After Heene's wife confessed to her part in his grand hoax, we knew that punishment would come. Sadly it's in the form of a mere 20 days of jail for Mayumi Heene and 30 days for Richard Heene. Mr. Heene will also be serving an additional 60 days in a work release program and four years of probation during which he is forbidden from "profiting from the Balloon Boy hoax."

I sincerely doubt that this is the last we'll hear of Heene, but let's enjoy the four years of quiet, shall we? [TMZ]

We heard that they "did it for the show," but now we have more than Falcon Heene's slip up to go on as his mother has confessed to authorities not only that she and her husband were lying as Falcon hid inside their home, but also that they've coached their kids to lie about the incident.

This is probably not gonna help shake those criminal charges. [Reuters]

Authorities haven't said what the charges will be, exactly, but here's hoping whatever they are they involve this asshat paying back every cent he owes the authorities after they chased down that now infamous—and empty—Mylar balloon over Colorado. At least.

Lest you doubt this is actually going to happen, know that police searched the Heene home early Sunday morning. They also scheduled a 1 p.m. EST press conference, where they will update us all on what's going down. "We anticipate criminal charges will be filed sometime in the near future," said Sheriff Jim Alderden in an interview with CNN this morning.

You wanted publicity, Richard? You got it.

Update: Reader John's supplied us with the 911 call from that fateful day, if that's your thing. [CNN, Gawker]

Today, we spoke with a Denver-area student who claims to have worked with Falcon's father, Richard Heene, on a reality show proposal for ABC.

The student wants to sell the information and says the National Enquirer is considering buying it for between $5,000 and $8,000.

The student claims to have been hired by Heene, and says the two worked together from March until May 2009 to prepare "business plans and proposals" to pitch to ABC.

Here's what the seller says the documents prove:

"The show surrounds scientific experiments and controversial pranks, and one of the pranks within it — actually several of the things within this document — talks about very similar information to what is being debated on the air."

The seller adds:

"When Mr. Heene is denying having any involvement with this being for a show — when the little kid, Falcon, says 'Dad, you said to go hide in the attic, we're doing this for the show' — and then he's adamantly denying that, that's when I started cracking up because I have proof that that's not true."

The student says Heene never paid for the work, which took more than 15 hours. The student emailed him/herself the proposal as a record and doesn't believe Heene knows the seller has the information.

"I never would have thought it would become valuable, but at this time, this is kind of the evidence that they're looking for," the seller says.

"I'm a student, you know, so if I can get my rent paid from this it'd be awesome."

If you want to buy the proof, let us know, and we'll put you in touch with the seller.

After his girlfriend dumped him, Joseph W. Shepherd of Lockport, NY decided to go onto some British forums and whine that he was going to kill himself. The power of the internet kicked in as some concerned readers contacted Interpol London, Interpol London contacted Interpol DC, Interpol DC contacted the New York State Police Intelligence Center (NYSIC) in Albany, and they in turn sent some local authorities to Shepherd's door:

Troopers interviewed Shepherd who was found in good health and obviously not deceased nor injured in any way. Further investigation revealed that the entire suicide on camera was a hoax.

Further investigation was required that the suicide was faked? The fact that Shepherd was alive wasn't enough of a tip-off?

In the end, he was charged with Second Degree Aggravated Harassment and Third Degree Falsely Reporting an Incident. No explanation on why he's the one getting charged for the false incident report.

No matter what, I'm happy that at least this bit of WTF news didn't come from Florida. [WKBW]

Photo by rafael_mizrahi

Both BBC News and the science publication PhysOrg had takes on this, and the company itself has a website that appears to be legit, or at least not funny enough to be a joke. Still, the only "product" we see in multiple images is an unmistakable sheet of tin foil. OK, supposing I bite, here's the scientific description, from PhysOrg:

FFL technology is a carefully designed assembly of thin, conducting and insulating, materials resulting in the development of a flexible laminate, which when excited by an electrical signal will vibrate and produce sound.

The speaker laminate operates as a perfect piston resonator. The entire diaphragm therefore radiates in phase, forming an area source. The wave front emitted by the vibrating surface is phase coherent, producing a plane wave with very high directivity and very accurate sound imaging.

To me, this means that it vibrates like a traditional speaker, but only in the tighter wavelengths. (It does not behave like some new speaker technologies do, by producing electrical charges that excite nearby air molecules, thereby making sound without vibrating.)

So how can this thing create deep bass? Admittedly, the company site only promotes the technology for use in cars and conference rooms, presumably as some kind of teleconferencing system.

It's really really hard not to just call BS on this, especially with those hilariously serious pictures. Anyhow, stay tuned, because if they ever release something that looks like actual hardware, I'll be sure to write more about it. [PhysOrg and BBCNews via DVice]

Here's Pear Cable CEO Adam Blake's response received by Don, a member of the forum at DIY Mobile Audio:

Hello Don,

Nice to hear from you. Yes, by now we have heard about this challenge (although we were never contacted directly). Unfortunately, like most offers of $1 million this one is a hoax. While James Randi is claiming to offer a $1 million dollar prize to differentiate between these speaker cables, by reading the official rules of the challenge, it becomes immediately clear that the offer is not valid. One must be able to "demonstrate any psychic, supernatural or paranormal ability" in order to qualify. Since there is a wealth of scientific information explaining the differences between speaker cables, the offer is not a valid one (and James Randi knows it).

While we publish a frequency response plot demonstrating the differences between cables on our own website here: http://www.pearcable.com/sub_product...cyresponse.htm, there are also independant measurements and data that can be found for example here: http://www.audiodesignline.com/howto...leID=201807390 In addition, the High School eductated James Randi who claims to have consulted unnamed experts on the matter makes unsubstantiated claims that our science is junk. Unfortunately true experts do not agree. For example, despite his claims that RFI is not a problem in speaker cables, according to publications by the Amateur Radio Relay League, RFI has been documented as a known problem that can exist in speaker cables.

In addition, according to the editor of Stereophile magazine John Atkinson, James Randi has completely fabricated the statements about Atkinson made in this "challenge". Furthermore, another audiophile who goes by the moniker "Wellfed" on the AudioAsylum forums, says he tried to take the challenge twice for what I consider a more dubious audio tweak (the GSIC chip), but was denied the opportunity and was lied to by the Randi Foundation. Finally, according to these forum posts: http://www.talkaboutaudio.com/group/...es/719041.html at least one person has tried to take the "challenge" previously to show that they could differentiate between loudspeaker cables and they were denied by Randi who said "Wire is not wire. I accept that".

So, at the end of the day we have claims made by a high school educated retired magician, which are refuted by independent studies and publications conducted by experts. Most importantly, James Randi's "challenge" is backed by nothing. Many audiophiles have already expressed interest in taking the challenge, but they are barred by the contest rules unless they are part of the media. And, in the past, Randi denied audiophiles the chance to take the "challenge" with regard to differentiating between speaker cables.

At Pear Cable we publish objective measurements to demonstrate the improved fidelity of our cables. In addition, we publish reviews and opinions that are based on both blind and non-blind testing. In fact, the comments made by Richard from the Bay Area Audiophile Society on the Comice Silver Interconnects were the result of a blind test he conducted.

We have not yet put together an official response to this joke of a "challenge", so we are not currently participating in the many conversations going on in audio forums as we speak. In any case, I hope you find the above to be informative.

Sincerely,

Adam Blake

Another analyst, from the Center for Defense Information, says at best its blast is just 50 percent bigger than our MOAB. The list just keeps going: It wasn't dropped from a bomber (as implied in the video, but check the cut when the bay doors open), but probably shoved out the side of a cargo plane, which is almost kind of cute in its quaintness. But regardless of its actual size or power, we still wouldn't want one dropped in our backyard. [Wired]

As Err the Mooninite flipped the middle finger in an obviously menacing way at passersby, paranoid citizens figured that this was some kind of bomb, and triggered a gigantic fraidy-cat response of police, security officials and politicians. WTF?

The crude moon man devices were all part of a marketing campaign instigated by the Adult Swim network, part of Turner Broadcasting, which apologized for the incident. Looks like the promotion worked.

Even though the devices were distributed in 10 different cities, Boston was the only one that responded with such fearful enthusiasm. Boston officials, on the lookout for terrorist threats, were obviously not familiar with the television show Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

As they communicated among themselves, they quickly determined there were numerous light boards of identical design distributed throughout the city. "It had a very sinister appearance," Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley told reporters. "It had a battery behind it, and wires."

The light boards were placed in their public locations by Peter Berdovsky, a freelance video artist, and Sean Stevens, both employed by Turner Broadcasting for the stunt. Now the two are in jail, charged with disorderly conduct, and also for "placing a hoax device in a way that results in panic."

It's hard to believe that a harmless device such as this would cause a reaction similar to that of the apes in 2001: A Space Odyssey—creeping up to the monolith, nearly paralyzed with fear, touching it and jumping back in horror. Be afraid. Be very afraid. That's life in the 00s. – Charlie White

Two held after ad campaign triggers Boston bomb scare [CNN]

The device was invented by Dr. Ming Fang, whom we suspect is the proud holder of a doctorate in economics. One thing's certain: whoever plunks down the $112.68 for this will be less wealthy as soon as they place the order. There's also a high probability that those fortune-telling gadget buyers and the rest of their money will be soon parted. You heard it here first. – Charlie White

Product Page [IWantOneOfThose.com, via Shiny Shiny]

Thank goodness we have the ZeroPA to protect us from getting killed by a list of cancers and horrific things as long as your arm. Just look at them, they're all listed right there on the company's website. The ZeroPA blocks 95% of those murderous electromagnetic waves, keeping you safe and drying your "hiar" at the same time. However, we're a little skeptical of a product whose wordsmiths can't spell the word "hair." – Charlie White

Product Page [Unix Electronics, via treehugger]

It is possible and rising has not changed and is visible about that, but It reached the point where it is visible in the spirit? feeling which is small considerably, tightens. In addition and to cope a little in cooling, with this completely last kana.

UPDATE: Man enough to admit when I'm wrong? You betcha!

This G4 Cube in a G5 Case is not only real, but it's from last April.

G5 Cube

UPDATE - Oh, I'm sorry. I just discovered THIS!

UPDATE 2 - Dr. Gendlin laid his patent numbers one me, and guess what? They exist—and even bear the titles he named.
Memory material and method of its manufacture
Non-volatile record carrier with magnetic quantum-optical reading effect and method for its manufacture
Thin film composite having ferromagnetic and piezoelectric properties comprising a layer of Pb-Cd-Fe and a layer of Cr-Zn-(Te or Tl)
Method of manufacturing a non-volatile random accessible memory device
Memory material and method for its manufacture

Plus, he showed me photographs from 2003 of his chip manufacturing plant, CompuTechnics, based in Malaysia. There were photos of the good doctor surrounded by Malaysians in white clean room outfits, and one of him cutting the ribbon on a clean room shower. He claims the Israeli government is backing him to open a $3.5 billion chip manufacturing plant in Singapore this March.

Another award in the cabinet that I couldn't figure out turned out to be an Archimedes medal from Russia.