this is sweet.

... Prototype iPod Mixer.

But I can't afford that. And anyway, my poor (cheap) analog mixer would be jealous.

via BoingBoing.

New passports

Imaging you're in a foreign country. You have a passport. But this isn't the current standard passport... this one has technology in it to verify who you are.

Only instead of being a swipe card or some other "contact read" technology, it uses RFIDs.

With "contact read" technology, you would know when someone was scanning your passport, because you'd have to get it out and have it scanned. RFIDs can be scanned without your knowledge.

With an RFID installed, you're a moving, trackable target in a foreign country.

Nice thinking, Fed!

(please note sarcasm)

Remote-controlled headless zombie flies

Scientists report that they can control fruit-flies remotely -- by shooting lasers at their neurons.

Even after the heads were torn off, they could control the flies enough to make them fly.

Watch the video.

What does Bush have on his ipod?

A Bush aide revealed the playlist of "iPod one".

From the London Times:

AS THE joke goes, it's little wonder that George W. Bush has an iPod. They are both white, with a limited capacity, famous for making strange noises and live in the pockets of businessmen.

The most notable aspect of Mr Bush's fairly predictable selection of babyboomer tunes is its extraordinarily limited demographic spread — no black artists, no gay artists, no world music, only one woman, no genre less than 25 years old, and no Beatles.

From CNN:

One of that song's lyrics, "Such a dirty mind. Always get it up for the touch of the younger kind," prompted Spin magazine editor Dave Itzkoff to comment: "This wouldn't be consistent with Bush's image as protector of conservative values."

...
McKinnon advised though against too much analysis of the playlist. "The fact is that any president who would limit themselves to pro-establishment musicians would have a pretty slim collection.

"No one should psychoanalyze the song selection. It's music to get over the next hill," he told the New York Times.

I don't really care what music the President listens to, but this is a pretty interesting story.