Swanky new Vegas hotel’s ‘death ray’ proves inconvenient for some guests

And here you thought bedbugs were the biggest source of anxiety for hotel guests.

Yes, guests at Vdara hotel in Las Vegas now have something else to worry about: being burned alive by the glare of the building's "death ray."

What the heck's a "death ray," you ask? Well, first off, it's not as deadly as it sounds, since no one has actually died from it -- at least not yet. Butaccording to the U.K. Daily Mail, the powerful beams of Nevada sunlight reflecting off the glass hotel onto sections of the hotel's swimming poolarea have burned some guests and have melted plastic bags.

The building's concave design creates a sort of magnifying-glass effect. The hotel's designers reportedly anticipated that ill-situated humans might experience some discomfort courtesy of the building's blinding glare, so they placed a film over the glass panes of its many windows. Obviously that didn't quite do the trick. So for now the hotel is placing larger umbrellas in the pool area while designers try to come up with another remedy.

Fisher-Price recalls more than 10M kid products

Fisher-Price is recalling more than 10 million tricycles, toys and high chairs over safety concerns.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday that the tricycles and high chairs were blamed for children's injuries.

In the recall of about 7 million Fisher-Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles, the agency is aware of 10 reports of children being hurt. Six of them required medical attention.

The trikes — some of which feature popular characters like Dora the Explorer and Barbie — have a protruding plastic ignition key near the seat that children can strike, sit on or fall on, leading to injuries that the commission said can include genital bleeding.

Concrete cloth is 'a building in a bag'

Putting up a building takes a long time. You need to lay a foundation and then slowly stack your materials up. Not so with Concrete Cloth. Called "a building in a bag," it can be turned into a solid structure in mere minutes.

Essentially, it's like a tent that's blown up with a compressor. But once it's up, it can be sprayed with water to be solidified into a solid structure that's waterproof and fireproof. It's perfect for situations like disaster relief when time is of the essence. Just check out the below video to see it in action.

In the event of emergency, remove BRA

First, the bra that is meant to be taken off won an Ig Nobel award in October 2009. Then, just last week, the inventor unleashed the lacy gas masks on the open undergarment market at $29.99 a pop.

At the risk of overkill, this third (and likely final) mention of the bra is to put to rest all the rumors of just what the male counterpart will be. And no, it is not a jock strap. LINK

Frank Lloyd Wright's final masterpiece (photos)

SAN RAFAEL, California--You might remember it from the hit sci-fi film "Gattaca," or perhaps from George Lucas' 1971 thriller "THX 1138." Or if you're from or have visited the San Francisco Bay Area, then you might well have driven by it: Frank Lloyd Wright's last major design project--and his first-ever completed government building--the terrific Marin County Civic Center complex.

As part of his ongoing Road Trip at Home series, CNET reporter Daniel Terdiman visited the masterpiece recently and got a chance to see up close and personal what has to be one of the most original and beautiful civic buildings in the country.

NKorea prints photos of heir apparent Kim Jong Un

 North Korea introduced its heir apparent to the world Thursday, a chubby-faced young man with a serious expression, combed back hair cut high and tight on the sides and wearing a communist-style black suit.

State media published the first official images of Kim Jong Un, the youngest son of leader Kim Jong Il who appears destined to inherit control of the impoverished, nuclear-armed state.

North Korean television broadcast video of a meeting of North Korea's ruling Workers' Party held Tuesday, including images of Kim Jong Un, who was positioned in the front row during a speech and shown standing and vigorously clapping with other delegates in the cavernous venue.

"Deadliest Catch" stars quit Discovery show

A trio of stars of Discovery's hit reality series "Deadliest Catch" have left the show.

Capts. Johnathan and Andy Hillstrand -- who were sued earlier this month by Discovery for allegedly not performing work on a planned spinoff special -- as well as Capt. Sig Hansen, said in a statement Tuesday that they were "unable" to continue on the series due to the litigation.

"We have been through a lot over the past year and unfortunately given the current situation with Discovery we are unable to continue participating in 'Deadliest Catch,'" the three crab fishermen said in a joint written statement. "It has been a fantastic ride, and we wish the best to all of the amazing and supportive 'Catch' fans we have met over the years."

A statement from Discovery was not forthcoming.

Aussie women set record for stiletto relay race

Australians are a leg up on the competition, having set a new world record for the fastest relay race on high heels. LINK

Great, now Apple is invading my intestines

Of all the culture shocks to my system during my 1999 semester abroad in Moscow, the one I remember best was the toilet. On the surface, it looked normal, like any American toilet I've ever had the pleasure of spending quality time on. But upon opening the lid, I was faced with a high ledge at the back designed to catch solid waste; only after the flush--and my, what a large flush--could I pretend the stuff had never existed.

My host family told me it was a brilliant design, one that enabled us all to more closely inspect the health of our entrails without having to get down on our knees. Apparently, Russians can read poo better--and less squeamishly--than I. Even by the end of the semester, I never got used to seeing my poo on a perch. It was just too close for comfort.

Sony Ericsson announces 'LiveView' for Android

Picture this: You're out to dinner and your spouse is giving you grief because you keep glancing at your cell phone. What's a guy (or gal) to do? Pick up the new Sony Ericsson LiveView, that's what. Now you'll be able to sneak a glance at your RSS feeds and text messages on the sly.

Announced earlier today, the LiveView is a new Bluetooth accessory for Android handsets running OS 2.0 and higher. The device features a 1.3-inch OLED screen with a resolution of 128x128 pixels. Acting like an extension of the phone, it lets users check incoming calls, control music, view calendar events, and manage social-networking clients. The LiveView, which is part of Sony Ericsson's Extras portfolio, can be attached to keychains or watch straps, or clipped to a laptop or book.

Borders unveils updated Kobo eReader with Wi-Fi

When it was released a few months ago, the Kobo eReader was one of the first e-readers to sell for less than $150. Alas, it wasn't all that great and it was quickly overshadowed when Barnes & Noble introduced its Wi-Fi Nook for $149 and Amazon later followed with an all-new $139 Wi-Fi Kindle. But now Kobo and Borders, which is an investor in Kobo (Kobo powers Borders' e-book store), are set to release a new, improved wireless Kobo eReader this October for $139.99.

On the outside, the new model looks almost identical to the older model, but it has a better screen, a faster processor, and offers longer battery life. While the screen is a definite step up, it doesn't appear that it's E-Ink next-generation Pearl display that's currently featured in the Kindle and new Sony Readers.

Sonos Controller for iPad now available

For those of you who have a Sonos system and an iPad, there's good news: the Sonos Controller for iPad is now available in the App Store as a free download.

Sonos has offered an iPhone app for a while but has been hard at work on the iPad version for several months. Needless to say, the new iPad Sonos Controller--at least from a graphical perspective--delivers a richer Sonos experience. The larger display allows you to view more album information and overall we really liked the interface. However, controlling your system via a smaller, truly handheld device like the iPhone does have its advantages.

For more info and to download the controller, go here. See video demo below:

HP sees sunny outlook, focus on WebOS for 2011

Hewlett-Packard has yet to name a permanent CEO, but it told financial analysts today that the next fiscal year will be a good one for the computing company.

At HP's annual meeting with analysts, interim CEO Cathie Lesjak said the company is expecting revenue in fiscal year 2011 between $131.5 billion and $133.5 billion, and between $5.05 and $5.15 in earnings per share.

That represents growth of between 5 percent and 7 percent over the expected revenue for fiscal year 2010. HP's fiscal year begins in November.

In early August, HP said it anticipates earning between $125.3 billion and $125.5 billion in revenue this year, and earnings per share in the range of $3.62 to $3.64 per share, including after-tax costs of 87 cents per share.

1930s concept car is still sexy in the 21st century

The inventive ideas of futurist Buckminster Fuller live on in an exhibit titled "Bucky Fuller & Spaceship Earth" that illustrate exactly how far ahead of his time the late inventor actually was.

Pictured here is the 1930s high-speed, three-wheeled concept car called the Dymaxion, based on Fuller's original designs and assembled by designers in England. The exhibit is scheduled to last until October 30 and you can find out more details here, or take a sneak peak at the exhibit here.
Via DesignBoom

Bose bows home theater system with no speakers

Okay, that headline is a bit misleading. Bose's new VideoWave system is a 46-inch 1080p LCD HDTV that is a complete 5.1-channel surround sound speaker system. No speakers — just the HDTV. The sound comes right from the screen, or at least that's where the sound starts. Sound certainly doesn't sound as if it's coming from the screen; it sounds convincingly like a system with the usual five satellites and a subwoofer.
And controlling VideoWave is Click Pad, a small RF remote control bereft of buttons and no numerical keypad — all the device-specific commands are displayed in an array around the on-screen image, accessed via a clever touch pad.
Built behind and into the HDTV is a sophisticated set of tubes and pipes and tweeters and subwoofers that creates startling full surround sound. In our demo, Bose draped cloth over what appeared to be tiny home theater speakers hung on the walls where you'd expect left, right, center and surround speakers to be. At a cue, the draped cloth all magically dropped away to reveal… nothing. Everyone in the room was hoodwinked because the sound was all around us. Truly remarkable.

Swarms of flying robots could act as a mobile wireless network

Sometimes the aftermath of a natural disaster is just as bad as the disaster itself, as the rescue teams on the ground can face a stiff challenge when it comes to communicating with the outside world and one another. Of course, our favorite problem solvers are here to help: tiny flying robots.
The project comes from Swiss-based lab EPFL, and involves a swarm of micro air vehicles that will fly over a disaster site in a holding pattern. The flying 'bots themselves will act as an ad hoc network, allowing rescue workers to use their phones and computers and the like.
The best part of it all could be how easy the SMAVNET — or Swarming Micro Air Vehicle Network — is to set up. To take off, all they need is one person to chuck them into the air, and they're light enough that several can be carried at once. When the project is done, the swarm lands, making it as mobile as rescue workers need to be. LINK
Check it out in the video below:

Turn an iPod Touch into an iPhone with a simple case

The iPod Touch has always been seen as an iPhone without the phone. But a new case called the Peel looks to add that functionality right back.
Yes, the Peel is a protective case that hides a SIM card, dock connector and battery, letting you make phone calls and send text messages using an iPod Touch.
Why, you may ask? Sure, you could just get an iPhone, but they come tied with a two-year contract with AT&T. In theory, the Peel would let you hop onto a different carrier without having to worry about Apple sending its hounds after you. It looks like the Peel will be selling for around $57 when it gets to the States. LINK
PC World via Gadget Lab

Star Wars is getting redone in 3-D with a new theatrical release!

We probably all knew this was going to happen sooner or later, but Lucasfilm says it's going to remaster the entire Star Wars saga in 3-D and release the movies in theaters (again). You can expect Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace to kick things off in 2012, which also happens to be the year of the Mayan apocalypse. Hm...
Depending on your view of 3-D, this is either a great moment in the history of Lucasfilm or a horrifying moment in the history of Lucasfilm. Deadline has the details:

Trent Reznor making a sci-fi series for HBO

The Nine Inch Nails frontman is bringing his apocalyptic 2007 sci-fi concept album to the small screen as an HBO miniseries. Warning: It won't be feel-good TV.
More than two years ago, Trent Reznor dropped the news that he was in early talks with HBO to adapt Year Zero—which had already been turned into an alternate reality game—and now it seems like things are moving along at a pretty decent pace. BBC Worldwide Productions has come aboard as the studio, and Carnivale's Daniel Knauf is writing the pilot.
"It's exciting," Reznor told the L.A. Times' Geoff Boucher. "I probably shouldn't say too much about it except that I understand that there's a thousand hurdles before anything shows up in your TV listing. It's been an interesting and very educational process, and it cleared the HBO hurdle a few months ago, and now we're writing drafts back and forth. So it's very much alive and incubating at the moment."

8 things you should know about the 2nd season of Stargate Universe

Whatever you thought you knew about Stargate Universe, get ready for some big changes. While it's no surprise that last season's cliffhanger ending will be resolved eventually, there'll also be some game-changing events that take SGU in a new direction.
We chatted with executive producer Paul Mullie and SGU actor Lou Diamond Phillips, who stars as Col. David Telford, and they offered up eight spoilers (consider that a warning!) about the new season we thought you should know before tuning in to tonight's season premiere at 9/8C on Syfy: LINK

What our solar system would look like to alien astronomers

We know what WE see when we're scanning deep space for signs of planets capable of supporting intelligent life—but what would that intelligent life see when it looked BACK? NASA scientists have used a supercomputer to create a simulation of how our solar system might appear to any alien astronomers who might happen to be looking our way.
Scientists at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center have tracked 75,000 dust particles that cover our solar system to determine how planetary gravity would affect the dust.
"The planets may be too dim to detect directly, but aliens studying the solar system could easily determine the presence of Neptune—its gravity carves a little gap in the dust," said astrophysicist Marc Kuchner. "We're hoping our models will help us spot Neptune-sized worlds around other stars."
Check out the video below.

The unexpected origins of 12 classic sci-fi movies

What made Avatar—the biggest movie of all time—so damn popular? Sure, the amazing visuals and innovative 3-D created a one-of-a-kind experience, but it seems likely that the storyline captured audiences' imaginations as well. Now, we're not about to say thatAvatar's plot is original—in fact, far from it.
Avatar is derived from a story that has been told plenty of times before—the modern man confronting a native civilization—but that may be exactly why it captivated moviegoers. The story is classic, almost archetypal, and it has been told again and again throughout the years, always finding a new audience.
So that got us thinking: What other renowned sci-fi movies are based on source material that is so classic, so iconic, that it can be retold in new ways, generation after generation? We found quite a few, actually. Some are based on legends, some on myths, one or two on philosophical concepts. But they have all held up and formed the basis for some pretty sensational sci-fi masterpieces.

eBay prices for used copies of Planescape Torment plummet

If there's one way to make up for a fumbled PR stunt like Good Old Games' ill-conceived "Hey guys, we're shutting down! Ha ha, just kidding!", it's to make the classic RPG Planescape: Torment available. Which is exactly what Good Old Games has done today. Get Black Isle's superbly written masterpiecehere for the criminally low price of ten bucks.

Oh, and one more thing: Don't trust the skull.

If Minecraft was a movie, this would be its trailer

Sometimes you don't have to promote a game. Because sometimes you make a game so cool and unique that the people who play it will promote it for you. And those people can freely use copyrighted music!

But what makes this fan trailer so good isn't just the Inception soundtrack. It's how the concept ofMinecraft is laid out like a little story, complete with a cliffhanger.

(Thanks Tman!)

Terror plot uncovered in Europe

Intelligence officials have intercepted a credible terror plot against Britain and France, raising security fears at the Eiffel Tower but failing to raise the overall threat level.

The Eiffel Tower was briefly evacuated Tuesday evening after officials received a bomb threat called in from a telephone booth. It was the second such alert at the monument in two weeks.

The warning came as French officials were put on alert for possibleterror attacks. British officials, too, have been aware of a possible attack but the terror threat warning has not changed from "severe."

British officials say the threat was uncovered weeks ago and was thought it be in its early stages.

Officials said they believed groups wanted to launch an attack in Britain and then France.

Everything we know about the BlackBerry PlayBook (Q & A)

We were excited and a little bit relieved that RIM announced its widely-rumored BlackBerry PlayBook (with video) yesterday at the BlackBerry Developer Conference in San Francisco.

Although we did learn some specs--like the tablet's dimensions--there's still much that RIM isn't telling. We'll share what we know and will update our list as soon as we learn more.

What are the specifications?

7-inch screen (1,024x600 pixels)
5.1 inches tall
7.6 inches wide
0.4 inch (9.7mm) thick
0.9 pounds
3 megapixel front-facing HD camera
5 megapixel rear-facing HD camera
1GHz dual-core processor
1GB RAM
1080p high-definition video playback
HTML5-capable browser
802.11 a/b/g/n Wi-Fi
Adobe Flash 10.1 support
Adobe AIR support
H.264, MPEG4, and WMV, HDMI video output
Micro USB, Micro HDMI, and DLNA media streaming
Enterprise-strength e-mail security
Full specs here

LINK FIRST LOOK

Iran shows off machine-gun equipped flying boats

Iran's "Bavar 2" stealth plane/boat-thing is billed as a stealth craft that can cruise through the water or fly, and it's equipped with a machine gun and possibly missiles. Are you worried yet? The craft's been ridiculed before for being impractical, yet maybe we're writing it off too soon.
As for its criticisms, the Bavar 2 has been accused of being very "kit," as in it looks like a watercraft you could have ordered online and assembled yourself. Just do a Google image search for "hoverwing" and you'll see many craft like it.

Teacher kills student's phone during lecture

I may be dating myself here, but when I was in high school, college, and prison, we didn't have cell phones. These days, most students do have them, which makes me wonder why incidents like the one captured in the video above, spotted on Break.com (which isn't always SFW), aren't recorded more often.

We don't know where this was filmed, or by who, or even for sure that it's not part of some public service announcement or Burger King commercial that's trying to go viral, but we like it nonetheless. For starters, the guy shouldn't be talking in class, but the way the teacher destroys his cell without even breaking her stride is quite respectable.

I fear this teacher, if she is in fact real, but I also respect her. Let her actions be a lesson to classes everywhere.