It’s hot, but North Texas’s 2011 still no match for the record 1980 heat wave

"The summer of 1980."

Just saying it causes some to sweat.

With the summer of 2011 now making its own mark, North Texans seem to be reluctantly reminiscing about DFW's hottest summer ever. The folks at Yahoo! say the term "summer of 1980 texas" has been spiking in Web searches all month.

The disastrous heat wave of 1980 killed more than 1,250 people across the country, including at least 60 here in Texas, according to statistics from the NWS Southern Region Headquarters in Fort Worth.

Mystery surrounds loss of records, art on 9/11

NEW YORK (AP) — Letters written by Helen Keller. Forty-thousand photographic negatives of John F. Kennedy taken by the president's personal cameraman. Sculptures by Alexander Calder and Auguste Rodin. The 1921 agreement that created the agency that built the World Trade Center.

Besides ending nearly 3,000 lives, destroying planes and reducing buildings to tons of rubble and ash, the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks destroyed tens of thousands of records, irreplaceable historical documents and art.

In some cases, the inventories were destroyed along with the records. And the loss of human life at the time overshadowed the search for lost paper. A decade later, dozens of agencies and archivists say they're still not completely sure what they lost or found, leaving them without much of a guide to piece together missing history.

Huge pot bust in Northern Calif national forest

UKIAH, Calif. (AP) — Law enforcement officials said Friday they struck a major blow against illegal marijuana cultivation on public lands in the heart of Northern California pot country.

The two-week operation to purge the Mendocino National Forest of illicit pot gardens uprooted 460,000 pot plants and led to more than 100 arrests, U.S. Attorney Melinda Haag said.

About 1,500 pounds of processed marijuana, 27 guns and 11 vehicles were also seized.

The 900,000-acre forest — larger than Rhode Island — spans six counties in a region of mountains and forests known as the Emerald Triangle for its high concentration of pot farms. Agents raided more than 50 gardens teeming with trash, irrigation pipes and chemicals that damage forestland and waterways, authorities said.

Police: Planes collide over Alaska, 4 dead

TRAPPER CREEK, Alaska (AP) — Two single-engine float planes collided as they flew near an Alaskan lake and one of them crashed and burned, killing the four people aboard, authorities said. The second plane landed safely despite significant damage.

The Cessna 180 was destroyed by the impact and fire, Federal Aviation Administration spokesmanIan Gregor told The Associated Press.

"It was engulfed in flames on the ground," Alaska State Trooper spokeswoman Megan Peters said.

11 killed in 2 attacks in troubled NW China

BEIJING (AP) — Police shot dead four people Sunday in China's far northwest, bringing to 11 the death toll in weekend violence in one of the country's most troubled ethnic regions.

The suspects died after more than 10 pedestrians and officers were injured in what the state-run Xinhua News Agency called "an eruption of violence" Sunday afternoon in Kashgar. It followed a day of clashes in the same Silk Road city that killed seven people and injured 22.

Xinijang region has been on edge since nearly 200 people were killed in fighting between Uighurs and Han Chinese in 2009 in Urumqi, the regional capital.

Xinhua did not give a reason for the latest violence, but Xinjianghas been beset by ethnic conflict and a sometimes-violent separatist movement by Uighurs, a largely Muslim ethnic group that sees Xinjiang as its homeland. Many Uighurs say they have been marginalized as more majority Han Chinese move into the region.

Xbox addict 'dies from blood clot'

The family of a budding computer programmer have on Saturday launched a campaign to raise awareness about the health risks of playing online computer games after their son died following a marathon session on his Xbox.

A post-mortem revealed that 20-year-old Chris Staniforth -- who was offered a place to study Game Design at Leicester University -- was killed by a pulmonary embolism, which can occur if someone sits in the same position for several hours.

Xbox 360 controllerDeep vein thrombosis normally affects passengers on long-haul flights, but medical experts fear youngsters who spend hours glued to their consoles might also be at risk and have urged them to take regular breaks.

Cheers to screams as jet from NY crashes in Guyana

GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AP) — Flight 523 from New York had just touched down and passengers were applauding the pilot's landing in the South American country Saturday when something suddenly went wrong.

The Boeing 737-800 slid off the end of a rainy runway, crashed through a chain-link fence and broke in half just short of a deep ravine. Yet all 163 people on board survived.

Officials were starting to probe the cause of the crash even as they marveled at the lack of fatalities.

One-of-a-kind transparent "Ghost Car" sold at auction

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Some car enthusiasts prefer black - some red. But a buyer at a Michigan auction Saturday got a truly one-of-a-kind color -- transparent.

The 1939 Pontiac Deluxe Six "Ghost Car," first displayed at the New York World's Fair and later atthe Smithsonian Institution, was sold Saturday for $308,000.

Originally built for $25,000, the car with a Plexiglas body was the first transparent car built in America. Another was built the following year, but its whereabouts are unknown.

iPhone 5 Sighting: Apple Employee Caught Testing It on San Francisco Train

A tipster sent pictures to tech website 9to5 Mac yesterday claiming to be photos of an Apple employee using the iPhone 5.

“He told us he was able to get a very good look at the device but the pictures he snapped did not do it justice,” wrote Seth Weintraub on 9to5 Mac.The tipster sent the site pictures of a man whom he claims was an Apple employee, hunched over using a new device that matched previous descriptions of what the iPhone 5 may look like.

Former Intel Chief: Call Off The Drone War (And Maybe the Whole War on Terror)

ASPEN, Colorado — Ground the U.S. drone war in Pakistan. Rethink the idea of spending billions of dollars to pursue al-Qaida. Forget chasing terrorists in Yemen and Somalia, unless the local governments are willing to join in the hunt.

Those aren’t the words of some human rights activist, or some far-left Congressman. They’re from retired admiral and former Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair — the man who was, until recently, nominally in charge of the entire American effort to find, track, and take out terrorists. Now, he’s calling for that campaign to be reconsidered, and possibly even junked.

How Lost's Damon Lindelof would reboot the Terminator franchise

We're not sure when that new Terminator movie will finally get off the ground and onto the screen, but when it finally does, here's an idea—how about making it a comedy?

At least that's the theory Damon Lindelof came up with when asked by Wired for his ideas to freshen up the franchise. Yeah, his tongue was in his cheek, but in this post-Hangover world, maybe that's not such a bad idea.

Here's what he had to say:

3 revealing Game of Thrones season 2 set pics

Yesterday, HBO revealed it has no plans to kill Game of Thrones before George R.R. Martin's storyline can play itself out, and is willing to let the series run for 20 years if need be. But 20 years is a long way off. What about season two?

Luckily, we've got a few set pics that reveal one of the centerpieces of the second season, a statue of the Seven, who are the predominant Gods of Westeros. These photos were snapped by Jackie O. Gillespie on a beach in Castlerock, Northern Ireland, and photos are all that remain of the statues—they've been burned as part of the plot, which we won't spoil for you here.

We won't get to see the action until Game of Thrones returns for its second season in spring 2012, but meanwhile ... pretty cool, huh? PHOTOS

(via TV Overmind)

Swarm robots form landing pad for quadrotor

I love swarm robots, especially when they pull off tricks that you can easily imagine a robot army doing.

Researchers at the Georgia Robotics and Intelligent Systems Lab have been having fun with small Khepera robots and a quadrotor.

Check out never-before-seen Superman Returns $10 million opening

Think you know everything there is about Superman Returns? Apparently, director Bryan Singer shot an alternate opening sequence for the 2006 film that's never seen the light of day, and now it's surfaced online.

Before sticking us with a title card, cast credits and John Williams' famous score, Bryan Singer had another intro in mind. He filmed a sequence where Superman was flying in space trying to find what was left of his home planet Krypton.

Researchers build DNA neural network that thinks

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology say they have built what they call the world's first artificial neural network out of DNA molecules and that it can answer questions correctly.

The neural net was built of four artificial neurons and 112 DNA strands.

Super soundproofing is all about little balls

Ever wish you could crank your home theater system so the explosions in Michael Bay's movies rock you out of your chair but don't put you out of favor with the neighbors? How about providing your kid with a truly soundproof room while she grapples with a saxophone? Fill your walls with ball bearings of a certain size and your wishes will come true. Well, it's not quite that easy, but that's the idea behind acoustic research out of Caltech. The researchers found that the right arrangement of ball-bearing-size particles lets sound move in one direction, but not the reverse.

Army Hits Pause on ‘Wearable Computer’ Program

The Army’s long-awaited program to outfit soldiers with wearable computers isn’t exactly dead. But it’s in a state of suspended animation while Pentagon officials figure out if it needs a brain transplant.

Debi Dawson, a spokeswoman for the Army office overseeing the Nett Warrior program, confirms that the Army has put the multi-million effort on pause. “It has not been cancelled,” Dawson emphasizes.

Shhh! Spooks Want Drones As Silent As Owls

They hover, spy, take photographs, fire missiles. But there’s just one major problem with drones – they’re too damn loud. Now Iarpa, the intelligence community’s blue-sky research division, wants to hush them up. And it’s turning to nature’s own stealth flyer for inspiration.

Viagra patch gets lift from nanotech

The little blue pill is getting a high-tech makeover, thanks to Egyptian researchers who used a dose of nanotechnology to address some of Viagra's shortcomings. The result: a transdermal patch for Viagra.

It's official: Google TV flopped really hard

Did you hear the one about Google TV being a complete dismal disappointment and utter failure? No? Well, Logitech, the product's biggest supporter since launch says that returns for its Google TV Revue box are through the roof. Looks like Google TV is doing way worse than Apple's AppleTV hobby.

Secret Dolphin Community Revealed, Caught ...

Matt Gutman receives exclusive tour from leading dolphin expert Denise Herzing. VIDEO

Girl found suffocated was locked in box as punishment

PHOENIX (Reuters) - Four adult relatives of an Arizona girl found suffocated in a storage bin have been arrested after investigators determined she was locked in the container as punishment for taking a popsicle without permission.

The victim, 10-year-old Ame Deal, was found dead on July 12 in the Phoenix home where she lived with an aunt, grandmother and two cousins following what police said at the time may have been the tragic ending to a game of hide-and-seek.

On Wednesday night, authorities arrested the girl's elder cousin and her husband, Samantha and John Allen, both 23, on suspicion of first-degree murder after they confessed to locking the child in the storage container, police said.

Bush explains slow reaction to September 11 attacks

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Former President George W. Bush says his apparent lack of reaction to the first news of the September 11 2001 attacks was a conscious decision to project an aura of calm in a crisis.

Scarlett Johansson Declines Invitation to Marine Corps Ball Due To Work Conflict

Scarlett Johansson is the latest celebrity to score an invite to the Marine Corps Ball in November. Sgt. Dustin L. Williams posted atwo-minute video last week in which he asks Johansson to be his date to the November 10 ball. As you may remember, "Friends With Benefits" stars Mila Kunis and Justin Timberlake both received similar video invites in recent weeks (and both stars have said they'll attend). Johansson, however, won't be able to make an appearance as she'll be in Europe shooting a film at the time, her rep told The Famous. But she will be sending a case of champagne in her stead.

"I feel incredibly honored to have been invited to the Marine Corps Ball by Sgt. Dustin L. Williams," Johansson said in a statement to Zap2It. "Not only does Sgt.

Sag Harbor sea gull pierced in head with dart is latest in string of Long Island animal attacks

A sea gull with a dart through its head has been spotted in Sag Harbor - the latest in a string of horrifying animal abuse cases to come to light on Long Island.

The wounded bird was seen wandering along the Long Island Wharf in June with the dart piercing its head from front to back, authorities said.

Stuck in Phoenix, the Epicenter of Housing Crisis

Commentary: It may take years for housing to bloom again in desert

In metropolitan Phoenix, two-thirds of all residential mortgages are underwater. Of these, some 200,000 are 50% larger than the current market value of the properties. Many homeowners have come to doubt whether they'll ever retrieve their lost equity.

In this city of 4 million, the 14th largest in the United States, the median home price is down 53% since the bubble peaked in 2006 to just over $120,000. Only smaller cities such as Las Vegas and Orlando have witnessed equally catastrophic drops.

Paul Hickman, the head of the Arizona Bankers Association, says for Arizona the current recession is worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. "Then," he told Cronkite News of Arizona State University, "our economy was young and we were just barely a state." Now, he says, Arizona is suffering because it became excessively dependent on a "one-dimensional housing economy."

Soldier shouts alleged Fort Hood killer name in court

WACO, Texas (Reuters) - Army soldier Naser Jason Abdo shouted the name of a military psychiatrist accused of a 2009 shooting rampage at Fort Hood, Texas, during his first appearance in court on Friday on a charge related to an alleged terror plot.

Abdo, 21, was formally charged with illegal possession of a firearm two days after his arrest in a Killeen, Texas, motel room in possession of suspected bomb-making materials.

"Abeer Qassim al-Janabi Iraq 2006; Nidal Hasan, Fort Hood, 2009," Abdo shouted at the media as he was led out of the Waco courtroom.

The name Al-Janabi refers to a 14-year-old girl who was raped and murdered by American soldiers in Iraq in 2006. Several soldiers have been charged and sentenced, including a soldier from Midland, Texas.

Apple has more cash than the federal government

Who's ready for iAmerica?

As the BBC has reported, the software company Apple has more cash on hand than the United States federal government, according to the company's financial records.

Apple's quarterly financial report shows that the company responsible for the iPad, iPod and the iPhone now has $76.4 billion in reserve cash, while the Treasury Department is sitting on just $73.7 billion.

How did the medieval Knights Templar influence Norway gunman?

In his 1,500-page manifesto, confessed Norwegian mass killer Anders Behring Breivik claimed allegiance to a resurrected version of the Knights Templar, a medieval formation of Christian soldiers who waged brutal battle against Islam for control of the Holy Land and its relics. Breivik also wrote favorably of the mentorship of a British man known as "Richard (the Lionhearted)," who he credits for imparting to him the secrets of the Templar tradition.

In an exclusive report, AP correspondent Simon Haydon writes that he has located "Richard," whose actual name is Paul Ray, living in exile in Malta. In an interview with Haydon, Ray confirmed that he is associated with "a loose group of anti-Islamic extremists inspired by the Knights Templar," but denied that Breivik was associated with the group, or that he had served as Breivik's mentor.

Lily Anderson’s inspiring national anthem

Something tells me there are going to be a lot of people in a lot of places talking about Lily Anderson this weekend. Watch as the brave 10-year-old sings the national anthem before Thursday's Atlanta Bravesgame at Turner Field — and then receive what Braves reliever Peter Moylan(notes) describes as "the longest standing ovation I've witnessed." VIDEO

Apple's Grand Central store would be its cheapest in NYC

Plans call for a 23,000-sq.-ft. store with minimal alterations of the landmark building

Contrary to rumors andpublished reports, the new store that Apple (AAPL) wants to build in New York City's Grand Central Terminal would not be its largest. At roughly 23,000 square feet, it would be smaller than London's Regent Street (25,000 sq. ft.) and the Covent Garden (24,600) stores.

In Secret, Senate Panel May Re-Up Vast Surveillance Dragnet

Most of Congress is busy debating whether to raise the debt ceiling. But starting Thursday, Danger Room is hearing, a group of Senators meeting behind closed doors may consider renewing a controversial law permitting widespread government surveillance of Americans’ communications.

That law would be the FISA Amendments Act of 2008, which gave the cover of law to President George W. Bush’s warrantless surveillance program. Beloved by the Obama administration, the law is set to expire — not this year, but in 2012.

But the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence may not be so keen on waiting, Congressional sources say. When the committee meets to finalize the fiscal 2012 intelligence authorization bill to the full Senate floor — the bill that approves the activities of the 16 U.S. spy agencies – some senators will push to include a measure re-authorizing the surveillance act.

Found? The Last Bugs of the Nixon White House

One morning in early March 1971, Army counterintelligence agent Dave Mann was going through the overnight files when his eyes landed on something unexpected: a report that a routine, nighttime sweep for bugs along the Pentagon’s power-packed E-Ring had found unexplained – and unencrypted — signals emanating from offices in the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Someone, it seemed, was eavesdropping on the top brass.

Didn't like the look of the last Hulk? Then you'll like Avengers

Kevin Feige and Marvel really want us to like the Hulk's new look. In a recent interview, he spoke about a few changes they've made to the character and how Mark Ruffalo's casting has influenced his facial design. It sounds like the Hulk's getting a makeover!

China’s Plan to Beat U.S.: Missiles, Missiles and More Missiles

China is militarily weaker than many people think, especially compared to the United States. This, despitelots of showy jet prototypes and plenty of other factory-fresh equipment.

But Beijing has a brutally simple — if risky — plan to compensate for this relative weakness: buy missiles. And then, buy more of them. All kinds of missiles: short-range and long-range; land-based, air-launched and sea-launched; ballistic and cruise; guided and “dumb.”

Amazon reportedly ramping up 7- and 10-inch tablets

Amazon is aiming to launch both a 7-inch and 10-inch tablet in the third quarter and is currently lining up the right suppliers, according to the latest from the folks at DigiTimes.

A number of chip design firms in Taiwan expect to see a healthy bump in sales in the third quarter as they ship parts for the new tablets, said Digitimes, citing industry sources. With Amazon shooting to ship 4 million tablets this year, the company's orders for integrated circuits have become the second largest in the industry, behind  only Apple's iPad, added the sources.

These latest reports follow a recent story in the Wall Street Journal claiming that the tablet would have a roughly 9-inch screen and would use Google's Android OS but would leave out the traditional camera. The Journal pinned the release date as sometime by October.

The downside of being Captain America (and 8 other superheroes)

We never get to see the difficulties of the day-to-day activities for those endowed with superpowers. For instance, we don't learn how Magneto probably gets a violent shock every time he washes his hands, or how Poison Ivy has to stay constantly hopped-up on allergy medication.

With this in mind, we considered some of the less-than-super side effects of being a comic book star.

See the costume Adrianne Curry says got her banned from Comic-Con

Comic-Con wouldn't be Comic-Con without an army of Princess Leias, so we know that there's tolerance for skin in San Diego. But apparently, there can be such a thing as too much skin ... at least according to Adrianne Curry, who says that her Aeon Flux costume was too hot for the room.

These clothes are made from milk; yes, the white drinkable stuff

Here's a new spin on fashion, clothes made from milk.. While it sounds unlikely that you could make fabric from a cool frosty beverage, German fashion designer and microbiologist Anke Domaske has apparently found a way.

Traveling wave reactors could run for millennia on nuclear waste

When we dig uranium out of the ground, 99% of it is U-238, which we don't care about. 1% of it is U-235, which we use for all kinds of things, including conventional reactor fuel. Bill Gates and some of his pals figure that it would be a much better idea if we could just burn the U-238 instead.

ISS scheduled for fatal 2020 ocean swim

Russians have decided that by 2020, the whole thing is going to be deliberately crashed into the ocean. Wonderful.

The ISS has actually been up there and manned in one form or another for going on 11 years now, which means that despite the fact that the last several pieces (more or less) of the structure just showed up relatively recently, the useful life of the station has already passed middle age.

8 next-gen haptic technologies that will let you feel-up the Web

This conversation will surely go to a place we did not mean it to, but we'll give it a whirl: Did you ever wish you could get more intimate with the Internet? We spend so much time in the virtual space, but only explore it with two senses. Kind of a pity for a species that experiences so much through touch.

This trained 'mushroom death suit' will eat you when you die

Most people will either be buried in the ground or cremated into ashes when they leave this world, but bioartist Jae Rhim Lee has something that sounds way more nasty than it really is: a suit with "Infinity Mushrooms" that are trained to eat your decomposing body.

50 funky iPhone 4 cases to hold you over until the iPhone 5

The iPhone 5 is coming! We're quite aware of that, but Apple's not expected to drop the new smartphone until September, which is still over a month away. How can you keep your old iPhone 4 rockin' like it's hot? With some swanky cases that'll draw all sorts of looks and stares.

The guys and gals at Cupertino who designed the iPhone 4 to be a slick slab of glass and stainless steel might not approve of these bizarre cases, but who the heck cares what they think. What you do with your iPhone 4 is your business. Time to soak in the summer sun with these 50 iPhone 4 cases that'll make you think "WTF?"

PHOTOS

Adapter turns your fancy $5k Leica lens into a handle

Taking great pictures requires that you keep your camera really steady. But does it make sense to use your big dollar Leica lens as an extra handle?

The Leica Lens Holder fits on the bottom of the high-end camera maker's M, MP, and M7 models, and provides a bayonet mount where you can attach an additional lens. This has a double benefit, because in addition to giving you a better way to support the camera, it provides a place to carry an second lens without resorting to a camera bag.

Is this really a good idea? I realize that most photographers use the main lens for support when shooting, but does it a good idea to use an ultra expensive high precision tool as a handle? The Lens Holder is a genuine Leica accessory, so I guess their answer would be yes.

The Leica Lens Holder is available now for a little under $200. PHOTOS

Leica, via OhGizmo!