tech@vedella

"The FCC has finally officially published long-delayed rules prohibiting cable, DSL and wireless internet companies from blocking websites and requiring them to disclose how they slow down or throttle their networks." More at Wired.com, and the Net Neutrality Rules are here (PDF).

UC Berkeley researchers used brain scans of the visual cortex and computational models to reconstruct what the individual is seeing. From UC Berkeley: As yet, the technology can only reconstruct movie clips people have already viewed. However, the breakthrough paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads that no one else sees, such [...]

"Rosie O’Donnell once told me over the Internet that I should change my profile picture. She pretty adamantly was like, 'You’re a pretty girl, why are you doing this? People are gonna wanna hear you less if you have that weird picture that looks like a disabled person.'" Read an interview with Twitter's Megan Amram [...]

Pithiness from Bruce Schneier: "I'm not worried about cyberwar, but I am worried about the proliferation of cyber weapons. Arms races are fundamentally destabilizing, especially when their development can be so easily hidden. I worry about cyberweapons being triggered by accident, cyberweapons getting into the wrong hands and being triggered on purpose, and the inability [...]

My old high school buddy Mitch O'Connell, who used to wow us in art class with his Conan drawings, has a line of products for sale at Retro A-Go-Go, including some cool canvas prints that you can trick people into thinking are original paintings. Mitch O'Connell at Retro-A-Go-Go

According to Amnesty International, an 18-year-old woman was killed in a Syrian prison to pressure her brother, a political activist. Her body had been decapitated, the arms cut off, her skin removed. "If it is confirmed that Zainab was in custody when she died, this would be one of the most disturbing cases of a [...]

Somebody in the Galway, Ireland, coroner's office hasn't been watching Myth Busters. (Thanks, Tim Heffernan!)

This 3D printed bicycle, exhibited at this week's London Design Festival, is claimed to be as strong as steel. It was printed from layers of fused nylon, using a technique more commonly deployed in satellite manufacture. Launched this year by a team of development engineers, the bike is made up of successive layers of fused [...]

This image comes from “Microbiological laboratory hazard of bearded men," a peer-reviewed research paper concerning the risk bearded scientists who work with bacteria and viruses might pose to their families. Published in 1967, the study tested whether bearded men were more likely to accidentally "carry" microbes home with them. You can read the whole study [...]

One of many highlarious jokes making the rounds about those crazy neutrinos traveling faster than light. (Thanks, Ariel Waldman!)

MP3 Download Audio (MP3) PBS NewsHour science correspondent Miles O'Brien and I had a conversation with The Madeleine Brand Show (a Los Angeles-based radio show on which I'm a regular guest), to discuss Miles' recent PBS NewsHour report on the return of wolf hunting to the American West. I traveled with Miles and producer Jenny [...]

Senator John Pastore: “Is there anything connected with the hopes of this accelerator that in any way involves the security of the country?” Physicist Robert Rathburn Wilson: “No sir, I don’t believe so.” Pastore: “Nothing at all?” Wilson: “Nothing at all.” Pastore: “It has no value in that respect?” Wilson: “It has only to do [...]

These three young gentlemen, all 19, were arrested in Covina, California after allegedly shoplifting a 30 pack of beer (Tecate) and then turning their escape into a comedy of crime errors. Employees of the grocery grabbed one of the fellows on his way out. Another crashed his getaway car after an employee jumped on the [...]

Possibly NSFW in parts. Thanks, Jon Hiller! Video Link

Last month, Armando Herrera Corral was wounded when a package delivered to his office at Mexico’s Monterrey Institute of Technology and Higher Education turned out to be a bomb. Nobody knows who sent the package. But someone posted a manifesto online, taking credit for the attack and explaining why they targeted Corral. The terrorists, by [...]

In this widely circulated video from the campaign trail, Massachusetts Senate hopeful Elizabeth Warren, a Democrat, explains the taxation bargain that the state strikes with its citizens: in order to allow entrepreneurs to thrive, the state pays for police (to create stable property relationships), education (to create skilled workforces) and infrastructure (to create the means [...]

Neil sez, You may remember 2 months back when the Troy, Michigan Public Library faced closure due to declining revenue. It was particularly sad given that this libary only recently celebrated its fortieth anniversary. It is home to some amazing letters from some of the most prominent authors and people of the day when it [...]

A DOJ Office of Inspector General report released this week found that DoJ conferences were a source of major waste, with insane catering bills that charged the public $8 for a cup of hotel coffee and $16 per muffin. It'll be interesting to see how different ideologies filter this news: is it proof of government [...]

And NASA has more here on the re-entry of the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite, or UARS, which is expected to return to Earth's atmosphere late Sept. 23 or early Sept. 24 EDT. That's six years after the end what was a productive scientific life. "Although the spacecraft will break into pieces during re-entry, not all [...]

Isn't augmented reality cool? Awesome photoshop work by Ryan Snieder.