A Method for Critical Data Theft – “A group led by a Princeton University computer security researcher has developed a simple method to steal encrypted information stored on computer hard disks…”

China’s Solar Hot Water Capacity Will Soon be Equivalent to 40 Nuclear Plants – “A solar water heater in China costs less than $200. Without one, a family wanting hot water would have to buy an electric water heater for about the same price and pay up to $120 per year for electricity. The payback is almost instantaneous…”

Google lunar challenge gets under way – “On Thursday, the X Prize Foundation announced the first 10 teams entered in the Google Lunar X Prize. Unveiled in September 2007, the Google Lunar X Prize requires contestants to land a privately funded robotic spacecraft on the moon, explore the terrain for at least 500 meters, and transmit results of the trip back to Earth. The grand prize is $20 million, with a second prize of $5 million and bonuses of $5 million…”

Solar Eclipse from the Moon – “Of course if you traveled to the Moon’s near side, you could see the same event as a solar eclipse, with the disk of our fair planet Earth completely blocking out the Sun….”

Beer to Bricks! – “Sweet goodness! What a great idea. Manufacturing Beer bottles to convert to brick structures for later use…”

Consumer Tech: Try to wait to buy improved Blu-ray players – “If you’ve waited this long to buy a hi-def disc player, you may want to wait a little longer. Blu-ray player prices, currently averaging about $400, undoubtedly will fall. New features such as picture-in-picture and online content are being added to Blu-ray releases, but these add-ons are only supported by new and upcoming players…”

Windows Live SkyDrive launches, but needs a touch of paint – “Microsoft has steadily increased the amount of storage available to each user, and what began as 500MB of “cloud” storage has ballooned to 5GB… Once logged in, the user is presented with an interface that seems to—dare I say it—just work. The initial interface is pictured below…”

Facebook loses a few people – “Remember when Facebook was the future and supposedly worth $15bn? Stand back, because this fail is going to be epic…”

A 12-Step Program to Eating Healthier Than Ever Before – “As I mentioned recently, I was a junk-food addict in my not-too-distant past, and ballooning alarmingly around the waistline. I was addicted to burgers and sodas and fries and pizzas and sweets and all the fast food you can think of and most especially chocolate. Today, while I can’t say I only eat wheat germ and fresh veggies picked right from my home garden, I generally eat healthier than I have ever done in my life. How did I get from Point A (junk food junkie) to Point B (much healthier diet)?”

AMD Donates Software Routines For Building Multithreaded Apps – “AMD isn’t known as a frequent purveyor of open source software, having its hands full designing 64-bit, multicore chips in its ongoing battle with Intel. But the AMD Performance Library, as the chipmaker calls it, is meant to encourage application builders to use software routines that make multicore chips shine, performance-wise…”

Flock 1.1 Browser: Even a Little Cooler – “A few months ago, I wrote that Flock, the social-media browser built on top of Firefox, had become my new favorite browser. It still is–and today, the Flock folks released a beta of version 1.1. It’s got no earthshaking new features, but is sure worth a look if you like inventive Web tools…”

Lessig wants to build a “creative commons in Congress” – “Stanford legal theorist Lawrence Lessig isn’t throwing his hat into the ring quite yet, but the renowned cyberlawyer has announced that he is seriously considering a run for Congress in response to a fast-growing netroots campaign pushing him to seek the House seat left vacant by the death of Rep. Tom Lantos (D-CA)…”

State budget should be online for all to ‘audit’ – “That’s why Ohio needs to open its books, so taxpayers can see where their money is spent — and where more cuts could be made. Sure, Ohio’s existing public-records laws are liberal and theoretically would allow us to track down and piece together all of this information. But knowing precisely what to request, and from whom, is difficult. And finding the time to do that would be virtually impossible. Instead, Ohioans should be able to view the state budget via an easily accessed online database that any 12-year-old Ohio public-school student could understand. This would allow people to see exactly where the money comes from and where it goes, including every check written, down to the last penny…”

Ice worms: They’re real, and they’re hot – “Ben Lee is stalking a creature most people think is a myth — if they’ve heard of it at all…”

Incendiary bombs carried by balloons from Japan never caused their intended devastation to western state’s forests – “One of the secret weapons of World War II first came to light after two men stumbled across a strange object in the woods of western Montana. On Dec. 11, 1944, two loggers were cutting timber at Truman Creek, southwest of Kalispell, when they found the wreckage of a huge, cream-colored paper balloon, painted with a green rising sun and Japanese characters…”

Electron filmed for first time ever – “Now it is possible to see a movie of an electron. The movie shows how an electron rides on a light wave after just having been pulled away from an atom. This is the first time an electron has ever been filmed, and the results are presented in the latest issue of Physical Review Letters…” (with video)

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