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Lifehacker
Vodafone just launched the Blackberry Storm on their site (HUGE BOMBSHELL ANNOUNCEMENT), complete with a 3D image that offers a full view of the phone and a link to the Storm's spec sheet. Other than that, not a whole lot new here, just seems to (more or less) confirm what we already suspected. [Vodafone]
When I see images of Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation, whatever glumness I might have felt during the day disappears, and that Beatle-esque Lenny Kravitz song of a similar name starts playing in my head. If I had the chance to check out Munro's light installation, coming to Project Eden in Cornwall, England on November 1, I would totally wander through the fields—slowly, slowly through the fields, in fact—touching the acrylic globes that float at the ends of 6,000 fiberoptically united tubes.
Following the apparent success of SeaGen, a small deployment of tidal turbines of the coast of Northern Ireland, Scottish Power is seeking approval for plans to build two farms of 20 30-metre, err, watermills promising a steady power supply for up to 40,000 homes. As with the previous example of tidal power generation, the most obvious problems have been pretty much addressed: fish, seals, and cryptozoological specimens (probably) won't be harmed by the slow-spinning blades, and shipping routes won't be affected on account of the depth of the deployment. Scottish Power claims that the project should be completed in about three years. Click the above image for a explanatory video. [BBC via CleanTechnica]
It looks as thought the UKs Ministry of Defence is about to come down hard on the person responsible for leaving a USB drive loaded with troop movements on the floor of "The Beach" nightclub in Newquay, Cornwall. The drive was picked up by a random clubgoer who promptly turned it over to the most responsible party he could think of—a national newspaper. The MoD is currently investigating the incident but the fact is that more than 120 sensitive USB drives have been lost by the MoD since 2004—so it seems to me that the most appropriate course of action here is to stop putting classified data on USB drives and handing it to idiots. [BBC]
Actually, it's more like set to "ouch": a UK government report has revealed the police are testing out non-lethal weapons. These include low-powered lasers which hit a miscreant's skin and burn off the outer layer, "leaving them in agony, but with no permanent damage," which sounds lovely doesn't it?
There you have it folks. The real inspiration for Apple's game-changing iPod, courtesy of the world's unluckiest Briton, Kane Kramer, 52 (not including the fifth Beatle). You see, in the dark technological days of 1979, Kramer saw a beacon of light in his IXI. Capable of playing a mind-busting 3.5 minutes of music, the IXI prototype was Kramer's ticket out of obscurity. Sadly, when he couldn't raise enough venture funding to renew the IXI patent in 1988, the device became the Zune of its time, and was largely forgotten. Fast forward to the present, when Apple, fresh from making year-over-year record profits with the iPod, needed Kramer something fierce to bail them out of a lawsuit jam with Burst.com.
The 50-foot robot spider known as "La Princesse" has awakened from hibernation to explore the streets of Liverpool. This £1.5m beast is supposed to aid tourism and spur the local economy—which will just mean that La Princesse has more goodies to eat. We're not quite sure what strange marching bands and snow have to do with taming giant arthropods on a rampage, but we're not ones to judge the miracles of science. [BBC]
Commuters at Liverpool's Lime Street station need only to glance at a nearby office block to bear witness to their impending doom. What they will see is a 50-foot, 40 ton spider that currently lies dormant, but it is set to "come alive" on Friday. Apparently, the spider is a component in an elaborate bit of street theatre that will take place at various landmarks throughout the city—culminating in a "spectacular finish" on Sunday.
We alerted you to Nokia's plans for an unlimited, free (at first) music service way back in December: Now it looks like the first place to benefit from free tunes is the UK, starting next month. The Nokia 5310 will be the first handset to Come with Music, but there's no word on when Nokia will be bringing it to the US. [The Guardian via Moconews]
The U.K. is looking to clean up its streets with a knife amnesty program, so you can imagine their surprise when a Klingon, er, excuse me, a Klingon fan, turned in a replica Bat'leth over the weekend. The 5-foot blade startled law enforcement officials, who were hoping the program would see youths turning in knives, blades and other more puny (but no less dangerous) weapons. "It is a particularly nasty weapon that can, literally, take someone's head off. We are very glad it is off the streets and we want more weapons handed in," said a Gloucester police spokesperson. To which we say "maybe," but only if it's being wielded by one Lt. Commander Worf. Plus, um, it's a replica. If you want real knives we've covered a few here in the past. [Daily Mail via Boing Boing]
The 50-foot robot spider known as "La Princesse" has awakened from hibernation to explore the streets of Liverpool. This £1.5m beast is supposed to aid tourism and spur the local economy—which will just mean that La Princesse has more goodies to eat. We're not quite sure what strange marching bands and snow have to do with taming giant arthropods on a rampage, but we're not ones to judge the miracles of science. [