This way you can know exactly what the speed limit is at all times, even when you've just transitioned from a high speed area to a low speed one that cops like to ticket in. In fact, if this system is good enough, it could be a decent excuse to tell the popos that their speed limit signs were too obscured that even a 30FPS camera couldn't make it out. [Kicking Tires via Oh Gizmo]

[Daily Mail via Neatorama]

Beyond the self-sufficient floor, the club will also sell organic spirits served in polycarbon cups; and the bathrooms will feature a recycled water system for flushing the toilets.

Entry to the club costs about $20, but clubbers who can prove they arrived on foot, bicycle or public transportation will get a free pass (so long as they sign a pledge promising to work towards curbing climate change too, that is). Charalambous hopes to open the club on July 10, with US-based clubs in New York to follow, as part of his Club4Climate campaign. [Evening Standard]

Using an electronic converter sourced from the US, a specialist shop put the mahogany-cased telly back on the airwaves for around $400. They also replaced 13 old capacitators, the brightness control, and added a lead in order to prevent the tube from burning out.

Despite the 21st-century makeover, Mr Howard's set is still not a thoroughly modern telly. It takes 10 seconds to warm up and still emits what he refers to as an "old TV smell" from the warming of the paxolin resin insulators. [Daily Mail]

Yup, you got it: a cartoon robot with a stylized cartoon laser gun pissed off an airport guard so much that Jake had to swap it before flying. He even asked to speak to a security supervisor, who supported the guard and warned Brad not to put the shirt back on or he could be arrested.

A spokesman for the British Airports Authority said "If a T-shirt had a rude word or a bomb on it for example, a passenger may be asked to remove it," and that sounds pretty fair. But this was a cartoon giant gun-toting robot... on a T-shirt, not a detailed photo recreation of a Glock that might be mistaken for the real deal at a quick glance.

Looks like Britain's safe from cartoon robot gun attacks, at least. [The Sun]

The plans for the new database are currently being drafted up and may be proposed for inclusion in the draft Communications Bill later this year. While many of the types of politicians you'd expect are behind it, a number of others are, thankfully, vehemently against it. They're against it not because of the basic violation of citizens' privacy that would come from such an action, however. Instead, they point to the UK government's lousy track record with data security as a security threat great than whatever threats they'd be stopping by being able to look up those emails of you flirting with the girl you met at the office Christmas party. It's another really strong argument against giving governments overreaching powers to spy on their citizens.

Hopefully, the people of England will get properly angry and vocal against this plan, keeping it from ever becoming a reality. The next step, after all, will be the thought police, and at that point it's really too late. [BBC via Boing Boing]

The cameras, which record traffic coming from both the front and the back, mounted on the lollipop lady's cap, and attached to an Archos portable DVR, have been developed by a British firm, Routesafe. Several local authorities have invested in the technology to counter the increasingly aggressive behavior on British roads.

"It's unbelievable that we have to take this action," says the chairman of the Local Government Association's transport board, "but the lives of children are at risk from increasing numbers of drivers who are so selfish that they are willing to put lives at risk by refusing to stop for 30 seconds at a school crossing." Miscreants will be fined the sterling equivalent of $2,000 and be given three points on their licenses.

All of this raises the question: what is next for the CCTV state that Britain has become? I'm betting on Bathroom attendants with cameras to make sure you don't abuse the soap or toilet paper, and school dinner ladies with serving-spoon cams that make sure that "ver kidz" are eating their greens. [Daily Mail]

Now, where was I? Ah yes, in a pod somewhere in Tunbridge Wells, England. f the claims of the Alpha-Oxy peeps are to believed, this is what an hour or so in a disco pod will bestow upon you.

Relaxation, weight loss, energy, pain relief, body wraps, massage, skin care, sleep, meditation and detoxification. A session will rejuvenate and relax you, reduce stress, increase circulation, detoxify your body, reduce cellulite, relieve pain, improve your sleep and generally pamper you back to vibrant health.

The Navy boys look so relaxed—and just look at the size of that shiny bomb. [Daily Mail and Burham-on-Sea]

Carphone Warehouse has its own telecoms arm, Talk Talk, which provides broadband for landlines, and started offering free lappies to residential customers last year. "You fast-forward this three or four years," says Harrison, "and it is a world where no one ever buys a laptop again but just expects it as part of their deal with their broadband provider or part of their monthly fee. They get a laptop and 18 months later they get a new one."

The 37-year-old sees the laptop market as an extension of the cellphone market. "Everything that everybody told me about the mobile phone, I can see happening with the laptop," says Harrison. "I get people saying to me 'you will not get a builder on a building site getting a laptop out' and I say 'you would have said the same thing about a mobile phone 10 years ago'."

I'm not sure whether this would work for me. Firstly, I'm not particularly keen on being wired up to the web the whole time. Secondly, I use a Mac, and I can't really see Steve signing up to this. Thoughts? [Guardian Online]

The weirdest part of all of this is that 20 years ago, when Frank and his family moved into their house in the British resort town of Blackpool, they were plagued by paranormal behavior. Doors were slammed, bedclothes pulled off the kids while they slept, taps were turned on—and all this was put down to a malevolent presence called "The Thing."

So, the Joneses called in Blackpool's answer to Ghostbusters, the Fleetwood Spiritualist Church, who cleansed the property of The Thing, according to them a spirit "trapped between two worlds." For five years everything was A-OK until the family was hit by a double tragedy: first the death of son Steven, then Sadie just three months later. After she was buried, the weirdness returned.

Shortly after his wife's death, Frank claims to have had a missed call on his mobile, which didn't ring. "The call was from my own home number, but there was nobody in the house," he explains. "When I went inside there was a smell like cigarettes which Sadie used to smoke and the smell of her perfume." The 59-year-old also claims that his late wife has been sending them all SMSes from beyond the grave. "There have been messages with words Sadie would say but there's no number." [The Register]

The boys in blue made a beeline for 19 businesses situated on the Blackstock Road, a crime hotspot that, coincidentally or not, is just round the corner from the mosque where extremist preacher Abu Hamza used to preach from. Premises raided included a butcher's shop, internet cafe and greengrocer's.

The raid was not just about cellphones, however—although T-Mobile claims that 40 percent of its stolen phones go on to be used in the Blackstock Road area. Some of the other charges leveled against the suspects include drug dealing, money laundering and selling fake documents.

And the reason for 600 woodentops? Well, a bit like the Kaiser Chiefs, officers predicted a riot, so they sent an entire regiment of men down there. Seventy men were arrested, 300 stolen mobiles recovered, as well as (deep breath) 120 laptops, 110 cameras, 32 iPods and 20 satnavs. Oh, and 47 forged passports and driving licenses. I heart London. [Daily Mail]

I guess we are coming to the end of the early iPhone era. But Coupland, the author of Microserfs and Generation X, moves onto another, more disturbing theory: that gadgets make morons of us all.

I remember in the 80s when cellphones first started to pop. I remember how, if you saw someone using a cellphone on a street, you immediately thought they were an asshole: gee, my phone call is so important I have to make it right here and right now! Twenty years later, we're all assholes. We're assholes at the supermarket's meat counter at 5:30pm, phoning home to ask if we need prosciutto; we're assholes driving in traffic; and we're assholes wandering down the streets. And with cellphones and handhelds, we collapse time and space and our perception of distance and intimacy.

He's modded it to shoot rubber-tipped railway sleepers at criminals. And in spite of the police's stance, the 70-year-old is standing firm. "I'm not out to kill anyone or even hurt them," he says. "I just want to keep yobs off my land."
Signs up at the entrance to Watson-Webb's flooring business warn of the fate that will befall anyone who attempts to get onto the Nottinghamshire property. SmartPoo, it seems, is no laughing matter. "This is a serious issue. People all over Britain are sick and tired of feeling like prisoners in their own homes and seeing yobs get away with it."
After trying just about every security product on the market—fencing, motion-sensor lights and CCTV cameras—the 70-year-old is unrepentant, and has pooh-poohed the attitude of the law. "Maybe the police think I'm joking, but the only people laughing are the criminals. That's why I fully intend to take the law into my own hands." [Daily Mail]

(As the headline suggests, this doesn't end well.)

When the man arrived back home, Vodafone actually called his firm to alert him of the huge data charge coming in the mail—all £11,000 of it—based upon some sort of punishing out-of-network rate from the Germany portion of the downloads (despite the fact that Germans using Vodafone don't pay £11,000 phone bills every month).

Given that this isn't the first time mobile carriers have exploited their Europe-trotting customers, the European Union commissioner is giving wireless companies until July 1st to justify exorbitant cross-boundary charges.

We wish Vodafone the best of luck in their great time of difficulty. [telegraphuk]

Designed to be lightweight, the J-Tas gadgets still pack in military-precision GPS, thermal imaging, and an eye-safe laser range-finder. The UK Ministry of Defense has just put 700 of them on order for a cool $60 million, and they'll be in service from 2009. [MOD]

"People have been waiting a long time to move into the Hi-Def era and now they have the confidence that this is going to be the format," claimed Rowe, whose cheapest Blu-ray player, the Samsung BD-P1400/XEU, costs just under $400.

But don't expect a slew of discounted HD-DVD movies just yet. "There are no real plans for us to slash prices on the disks," says Stuart. "A lot of people have the players and collectors will keep buying them for the time being." [T3]

Yuri Suzuki's design uses a Post-It pad to mark out the frequencies of pirate radio stations that caught her ear while living in North London. "My radio enables you to make notes about the radio station and mark its position," she says. "The radio looks like a memo pad, but underneath is a speaker; the pencil acts as the antenna that controls tuning and volume."

Yuri feels there is a connection between graffiti artists and pirate radio stations, as both are art forms that hack into public spaces. Her Future Pirate Radio lets you tune into pirate radio via QR codes. First, the graffiti artist stencils a QR code onto the wall, incorporating it into their work. Anyone who takes a picture of the graffiti will then be able to tune into the pirate radio station that inspired the artist via the internet.

Finally, Jochem Faudet's work consists of a pair of radios whose controls are grouped together in order to make it easier to use. Actually, it's rather complicated, so here's Jochem's own explanation.
"Radio 1: All the tuning and volume functions are grouped around the speaker. The On/Off switch and volume function is situated closest to the speaker. The AM/FM switch is situated at the end of the tuning circle, by flicking the switch down it points to the FM numbers situated on the outside of the circle or by flicking the switch up it points to AM numbers on the inside of the tuning semi-circle.

"Radio 2: The tuning function and volume function are separated from each other in this concept. To adjust the volume one has to turn the wheel with the integrated speaker, by sliding the AM/FM switch to FM it hides the frequencies of the AM and vice versa."

Nope, still too complicated for me, I'm afraid. [Dezeen]

On top of an aluminum body sit 4,638 dots that can turn from silver to black in one quick flick. Beneath that lies two electronic drivers, 134 distribution boards and over 16,500 feet of cable. Controlling the flip-dots was harder than normal, however, and Pharos Architectural Controls, a company which develops electronic controllers for lighting applications, had to fiddle around with the control parameters and rewrite firmware on the drivers.

I like the flicka-flicka noise as the Cloud changes color—It reminds me of the old-skool arrivals and departures boards in airports before everything went TV monitor-tastic. Terminal 5 opens on March 27 of this year, and if you're flying into London via BA, don't forget to look up as you hit the down escalator. [YouTube and Troika]

Much like normal tape, the adhesive goodness can be used pretty much anywhere you want, but this type specifically has an artistic value, allowing you to create your own messages, profanities and primitive pictures, which can then be used to decorate your abode. Prices range from £5-£7 ($10 - $14), but can't you just get some nice wallpaper instead? [Technabob]

Government scientists at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory in Porton Down, Wiltshire, are behind the breakthrough. Ion-Mask is a protective layer that bonds to the device using a plasma, or electronically charged gas, and its chemical properties allow oil and water to be repelled easily. Originally developed for treating soldiers' uniforms to repel toxic vapors and liquids in chemical or biological attacks, the technology will be used to protect devices thought to be too small to be fitted with waterproof seals, such as mobiles and MP3 players.

As well as covering the devices, Ion-Mask is versatile enough to be able to coat individual components, in order to up the level of protection. Having an Ion-Mask device might help lower insurance rates for cellphones too, as more than 1.2 mobiles were lost in 2006 to toilets, drinks and washing machines. [Telegraph]

Traveling in the UK, we were appalled by such invasion of privacy, but the Brits seem to be getting used to it. But not the MAD group. They plan to increase their camera destruction activities this summer, vowing to take down every one of the things in the entire country. Drivers who are not actively slam-dunking the camera boxes will be encouraged to cover up their license plates on certain days, too, in a mass act of passive-aggressive civil disobedience. There's something sneaky about these cameras that we just don't like, and we wish these disobedient citizens well. Let's just hope nobody gets hurt. [Speedcam]

I can understand how they might be livid, but are super anal-retentive rules like this more necessary than we might think? Fluorescent bulbs contain mercury after all, and we all know that represents an element of danger. However, Nick Harvey, the Commission spokesman, said nothing of mercury in his response. Instead, he noted that the guidelines were necessary, because "there had been an incident where a light bulb had been broken and placed in a waste paper bin. Someone had picked it out and cut their finger." So it appears that a portion of the commission's £144 million budget is spent on boo-boo prevention. Nice. [Telegraph via NTDWA via Boing Boing]

The plan would call for massive wind turbines that would reach 850ft in the air to grab the good stuff so each of these generators could produce enough power for 8,000 homes.

Of course, an 850ft turbine is quite visible. And it means that the UK coastline may lose its scenic beauty. There's really no way to have your eco cake and eat it to. That's why we use hamster wheel generators for everything in the Wilson household. You get renewable energy and cuddly friends/an emergency food supply. [timesonline][image]

Adjoining the site for Shuttleworth's "pleated" structure is the 202-foot-high Monument to the Great Fire of London. When its shadow falls across the roof garden's dial, you will be able to tell the time.

The monument, currently undergoing restoration, was erected in 1677 by Sir Christopher Wren, the architect who redesigned London following the 1666 fire which destroyed most of the Medieval-era city. [Daily Mail]

Tony Sale, the man behind Colossus' restoration, had just a few old photos to go on when he started on the project 14 years ago. One of the reasons that the machine, which contains over 2,000 valves, is so fast, is because it was a single-purpose processor rather than one with multiple uses, like modern computers. Of the two teams, he is unsure which one will win the Cipher Challenge.

"A virtual Colossus written to run on a Pentium 2 laptop takes about the same time to break a cipher as Colossus does," he said. The original machine could break codes in a matter of hours, and was instrumental in the Allies' eventual victory, shortening the war by an estimated 18 months.

"It was extremely important in the buildup to D-Day," reckons Mr Sale. "It revealed troop movements, the state of supplies, state of ammunition, numbers of dead soldiers—vitally important information for the whole of the second part of the war." Today's messages will be scrambled using a Lorenz SZ42 machine, the same used by German high command back in the '40s. [BBC News and 24 Hour Museum]