Folks fret about the denatured urban landscape but we are pretty lucky around these parts. In our little corner of where Lake Ontario pours into the St. Lawrence I've seen a stone's throw (not that I tried) from the shore, other than the crows, mallards and ring-bill gulls, kingfishers, mergansers …

Tony Blair, fresh from victory at the polls is taking on a new enemy - the hoodie:  •  “Britain has a new public enemy: the teenager in a hooded sweatshirt. Hoods, no longer just an adolescent fashion statement, lie at the centre of a debate over what many people, including Prime Minister Tony …

We went to two zoos over the weekend. Both are legacies from the best part of 100 years ago of communities creating exotic educational assets. Both are well into a shift away from mere collections of animals for your gawking pleasure to having a something of a greater purpose. At Watertown, NY, in …

Ornithologically speaking this is very neato - though it is also admittedly perhaps an invitation to junior high locker room humour. No mention in the scientific journals as to the white to dark meat ratio.

I saw this on Metafilter - a gun that fires computer chips to track your movement as it also takes a photo of you. Time for you all to read my thesis on high-speed automated biometric surveillance cameras if you have any doubts about the reality of this stuff.  •  Remember: the robots will attack …

Here is Hitachi's entry into the robot WARS!!! race and one that points out an actual use for the Segway concept. Why have all those chunky walking technology worries like nightmarish future soldier Honda's Asimo.  •  Hitachi had a press conference introducing them yesterday:  •  “Two wheel-based …

The European Patent Office has it right - you cannot scoop up someone else's culture and claim an intellectual property interest in it:  •  “EPO initially granted the patent to the US Department of Agriculture and multinational WR Grace in 1995. But the Indian government successfully argued that …

The BBC reports that five percent increase in fuel costs would ensure 10% green power for the UK:  •  “During the 2003/4 financial year, the amount of electricity generated from inexhaustible natural resources was 2.4%, just over half the target of 4.3%. The government hopes to double the amount … read more »

Robots. When I am an old man, robots will bust down the door and steal all my food in tubes.  •  Asimo is now 1.3 metres tall. Soon he will be 2.3 metres tall and look down on us all.