GAZA, Jan 9 (Reuters) - Brandishing placards showing George W. Bush as a vampire swigging Muslim blood, thousands of Hamas supporters protested in Gaza on Wednesday against the U.S. president's visit to Israel and the occupied West Bank.

Who knew david icke would be popular in the mid-east.

Thousands protest in Gaza against "vampire" Bush | Reuters

Mark your calendars - It may not feel like it, but last Friday was potentially the start of the end of the world. Friday, you see, saw the identification that a new 11-year solar cycle has started (as Charlie pointed out) and according to many, when solar cycles peak, so does societal and cultural revolution (look here for evidence of that theory, skeptics). According to New Scientist, we're still a few years away from the peak of this cycle -- some researchers predict 2011 and others 2012. Wait... 2012? That date sounds familiar. Something to do with Timewave Zero.

For those who know their Terence McKenna, of course, 2012 just so happens to have particular significance:

The theory of Timewave Zero was revealed to Terence by an alien intelligence following a bizarre, quasi-psychedelic experiment conducted in the Amazon jungle in Colombia in 1971. Inspired by this influence Terence was instructed in certain transformation of numbers derived from the King Wen sequence of I Ching hexagrams. This led eventually to a rigorous mathematical description of what Terence calls the timewave, which correlates time and history with the ebb and flow of novelty, which is intrinsic to the structure of time and hence of the temporal universe. A peculiarity of this correlation is that at a certain point a singularity is reached which is the end of history-or at least is a transition to a suprahistorical order in which our ordinary conceptions of our world will be radically transformed. The best current estimate for the date of this point is December 21, 2012 CE [common era], the winter solstice of that year and also the end of the current era in the Mayan calendar.

Apocalypse: Sunspot Announces New Cycle, End of the World

Five unbelievably cool research facilities

DETROIT (AP) — Cars that drive themselves — even parking at their destination — could be ready for sale within a decade, General Motors Corp. executives say.

The first car virus is going to be funny.

The Associated Press: GM Researching Driverless Cars

Virginia Postrel talks with Gary Hustwit — director of Helvetica — about filmmaking, creativity, and the expressive implications of one of the world's most popular typefaces

See also, from the archives:

In 1995 Microsoft released the font Comic Sans originally designed for comic book style talk bubbles containing informational help text. Since that time the typeface has been used in countless contexts from restaurant signage to college exams to medical information. These widespread abuses of printed type threaten to erode the very foundations upon which centuries of typographic history are built.

While we recognize the font may be appropriate in a few specific instances, our position is that the only effective means of ending this epidemic of abuse is to completely ban Comic Sans.

Typography is not simply a frou-frou debate over aesthetics orchestrated by a hidden coterie of graphic-design nerds. You need only imagine a STOP sign that utilizes the heavy-metal typefaces favoured by bands Dokken or Krokus to realize that clear, clean and direct typography can save lives, or at the very least prevent drivers from prolonged bouts of confused squinting.

Why should you care?

Because everything you read, every sign, book and logo, is in a font.

And don't forget:

The reality is that, despite fears that our children are "pumped full of chemicals," everything is made of chemicals, including Helvetica, and even Comic Sans.

Most of the blame for the obesity epidemic in America rests squarely on the fat font face of Comic Sans.

What's in a Font?

Strange as it may seem, the dead have quit rotting in German cemeteries -- they are turning into wax-like corpses. Will the use of burial chambers solve the problem? Or is extensive soil reconditioning the only viable alternative?

Cemeteries are supposed to be the quietest places on earth. But that notion may soon have to be laid to rest: Exhumation experts are currently conducting large-scale digging operations in German graveyards, belying the very concept of eternal peace.

Corpses are no longer decaying in many German cemeteries. Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has become so rampant it can no longer be ignored.

Click on a picture to launch the image gallery (4 Photos)

A high moisture content in the subsoil combined with low temperatures and a lack of oxygen are the main culprits. These conditions transform the soft tissue of many bodies not into humus, but rather "a gray-white, paste-like, soft mass," says soil expert Rainer Horn from the Christian Albrecht University in Kiel, Germany.

As time passes, the remains of the departed coagulate to form "a hard, durable substance." When knocked with a spade, the wax-like bodies sound hollow.

I wonder if this type of wax has any industrial uses... The Germans will surely find out if anyone will.

Ashes to ashes
Wax to wax
Wax on wax off

Germany's Tired Graveyards: When Bodies No Longer Decay - International - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News

There has been much talk and comments on boards around the Japanese Internets regarding how police in Shinjuku have been stopping people who dress like some otaku - requesting a bag and pocket check with the excuse that they are looking for weapons.
This spot check is called "Shokumu Shitsumon" [職務質問] where the police ask what your occupation is and request ID. In some cases they then proceed to ask more or go through your belongings depending on how you react.

These findings have been carried out by Tantei File who also list what types of people the police do spot checks on - this list was provided by a police officer.

* People wearing camouflage trousers or jacket
* People with chains or keys (hanging off trousers)
* Looks weak (!)
* People wearing a bandanna
* People wearing leather

Police Hunt Otaku

Laser_weapon Anybody can come up with a conspiracy theory, but what gives a conspiracy theory real legs is when it intertwines dramatic political events with science fiction technology. And that's what we have with bizarre reports of laser weapons being used to assassinate Benazir Bhutto. A newspaper in Pakistan is quoting Pakistan People's Party leader Babar Awan saying that that a laser gun was used to kill Bhutto. ''The X-ray reports suggested that there were two to three tiny radio densities under each fractured segments on both projections which were in fact invisible electromagnetic radiations. After these medical reports there was no need for further post-mortem or exhumation," Awan reportedly said.

Now a bunch of other news outlets are picking up the "high tech weapon/laser beam" story. Let the conspiracy theories fly.

Bhutto Killed by Laser Weapon, Pakistan Paper Says | Danger Room from Wired.com

Director of rehabilitation engineering services at NHS Lothian in Britain, David Gow, believes his new i-Limb system (bionic arm, hand combo) from Touch Bionics is so superior to biological limbs that it may have to "scale down its power." We've been waiting our whole lives to hear those sweet words.

it will be interesting when this becomes a type of cosmetic option.

I-Limb Bionic Hand Gets Upgradable Bionic Arm - Medgadget - www.medgadget.com

Supervisory Special Agent Esther Falkner had been told more than once by people she trusted in the Bureau that her next assignment would be something prominent. Perhaps even chief of the Behavioral Analysis Unit, they'd hinted. She'd done good work there.

Shadow Unit