Cynthia "Cindy" Economou had no idea taking Karl Lambert's foot would end up being such a big deal, after all it wasn't even attached when she took it. Now Lambert is suing the paramedic for taking his severed foot from the scene of his crash to train her body recovery dog. From the article: "'It was an unrecognizable mass of flesh,' Economou said. 'It wasn't a clean cut. You couldn't even recognize it as a foot....If I had thought it was somehow reattachable and usable, I would have gone to my commander.'"

carusoj writes "Nathan Myhrvold, Microsoft's first CTO, made his mark in the tech world. Now he's cemented his place in the world of cooking and food science with the publication of a groundbreaking six-volume, 2,438-page cookbook. Some of the techniques in Myhrvold's Modernist Cuisine are intimidating, to put it mildly, calling for such daunting ingredients as liquid nitrogen and equipment such as centrifuges and rotor-stator homogenizers. But Myhrvold and his co-authors insist that the majority of recipes can be made in a conventional home kitchen — with a few recommended, inexpensive extras such as a digital gram scale and water bath for sous vide cooking." Dear Bosses: When you see the centrifuge on my March expense report, please note that this is a legitmate business expense. If you're still curious, we ran a story a couple years ago on Nathan's Kitchen Lab.

I've always loved generative music, and this guy used Pi as the basis for his composition. I'm not saying it's as good as Lady Gaga or Justin Bieber or something, but it's a great way to get ready for Pi day which is tragically still not a federal holiday. Write your congressman.

The new $39.5 million Fountaindale Public Library features: flat-screen TVs, video games, self-checkout stations, a variety of e-readers, and a cafe. Library officials say the new facility is a blueprint for libraries of the future, and will focus on using new technologies. From the article: "The Fountaindale Public Library, with its state-of-the-art, Wi-Fi equipped space, is starkly different from the previous antiquated library, a nearby one-story brick structure built in 1975 that awaits the wrecking ball. Officials are hopeful the new facility attracts a demographic libraries haven't seen in a number of years — young professionals."

Part public information forum and part MacGyver home improvement page, Showusyourlongdrop highlights some of the best makeshift toilets in Christchurch, NZ. In addition to be able to view some unappreciated works of ingenuity, visitors to the website can vote on which bathroom is the best.

MrShaggy writes "An engineering lab and a culinary school have teamed up to construct novel edible objects with 3D printers that use pureed foods in place of ink. From the article: '"It lets you do complex geometries with food that you could never do by hand," said Jeffrey Lipton, a researcher and graduate student at the lab. "So far, we've printed everything from chocolate, cheese and hummus to scallops, turkey, and celery," Lipton told CBC Radio's Spark in an interview that aired Sunday.'"

The people at National Geographic have built a house modeled after the one in the movie UP! for a new TV series called How Hard Can It Be?. The house flew for about an hour and reached 10,000 feet. There was no report of anyone spotting The Beast of Paradise Falls.

The Space Shuttle Discovery left the International Space Station this morning for the last time. To commemorate the ship's accomplishments over 27 years of service, the crew was greeted to a morning wake-up message from Capt. Kirk. "Space, the final frontier," Shatner said in a prerecorded message. "These have been the voyages of the space shuttle Discovery. Her 30-year mission: to seek out new science, to build new outposts, to bring nations together on the final frontier, to boldly go and do what no spacecraft has done before."

An anonymous reader writes "Hungary is drafting its new constitution on, believe it or not, an iPad. Jozsef Szajer, a Hungarian politician and member of the European Parliament, wrote an enthusiastic blog post last week detailing how he's using Apple's tablet device to flesh out Hungary's new constitution, the country's first since 1949. Not only is Szajer using the iPad to churn out new constitutional drafts, but he's also using it to review new draft proposals. Apparently all aspects of the new Hungarian constitution are being vetted via the iPad in one form or another."

cultiv8 writes "According to an article from The Smoking Gun: 'A large-scale methamphetamine dealer who allegedly laundered drug profits by purchasing valuable comic books is in danger of forfeiting his 18,753-volume collection to Uncle Sam, according to a new court filing. Federal prosecutors yesterday filed a US District Court complaint seeking ownership of the comic book holdings of Aaron Castro, 30, who is facing a May trial in Colorado on narcotics distribution and weapons charges. The comics are valued in excess of $500,000.'"

theodp writes "'Look, Dave,' said HAL. 'I can see you're really upset about this. I honestly think you ought to sit down calmly, take a stress pill and think things over.' Put a HAL 9000 in a baby's stuffed animal toy, a toddler's EEG-equipped knit cap, or other interactive monitoring device, and you've got the gist of IBM Research's just-published patent application for its Adaptive System for Real-Time Behavioral Coaching and Command Intermediation. 'For example,' explains Big Blue, 'to help a child who plays rough with other children the interaction data can include multiple interaction operations that can be performed by the interactive device for helping the child play less rough with other children. For example, one interaction operation can include an audible warning telling the child 'to play nice' in a strict tone of voice, whereas another interaction operation can include an audible warning that asks the child 'would you like someone to do that to you' in a softer tone of voice along with a visual cue as well."

cylonlover writes "Robots are faster than humans at a lot of things, but up until now running hasn't been one of them. That is set to change with robotics company Boston Dynamics recently awarded a contract by DARPA to design and build a quadraped CHEETAH robot that is faster than any human. The contract also includes the creation of an agile, bipedal humanoid robot. It's hard to say which one might ultimately be creepier."

astroengine writes "An Australian brewing company has created the world's first beer that can be consumed in space. 4-Pines Brewing Company teamed up with Saber Astronautics Australia, tirelessly testing different brews on zero-G flights last year. They have now finalized the winning formula, calling the beer 'Vostok' — after the spacecraft flown by Yuri Gagarin in 1961. The beverage is a strong-tasting stout with reduced carbonation to avoid the dreaded microgravity 'wet burp.'"

ndogg writes "Mazda has decided to recall 52,000 Mazda6 cars due to spider infestations. Apparently it's because of 'a certain type of spider [the Yellow Sac spider]...may weave a web in the evaporative canister vent line and this may cause a restriction in the line.' This one certainly could not be blamed on the driver, but it's strange nonetheless."

An anonymous reader writes "From the techspot article: 'This week, the Opera web browser became the first non-native browser made available in Apple's Mac App Store. While Apple approved the browser, it still managed to hurt its competitor by putting this ridiculous label on it: "You must be at least 17 years old to download this app." Opera has reacted in good humor. "I'm very concerned," Jan Standal, VP of Desktop Products for Opera Software, said in a statement. "Seventeen is very young, and I am not sure if, at that age, people are ready to use such an application. It's very fast, you know, and it has a lot of features. I think the download requirement should be at least 18."'"

Unsatisfied with the number of reasons people have to hate rodents already, scientists at Japan's Hiroshima University have taught mice to be wine snobs. After being trained to pick red wine over other kinds the mice were taught to distinguish between brands. From the article: "We examined performance of mice in discrimination of liquor odors by Y-maze behavioral assays. Thirsty mice were initially trained to choose the odor of a red wine in the Y-maze. After successful training (>70% concordance for each trained mouse), the individual mice were able to discriminate the learned red wine from other liquors, including white wine, rosé wine, sake, and plum liqueur."

An anonymous reader writes "Using Facebook can increase your self-esteem, according to a new study from Cornell University researchers, published in Cyberpsychology, Behavior, and Social Networking. Researchers Amy Gonzales and Jeffrey Hancock conducted the experiment with three groups of 21 students each in the university's Social Media Lab. The first one was the control group, which sat in front of blank computer screens for three minutes. The second group of individuals had mirrors propped up against their computer monitors and spent their three minutes looking at their own reflections. The third group was allowed to surf their own Facebook profiles and its associated tabs for the allotted time. At the end, all three groups were given a self-esteem questionnaire."

Hugh Pickens writes writes "The Charlotte Observer reports that students at Northwestern University observed a naked woman being penetrated by a sex toy performed in front of about 100 students in psychology professor John Michael Bailey's human sexuality class to demonstrate use of a sex toy and female orgasm. 'Both Professor Bailey and myself gave them five or six warnings about what was about to happen and it would be graphic,' says Ken Melvoin-Berg, co-owner of Weird Chicago Tours. The woman undressed and got on stage with her male partner, who used a device that looks like a machine-powered saw with a phallic object instead of a blade. An Evanston police spokesman said Northwestern police would be responsible for determining whether the demonstration violated any local ordinances as a University spokesman said the issue has not been raised. 'It is probably something I will remember for the rest of my life,' says senior Justin Smith. 'I can't say that about my Econ 202 class.' Bailey says it is too early to say whether he regretted the demonstration, for which attendance was optional but, 'I certainly have no regrets concerning Northwestern students, who have demonstrated that they are open-minded grownups rather than fragile children.'"

The Wisconsin Meat Industry will make five people's dreams come true by inducting them into their Meat Hall of Fame. Among the lucky five is Meinhardt Raabe who played a meat loving little person in Oscar Mayer commercials cleverly named, "Little Oscar." Later, Raabe used his expertise in recognizing fine dead meat to land the role of the munchkin coroner in the Wizard of Oz. I can't wait to see the red carpet coverage.

HansonMB writes "Electrical engineer Batsly Adams isn't a traffic cop, but if you find yourself at a chiptune show in New York, you should probably pull over anyway to try his new homebrew 8-bit breathalyzer game. Unlike that 8-bit Gatsby game, DrunkenNES is a for-real NES game lovingly constructed with machine code by Batsly, music by chiptune artist Kris Keyser and art by Motherboard photographer Emi Spicer."