The Rigged-Up Net

Label could put stop to fruit squeezing A label that changes colour as fruit ripens is allowing shoppers to see whether pears are ready to eat without have to squeeze them.

Ice cream maker promises two scoops (plus) to your taste Brandy espresso, pie crust, chocolate cashews — or dulce de leche, ginger candy, spumoni? Mike Mandell of the Reinhold Ice Cream Co. says no matter what your flavor is, he’ll make it and ship it.

Ok, this a great idea… about 10 years ago I had GTE-Mobile service in Houston which did the same thing – Forward your mobile phone to your home number while you were at home. I loved it, I did’t have to dash for my phone when I left it in another room when it rang… […]

Alaska Ice Hotel Controversy Heats Up The state fire marshal has put a freeze on construction of an ice hotel near Fairbanks, but the man behind the subarctic architecture is still chipping away.

FCC to Look at Phone Firms’ Use of Internet to Carry Calls The telecommunications industry, eager to find a route around a 100-year-old regulatory regime, has turned to a new path: the Internet.

Apartment Glut Forces Owners to Cut Rents in Much of U.S. Renting an apartment in much of the country these days can feel a little like waking up on your birthday.

Woman Knocked Unconscious While Shopping A mob of shoppers rushing for a sale on DVD players trampled the first woman in line and knocked her unconscious as they scrambled for the shelves at a Wal-Mart Supercenter.

Post to MovableType or Typepad from FeedDemon In the FeedDemon newsgroup Jakub Kazecki shared how to post to MovableType directly from FeedDemon RSS Reader, as shown below. See also Glenn Slaven’s post for posting to Typepad from FeedDemon. FeedDemon 1.0 RC2 is also now available. See today’s post for links and details.

Essential Spanish Phrases – According to Posh (Reuters) Reuters – England captain David Beckham’s pop star wife Victoria says she is settling down in Spain and learning the local language after is transfer to Spanish champions Real Madrid.

Tattoo Removal Becoming More Common (AP) At 23, Alexandra Baker figures it’s time to get rid of the spider on her ankle. The tattoo was inked on in college — one of seven on her body. But Baker’s outlook has changed somewhat. The spider is something to hide rather than exhibit. So it’s coming off, […]

Scholars of Twang Track All the ‘Y’Alls’ in Texas (The New York Times) A National Geographic Society survey of Texas speech is helping to throw a scientific light on the mythologized (and sometimes ridiculed) Texas twang.

New DVD Format Approved Toshiba Corp. and NEC Corp. said Friday that the DVD Forum, an international association of electronics makers and movie studios, has approved the two Japanese companies’ standard for next-generation DVDs.

Many Women at Risk of Being Murdered Don’t Know It Nearly one half of women who are about to experience an attempt on their lives at the hands of a boyfriend or husband may not realize they are in danger, new research reports

Comdex: Best of the Worst Comdex sucked. There, we said it. It’s not like this is news, either. What is news, however, is why it sucked: the show was even emptier than last year. Gone are the days when you could crane your neck down the aisles and see banners advertising the crème de la […]

North American flu epidemic spreading The flu epidemic is continuing to spread across North America, with the first child to die in Canada this season being reported in Ontario on Friday.

Turkeys May Not Be Stupid After All (AP) An Oregon State University poultry scientist thinks turkeys are getting a bum rap. While they may not be the sharpest arrows in the quiver, Tom Savage, a professor of Animal Science, said the big birds aren’t really dumb.

Spray-on female contraceptive to start trial The world’s first trial of a female contraceptive spray will begin in Australia early in 2004. The approach involves a new technique for transferring hormones across the skin and a novel low-dose contraceptive hormone.

Stephen King hospitalized with pneumonia Stephen King was expected to remain in a Maine hospital on Thanksgiving as he recovers from pneumonia, a spokesman said.

Orgasmatron inventor seeks female volunteers Women who cannot have orgasms can now have a device implanted in their spines that will trigger the sensation for them. Clinical trials of the “orgasmatron” have begun in the US, with the approval of the Food and Drug Administration.

Wild Turkeys Turning Up in New York City Alex Calota saw it strutting near his hot dog cart about five months ago. It was a wild turkey — in Manhattan.

The World’s No.1 Science & Technology News Service A small company in London, UK, claims to have developed a technique that overturns scientific dogma and could revolutionise medicine. It says it can turn ordinary blood into cells capable of regenerating damaged or diseased tissues. This could transform the treatment of everything from heart disease to […]

Less pesticide means more bugs for food buyers Sure, it’s scary to find poisonous black widow spiders on store-bought grapes. But food safety specialists and growers say it’s less frightening than the alternative: a return to harsher pesticides.

Enable 30-second skip on your Tivo… originally I thought you had to turn on Backdoors first, but evidentlaly that’s changed with the 4.x software. http://www.weaknees.com/30/

EscapeCellHell.org EscapeCellHell.org is a project of Consumers Union. Our goal is to increase the power of consumers and improve service and options in the wireless phone market. States and the federal government have seen a marked increase in wireless complaints in the past few years, yet there are no baseline customer safeguards. By fighting for […]

We call it the Pumar. RvB viewer Edwin A. showed us this picture of a Peugeot concept car. Now I know what you’re thinking — “Peugeot still makes cars?” But take a close look at the design. Look familiar? They even named it “The Hoggar” which I think is French for “M12 Light Reconnaissance Vehicle”. […]

This is too too funny. The iPod’s dirty secret # Frustrated that Apple wants to charge him $255 to replace the dead battery in his 18-month old iPod, one guy has decided to strike back with a guerrilla marketing campaign of his own — he’s been stencilling the words “iPods Unreplaceable Battery Lasts Only 18 […]

College professors ponder the “Matrix” philosophy Long after The Matrix Revolutions morphs itself off the big screen, the eternal battle of reality versus illusion, fate versus free will and good versus evil will rage on in philosophy classrooms everywhere.

2003 worst ever year for HIV, says UN report The highest ever number of new HIV infections and deaths around the world was recorded in 2003, reveals a new UN report.

Why Do We Care About Paris Hilton? Before you answer this article’s titular question with, “but dude, I don’t!”, realize two things. One, you are reading this article, which might just prove that you do, in fact, care. And two, Paris Hilton is pretty hot, which probably explains reason number one.

This cracks me up… L.A. County Bans Use Of “Master/Slave” Term SlashChick writes “In an interesting twist on political correctness, LA County has banned the use of the terms ‘Master/Slave’ (commonly used to denote hard drive arrangements.) According to Snopes.com, ‘someone within the County bureaucracy… had taken offense at “master/slave” references and complained to the […]

New IE may burst pop-up bubble Pop-up advertisements have thrived for years despite numerous efforts to eradicate them, but now online marketers are seriously wondering whether the Web’s most detested ad format is about to meet its match: Microsoft.

Boeing fires CFO over ethics The Boeing Co. said Monday it has fired Mike Sears, the chief financial officer, “as a result of circumstances surrounding the hiring of Darleen Druyun, a former U.S. government official.”

Mackey named Entrepreneur of the Year John Mackey, chairman, president and CEO of Austin-based Whole Foods Market Inc., has been named the overall national Entrepreneur of the Year by professional services firm Ernst & Young LLP.

Elderly cockroaches become doddery with age Cockroaches that survive into old age become decidedly doddery. Their joints seize up, causing them to slow down and the insects have trouble walking up hills.

NoMarriage.com Marriage turns to crap no matter what you do. At best it’s a tedious bore. At worst a living hell with financial ruin thrown in for good measure. (Thanks Chris)

The memory upgrade is complete, and now I’m running with 32mb of RAM in my tivo: Memory Statistics: total: used: free: shared: buffers: cached: Mem: 30826496 30302208 524288 80424960 8728576 6164480 Swap: 67104768 0 67104768 MemTotal: 30104 kB MemFree: 512 kB MemShared: 78540 kB Buffers: 8524 kB Cached: 6020 kB SwapTotal: 65532 kB SwapFree: 65532 […]

House passes antispam bill The U.S. House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to approve antispam legislation that could end more than six years of failed attempts to create a federal law restricting unsolicited commercial e-mail.

Muting Meddling Microwaves Scientists Create Microwave Oven That’s Wireless-Friendly Have you ever noticed how sometimes your kitchen microwave oven zaps more than last night’s leftovers?

Valley firms ditch desks to cut costs Freeing workers from their cubicles has been touted for at least two decades as a way to cut corporate real estate costs. Now, spurred by the sluggish economy and new technology, some of Silicon Valley’s biggest firms seem to be taking the advice seriously.