BBC World Service reports that researchers at the University of Bonn have used Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) to determine that the earth’s diameter is approximately 5 mm smaller than the previous accepted figure. Their research is presented in the Journal of Geodesy.
University of Bonn press release (English translation courtesy of Google)

The BBC reports that reporter Alan Johnston, kidnapped in Gaza on 12 March 2007, has finally been released!
Alan says that he was not tortured, though he was “roughed up a bit” before release.  I would describe his ordeal as torture, though, particularly when they strapped explosives to him and forced him to record a video [...]

Yet another perpetual motion machine has been announced.  This one reportedly uses the time variance in magnetic fields to circumvent the laws of thermodynamics.
Sure, that will work for a while, but definitely not perpetually.  It will cause significant sinusoidal depleneration of the ambient hydrocoptic flux.  I certainly don’t have to tell you about the horrific [...]

As the gun powder was clearing on the Virginia Tech massacre a few months ago, the gun law lobby was citing the tragedy as evidence for greater gun control. On our side we were pointing out that draconian gun laws in Blacksburg failed to disarm the perp or protect the 32 victims. Additionally there were [...]

…though not very many people know it yet.
Richard Hart, the television journalist who hosted the Discovery Channel series “The Next Step“, visited TechShop last week. He interviewed Jim Newton, TechShop’s founder, as well as some of the members. I happened to be there working on a 3D CAD model that I’ve built using [...]