Porsche 918 Spyder Gets Official Production Greenlight – “Just in case you’ve forgotten how awesome the 918 Spyder Concept is: it’s a 500-horsepower, 78-mpg, 9,200-rpm 3.4-liter V-8 hybrid all-wheel-drive sports car capable of 3.2-second 0-60 mph, 198 mph top speed, 16-mile all-electric range, and looks to stop traffic cold…”

A GIANT asteroid could be on course to hit Earth – “An international team including NASA experts warned a 560m wide space rock has been discovered heading this way. If it did hit Earth it would blast a crater several miles wide and could devastate a city the size of London, wreaking death and destruction for hundreds of miles in every direction…”

Researcher demonstrates ATM “jackpotting” at Black Hat Conference – “In a city filled with slot machines spilling jackpots, it was a “jackpotted” ATM machine that got the most attention Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference, when researcher Barnaby Jack demonstrated two suave hacks against automated teller machines that allowed him to program them to spew out dozens of crisp bills. The demonstration was greeted with hoots and applause….”

How the Ultimate PC Has Evolved In 15 Years – “As we worked on this years 15th Dream Machine, we couldn’t help but think about how far we’ve come. From the original 200MHz, 8MB-of-RAM 1996 Dream Machine up to this years 12-core, 24-thread, 24-gigs-of-RAM version, the ultimate computer has grown exponentially more powerful. But that’s not much of a shocker (we’ve all heard about Moore’s Law, and all) so we decided to delve deeper into the history of the Dream Machine. We collected data about the vital statistics of each years machine, and made a bunch of graphs showing how they’ve grown. Some of what we found out surprised even us….”

Mighty oil-eating microbes help clean up the Gulf – “Where is all the oil? Nearly two weeks after BP finally capped the biggest oil spill in U.S. history, the oil slicks that once spread across thousands of miles of the Gulf of Mexico have largely disappeared. Nor has much oil washed up on the sandy beaches and marshes along the Louisiana coast. And the small cleanup army in the Gulf has only managed to skim up a tiny fraction of the millions of gallons of oil spilled in the 100 days since the Deepwater Horizon rig went up in flames….”

Inside the Glenn Beck Goldline Scheme

20 Secrets Your Waiter Won’t Tell You

Where Did the Money to Rebuild Iraq Go?

The Cocaine Trade: Who’s Really Bumping Up the Prices?

Perils of the Internet

See if you can explain this…

Model describes universe with no big bang, no beginning, and no end – “By suggesting that mass, time, and length can be converted into one another as the universe evolves, Wun-Yi Shu has proposed a new class of cosmological models that may fit observations of the universe better than the current big bang model. What this means specifically is that the new models might explain the increasing acceleration of the universe without relying on a cosmological constant such as dark energy, as well as solve or eliminate other cosmological dilemmas such as the flatness problem and the horizon problem…” See also: Big Bang Abandoned in New Model of the Universe

DNA tests to reveal secrets of the ‘iceman’ – “German scientists are helping decode the genome of the 5,300-year-old Tyrolean “iceman” Ötzi, which could answer the tantalising question of whether he has living descendants, it was revealed this week….”

SFPD testing electric scooters for cops – “Pedestrians walking down Mission Street Wednesday afternoon seemed startled to see two police officers whizzing up the street in what appeared to be white, combat-style Segway scooters. But no one was more surprised than the suspect they caught up with at Sixth Street….”

Behind the Bright Lights – ” this seven-minute reel highlighted the work required to maintain the Chevrolet sign on Michigan Avenue. In addition to day- and night-time views of the city, the advertising film also provided viewers with a sense of the dangerous work required to maintain the sign as well as short lessons on the mechanics of electric lighting….”

How to Make Blended Coffee Shakes for $0.40 – “Frugal Foodie uses leftover coffee to make next-day homemade coffee shakes. Fill two ice cube trays with leftover black coffee and let freeze. Combine in a blender with two cups of skim milk. (Or sub in your choice of milk, non-dairy creamer, more coffee — even water is fine). Add a tablespoon or two or cocoa powder, sugar, almond extract or other flavorings if desired. Blend at high speed. Mixture should resemble the frozen cappuccinos of a well-known coffee chain, for a fraction of the price….”

HDMI and its stupid labelling requirements – “HDMI cabling is already an area in which confusion drives people to spend more than they need to. But official naming guidelines which ban version numbering make things even more messy…”

‘We Have Learned Nothing from the Genome’ – “In a SPIEGEL interview, genetic scientist Craig Venter discusses the 10 years he spent sequencing the human genome, why we have learned so little from it a decade on and the potential for mass production of artificial life forms that could be used to produce fuels and other resources…”

Is Tesla The Next DeLorean? – “Ever since Tesla Motors was founded in 2003, skeptics have questioned the long-term viability of the cars they sought to create. Electric cars in general have a long history of impracticality, so Tesla’s visions of an electric sports car were easy enough to mock. Yet in spite of all criticism (and after years of unprofitability), Tesla became profitable in July 2009. According to SEC paperwork, the company sold over 900 Tesla Roadsters to customers in 18 countries, generating $126.8 million in revenue by December 31, 2009. Now, the question is: how long will it last? Will Tesla become an enduring force in the automotive world, or just a DeLorean-esque fad?”

Woman’s nude photos exposed by tech support – ” A Sacramento woman says a tech support engineer in India managed to expose her secrets and make charges to her credit card after she called him with a desperate request…”

What NASA means to America:

Adult industry sees iPorn potential in new phone – ” It’s a maxim of technology: Invent the newest gadget and the porn industry will find a way to cash in. So when Apple Inc. launched the iPhone 4 and its FaceTime videoconference feature, it didn’t take long for adult-entertainment companies to develop video-sex chat services and start hiring workers through Craigslist….”

You Are Sexually Attracted to Your Parents, and Yourself – ““People appear to be drawn to others who resemble their kin or themselves,” said psychologist R. Chris Fraley of the University of Illinois, lead author of the study published July 20 in Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin. “It is possible, therefore, as Freud suggested, that incest taboos exist to counter this primitive tendency.””

Could open source tools make Facebook the next AOL? – “Last week, Facebook announced that it had amassed 500 million users, a formidable portion of the global Internet audience. But even as Mark Zuckerberg and company celebrates, others are busy trying to uproot Facebook’s popularity by establishing a set of open standards to share Facebook-like features across the Internet…”

The dead sea: Global warming blamed for 40 per cent decline in the ocean’s phytoplankton – “The microscopic plants that support all life in the oceans are dying off at a dramatic rate, according to a study that has documented for the first time a disturbing and unprecedented change at the base of the marine food web. Scientists have discovered that the phytoplankton of the oceans has declined by about 40 per cent over the past century, with much of the loss occurring since the 1950s. They believe the change is linked with rising sea temperatures and global warming…” See also: Phytoplankton Population Drops 40 Percent Since 1950

NOAA: Past Decade Warmest on Record According to Scientists in 48 Countries – “The 2009 State of the Climate report released today draws on data for 10 key climate indicators that all point to the same finding: the scientific evidence that our world is warming is unmistakable. More than 300 scientists from 160 research groups in 48 countries contributed to the report, which confirms that the past decade was the warmest on record and that the Earth has been growing warmer over the last 50 years…”

Ten key indicators show global warming “undeniable” – “Melting glaciers, more humid air and eight other key indicators show that global warming is undeniable, scientists said on Wednesday, citing a new comprehensive review of the last decade of climate data…” See also: NOAA Has 10 Answers to Allegations That ‘Climategate’ Disproves Warming

[[[Jump to - Interesting Reading #539 – Pentagon Technology Expo, Tattooed LEGOS, Silicon Photonics, Drone problems, New Kindle and much more…]]]