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Few dates in American history receive as much attention as Nov. 22, 1963. On that Friday, U.S. President John F. Kennedy died as a result of two gunshot wounds to his upper body. More than four decades later, historians, government officials, conspiracy theory buffs and the general public still question exactly what happened.

If you were to gather all of the reports, books, articles, editorials, films and television specials about the JFK assassination in one place, you’d have enough material to fill a library. Every year, more books about the event hit store shelves. Forensics experts continue to review every shred of evidence in an effort to determine what happened on that day.

The number of works about JFK’s death should come as no surprise. He was a popular president who has become an almost mythological figure after his death. After his assassination, the resulting investigations left some people unsatisfied. Inconsistencies among eyewitness reports and tenuous connections between key figures involved in the event fueled dozens of different theories.
Lyndon B. Johnson, who officially became president of the United States at 2:38 p.m. aboard the presidential plane, ordered a full investigation into the assassination. Chief Justice Earl Warren was the lynchpin of the resulting investigative body, which became known as the Warren Commission. The Commission submitted a full report to President Johnson on Sept. 24, 1964. The report spanned several hundred pages. The Commission also published records of all of the hearings it held over the course of nearly 10 months. Those hearings filled up 26 volumes.

The report from the Warren Commission concluded that Lee Harvey Oswald, acting alone, shot President Kennedy from the sixth floor of the Texas School Book Depository as the president’s motorcade traveled through Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas. The report also stated that Jack Ruby killed Oswald on Sunday, Nov. 24, 1963. The commission found no evidence suggesting Ruby was acting on behalf of another person or organization.

Is there a mystery around JFK’s death? Is the official story of a lone gunman really a cover for a conspiracy of high-profile individuals? Were foreign powers involved in the shooting? Was the mafia responsible? Or could the assassination be the result of treasonous plans formulated by the CIA? And why are there so many questions about the assassination and the findings of the Warren Commission?
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On th e old “Star Trek” series, Captain Kirk and his crew never left the ship without their trusty phasers. One of the cooles t things about these weapons was the “stun” setting. Unless things were completely out of control (as they frequently were), the Enterprise crew always stunned their adversaries, rendering them temporarily unconscious, rather than killing them.

We’re still a ways off from this futuristic weaponry, but millions of police officers, soldiers and ordinary citizens do carry real-life stun weapons to protect against personal attacks. Like the fictional phasers of “Star Trek,” these devices are designed to temporarily incapacitate a person without doing any long-term damage.
Stun guns generate a high-voltage, low-amperage electrical charge.
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“Star Trek” makes faster-than-light travel look easy, but according to new calculations by Italian physicists, a warp drive could easily create a black hole that would incinerate any passengers on a space craft and then suck Earth into a black hole.
“Warp drives are so far the best case scenario to attain faster-than-light travel,” said Stefano Finazzi of Italy’s International School for Advanced Studies. This paper “makes it much harder to realize, if not almost impossible, warp drives.”
In normal physics, nothing can move faster than the speed of light. Einstein’s theory of relativity forbids it. In normal space any object approaching the speed of light will increase in mass exponentially, and require an exponential increase in the amount of power needed to propel it forward.
There are two exceptions to this rule however. The first is what’s commonly called a worm hole, a bridge connecting two different parts of space. A ship crossing this bridge would move at below light speed, but still arrive before a beam of light that would have had to go the long way around.
Warp drives are the second and more appealing option. A ship can’t move through space faster than the speed of light. But with enough energy, space itself can move faster than the speed of light.
Known for the Mexican physicist Michael Alcubierre who originally developed the idea in the 1990’s, an Alcubierre warp drive would create a bubble of energy behind the ship and a lack of energy in front of the ship, like a giant cosmic wave a space ship could surf. That particular section of space can travel faster than the speed of light in the surrounding space, and anything on or in that bubble will accelerate with it.
Finazzi and his colleagues propose creating this bubble of space-time by using a massive amount of “exotic matter,” or dark energy. (Exactly how this bubble would be created is still a mystery.) According to their calculations and simplified, it would take a huge amount of energy to create the bubble, and then increasing amounts of energy to contain the highly repulsive dark energy.
Eventually the energy would run out. The bubble would rupture, with catastrophic effects. Inside the bubble the temperature would rise to about 10^32 degrees Kelvin, destroying almost anything on the bubble.
Anyone watching the ship nearby wouldn’t be much better off.
“We know that the warp drive will be destabilized,” said Finazzi. “But we do not know if it will in the end explode or collapse to a black hole.”
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As the old saying goes, ignorance is bliss.

Think, for instance, about the victims of Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme. You can bet your bankroll that those people were a far sight happier before they received the news that their mountains of money had vanished without a trace. In truth, those folks were never as handsomely rich as they believed, but the perception of wealth probably added a comfortable cushion against life’s little annoyances. Certainly, in the realm of personal finances, the truth can sting. A study published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs found that people tend to overestimate, rather than underestimate, their creditworthiness [source: Trejos]. Those who do miscalculate their financial health end up suffering more due to poor money management.

But in both of those scenarios, the problem wasn’t so much stupidity as it was a lack of awareness. What you don’t know can’t hurt you — that is, until you find out about it. So how about a genuine lack of intelligence? Do smarts come with the added baggage of bad moods? If you know more, are you less able to see the bright side of life?

A 2005 study of intelligence and emotional health conducted at the University of Edinburgh found no correlation between brains and happiness [source: Edelson]. According to the results, greater intelligence acts as a double-edged sword when it comes to happiness. On the one hand, smarter people are better equipped to provide for themselves; on the other, those same people may strive continually to achieve more and be less satisfied with the status quo. At low-income levels, the issue of resource acquisition may make a greater impact on personal happiness, but the effects aren’t long-lasting. Just like the fading bliss of new romance, at some point, the happiness honeymoon ends.
Rather than intelligence, the most salient factor contributing to self-reported happiness in the University of Edinburgh study was quality of life. A bed-ridden genius probably won’t have the same amount of life satisfaction as someone of average intelligence who can still get around. Yet, since quality of life is comprised of many external dynamics, such as geography, education and socioeconomic background, that leaves an important question lingering. If happiness is an internal emotion, what type of internal, innate qualities contribute to it?
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The USB Super Micro-Eye Video Camera will lets you look at objects in detail, it has a lens which feature magnification approximately 40 times that of a microscope lens.
It has 8 built in LEDs so you can look at things in the dark, a frame rate of up to 30fps, and it is compatible with Microsoft Windows Xp, Vista and 2000.
Here are the specifications.
Interface: USB 2.0
Resolution: 640 x 480
Lens: Approximately 40 times microscope lens
Built-in LEDs for illumination (8 LEDs)
LED brightness control
Auto focus from 10mm ~ Infinity
Auto white balance and exposure
Frame rate: up to 30fps
Support System: Windows Vista/XP/2000
Cable length: 130cm
Dimension: 17mm diameter x 112.5 (approx.)
Weight: 65g
The USB Super Micro-Eye Video Camera is available for $54
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Niveus Media has just launched a new HTPC, the Niveus Zone HTPC.
The Niveus Zone measures 6.5 x 6.5 x 1.97 inches, and weighs just 3.2 pounds, you wouldn’t expect a lot from such a small box, but it does manage to cram a fair bit of kit inside.
It comes with a 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, gigabit Ethernet, a slot loading Blu-ray drive, a 160GB hard drive and Intel GMA X4500 HD graphics.
On top of that there is HDMI 1.3, 7.1 channel surround sound, it comes with Windows Vista Home Premium, and a media centre remote.
The Niveus Zone HTPC is available now from Niveus for $1,499.
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Mmm mm m, iriver, you sure know a thing or two about industrial design. Meet the M7 or NV Classic if you prefer, an update to the original iRiver NV only without the massive jogwheel wart. As a navigator, this 181 x 120 x 21.5 device features SiRF GRF3i+ GPS, an SDHC slot for maps, a pair of 1.5-watt speakers for turn-by-turn audio, and a biggie 7-inch 800×480 touchscreen TFT LCD to show you the way. As a media device we’re looking at DMB digital television, support for MPEG1, MPEG4, WMV9, and XVID video, MP3, WMA, OGG, and WAV audio, JPEG and BMP images, and a bundled 4GB SDHC card for storage. Priced for Korea at KRW329,000 which would be right around $248 if it ever came to the US, which it won’t, at least not in this configuration.
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Here is the second generation of the Thanko MP3 Classical Clock, the DX. The alarm clock allows you to select different alarms, or else you can add your favorite MP3 songs or even a sound that you have saved yourself. MP3 Clock DX is currently available at GeekStuff4U for 3850 Yen or equal to $ 40
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The IdeaPad U Series notebook artfully blends the latest technology with fresh, inspiring designs. The U110 notebook has won wide acclaim, including best-of-show honors for notebooks at the 2008 Consumer Electronics Show. And the U330, in textured black with 13.3″ screen, is destined to be tomorrow’s classic. It’s portable, sensibly styled and well-equipped with the latest technologies.

These sleek, smart and ultraportable notebooks promise reliable performance. You’ll also enjoy the latest capabilities you expect from a high-quality, well-engineered Lenovo product. Who says you can’t be stylish, productive and cutting-edge? Now you can have it all and look great doing it.

Express yourself with one of three distinctive designs.

Our IdeaPad U110 features an etched cover in a delicate tendril design and is available in two statement-making colors: an elegant, high-gloss black, or a flashier, eye-grabbing redfor a bold statement.

If you prefer a more understated look and feel, select our new U330 notebook in a texturedbold black.

Other expressive design features on the IdeaPad U Series include:

An innovative Frameless Screen that extends to the very edges of the top cover, like an edgeless swimming pool.

Hidden’, touch-sensitive buttons across the top of the keyboard, including user-defined keys for multimedia.A dynamic, angled shape, clamshell-style cover and special ‘kink’ hinge that puts the display in ideal ergonomic position.

Enable yourself with the latest technology for work and play in a truly ultraportable package. IdeaPad U Series notebooks are one of our lightest notebooks to date starting at just 2.4 lbs., 0.72″-0.88″ thin with 11.1″ and 13.3″ widescreen displays.

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Notebook PCs based on AMD’s notebook gaming platform technology deliver pure adrenaline with the ultimate in HD¹ visual performance. That means Full HD 1080p²playback of Blu-ray movies³ with crisp, vivid HD images and home theater-class sound almost anywhere.

AMD-powered notebooks based on this platform come loaded for Microsoft® and future DirectX® 10.1 3D games—enjoy world-class graphics and a vivid, life-like gaming experience.

Featuring premium wireless technologies from industry leaders, you get greater range and faster data downloads with the latest wireless solutions—including 802.11n—so you can stay connected while on the go.

These superior technologies work together like a well-oiled machine—optimized to create an immersive visual experience with improved graphics performance, fast wireless, and long battery life.

1. High-definition–capable display required
2. 1080p-capable display required
3. Blu-ray drive required
4. Not all ATI Hybrid Graphics Technology features may be available for use with all operating systems.                                    Source [Read More]