The Linkielist

VGA and S-Video output, USB 2.0, FireWire, Ethernet, PCMCIA Type I and II, a CardBus interface for hooking up to GPS or Wi-Fi systems, and a 5.1 audio support.

US Ray Gun II

Posted on January 25, 2007 by Robin

After the sonic ray gun, the US has released and tested its microwave ray gun, which makes people feel like they’re about to ignite at temperatures that can be selected by the operator. It can be carried around on a Humvee or mounted on guard towers.

Maybe the tin-foil hat brigade isn’t that wrong? Allthough they’d do well to stay away from tin-foil hats…

UK Director of Public Prosecutions hits out on totalitarianism

Posted on January 24, 2007 by Robin

Thankfully some people in high political positions are still able to see sense. The DPP is accusing the government of scare mongering and increasing control over the populace with no good reason. He says he fears the downfall of the rule of law, and that the ‘war on terror’ is a construct that doesn’t exist.

Isolate your child’s amniotic stem cells from a placenta

Posted on January 24, 2007 by Robin

OK, who said medicine and cutting edge medical procedures were difficult?
In less effort than it takes to cook a meal, you can freeze your own amniotic stem cells for future use with this exceedingly simple howto (and a strong stomach).

All HD-DVD formats cracked

Posted on January 24, 2007 by Robin

Muslix64 has managed within a month to crack both Blue-Ray andHD-DVD and has released software allowing you to back up these DVDs (for personal use, of course). BackupBluray and BackupHDDVD

UK Police hack into government

Posted on January 23, 2007 by Robin

Showing that the government in the UK is not above the law, Scotland Yard has hacked into government computers following suspicions that the government was not exactly forthcoming with evidence into one of their investigations. It gives me a nice, cuddly feeling, knowing that the two parties get to check up on each other.

Spider Ship Builder

Posted on January 22, 2007 by Robin

Ugo Conti is an old man, which is his excuse for making this thing: he’s at the end of his career and he has nothing to lose if it doesn’t work out.
His concept for a ship is to have flexible legs acting like shock absorbers on small hulls which carry the mass of the ship out of the water, meaning it doesn’t have to go through waves, but slide over them. It can also be used in very shallow water. The prototype is crewed by two and can carry two tonnes of cargo.

Flying Saucer Builder

Posted on January 22, 2007 by Robin

This guy has been approached by NASA to give a talk about how he’s going to build a flying saucer – something the engineers haven’t been able to do yet – by using upwards air pressure between contra rotating rotors.
He’s not an engineer, in fact, he’s a construction worker with a serious can-do attitude. If he can raise another $40K the world will know if his ideas for a full scale version can be realised. Considering the low cost compared to other aerospace projects, I’d say it’s a steal for an investor.

UK building Tri-service defence acadamy

Posted on January 19, 2007 by Robin

The UK are going to consolidate in St. Athan, Wales, and consolidating a wide variety of trainings from 27 different locations in to 1. Not only will that be a whole lot cheaper in terms of manpower required to run the academy and property expenses, but it will also mean that inter-services jointness could become a core cultural value in a large part of defence, which means a whole load more efficiency due to less unhealthy interservice rivalry and more understanding of the other branches.

BASE Jumping Legal in US

Posted on January 19, 2007 by Robin

A NY state judge has ruled that since Jeb Corliss was very aware of the risks involved and attempted to mitigate them as much as possible, his attempt to jump off the Empire State Building was not reckless and endangering behaviour and thus legal.
Of course those namby pamby pussies who get adrenal rushes from watching their garage doors open with a remote control are all up in arms about it, but from me that gets a ‘Top Bloke’ award to that judge.

Stock Market Randomness

Posted on January 19, 2007 by Robin

There’s a test people did a few times where they put different stock names at the end different exits of a maze and let a hamster ‘pick’ his favorite stock. It turns out that the hamster is no worse (and sometimes better) than real life stock brokers, showing how the market is random.

The Sun-Times has a monkey who has been picking stocks from a larger portfolio every year for the past four years and has been doing significantly better than the major indexes:

In the four years since Mr. Monk has chaired and inspired this contest, his stocks have posted annual returns of 37 percent, 36 percent, 3 percent and, in 2006, 36 percent