Wired Top Stories

Two-in-One Guitar Amp Sounds Like Buddy Holly, Jimi Hendrix

Christopher Null — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

This miniature music-maker packs quite the sonic punch, and provides easy switching between retro modes.

Tiny Player Packs Features and Dead-Simple Menus

Roger Hibbert — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

This tidy little 4-GB SanDisk MP3 player records voice and radio, grabs music from your PC and tucks in an FM tuner. Clip it on and go.

Most Dangerous Object in the Office: 17-Inch Hand Claws

Candice Chan — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

The blades on this strap-on don't give the satisfying snikt! that Wolverine's adamantium talons do, but here at Wired they still strike fear in the hearts of, well, just about everyone. Three 11.5-inch stainless steel knives protrude from the wearer's skull-bedecked knuckles, ending in needle-sharp points. After you factor in the metal claws protecting the fist, that's a whopping 17 inches of handy weaponry—all for just $39 (available at trueswords.com). Too many people hogging the Gadget Lab's Wii? No problem. Just give us 30 seconds in there with these blades of gory.

How Comics Can Save Us From Scientific Ignorance

Barry Harbaugh — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

What's the solution to America's crisis in science education? More comic books. In December comes The Stuff of Life: A Graphic Guide to Genetics and DNA, a remarkably thorough explanation of the science of genetics, from Mendel to Venter, with a strand of social urgency spliced in. "If there was ever a time that we needed a push to make science a priority, it's now," says Howard Zimmerman, the book's editor and, not coincidentally, a former elementary-school science teacher. "Advances in treatments for disease cannot take place in a society that shuns science." Zimmerman works with the New York literary publishing house Hill and Wang, which discovered Elie Weisel and has been creating a new niche for itself as one of the premiere producers of major graphic "nonfiction novels" like the war on terror primer After 9/11 and the bio-comic Ronald Reagan.

Stuff of Life is the first in a series dedicated to the hard sciences. The author is Mark Schultz, a DC Comics veteran and creator of the postapocalyptic classic Xenozoic Tales. The 160-page work, illustrated by Kevin Cannon and Zander Cannon (improbably, no genetic relation), covers the regenerative processes of DNA, human migratory patterns, cloned apples, and stem cells. In a rapidly changing field, it's as up-to-date and accurate as possible.

Schultz, like Zimmerman, was attracted by the possibilities of using comics as an educational medium. "It's not prose, and it's not documentary film," Schultz says. "It's kind of its own animal." And the graphic novel market is drawing in different readers than he's accustomed to at DC. "The manga phenomenon," he notes as one example, "is attracting new demographics, like younger women, who weren't picking up on traditional comics."

Not that this is the first time comics have been enlisted for educational purposes. The field goes back to the 1940s, when Will Eisner turned Army instruction manuals into graphic guides for soldiers. Also, there's Larry Gonick's Cartoon Guides of the '80s, with his Cartoon Guide to Genetics being the most obvious precursor here. Stuff of Life builds on Gonick, updating his science and employing a silly yet more effective narrative—alien scientist Bloort 183 presents a PowerPoint on human genetics to his slow-learning leader.

Up next? Possibly evolution. After all, Zimmerman says, "more than half of adult Americans think Earth is about 6,000 years old."

Gallery: New Capitol Hill Visitor Center Welcomes Democracy Nuts

Damon Tabor — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

The new Capitol Visitor Center — a 580,000-square-foot complex buried beneath the east side of Capitol Hill — opens its doors on December 2 to as many as 15,000 nation-lovin' pilgrims a day.

Dec. 3, 1984: Bhopal, 'Worst Industrial Accident in History'

Tony Long — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

1984: Poison gas leaks from a Union Carbide pesticide factory in Bhopal, India. It spreads throughout the city, killing thousands of people outright and thousands more subsequently in a disaster often described as the worst industrial accident in history.

Union Carbide chose Bhopal, a city of 900,000 people in the state of Madhya Pradesh, because of its central location and its proximity to a lake and to the country's vast rail system.

The plant opened in 1969 and produced the pesticide carbaryl, which was marketed as Sevin. Ten years later the plant began manufacturing methyl isocyanate, or MIC, a cheaper but more toxic substance used in the making of pesticides.

It was MIC gas that was released when water leaked into one of the storage tanks late on the night of Dec. 2, setting off the disaster. Gas began escaping from Tank 610 around 10:30 p.m. although the main warning siren didn't go off for another two hours.

The first effects were felt almost immediately in the vicinity of the plant. As the gas cloud spread into Bhopal proper, residents were awakened to a blinding, vomiting, lung-searing hell. Panic ensued and hundreds of people died in the chaotic stampede that followed.

An exact death toll has never been established. Union Carbide, not surprisingly, set the toll on the low end at 3,800, while municipal workers claimed to have cleared at least 15,000 bodies in the immediate aftermath of the accident. Thousands have died since and an estimated 50,000 people became invalids or developed chronic respiratory conditions as a result of being poisoned.

Regardless of the numbers, all evidence pointed to Union Carbide and its Indian subsidiary, as well as the Indian government, its partner in the factory, being responsible, mainly through negligence, for what occurred. Despite the extreme volatility and toxicity of the chemicals in use at the factory, safeguards known to be substandard were ignored rather than fixed.

In the subsequent investigations and legal proceedings, it was determined, among other things, that:

Staffing at the plant had been cut to save money. Workers who complained about codified safety violations were reprimanded, and occasionally fired.
No plan existed for coping with a disaster of this magnitude.

Tank alarms that would have alerted personnel to the leak hadn't functioned for at least four years.

Other backup systems were either not functioning or nonexistent.

The plant was equipped with a single back-up system, unlike the four-stage system typically found in American plants.

Tank 610 held 42 tons of MIC, well above the prescribed capacity. (It is believed that 27 tons escaped in the leak.)

Water sprays designed to dilute escaping gas were poorly installed and proved ineffective.

Damage known to exist, such as to piping and valves, had not been repaired or replaced because the cost was considered too high. Warnings from U.S. and Indian experts about other shortcomings at the plant were similarly ignored.

The aftermath of the disaster was almost as chaotic. Union Carbide was initially responsive, rushing aid and money to Bhopal. Nevertheless, faced with a $3 billion lawsuit, the company dug in, eventually agreeing to a $470 million settlement, a mere 15 percent of the original claim. In any case, very little money ever reached the victims of the disaster.

Warren Anderson, Union Carbide's CEO, went before Congress in December 1984, pledging his company's renewed commitment to safety, a promise that rang hollow in India (and probably to Congress as well).

Anderson was subsequently charged with manslaughter by Indian prosecutors but managed to evade an international arrest warrant and disappeared. Investigators from Greenpeace, which has kept up an active interest in the case, found Anderson in 2002, alive and well and living comfortably in the Hamptons. The United States has shown no inclination to hand him over to Indian justice, and most of the serious charges against him have been dropped.

Union Carbide, meanwhile, was acquired by the Dow Corporation in 2001, which refused to assume any additional liability for Bhopal, arguing that the debt had already been paid through various court settlements. It did go on to settle another outstanding claim against Union Carbide, this one for $2.2 billion made by asbestos workers in Texas.

A few outstanding legal claims from Bhopal remain to be settled, both in India and the United States, but most of the court wrangling is over.

The victims of the disaster, those who live on, continue dealing with various health problems — including chronic respiratory problems, vision problems and an increased incidence of cancer and birth defects — and an environment that remains contaminated to this day.

Source: Various

How to Use Neuroscience to Become Your Avatar

Alexis Madrigal — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:01:00 GMT

Watching video through virtual-reality goggles of a mannequin's body while you look down at your own can trick your brain into believing the mannequin's body is yours. Swedish neuroscientists find that threatening the mannequin's body with a knife caused a physiological response in the person watching the video, indicating they have taken psychological ownership of the other body.

Navigon GPS Unit Looks Pretty, Takes Its Sweet Time

Rachel Cericola — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Navigon's latest high-end, dashboard-mounted GPS unit, the 8100T, has some nice features — including a whizzy 3-D display — but also has road-rage-inciting sluggishness.

Feds to Judge: Don't Second-Guess Bush Domestic Spy Program

David Kravets — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 23:32:00 GMT

A judge in San Francisco federal court hears arguments from the Justice Department and Electronic Frontier Foundation regarding lawsuits against telecoms that cooperated with the Bush administration's once-secret domestic spy program.

How to Make a DIY Lens Case

How-To Wiki — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 21:30:00 GMT

Last week, we showed you how to construct a stealth camera bag. Now it's time to add some extra protection by building a unique, snug-fitting foam case for each precious DSLR lens in your collection. Best of all, you can build these small cases using materials left over from our previous DIY camera projects.

Mercenaries, Sonic Blasters No Match for Pirates

Noah Shachtman — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:32:00 GMT

Sonic blasters and private security teams have been billed as some of the best bets to ward off pirates. But an incident off the coast of Somalia is calling the effectiveness of the weapons — and the guards — into question.

Pocket Digicam Looks Good, But It's Too Touchy

Michael S. Lasky — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:30:00 GMT

Nikon's pocket digital camera has an iPhone-like touchscreen, but as a camera, it falls a bit short, despite its respectable 10 megapixels.

Apple: Our Ads Don't Lie, But You're a Fool if You Believe Them

Brian X. Chen — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:25:00 GMT

Apple responds to an iPhone 3G lawsuit by saying its ads are not misleading, but consumers shouldn't believe them in the first place.

Get Your Mini EV Now. Some Restrictions Apply

Jason Sattler — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 20:23:00 GMT

Deep pockets are just one of the qualifications required to get behind the wheel of the Mini-E.

Is Social Advertising an Oxymoron?

Frank Rose — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 19:26:00 GMT

There’s mounting evidence to suggest that monetizing consumer-generated media doesn't work. Even sites like YouTube, whose viral videos have emerged as the medium of choice for advertisers, don't realize any revenue from an ad's millions of views.

How to Save Salmon by Hacking Their Mental Compass

Brandon Keim — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 18:40:00 GMT

Salmon may have a magnetic navigation system, similar to that of sea turtles, that guides them over thousands of miles back to their home stream to spawn. Scientists hope to find a way to imprint captive fish with the signature of a wild stream, so that they know where to go when released.

Google Crowdsources Carnegie Hall Concert

Eliot Van Buskirk — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 15:41:00 GMT

Classical (and not so much) musicians can now audition for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which will perform a first-of-its-kind online collaboration and at New York's legendary Carnegie Hall as part of Google's first major foray into content creation.

U.N. Investigates Electromagnetic Terrorism

David Hambling — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 13:00:00 GMT

Scientists are still debating whether electromagnetic fields — like the ones generated by your cellphone — are bad for your health. The United Nations is pushing ahead with the idea that the fields are a "Potential Threat as a Terrorism Agent."

iTunes: Coldplay, Leona Lewis Top 2008 Sales

Associated Press — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 12:58:00 GMT

Coldplay was the hottest iTunes album download this year: Its "Viva la Vida" was crowned the best-selling album of 2008, while Leona Lewis's "Bleeding Love" was named the top-selling single.

Nokia Announces Chunky, Full-Featured N97 'Cellphone'

Charlie Sorrel — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:32:00 GMT

On paper, Nokia's new N97 is a solid iPhone-beater: A Zeiss lens equipped 5MP with an LED flash and a video mode, a huge 32GB of memory, boost-able to 48GB with microSD cards, 3G comes in HSDPA flavor and there is Wi-Fi in the shape of 802.11b and g. But take a look at it. Fitting in all that gear has made the N87 a little chubby.

The Big Three Should Become the Medium Two

Ben Mack — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 09:30:00 GMT

It's time Detroit realized Chapter 11 bankruptcy is its best shot at survival. And that means GM and Ford get smaller while Chrysler becomes someone's subsidiary.

We All Live in a Solar Submarine

Keith Barry — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

A Swiss firm with an established record of solar projects goes way out in left field with a proposal to build sun-powered subs. Of course, Dubai is the first place it expects to deploy one.

Review: Prince of Persia Reduces Frustration — And Fun

Chris Kohler — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

You can't die in this game, even if you try. But if a game has no consequences, how much fun is it?

Plug In Player, and Jet Engines, Crying Babies Disappear

Roger Hibbert — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Crank up the volume, add noise-canceling headphones and this video player has you in another world – noise irritants are all yours. Great battery life means it'll last awhile.

Geek Hotels Pass the Nerd Test

Brita d'Agostino and Lewis Wallace — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

: Photo: scottroberts/Flickr

Whether your fantasy hotel is a Star Wars-style cave dwelling or a Hobbit hole in New Zealand, specialty accommodations around the world will fulfill your nerdy needs.

Other hotels geek out with crazy gear, from Apple- and Microsoft-themed suites to virtual golf courses. And while WiFi has become a common hotel offering, a high-tech hotel in the Middle East extends internet access all the way to its private beach.

These and other specialty accommodations make Wired.com's list of top geek hotels.

Hôtel Sidi Driss, Matmata, Tunisia

Left: The Tunisian town of Matmata is riddled with troglodyte dwellings, vertical caves dug out by humans and turned into homes. The Hôtel Sidi Driss is one such desert delight.

Geek factor: Does the cave hotel look strangely familiar? The interior was used as a Star Wars filming location — it's the Lars' homestead on Tatooine.

: Photo courtesy Hotel Sax

Hotel Sax, Chicago

Plenty of businesses have gotten into bed with Microsoft. Now you can, too: Chicago's Hotel Sax has a partnership with the software giant that lets weary travelers relax into "the Microsoft Experience."

Geek factor: The Studio, Hotel Sax's "Entertainment Lounge" available to all guests features Microsoft gear like Xbox 360s and Zunes. Don't want to share? Book your own private "Entertainment Technology" studio or suite.

: Photo courtesy Hotel 1000

Hotel 1000, Seattle

The operators of this high-tech hotel sank millions of dollars into the latest gear. With luxuries like ubiquitous WiFi, HD TVs and a "fully converged IP infrastructure" that allows for internet-enabled personalization of everything from room temperatures to the art on the walls, Hotel 1000 was a shoe-in for Hospitality Technology magazine's 2008 award for overall technology innovation.

Geek factor: After playing around on the hotel's virtual golf course, just flip the electronic "do not disturb" sign to keep hotel staff or annoying co-workers at bay.

: Photo: Mark Darley

Hotel Avante, Mountain View, California

Located in the heart of Silicon Valley, Hotel Avante is making a big play for big players. The 91-room boutique hotel bills itself — and its guests — as "smart, visionary, iconoclastic and artistic."

Geek factor: To further its "creative clubhouse" atmosphere, each room includes an "executive toy box" with a yo-yo, an Etch A Sketch, a Rubik's Cube, playing cards and a Slinky.

: Photo: maurizio_mwg/Flickr

Capsule Inn Akihabara, Tokyo

Capsule Inn Akihabara is one of only a few places to stay in "Electric Town," Tokyo's anime/otaku hub and the site of the largest electronics market in the world. The tiny capsule rooms look like washing machines from the outside.

Geek factor: The hotel's sleeping units are "designed in the image of a jet airplane's cockpit" with every device in the capsule — TV, radio, alarm clock, lighting — designed to be controlled from a sleeping position.

: Photo courtesy The Pod Hotel

The Pod Hotel, New York

With free WiFi, iPod docks, relatively inexpensive rooms (called "pods") and the opportunity to make new friends in its shared bathrooms, The Pod Hotel in Manhattan's Midtown East neighborhood is making a play for the Facebook generation. Antisocial guests will be pleased to know that some rooms have private baths.

Geek factor: Nicknamed the "Facebook Hotel," this place has its own social networking site to help guests find someone for dinner, drinks, shopping or whatever.

: Photo courtesy Tribeca Grand Hotel

Tribeca Grand Hotel, New York

With its plush bar and 98-seat screening room, the Tribeca Grand is definitely swanky. But book an iStudio and you'll be pampered, Apple-style.

Geek factor: The iStudio rooms. They're decked out with Apple products, including a Power Mac G5, photo- and video-editing software and an iPod.

: Photo: stephenr/Flickr

Woodlyn Park, New Zealand

Woodlyn Park is home to Billy Black's Kiwi Culture Show, with sheep shearing and a dancing pig. But the real star of the complex is The Hobbit Motel, two polystyrene-block units with circular doors built into a hillside.

Geek factor: You can pretend you're a hobbit.

: Photo: Ben Nilsson/Big Ben Productions

Icehotel, Jukkasjärvi, Sweden

The Icehotel says it offers "an experience of a lifetime as well as an encounter with art and design that will surprise your senses." Since it's made of ice and snow, that claim sounds perfectly believable. You can book hot or cold accommodations at the Icehotel. Each ice room is designed by an artist, such as the one shown here by Andrea Thomson. Got the shivers? Heat up from the inside out at the Absolut Icebar.

Geek factor: The ice palace in the Bond flick Die Another Day was inspired by this hotel.

: Photo courtesy Emirates Palace Hotel

Emirates Palace Hotel, Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates

Everything's superdeluxe at this Middle Eastern resort hotel, and it's even better if you step up a notch: All suites boast 61-inch plasma TVs (regular rooms have puny 50-inchers). All guest rooms have handheld computers that control switches and outlets — set your language preference for the interactive screens upon check-in.

Geek factor: Free WiFi reaches all poolside areas and even the private beach.

: Photo courtesy Joie de Vivre Hospitality

Hotel Tomo, San Francisco

From anime-inspired wall paintings to glow-in-the-dark desk blotters, Hotel Tomo kicks out the J-pop jams. See Wired.com's photo gallery on this Japanophile find, "San Francisco's Hotel Tomo Jacks Into Japanese Culture."

Geek factor: Deluxe gaming suites come with PlayStation 3, Wii, beanbag chairs and a 6-foot LCD projection screen.

Dec. 2, 1942: Nuclear Pile Gets Going
Dec. 2, 1957: Nuclear Power Goes Online

Randy Alfred — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Dec. 2: It's a double milestone for nuclear energy. The first man-made sustained nuclear chain reaction was created this day in 1942. And just 15 years later, the first full-scale nuclear power plant went online.

1942: Enrico Fermi, Leo Szilard and their colleagues achieve a successful, controlled chain reaction in a squash court underneath the football grandstand of the University of Chicago's Stagg Field. It lays the groundwork for the first atomic bombs.

Fermi and Szilard had been working on nuclear fission at Columbia University in New York, when Einstein wrote of their work to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Einstein feared that German nuclear researchers might gain an unbeatable lead in the field and develop an atomic weapon that could win the war.

The Roosevelt administration responded with the then-secret, now-famous Manhattan Project. Top U.S. atomic scientists soon gathered in Chicago to see just how feasible it was to start a nuclear chain reaction, starting with a controlled rather than explosive one.

The original idea was to build a nuclear pile at a location in the Argonne Forest about 30 miles outside Chicago, but there were construction problems. Remarkably, the experiment was relocated to the University of Chicago campus inside city limits.

Construction began Nov. 16, 1942. The team got uranium from an Iowa State University researcher and Westinghouse Electric. Staffers worked around the clock to build a wooden structure on which they placed a lattice of 57 layers, comprising six tons of uranium metal and 40 tons of uranium oxide embedded in 380 tons of graphite blocks.

The whole apparatus was encased in a custom square balloon built by Goodyear Tire. The Chicago Pile-1 cost $2.7 million (about $36 million in today's money).

The Dec. 2 experiment began at 9:45 a.m. with more than 50 people in attendance. A three-man "suicide squad" was ready to douse the reactor in case it threatened to get out of control. Besides the main On/Off switch, there was a weighted safety rod that would automatically trip if neutron intensity got too high, a hand-operated backup safety rod, and "SCRAM" — the safety control rod ax-man, a top staffer wielding an ax to cut a rope to drop the safety rod, if all else failed.

The suicide squad wasn't needed. The pile achieved a sustained nuclear reaction at 3:25, and Fermi shut it down at 3:53. Those 28 minutes changed the world.

So secret was the project that at a party a few days later, the scientists' spouses didn't know what the all the congratulations were about. They wouldn't find out what had happened and where the technology was headed for another two-and-a-half years. And then, the world knew.

1957: The light-water breeder reactor at Shippingport, Pennsylvania — the first in the United States — goes to full power on the anniversary of Chicago Pile-1.

An experimental breeder reactor devised by Chicago Pile-1 veteran Walter Zinn had created the first nuclear-generated electricity in 1951. President Dwight D. Eisenhower broke ground for the first commercial plant, to be operated by Pittsburgh's Duquesne Light Company, in 1954.

Westinghouse Electric designed the plant in conjunction with the Atomic Energy Commission. When it was in operation, nuclear fission heated water, which transferred its heat to convert the water in a secondary system into steam, which drove the turbine that created the electricity.

Shippingport shipped its first power into the Pittsburgh grid Dec. 18, 1957. Eisenhower returned to formally dedicate the plant the following May 26.

The plant was decomissioned in 1982 after a quarter-century of use. In the first complete U.S. decontamination, the reactor vessel was shipped to a low-level waste disposal facility at the Hanford Site in Richland, Washington.

After the Shippingport site was cleaned, the government released it for unrestricted use in 1987, suitable for picnicking or a children's playground. The American Society of Mechanical Engineers designated the plant as a landmark, and it's now open to visitors.

Sources: Argonne National Laboratory, American Society of Mechanical Engineers

As Facebook Connect Expands, OpenID's Challenges Grow

Michael Calore — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 05:00:00 GMT

Facebook Connect has been adopted by several high-profile websites, including Digg, Hulu and Discovery.com. The news is sure to be welcomed by Facebook's 120 million users and its potential partners, but it presents a new challenge to proponents of the so-called "open stack" for ID management -- OpenID, OAuth and the related technologies that allow users to share data across multiple websites.

Jurors Wanted to Convict Lori Drew of Felonies, But Lacked Evidence

Kim Zetter — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 04:00:00 GMT

The jury forewoman in the Lori Drew trial says jurors wanted to convict Lori Drew on three felony counts for unauthorized access to MySpace's computer system, but were stymied by lack of evidence from the prosecutor and had to convict her of misdemeanors.