Prince declares internet 'over'.

"The Internet's completely over. I don't see why I should give my new music to iTunes or anyone else. They won't pay me an advance for it and then they get angry when they can't get it. All these computers and digital gadgets are no good. They just fill your head with numbers and that can't be good for you."

Prince

Attenborough Design Group

The Attenborough Design Group is a fictional organisation, created by James Chambers and Tom Judd. It investigates the use of animal behaviours to defend emerging technologies. These products include the Gesundheit Radio, which sneezes periodically to expel potentially damaging dust, Floppy Legs, a portable floppy disk drive which stands up if it detects liquid nearby, and the AntiTouch Lamp, which sways away from you if you get too close to its sensitive halogen bulb.













Today and Tomorrow

AT-AT day afternoon

AT-AT day afternoon from Patrick Boivin on Vimeo.

Can digital I-Doser sounds mimic the effect of drugs?

For decades, parents, doctors and school administrators have worried about the dangers of drugs. In the digital age, they've got a new arena for concern: Sound waves that, some say, affect the brain like a drug -- and cost only 99 cents on iTunes and Amazon.com .

Many scientific experts say they're unfamiliar with ``digital drugs'' -- sometimes sold under the brand name I-Dosers -- and doubt whether sound patterns could have the same effect as chemical drugs. But some parents -- and at least one Oklahoma school system -- worry that downloading these sounds could be a teen's first step toward physical drugs.

As proof, they point to YouTube, where hundreds of videos -- some of teen ``users'' getting ``high'' -- have been posted. On the I-Doser Facebook page, users recommend tracks with comments such as, ``Last night I did `peyote' and `alter-x' and they really worked.'' The I-Doser free software is the second most downloaded program in the science category on CNET.com , with 6,500 downloads in a single recent week.

Miami Herald

Why FIFA Refuses to Sanction Goal-Line Technology

Technology is everywhere in soccer. From hi-tech fabrics, divot-defying cleats, and dynamic new ball technology, sports firms such as Adidas and Nike are constantly pushing the boundaries for new and innovative products. And the matches you see on TV are the best yet, with FIFA, who owns the television rights, sticking cameras everywhere they can possibly stick them so that TV spectators can enjoy the hits--and misses--from every conceivable angle.

There is, however, one blind spot. And perhaps it is where the game needs it most: on the goal line. And on Sunday morning, at approximately 10.38 EST [Ed: And at least once in every U.S. match], we had glaring proof that FIFA needs to move with the times and start using technology as a fifth pair of eyes. On Saturday the footballing body's secretary general, Jerome Valcke, stated that the next World Cup might well have an extra pair of assistant referees, one behind each goal, "to have more eyes helping [the referee] to make decisions."

Fast Company

A Colossal Fracking Mess

Vanity Fair

The Good Life

"Today the good life means making full use of science and technology — without succumbing to the illusion that they can make us free, reasonable, or even sane. It means seeking peace — without hoping for a world without war. It means cherishing freedom — in the knowledge that it is an interval between anarchy and tyranny."

John Gray

Thanks Melvillian

Gene data for all 'within a decade'

Genetic information will be available to most people in the developed world within 10 years, allowing better treatment and safer prescription of drugs.

Francis Collins, director of the US National Institutes of Health, believes mass genome sequencing of individuals would soon be possible at a cost of less than $1,000 per person.

Telegraph

The Menace of Mechanical Music

"I foresee a marked deterioration in American music and musical taste, an interruption in the musical development of the country, and a host of other injuries to music in its artistic manifestations, by virtue -- or rather by vice -- of the multiplication of the various music-reproducing machines."


John Philip Sousa, "The Menace of Mechanical Music," Appleton's Magazine, Vol. 8 (1906).

New law changes cigarette packaging

Iowa public health experts say new federal regulations will change cigarette packaging.

The Iowa Department of Public Health says starting Tuesday words such as "light," "mild" and "low-tar" will be banned from describing cigarettes on packaging. The department says the regulation was enacted because the terms can "mislead consumers into thinking certain types of cigarettes are safer."

Bonnie Mapes is a director for the department's Tobacco Use Prevention and Control division. Mapes says consumers might notice packaging color and design changes too. She says regardless, "there's just no such thing as a safe cigarette."