Aug 15
Tags: geneva auto show, hybrid cars, porsche 918, spyder hybrid, v-8
Porsche brought its 918 Spyder supercar to America last night, showing off the amazing car under the glare of bright lights in a hanger at the airport in Monterey, Calif. Today, the 918 is going to run up and down roads around here just to show off its performance, and an amazing throaty purr from its V-8 engine with those side-pipe exhaust tips.
More on USAToday
Aug 12
Tags: Archaeologist, Arsinoe, gold coins, Ptolemy II, Queen Arsinoe II Philadelphus, Tel Kedesh
A rare gold coin dating back 2,200 years was discovered by a combined university research team in Israel, a top Israeli antiquities official said Thursday.
Dr. Donald T. Ariel, head of the Coin Department of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA), said the coin ranked in the top five of the rarest finds in that country’s history.
“Intrinsically, for coin research, it’s a very exciting find,” Ariel told CNN. “This is an amazing numismatic find. The coin is beautiful and in excellent preservation. It is the heaviest gold coin with the highest contemporary value of any coin ever found in an excavation in Israel.”
Ariel said the coin weighs almost one ounce (27.71 grams), while most ancient gold coins weighed about 4.5 grams. It was minted in Alexandria, Egypt, by Ptolemy V and dates to 191 BCE. It is only the second gold Ptolemaic coin ever found in Israel.
More on CNN
Aug 03
Tags: heat wave, NASA, solar flare, solar storm, solar tsunami, space weather, sun fireworks
The solar fireworks at the weekend were recorded by several satellites, including Nasa’s new Solar Dynamics Observatory which watched its shock wave rippling outwards.
Astronomers from all over the world witnessed the huge flare above a giant sunspot the size of the Earth, which they linked to an even larger eruption across the surface of Sun.
The explosion, called a coronal mass ejection, was aimed directly towards Earth, which then sent a “solar tsunami” racing 93 million miles across space.
Images from the SDO hint at a shock wave travelling from the flare into space, the New Scientist reported.
Experts said the wave of supercharged gas will likely reach the Earth on Tuesday, when it will buffet the natural magnetic shield protecting Earth.
Read here
Jan 05
Tags: appliances, samsung, south korea, technology, television, tv set
South Korea’s Samsung Electronics on Monday unveiled what it says is the world’s slimmest LCD (liquid crystal display) TV.
The new product, measuring only 6.5 millimetres (0.26 inch) thick, is thinner than any other existing TV set, and even slimmer than most mobile handsets, Samsung said in a statement.
Its thickness is one seventh of Samsung’s “Bordeaux 850″ LCD TVs, which is currently the thinnest on the market, the company said.
The new product, which adopts an LED (light emitting diode) backlighting system, will be on display at the 2009 Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas from January 8 to 11, Samsung added.
Dec 09
Tags: cryptology center, data center, data mining, facility, NSA
Surrounded by barbwire fencing, the anonymous yet massive building on West Military Drive near San Antonio’s Loop 410 freeway looms mysteriously with no identifying signs of any kind. Surveillance is tight, with security cameras surrounding the under-construction building. Readers are advised not to take any photos unless you care to be detained for at least a 45-minute interrogation by the National Security Agency, as this reporter was.
There’s a strangely blurry line during such an interrogation. After viewing the five photos I’d taken of the NSA’s new Texas Cryptology Center, the NSA officer asked if I would delete them. When I asked if he was ordering me to do so, he said no; he was asking as a personal favor. I declined and was eventually released.
America’s top spy agency has taken over the former Sony microchip plant and is transforming it into a new data-mining headquarters — oddly positioned directly across the street from a 24-hour Walmart — where billions of electronic communications will be sifted in the agency’s mission to identify terrorist threats.
Read More
Jun 30
Tags: global warming, iceberg, melting, news, north pole, polar bear, vanish

DailyTech has previously covered the frantic pace of melt in Greenland, which is accelerating, dumping vast amounts of water into the sea. Meanwhile, the North Pole has been steadily melting away as well. Fortunately, the North Pole ice is floating, and thus will not affect sea levels, but its dissolution is an important indicator of warming.
While some remain critical that global warming is occurring at all, the melting of the North Pole represents a sharp indicator against voices of doubt. Now scientists are predicting that a major milestone will be reached this summer or next — the disappearance of the North Pole’s ice cover during the Arctic Summer.
Full article here.
Jun 22
Tags: auction, ebay, for sale, usher, yahoo news
From Sunday, June 22 for one week, Usher’s life is up for sale on eBay with the package including his $420,000 (US$397,000) three-bedroom house in Perth, Western Australia, a trial for his job at a rug store, his car, motorbike, clothes and even friends.
Usher, 44, told Reuters he had been inundated with emails from all over the world since he put his life up for grabs in March, largely from people supporting him but also from those who were asking for advice on how to change their own lives.
“I was taken aback by how much interest there has been and by the amount of people it has inspired and had an impact on,” said Usher who is hoping to raise up to $500,000 to fund a new life.
Complete story from Yahoo! News
Apr 22
Tags: around the world, continent, country, hawk, staff, walk
Harry Lee McGinnis, better known as “The Hawk,” has seen his fair share of the world. He’s trekked through all 50 states, criss-crossed the Continent, and explored the depths of Asia, Africa, and South America, carrying only a 100-pound backpack and a large steel-tipped walking staff, walking everywhere he goes…
Full Story here..