Angry Balloon being sold as Egyptian artefact

eBay prankster selling 'angry balloon' on eBay as ancient Egyptian artefact

I came across this article and found it really funny..I thought my readers may enjoy it too...

Full of hot air ... the prankster claims the balloon is either from Ancient Egypt or the Howard era / eBay

AN EBAY prankster is trying to sell a balloon with an angry face scrawled across it with marker pen.

"I don't know where it came from but one night I heard a knock on my door and it was sitting out the front," the eBay ad says.

"I am not exactly sure but some people believe that it came from the ancient king Bobo the Clown's tomb in Egypt. This thing is freaking me out and I need to get rid of it fast."

The prankster, "vwcamper745," claims it is either a cursed artefact from Egypt or a relic from Australia's Howard era.

"It is possible that it is ancient Australian," the ad says.

"What makes me think that it might be from the Howard period is that I initially was not going to charge GST but I later changed my mind and now I will."

The balloon has been listed in the antiques section of the auction website, and the prankster claims it is cursed.

"I am not sure if this is relevant or not but if I hold a crucifx (sic) near the balloon it starts to cough up feathers. So far I have filled three cushions and one doona."

The user appears to have resurrected an account last used in 2007 to sell the prank item.

He has offered to send it deflated, or by filling it with helium and releasing it.

"Hopefully it should find its way to your place and it should save you some cash on postage."

With a starting price of $10, there have been no bids so far.

(http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25180625-5014239,00.html)

Web Inventor wants to ban online snoopers

Web inventor Sir Tim Berners-Lee wants ban on snooping on internet users

By Richard Ford, (Home Correspondent, Telegraph, UK)

Sir Tim Berners-Lee says internet information should not be harvested

The creator of the worldwide web warned today against the collection of users’ data by commercial organisations.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee said that third parties, including companies and governments, should not be allowed to snoop on the public's browsing of the internet.

He told a meeting at Westminster: “We use the internet without a thought that a third party would know what we have clicked on. But the URLs / people use reveal a huge amount about their lives, loves, hates and fears. This is extremely sensitive information.

“People use the web in a crisis, when wondering whether they have a sexually transmitted disease, or cancer, when wondering if they are homosexual and whether to talk about it,” he said.

He said that people would consider using the web at a moment of crisis in a different light if users knew that they were being monitored and the data would be shared with a third party such as an advertising agency.

“This information is very sensitive. I feel it should not be collected,” he added.

Sir Tim said that businesses would initially insist that information was being collected only for a limited purpose but he said that they would be under enormous pressure to release it. “Once it exists, it can be used by the company or by an insider.”

Sir Tim, speaking at a meeting at Westminster organised by the Liberal Democrats to discuss the commercial use of data on the internet, said: “It should not be collected in the first place.”

There have been trials monitoring of the internet use of about 30,000 people to send adverts tailored to the users’ search interests. The development of advertising based on consumers’ internet usage is alarming privacy campaigners.

Dame Wendy Hall, a professor of computer science at Southampton University, appealed to Parliament to protect internet users’ privacy.

“There are lots of good reasons why companies and government want access to our data but there are huge downsides to that,” she said. “This debate is about our digital lives. It is about who we are, what we are interested in and what is private to us.”

(http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5890530.ece)

Cutting edge batteries recharge in seconds

Breakthrough battery can charge up in seconds

The days of waiting hours to charge a mobile phone or laptop computer could soon be over because of research that could transform battery technology in as little as two years.

Scientists in the United States have invented a battery that can charge in seconds, promising a revolution in power storage that could also help green cars and renewable energy.

The advance allows lithium-ion batteries, the standard variety used in consumer electronics and cells for electric or hybrid vehicles, both to charge and discharge stored energy more quickly than at present.

This should lead to smaller, lighter batteries for mobile phones and other devices, which can be fully charged when plugged in for a few seconds.

The researchers, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, have already made a small prototype cell that charges fully in 10 to 20 seconds, compared with six minutes for cells made in the standard way.

“If you can charge your phone in 30 seconds, that becomes a life changer,” said Gerbrand Ceder, Professor of Materials Science and Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), who led the research. “It could change the way we think about technology like this: you would literally be able to charge up while you stand and wait.”

The technology has been nicknamed the “beltway battery”, after the orbital motorway in Washington DC, because it uses a bypass system to let lithium ions that carry charge to enter and leave the battery more quickly.

As it involves a new approach to manufacturing lithium-ion battery materials, rather than a new material, it could be ready within two to three years, the researchers said.

Electric car batteries may be able to charge in less than an hour, removing one of the main barriers to wider uptake of the vehicles. Solar and wind power generation could also benefit as better batteries could be used to store surplus energy.

Rechargeable batteries store and release energy as charged atoms, called ions, from between two electrodes called the anode and the cathode. Their charge and discharge rates are limited by the speed with which these ions move.

Professor Ceder and Byoungwoo Kang, his colleague, established that ions can move quickly across the lithium iron phosphate that is used as the cathode in lithium-ion batteries. However, the ions are effectively held up because they must find their way through channels in the material.

“It is like a freeway, but if the ramps are congested you can't get on to it very fast,” Professor Ceder said.

The scientists found that by coating particles of lithium iron phosphate in a glassy material called lithium pyrophosphate, ions can bypass these channels and move more quickly. “It works like a beltway around a city,” Professor Ceder said.

(http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/article5891194.ece)

Horror video games: horror has a new home

The suspense-filled plots and scare tactics of video games are leaving the tired movie genre for dead.

I came across this excellent review by Tom Hoggins (of Telegraph, UK) on Horror video games and I thought many of my readers would be interested...enjoy....

Cutting-edge horror: the chainsaw-wielding Manjini in 'Resident Evil 5' is all the more terrifying because it's your neck on the line

Friday the 13th. A day intrinsically linked to cinematic horror, when film fans would sit in a darkened cinema, breath drawn in and sweat-lined palms tightly gripping the armrest. However, it’s hard to argue that Hollywood horror is in good health right now, from a qualitative standpoint at least. Another remake hit the silver screen yesterday: Wes Craven’s The Last House on the Left, a movie that was hardly revered in its time. It’s systematic of a desperate lack of imagination and invention in a genre that, despite its troubles, still remains hugely popular, with cinemagoers ever hungry for their Friday-night frights. However, current releases such as the inexplicably expansive Saw franchise, tend to rely on shock tactics and gallons of blood and gore.

So where has that imagination gone? “Purists might argue that all horror movies are essentially remakes, and that something like Ridley Scott’s Alien is really just a rehash of B-movie ideas, but there the design was so original and unsettling that it felt new, and this is the key,” says Telegraph film critic, Tim Robey. “None of the current mainstream horror releases have that stamp of shocking novelty.

It’s hard to be scared when you know what’s around the corner and pretty much what it’s going to look like. Even the promising cycle of Japanese and Korean horror films that kicked off with The Ring seems to have played itself out, basically because of self-plagiarism and a shortage of visual ideas beyond those pallid black-haired wraiths, which were good for a few sleepless nights but not several years’ worth.” And this is where another medium has begun to take the edge from movies when it comes to horror: the video game. Also released yesterday was Capcom’s excellent Resident Evil 5, a game that puts you in the shoes of two anti-bioterrorism agents in Africa, facing off against legions of infected zombies in the scorching sun.

The interactive nature of video games places the audience under direct threat, allowing even the oldest of cinema scares to once again feel fresh and terrifying.

While the chainsaw-wielding maniac in the game is an undoubted tribute to The Texas Chainsaw Massacre’s Leatherface, it’s altogether more frightening when it’s your neck on the line. A rev of the chainsaw signals his arrival, sending a cold shiver down your spine as you realise your ammo stock is perilously low. It’s a taut and tense experience that relies heavily on the nature of interactive entertainment.

Resident Evil 5 is another terrific title in a recent spate of video games that manage to cover the full horror spectrum, from action to comedy, despite an unhealthy obsession with zombies (see sidebar). Sega’s light gun shooter, House of the Dead: Overkill, is a gloriously silly grindhouse tribute, while the latest Silent Hill title, Homecoming, is a fraught psychological horror that, while lacking in several mechanical areas, shows more intelligence in its plot and penetration than many mainstream Hollywood nasties of recent times.

While video game horror is nothing new, technological advances allow developers to constantly find new ways to scare.

EA’s Bafta award-winning Dead Space is a technical marvel and an exquisitely sculpted piece of horror. It makes outstanding use of advanced lighting techniques to disorient the player and features phenomenal sound design to constantly keep the player on their toes.

It’s a game that is heavily influenced by cinema sci-fi horror, but moulds the terror around the unique characteristics of video games to keep its audience on a knife-edge from start to finish.

For a medium that in many ways is still in its creative youth, this understanding of how to use a video game’s technological strengths to engage the player in terrifying scenarios in ways that cinema cannot is key to keeping the genre fresh and frightening.

The film industry, meanwhile, is looking at the recent advancements in 3D technology to further involve the audience and bring new life to the horror movie. Whether this is the answer remains to be seen. For now, however, those scare aficionados looking for a frightening fix can be satiated in the new, digital, house of horrors.

(http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/technology/technologyreviews)

Valentine's Day and Young secular Indians

Young Indians square up to nationalists over Valentine's Day

Jeremy Page in Delh. February 14, 2009.

Young secular Indians are organising their own vigilante groups - some armed with Taekwondo moves, others with pepper spray - to protect unmarried couples from Hindu radicals looking to disrupt Valentine's Day celebrations.

For the first time, several secular groups have organised patrols across the country to combat the Hindu nationalist organisations which they accuse of trying to "Talebanise" India. The secular groups decided to act after television coverage showed activists from the Sri Ram Sena (Lord Ram's Army) attacking women in a pub in the southern college town of Mangalore last month.

A 15-year-old Hindu girl from a village near the same town commited suicide on Wednesday after being attacked by Hindu radicals for being in the company of a Muslim boy.

In Delhi, a group called the Earth Saviours' Foundation is responding by sending ten teams of five vigilantes - including Taekwondo experts - to patrol the city's parks, markets and other public places. "We're sending a strong message that times have changed and women have equal rights," said Ravi Kalra, the founder of ESF, who is also head of the India Amateur Taekwondo Federation.

"Our teams will have boot polish, and anyone harassing women will have their faces blackened and be handed over to the cops," he told The Times.

The Delhi chapter of the Kashmir-based National Panthers Party is also sending out vigilantes armed with pepper spray. In Chennai - formerly Madras - one of India's leading sexologists says he hopes to attract 6,000 people to a run along the Marina sea front, where police attacked promenading young lovers last year. In Bangalore, a secular political party has organised a fleet of "love vehicles" to patrol areas such as the Cubbon Park which are often frequented by young lovers.

These are rare examples of young, secular Indians organising themselves spontaneously to stand up to the powerful Hindu nationalist movement, which wants to rid India of foreign influences. However, their plans have raised fears of violent clashes with the nationalists, who are rallying votes for their political wing, the Bharatiya Janata Party, ahead of national elections, due by May.

In Delhi, the Hindu nationalist youth group Bajrang Dal has sent letters to all pubs and discos warning them not to host any event promoting "obscenity and nudity". In Mumbai, the Hindu nationalist Shiv Sena party has told colleges not to allow any Valentine's Day events, and promised to protest against any form of "vulgarity". In Chennai, the Hindu Makkal Katchi party has warned that lovers found in public will be handed over to the police.

In Bangalore, meanwhile, the SRS has called off its plans to target unmarried couples but vowed to carry out its threat elsewhere in the southern state of Karnataka. Pramod Mutalik, the SRS leader, said his group was "protecting Indian culture" after it attacked several young Indian women in a pub in Mangalore last month.

He was arrested, but soon released on bail, prompting criticism from secular Indians of the Karnataka state government, which is run by the BJP.

Mr Mutalik then threatened to force unmarried couples seen in public on Valentine's Day either to get married or to tie "rakhis" - string bracelets - on their wrists to signify they are brother and sister. He was forced to scale back his plans after the federal Home Minister wrote to the local government warning that it would intervene if local police could not maintain law and order.

The decision was partly due to publicity generated by a Facebook group called the Consortium of Pub-going, Loose and Forward Women, which now has more than 30,000 members.

Nisha Susan, a 29-year-old journalist who founded the group, urged women to send pink "chaddis" - panties in Hindi - to the SRS and to celebrate Valentine's Day by going to the pub.

She told The Times that supporters from India, and as far afield as Puerto Rico, had sent more than 1,500 pairs of panties to the SRS.

Tejuswini Chowdhury, the daughter of the Minister for Women, also set up a Facebook group encouraging Indian women to go to the pub, which has attracted some 3,000 members. She had planned to take more than 100 women friends to the same pub in Mangalore that was attacked but was forced to cancel because local authorities could not guarantee their safety.

She told The Times she was now planning to take her friends to a pub in her home city of Hyderabad, in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh. "This is the first time I've seen people coming together with such passion in their voices," she said. "I hope the trend continues."

(http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article5729126.ece)

New device projects web from fingertips..

MIT's 'Wear Ur World' (WUW) device puts internet literally at your fingertips

SCIENTISTS have developed a computer that lets users project the internet on to objects by waving their fingers in the air.

SCIENTISTS have developed a Minority Report -style computer, where users can project the internet on to objects by waving their fingers in the air.

The device, created by researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), can turn any surface into a computer touch screen.

Users can take photographs simply by framing an object with their hands or project a digital watch face on to their wrists by drawing a circle in the air with their finger.

The device, known as "Wear Ur World" or WUW, works by cobbling together a web camera, tiny projector and internet-connected smartphone into a device that can be worn like jewellery.

Tiny sensors respond to hand movements, allowing wearers to conjure internet information seemingly from the air.

"You can use this gadget to interact with data on the internet just by selecting which information you want from a screen of options," MIT researcher Patty Maes said.

"Other than letting you live out your fantasy of looking as cool as Tom Cruise in Minority Report, it can really let you connect as a sixth sense device with whatever is in front of you."

By waving their hands over an airline ticket, it can let users know whether their flight is on time.

It can also recognise books and project reviews or author information from the internet.

The WUW is expected to be commercially marketable by 2011.

(http://www.news.com.au/technology/story/0,28348,25039973-5014239,00.html)

McCain very upset with Obama

Obama spend is generational theft - McCain

Washington. Reuters. February 14, 2009.

SENATOR John McCain said today that President Barack Obama should include Republicans in his plans sooner if he really wants their support after the bitter debate over the $787bn economic stimulus bill.

Sen McCain, who lost the 2008 presidential election to Mr Obama, and other Republicans complained they had been left out of negotiations on the legislation by Democrats who hold majorities in both houses of Congress.

Sen McCain said the Bill was filled with non-emergency spending paid for with borrowed money that future generations will have to pay back.

"I think that the majority of people understand that this was generational theft," Sen McCain said.

The Arizona senator said many other issues coming up will require a bipartisan effort that he said has been lacking so far from Mr Obama and the Democrats.

"I hope they've learned a lesson," he said.

"I hope that they will reverse course, and sit down, negotiate from the beginning, so you're in on the takeoff, so you can be in on the landing."

Sen McCain met Mr Obama two weeks after the November 4 election and agreed that "Americans of all parties want and need their leaders to come together and change the bad habits of Washington" to solve urgent challenges.

Mr Obama initially hoped for an overwhelming majority for passage of the stimulus Bill, but the debate quickly dissolved into the traditional argument in which Democrats backed a package more weighted to spending programs and Republicans advocated tax cuts.

Acknowledging scaled-down ambitions for the vote, Mr Obama on Thursday said "I hope they act in a bipartisan fashion, but no matter how they act," the legislation should help the economy.

The stimulus Bill ultimately passed the House of Representatives with no Republican support. It was expected to garner the votes of three Republican moderates in the Senate.

"No one could view this as having a scintilla of bipartisanship," said Sen McCain, who has often annoyed his own Republican colleagues by working with the opposition party.

"The message of the election was, sit down and work together. They obviously are not doing that," he said.

(http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,25052996-401,00.html)