Town tries out Cybercar concept

A driverless car which is controlled by computer and uses lasers to avoid obstacles is being demonstrated in a Northamptonshire town. Daventry is investigating ways to increase the use of public transport and reduce reliance on cars.
The town council believes the Cybercars, which are called by pressing a button on the route and go direct to their destination, could be the answer.
The vehicles can be seen on a test track at the town's Eastern Way.

full version:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/northamptonshire/7014044.stm

Buggin’ Out!

At least, until I started wondering why some of the VW’s on the road were left untouched! In any case, I definitely think it’s one funnier (and better done) than our Abbey Road spoof located here. [If you can’t tell, that’s Mark Twain, Bob Dylan, Stephen Hawking, and Einstein pushing.]

Pics here http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/6555

Japanese gamers snap up Sony's redesigned PSP - mostly thanks to a certain RPG...

Japanese consumers have purchased over 300,000 PSP Slims in the three days since the system was launched, according to Enterbrain. According to the latest figures, 250,702 of the total purchased were standalone units, while 75,943 Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core bundles have also been snapped up. That's a total of 326,645 in just three days.

The PSP has been the third best selling system in Japan for a while now, behind Nintendo's DS handheld and Wii home console. However, last week the PSP rose to the top of the Japanese hardware chart after almost 100,000 units were sold, 15,000 more than the DS and 70,000 more than the Wii, a phenomenon that was largely attributable to the demand for the latest Final Fantasy Game, Crisis Core. There is no doubt now that this title is a system seller in Japan, and that the PSP will once again top the Japanese hardware charts come the end of the week.

Source: Next Generation

@Second Chance Tuesday: Last.fm - the "conviction entrepreneurs"

This is a treat: the first time Martin Stiksel and Felix Miller, Last.fm's founders, have spoken publicly on the acquisition of their site since it was purchased by CBS in May for £141m.
For tonight's Second Chance Tuesday "fireside chat", the two of them are slouched into a couple of black leather armchairs next to the BBC's tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones and look extremely relaxed, considering the room of salivating entrepreneurs and investors laid out before them.
The driving force behind Last.fm, the two are keen to clarify, was always the music. Cellan-Jones characterised them as two opinionated guys that loved music and knew nothing about business, at least when they started up. The two of them seemed quite proud to agree, and go on to describe how they were both oblivious to the first dot com crash.

full version: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/digitalcontent/2007/09/second_chance_tuesday_lastfm_t.html

Fergie Falls Head Over Heels In 'Clumsy' Clip

While her fellow Black Eyed Pea Will.I.Am is hyping his new project, Songs About Girls, Fergie isn't slowing down with her own solo affair, last year's The Dutchess. The singer just shot a clip for the song "Clumsy" with directors Marc Webb (Diddy, the Pussycat Dolls) and Rich Lee (Chamillionaire, Dashboard Confessional). The surreal, humorous clip features Fergie falling head over heels — get it? — for love in various scenarios. ...

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1570500/20070925/fergie__4_.jhtml

Grid Layout

The Grid Layout Javascript enables web-developers to stick to a Grid Layout quickly and simply by including the Grid Layouts Javascript file and simple XHTML code. Currently, the Grid Layouts Javascript relies on jQuery.


http://gridlayouts.com/

Bono, Alicia Keys, Shakira Team Up With MTV, Bill Clinton For 'Giving' Event

September 29 concert and social-change discussion will be webcast live on Think.MTV.com; Keys and Shakira will perform. Bono, Alicia Keys, Shakira, Chris Rock and former President Bill Clinton will take part in a roundtable discussion on the state of youth activism, set to take place September 29 at the legendary Apollo Theater in New York. Keys and Shakira will also perform at the event.
The event, called "Giving - Live at the Apollo," is co-sponsored by MTV and the Clinton Global Initiative, and is being held in conjunction with the Initiative's annual three-day conference in New York.

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1570284/20070921/bono.jhtml

O'Reilly Emerging Technology Conference - Call for Participation

Physicist Niels Bohr said, "Prediction is very difficult, especially of the future." We agree, which is why we don't attempt to predict the future. At ETech, we show the tantalizing glimpses of future technology we think are going to truly matter, brought to life by cutting-edge researchers, be they scientists, product developers, academics, or hackers.

We put on stage the speakers and the ideas that help our attendees prepare for and create the future, whatever it might be. What interests us? The military running its own full Earth simulation. Instructions for creating your own 3D prototyping machine posted online. Biomimicry being used to organize teams and model crowd behavior. Gadgets that give us feedback on our behavior. A rollaway PDA that uses a flexible OLED screens, hopefully available for purchase in the very near future.

http://conferences.oreillynet.com/etech

People v. Estrada: The country on trial

Today I have no choice on what to write about – it is Erap’s conviction and nothing else. It is the biggest and most significant court case our republic has ever experienced since our founding and probably for the centuries to come.

On trial was former President Estrada, his son and incumbent senator Jinggoy Estrada and lawyer, Edward Serapio for the crime of plunder and another case of perjury against President Estrada. President Erap alone was convicted of plunder; all the other charges were dismissed.

The plunder law is a relatively new penal law in our statute books. It was passed in 1991 as a reaction to the excesses during the Marcos regime. Ironic that then Senator Estrada voted favourably for the passage of the law and now his conviction under it. He knew and studied this law. One more instance of truth stranger than fiction.

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