We entrust Google with our most private communications because we assume the company takes every precaution to safeguard our data. It doesn't. A Google engineer spied on four underage teens for months before the company was notified of the abuses.

GCreep: Google Engineer Stalked Teens, Spied on Chats (Updated)

Swarms of robots that use electromagnetic forces to cling together and assume different shapes are being developed by US researchers.

The grand goal is to create swarms of microscopic robots capable of morphing into virtually any form by clinging together.

Watch the video!

Shape-shifting robot forms from magnetic swarm - tech - 29 January 2008 - New Scientist Tech

A MOVE to arm police robots with stun guns has been condemned by weapons researchers.

On 28 June, Taser International of Arizona announced plans to equip robots with stun guns. The US military already uses PackBot, made by iRobot of Massachusetts, to carry lethal weapons, but the new stun-capable robots could be used against civilians.

"The victim would have to receive shocks for longer, or repeatedly, to give police time to reach the scene and restrain them, which carries greater risk to their health," warns non-lethal weapons researcher Neil Davison, of the University of Bradford, UK.

"If someone is severely punished by an autonomous robot, who are you going to take to a tribunal?" asks Steve Wright, a security expert at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK.

Armed autonomous robots cause concern - tech - 07 July 2007 - New Scientist Tech

Really neat.

The Robotarium X at Jardim Central, Alverca (Vila Franca de Xira), Portugal, is the first of its kind in the world.

Conceived for a public garden it is constituted by a large glass structure containing 45 robots, most powered by photovoltaic energy and a few plugged to the ceiling or to the ground.

The robots are all original, created specifically for the project, representing 14 species classified by distinct behavior strategies and body morphologies. Obstacle avoidance, movement or sunlight detection and interaction with the public are some of the robots skills.

Robotarium X, the first zoo for artificial life, approaches robots very much in the way as we are used to look at natural life. We, humans, enjoy watching and studying other life forms behavior and, sadly, also to capture them. However, in this case, although the robots are confined to a cage it can be said that, not like animals, they enjoy it. In fact the Robotarium is their ideal environment with plenty of sun, smoothness, tranquility and attention. There are no fights or aggression and the only competition is to assure a place under the sunlight.

Robotarium X is also an art work of a new kind of art that realizes a critical questioning of knowledge and culture. Notions like nature, life, the artificial, machine, art, culture and science, are challenged by this display.

Robotarium X

Being crazy is hard, but it's worth the effort. Especially if you're a cop, paramedic, or social worker who may someday need to deal with a person having a psychotic episode. At those times, empathy can be crucial.

That's where Virtual Hallucinations comes in. The training device, created by Janssen L.P., is a rig with earphones and goggles that plunges the wearer into the mind of a serious schizophrenic. The system offers two interactive scenarios. In one, you're riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, "He's taking you back to the FBI!" The other features a trip to the drugstore, where the pharmacist seems to be handing you poison instead of pills, and hostile customers stare at you in disgust.

I can't wait till this comes out for the Wii!

Virtual Hallucinating Device Drives Police Insane for a Day

We generate money by serving Google text advertisments on
our hidden web-sites and our show-case site GWEI.org.
With this money we automatically buy Google shares via
our Swiss e-banking account. We buy Google via their own
advertisment! Google eats itself
- but in the end we will own it!

Everyone needs a hobby.

GWEI - Google Will Eat Itself

Now this is a truly new application of a keyboard, which I am sure will be rather hellishly expensive, but will probably not have any problem finding people to buy it judging from how much some fools are willing to pay for the reduced-size "Happy Hacker" keyboard--particularly since they willingly pay even more for the version where no one bothered to silkscreen labels onto the keys.

I give it a whole three months of this thing on the market before someone codes up a Drempels-style hack to make the keys change color and so on while the keyboard is being used. The possibilities are damn near endless.

Pimp.

This man deserves a patent with a large sack of money pinned to it.

] Illegal gizmos that interfere with signals and cut off
] reception are selling like hotcakes on the streets of
] New York.
]
] "I bought one online, and I love it," said one jammer
] owner fed up with the din of dumb conversations and
] rock-and-roll ringtones.
]
] "I use it on the bus all the time. I always zap the
] idiots who discuss what they want from the Chinese
] restaurant so that everyone can hear them. Why is that
] necessary?"

New York Post: New Yorkers find new way to be forcibly inconsiderate

] How the FBI eavesdrops on Internet phone calls (and why
] it sometimes can't).

Can They Hear You Now? - How the FBI eavesdrops on Internet phone calls (and why it sometimes can't). By David S. Bennahum

"only the Polytron reduces an entire mouse to a soup-like homogenate in 30 seconds."

the Polytron