'Da Vinci Code' Sparks Outrage and Ennui

Seeded on Sat May 20, 2006 7:56 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

Christians in many countries denounced the movie "The Da Vinci Code" as it opened Friday, complaining that the big-screen adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel distorts history and offends Christians.

entertainment, movie, dan-brown, da-vinci-code, u-s-news

Black MacBook May Be Flaky, Literally

Seeded on Fri May 19, 2006 12:33 AM EDT (dailytech.com)

Users looking to get their hands on the new matte black MacBook might be in for an unwelcome surprise. It seems that the matte finish on the notebooks is extremely fragile and can be easily damaged. The problem surfaced less than 24 hours after Apple unveiled the new MacBook.

technology, apple, mac, macbook

Will video break the Internet?

Seeded on Fri May 19, 2006 12:31 AM EDT (CNN)

Every day, it seems, a new service pops up offering to send you video over the Internet. "Desperate Housewives," Stephen Colbert heckling the president, clips of bad dancers at wedding parties: It's all there.

technology, tv, internet, video, network, isp

Tracing Your Ancestry

Seeded on Fri May 19, 2006 12:26 AM EDT (EW.com)

DNA tests to find out your ancestry are growing in popularity. But do they really work? And are they worth it?

health, tech, dna, ancestry, ancestors

How to Digitize a Million Books

Seeded on Fri May 19, 2006 12:25 AM EDT (EW.com)

Fifteen months after Google announced a book-scanning project of biblical proportions -– an effort to digitize the entire book collections of the New York Public Library and Harvard University libraries, among others -- the company is still secretive about how they are solving k

google, technology, books, digital, search

155 killed in wave of police vs. gang violence

Seeded on Wed May 17, 2006 9:00 PM EDT (CNN)

The overnight killings boosted the overall death toll to 155 since a wave of violence enveloped Sao Paulo last Friday, and came after officers shot 33 presumed gang members dead only a day earlier.

brazil, violence, gang, world-news

US files motion to intervene in AT&T secrets case

Seeded on Sat May 13, 2006 6:23 PM EDT (Reuters)

The U.S. government filed a motion on Saturday to intervene and seek dismissal of a lawsuit by a civil liberties group against AT&T Inc. (T.N: Quote, Profile, Research) over a federal program to monitor U.S. communications.

lawsuit, government, civil-liberties, at-t, us-news, nsa, eff

The Star Child Project

Seeded on Fri May 12, 2006 7:30 PM EDT (bibliotecapleyades.net)

Skulls are humanity's foremost symbol of death, and a powerful icon in the visual vocabularies of cultures all over the globe. Many strangely "deformed" hominoid skulls have been discovered in Mexico and Peru.

odd-news

Anti-smoking pill receives federal approval

Seeded on Fri May 12, 2006 7:20 PM EDT (CNN)

A Pfizer drug shown to help more than one in five smokers quit the habit received federal approval on Thursday, adding another option to the limited pool of effective stop-smoking prescription medicines.

fda, health, pfizer, smoking

Intelligence Agency Employees Concerned About Leadership

Seeded on Fri May 12, 2006 7:19 PM EDT (The Washington Post)

A survey of intelligence community employees shows they are dedicated to their work, with job satisfaction rates higher than for the overall government.

government, us-news, intelligence-community

Convicted Man Sues HP After Encryption Failed to Keep Him Out of Prison

Seeded on Sun May 7, 2006 1:05 AM EDT (dailytech.com)

Crooker had his Compaq laptop seized by FBI agents in 2004 after bomb-making materials were found at his home. He claimed that the FBI then used an HP-provided hack to break the DriveLock encryption used on the hard drive even though he had no evidence to back up those claims.

fbi, security, tech, odd-news, encryption, hp, compaq

Cisco invests millions in video encryption company

Seeded on Sun Apr 23, 2006 7:07 PM EDT (The Washington Post)

Widevine Technologies, which designs technology to prevent digital video theft, on Wednesday said it had received $16 million from several investors, including network equipment maker Cisco Systems Inc.

business, security, video, cisco, encryption, drm

Google's China Problem (and China's Google Problem)

Seeded on Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:23 PM EDT (The New York Times)

For many young people in China, Kai-Fu Lee is a celebrity. Not quite on the level of a movie star like Edison Chen or the singers in the boy band F4, but for a 44-year-old computer scientist who invariably appears in a somber dark suit, he can really draw a crowd.

google, technology, china, world, search, internet, microsoft, apple, web

Skype bows to Chinese censors

Seeded on Sun Apr 23, 2006 5:18 PM EDT (CNET)

Skype, which lets people to make phone calls over the Internet for free, has joined the ranks of other big tech companies in defending its practice of censoring speech in China, according to an article published earlier this week in the Financial Times.

ebay, technology, internet, web, skype, censorship

Are Computers Destroying The Earth?

Seeded on Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:49 PM EDT (informationweek.com)

Are computers and their electronic cohorts -- cell phones, PDAs, media players, and so on -- good or bad for the environment? It's a question that's likely to raise both tempers and voices.

technology, energy, epa, world, pollution, environment, computers, earth, recycle, amazon-rain-forest

Microsoft Readies Storage Service to Rival Google's 'Gdrive'

Seeded on Sun Apr 23, 2006 1:43 PM EDT (-)

The MSN team is working on a new Windows Live service, code-named Live Drive, that will provide users with a virtual hard drive for storing hosted personal data.

google, technology, microsoft, storage, gdrive, live-drive

Frist will revive immigration bill

Seeded on Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:40 PM EDT (CNN)

Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist will bring a stalled immigration bill back to the Senate floor by Memorial Day, a Republican leadership aide said Friday.

us, senate, immigration, usa, politics, united-states, bill, citizenship

Teens accused of Columbine-style plot

Seeded on Sat Apr 22, 2006 8:28 PM EDT (CNN)

Five teenage boys fully intended to go on a shooting spree at their high school but were stopped after one of them discussed the plot on a Web site, law enforcement and school officials said.

school, guns, massacre, us-news, columbine

Burst.com sues Apple for patent infringement

Seeded on Tue Apr 18, 2006 8:58 PM EDT (CNET)

Burst.com has filed a countersuit against Apple Computer claiming that the iTunes software, the iPod and the Quicktime streaming software all infringe on patents held by Burst.com, Burst announced Monday.

technology, lawsuit, apple, ipod, patent, itunes, mac, macintosh, burst-com, quicktime

Most Wanted Time Capsules

Seeded on Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:18 PM EDT (oglethorpe.edu)

Time capsules usually are lost due to thievery, secrecy or poor planning. Finding them will enrich posterity by assuring that independent voices are heard in the future.

history, america, california, odd-news, united-states, george-washington, time-capsule, mit, mash

12 Volunteers to Start Getting HIV Vaccine

Seeded on Mon Apr 17, 2006 3:01 PM EDT (The Washington Post)

Human volunteers this week began signing up for an experimental HIV vaccine developed at Atlanta's Emory University.

health, vaccine, disease, aids, hiv, std, geovax

Fossils Link Human Ancestors

Seeded on Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:24 AM EDT (The Washington Post)

Paleontologists have unearthed fossil teeth, bone fragments and a jawbone that for the first time link older and younger species of human ancestors in a single location, providing the best evidence yet for an unbroken evolutionary chain spanning 900 million years.

science, paleontology

Oil up near $70 as funds flow in, Iran rumbles on

Seeded on Mon Apr 17, 2006 10:18 AM EDT (CNN)

U.S. crude oil prices hit $70 on Monday, the highest level for nearly eight months, as Iran's pursuit of its nuclear program heightened fears the U.S. might take military action against the oil-producing nation.

oil, nigeria, iran, america, gas, united-states, gasoline, insurgency, world-news, crude-oil

Bushes Paid $187,768 in Federal Income Tax

Seeded on Sun Apr 16, 2006 10:40 PM EDT (The Washington Post)

President Bush and first lady Laura Bush paid $187,768 in federal income taxes on taxable income of $618,694 in 2005, the White House said yesterday.

bush, cheney, president, united-states, george-bush, us-news, vice-president

Could a Patent Lawsuit Stop the Xbox 360?

Seeded on Sun Apr 16, 2006 6:09 PM EDT (PC World)

An injunction that could disrupt the distribution of the Xbox 360 game console is possible because of a patent suit that Lucent Technologies has filed against Microsoft, according to attorneys who practice intellectual property (IP) law. Advertisement

technology, game, microsoft, patent, xbox, lucent, gaming, console, xbox-360

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