical risks Lybrel may or may not pose. I don't care if it's natural or not. There are many arguments, both ways, and I don't care one way or the other. I do however care about the sociological aspect of this pill, and the potential long term repercussions this may have for humanity, or at least the population of the USA. The short version of my concern is this: Will menstruation become a stigma? Will it become something that marks you as being too poor to be on the pill? Will it become a mark of being dirty? Being a "breeder"? Will it become zits, or body oder, or small boobs, or blemished skin, or, or, or, or... It sounds ridiculous, but hear me out and feel free to tell me I'm full of shit. But frankly, it's just an opinion. I was listening to NPR and they were talking about the new pill. The host and guest were going back and forth about the safety, efficacy, and usages of Lybrel. Very information, great concerns raised, and squashed, or not. But they missed what I feel is a very important question. Will Lybrel cause women to fear their period? America is very much a culture of fear of being different. While most cultures don't care about slight body oder, and some even embrace it, America is desperately fearful of it. "Secret, strong enough for a man, made for a woman." God forbid you have any signs at all of your body functioning correctly. Slight oder even is considered "sweaty and gross". Women are convinced that sweat is un-feminine, and if they smell, they are dirty. Men maybe are not so much affected by it, but a sweaty guy is ok if he is working out, but a stinky sweaty guy is gross. So you now get fed a constant barrage of ads to make you smell like you don't smell. Axe body spray and get you laid, because without it, you stink. Secret, doesn't let them see you sweat, because after all, your shit probably doesn't stink either. What about zits? Of course its biology that causes it, luck of the draw for the most part. But for some reason people think that a person with acne eats poorly or maybe doesn't wash. The fact is this translates into alot of people assuming that the acne sufferer is a looser, because after all, if they weren't a loser, they would do something about it and "cure" their acne... Clearasil, Proactive, Accutane, all try to convince you that you can "gain back your life". Wow, thats harsh, didn't know i lost it. Your boobs are too small? Go get breast implants so you can be more of a woman. Crooked nose? Have a new one made. Which actress would you like? Too dark skinned as a black woman? Lighten it so you don't look SO black. When did it happen that differences became bad? I love them. I love small boobs, big boobs, dark boobs, light boobs. People with perfect noses freak me out. You get my point? So that said, my concern with Lybrel is if it will cause women to eventually fear menstruation. Will a stigma become attached to monthly bleeding? Imagine this. Teenage girls who are just getting their period in the next year for the first time will now have the option to take a pill that prevents bleeding. Imagine them going through life, for the next 10 years assuming they started the pill at 15, and now the conversation comes up with their husband or parents of having kids. You have to go off the pill to do that of course. But wait, you mean I now have to bleed? But I don't want to do that... It's gross. Will it be so shocking to bleed when a woman hasn't done so for 10 years, or maybe never before? Will it potentially create enough stress that getting pregnant may become secondary to the fear of someone finding out the woman has her period? Stress prevents pregnancy, will this cause enough stress? Take it even further. You have a daughter in highschool, in the locker room for gym class. All the girls are on the pill, and don't have their periods, ever. Yours however is on the "old pill", because the new one is too expensive, or you feel its unnatural. Today, she comes home crying because the other girls were making fun of her because she had a pad on which they could see through her underwear. The next 4 weeks you stand your ground, your daughter starts to withdraw. You will put her on the pill of course, otherwise she will feel like an outcast and be miserable, do badly in school, and not achieve anything you hoped she could. I really don't know of course which way things could go, but this did cross my mind. I remember how cruel kids can be, and I am sure they have gotten worse. Attach that cruelty to whether you bleed or not, and you can imagine the lengths people would go to in order to hide their period. And if anyone says it can never happen, you're being rediculous. It happens now with far less traumatic things, like wearing glasses, the clothing we wear, the cars we drive, etc. So why would this be any less possible. I really hope this doesn't start a backlash against menstruation, but my gut tells me it will. So good luck everyone, at least there will be enough water for the smaller population of the future. As long as the "breeders" are all sent away to not be seen.

First... AWESOME picture. Second... yea, were alone in the universe. right... (sarcasm) Third... I am not an astronomer, scientist, or even remotely qualified to comment on this, but I am going to anyway. That ring of darkness obviously is interesting, but seems odd to me. It seems way to proportional to be natural. You mean to tell me that from our point of view in the universe, there is an almost perfect ring of emptiness, with almost nothing in it, between here and, well, infinity. regardless of the dark matter or just empty space issue, that alone is freaking amazing. Thats like standing in the middle of a crowd of a million people that you do not have any control of, pointing a gun in a random direction, firing, and not hitting anyone. Thats just crazy. So my first reaction to seeing this was some kind of spherical aberration or distortion. This photo is obviously taken at such a rediculous zoom (5 billion light-years away). Especially since they keep saying dark matter is invisible? If its invisible, what are you showing me again? (or am i just not getting something?) Though their release doesn't say anything about how they verified it, I wonder if they tested validity by shooting another photo off-axis? That would at least rule out some kind of lens issue. But my other thought was some kind of lensing effect of space, such as an Einstein Lens. Again, im just a dumb ass arm-chair-science-reader, so take it for nothing. I was told by my astronomy teacher in college, "astronomy is written in pencil, chemistry is written in pen, physics is written in stone." Although the quantum guys would argue the physics part, the point is, any astronomy is valid until proven otherwise. I suggest writing this one down in pencil... via Nasa

I have them, have had them my whole life. Cold sores, which are actually HSV-1 (herpes simplex 1) though apparently they could also be HSV2 which people normally associate with genital herpes, but they are apparently interchangeable to an extent. The silly thing about herpes is that pretty much everyone has one of them, but for some reason there are a "lucky" chunk of us that exhibit the infection with external sores on the face, lips, and eyes. Some people get it rarely, and only in one spot. Some people, the very unlucky few, get these painful sores constantly, and get them everywhere. I am pretty lucky. I get them primarily on my lip, and only maybe 4-6 times a year. Though i do also get them on the side of my nose rarely, and about 25% of the time on my eyelid. Its been an annoying thing I have had to live with, but by no stretch is it a big deal to me. Im lucky. Some folks, not so much. What happens is the virus goes dormant in a nerve bundle, usually near your inner ear for facial or at the bottom of the spine for genital. For me, I get a slight ear ache that signals a beginning of an outbreak. Before an outbreak usually some environmental trigger or physical causes a weakness for the opportunistic infection to break out. These environmental triggers can be:

• Exposure to strong sunlight or ultraviolet light (eg sun beds) or other extreme weather conditions (eg intense cold)
• Trauma or damage to the lips or mouth area, such as dental treatment, injury, cuts from shaving or even drinking very hot liquids
• Cosmetic procedures such as chemical peels and facial resurfacing.
• Stress, mostly physical, such as a cold (thus coldsore), but also emotional stress which can exhibit physical issues

I get them from sun, hot baths or hottubs, and colds. So enough about me and herpes as a problem. Lets get to the spirulina part of this story. I take a fairly large dosage of spirulina (among a few other things which i will get to) for many reasons, all unrelated to herpes and such. I did so because I was feeling like my diet just wasnt getting me enough vitamins and such. Since I have started taking it, I feel better in a lot of respects, but there has been one interesting effect that I did not expect... Spirulina has been observed to have some antiviral properties, in particular, inhibiting replication of some viruses. It has also been found to have many other health properties, but I don't want to get into those, since this is not about the wonders of spirulina as a super green food or any other possible "quakery" that might make you hit the back button. Specifically, spirulina has been found to inhibit HSV replication in vitro, meaning, in a petri dish. Ok, well great, that means if i sprinkle some spirulina on some virus in a petri dish, it wont go wild-fire on me. How does that help with my face by eating spirulina? It seems it does. This may not work for everyone and I may just be really freakin lucky here but, spirulina has reduced not only the duration of my outbreaks, but also reduced the size of the clusters, but probably 50% in both respects. Since starting spirulina 6 months ago, I have had 3 outbreaks, of which all 3 have been VERY mild in comparison to previous outbreaks. The first time I thought, oh it must be a weak one. Second time, hmmm, interesting. Third time, well, i'm now writing this because I feel I have to share. The reality is that spirulina is an amazing food, regardless of all the vegigranolaparanoiafaithhealers blithering that you might read online. It is PACKED with nutrients and vitamins. It is basically impossible to over eat it, though its tastes like shit, and I wouldn't try anyway since even water can kill you if you drink too much. But the fact is that spirulina has been around forever. It is one of the oldest organisms on Earth. But whats more amazing about it is that it really does seem to be a super food. Even if you take all the hearsay and "evidence", and cut it in half, assuming 50% exaggeration, you are still left with a pretty phenomenal food. But the main point is HSV1 and HSV2. Spirulina is fairly cheap, cheaper than something like Valtrex, and its good for you too, unlike valtrex. Its worth a try for you if you suffer from either herpes virus. I have no idea about genital herpes and what its effect would be, but I would assume that its got to be similar right? This may not work for everyone, and the fact is it may not work for anyone but me, but regardless you might as well try since you never know. As a guideline here is what my vitamin regimen is:

• Morning
• 1 centrum multi vitamin
• 6000mg Spirulina (Hawaiian)
• 3000mg Chlorella
• 1 fish oil capsule (400mg EPA, 200mg DHA, 630mg Omega3)
• 840mg Phosphatidyl Choline from Lecithin
• Evening
• 6000mg Spirulina (Hawaiian)
• 3000mg Chlorella
• 1 fish oil capsule (400mg EPA, 200mg DHA, 630mg Omega3)
• 840mg Phosphatidyl Choline from Lecithin

I am a 220 lb. male in my 30's so you might want to adjust appropriately to your weight. As usual, you should also talk with your doctor before you start taking anything in large quantity like this. If they are not open to it and dismiss it as silly or heresy, get a new doctor. If they tell you not to take it because of some health condition, or issue you may have, listen to them and don't take it. For dosing of Spirulina, basically start with the recommended dosage on the bottle. Then increase by a bit each day until your stools are greenish. Thats the best measure of getting enough. If the poop is green, your all good, give or take a few mg. I take 12grams per day. I have read of people taking 40grams per day, but that just seems ridiculous. If you are going to take chlorella, in order to figure out how much to take is easy, just take half the mg of spirulina. So if you take 10grams per day of spirulina, you should also take 5grams per day of Chlorella, if you chose to take it at all. The only caution with chorella is that some people get a bit of diarreah when they take it the first few times, so you might want to build your dose up from 1 pill. I also take lecithin and fish oil and a multi. Those of course could be helping with the herpes outbreaks as well, but everything I have read points to the spirulina. Anyway, I hope that this ends up helping at least 1 person. Just be careful and be informed. Read as much as you can about it. Farmed spirulina is better than natural, because the 1 issue spirulina has is that it is a toxin-sponge. Good inside you, bad when in a polluted water way from which it was harvested and now your going to eat it. Here is the Spirulina I take. Its pretty good, small pressed tablets, from hawaii, and is farmed. 500mg Spirulina Tablets from Now Foods Some Resources: http://www.chlorellafactor.com/ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spirulina_%28dietary_supplement%29

Last September a psychologist named Ian Walker at the University of Bath in England announced that wearing a helmet while riding a bike actually causes drivers to come 3.35 inches closer to you than if you weren't wearing one at all. The funny test was when wearing a wig of long brown hair to make him look like a woman, earned him an extra 2.2 inches of clearance compared to being an un-helmeted man. Apparently there was some argument about the relevance, since 3.35 inches of deviation is not that much when the car is over 1 meter away anyway. But when he reanalized his data to be percentages of vehicles passing within a 1 meter "danger zone" he found an increase of 23% more vehicles withing the 1 meter mark when wearing a helmet. The guy even got "tapped" twice while wearing his helmet, and no times otherwise. Does this mean not to wear a helmet? Of course not. Wear your helmets. Please. I want my tax dollars going to education and productive things, not your perma-care as a vegetable in some state hospital somewhere. Although they may drive closer, you still may fall, tire blowout, pothole, wind, whatever. And the most likely thing to hit the ground, is your head. However, i wonder if wearing a helmet that has long flowing hair coming out the bottom would get you -3.35 or +2.2? maybe it just gets you back to 0. Via Boing Boing Originally Sci Am

Um. They build houses under high tension wires right? That cannot be good for you. The fact that there is so much energy radiating from the high tension wires that you can light fluorescent tube lights is a bit concerning. I used to mountain bike along a trail that went under high tension wires for about a half a mile and I always felt just slightly "weird". I just shrugged it off as my imagination. I knew they emitted a pretty large amount of energy around them, but I did not realize it was enough to do this. Where's my tinfoil hat? I gotta glue it into my helmet now. Via MAKE: