ideonexus writes "At the New York Toy fair, Mattel has announced Computer Engineer Barbie, the doll's 126th career chosen by popular vote. The official announcement (PDF) shows her accessorizing with nerdy glasses, a Bluetooth earpiece, pink laptop, and tee covered in binary digits. The girls-only vote choose 'News Anchor Barbie,' which became Barbie's 125th career, but Mattel decided to add the Computer Engineer version after a viral outpouring of support from female IT professionals."

theodp writes "Kevin Smith is not a happy Southwest customer. The director was thrown off a flight from Oakland to Burbank, after being deemed too fat to fly. He later wound up on another Southwest flight, but has declared It's On and taken his rants to Twitter. 'Dear @SouthwestAir — I know I'm fat, but was Captain Leysath really justified in throwing me off a flight for which I was already seated?' he began. He also let the airline know he'd made it to his destination. 'Hey @SouthwestAir! I've landed in Burbank. Don't worry: wall of the plane was opened & I was airlifted out while Richard Simmons supervised.'"

wisebabo writes "Nathan Myhrvol demonstrated at TED a laser, built from parts scrounged from eBay, capable of shooting down not one but 50 to 100 mosquitos a second. The system is 'so precise that it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted.' Currently, for the sake of efficiency, it leaves the males alone because only females are bloodsuckers. Best of all the system could cost as little as $50. Maybe that's too expensive for use in preventing malaria in Africa but I'd buy one in a second!" We ran a story about this last year. It looks like the company has added a bit more polish, and burning mosquito footage to their marketing.

harrymcc writes "For more than 20 years, Sunnyvale's cavernous, aptly-named Weird Stuff Warehouse has sold an amazing array of salvage and surplus computer products. It's like a tech museum where everything's for sale at bargain-basement prices — from shrinkwrapped Atari 1040ST software to used BetaMAX tapes to 1GB hard drives to mysterious printed circuit boards to Selectric typewriters. I paid a visit to this legendary geek temple and snapped photos of some of the fascinating stuff I came across."

Every great romance starts with a great plan.

The South Australian Environment Department has told farmers that they should use poison gas or even explosives to deal with the out-of-control rabbit population. Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization Invasive Animals chief Professor Tony Peacock, owner of the largest business card ever, says that blowing up rabbits isn't as inhuman as people might think, and has been ranked by the RSPCA as one of the best ways to destroy warrens.

Aryabhata writes "According to scientists, climate change and human activity have allowed bark beetle populations to soar. They decided to fight the beetles by using the 'nastiest, most offensive sounds' that they could think of. These sounds included recordings of Guns & Roses, Queen, Rush Limbaugh and manipulated versions of the insects' own sounds. The research project titled 'Beetle Mania' has concluded that acoustic stress can disrupt their feeding and even cause the beetles to kill each other."

jockeys writes "In a hilarious prank, two Norwegians chased the Google car while wearing spearfishing attire." Remarkable people, the Norwegians aren't they? Beautiful dry suits!

angry tapir writes "Japan's Index Corp. plans to launch an iPhone adaptation of the 'Bowlingual' dog emotion translator. The original device, first offered in 2002 by Takara Tomy, coupled a microphone that goes around a dog's neck with a handheld receiver with LCD screen for the owner. The app can also be used to tweet the 'translation' and a picture."

Hugh Pickens writes "The Raw Story reports that terrorists who want to overthrow the United States government must now register with South Carolina's Secretary of State and declare their intentions — or face a $25,000 fine and up to 10 years in prison. The 'Subversive Activities Registration Act' passed last year in South Carolina and now officially on the books states that 'every member of a subversive organization, or an organization subject to foreign control, every foreign agent and every person who advocates, teaches, advises or practices the duty, necessity or propriety of controlling, conducting, seizing or overthrowing the government of the United States ... shall register with the Secretary of State.'"

Charles Gill and Ryan Knight are facing felony charges for allegedly throwing snow at a plow and an undercover police car. The pair were charged with throwing missiles at occupied vehicles. If convicted, the men face 1-5 years in prison, and a maximum $2,500 fine. In addition to the snowball throwers, a group making snow angels was detained, but no charges were filed.

An anonymous reader writes "Save the planet by blogging. EnergyAustralia and Sydney Water have opened a tender for a family to live rent-free for a year in an energy-efficient house to be built in a 'smart village' in Sydney's west. Smart Village houses are equipped with in-house displays driven by home-area networks connected to the utility's smart grid that has sensors at sub-stations and elsewhere on the network to manage power use. 'The home will provide a real-life laboratory, integrated with the intelligent electricity grid, for testing products that will help minimize energy and water use and greenhouse gas emissions,' EnergyAustralia said."

eldavojohn writes "Prepare to wax (or groan) theological at The Church of Google. The site offers not one but nine proofs (in the loosest sense of the word) that Google is, in fact, the closest thing to god that humans have ever interacted with. The site has Google prayers and a sufficient amount of information to sustain one in becoming a follower of The Church of Google including something no religion can exist without: hatemail!"

Millionaire Karl Rabeder has decided to give away his £3 million fortune because it's made him miserable. "My idea is to have nothing left. Absolutely nothing," he said, "Money is counterproductive – it prevents happiness to come." Rabeder plans on selling all of his properties as well, and giving the money to his microcredit charity, which offers small loans to Latin America and builds development aid strategies to self-employed people in El Salvador, Honduras, Bolivia, Peru, Argentina and Chile.

garg0yle writes "A group of Jedis in England are seeking a new leader after their previous one was forced to step down due to health concerns. Prospective candidates should have a martial arts background and be steeped in the teachings of the Force. I'm assuming you just send your resume to Coruscant to apply?"

A study conducted by researchers at University College London shows that boredom can kill you. The researchers found that people who reported feeling a great deal of boredom were 37 per cent more likely to have died by the end of the study. Martin Shipley, who co-wrote the report said, "The findings on heart disease show there was sufficient evidence to say there is a link with boredom."

An anonymous reader writes "On February 2nd, a group was started entitled 'Can this Onion Ring get more fans than Stephen Harper?', and just a few days later, the group has almost triple as many fans as the Canadian Prime Minister. The group has over 86,000 fans at the time of this writing, and Stephen Harper has only 30,000."

A Polish newspaper, The Gazeta Olsztynska, has mistakenly reported that Pedobear is one of the mascots of the 2010 Winter Olympics. An image of the notorious internet meme, who loves to love children, was shown alongside genuine Olympic mascots Quatchi, Sumi, Miga and Mukmuk to illustrate a feature about the Games.

With the oh-so-dreaded Hallmark holiday on the horizon we are flooded with tips and tricks (mostly designed to sell us things our mates cannot live without) of how to please/capture/sedate the ones we care for. One writer even suggests ways to capture the interest of a geeky girl. That said, what are some of the crazier romantically inspired, geeky V-day stunts or activities that you or someone you know has executed to terrible success or failure?

Jim Henderson, a 62-year-old evangelical Christian, wants to know what people who aren't Christians think of church services, so he created ChurchRater.com. Now he just needs non-Christian "Mystery Worshipers" to go to any church and rate their experience. His Craigslist ad reads in part: "Need people who aren't Christians to review church service...Who: Age 20-35. Do not currently believe Jesus Christ is God. Not mad at Christians. What: Attend a church service (anonymously) and complete a survey." The going rate for a church rater is $50. Henderson says, "We say it's our mission to reach out, including to nonbelievers. So why would we not want them to tell us what they think of our efforts to influence, change or even convert them?"