The end on anonymity: Battle.net Update: Upcoming Changes to the Forums – “The official forums have always been a great place to discuss the latest info on our games, offer ideas and suggestions, and share experiences with other players — however, the forums have also earned a reputation as a place where flame wars, trolling, and other unpleasantness run wild. Removing the veil of anonymity typical to online dialogue will contribute to a more positive forum environment, promote constructive conversations, and connect the Blizzard community in ways they haven’t been connected before. With this change, you’ll see blue posters (i.e. Blizzard employees) posting by their real first and last names on our forums as well….”

All they have to do is fit it inside a AA package: New ultra-battery is the most powerful non-nuclear energy storage ever – “New ultra-battery is the most powerful non-nuclear energy storage everWhat do you get when you combine some xenon, some fluoride, and pressures similar to those found at the center of the Earth? You get an ultra-battery, capable of storing more condensed energy than any other battery ever built…”

Your next car will squeal on you: Intelligent cars will report accidents to authorities – “Intelligent cars fitted with aircraft-style black boxes that can send video footage and information about driving behaviour during accidents to the police and insurance companies are being developed by computer scientists…”

A better iPad: Pressure-sensitive drawing headed to iPad in free software library – “”The iPad’s IPS panel is pressure-sensitive, you say?” No, that’s not quite right, but with some clever software and a special capacitive stylus, the folks at Ten One Design built a convincing proof of concept anyhow…”

This phone is more powerful than my netbook: Samsung Galaxy S Deux: A Dual-Core iPhone 4 Killer? – “Specs wise we see Android 3.0 Gingerbread running on a 2GHz (Dual Core) processor, with 1GB RAM, 32GB storage, 4GB ROM, 8-megapixel camera with 1080p Full HD video and a gyroscope just like the iPhone 4…”

If the shoe fits: Motorised Shoes Could Win Dyson Vacuum’s Big Award (And Our Hearts) – “I’ve seen kids zooming about on Heeleys, but Treadways’ motorised shoes are firmly for Adult Use Only. The designer has entered them into the annual James Dyson Awards, and if successful could be put on the market. No more walking!”

Foot fetish: Why men are attracted to women with small feet – “Which face is more attractive? If you chose the face on the left, you share the tastes of most heterosexual men. It is a composite face, or “morph”, made from the faces of eight women with unusually small feet. The face on the right is a morph of eight women with unusually large feet…”

Say it ain’t so: NASA’s new mission: Building ties to Muslim world – “”When I became the NASA administrator, [Obama] charged me with three things,” NASA head Charles Bolden said in a recent interview with the Middle Eastern news network al-Jazeera. “One, he wanted me to help re-inspire children to want to get into science and math; he wanted me to expand our international relationships; and third, and perhaps foremost, he wanted me to find a way to reach out to the Muslim world and engage much more with dominantly Muslim nations to help them feel good about their historic contribution to science, math, and engineering.”"

If you build it they will come: Thanks to Android, HTC sales go through the roof – “Within the span of just a couple years, HTC has gone from an obscure Taiwanese phone maker no one had ever heard of, to one of the biggest names in the mobile industry. It was the manufacturer behind the very first Android phone, the G1. Since then it has created some of the biggest-selling Android devices on the market, including the Droid Incredible and the Evo 4G….”

Note from captain obvious: Teens more productive when school starts later – “Teenagers. They’re surly, lazy and moody — and it may not be entirely their fault. It turns out that starting the school day just 30 minutes later in the morning might help teenagers be more productive and decrease the chances of them oversleeping on weekends…”

PS: A downside to high teen self-esteem? – “Today’s youths have been praised so much that some flail at their first taste of criticism or failure, experts say…”

Cheaters never prosper: eBay fraudster fined £5,000 – “A man who bid against himself on auction site eBay to artificially drive up prices has been fined almost £5,000 (approx $7,500), the first to be convicted of such a scam in UK…”

Cheaters never prosper part 2: Facebook is divorce lawyers’ new best friend – “Forgot to de-friend your wife on Facebook while posting vacation shots of your mistress? Her divorce lawyer will be thrilled….”

Cheaters never prosper part 3: To Stop Cheats, Colleges Learn Their Trickery – “The frontier in the battle to defeat student cheating may be here at the testing center of the University of Central Florida. No gum is allowed during an exam: chewing could disguise a student’s speaking into a hands-free cellphone to an accomplice outside… “

The sound of particle music: What the Higgs ‘harmonic signatures’ may sound like – “Researchers have simulated the sound of the Higgs Boson and other sub-atomic collisions in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC)….”

The bone yard: World’s biggest dinosaur graveyard found in Alberta: scientists – “Scientists in northern Alberta say they’ve uncovered the largest dinosaur graveyard in the world and unlocked the mystery of why so many fossils are found in the province…”

Supercharged sports cars:

Reconceptualizing user interfaces: Slurp digital eyedropper sucks up, injects information wirelessly (video) – “In what’s easily one of the most jaw-dropping demonstrations of the year, this here digital eyedropper is a fanciful new concept that could certainly grow some legs if implemented properly in the market place…”

Do they need a Mt. Rushmore? The 10 Founding Fathers of the Web – “While the phrase “founding fathers” is often used in conjunction with men like Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jefferson and George Washington, we wanted the think about the phrase on the global level. And what is more global than the world wide web? Thus, this holiday, we’re taking a look at 10 individuals who have been instrumental in helping to shape the world wide web and the culture of the Internet as we know it today….”

Perhaps they used some of these: The Most Important Algorithms

A forest in a box: Forest for the Trees: An Endless Forest in the City – “DUS Architects made it possible to take a break from the concrete jungle and get back to nature with its uniquely wonderful project called Unlimited Urban Woods…”

With the touch of a finger: Biometric ATM gives cash via ‘finger vein’ scan – “Poland’s cooperative BPS bank says it’s the first in Europe to install a biometric ATM — allowing customers to withdraw cash simply with the touch of a fingertip. The digit-scanning ATM, introduced in the Polish capital of Warsaw, runs on the latest in “finger vein” technology — an authentication system developed by Japanese tech giant Hitachi…”

Public displays of affection: A Multi-Layered Display with Water Drops (w/ Video) – “AquaLux 3D, a new projection technology developed at Carnegie Mellon University’s Robotics Institute, can target light onto and between individual water droplets, enabling text, video and other moving or still images to be displayed on multiple layers of falling water…”

Pay to play: Clay Shirky: ‘Paywall will underperform – the numbers don’t add up’ – “The internet guru on the death of newspapers, why paywall will fail and how the internet has brought out our creativity – and generosity…”

Bad news from the oil spill:

Why didn’t they think of this before? HDMI could soon be replaced by new cable technology – “A new audio/video cable techology is being developed that might spell the end of HDMI cables, which are currently used to connect a wide range of audio and video devices. The new technology is known as HDBaseT and carries audio and video signals and power on standard Cat 5e/6 Ethernet cables…”

A few tiny grains: Hayabusa capsule particles may be from asteroid – “A canister recovered from the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid and return to Earth, contains dust particles, say Japanese scientists….”

Meanwhile, in the Middle East:

Dalrymple’s Glum Forecast on Afghanistan – “Writing in the New Statesman, British historian William Dalrymple offers a disturbing take on the current prospects for the U.S.-led NATO operations in Afghanistan…”

By Hook and By Crook: Israel’s Settlement Policy in the West Bank – “Some half a million Israelis are now living over the Green Line: more than 300,000 in 121 settlements and about one hundred outposts, which control 42 percent of the land area of the West Bank, and the rest in twelve neighborhoods that Israel established on land it annexed to the Jerusalem Municipality. The report analyzes the means employed by Israel to gain control of land for building the settlements…”

Does Israel Make Us Safer? – “Israel just announced it has loosened Gaza blockade rules to allow in consumer goods and Turkey is demanding an apology for the flotilla raid. As Obama and Netanyahu await tomorrow’s meeting, historian Thaddeus Russell argues that it’s time to ask if the country makes Americans safer—even if the answer makes everyone very uncomfortable…”

Human rights activist tries to stop death by stoning for Iranian woman – “Ashtiani, 42, will be buried up to her chest, according to an Amnesty International report citing the Iranian penal code. The stones that will be hurled at her will be large enough to cause pain but not so large as to kill her immediately…”

[[[Jump to - Interesting Reading #524 – Survive on less sleep, Robots crossing continents, Minority Report Interface and much more…]]]