Core i3 takes on Athlon II…and everything else, including a Pentium 4 – “Coming up with a way to characterize a major comparison of desktop processors like this one isn’t always easy. Since our initial review of Intel’s Clarkdale processors, the desktop CPU market has shifted in a number of ways both big and small. For one, Clarkdale CPUs have proliferated everywhere, and we’ve gotten our hands on one model, the Core i3-530, that promises to be a much better value than the relatively high-end Core i5-661 that we first reviewed. To counter, AMD has introduced five new value-oriented CPUs, ranging from two cores to four, including the Athlon II X4 635, a potent value quad-core priced directly opposite the Core i3-530…”

How Transformers Can Explode – ” On February 12, an underground electrical transformer exploded in front of a Radio Shack on 6th Avenue, in New York City, emitting a fireball seven stories high and damaging nearby buildings. Here’s how this could have happened…”

Darpa Looks to Build Real-Life C3P0 – “Right now, troops trying to listen in on enemy chatter rely on a convoluted process. They tune into insurgency radio frequencies, then hand the radio over to local interpreters, who translate the dialogues. It’s a sloppy process, prone to garbled words and missed phrases. What troops really need is a machine that can pick out voices from the noise, understand and translate all kinds of different languages, and then identify the voice from a hit list of “wanted speakers.” In other words, a real-life version of Star Wars protocol droid C3PO, fluent “in over 6 million forms of communication.””

Praying Mantis Vs Hummingbird – “Hummingbirds are fast and hardly stand still, a fact that protects them from many a predator. Unfortunately for them, however, not from the praying mantis who is a study in patience. We’ve found one that’s waited 24 hours by a bird feeder before zeroing in on the unlucky hummer that came too close. One snatch, and the bird’s no more, dangling upside down, waiting to be devoured by the hungry mantis who will eat for a while…”

EPIC: Google may have broken wiretap law – “If Google wanted to create a quick buzz around its new social networking service, it’s certainly accomplished that. Last week, when the Web giant automatically signed up millions of Gmail users for its new Buzz social network, much of the Internet was sent into a privacy tizzy…” See also: EPIC fail: Google faces FTC complaint over Buzz privacy

Buzz launch wasn’t flawed, Google’s intentions are – “Google is a $170 billion company. It employs thousands of engineers and developers. It tests, tests, tests, and tests more. In fact, its “designers” once unable to pick a shade of blue tested 41 variations of it. It’s ludicrous to think that the Buzz fiasco was simply a result of under-testing. Indeed, it was not an implementation snafu at all, as often described. It was a reflection of the strategy with which Google has decided to capture the enormous territory left up for grabs by the decline of Microsoft…”

Bee Vs. Car: Who Gets More Miles Per Gallon? – “In 1957, Canadian scientist Brian Hocking wondered, how far could a bee travel on a gallon of honey? Bees are too small to carry a gallon of anything, but Hocking came up with a way to calculate Bee Miles Per Gallon…”

How to score figure skating – “Scoring starts when a panel of three technical judges assign a difficulty valuation…”

War game reveals U.S. lacks cyber-crisis skills – “Is the assault on cellphones an armed attack? In a crisis, what power does the government have to order phone and Internet carriers to allow monitoring of their networks? What level of privacy can Americans expect? A war game, sponsored by a nonprofit group and attended by former top-ranking national security officials, laid bare Tuesday that the U.S. government lacks answers to such key questions…” See also: Is The U.S. Ready For A Cyberwar?

Video: Getting Hard to Wave Away All These “Minority Report” Gesture Computers – “Every week it seems we get a few hand waves closer to a world where we don’t have to click anything, just flick our wrists and wave our hands around, like Tom Cruise in Minority Report or figure skaters dancing through the Matrix…”

15 Internet Annoyances, and How to Fix Them – “Artwork: Chip Taylor
It seems that every day we go online and there’s some new type of nagging Web annoyance to deal with. In a perfect world, we wouldn’t have to worry about auto-playing video ads, leaping pay walls to read the news, fake emails phishing for our bank details, or Farmville spam from Facebook. But for now, we’re on our own. Here are 15 of the most annoying things on the Internet, and how to work around, ignore, improve or fix them…”

10 Hot Questions About Windows Phone 7, Answered – “After years of watching its Windows Mobile operating system languish behind sexier products from archrivals Apple, Google, and Palm, Microsoft launched the Windows Phone 7 platform Monday morning. Why is it important? Does it live up to the rumors? And more to the point, what can you expect? Here are the top ten questions about the new Windows Phone 7 OS, and their answers…”

Blast from the Past: 10 Timeless Gadgets Even Today – “If you think the iphone or Blackberry is cool, wait until you see these gadgets from many years ago…”

The future’s here baby! (first successfully printed ceramic vessel) – “We took some time to play around and get used to the dynamics of the clay print process. It was also time to step up (or down?) the resolution from 1.9 to 0.8 mm using screw-on luer lock tips. We are also now using powder clay that can be mixed in exact quantities instead of moisturizing chunks of clay. Also figuring out ways of reliably filling the syringes without trapped air. I’m using a similar 60cc syringe where the front is cut off and use this to suck in the clay from the mixing bowl. Then the clay is transferred to the print syringe, this works really well actually…”

YouTube Turns Five Years Old, But Without Google, It Would Be Bankrupt – “Anyone who has read my blog before knows that I think YouTube gets way too much credit in the industry that they don’t deserve. While I don’t disagree that YouTube deserves credit for creating a platform that has allowed any regular Joe to upload and share video at no cost to the individual, that’s all YouTube has done. Sure, that platform has had a big impact on the lives of a lot of people, but each time YouTube has a birthday, or delivers another billion streams, Chad Hurley wants to try to convince us of why YouTube should get all the credit, for everything in the industry…”

VIDEO: Moscow Ice Disk a rarity of nature – “Onto another, stranger topic: Tim Weston recently sent us this picture of what appears to be a extremely rare river phenomenon known as an ice disk. They form near outside bends of rivers, and the turning motion of the water spins pieces of ice into these smooth, weird disks…”

Drowning in Debt: What the Nation’s Budget Woes Mean for You – “American political and economic leaders have sounded the alarm for years about the red ink rising in reports on the federal government’s fiscal health. David Muir looks into how the deficit has become so large. But now the problem of mounting national debt is worse than it ever has been before with — potentially dire consequences for taxpayers, according to a report by the nonpartisan Peterson-Pew Commission on Budget Reform…”

Haiti’s elite sees business opportunities emerging from reconstruction – “Haiti’s elite — a small, politically connected group as comfortable lobbying President René Préval as lawmakers in Washington — is positioning itself for business opportunities emerging from their country’s reconstruction. The textile industry in particular, which survived the temblor largely intact, is gearing up to add tens of thousands of jobs, thanks to U.S. legislation approved in 2008 that gives Haitian garments duty-free, quota-free access to the United States…”

How to Create A Paperless Kitchen – “I understood the environmental benefits and the financial merits of not wasting this paper, but I still wasn’t sure it could be done without it being too complicated. But I have finally evolved a system that’s working great for my family…”

Your Guide to the Oscar Nominated Short Films of 2010 – “Magnolia Pictures and Shorts International continue their wonderful annual tradition of taking the ten films nominated for the Oscar for Short Film: Live Action & Animation and presenting them in a pair of theatrical releases (visit the program’s website here: http://www.shortshd.com/theoscarshorts/). The lineup is about to open at the Landmark Century in Chicago along with theaters in New York and Los Angeles and will be expanding throughout the country in coming weeks. The shorts are also currently available on iTunes in the U.S., U.K., and Canada. Find a way to see them. Most are better than The Blind Side. And, even if you can’t get out to see them, perhaps we can help you win your Oscar pool again…”

15 Biggest Data Breaches Of The Decade – “The 2000s turned out to be a big decade for cybercriminals. The first 10 years of the century set the stage for an evolution of data breaches, from insider accidents and simple theft to sophisticated malware attacks driven by organized international cybercrime gangs. Meanwhile, the financial targets became more lucrative as the decade progressed, often reaching tens of millions of credit card numbers and personalized account information. Security experts say these incidents are likely the tip of the iceberg, with possibly thousands more yet to be discovered or escaping public scrutiny. Here are a few of the biggest and most sensational data breaches of the decade. ..”

The global warming skeptics vs. the scientific consensus vs. Collapse Continues

Teen who pulled mother and children from train’s path says he’s no hero – “Todd McHugh doesn’t think he was a hero Monday night, but police say the Citrus Heights teen probably saved a mother and her two young children from serious injury or death…”

Top 10 Steak Grilling Tips – “If you think grilling a steak is as simple as slapping a piece of meat you bought at the supermarket on a grill and flipping it a few times, you’re missing out on what could be THE GREATEST STEAK OF YOUR LIFE. Here are some grilling tips from an honest-to-goodness chef that’ll make your next steak meal your finest work ever…”

3 “High-Ranking” Tesla Execs Die in California Plane Crash – “According to reports, three high ranking Tesla Motors executives have died in a fiery plane crash over Palo Alto, CA, this morning. Although names have not officially been released yet, witnesses say that the plane was owned by Doug Bourn, a senior electrical engineer for Tesla. Apparently the plane crashed right in to a residential neighborhood on top of a daycare facility. No other injuries have been reported, although some houses have been damaged…”

Ants die alone, protecting their nest mates from infection – “Scientists studying ants have discovered that when they are seriously ill they voluntarily go away from the nest to die, which reduces the chances of them passing their infection to nest mates…”

Toyota’s ‘Black Box’ Could Hold Accident Clues – “Toyota (TM) cars have a “black box”. Although it’s not as sophisticated as those used in airplanes, it does record data about a car’s performance and activity. The box is officially called an “event data recorder” and according to The Wall Street Journal,” It records vehicle and engine speeds as well as brake, accelerator and throttle positions and other data that can help determine the causes of accidents.”"

The Great Grocery Smackdown – “He was right. In the grocery section of the Raynham supercenter, 45 minutes south of Boston, I had trouble believing I was in a Walmart. The very reasonable-looking produce, most of it loose and nicely organized, was in black plastic bins (as in British supermarkets, where the look is common; the idea is to make the colors pop). The first thing I saw, McIntosh apples, came from the same local orchard whose apples I’d just seen in the same bags at Whole Foods. The bunched beets were from Muranaka Farm, whose beets I often buy at other markets—but these looked much fresher. The service people I could find (it wasn’t hard) were unfailingly enthusiastic, though I did wonder whether they got let out at night…”

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