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stylemessiah writes "The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer. This was developed to address the high cost of cells and in particular for the world's poorest regions. She wanted to give the ~2 billion people around the world who don't have electricity the gift of light and cheap energy. This could have profound (and a good profound) implications for education and health in those in the poorest regions in the world. And it all started with her parents giving her a solar energy kit when she was 10..."

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stylemessiah writes "The winner of several Eureka Science Awards in Australia is a crafty chick who devised a way to create solar cells cheaply using a pizza oven, nail polish and an inkjet printer. This was developed to address the high cost of cells and in particular for the worlds poorest regions. She wanted to give the @2 billion people around the world who dont have electricity the gift of light and cheap energy. This could have profound (and a good profound) implications for education and health in those in the poorest regions in the world. And it all started with her parents giving her a solar energy kit when she was 10..."

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longacre writes "Following in the footsteps of DARPA's Urban Challenge, in which robotic vehicles had to navigate a complex obstacle course without human intervention, the UK upped the ante with its own Ministry of Defence Grand Challenge: within a mock enemy village, robots were instructed to find potential targets and make distinctions between armed troops, roadside bombs and snipers. The winning entry, Team Stellar's SATURN system, actually consists of three vehicles: a low level drone and a tracked ground vehicle transmit reconnaissance data to a high-altitude robotic relay aircraft, which proceeds to phone that data home to a central processing center. Upon announcing the winner yesterday, MoD said they are "carefully considering if technologies demonstrated in the final can be incorporated into future frontline kit for the Armed Forces. It is possible that the winning team will have invented a product that can be developed rapidly for the front line.""

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by Molly McCall

So, it was all a fake. The so-called Bigfoot hunters of the north Georgia woods cobbled together bogus DNA samples and stuffed an oversized gorilla suit into a freezer. Nice going, guys.

However, not all was lost on this bum hoax of a tale. A lot of people got their Halloween costume ideas early this year.

Since word hit that the Bigfoot discovery was a big fat lie, demands for "bigfoot costume" and "deluxe sasquatch costume" have hoofed it up the Buzz. Even "gorilla costumes" has enjoyed a swing across the Search box. Extra candy to anyone who incorporates the ice box into their hairy get-up.

Of course, Sasquatch-seekers aren’t the only ones thinking ahead to October. Over the past seven days, lookups have spiked for costumes depicting fairies, Lara Croft, Tinkerbell, and the Joker.  But no Caped Cruasader. Apparently, Bigfoot beats Batman at this point in the game.  

by Mike Krumboltz

Think Harry Potter is over the hill? Think the boy wizard no longer garners fanaticism among his fans? Think again, muggle!

Upon hearing that Warner Bros. would delay the release of the sixth film from November to June, fans turned to the Web to voice their displeasure in ALL CAPS. Warner Bros., eager to keep the herd of angry nerds from storming its gates, quickly responded.

The president of the studio, Alan Horn, released a statement explaining that the decision was not taken lightly, and even pointed out a silver lining. With the sixth film, "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince," pushed back until June, fans won't have to wait as long between it and the seventh (and final) flick, scheduled for a November 2010 release.

As far as silver linings go, this one is stretching it, especially if the last film gets delayed as well. But the fact that a studio president responded to online grumbling is, in and of itself, news.

Various stories focusing on the delay cast a spell over the Buzz, including this cheeky item from Defamer. For anyone who wants to read Mr. Horn's full letter, MovieWeb has a copy of the entire missive. And, for the hardcore Harry worshipers, CNET reports that Scholastic will sponsor an all-day read-a-thon of the boy wizard's first adventure. The event will be broadcast live on the Web on September 23 (barring any delays).

jdb2 writes with the (honestly labeled) rumor from the Inquirer "that Nvidia is preparing to release an x86 microprocessor with its guns targeted directly at its two major rivals — Intel and AMD/ATI," and excerpts from the just-linked Inquirer article: "THE HOT RUMOR going around IDF ... [is] that the company will do an x86 part. The background whispers say that the part will be announced next week at Nvision ... Nvidia's men in white coats certainly have the brainpower to do it, but they also most certainly don't have a license to sell such a part. NV is basically locked out unless Intel and AMD both decide to be magnanimous, and we would not recommend holding your breath waiting for this to happen ... That leaves the lawsuit option open ... Any attempt to enter the market without a license would bring down Intel legal on them like flying monkeys blackening the sky. It would get ugly. Really ugly. Expensive too.""

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twljagflba writes "Since last year AMD has made ATI increasingly Linux friendly by releasing 3D programming guides and helping out the open-source community. At the same time they have been continuing to develop their binary Catalyst driver for the Linux platform and most recently they delivered same-day support for their new graphics cards. Today though they have released the Catalyst 8.8 Linux driver that adds two very important features: CrossFire and OverDrive support for Linux. Linux users are now able to use CrossFire to split the rendering workload between multiple GPUs and they're also able to overclock their graphics cards now using the binary-only driver. Phoronix has a complete run-down on both features — including benchmarks — in their AMD OverDrive on Linux and ATI Radeon CrossFire On Linux articles. Other features were also introduced in this update such as Linux 2.6.26 kernel support, Adaptive Anti-Aliasing, and other fixes."

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by Claudine Zap

...Mum's the word. Political junkies are getting nada from Barack Obama on his VP selection. According to the New York Times, "Mr. Obama had not notified his choice - or any of those not selected - of his decision as of late Monday, advisers said." But even if advisors' lips are sealed, that doesn't stop searchers from vetting their own candidates. Surging today: "potential running mates," "obama vice president," and "obama running mate."

...So give us a name. While "joseph biden" (+287%) is getting respectable interest, Kathleen Sebelius shot up an even more impressive 551%. The governor of Kansas is considered a more daring choice to share the ticket.

... Mack’s pick. Though not as imminent an announcement, searches are big on the John McCain veep selections as well, with "mitt romney," "tim pawlenty, " and "mccain vice president" each lighting up the Buzz. 

...Conspicuously absent today: Hillary Clinton, a top choice for Obama's number two, according to recent polls. The ex-presidential candidate has been running at the top of search for the last 30 days.

The Sony VAIO FW139E/H is a 16.4" semi-desktop replacement notebook configured with an Intel Core 2 Duo P8400, which runs at 2.26GHz with a Front Side Bus speed of 1066MHz, 3GB of DDR2-800 RAM, an ATI Mobility Radeon HD 3470 dedicated graphics card, and a 250GB HDD. This model is one of the first VAIO FW models to come out and is meant to be sold at retail stores.

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