SPIEGEL Surfs the Web Remixing the Washington Post
The Washington Post's online operation has started a new project that will allow users to " remix " the paper's content. People won't be able to change stories, but they can take them and headlines and repackage them for non-commercial use in creative ways across cyberspace. "Why are we doing this? Because we want to foster innovation , and because we want to see your ideas about new ways of displaying news and information on the Web," reads the paper's introduction on the Post Remix site. Dubbed "mashingtonpost.com" by its creators, the project hopes to highlight the efforts of Web developers while getting out the Post's online offerings to a wider audience. The BBC already has a similar project up and running.
Mind over body
Ever wish you could control your body the way an Indian fakir can? Well, you won't be swallowing poison or walking on hot coals anytime soon, but somebody did come up with 18 handy tips on how to control your body and its functions. For example, you can apparently ease a toothache simply by rubbing ice on the webbed area on the back of your hand between your thumb and index finger. There's also advice on how to hear better in a crowed room, the way to stay under water longer without breathing and even the best way to eliminate the dreaded ice-cream headache simply with your tongue.
The biological camera
A group of genetic engineers at the University of California, San Francisco, have invented a "
bio camera " that uses bacteria from the human gut instead of photo paper. Chris Voigt's lab at UCSF uses genes from photosynthesizing blue-green algae to create a strain of bacteria (E. coli) that reacts to light. A thick bed of the mutant E. coli will take a permanent shadow-image after a long (four-hour) exposure to red light. Since the bacteria are so tiny, the bio camera produces an impressive resolution of 100 megapixels per square inch, which makes it a breakthrough in nanotechnology, even if the invention won't have any commercial use. And if you think this idea of a "living camera" is somehow disgusting or perverse, just remember that humans gaze out with a pair of them every day...
