Roses are red, violets are blue, if you’re a plant, was Valentine’s Day a few weeks back a concern for you? Genetic exploration, climate change and the Irish economy are all happening, fast and with worrying implications. But where’s the fire? (more…)

Windows Live’s virtual earth now allows you to drive around towns in the US with a little car on the map and photos as you’d see them from a car as you move. Definately a cool feature. Check out the technology preview. Only Seattle and San Francisco at the moment.

The internets is wowing the new iPod hifi which does look cool, and there’s some other mac stuff, head on over to mac rumours live for more.

The original two videos we embedded have been removed from YouTube. Indymedia have a 13 minute clip up now and it’s been put on YouTube as well:

And they have really in depth analysis of the riots at a related article here. You can also download a just under 100 meg avi of it here.

A Dublin Riots search on YouTube is probably the best way to find more footage as quite a few of the clips seem to be popping up and down off the web as the days roll on.

And for more blog reaction, IrishBlogs.ie have added the capability to order search by date, so a Dublin Riots search reveals all the latest banter.

US President George W Bush is expected to make a brief stopover at Shannon Airport in the early hours of tomorrow morning.

Mr Bush’s official aircraft, Air Force One, is expected to make a refuelling stop at the Co Clare facility while carrying the US President to India for an official visit.

A major garda security operation is to expected to get underway this afternoon ahead of the stopover.

God forbid that the world’s most hated man might get his private 747 egged. The Gardaí sure do have their priorities right. Or do they?

Breaking news story.

Quail Hunting School.

Now biologists at the University College Dublin in Ireland have found that a strain of Pseudomonas putida can exist quite happily on a diet of pure styrene oil–the oil remnant of superheated Styrofoam–and, in the process, turn the environmental problem into a useful, biodegradable plastic.

Kevin O’Connor and his European colleagues turned the polystyrene into an oil through pyrolysis–a process that heats the petroleum-based plastic to 520 degrees Celsius in the absence of oxygen. This results in a chemical cocktail made up of more than 80 percent styrene oil plus low volumes of other toxicants. The researchers then fed this brew to P. putida CA-3, a special strain of a common soil microbe, fully expecting that the oil would have to be further purified in order to enable bacterial growth.

Kick ass. Scientific American Article.

You are bidding on one real punch in the face, this is not a joke!! do you hate yourself? i will punch you in the face! but YOU MUST COVER TRAVEL EXPENSES. One punch only, no blocking! AND NO PUNCH BACKS!

I AM AN EXPERIENCED FACEPUNCHER! DO NOT MISS THIS ONCE IN A LIFETIME ITEM. TEETH WILL BE LOST. LIVES WILL BE CHANGED. CAN YOU HANDLE IT? BID NOW!

eBay fun.

Update: Looks like this has been pulled by eBay.

Bizarre.

The quirky android, was lost in early January while en route to California by commercial airliner.

“We can’t find Phil,” said Steve Prilliman of Dallas-based Hanson Robotics, which created the futuristic robot with the FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis, the Automation and Robotics Research Institute at the University of Texas at Arlington and Dick’s friend Paul Williams.

“We’re very worried because it’s been a few weeks now,” said Prilliman. “We’re pressing hard to find Phil.”

Full story. (via.)

Rap star Eminem could sue the US government because they play his music to inmates at Camp X-Ray in Guantanamo Bay without permission.

The Road To Guantanamo director Michael Winterbottoom discovered prisoners at the notorious detention centre are blasted with the rapper’s music as a form of punishment.

Funny. Story.

More Stephen Lynch song fun. You may be offended. Best Friends Song. Previously.

Another list of all time best cartoon characters.

Do you agree? Who is your favourite? I’m a chicken, I dont have a favourite

via

Yes, that’s a biscuit city. Excerpt from an expert commentary on it “All manner of biscuits and bright jelly bean type sweets have been used in the construction, but wafers seem to be the main building blocks of choice. Anything else was mainly just for decoration. I did see a fair few whole garibaldi’s, but I’d have liked to have seen more use of them.” Read more of that extensive coverage here.

Also on that glorious site, NiceCupofTeaandaSitDown, news of the infamous Irish favourite the Chocolate Kimberley being spotted in Britian.

The mathematically inclined may be interested to know that the number of possible states for the 4D cube is exactly

(24!x32!)/2 x 16!/2 x 2^23 x (3!)^31 x 3 x (4!/2)^15 x 4

The rest of us can all just move on quickly. Magic Cube 4D.

Not particularly new, but this BBC article gives a good rundown of the 6 versions of Windows Vista Microsoft will be extorting money from you for.

# Vista Business
# Vista Enterprise
# Vista Home Basic
# Vista Home Premium
# Vista Ultimate
# Vista Starter

Possibly the only worthwhile article I’ve seen on this whole web 2.0 bullshit doing the rounds for the last while: WTF Web 2.0. You’ll enjoy it more if you stop and read the article he mentions at the start first. 16 ways to think in Web 2.0

Worth figuring out side scrolling shoot em up. The keys are explained before you start playing. New Metal Slug.

It’s a company that design and engineer secret rooms and walkways for houses. eg. Pull a certain book and book case slides back revealing fireman poles to batcave etc. HiddenPassageWay.com.

If you’ve been unlucky enough to be following it, there’s a meme on boing boing of anagram transit maps the world over. It’s finally hit Dublin with the Dart line + a bit more redone. You can see it here.

I don’t think any of these maps are particularly funny, but I was bored on a Sunday morning. My favourite is the anagram for “Heuston Station”, which turns out as “He Snot in a Stout”.

The giant painting robots were awesome.