Frak me! Teen geniuses build their own BSG Viper simulator

When I think back to the things I used to do in high school—and then look at this gaggle of students who took it upon themselves to design, fabricate and assemble a workingBattlestar Galactica Viper flight simulator—I can only come to the conclusion that I was clearly doing something wrong.

5 more new Game of Thrones clips tease important scenes

Yesterday, we got an exciting peek at Game of Thrones' awesome new baby dragons(aren't they just too cute for words?). Today, we have five more clips giving us an inside glimpse at Jon Snow and the Men of the Black Watch, everyone's all-round favorite character Tyrion Lannister, and what's happening with Robb Stark in the North.

Before we all go on, be aware that there are SPOILERS galore below.

Here be dragons! Game of Thrones clip shows Daenerys' children

The season premiere of Game of Thrones is right around the corner, and visions of wildfire, half-men and dragons are dancing in our heads. Luckily, they're also dancing on our computer monitors, as HBO has released a new clip from the upcoming season featuring Daenerys Targaryen and her new, fiery friend.

The last time we saw Daenerys, she was surrounded by fire, ash and baby dragons. It was one of the most talked about moments from season one, and HBO plans to capitalize on it.

Pentagon aims to ditch computer passwords with your typing style

You know you have a unique fingerprint. You know you have a unique handwriting style. You probably don't know you have a unique typing style. And the Pentagon wants to use that in place of a password. Maybe Tyler Durden was wrong: you might be a unique snowflake after all.

DARPA, everyone's favorite research arm for the Pentagon, wants to rid itself of passwords altogether. It makes sense in a way: passwords, after all, can be stolen. They have to be stored somewhere, which means they can be found.

Facial recognition system searches 36 million faces per second

In TV shows, detectives search a database of faces at lightning speed to make a match to a photo or video footage — something that a new high performance camera and software system has made reality. It can capture a face and then search up to 36 million faces in one second to find a match in selected databases.

China's strict rules for female astronauts: be married and no BO

Becoming an astronaut isn't a cakewalk. You have to be somewhat smart and super fit. You are going to space, y'know. But if you're a Chinese female looking to go up to the final frontier, you'd better be married and not smell, or you won't be qualified.

According to the China Military News (via Indian Express via China Defense Mashup), China has chosen two women who are deemed "flawless" to possibly fly in its next manned Shenzhou-9 mission in the summer.

So what are the strange requirements? Female astronauts have to be married, have to have given birth naturally, have no decayed teeth, no body scars and no body odor.

Dyson redesigns canister vacs; can it please can-hatin' America?

You'd be hard pressed to find a canister vacuum in American households. It's exceedingly rare, making up only one in nine full-size vacuum sales in 2011, according to NPD Group. In contrast, canisters are still a favorite in international markets. 98 percent of vacuum sales in France were canister models, for example. This leads me to wonder: Is there something wrong with the canister, or with the American perception of what makes a good vacuum?

In short, it's both.

Trademark squatting in China doesn't sit well with U.S. retailers

Chinese businesspeople hoping to cash in on American firms' interest in their booming market are registering names such as Kardasian, J. Crew, Justin Bieber and Angry Birds. It's legal, and China's laws favor the first filer.

BEIJING — The Kardashian sisters don't sell their clothing and perfume in China, and you can't buy authentic J. Crew khakis here. But both names are already trademarked by Chinese businesspeople looking to profit from American enterprises that want to tap China's booming retail market.

Why Linux on the Desktop Isn't Dead

This must be one of those "good cop - bad cop" things. You get one guy to post a "Linux is teh sux article" and then you follow it up the next day with a "that other guy is an idiot" article. Thanks to Dennis Deveaux for the link.

I can only speculate as to the authors' motives for making these weary proclamations, because they're nothing if not light on real information. What I can do, however, is point out a few small problems with their arguments.

Unreal Government Network supports government projects

Related Topics – Epic Games, Applied Research Associates, Virtual Heroes, Unreal Government Network

Unreal Engine purveyor and developer Epic Games has announced a partnership with Virtual Heroes--a division of Applied Research Associates--to deliver the Unreal Government Network (UGN). The deal is described as "a long-term, multi-platform Unreal Engine 3 (UE3) reseller and support agreement," which allows Virtual Heroes to license Unreal Engine 3 tech to "departments, agencies and units of the U.S. and allied governments," and support them through the aforementioned UGN.

Apple grabs nano-SIM patent

Apple‘s nano-SIM proposals continue to cause controversy, with Nokia’s argument that its rival doesn’t actually hold any valuable patents to sweeten the deal looking premature in light of freshly-granted tray design. The patent, “Ejectable component assemblies in electronic devices” (8,145,261) was filed in 2007 and granted today, describes a system of “trays that can be loaded with removable modules, inserted through openings in the housings of the devices” that could, it’s suggested, be used for SIM cards and other identify modules. Meanwhile, more information on the Apple and Nokia/RIM/Motorola nano-SIM designs has been released by the ETSI.

World’s Fastest Camaro Hits 253.1mph At Texas Mile

The 2012 Texas Mile run was an enormous success this year, which is evident in the number of records that were broken. We’ve already reported on the Hennessey Twin-Turbo Ford GT that now holds the new world record at the Texas Mile for standing mile, but it’s the Camaro’s turn to take its spot on the podium. A fourth generation Camaro has become the fastest standing mile Camaro in the world with an impressive top speed of 253.1 mph. It doesn’t beat out the Ford for fastest standing mile, but at least it broke the record for its own model.

What Would It Take For Apple to Make a New iPad Truly Exciting Again?

The new Apple iPad is kind of a paradox: At the same time it's both the best possible tablet you can buy, and yet, it's a disappointment. It retained the crown with an incremental performance bump.

Waah, poor us: saddled with a piece of technology so well-executed in its first two iterations that the current generation is a letdown by virtue of not being Earth-shattering. We took a timeout from our tears to wonder: What would make a new iPad truly different, and even amazing?

It's not about specs. A5X doesn't mean anything to most people outside the circles of gadget nerds like us, our blogs' comment sections, and the labs of the people who make the A5X. Ask someone who loves their iPad why their love their iPad—it has nothing to do with numbers. And it shouldn't. Nobody's life should have to tilt at the whim of a Tegra processor. The iPad has altered people's daily routines because it lets them look and literally touch things—ideas and people—like never before. That's fun! But it's a couple years old now.

Rovio Acquires Futuremark Game Studio

According to this press release, Rovio has acquired Futuremark's game studio. Seeing as the Angry Birds creators only bought the game studio, they obviously have no use for canned benchmarks either (rimshot please). 

Rovio Entertainment, creator of the global phenomenon Angry Birds, announced today the acquisition of Futuremark Games Studio, the gaming arm of benchmarking software developer Futuremark.

Barracuda Concept

Created by Brazilian designer Rafael Reston, the Barracuda Concept is a sportscar that follows the American Muscle Car revival trend and takes inspiration from the 1971 Plymouth model.

The ‘Cuda’ Concept is inspired by the 1971 Plymouth Barracuda and is defined by its designer Rafael Reston as a "real and original american muscle car."

The Cuda Concept was created to following the current trend of reestyling, iniated by Ford Mustang, and followed by GM Camaro, Dodge Challenger.

iPad and Tablet Market Forecasts for 2012 and Beyond [Charts!]

Summary: I’ve aggregated, crunched and charted the public forecasts of the tech industry’s brightest analysts to see where they think the market for iPads, Amazon Kindle Fires and other Android tablets is headed. This includes forecasts from both Wall Street and industry analysts, and is current as of March 27, 2012. It’s a follow-on to my post last [...]

I’ve aggregated, crunched and charted the public forecasts of the tech industry’s brightest analysts to see where they think the market for iPads, Amazon Kindle Fires and other Android tablets is headed.

This includes forecasts from both Wall Street and industry analysts, and is current as of March 27, 2012.

It’s a follow-on to my post last year, where I also collected forecasts for 2011’s iPad and tablet markets.

Costa Concordia: More bodies recovered, salvage may take a year

Five more bodies were recovered Monday from the Costa Concordia, more than two months after the cruise ship struck a reef and became submerged off the Tuscan coast, the Italian Civil Protection agency reported. That brings the official death toll of the Jan. 13 disaster to 30, with two people still missing and presumed dead.

The bodies were found by search crews Thursday, the statement says, but it took 34 divers and 15 vessels to retrieve them in a recovery effort that started Monday morning local time. The agency will continue to search for the missing bodies with the aid of an underwater robot. Identities of the victims weren't revealed.

The Juke-R, Far And Away The Best Sounding Crossover Ever

We are quite aware of the fact that the Nissan Juke-R has the same chance of appearing in Nissan’s lineup as the Prowler has a chance to come back into Chrysler’s stable of vehicles. Despite its rarity and the slim chance it’ll ever see production, there are more sightings of the satin black Juke-R than there are of Bigfoot. The latest sighting shows this twin-turbo 3.8-liter V-6-powered crossover SUV tearing up Goodwood Hill.

The universe is really, really, really, really big

This is a picture of a small patch of sky, taken by the European Southern Observatory's Visible and Infrared Survey Telescope for Astronomy (VISTA). With the exception of a few stars, every single pixel of light in this image represents an entire galaxy, and you're looking at more than 200,000 of them.

James Cameron sends a Tweet from the bottom of the ocean floor

Titanic director James Cameron has just joined one of the most exclusive clubs on Earth, becoming just the third person to reach the deepest part of the ocean, and return safely to the surface. We took a look at his Deepsea Challenger submersible just a couple of weeks ago, at which point the trip seemed like it could happen at any moment.

James Cameron's Deepsea Challenger will head for the ocean floor

Movie director James Cameron is obsessed with the deep ocean. So now the man who directed deep sea adventures like The Abyss and Titanic has revealed how he plans to become the first person in over 50 years to reach the deepest point on the planet.

Ferruccio Lamborghini looks ready to spear anyone in its way

Lamborghini has always made some of the wildest cars on the planet, so when a designer comes up with a crazy design for a Lamborghini concept vehicle, they can actually look like something the Italian company might build.

Blown lift jets fly better with engines up top

This concept (from NASA and Cal Poly San Luis Obispo) is called AMELIA, which stands for Advanced Model for Extreme Lift and Improved Aeroacoustics. There are two relevant bits there: "extreme lift" and "improved aeroacoustics," and both of these things come from mounting jet engines on top of the aircraft's wing instead of underneath.

Let's start with the extreme lift. With the engines up above the wings, their exhaust is directed over the wing's upper surface, creating what's called a "circulation control wing." As the high pressure exhaust flows over the trailing edge of the wing (back where the flaps are), it wraps around and downwards, generating a bunch of extra lift through a phenomenon called the Coandă Effect.

Concrete pipe hotel is still more roomy than a capsule hotel

Forget about the Four Seasons Hotel. Next time you're in Tepoztlán, Mexico, go book a stay at T3arc Architecture's Tubo Hotel. Instead of some posh hotel room with cable, how about trying to sleep in a recycled concrete pipe? Come on, you'll be the envy of all of Japan's capsule hotel residents.

21 absurd iPhone cases made by the 3D printing community

Design blog Engineer Vs. Designer challenged the 3D printing community to create "the most absurd 3D-printable iPhone accessory" one can imagine (and, in turn, have a chance to win a MakerBot Replicator). The result? A whole basket-load of crazy.

Bombs Away: How the Air Force Sold Its Risky New $55 Billion Plane

In an instant, four tons of steel and explosives slammed into the 522-foot-long warship Schenectady, blowing it apart in a cataclysm of smoke, dust and sound. Overhead, a pair of U.S. Air Force Boeing B-52 bombers orbited, one of them having just released four laser-guided bombs. The huge, eight-engine warplanes had flown directly from Louisiana to attack the decommissioned Navy landing ship as part ofan exercise near Hawaii on Nov. 23, 2004.

Costly error in injury time ends USA’s Olympic hopes

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – On a night of swings and dips and controversy and drama – and one catastrophic error – the United States’ Olympic dreams were washed away amid a flood of tears.

The most rudimentary of follies from substitute goalkeeper Sean Johnson in the final seconds of injury time eliminated USA from the CONCACAF qualifying tournament in the cruelest fashion possible, as El Salvador snatched a 3-3 draw at LP Field.

The suddenness of it all, the end of an adventure that was supposed to span several more months and cross the Atlantic to London, was too much for many players and head coach Caleb Porter to bear.

Porter bravely fought back tears in his press conference, nerves still raw and shredded, scarcely able to believe the hand fate had dealt him and his young team. Olympic soccer is played by squads of players in the Under-23 age bracket and, for some, Monday may have been their final night in a USA shirt.

Dangerous Teen Craze Whip-Its Making a Comeback?

There is growing concern among health professionals that Whip-Its -- small canisters filled with nitrous oxide that can be used as a recreational drug and were reportedly used by actress Demi Mooreshortly before she was rushed to the hospital in January -- are making a comeback among teenagers and young adults across the country.

"What makes them really popular is they're easily accessible," said William Oswald, founder of the Summit Malibu drug treatment center. "You can get them at a head shop, you can get it out of a whipped cream bottle."

The most recent figures show that Whip-Its have become the most popular recreational inhalant of choice, with over 12 million users in the U.S. who have tried it at least once, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA). Inhaling the compressed gas, either from the Whip-It chargers, a whipped cream canister, or a nitrous tank, is purported to result in a fleeting high, lasting anywhere from a few seconds to several minutes.

Police say Taiwanese woman killed herself while chatting with Facebook friends, none helped

TAIPEI, Taiwan - A woman in Taiwan killed herself by inhaling poisonous fumes while chatting with friends on Facebook and none of them alerted authorities, police said Tuesday.

Claire Lin killed herself on her 31st birthday, March 18, and family members who reported her suicide were unaware of the Facebook conversations that accompanied it, Taipei police officer Hsieh Ku-mingsaid.

Lin's last Facebook entries show her chatting with nine friends, alerting them to her gradual asphyxiation. One picture uploaded from her mobile phone depicts a charcoal barbecue burning next to two stuffed animals. Another shows the room filled with fumes.

Strange sea creature on South Carolina coast ID’d as Atlantic sturgeon

Something strange washed ashore on Folly Beach in South Carolina this past weekend. The beast had some wondering if it was some sort of new species.

Moon Formation Theory Challenged by New Study

Far more of the moon may be made of material from Earth than previously thought, according to a new study that may contradict the reigning moon-formation theory.

Scientists have suggested that the moon was created when a Mars-size object named Theia collided with Earth 4.5 billion years ago, with more than 40 percent of the moon made up of debris from this impacting body. However, researchers had expected this alien world to be chemically different fromEarth, and past studies have revealed that the moon and Earth appear quite similar when it comes to versions of elements called isotopes — more so than might be suggested by the current Theia model. (Isotopes of an element have differing numbers of neutrons from one another.)[Charles C1]

To compare the moon and Earth further, investigators analyzed isotopes of titanium found in moon and Earth rocks. At first, titanium isotope ratios within 24 lunar samples returned by the Apollo missions to the moon looked different from Earth's.

Mega Millions Fever: Tips for Buying Your Lucky Lottery Ticket

Mega Millions fever is gripping the nation.

The jackpot for the lottery game that's played in 42 states as well as the District of Columbia and the U.S. Virgin Island is an estimated $363 million. Lives will change if a winning number is drawn Tuesday night - or excitement will be stoked to fever-pitch if no winner is drawn and the jackpot increases.

The prize is the third-largest in the game's history. The largest Mega Millions jackpot ever won was $390 million in March 2007, according to Mega Millions.

So do you have a strategy for purchasing the golden ticket?

While the chances of winning Mega Million are slim - the odds of winning the game's top prize are about 1 in 176 million - that hasn't stopped many millions of people from dreaming big.

'Ghost ship' off Canada heralds arrival of tsunami debris

SEATTLE (Reuters) - An empty Japanese fishing boat drifting off the coast of western Canada could be the first wave of 1.5 million tons of debris heading toward North America from Japan's tsunami last March.

The wreckage from flattened Japanese coastal towns - including refrigerators, washing machines, televisions, roofs and fishing nets - is heading inexorably east across the Pacific and could arrive sooner than expected, according to the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

"The early indication is that things sitting higher up on the water could potentially move across the Pacific Ocean quicker than we had originally thought," said Nancy Wallace, director of NOAA's Marine Debris Program, which had forecast the appearance of tsunami debris on North American shores only in 2013.

Adopted or abducted?

Most women describe giving birth to a child as a life changing experience – in a word – “challenging”, “joyous”, “miraculous.”  But generations of young, unwed women describe their experience of giving birth to a child as a nightmare – and decades later their suffering has yet to end.
 
From Australia to Spain, Ireland to America, and as recent as 1987, young mothers say they were “coerced”, “manipulated”, and “duped” into handing over their babies for adoption. These women say sometimes their parents forged consent documents, but more often they say these forced adoptions were coordinated by the people their families trusted most...priests, nuns, social workers, nurses or doctors.  

Amazing Aurora Borealis Video of the Day

If you only watch one NASA video today, make sure that it is this one. Very cool stuff. 

Google Ordered to Suspend Autocomplete Function Over Cyber-Harassment

It looks as though Google could have a problem on its hands in Japan.

The Tokyo District Court approved a petition demanding that Google Inc. suspend its autocomplete search feature for Internet browsers after a man alleged that it breached his privacy and got him fired, his lawyer said Sunday.

'Devastating' BATS glitch that crashed Apple stock now fixed (Stock exchange malfunction)

After causing a brief crash in Apple stock, sparking investor confusion and withdrawing its own initial public offering Friday, the high frequency trading exchange BATS Global Markets seems to be glitch-free Monday.

But it must’ve been a rough weekend for executives at the Better Alternative Trading System, one of the largest stock exchanges in the U.S., where more than 10% of trading happens.

NASA considering space station for Mars dry run

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The International Space Stationmay provide the setting for a 500-day pretend trip to Mars in another few years.

NASA said Tuesday that consideration is under way to use the space station as a dry run for a simulated trip to and from Mars.

It would be patterned after Russia's mock flight to Mars that lasted 520 days at a Moscow research center. Six men were involved in that study, which ended late last year. They were locked in a steel capsule.

NASA's space station program manager Mike Suffredini said before astronauts can fly beyond low-Earth orbit, they'll have to spend more than six months aloft at a time. That's the typical stint forspace station crews. Five hundred days is more than 16 months.

James Cameron reaches deepest spot on Earth

HONOLULU (AP) — Hollywood icon James Cameron has made it to Earth's deepest point.

The director of "Titanic," ''Avatar" and other films used a specially designed submarine to dive nearly seven miles, completing his journey a little before 8 a.m. Monday local time, according to Stephanie Montgomery of the National Geographic Society.

He plans to spend about six hours exploring and filming the Mariana Trench, about 200 miles southwest of the Pacific island of Guam.

"All systems OK," were Cameron's first words upon reaching the bottom, according to a statement. His arrival at a depth of 35,756 feet came early Sunday evening on the U.S. East Coast, after a descent that took more than two hours.

JPMorgan Sued by Currency Trader Over $3 Million Decimal Point

JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) is being sued by a trader who says he accepted a contract from the investment bank because a typographical error made him believe he would be paid 10 times what was actually offered.

Kai Herbert, a Switzerland-based currency trader, is suing JPMorgan for about 580,000 pounds ($920,000), his lawyers said at a trial in London this week. The original contract said Herbert’s annual pay would be 24 million rand ($3.1 million). JPMorgan blamed the mistake on a typographical error and said the figure should have been 2.4 million rand, according to court documents. 

World’s first all-diamond, 150-carat ring created by Swiss jeweler; worth $70 million

Switzerland's Shawish Jewelry has created the world's first diamond ring.

Not impressed? Well, consider that the entire ring  is carved from a diamond, whereas most other diamond rings are composed of a precious-metal band with a diamond centerpiece. Styleite writes that the 150-carat ring runs laps around some other famous diamond competitors, including Beyoncé's 18-carat engagement ring from Jay-Z and the even better known 30-carat ring given to the late Elizabeth Taylor by Richard Burton.

The ring was created by Shawish's president and CEO Mohamed Shawesh using lasers (yes, lasers!) along with traditional diamond cutting and polishing techniques. It took a full year to carve the ring, which has been copyrighted and is expected to sell for $70 million. LINK

7 Popular Ways You Can Be Scammed ... And How to Stop Them

You're smart, you're financially savvy, and you'd never fall for one of those get-rich schemes. But that doesn't mean you won't get scammed. It's easy to assume that only the truly gullible are prey for con artists and scammers, but that's not always the case. Take a look at these seven popular scams.

1. ATM skimming This type of crime has been around for decades, and as technology has improved, so have ways to duplicate ATM cards. Here's one way it works: Criminals attach a device on an ATM that captures information about your account when you swipe your card. At the same time, you're being videotaped or watched by a tiny camera that's hidden near the ATM's keypad. Within a matter of minutes, a thief has your bank account information and your PIN and is able to create a duplicate bankcard and empty your account. 

China's ZTE to "curtail" business in Iran

 ZTE Corp, China's second-largest telecommunications equipment maker, said it will "curtail" its business in Iran following a report that it had sold Iran's largest telecom firm a powerfulsurveillance system capable of monitoring telephone and Internet communications.

Reuters reported Thursday that Shenzhen-based ZTE had signed a 98.6 million euro ($130.6 million) contract with the Telecommunication Co of Iran in December 2010 that included the surveillance system. (http://link.reuters.com/teb37s)

"We are going to curtail our business in Iran," ZTE spokesman David Shu said in a telephone interview on Friday.

The article also reported that despite a longtime U.S. sales ban on tech products to Iran, ZTE's "Packing List" for the contract, dated July 24, 2011, included numerous American hardware and software products.

How to Get $2-Per-Gallon Gas

Gas prices are inching toward record highs, but experts say how you drive and where you buy your groceries can cut the costs of filling up.

Prices at the pump currently average $3.84 for a gallon of regular unleaded, 30 cents more than a month ago, according to AAA. (The record is $4.11, hit in July 2008). Drivers in 16 states plus the District of Columbia pay even more -- and in eight of those prices already top $4 per gallon. Consumers shouldn't expect relief in coming months, either, says Tom Kloza, chief oil analyst for the Oil Price Information Service. Cost per gallon typically peaks in May after refineries complete the switch to summer gasoline blends, which are more volatile than winter blends and so, more expensive. As a result, drivers could see prices rise another 5 to 25 cents, he says.