Hear this...

Freebie of the day - Dry Cleaner's Secret

Orbital Resort
We'll leave the sun on for you.

"CSS Skywalker, an orbital hotel designed by Bigelow Aerospace, will consist of a 22x45 foot inflatable space habitat that can be easily configured for its guests. In the configuration shown below, the top level is set aside as a lounge; the middle level provides space for sleeping guests. The bottom level holds bathrooms and sleeping areas. " They will charge around $1 million a night. Book your vacation now.

"The success of the X Prize pointed the way toward a potential solution: Bigelow decided to launch his own competition. America’s Space Prize will award $50 million for the first privately funded spacecraft that can send five people into orbit and dock with a Bigelow Aerospace habitat. The deadline is January 10, 2010, the date Bigelow wants his hotel to open.

"The prospects for orbital tourism look good. Already two tourists have paid $20 million each for weeklong vacations on the ISS. At $7.9 million, Bigelow’s tickets will be a relative bargain. At that price, says Eric Anderson, whose company, Space Adventures, brokered the $20-million flights, Bigelow could see 20 to 30 customers a year. But Bigelow says he’ll offer his station to any commercial enterprise that’s interested. He hopes to find a market among drug companies and other manufacturers who want to take advantage of the increased efficiencies afforded by microgravity, as well as researchers and Hollywood producers eager to shoot movies, TV shows and commercials in space. " Entire story here

Mouse with Human Ear
Inner Ear
"The doc is helping researchers fine tune the technology that will let them regrow ears and noses for people. It was a plastic surgeon from the Children's Hospital who suggested growing ears on mice. Dr. Joe Upton sees kids born without ears or boys who have had their ears chewed off in playground fights. He can't sew them back on cuz they've been so badly chewed. " Chewed off in playground fights?!? Who they playing with...Mike Tyson? Linky
Can you hear me, now?

Buzzworthy

Freebie of the day - Cuervo T-shirt (just register and get a free t-shirt, I got mine in today took about 2 weeks)

Bugs Bunny is Going to be Buzz Bunny?
Extreme Makeover
Bugs Bunny and his pals are being updated for the future way in the future. The WB network will take the famed Looney Tunes characters as models for a new children's series, "Loonatics," that will air on Saturday mornings starting this fall. The characters' descendants Buzz Bunny and the like will be superhero action figures for the cartoon set in the year 2772.
Link to this loony story
Buzz Bunny?!? What's next, we discover life on Mars?

XBOX is Smoking
Microsoft is replacing XBOX power cables (apparently a defect in the cords is a fire hazard and gave some users minor burns and scorched carpets - story link) for free if your XBOX was manufactured before October 23, 2003. You just need to provide your serial number and date of manufacturing.
Link to the order form

Guides

Freebie of the day - Mr. Clean Magic Eraser Duo

Optimize Windows XP Guide - Nice collection of utilities; improve and secure your winXP
NTFS Perfomance Hacks Guide - stupd introduction but the meat of the article delivers..some interesting things like use FAT32 for your paging file
"Format the new volume using FAT32 instead of NTFS, since FAT32 gives slightly better read performance on smaller volumes. "
Diagnoising Bad Memory Guide - pretty much a beginner's guide
Creating the Ultimate Unattended XP CD Guide - Breaks it up into beginner's, intermediate, advanced; easy to follow
Also check out Tom's Hardware Guide

If you got time to kill, check out the list of top 100 sites by traffic (click on 'site info' to see individual traffic of sites) ... spyware progs must be doing something right - gator is #15, mywebsearch was #43; maybe when IE7 is released they'll move down the list

Paranoia

Freebie of the day - Day-Glo product samples

Copy-Proof DVDs
Macrovision today announced a new anticopy technology to protect DVD discs against ripping. The company said that they have made a format-based technology that uses a unique digital framework per title which should make it almost impossible for users to illegally rip a DVD movie.

"We've done a lot of research on the market share of rippers. We think we've got more data than anyone else in the world on this. And we know that RipGuard DVD is effective today against 97 percent of the rippers in use in the market."

The company also claims that the RipGuard DVD technology does not affect the video nor audio quality of the movies. This was confirmed by a report of THX, a provider of quality assurance services for the entertainment industry.
Link

Machine that Predicts the Future?
"The machine apparently sensed the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre four hours before they happened - but in the fevered mood of conspiracy theories of the time, the claims were swiftly knocked back by sceptics. But last December, it also appeared to forewarn of the Asian tsunami just before the deep sea earthquake that precipitated the epic tragedy. "

"'It's Earth-shattering stuff,' says Dr Roger Nelson, emeritus researcher at Princeton University in the United States, who is heading the research project behind the 'black box' phenomenon. "
Link
Man get that machine to spit out tonight's lotto numbers.

Fingerprinting Movie Files
"Researchers at Royal Philips Electronics are developing new "fingerprinting" technology that could automatically identify and block transmission of digital-video files, potentially handing movie studios a new weapon in its war on peer-to-peer networks.
The technique would be similar to technology already being used to track and prevent copying of music files on some university networks. Philips' audio fingerprinting technology is central to Napster founder Shawn Fanning's new company Snocap, which aims to turn file-swapping networks into digital-song stores. "
Link

National ID Cards
"A recent vote in Congress endorsing standardized, electronically readable driver's licenses has raised fears about whether the proposal would usher in what amounts to a national ID card. "

"The congressional maneuvering takes place as governments are growing more interested in implanting technology in ID cards to make them smarter and more secure. The U.S. State Department soon will begin issuing passports with radio frequency identification, or RFID, chips embedded in them, and Virginia may become the first state to glue RFID tags into all its driver's licenses. "
Link

Water balloons

Freebie of the day - Free Chick Fil A

In case, anyone's interested there's a study going on Indiana University for condom research. It's a 30 day study in which they'll mail you 6 pack condoms five times throughout the study. At the completion, you either get $50 gift certificate or 50 custom fitted condoms or 144 flavored condoms. Link
Man those would've made for a great water balloon fight when I was younger...
Get 'er Wet
now I'll just have to use them for other activities. . .


Water balloon slingshots?
It's For Real!
"Slingking water balloon slingshots have been the leader in outdoor water fun since 1988. We offer the highest quality materials and the best guarantee in the business. "
If you feel the urge to splurge, here's where you can get it - slingking.com
I don't know what's sadder - that people above 12 still have water balloon fights or that the soldiers in Iraq actually use these 'slingking' water balloon slingshots.
I guess they gotta make mud somehow...mud wrestling is just too much fun!