The D300s was mounted to the front of the hang glider and fitted with a 10.5mm fisheye lens. A custom hardwired trigger and release mechanism was used to fire both video and stills.

Of course, the $1800 D300s now has some serious semi-pro competition from the $1900 Canon 7D. And the 7D is an 18-megapixel, 1080p video beast. Click through the links above for our in-depth primers. [YouTube via CrunchGear]

Also: Waking Up On Mars: Australia's Bizarre Dust Storm

Sure it's been the lead story on CNN and a big story on Gawker, but there just wasn't enough DIY mechanics or cellphone-related mayhem for us to pounce on this little gem. As a dad, I don't like seeing shit like this, but knowing there's a happy ending made it a bit easier to view. Oops, did I give too much away? [Gawker]

Hairband balladeers from the roaring '80s will be disappointed to learn that holes in the heart previously only able to be filled by some girl who is already dating some other guy can now be filled by a patch made of stem cells. As for the rest of us, we naturally assumed that if stem cells could give Christopher "Butthole" Reeve real Superman strength and build replica's of Shakey's Pizza, well, of course they can patch heart holes. [PopSci]

By March of next year, many British police officers will be handed a smartphone in order to maintain communication while increasing time in the field. It may work, assuming they block like a million distractions. Frankly, the only reason I wanted to even mention this in Remainders was to remind the world of that stroke of British police genius, Hot Fuzz, through Photoshop. It was that or an image of the gmilfy Prime Suspect herself, Helen Mirren. Did I choose wrong? [BBC via Engadget]

Science produces explanations great and small, and finally got around to one we've been waiting for since Heinrich "Coca" Cola invented the fizzy beverage: Why do we love the carbonation? Everyone used to think it was the exploding carbonation bubbles, but sure enough, it's the carbon dioxide itself—you listening, Al Gore???—that sends a message to open up the sour taste buds, delivering a genuine flavor change. Sure, it's not gadget news, but now, when you head out to the bars, you can order beer in the name of science. [Daily Mail UK]

Exhibit A, Woolworths newly redesigned logo, is on the left. Apple's iconic apple logo is on the right. Not that similar at all, but the real issue, at least with Apple, is probably that Woolworths might expand its retail business into electronics and somehow threaten that lucrative iPod business.

"While we can't rule [computers, musical players, or other devices] out, we haven't got any plans at the moment," said a Woolworths spokesman in a statement to AppleInsider.

To Apple's credit, they've moved up from suing school systems to supermarket megachains. Bigger fish, and all that. [AppleInsider]

The name came from a failed case of crowdsourcing on Kraft's part.

Now, obviously this is a name that has nothing to do with the product and looks like a mere exploitation of cliches in digital product nomenclature.The lesson is equally obvious. Even when they're being asked for input or sourced for ideas, consumers want brands to be able execute some level of judgment, filtering out awful ideas at minimum.

Rowan Dean, creative director of advertising agency Euro RSCG, summed it up to The Australian. "The idea of getting the public to create the new name of the product the way they did with the original Vegemite is fantastic. But iSnack 2.0 is totally irrelevant to the iPod, Web 2.0 generation, and if they don't change the brand name it will disappear from the shelves in six months." The original Vegemite name was chosen through a public competition in the 1920s.

In Kraft's defense, iSnack 1.0 would have been a really stupid name. 2.0 is a bigger number, however, and is therefore better. [Ad Age via The Awl]

But I did what any geek would do. I regressed into an excited 10 year old, grabbed the camera, and went out to play in the freakish weather. After 5 minutes of constantly clearing my throat, and noticing that my G9 had started to collect dust, I decided it just wasn't worth it. Having been asleep with a window open meant a little dust was also inside. I switched off my main desktop (it's got a big air-intake fan), and fired up a laptop to find out what the hell was going on.

Big winds had swept the dust from Australia's drought-stricken interior, carrying it hundreds of miles to the east coast. Sydney (with a population of 4.3 million) was most affected, but other cities were, too. In terms of air pollution, particle concentration reached a thickness of about 15,000 micrograms per cubic meter—a normal day here has about 10-20.

Comedian Arj Barker (from Flight of the Conchords) Tweeted this pic: "It's like Dune here in Sydney. This is the giant dust storm we had to land in."

Until winds swept the dust to sea mid-afternoon, flights were canceled, Twitter went crazy, MMS traffic spiked 50 percent, and data centers installed air filters…it was interesting to watch how technology intersected with the bizarre weather.

The dust cloud was the worst in 70 years, and it's still unclear if climate change was to blame. But at the very least, I got a dusty taste of life on Mars for the day (well, sort of). [Sydney Morning Herald]

The man pretty immediately went up in flames, and the officer, recognizing that a man becomes significantly less dangerous once he's on fire, went to the suspect's aid, patting him all over (and getting burned himself) to quell the flames. While the officer tried to help the flammable man, he was hit by rocks thrown by a young woman also on the scene, also presumably high or stupid or both. Both the man and woman, as well as two others, were charged with sniffing a prohibited substance, and the young woman was charged with throwing rocks at a policeman. [Daily Telegraph]

The pitch: these boxes, fashioned like regular ol' vending machines, will eat, clean and smush your recyclable empties, rewarding you for your good deed with coupons, cash credit or vouchers for nearby stores. Your good deed, of course, was that you a) recycled a plastic bottle and b) watched a targeted advertisement on the machine's LCD screen. As of last week, they've been deployed in a few locations in Envirobank's native Australia, but only on a trial basis.

Evirobank claims the machines not only encourage recycling, but reduce carbon emissions by preparing the empties for direct shipment to a recycling depot, bypassing waste processing facilities altogether. I'm not sure that building a massive machine, replete with screens, processors, motors and pumps, results in a net decrease in emissions compared to driving some bottles around, but their hearts are in the right place, and 'details' like that tend to be ignored anyway. [RedFerret]

Priced at a reasonable $122, this (one of a kind? two of a kind? 300 of a kind?) baby croc on a pink bike sculpture will make an inspiring addition to any home. Sure, plop him down as the centerpiece of that Swedish Modern living room. He loves to put on a show for your douchebag friends who couldn't survive for 10 minutes in the Australian outback. [Univenter via NerdApproved]

The plan, which costs $30.5 billion of our U.S. dollars, will rely on a massive infusion of government funds to get the ball rolling on the project, of which the taxpayers will own 51%. It will then be transitioned into a reliance on public sector investment, and the government plans to sell of its stake in the project within five years. It is expected to bring 37,000 jobs to unemployment-hindered Australia,

The one detail not yet decided obviously is pricing—set the price too low, and private telecom companies are pissed; too high, and no one will adopt it. But 90% fiber coverage for a country like Australia is an ambitious play (the other 10% will be served through an upgraded 10mbps satellite service). [NYTimes]

The Australian Communications and Media Authority's blacklist already contains 1370 sites, only 674 of which actually relate to child porn. The others are legal to view for those 18-and-over, but would have been blocked under the censorship proposal – such as an anti-abortion website that showed photographs of allegedly aborted fetuses (Sure, it's gross and unnecessary-but pro-lifers have the right to use those disgusting, low-blow tactics if they want).

Plus, there was no evidence that internet-filtering would have been effective in the first place. Though Communications Minister Stephen Conroy had started trials with six ISPs, the three largest internet providers were not involved, rendering any results from the trials more or less useless.

So, in the end, a combined opposition of the Australian Liberal Party, Greens and two Independent senators laid the smack-down on the "unworkable censorship measures," and now it's not going through. Hurrah! [Sydney Morning Herald via Boing Boing]

The story is actually a bit more complicated than that. Doctors' initial advice was to give up—his amputation was so close to the shoulder that most modern prostheses wouldn't have functioned properly. Lesek traveled to Melbourne (he lives in Tasmania [a real place]) to be fitted with a high-end German unit which, after a year of patchy performance, he abandoned.

Having heard about a metal 'n' bone-implantation technique called osseointegration, Lesek refocused his efforts on the pricey foreign technique. A trip to Sweden and $80,000 AUD (about $50,000 USD) netted him a mechanical "bolt" that provides an approximation of shoulder function—enough to control basic motions on a prosthesis. Existing bolt-compatible units didn't suit his specific work needs or price range, so he decided to start designing and constructing his own robo-arms.

His homebuilt limbs are pretty basic ones (their capabilities end at pointing and basic movements) but he's now working with the University of Tasmania to design a computer—and possibly brain—controlled prosthesis. This kind of tech is moving fast at the moment, but how far he gets with his mind-melded arm remains to be seen. For now, though, he's pretty much the coolest hobbyist in the world. [The Mercury]

UPI reports that the unidentified man, who lives in Frankston, Australia, claims he ate Bubble O'Bill ice cream (pictured above), right before blowing into the breathalyzer, which caused the false positive. Afterwards went before a court asking to have the breathalyzer removed from his car.

The court decided to verify the error with a second test. Without eating the Ice Cream, the man's BAC was .0000. Immediately after taking two bites, it was .0018. The man got his wish, and the breathalyzer was removed. But the larger cause for concern here is what he did to get stuck with the breathalyzer in the first place? And what will he do now that he's no longer shackled to the buzz killer? [UPI via Tech Dirt via Prefix Forums]

But recycling is precisely the point, according to designer Michael Trudgeon. In the Australian outback, where this restroom might have a home someday, water is scarce.

So is space, apparently, given the collapsible design, but we have a hard time believing the outback suddenly became a bustling overpopulated metropolis overnight. If there's anything the outback is not short on, it's vast expanses of dusty nothingness. Nevertheless, this sure beats a wooden outhouse or worse, a simple hole in the ground.

Trudgeon received a Bathroom Innovation Award in '08 for his design, which would be equally at home in Corbin Dallas' futuristic apartment as it would in an Outback Restaurant. [Bathroom Innovation Award
via DVICE]

The construction worker, who refused to give his real name, says that he destroyed nine full pallets of equipment, including MacBooks, Mac Pros, and even innocent Mighty Mice (Mighty Mouses?). He also claims that he tested some of the machines, and that many powered up, proving at the least that their batteries could be salvaged, if not screens and other parts.

Problem is, there's no evidence that any of this stuff was in working order, and the article quotes a secondhand account from another construction worker on Apple's motivations for crushing the computers. That's not exactly the most reliable source. And while, let's be honest, Apple's green campaign is an infuriating example of "greenwashing" and as smug as anything they've ever done, I'm not prepared to accuse Apple of destroying equipment in working order without any hard evidence, on the word of somebody who won't give his real name. Just my two cents. [APC Mag]

Apparently, Android app developers could produce programs that needed a higher screen resolution than what the Agora was destined to have. That meant back to the drawing board for the Kogan team—unless they wanted apps to not work on their phone.

Anyone who pre-ordered an Agora will have their money refunded in full. Hopefully for all our friends down under, it won't take too long for Kogan to find a solution to this regrettable problem. [Gizmodo Australia]

Kogan Agora to be delayed

Melbourne, AUSTRALIA, 16th January 2009 - Kogan Technologies' Agora phone will be delayed indefinitely due to potential future interoperability issues.

Kogan Technologies founder Ruslan Kogan said the phone will undergo a significant redesign in order to ensure its compatibility with all future Android applications.

"The Agora reached a very late stage of development, manufacturing had commenced and we were within days of shipping the product to customers. But it now seems certain the current Agora specifications will limit its compatibility or interoperability in the near future," Ruslan Kogan said.

"One potential issue is that developers may create applications for the Android operating system at a higher resolution and screen size than the Agora provides in its current form.

"I am sorry for this delay, but in the interests of proving the best possible product at the best possible price, I cannot disappoint my customers by supplying a product that I am aware will shortly have significant limitations.

"My priority is to release a phone that will do justice to the Kogan brand and offer great value to our customers. Since the design of the Agora, the Android community has been growing quickly, with new developers setting out their objectives to create a host of feature-rich applications. I now believe that in order to access all the Android platform has to offer, the Agora must be redesigned.

"The Kogan team is already hard at work designing a new phone that will be better suited to the needs of Android application developers and our customers."

All customers who pre-ordered the Agora will receive a full refund.

Ruslan Kogan will continue to blog about and discuss the redevelopment of the Agora at www.kogan.com.au/blog

Everyone has a story about fixing a gadget with tough love, but this is kind of extreme. Depending on your history with flat panel TVs, this video will be either cathartic or nerve-wracking, but with the endless shouting arguments going on in the background, the maniacal glee with which our subject takes a metal bat to his television and the inexplicable success of the whole endeavor, well, it's hard not to feel like you've witnessed something significant. NSFW for language. [NoWhereElse—Thanks, Steve]

I guess it shouldn't be too shocking coming from a country with a Censorship Minister, but this is still pretty ridiculous. Said minister Stephen Conroy posted on his department's blog recently that they were planning to test new filters to block BitTorrent traffic country-wide.

Australians, what do you have to say about this? Why are you electing jackasses like this that are turning your country into a less productive version of China? [Slashdot via News.com.au]