4:14 PM
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1137946.html
Programmer tricked the CIA and Pentagon into buying his software after 9/11, which led to a false alert in 2003 that grounded international flights and raised the government's security level. The programmer also allegedly faked software demos and apparently conned the Pentagon into investing in a program that never existed or couldn't do what the developer claimed:
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/12/montgomery-2
The worst of the swine flu outbreak is over in the US, Canada, UK, and some other countries in the northern hemisphere, but there is still intensive flu activity in Egypt, India, and elsewhere in the world:
http://www.physorg.com/news181314833.html
China seems like a perfect country for high-speed rail...HUGE distances to cover, expanding economy, and a relative lack of infrastructure. China is investing $293 billion on a nationwide high-speed, energy efficient rail network...China will by more high-speed rail (6,000 miles) in operation than Europe by 2012:
http://nextbigfuture.com/2009/12/china-high-speed-rail-present-and.html
79-year-old unlicensed pilot-inventor built a blimp in his backyard and got into trouble with the FAA because his last flight ended with the blimp coming down onto a highway and disrupting traffic. The Oklahoma man doesn't have a flying license, medical certificate, or air-worthiness documents for his blimp...but he says that he'll keep flying the blimps that he creates:
http://homelandsecuritynewswire.com/79-year-old-unlicensed-blimp-enthusiast-runs-afoul-faa
The UK ID cards are not being accepted as valid travel credentials for travel in Europe, calling into question the usefulness of the passport alternative:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/23/id_card_travel_confusion/
Nokia expanded its lawsuit against Apple to claim that almost all of Apple's electronic products violate its patents:
http://www.physorg.com/news181314766.html
For Eric--this website came up with a list of the 10 sexiest female nerds of the year. This list includes 3 of Lori's favorite actresses:
http://sexynerd.wordpress.com/2009/03/31/sexy-nerds-of-200900/