Sony’s rollable OLED display can wrap around a pencil, our hearts (video) – “Nothing says “future” quite like a rollable display. Today Sony’s giving us a glimpse into what will one day be with its 80μm-thick organic TFT-driven OLED display.” See also: HP developing wrist PC for military, finally putting that flexible display to good use

‘Thirst for knowledge’ may be opium craving – “Neuroscientists have proposed a simple explanation for the pleasure of grasping a new concept: The brain is getting its fix. The “click” of comprehension triggers a biochemical cascade that rewards the brain with a shot of natural opium-like substances, said Irving Biederman of the University of Southern California. He presents his theory in an invited article in the latest issue of American Scientist…”

The Gulf Disaster Video That BP Doesn’t Want You To See – “The chemical dispersants that BP is using—trying to fix the gigantic mess caused by their reckless actions—are turning the thick black tide into titanic clouds floating underneath the surface. The clouds are formed by particles made of oil combined with the dispersants. The resulting chemical monster can burn the skin of any human or animal that gets in contact with it…” See also: Underwater Images From BP’s ‘Top Kill’ Procedure

Oil Soaks La. Shores, Gulf Officially a Fisheries Disaster, BP Keeps Using Dispersants – ” A month after oil started gushing from BP’s ruptured Gulf well, we’re officially witnessing a fishery disaster, BP refuses to use less toxic chemical dispersants, and oil is sinking into Louisiana’s shores–with horrifying results…”

End of Alaotra grebe is further evidence of Sixth Great Extinction – “One more step in what scientists are increasingly referring to as the Sixth Great Extinction is announced today: the disappearance of yet another bird species. The vanishing of the Alaotra grebe of Madagascar is formally notified this morning by the global conservation partnership BirdLife International – and it marks a small but ominous step in the biological process which seems likely to dominate the 21st century…”

PILLS PRINTED SPECIFICALLY FOR YOU – “Here’s a dirty little secret about the little pills you pop: nearly 99.9 percent of the tablet is useless. Only a thousandth of a pill contains the active ingredients that are supposed to make you feel better. The rest of the pill is just filler so it’s large enough for you to pick it up. If you think that sounds wasteful, you’re not alone. Researchers at the University of Leeds, Durham University, and GlaxoSmithKline have teamed up to create pills that are made to order, or perhaps I should “printed to order.”…”

Animating a Blockbuster: How Pixar Built Toy Story 3 – “Pixar’s secret? Its unusual creative process. Most of the time, a studio assembles a cast of freelance professionals to work on a single project and cuts them loose when the picture is done. At Pixar, a staff of writers, directors, animators, and technicians move from project to project. As a result, the studio has built a team of moviemakers who know and trust one another in ways unimaginable on most sets…”

Untouched is impossible: the story of Star Wars in film – “Last week saw the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, and along with it came discussions about the best way to watch the film and what we can expect from future re-releases. Michael Kaminski wrote the exhaustively researched and illuminating book The Secret History of Star Wars, so he knows damn near everything there is to know about the film stock used to shoot the film. George Lucas famously said that the original film “doesn’t exist” anymore, but is that accurate?”

Smartphones to be used as hotel room keys – “The key card could become a thing of the past after a hotel chain announced it would allow guests to access their rooms using their smartphones…”

Boy fixes cracked iPhone screen for $21.95 – “It used to be that parents would encourage their kids to do arts and crafts projects. Now they’re making them fix their cracked iPhone screens…”

Scientists in Hinesburg find bobolink tracking device – “He and Vermont ornithologist Rosalind Renfrew had recovered a 3-year-old male bobolink carrying a tiny recording device packed with information new to science. When the contents are downloaded and analyzed, for the first time the scientists will be able to trace the precise route the yellow-headed songbird flew between Vermont and his unidentified wintering grounds in South America…”

Dell Streak – The versatile 5-inch Android tablet :

What you need to know about Dell’s Streak – “Dell has officially announced that they will be launching their heavily anticipated 5 inch Streak in Europe via O2 on June 4th, followed by a US launch later this summer. Here is everything you should know before the device hits store shelves…”

First human ‘infected with computer virus’ – “A British scientist says he is the first man in the world to become infected with a computer virus. Dr Mark Gasson from the University of Reading contaminated a computer chip which was then inserted into his hand…”

Rethinking the wireless spectrum crisis – “”There is a crisis in the sense that people who need access to wireless capacity in order to deploy new services can’t get it,” said Kevin Werbach, assistant professor of legal studies at the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania. “In that sense, demand is exceeding supply. But it’s not a crisis in the sense that there is a fundamental limit on wireless capacity. The problem is that the existing landscape is embedded in a historical series of regulatory choices and business model choices that have limited access to spectrum.”…”

Movieclips Wants To Drink Other Movie Clips Sites’ Milkshake With Mashups – “Everyone loves movie clips. But, unfortunately, they’re often hard to find online in one centralized place. There’s a simple reason for this: licensing. If someone could just solve that, they’d have a pretty killer website, right? That’s what Movieclips has. And now they’re trying to extend it with Movieclips Mashups…”

Overcome the Google Analytics Learning Curve in 20 Minutes – “As recently as a month ago I was a victim of a state of mind I call Analytics Dismissal Disorder. This mindset is common after hearing about the importance of analytics, installing the tracking code and then getting overwhelmed by all of the graphs and scary numbers…”

Mini Cannon Firing and Destroying Targets. Among the World’s Smallest Guns :

Why Facebook Users Are Considering Leaving [CHART] – “Last week we asked you, our readers, to tell us why you’re planning on leaving Facebook (if you actually are, that is). Well, more than 5,000 votes later, and the results are in: 31% of respondents proclaimed their intention to stick with FB, and approximately the same number cited access to personal information as their number-one reason for vamoosing…”

The Evolution of the Camera – “We’ve seen some Vintage Miniature Cameras and even smaller Spy Cameras – but beyond miniaturization, the world of vintage cameras has a lot to offer to a discerning geek and/or sophisticated collector…”

Invention Awards: A Box That Keeps Plants Hydrated in the Desert – “Pieter Hoff is testing the Groasis Waterboxx on grapevines at Robert Mondavi’s Napa Valley, California, vineyard. If successful, it could save the winery more than 145,000 gallons of water per acre a year…”

Chicago hoarders buried in their own trash – “When an elderly couple hadn’t been seen for almost 3 weeks, Chicago Police conducted a well being check. You could imagine their surprise when they couldn’t even get past the front door. There was garbage packed from floor to ceiling. The stench was so bad, that they were forced to put on hazmat suits before forging into the disaster…”

Making Cheetos: It Ain’t Easy Being Cheesy – “It ain’t easy being cheesy. Mr. Cheetah first made this sage observation back in the ’80s, and it certainly still applies to the manufacture of his favorite bright-orange snack. Turning a hunk of cornmeal into a knobby Cheeto may take only a few minutes, but it requires a fine-tuned industrial dance that leaves no room for error. Frito-Lay’s quality-control folks will not tolerate anything less than maximum crunchiness…”

Spoiler alert: Lost in 3 minutes:

The Hidden Costs and Expenses of Travel – “Most of us think we’ve got travel costs all figured out, don’t we? Other people overlook expenses (and underestimate those they acknowledge), but we know better. Or do we? The cold, hard truth is that more people than not fail to account for all of the expenses involved in reaching their destinations. It’s an easy mistake to make, since most trips tend to center around a large, obvious expense (like a resort, hotel or theme park) which overshadows the ancillary costs incurred along the way. Of course, the only way to accurately budget for a trip is to be fully aware of all the costs. Today, Billshrink will examine several “hidden costs” of hitting the road…”

The smart paranoid’s guide to using Google – “Do you realize that Google may have recorded and stored every single search term you have ever punched into its search box? Chances are some of those searches could be soberingly damaging to your reputation. What about Gmail? Have you ever sent any sensitive e-mails? How about business information stored in Google Docs? “

Don’t Panic – 42 Awesome Ways to Use a Towel – “How useful can a towel really be? I hear you cry. Well the Hitchhiker’s Guide gives us nine top uses for towels (the first nine in this list), but there are many many more. In prime hitchhiker tradition here are the top 42 ways to use a towel…”

Super Accurate Radiation Robots Kill Cancer Cells and Leave Healthy Ones Untouched (w/ Video) – “Traditional radiation therapy has been used for years to kill cancer cells. The disadvantage of using this method is that healthy cells are also destroyed along with the cancer cells. In the past ten years radiation blasting robotic systems have been introduced that can target and fire with millimeter precision…”

Horrific Lamborghini Gallardo Crash (w/ Video & Images) – “Giorgio Bartocci had an unfortunate accident today, with his number 22 Gallardo LP560-4 encountering a freak accident during round 4 of the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Cup. The Gallardo LP560-4 ran into the gravel at the last turn before the final straight, and the impact at between 120-140 km/h sent the car toppling for a good distance. Although the supercar appeared to be shredded and was engulfed in flames soon after, Bartocci survived the accident, and is now reportedly under treatment in the intensive care…”

Extreme Makeover: Reinventing the Parking Lot – “there’s a serious assessment under way of how to make better use of the 4,341 acres (1,757 hectares) of parking lots located within half a mile (800 m) of downtowns or transit stops on the island. Imagine what you would do with part or all of that land — and then imagine winning a $10,000 grand prize for your pie-in-the-sky ideas…”

The Investor’s Creed — What’s That? – “Fascinating, isn’t it, this stock market of ours, with its unpredictability, promise, and unscripted daily drama. But individual investors are even more interesting. We’ve become the product of a media driven culture that must have reasons, predictability, blame, scapegoats, and even that four-letter word, certainty…”

[[[Jump to - Interesting Reading #496 – What sunk the South Korean ship? Does Sunscreen Cause cancer? Where is the X-37B? Does a SSD/HDD combo work? Will iPhone 4G have video chat? Can bacteria make you smarter? And much more…]]]