Chismillionaire's recipe of the week

Baked Stuffed Gulf Shrimp:

• 16 jumbo shrimp (TIP: You are better off with bigger shrimp then smaller ones. Bigger shrimp has a stronger flavor and this better compliments this recipe. A smaller shrimp will have a mild flavor and not go with the stuffing. Many times I half the recipe and use 8 jumbo's for two people)
• 1/2 c. chopped yellow onions (Do not use Vidalia, as they don't have a strong enough flavor.)
• 1/4 c. very finely chopped celery
• 1/4 c. sherry
• 1/2 tsp. Louisiana Hot
• 1/2 tsp of garlic powder
• 2 dashes of black peper
• 1 tsp. Worcestershire
• 1 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. celery salt
• Pinch of Thyme
• 1 lb. crabmeat or crab boiled sheephead fish. (if you dont' know how to do this, just stick with crab meat.)
• 3 c. fresh bread crumbs
• 1/4 c. mayonnaise
• If you like it spicy, then use 1/4 to 1/3 tsp of red pepper. Otherwise use 1/4 tsp of freshly ground black pepper.
• Non-stick sauté pan with coating of olive or canola oil.

To cut shrimp in a butterfly fashion, take a sharp knife and cut the along the back of the shrimp, leaving on the tail and enough meat on the belly to act as a hinge. Be careful not to cut your hand. Remove the shell, and devein the shrimp. Spread out with cut side facing up in baking dish. Sauté onions and celery for a few minutes until they start to lose their raw texture. Then ad sherry, hot sauce, lemon juice, celery salt, thyme, pepper and crabmeat. Cook on low heat for 15 minutes stirring often. The onions should brown. Also, please do not let this stick as it will ruin the flavor. Mix in crumbs and mayonnaise. Using a spoon, drop mixture on top of shrimp. Sprinkle with butter. Add 1/2 cup water to pan. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in a 350 degrees oven or until stuffing is lightly browned. If the mixture does not brown then use the roaster feature on your oven to give brown the stuffing. Be careful not to burn. For a little extra flavor, sprinkle with a touch of parmesan cheese.

Serve with toasted french bread. ENJOY!!!

Chisblasster's Athletes of the Week

25+ Superb HDR Pics of Grafitti

Fact: HDR pictures are totally cool. HDR makes colors pop-out, they appear really vivid and shiny. And what kinda art uses lots of vivid and shiny colors? That's right, grafitti! And the combination of these two will blow your mind!

read more | digg story

How to win your office NCAA bracket

Picking The Champ

First things first: If you miss on the team that goes all the way, it's going to seriously put a damper on your chances of winning the whole thing. And even if you get hammered in the pool, at least you called the big one.

Tiernan says that 15 of the last 17 champions have possessed six key attributes. Those teams:

• Are seeded 1 through 4
• Come from a Big Six Conference (i.e., Pac 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12, Big 10, Big East)
• Went to the previous year's tournament
• Have a coach who has been to the tourney at least 5 times
• Score more than 77 points per game
• Win by an average of at least 10 points per game over the course of the season

Only 4 teams meet all those conditions:

• North Carolina
• Duke
• Kansas
• Tennessee

General Strategies

• Just pick the higher seed. Most of the time you're right. Depending on how your bracket is set up – some reward picking upsets – your mileage could vary. Also, if you really want to win a big pool, like ESPN's, you have to take more risks.
• Go with your gut. We call this one, "The Decider". Just stare at each pair of teams until you see the truth revealed about which one will win. It's sort of like those 3D stereograms where you if you look at it the right way, you get the illusion of 3D, except in this case, it's actually seeing the fourth dimension.
• Consult a seer. There are several statistical evaluation methods. Tiernan runs statistical regressions looking for team profiles that have done well in the past. Other systems, like Ken Pom's possession-based analysis, and Jeff Sagarin's ratings, have predictive value as well. In particular, they can reveal teams that are underrated relative to their seed, like Wisconsin. To use them, just pick the team with the higher number in the right hand column. Ken Pom calls it the Pythag and Sagarin has the "predictor".
• Pick the fiercer mascot. It is clear that the UCLA's back-to-back Final Fours are due to our mascot, the Bruin (a bear). They've only lost to the Florida Gators, and everyone knows that an alligator would totally beat a bear in a steel cage match.

Pick A Good Coach

There are overachievers and there are underachievers in the coaching ranks, and you don't want to pick the wrong kind.

Here are the top coaches in overperforming their seed expectation.

• Steve Fisher, San Diego State
• John Beilein, Michigan
• Rick Pitino, Louisville
• Billy Donovan, Florida
• Tom Izzo, Michigan State
• John Thompson III, Georgetown
• Ben Howland, UCLA
• Mike Krzyzewski, Duke

We didn't get a full list of the underachievers, but I will say this: watch out for Kansas and North Carolina. Those coaches have been known to win less often than you would expect.

Video

UCLA's Russell Westbrook dunking all over Jamal Boykin. Note the announcer in the YouTube video declaring, "That's called being YouTubed!"

Tips & Tricks

Tip: Teams that come into the tournament winning 8 or more games in a row tend to underachieve. Bad news for: UCLA, North Carolina, Kansas

Tip: The teams that are more frontcourt dominant in terms of scoring overachieve. Good news for: Louisville, Xavier, Stanford

Tip: Over the last 23 years, the Pac 10 has been the worst performing conference. Bad news for: UCLA, Stanford, Washington State, USC, Oregon, Arizona

Tip: Never pick a champion lower than 4 seed. Bad news for: The 48 teams seeded 5-16.

Tip: Never pick a final four contender lower than a 6 seed. Bad news for: the 40 teams seeded 7-16.

Tip: Never pick a bigger upset than a 12 over a 5.

Tip: Never pick a midmajor to the final four. Bad news for: Memphis, and all the other non Big 6 conference teams

Tip: Pick teams that shoot a lot of three pointers. That means someone high up this list.

A power grid smartens up

Benched: A consortium led by Minneapolis-based utility Xcel Energy plans to install 50,000 smart electricity meters in homes and businesses in Boulder, CO, and to upgrade the city’s substations to make its power grid the world's smartest. Xcel bets that improving communication between consumers and power plants will help the city reduce blackouts and use more renewable energy, rather than relying on fossil-fueled plants such as this one. Credit: Xcel Energy

Boulder, CO, should soon boast the world's smartest--and thus most efficient--power grid, thanks to a $100 million project launched last week by Minneapolis-based utility Xcel Energy. The project will equip homes with smart power meters that help people reduce demand when electricity is most expensive. Substations will also use information from the meters to automatically reroute power when problems arise. Among its other benefits, the project should help Boulder residents take better advantage of renewable power sources.

In today's power grids, a steady but essentially blind flow of electricity is all that links power plants, distribution systems, and consumers. Mike Carlson, Xcel's chief information officer, says that Boulder will test how much more reliable, cleaner, and cheaper grid operation can be when each element communicates with the others. If the benefits prove as great as Xcel expects, Carlson says, the Boulder experiment could unleash rapid investment in "smart grids." The equipment is ready, Carlson says. "We're not talking the Jetsons or Star Wars here. If we can get the right standards and the right incentives and the right financial structures, it's viable technology today."

Rob Pratt, who runs the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory's GridWise program, agrees that Xcel's project should--if fully implemented--provide the best test to date of smart-grid benefits because it will make Boulder the "densest concentration" of smart-grid technologies. "You can't have one smart-grid customer in Boulder and two over in Fort Collins and a few dozen in Denver, and have it mean as much as having all those people on one street," says Pratt. "Here we're talking about a whole city, which would be amazing."

Carlson says that Xcel chose Boulder for its relatively isolated electrical distribution system and its population of roughly 120,000 (including students). Xcel plans to install 50,000 new smart meters serving about 100,000 of those residents, a large enough pool that the company can experiment with different approaches. It could, for example, deploy meters from different vendors, which send information in different ways: either wirelessly, or over the power lines themselves. The company could also experiment with sending different signals to the meters to try to influence consumer demand. (See "Gadgets to Spur Energy Conservation.")

One scheme that Xcel plans to test is a way to make better use of renewable energy. On today's grid, intermittent sources of renewable power--such as wind--must be backed up by more conventional fossil-fueled or nuclear power stations. "Xcel's leading the country right now in wind power--we have almost 3,000 megawatts on our system and plan to double that--but we have a consumer base that doesn't modify its habits when that wind isn't blowing," says Carlson.

Instead of trying to store renewable energy for when it's needed--a pricey proposition--Carlson thinks that the smart grid may be able to "store" demand for when the wind happens to blow. Xcel plans to send signals when the wind is up, and some consumers will be able to program their smart meters to, say, activate their dishwashers or heating panels in response. "If the system could signal wind availability--or any renewable energy source, for that matter--would we see an adjustment of consumption? We think yes," says Carlson.

The technology that toppled Spitzer

Poetic justice: Former New York governor Eliot Spitzer’s intimate knowledge of the tools used to foil organized crime didn't keep him from running afoul of his own bank's anti-money-laundering software. Credit: U.S. State Department

If there is a lesson from former New York governor Eliot Spitzer's scandal-driven fall (aside from the most obvious one), it is this: banks are paying attention to even the smallest of your transactions.

For this we can thank modern software, and post-9/11 U.S. government pressure to find evidence of money laundering and terrorist financing. Experts say that all major banks, and even most small ones, are running so-called anti-money-laundering software, which combs through as many as 50 million transactions a day looking for anything out of the ordinary.

In Spitzer's case, according to newspaper reports, it was three wire transfers amounting to just $5,000 apiece that set alarm bells ringing. It helped that he was a prominent political figure. But even the most mundane activities of ordinary citizens are given the same initial scrutiny.

"All the big banks have these software systems," says Pete Balint, a cofounder of the Dominion Advisory Group, which helps banks develop strategies for combatting money laundering and fraud. "Depending on their volume, they might have thousands of alerts a month."

Most of the systems follow fairly simple rules, looking for anomalies that trigger heightened scrutiny. Software company Metavante says that its software, for example, contains more than 70 "best-practice" rules, covering a wide variety of transaction types ranging from cash deposits to insurance purchases. The simplest rules might flag large cash transactions, or multiple transactions in a single day.

In Spitzer's case, the three separate $5,000 wire-transfer payments reported by the Wall Street Journal would likely have triggered one of the most obvious of these rules, without any recourse to more advanced capabilities.

Banks are constantly on the lookout for activity that seems to be an effort to break up large, clearly suspicious transactions into smaller ones that might fly under the radar, a practice called structuring. Spitzer's transactions almost certainly fit that profile, says Dave DeMartino, a Metavante vice president. Newspaper reports have identified New York's North Fork Bank, owned by Capitol One, as Spitzer's personal bank. A spokeswoman for the bank declined to identify which, if any, anti-money-laundering software the institution uses.

But banks, and law enforcement, are also looking for things that they can't predict and thus can't write rules for.

"If you're just writing scenarios, you aren't going to find things that you didn't know about," says Michael Recce, chief scientist for Fortent, another prominent vendor of anti-money-laundering systems. "About 60 percent of the things our customers find are things they knew about. The rest are things they didn't know about."

The simplest way to identify the unexpected is by contrast to the routine. A person who deposits just two paychecks a month for two years might be flagged if he suddenly deposits six large checks in two weeks, for example.

But software packages also group customers and accounts into related "profiles" or "peer groups," in order to establish more-general behavioral baselines. Some software might group together all personal checking accounts with an average balance of less than $15,000, or merchant accounts with turnover of less than $100,000 per month. Some might go deeper, grouping together all business accounts specifically tied to dry cleaners or consulting firms.

The most sophisticated software packages can sort people or accounts into several categories at once: a single customer might be compared to other schoolteachers; to people who bank mostly at a single regional branch; and to people who have stable, pension-based monthly incomes, for example.

Each category is analyzed to determine patterns of ordinary behavior. Every single transaction by customers in these groups, and even patterns of transactions stretching back as far as a year, are then scrutinized for evidence of deviation from this norm using measures such as the number, size, or frequency of transactions, among others.

420 girl of the day: Trisha Uptown

This summary is not available. Please click here to view the post.

Beijing Olympics face another problem in run-up to the games _ too many squat toilets

Squat Toilets

The Beijing Olympics are being hit with another problem, at least by Western standards: too many squat toilets.

Beijing organizers have held more than 30 tests events, and the presence of squat toilets at many of the new and renovated venues has drawn frequent complaints. The issue came up again over the weekend when the San Diego Padres played the Los Angeles Dodgers at the new Olympic baseball venue. The portable toilets trucked in were the squat variety, the style used widely in Asia.

"We have asked the venues to improve on this, to increase the number to sit-down toilets," Yao Hui, deputy director of venue management for the Beijing organizers, said Wednesday. "Many people have raised the question of toilets."

Yao suggested it would be difficult to change every permanent toilet in the 37 venues, 31 of which are in Beijing. So he said the focus would be on satisfying three groups of visitors: athletes, journalists and the Olympic family, meaning primarily VIPs.

He said renovation was underway at the three most striking venues for the Olympics, the 91,000-seat "Bird's Nest" National Stadium, the "Water Cube" and the National Indoor Stadium. He said most of the toilets there "should be" the sit-down style.

Beijing is expecting about 500,000 foreigners to attend the Aug. 8-24 games.

"Most of the Chinese people are used to the squat toilet, but nowadays more and more people demand sit-down toilets," Yao said. "However, it will take some time for this transition."

Beijing is reported to be spending at least US$40 billion (€25.5 billion) on the venues and related infrastructure, all designed to feature a modern country that has grown in three decades to a political and economic powerhouse.

"I believe the Olympic games will be a great opportunity for us to speed up this transition," Yao added. "I believe the situation will get better and better."

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Watch Mario Kart Wii played with and without Wii Wheel

More than a month out from the release of Mario Kart Wii, MTV's Stephen Totilo was allowed to take the game for a (literal) spin, first employing the accompanying wheel accessory and then playing without. You can see the differences between the two with the aid of the above video and the sans wheel clip. . .

read more | digg story

Cool Stuff: Indiana Jones Artist Sketch Cards

The 90-card series will span the most memorable scenes from the original Indiana Jones trilogy with retro-inspired branding and packaging . While this is pretty cool by itself, that’s not exactly what caught my attention. It was the inclusion of Sketch cards…

read more | digg story

Stealthy Stars and Stripes

A pair of specially painted F-117 Nighthawks fly off from their last refueling by the Ohio National Guard's 121st Air Refueling Wing. Photographer: USAF Senior Master Sgt. Kim Frey Kim Frey, 121st Air Refueling Wing

read more | digg story

Mitsubishi’s new blu-ray player

Posted by Alex on 19th, 2008

Mitsubishi has just unveiled 2 new blu-ray players, sleek and stylish. The DVR-BZ200 with 500GB of internal HDD (which can deliver up to 880 hours of recording time) and the DVR-BZ100 with 250GB of internal HDD, support, obviously, AVC codec, but also AVCREC which allows you to record AVC to DVD (way cheaper than Blu-Ray discs).

But the 2 things that caught my eye and that set the new Mitsubishi blu-ray player apart from it’s competitors are the cool, slick mirror finish and the touchscreen remote controller which has a color display and flexible softkeys tailored for specific functions.

All in all this new blu-ray player promises to be great but, like all cool gadgets, it’s only for the Japan market (for now I hope).

Stoners Lack A Truly Great Movie About Weed

Hollywood has a general dislike for marijuana. Since 1969 they have failed to make a quality movie about the drug. Other drugs such as cocaine, alcohol and heroin seem to have many 'award winners.' Why not weed? Here are the 13 things necessary for Hollywood to make such a legendary movie about Mary Jane.

read more | digg story

Best Business Card of all Time

In case you can’t read the image, it says:

USED CARS — LAND — WHISKEY — MANURE — NAILS FLY SWATTERS — RACING FORMS — BONGOS ENTERPRISES, Un-Ltd. W. W. GREEN, President
Wars Fought	Stud Service
Revolutions Started	Tigers Tamed
Assassinations Plotted	Bars Emptied
Governments Run	Computers Verified
Uprisings Quelled	Orgies Organized

I found this business card in an old book that I bought at a book sale. So I never met the person who made the card, and the mystery behind the business card remains intact. How many uncreative (boring) business cards have you seen in your life? This business card illustrates that a little bit of creativity can go a long way towards sticking in someone’s mind.

Nothing like a good Business Card:

Crop Advertising [pics]

These cropped lands looks interesting and very creative. If you have your own company you can think about that to advertise and promote it on this way, crop advertising. Check out the photos of those crop circles advertising which were taken from the sky.

read more | digg story

Suzuki S-Ride: a car that thinks it's a motorcycle

The Suzuki S-Ride features the kind of seating arrangement you'd see in a fighter jet: one person up front, one person in back. Who knows if this concept will ever be a reality. The S-Ride is aimed at a young crowd to whom the excitement of a motorcycle would appeal, but with the safety of a car. Check out the gallery for more pictures.

read more | digg story

I see Treehouse in it's future

is it 2-D or 3-D

Saints Rise Again with ‘Boondock’ Sequel

I am a very happy, happy movie fan today.

Troy Duffy, genius-to-be who was lost in the carnage that is Hollywood, as well as the writer/director of The Boondock Saints, has posted a video officially announcing the sequel that the entire cult following has been clawing and scratching for like Britney Spears at a “Free Crack Samples” stand — The Boondock Saints: All Saints Day.

There’s a documentary called Overnight that shows the story of Duffy and his band/friends/family as they blow up on the scene, selling Boondock and getting a record contract — followed by the seemingly immediate crash and burn as he tried too hard to make it all happen his way with some big wigs that just don’t take too kindly to being pushed. Anyone who has seen this movie will indeed worry about this sequel announcement and how it is ACTUALLY going. If Duffy has learned his lessons, I expect that it will go fine and we will see this play out… if he’s stuck with old habits, don’t go crazy just yet!

We’ll always wonder what the first movie would have been if it went as well as it looked like it was going to go; if Troy Duffy was to become the next huge thing, the next Tarantino, if they would have had all the budget and time they wanted… but would you really want it any different than it is now? Sure it’s got flaws and you can tell where budget and some better supporting cast could have helped, but the main characters and the way it all played out was some hard, rugged brilliance that this movie fan will always adore. I’m sure I’m not alone there.

As per the announcement, All Saints Day has been picked up by Sony Pictures Studios and is looking to start shooting this summer.

Fingers crossed that this happens as spoken!

Stay tuned kids.

Russia's 'Rambo' dies after shoot-out with police

A heavily armed recluse nicknamed Russia's Rambo of the Forest has been gunned down in a shoot-out with police.Alexander Bichkov, had lived a semi-feral existence in the woods for 20 years, terrorising locals and the police if they ventured near him.A giant at 6ft 7in with a wild straggly beard, the man lived in an old shack and self-made camps.

read more | digg story

Skysail Completes 12,000 Mile Journey and Proves Concept

Deployment of the 160 square-meter towing kite offset up to 20% of the engine’s power (and carbon emissions), saving an initial $1000 per day in fuel costs.

read more | digg story

Old China to German Drunks: 4 Anti-Cold Cocktails That Work

Here are four field-tested cold remedies -- including all-natural, over-the-counter, and drug-based -- that can help you prevent and get rid of colds.

read more | digg story

7 (More!) Abandoned Wonders of America [+PICS]

Ever see an impressive derelict structure and wonder just what itshistory is? Many abandonments across America are more historicallysignificant than most people realize, such as the home of the firstautomobile production line or the largest beer brewery in the US. FromAlaska to Virginia, here are seven more amazing abandonments ofAmerica.

read more | digg story

Rainbow iceberg in the Antarctic

While most icebergs are white due to tiny bubbles trapped inside, which scatter the light in every direction, some pick up a multitude of colours due to various natural phenomena.

read more | digg story

Google Code University - Free Training from Google

Want to learn how to program? Develop in mySQL? Enhance your skills as a developer or programmer or just learn the lingo. Tutorials, lecture slides, and problem sets for a variety of topic areas including AJAX, Distributed Systems, Web Security, Languages and a ton of other great classes - at no cost!

read more | digg story

MJ's Neverland

Everyone knows the Neverland Ranch, will be up for sale/auction.

here are some pics of the park

http://www.flickr.com/photos/tunnelbug/sets/72157603558879859/#afhurl

SL to join AMG's Black Series Lineuip

By GREG KABLE

If you had any doubts that Mercedes-Benz intends to boost the sporting credentials of its facelifted SL roadster, you don't have to go any further than its upcoming SL65 AMG Black Series.

The two-seater is set to make its world debut at the German Grand Prix in July. Based on the SL65 AMG, the latest of AMG's Black Series models follows the route taken by the SLK55 AMG and CLK63 Black Series cars, with major changes to the mechanical package and bodywork--all aimed at boosting performance to a level that promises to see it challenge the 650-hp, supercharged 5.4-liter V8-powered McLaren-built SLR 722.

Details of the new Black Series car are scarce, though insiders indicate it gets a series of lightweight carbon-fiber panels and a fixed roof that brings additional rigidity to the body structure. Under the hood lurks a reworked version of the SL65 AMG's twin-turbocharged 6.0-liter V12 engine, tuned to deliver in the vicinity of 680 hp.

"We could have easily got 720 hp without any significant modifications. In the end, though, we decided to dial it back," said an insider privy to the new car's development.

Separately, Mercedes-Benz's AMG division is planning to add twin turbochargers to its 6.2-liter V8. However, the new development is not about raising power, according to well-placed AMG insiders. Rather, the addition of turbochargers will accompany the introduction of direct injection, helping to boost efficiency and lower fuel consumption.

"There will be a slight increase in power, but really it's all about creating optimal conditions for the introduction of direct injection," a source said.

Fast Lane Daily

2000th Blog Post: a Special Van Damme Edition

iPhone Users Are Having More Fun

Stacey Higginbotham, Tuesday, March 18, 2008 at 9:45 AM PT Comments (16)

New data from M:Metrics for the month of January confirms that folks who own an iPhone tend to do more entertaining things on their devices — such as watch video and visit social networks — than those who own smartphones. However February data from mobile ad network AdMob points out that iPhone users are still a relatively small part of the overall mobile phone market in the U.S. Good thing, otherwise we’d never get anything done.

Saudi 11-year-old marries 10-year-old cousin

An 11-year-old boy has married his 10-year-old cousin in the ultra-conservative Muslim kingdom of Saudi Arabia, a newspaper reported on Tuesday.
Mohammed al-Rashidi and his unidentified cousin will seal the marriage they contracted under the sharia laws of Islam and move in together after a ceremony to take place in the summer, Al-Shams newspaper said.
"I am ready for this marriage. It will help me study better," Mohammed, who goes to primary school in the northern province of Hail, was quoted as saying by Al-Shams.
"I invite all my classmates to do like me," the boy said, adding that he wanted to "crown a love story through marriage".
The schoolboy's father, Muraizak al-Rashidi, told the newspaper he was busy sending out invitations for a summer celebration to seal the marriage.
Dahim al-Jaber, the headmaster at Mohammed's school, said marriage at such a young age was "inappropriate" but wished the couple a happy life together.

Source: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=080318145753.uldhthai&show_article=1

Faces of Meth

Click on one of the pictures to see the toll meth has on it's users. Some are quite shocking.This stuff is no good!!

read more | digg story

18 Billion Suns : Biggest Black Hole in Universe Discovered

The biggest black hole in the universe weighs in with a respectable mass of 18 billion Suns, and is about the size of an entire galaxy.

read more | digg story

Vista SP1 officially released

Looks like all those rumors yesterday were true -- Microsoft has just posted up the official standalone version of Vista SP1

read more | digg story

Three minute Anthrax screen

Living sensors: At the heart of a new system for detecting airborne bioterror agents is a CD-size disc with 16 chambers at its perimeter. Particles from the air are collected in the chambers, where they’re exposed to immune cells with antibodies specific to particular agents. If the target agents are present, the cells emit blue light. The light in this image is a simulation; light emitted by cells in the chambers is too faint to be picked up by conventional photography, but it is picked up by light meters in the device. Credit: MIT Lincoln Laboratory

A sensor system that can rapidly detect six potential airborne bioterror agents, including anthrax, is now on the market. The detector relies on living immune-system cells genetically engineered to emit light when exposed to a particular contaminant. From sampling the air to getting a readout from the cells, the detection process takes only three minutes. The company selling the sensor, Innovative Biosensors, of Rockville, MD, is marketing it for use in airports and other buildings, including laboratories where research on dangerous pathogens is performed.

Time is of the essence when detecting bioterror agents. Bacteria like anthrax are infective within two to three minutes of exposure, so the faster a building can be evacuated and the agent contained, the better. "We're harnessing the fastest pathogen identification system there is," says James Harper, a researcher at MIT Lincoln Laboratory, where the technology was developed by Todd Rider beginning in the late 1990s. "In the body, B cells bind to pathogens and respond in a second," says Harper.

The mouse B cells at the heart of the Lincoln Lab detection system can be engineered to detect any agent for which an antibody exists. But the six agents that Innovative Biosensors is initially targeting are the smallpox virus, the toxins botulinum and ricin, anthrax, and two other bacteria. The B cells are loaded into pockets in a disc the size of a CD. These discs in turn are loaded into a one-cubic-foot detector containing fans, an imaging system, and a computer processor.

When the detector is turned on, fans suck air into it. Particles in the air are collected in 16 chambers at the perimeter of the disc. Then the disc is spun at high speed to release the cells from their pockets and transport them to the collected particles. If the agent the cells are designed to detect is present, they emit blue light. The detector uses software to analyze light levels from the disc's chambers to determine whether a bioterror agent is present. The raw data about light peaks and reaction kinetics is complex, says Lincoln Lab researcher Joseph Lacirignola, but algorithms process it to arrive at a yes or no answer.

The system can run 16 tests simultaneously, one in each chamber of the disc. Harper says that when at least two chambers are devoted to each pathogen, there are no false positives. The Lincoln Lab system can detect anthrax and other agents at concentrations as low as 10 individual particles per 30 liters of air. Each disc can be used only once.

The Innovative Biosensors detector can automatically load a fresh disc after taking a reading, but it need not run continually. It comes packaged with another, less accurate detection device, also developed at Lincoln Lab. This device uses ultraviolet light and triggers the cell-based system if it detects a potential biomolecule.

EW.com:George Lucas on 'Star Wars,' Indiana Jones

From the Jedi master himself, scoop on ''Clone Wars,'' the live-action TV series, and the saga's never-ending future. Plus: some Indy dish

read more | digg story

Cool Stuff: The Alamo Drafthouse - Best Movie Theater EVER

"We've been to The Coolidge Corner Theatre in Boston, the Castro in San Francisco, The Arclight in Los Angeles, and even the new Mark Cuban owned Landmark. The Alamo Drafthouse theater is by far the best movie theater we’ve ever been to. It’s the type of movie theater that makes us wish we lived in Texas, and here’s why…"

read more | digg story

1:1 Scale Remote-Controlled Hummer H3

Hummer has converted the new right-hand drive H3 into the ultimate gadget for grown ups: a life sized remote controlled car that definitely won't be available in your local toyshop.

read more | digg story

Boycotting Korean Goods May Stop 1000's of Dogs Being Eaten

It is estimated that around 2 to 3 million dogs are killed and eaten in Korea each year. All well and good, you might think. Unfortunately not. Those laws are nominal only and are almost never enforced.

read more | digg story

Wire Your Living Room Over Wi-Fi with a Bridge

When your Wi-Fi access point is in the home office but your TiVo, Xbox, and media center are screaming for network love under your TV in the living room, you want a wireless bridge (also called an Ethernet converter.) A wireless bridge catches your home network's Wi-Fi signal and provides ports where you can plug in wired devices near it.

read more | digg story

Green for a Day: Chicago does St. Patrick's

Honda Releasing Two New Hybrids Next Year

Written by Hank Green

Monday, 17 March 2008

Honda is finally learning from its mistakes and they'll be building a couple of dedicated hybrids for the U.S. market in 2009. Honda started out a bit before their time with the Insight, a dedicated hybrid that, unfortunately, no one wanted because it was slow and only had two seats. Then they decided, instead, to just make hybrid versions of their Accord and Civic. Unfortunately, poeple wanted a hybrid that everyone could recognize as a hybrid, and only the Prius was delivering a "yes that is definitely a hybrid, I don't have to look at the placard on the back" experience. So Honda is busting out two dedicated hybrids that will, finally, challenge the Prius as the only widely-selling dedicated hybrid model out there. One of the cars will definitely be based on the concept CR-Z (pictured), a sporty little two-seater that will likely be very fast and efficient. Frankly, this is the one I'm going to want. The other will be unveiled this year at the Paris auto show. I assume it will be small, likely quite similar to the Fit. But it will certainly be roomier and more practical than the CR-Z. Unfortunately for me, the cars will be released first in Europe and then later (2010) in the United States and possibly other markets. These two vehicles, in my opinion, are going to beat the Prius for efficiency. And they'll need to do it cheap if Honda wants to meet its goal of selling 500,000 hybrid vehicles by 2011. Via Left Lane News

10 Most Ridiculous Mascots In This Year’s NCAA Tournament

"The following teams are sure shots to make it to the Sweet 16 because their opponents will spend more time laughing at their lame mascots then actually playing the game of basketball."

read more | digg story

Awesome Pics Of Ice & Snow-Scapes By 1 Of Great Photogs

Pics by Jame Balog, leading nature-science photog whose stuff is in mags, museums all over world. Some of the pics are genuinely beautiful. [Pics can be enlarged, & manipulated in multiple directions.]

read more | digg story

Snacks In Space: Inside Space Shuttle Endeavour's Kitchen

This Website Will Read Out Loud Any Text You Upload

ReadTheWords is a free, web based service that assists people with written material. We do this by using TTS Technology, or Text To Speech Technology. Users of our service can generate a clear sounding audio file from almost any written material. We generate a voice that reads the words out loud, that you request us to read.

read more | digg story

6 American Made 35 MPG Cars That Americans Can't Buy [pics]

Six of these fuel-efficient cars and SUVs score 35 miles per gallon (MPG) combined (not just highway). Every one of these is built here in North America and exported abroad. Americans can't buy them. Why not?

read more | digg story

Subaru Unleashes R1e Electric Car on New York

Benjamin Jones

ABG recently reported on the fact that the new Subaru R1e has recently been spotted tooling around the streets in New York City as part of an official trial in the US, which is an extension of the 40 (soon to be 100) car trial currently taking placing in Japan.

In light of this new development, I thought it would be prudent to show off some of the most exciting features of theR1e, beginning with the fact that it is an all electric version of a production car made by major manufacturers to be affordable and useful to average citizens (though these needs might be a bit different depending on the market).

It’s exciting enough in and of itself to see a major initiative from a major manufacturer (yeah yeah, the Volt, sure), but this car is pretty sweet on its own.

More after the break!

The test is taking place in Kanagawa Prefecture, where Subaru plans to set up 150 of its “fast charge stations” to complement predicted sales of 5k+ EVs in the next five years. These fast charge stations are different from normal outlets and can deliver an 80% charge to the R1e in just 15 minutes! At home the 40 kW lithium-ion pack requires 8 hours for a full charge.

The R1e’s lithium pack is good for 50 miles at up to 65 MPH, with its most impressive feature being a 10 year or 124,000 mile lifetime expectancy. This issue has troubled hybrids and EVs in the past, so this kind of durability guarantee is certainly exciting to see in a production vehicle.

For those of you who don’t know, the Subaru R1 is a small car that is well known in Japan and perhaps perfectly suited for EV conversion. It might be a little smaller than the norm in the US market, but we’re seeing more and more talk about importing these kei-class cars to the US so by the time it happens it might not be as revolutionary as it seems.

I’ll be looking forward to more news, for sure.

Aw-Aw-AWESOME Scene As Astronauts Assemble Dextre the Robot!

NASA Astronauts Rick Linnehan and Mike Foreman participate in the mission's second scheduled session of extravehicular activity (EVA) on 15/16 March 2008. During the 7-hour, 8-minute spacewalk they assembled the stick-figure-shaped Dextre, also known as the Special Purpose Dextrous Manipulator (SPDM), a task that included attaching its two arms.

read more | digg story

7 Pampered Celebrities and their Ridiculous Demands

Everyone knows rock and roll is about thrills and excess—we just didn’t realize that spirit was supposed to extend to the greenroom buffet. The following are seven very pampered acts that made sure their laundry list of demands got tacked onto their contracts.

read more | digg story

World’s Largest 38,500-meal Solar Kitchen in India

India is well-known for delicious food, and the kitchen is considered to be a sacred place in any Indian home. And now India has something else to be proud of: the world’s largest solar kitchen.

read more | digg story

Regrowing Limbs: Can People Regenerate Body Parts?

Humans have long wondered how the salamander pulls off this feat. How does the regrowing part of the limb “know” how much limb is missing and needs to be replaced? Biologists are closing in on the answers to those questions. And if we can understand how the regeneration process works in nature, we hope to be able to trigger it in people.

read more | digg story

Always......Stand by your President

Big Dog

The Most Advanced Quadruped Robot on Earth
BigDog is the alpha male of the Boston Dynamics family of robots. It is a quadruped robot that walks, runs, and climbs on rough terrain and carries heavy loads. BigDog is powered by a gasoline engine that drives a hydraulic actuation system. BigDog's legs are articulated like an animal’s, and have compliant elements that absorb shock and recycle energy from one step to the next. BigDog is the size of a large dog or small mule, measuring 1 meter long, 0.7 meters tall and 75 kg weight.

BigDog has an on-board computer that controls locomotion, servos the legs and handles a wide variety of sensors. BigDog’s control system manages the dynamics of its behavior to keep it balanced, steer, navigate, and regulate energetics as conditions vary. Sensors for locomotion include joint position, joint force, ground contact, ground load, a laser gyroscope, and a stereo vision system. Other sensors focus on the internal state of BigDog, monitoring the hydraulic pressure, oil temperature, engine temperature, rpm, battery charge and others.

So far, BigDog has trotted at 3.3 mph, climbed a 35 degree slope and carried a 120 lb load.

BigDog is being developed by Boston Dynamics with help from Foster Miller, the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and the Harvard University Concord Field Station.Development is funded by the DARPA Defense Sciences Office.


http://www.bostondynamics.com/content/sec.php?section=BigDog

Candy-Flavored Cocaine New Trend, DEA Says

What would Tony Montana think about this? Its PINK

Vintage Ads ... Modern Products? [PICS]

Cool contest from Worth1000 ... some awesome results so far!

read more | digg story

Lost Boys: The Tribe

• MTV
• Music Videos
• MTV Shows
• Entertainment News

Nissan Qashqai

Making of





final video