Obscure Burglary Tools of the Day: Ninja Rocks – “Ninja rocks are small bits of the ceramic from spark plugs, used by crackheads and jerkoffs to break any of the tempered glass on a car (anything except the windshield). Usually the door glass.”

How an Intern Stole NASA’s Moon Rocks – “In 2002, rogue NASA interns stole millions of dollars in moon rocks. This is the untold story of how they did it…”

Bendable Concrete Heals Itself — Just Add Water – ” Its not quite as advanced as Terminator technology. But a new concrete that can heal its own wounds may soon bring futuristic protection to bridges and roads…”

The Desktop Treasure Hunter – “Google Earth may aim to map the world, but that’s not all it does. The online global atlas has been used to unearth treasure, expose drug growers and discover meteorite sites and ancient villas. It has even helped solve a missing persons case…”

Amazon launches larger-screen Kindle – “Amazon.com Inc introduced a larger, souped-up Kindle electronic reader on Wednesday designed for students and newspaper readers, but a $489 price tag could make it too expensive for many consumers…”

The Man Who Made Gmail Says Real-Time Conversation is What’s Next – “Paul Buchheit built the first version of Gmail in one day. Then he built the first prototype of Google’s contextual advertising service Adsense, in one day as well. Now he’s working on a much-watched startup called FriendFeed that he believes just brought to market the next big form of communication online: flowing, multi-person, real-time conversations…”

Hackers hold US medical data hostage – “Hackers have taken control of the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program (PMP) in the U.S. and are demanding a US$10 million (A$13.6 million) ransom for the return of patient’s records…”

Star Trek’s Warp Drive: Not Impossible – “The warp drive, one of Star Trek’s hallmark inventions, could someday become science instead of science fiction…”

Study plunges standard theory of cosmology into crisis – “New insights into Milky Way satellite galaxies raise awkward questions for cosmologists…”

Cellular Healing – “Regenerative medicine experts are helping wounded vets regrow lost muscle tissue. Will fingers and limbs be next?”

MIT teams finding many uses for graphene, the newest form of carbon – “Now that it has been found, with widely publicized results published in 2004 by researchers at the University of Manchester, UK, “the topic has exploded,” she says. Researchers are focusing on how to harness its properties, and trying to find ways to produce it in sufficient quantity for extensive research and eventually for commercial applications. MIT has become a major center of work on this hot topic, with several different research groups pursuing various aspects — including physical, chemical, electronic and engineering — of the novel material…”

News Corp will charge for newspaper websites, says Rupert Murdoch – “Current days of free internet will soon be over, says media mogul…”

H.R. 1966: Offend Someone Online – Go To Prison – “At a time when freedom of speech is already under attack like never before, a shocking new bill in the U.S. House of Representatives would make it a felony to offend someone online…”

Rash actions and dire consequences – “I’m furious – the selfish, wrong-headed beliefs of a few precious MMR refuseniks have put my daughter’s life at risk…” See also: Oprah teams up with Jenny McCarthy to potentially kill children

Dinosaurs ‘were wiped out by volcanoes in India’ – “The volcanic eruptions happened on India’s Deccan plateau between 63 and 67 million years ago, spewing large amounts of sulphur dioxide into the air…”

Resistance is NOT Futile – “Have you ever needed a low-value resistor for a low-voltage battery-powered circuit? Say, something in the range of 10-100 ohms? Finding this value of resistor can be difficult, if not impossible. In cases like this, you might be better off making your own resistor…”

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