LOTD for March 31

Hopefully the Conflicker worm will not cause too much damage tomorrow…if anyone is worried, they can try to boot their computer in safe mode. If the computer is allowed to boot in safe mode, you are okay…if your computer is infected, it prevents the safe mode from being used:
http://tech.yahoo.com/blogs/null/132464

Honda has developed a robot that is controlled by human thoughts:
http://www.physorg.com/news157703000.html

The West Virginia chemical plant that had an explosion which killed two employees is trying to limit how much information the public can get about how hazardous their chemicals are:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/us/29chemical.html?_r=2&scp=4&sq=hamill&st=cse

This airplane engine washing system saves water, makes airplanes more fuel efficient, increases the life of the engines, saves time, and reduces carbon emissions as compared to current systems:
Article link

Cyber crime was up about 30% last year, 2/3 of the world’s cyber criminals located in the US and 93% of cyber victims located in the US. Men are victimized more often than women (55% of the time) and men lose more money when victimized:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/30/internet-cyber-crime

Google is starting its own VC fund and has committed $100 million to it in its first year:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123847964976273011.html

China may be able to use their ICBMs to destroy aircraft carriers almost anywhere in the Pacific Ocean:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/china-turning-m.html

M/A-COM claims in its lawsuit that the system it built for New York worked as contracted:
http://urgentcomm.com/policy_and_law/news/tyco-ma-com-new-york-lawsuit-20090331/

Ericsson is using multi-carrier MIMO technology and 16 QAM to push HSPA speeds to 56 Mbps:
Press release

ZTE claims the world’s first SDR-based HSPA+ Commercial network:
http://web20.telecomtv.com/pages/?newsid=44728&id=e9381817-0593-417a-8639-c4c53e2a2a10&view=news

Despite the tough economy last year and all the publicized layoffs, the high tech industry actually added 77,000 jobs in 2008. I am very surprised by the numbers:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/03/31/US_tech_industry_gained_jobs_in_2008_1.html?source=NLC-GOV&cgd=2009-03-31

CBS is doing very well in the ratings, but their stock is tanking…one of their problems is that 65% of their revenue is tied to the auto industry!
http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/les-is-less-cbs-falls-17-on-downgrade/

Woman who is 8-months pregnant was arrested for drunk driving, her second drunk driving arrest since January and third in a year!
http://www.indystar.com/article/20090330/LOCAL/90330042

A collection of the strangest sights found in Google Street Views:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/161392/strangest_sights_in_google_street_views.html

LOTD for March 30

ONR-funded UAV is powered by fuel cells and can fly for 24 hours with a 5-pound payload. It is also stealthy due to its small size, reduced noise, low heat signature, and zero emissions:
http://www.nrl.navy.mil/pressRelease.php?Y=2009&R=31-09r

Soldier helmet (turning combat helmets into wireless sensor networks) developed that can locate the 3-D location of enemy shooters and even identify the caliber and type of weapon they are using:
http://www.vanderbilt.edu/exploration/text/index.php?action=view_section&id=1484&story_id=366&images=

New device for first responders pinpoints the location (within a few feet) of people inside burning buildings or other structures where there is an emergency;
http://www.pittsburghlive.com/x/pittsburghtrib/news/cityregion/s_618345.html

Researchers are studying houses made from straw that could allow for cheaper homes that are more earthquake safe for low-income residents of other countries:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7677

The first wideband, high fidelity metamaterial invisibility cloak was demonstrated today:
Article link

One US soldier was blinded and others have been hospitalized by laser friendly fire incidents:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/dont-lase-me-br.html

Satellite imagery shows us quite a bit of detail about how North Korea prepared its missile-launching site:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/sat-tracks-kore.html

Those worries from 2 years ago that China might be infiltrating government and commercial networks to spy? It looks like they had good reason to worry. The office of the Dalai Lama asaked the University of Toronto to check its computer for signs of malware, and they found a big spying operation that has infiltrated at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries! The malware can even turn on the camera and audio-recording functions of the infected computer, letting people in China see and hear what goes on in the room the computer is in:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/29/technology/29spy.html?_r=2&hp=&pagewanted=all

The Supreme Court is hearing a case of a 13-year-old girl who was strip-searched at her Middle School because officials thought that she was trying to sneak a bottle of Ibuprophen into school. The student had never broken a school rule and had never gotten into trouble, but the Middle School still says that the strip-search was justified:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/robertxcringely/archives/2009/03/strip_searches.html?source=NLC-NOTES&cgd=2009-03-30

Pres. Obama just signed a landmark land and water conservation bill:
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSTRE52T72S20090330?feedType=RSS&feedName=topNews

Skype is coming to the iPhone and BlackBerry:
http://www.reuters.com/article/internetNews/idUSTRE52T0H620090330?pageNumber=1&virtualBrandChannel=0&sp=true

AT&T forbids Skype from using the iPhone’s 3G data network, but the iPhone and iTouch can use it via WiFi. iTouch users will need to buy a microphone (or a headphone with built-in microphones) to make calls via Skype:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123836849558067525.html

G1 users can place Skype calls over T-Mobile’s 3G data network, one big advantage for Android over iPhone users:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/162179/sneak_peek_at_skype_for_iphone_available_tuesday.html

Red-light cameras and speed cameras are being increasingly used, but a free iPhone application is one of the ways that drivers are trying to defeat those measures:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123811365190053401.html

Some Ohio people had pink water coming out of their faucets because an equipment malfunction led to a chemical overload:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29956325/

I wonder how Tom Brady’s ex felt when she read this interview…not only did Brady marry a supermodel, the supermodel says that feels that the baby Brady had with her ex is also the supermodel’s child:
http://www.nypost.com/seven/03302009/news/nationalnews/bridget_who__stepma_gisele_says_toms_tot_162002.htm

LOTD for March 29

Students at this Chicago-area High School have been giving up 1 convenience each month in a year-long experiment in simplicity–they actually gave up their cell phones this month and will be giving up the Internet in April!
http://www.annistonstar.com/lifestyle/2009/as-family-0329-ltutorcol-9c28w1237.htm

Women apparently have been holding bachelorette parties in gay bars so that they don’t have to worry about straight men approaching them. However, the passage of Prop 8 made some people sensitive about having others celebrate upcoming weddings in their bars, and some gay bars have started banning bachelorette parties until same-sex marriages are allowed:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-trice-23-mar23,0,1502612.column

Italian doctor suffered a heart attack while performing brain surgery, but insisted on finishing the surgery before he was treated:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7960768.stm

It is hard for me to believe that 25% of young women polled would rather win America’s Next Top Model instead of a Nobel Prize! Half of the 18- to 24-year-olds would marry an ugly man if he was a multimillionaire:
http://in.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idINTRE52N5O920090324?feedType=RSS&feedName=oddlyEnoughNews

Teenage boy in the UK painted a 60-foot picture of a male organ on the roof of his home to see if it could be seen with Google Earth. He was caught a year later when a helicopter pilot told his Dad what was painted on the roof:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/5041848/Teenager-paints-60ft-phallus-on-roof-of-family-home.html

LOTD March 28

Scary thought–maybe we don’t need to worry about global warming because Yellowstone is due for an eruption that could extinguish human life on Earth? Yellowstone has erupted every 600,000 years or so and it has been 640,000 years since its last eruption:
http://www.theweek.com/article/index/94425/Keeping_a_wary_eye_on_volcanoes

LiveScience disputes media reports about how a spider bite enabled a paralyzed man to walk again:
http://www.livescience.com/strangenews/090324-bad-spider-bite.html

Study of a male chimp in a zoo shows that an animal can plan for future events:
http://www.world-science.net/othernews/090310_chimp.htm

Study found that rising temperatures increase the risk of severe headaches. Every 5 Celsius increase meant a 7.5% increase in ER visits for headaches:
http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2009/03/09/headaches-weather.html

Interesting study found that certain types of exercise (like cold water swimming) can actually result in weight gain due to a craving for high-fat foods, while other exercises actually reduce the desire to eat:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/feb/22/diet-exercise-appetite

Children whose fathers are over 50 have lower IQ scores, with IQ declining the more their father was over 50. Children from older mothers do not have this IQ decrease:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/10/health/10dads.html

Some men may suffer from “hair blindness”, which prevents them from noticing right away any changes to their wives/girlfriends hairstyle:
http://style.uk.msn.com/beauty/article.aspx?cp-documentid=15020318

British nightclub boss wrote a letter to police denying that drug use was widely used at her club…and police found that her letter was covered in cocaine!
http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Drug_denial_letter_covered_in_drugs&in_article_id=584844&in_page_id=2

Judge rules that New Zealand court papers can be served via Facebook, which was earlier approved in a case in Australia:
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10561970

Lawsuit filed against the tiny Texas town of Tenaha for stopping African-Americans driving through the town and seizing their money and property by threatening them with criminal prosecution. All plaintiffs were driving rented cars or had out-of-state license plates and officials searched their cars, asked if they had any money, and coerced into giving up cash, cell phones, and other property. Current Texas law doesn’t require a person to be convicted of a crime or even charged with one before police can take their assets…Louisiana had a loophole like that and had to close it in 1997 when it was abused by police. This may be a way that police in Texas are making up for shrinking budgets:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-texas-profiling11-2009mar11,0,507135.story

LOTD for March 27

Tesla showed off its all-electric mid-sized sedan, with models that can go 160 miles between charges and 300 miles between charges:
Article linke

South Africa has been among the world’s leaders in UAVs and a forecast predicts that the global UAV market is $62 billion over the next 10 years. Unfortunately, the US, UK, Israel and some other countries have poured much more R&D money into UAVs and South Africa is being left behind:
http://www.engineeringnews.co.za/article/wheels-within-wheels-2009-03-27

The Air Force has decided to block all access at their bases to the Pentagon’s TroopTube website:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/air-force-were.html

The Android-based HTC Magic (also called the G2 phone) will be for T-Mobile:
http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/27/htc.magic.at.fcc.for.t.mob/

It appears that Verizon will be offering netbooks at a subsidized $99 price (that is what AT&T sells netbooks at), provided the customer signs a 2-year agreement for a data plan for the netbook:
http://www.thestreet.com/story/10477582/1/tech-rumor-of-the-day-verizon-netbooks.html

http://news.cnet.com/8301-17938_105-10205524-1.html

Ever wonder what the contestants on Dancing with the Stars make? A lawsuit got the information out:
http://www.tmz.com/2009/03/27/shawn-johnson-cores-big-with-dwts-contract/

LOTD for March 26

Article wondering if the US is actually at war with Pakistan, with military operations carried out with UAVs:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/is-the-us-at-ro.html

These tiny sensors only cost a quarter and can detect intruders within 165 feet!
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-03/afot-iat032609.php

Research has found that a quick x-ray snapshot of a person’s knee is a very reliable way to identify them, and this biometric technique is much more resistant to spoofing because it is hard to spoof the inside of a knee like they do with artificial fingerprints or contact lenses:
Article link

China has made a HUGE investment in nanotechnology…this could be a huge market for them and a huge loss for US industry:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/mar/26/nanotechnology-china

Robot developers are trying to get a team of robots to be good enough to beat the best human soccer teams:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/SPORT/football/03/25/robot.football/index.html?eref=rss_latest

Israeli aircraft (with US logistical and intelligence support) destroyed an Iranian arms convoy in Sudan, where Iran had intended the arms to resupply Hamas forces in Gaza:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7659

Scientists debate how to deflect asteroids if they are going to hit the Earth:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7655

A patent from ITT’s defense side has resulted in ITT suing Verizon and their handset makers for violating their assisted GPS patent:
http://www.totaltele.com/View.aspx?ID=444289&t=2&en=1

Cable company Cox Communications was one of the few big cable companies to not invest in Clearwire and they won their own 700 MHz spectrum, and Cox plans to roll out 3G service and soon upgrade to LTE. The combination of 3G/4G for cell phones and cable TV/internet would create a very attractive bundle for Cox:
http://www.lightreading.com/document.asp?doc_id=174237&site=cdn&

Huawei won the Cox contract and they are a finalist with Clearwire. I thought that Motorola had the inside track due to their past relationship with Sprint and Clearwire–if Motorola is beaten out with Clearwire, they will have clearly lost the WiMAX equipment market:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123800643930740485.html

Motorola had its “best year in history” in 2008…if you don’t count their cellular phone division:
http://urgentcomm.com/networks_and_systems/commentary/motorola-2008-best-year-history-20090326/

Russians apparently do not like the iPhone and the poor sales has prompted Russian carriers to demand their contracts with Apple be renegotiated:
http://www.rethink-wireless.com/index.asp?article_id=1190

The BlackBerry App World will apparently launch on April 1 and they are courting developers by taking a much smaller piece of the sales price (20% vs. Apple’s 30%):
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_14/b4125074162794.htm

New York man is accused of stashing his dead 98-year-old mother in a freezer so that he could continue to cash her Social Security checks:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29885938/

I think that it is really sad that Hawaii’s governor is going to use Obama’s stimulus money for education in order to balance the budget. Even worse, the stimulus money is supposed to be used over a 2-year period and she will use just about all of it up right away to close a $90 million hole in this year’s budget. That means that there will be almost no stimulus money next fiscal year and a even bigger deficit since the money was stolen from education instead of actually trying to balance the budget:
http://www.honoluluadvertiser.com/article/20090326/NEWS07/903260346/1001

LOTD for March 25

The Taliban warned the Pakistani government to stop expanding its cellular network in areas of Pakistan that are under Taliban control:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7653

Coalition of Indian private security firms says that Indian Premier League cricket games didn’t have to be moved to South Africa, a decision compared to moving NFL games to Bulgaria:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7649

Israeli hacker allegedly stole at least $10 million from US banks (and $1.5 million from Canadian banks) as well as hacking a credit and debit card distribution company and a payment processor. This hacker became famous a decade ago when he hacked into Pentagon computers and other networks, and he didn’t bother changing his name when doing his latest financial hacking:
http://blog.wired.com/27bstroke6/2009/03/the-analyzer-ha.html

Self-cleaning, low-reflectivity surface treatment could boost the light absorption of PV cells in two complimentary ways, boosting solar power efficiency:
http://gtresearchnews.gatech.edu/newsrelease/superhydrophobic-pv.htm

Organic electronics (based on organic chemistry breakthroughs) could result in the mass production of cheap electronic components for display screens and solar cells. Using thin film technology, solar cells could be made in a similar way that camera film is developed:
Article link

Japanese astronaut is testing out an odor-free, quick-drying, super-absorbing underwear that can be worn for a week! They will be coming out with a whole line of clothing based on this material soon:
Article link

The open-access movement (led by Harvard and MIT) for scientific, peer-reviewed articles could break the publisher’s control over publications:
Aarticle link

Michael Dell indicated in a speech yesterday that Dell is making a smartphone:
http://www.infoworld.com/article/09/03/24/Michael_Dell_hints_at_smartphones_mobile_Internet_devices_1.html?source=NLC-MOBILEHARDWARE&cgd=2009-03-25

BusinessWeek says that Dell will have a hard time breaking into the crowded smartphone market and should just buy Palm, HTC, or Sony Ericsson instead to enter the market:
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/mar2009/tc20090324_741292.htm

Sprint announced 4G expansion plans that mirror Clearwire’s rollout:
Press release

Police officer who has been an officer for 23 years and worked as a security guard at a bank during his off-duty hours was arrested for robbing that bank:
http://www.hcnonline.com/articles/2009/03/24/conroe_courier/breaking_news/cpdarrest0325.txt

Nintendo has shipped 50 million Wiis and 100 million DS systems:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/03/25/nintendo-ships-50-million-wii-consoles-which-still-isnt-enough/

15-year-old 8th grader was banned from the school bus for 3 days because he purposely farted so much that it became hard to breath on the bus:
http://www.theledger.com/article/20090318/NEWS/903185043/0/YOURTOWN14

A group of hot Italian women have a $30,000 bet to see who can have sex with David Beckham first…his wife and children are in LA while he’s in Italy and he apparently does not know about this bet. It isn’t like women need anymore incentive to go after Beckham!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1162601/Watch-Posh-Italian-WAGs-run-20-000-bet-seduce-Becks-first.html

Woman used a fake ID to get a boob job and liposuction, then left Huntington Beach and her bills behind:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29864783/

Fans that attend minor league games at this Michigan stadium can buy a 4-pound burger that has 4,800 calories! The burger costs $20, but if you eat it all you get a free t-shirt:
http://www.detnews.com/article/20090325/LIFESTYLE05/903250442/West+Michigan+Whitecaps+offering+4+800-calorie+burger

LOTD for March 24

Unemployment is much lower in college towns than the country in general, with some Universities actually having a hard time finding people to fill their technical positions. The highly skilled workforces in college towns are credited for part of their favorable job situations:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123783142333116161.html

SkyCross has an interesting single antenna system that has multiple feeds that allows it to seem like two or more antennas:
http://mobiledevdesign.com/hardware_design/skycross-imat-atenna-0320/

General Cartwright says that the ballistic missile defense program is dead, and that even third world countries have the capabilities to defeat that missile shield. When General Cartwright says that no stupid person would think that the missile shield could prevent any attack, I do wonder why we spent $10 billion per year on the ballistic missile defense program under Pres. George W Bush. General Cartwright said that we have to go about missile defense in a different way to realistically have a chance to succeed:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/what-will-obama.html

New book outlines all the ways that former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld made so many decisions that hampered US operations in Afghanistan:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/how-rummy-almos.html

It is unfortunate that the relationship between the US and Russia has become so difficult, with things going downhill after Russia invaded Georgia last August:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/russia-is-getti.html

Boeing demonstrated that beyond line-of-sight high bandwidth communications is possible, with streaming video from a UAV to a helicopter and ground troops:
http://www.boeing.com/news/releases/2009/q1/090323b_nr.html

South Korea apparently has stealth technology:
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/03/116_41896.html

DARPA moved to Phase 2 for a program that is trying to regenerate human limbs:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/03/24/newt_regeneration_for_humans/

The US Border Patrol plans to poison the plant life along the border to get rid of smugglers, robbers and illegal immigrants. They actually may repeatedly spray poison from helicopters until all plant life is poisoned…and this is in a populated area!
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/6335446.html

NASA has made public access to its scientific and astronomical data a high priority, and they announced an agreement with Microsoft to make planetary images and data available. NASA Ames will process and host more than 100 TB of data and additional data from space missions will continue to be added:
Article link

The rule that companies that are in the TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) are limited in their H-1B hires should not affect the H-1B program much because the TARP companies (mainly financial institutions) have not been hiring people on H-1B Visas anyway:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/realitycheck/archives/2009/03/tarp_to_have_li.html?source=NLC-DAILY&cgd=2009-03-24

Acer said that they will release an Android-based phone (the A1) in September:
http://businessmirror.com.ph/component/content/article/52-technology/7863-acer-said-to-introduce-androidequipped-smartphone-in-september.html

More information on the new gaming platform (Zeebo) that Qualcomm is supporting–it even comes with built-in GSM/UMTS/HSPA for *free* internet access:
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2343660,00.asp

http://www.electronista.com/articles/09/03/24/zeebo.3g.game.console/

Press release

Connecticut woman wanted to reconcile with her husband so she *handcuffed* herself to him while he was sleeping so that he couldn’t walk away when she was talking with him! She also changed the locks on their bedroom and bit him in the torso and arms:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29860675/

New Jersey state senator sued the Justice Department’s ban on sports gambling, trying to get individual states the right to decide whether or not they should allow betting on sports:
http://www.philly.com/philly/news/local/20090324_N_J__lawmaker_challenges_federal_ban_on_sports_betting.html

LOTD for March 23

Disease-detecting gel works like Jell-O and could detect diseases like lung cancer and TB just from our breath:
http://www.rdmag.com/ShowPR.aspx?PUBCODE=014&ACCT=1400000101&ISSUE=0903&RELTYPE=TEST&PRODCODE=00000000&PRODLETT=LV&CommonCount=0

Tensions are high due to North Korea’s plan to fire a big rocket next month, with the US possibly planning to shoot down the rocket:
http://blog.wired.com/defense/2009/03/nork-launch.html

Cyber security experts say that the US should slow down its rush towards the “Smart Grid” (which would give the US more efficient and reliable electricity) because there are no Smart Grid cybersecurity standards and tests have found that hackers with $500 in equipment and a basic understanding of electronics and software could cause huge blackouts:
http://www.cnn.com/2009/TECH/03/20/smartgrid.vulnerability/index.html

IT security experts say that there is a strong likelihood that Russian Intelligence was behind the cyber attacks on Georgian government servers last summer:
http://hsdailywire.com/single.php?id=7637

Clearwire is testing a WiMAX VoIP phone, which would allow Comcast and Time Warner to offer wireless phone services bundled with TV and cable internet services…that would be a big revenue stream for them and a big challenge for the cellular carriers! No wonder the carriers are rushing to get LTE out:
http://www.multichannel.com/article/190370-Clearwire_Tests_WiMax_Based_Mobile_Phones.php

Dell apparently shows the cellular carriers their prototypes for Android-based and Windows Mobile-based smartphones…and the negative reaction from the carriers has made Dell start all over to try to come up with a phone:
http://blog.wired.com/gadgets/2009/03/dell-smartphone.html

http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2009/03/20/dell-dude-what-did-you-do-with-your-cell-phone/#mod=yahoobarrons

The FCC approved a mystery device from LG that runs on LTE:
http://www.informationweek.com/news/mobility/smart_phones/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=216000015

Enterprise managers like the iPhone 3.0’s ability to tether with computers:
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/161716/new_iphone_tethering_welcomed_by_enterprise.html

The bankruptcy court has approved Nortel’s plan to give $7.3 million in retention bonuses for executives…even though Nortel hasn’t paid its fired workers their severance pay:
http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Business/Courts+Nortel+execs+bonuses/1412404/story.html

Nortel is telling its workers who are owed severance pay that they can get access to their pension funds and retiree medical plan only if they give up claims to their severance pay!
http://www.newsobserver.com/business/story/1449071.html

San Diego video game company Zeebo (partly owned by Qualcomm) is leaving stealth mode today and plans to compete with the Wii, Xbox 360, and PS3 with their video game platform. Interesting that they built their system based on a COTS phone chip, the same chip used in the G1 phone. I didn’t realize that game piracy was so bad that game makers raised the price of the hardware to make up for a lack of software sales–with a Wii costing $1000 in Brazil, there is an opportunity for Zeebo:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/23/1b23zebo191511-zeebo-ready-reveal-its-game-plan/?zIndex=71083

Article about how the Honda Insight poses a big threat to the Prius, possibly forcing Toyota to cut the price tag of the Prius and introduce a cheaper hybrid car:
http://www.iht.com/articles/2009/03/22/business/hybrid.php

Nissan will be selling an electric car in San Diego next year. Their partnership with SDG&E gives them a customer and a partner that can put charging stations all around San Diego:
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/mar/23/1b23car191510-electric-car-nissan-will-be-sold-her/?zIndex=71080

Al Gore decided that the press can cover his CTIA keynote address, reversing his earlier ban:
Press release

A 350-year-old statue of a saint and former pope that was stolen from an Italian church 29 years ago was found in the home of a North Carolina couple who had no idea it was stolen:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29813624/

LOTD for March 22

Commentary about how the US should legalize pot and tax it as a way out of the current budget crisis. The estimate that taxing pot could net more than $1 billion in tax revenue for California each year is amazing…that means that a LOT of pot is estimated to be smoked in California!
http://www.realclearmarkets.com/articles/2009/03/the_positive_economics_of_a_ma.html

Study says that commercials makes TV more enjoyable to watch…I personally don’t buy it and I haven’t watch commercials (aside from the Super Bowl) since I got a DVR 6+ years ago, and I enjoy TV much more without commercials!
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/03/health/03mind.html

Study found that people that doodle when involved in something like a class or a meeting actually benefit from the doodling keeping their minds engaged, and the people that doodled remembered 29% more information than those who just tried to pay attention:
http://www-cdn.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=101727048

The gas that is responsible for the horrible smell of rotten eggs actually might be the key to a drug that replaces Viagra:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/7920565.stm

A gel found in food and cosmetics was found to be the key for a microbicide that could protect women from HIV:
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/268508

Antidepressants may suppress the basic human emotions of love and romance:
http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/02/antidepressants.html