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... Hedy Lamarr avoided the celebrity party circuit, preferring small gatherings with close friends. At home she set up a drafting table and devoted her downtime to inventions, including a bouillon-like cube that when mixed with water would produce an instant soft drink. It was at a dinner at the home of the actress Janet Gaynor in 1940 that she met George ­Antheil. According to Antheil’s autobiography, “Bad Boy of Music,” Hedy requested the meeting because she had read one of his Esquire articles about glands. This was Hollywood, and the most beautiful woman in the world was concerned about...

Newt Gingrich is drawing fire for arguing that Palestinians are an "invented" people. In an interview with The Jewish Channel, Gingrich said, "Remember there was no Palestine as a state. It was part of the Ottoman Empire. And I think that we've had an invented Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs, and were historically part of the Arab community." Palestinian Authority chief negotiator Saeb Erakat described Gingrich's comment as "the most racist statement I've ever seen." So not only do the Palestinians want a state but now they want to be a race unto themselves, too? Two of Mitt...

Senior Palestinian leaders on Saturday strongly criticized comments by Republican presidential frontrunner Newt Gingrich that the Palestinians are an "invented" people, calling the comments ignorant and racist. Top Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erakat said the Gingrich remark was "the most racist statement I've ever seen." Erakat, who has negotiated in talks with Israel and the United States, said the remarks show "how really despicable things can get" in American politics. "Such thinking should be an alarm and concern for the world," Erakat said. Gingrich made the comments in an interview that aired Friday with The Jewish Channel, a U.S. cable channel....

JERUSALEM - Palestinian officials are reacting with dismay to Republican presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich's statement that they are an "invented" people. The Jewish Channel on Friday released excerpts of an interview in which the former House Speaker said Palestinians were not a people because - unlike Israelis - they never had a state. "Remember, there was no Palestine as a state," Gingrich said. "It was part of the Ottoman Empire. "I think we have invented the Palestinian people, who are in fact Arabs and who are historically part of the Arab community, and they had a chance to go to...

Newt Gingrich declared in an interview that Palestinians are an "invented" people, though his campaign afterward claimed the candidate still supports the establishment of a Palestinian state. The front-running Republican presidential candidate made the comments in an interview with The Jewish Channel. The interview marks some of the toughest language to date any candidate has used to describe the Middle East peace process. It also comes after Gingrich pledged at a forum earlier in the week that if elected, he would name John Bolton -- a hawkish, pro-Israel former U.N. ambassador who served in the George W. Bush administration --...

Gingrich is right in this. PLO executive committee member Zahir Muhsein said this in 1977: The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. Only for political and tactical reasons do we speak today about the existence of a Palestinian people, since Arab national interests demand that we posit the existence of a distinct "Palestinian people" to oppose Zionism.

Republican presidential contender Newt Gingrich said in a cable television interview that Palestininans are an “invented” people with no apparent right to their own state

Walter Isaacsson has, recently, completed a great work on Steve Jobs. My relatives will probably force me to read it (even though Isaacson was the former head of CNN, they're Conservatives and I'm a 42 year old with a will of my own) but prefer his magnificent study of Einstein as far books go. Anyhow, what do people actually understand about how and in what ways the IT sector of the economy has transformed all of our lives? Being Swedish, I wish to draw attention to what a marvelous revolution a certain poor peasant boy from the region of Värmland...

<p>DALLAS – Arch West, a retired Frito-Lay marketing executive credited with creating Doritos as the first national tortilla chip brand, has died in Dallas at age 97.</p>

(CNN) -- President Barack Obama signed legislation Friday that will overhaul the U.S. patent system for the first time since 1952. "We have to do everything we can to encourage the entrepreneurial spirit wherever we find it," Obama said at a signing ceremony at a high school in Arlington, Virginia. This measure "cuts away the red tape that slows down our inventors and entrepreneurs." Obama used the occasion to promote his $447 billion jobs plan, calling patent reform a "part of our (larger) agenda for making us competitive over the long term." Among other things, the measure, dubbed the America...

They mocked the Wright Brothers, too. So if Laura Nell Britton’s latest invention, the Trash Can Storm Shelter, catches on, she’ll stand in good company. Britton recently sunk two large plastic trash cans into the ground outside her Rolling Greens home, then installed rebar and poured cement around it and, voila! — instant, inexpensive shelter against the power of a tornado. Now she’s hoping the idea will gain momentum and that the trash can manufacturer, Toter, will help her market this novel use for their product.

A Japanese man paralysed from the waist down has embarked on an ambitious trip to Normandy to climb a mountain... with the help of a cutting-edge robotic suit. Father-of-two Seiji Uchida, 49, will be carried up Mont Saint Michel - a World Heritage site - by a companion clad in a cybernetic exoskeleton which can boost the wearer's strength tenfold. For Mr Uchida, who lost the ability to walk 28 years ago after a car accident, reaching the picturesque abbey at the top of the mountain on the French coast is just the beginning of his trip of a lifetime.

It was a feat that would have made Buzz Lightyear proud...or extremely envious. But for Yves Rossy, who finally completed his flight over the Grand Canyon in a jet suit, it must have been a relief. For the Swiss adventurer, dubbed JetMan, was forced to cancel his daring spectacle at the last minute on Friday due to red tape and safety issues. Despite the setback Rossy did not give up and on Saturday strapped on his wings and took to the skies for a spectacular eight-minute flight over a five-mile radius

It is axiomatic that the struggling U.S. economy is slowly climbing out of its hole. President Obama and our elected representatives regularly wax eloquent about job growth, innovation and the opportunity and future for the once-great United States. But the recovery, critics say, given the depths of the worldwide economic melt-down of 2008, is far too anemic, and job growth too stunted, all because of cumbersome, growth-stifling laws and policies. It is also axiomatic that most, if not all, net job creation in the U.S. today comes from small, entrepreneurial companies less than five years old. As Kauffman Foundation economist...

Jamie Hyneman is on the right, beside costar Adam Savage. Register UK - Jamie Hyneman has been working with the US government to devise lightweight armor for US military vehicles in Afghanistan and Iraq, all thanks to his work with materials such as TNT and C4 in the frankly unconventional setting of MythBusters. Hyneman's armor had to be ultra-lightweight so the vehicle doesn't get bogged down, but also capable of standing up the shrapnel and blast damage from a powerful IED while protecting the humans inside the vehicle from the pressure wave accompanying a blast. Hyneman was contacted by a...

KINGSPORT, Tenn. -- Harry Wesley Coover Jr., known as the inventor of Super Glue, has died at his home in Kingsport, Tenn. He was 94. Coover was working for Tennessee Eastman Company when an accident resulted in Super Glue, according to his grandson, Adam Paul of South Carolina.

Daniel Reetz loves trash bins. A big one in Fargo, N.D., was where he found most of the materials he used to build a scanner that was fast enough to scan a 400-page book in about 20 minutes without cracking the binding. The two Canon PowerShot A590 cameras and two lights that he lashed together with a few pieces of acrylic and wood cost him about $300 in all, considerably less than the $10,000 commercial book scanners on the market. When he was finished, Mr. Reetz, now 29 and working at Disney Research’s laboratories, put his 79-step how-to guide on...

Eric Jacqmain, from Indiana in the US, covered an ordinary fibreglass satellite dish with 5,800 tiny mirror tiles - and made his very own 'death ray'. When aligned correctly it can generate a heat spot a couple of centimetres across, with an intensity of 5,000 shining suns, the 19-year-old claims. The inventor then posted video of his invention on YouTube, with people commenting in awe of the power of the satellite. The ray generates enough power to melt steel, vaporize aluminum, boil concrete, turn dirt into lava, and obliterate any organic material in an instant. It stands at 5ft 9ins...

Lunacy dims Edison's inventionAlan Levine Casa Grande Dispatch Published: Tuesday, September 21, 2010 10:33 AM MST The General Electric factory in Winchester, Va., the last major U.S. plant making standard incandescent light bulbs, is scheduled to close at the end of the month. When it does, the remaining 200 workers will lose their jobs, marking a rather ignominious end for a company that produced a product that Thomas Alva Edison gave to us and the rest of the world back in the late 1870s. This is a direct result of Al Gore’s global-warming scare tactic, which is largely responsible for...

CORNING, N.Y. (AP) -- An ultra-strong glass that has been looking for a purpose since its invention in 1962 is poised to become a multibillion-dollar bonanza for Corning Inc. The 159-year-old glass pioneer is ramping up production of what it calls Gorilla glass, expecting it to be the hot new face of touch-screen tablets and high-end TVs. Gorilla showed early promise in the '60s, but failed to find a commercial use, so it's been biding its time in a hilltop research lab for almost a half-century. It picked up its first customer in 2008 and has quickly become a $170...

NEW PRODUCTS: Planning in works for making parts for passenger rail cars, use of high-rail stimulus fundsNew York Air Brake Co. will be ready for new business if the state's proposed high-speed commuter railroad lines become a reality. The Watertown railroad brake manufacturer has two products used in passenger rail cars, said Marc B. Robbins, locomotive sales engineer. "It really is a little different than what we're used to working with in freight," he said. The biggest difference is stricter safety requirements. One such product is a brake that has a passenger version, CCB II-P. "It's one of our most...

The U.S. Coast Guard has complained that there is not enough plastic tubing in the United States to construct the booms needed to contain the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. And neither BP, the Coast Guard, nor any other part of the U.S. government seems to understand how to effectively clean up the fouled Gulf. A technology that could effectively and actively remove oil from the surface of the ocean in all weather conditions would be a huge advance for the efforts going on in the Gulf right now. In fact, such a technology was designed and tested in the...

In one of the many new age music albums, there is a song called "Fly Away" and the constant refrain is "Fly Away, Fly Away, Fly Away," and the refrain really describes what you can do with this new invention. The catch is of course with this, you can only fly away in your imagination. TFT INSTRUMENTS Company has designed a new flight simulator that can be used for entertainment (with both movie studio sets/movie productions), airports, and shopping centers.

David Croslin is the President of a newly created company called "Innovate the Future." His company is seeking to assist both established and startup companies using his professional network and reputation, experience of an internationally acknowledged innovation leader to help companies grow, make the right connections, and become successful internationally.

When it comes to computer technology, thin is always in. It’s indisputable that the thinner, lighter, clearer, the better when dealing with the latest computer gadget. This keyboard is the epitome of the high standards expected of the technological version of the fashion industry. It’s based on image as well, that is, image recognition technology.

Walter Fredrick Morrison, the man credited with inventing the Frisbee, has died aged 90. Utah House Rep. Kay McIff, an attorney who represented Mr Morrison in a royalties case, said he died at his home in Monroe, Utah, on Tuesday. "That simple little toy has permeated every continent in every country, as many homes have Frisbees as any other device ever invented," Mr McIff said. "How would you get through your youth without learning to throw a Frisbee?" Mr Morrison's son, Walt, said that "old age caught up" with his father and that he also had cancer. "He was a...

(PhysOrg.com) -- Spray-on liquid glass is transparent, non-toxic, and can protect virtually any surface against almost any damage from hazards such as water, UV radiation, dirt, heat, and bacterial infections. The coating is also flexible and breathable, which makes it suitable for use on an enormous array of products. The liquid glass spray (technically termed “SiO2 ultra-thin layering”) consists of almost pure silicon dioxide (silica, the normal compound in glass) extracted from quartz sand. Water or ethanol is added, depending on the type of surface to be coated. There are no additives, and the nano-scale glass coating bonds to the...

His Name Is Branding Magic; Thomas Edison Is 'So 20th Century' Decades after he died penniless, Nikola Tesla is elbowing aside his old adversary Thomas Edison in the pantheon of geek gods. When California engineers wanted to brand their new $100,000 electric sports car, one name stood out: Tesla. When circuit designers at microchip producer Nvidia Corp. in 2007 launched a new line of advanced processors, they called them Tesla. And when videogame writers at Capcom Entertainment in Silicon Valley needed a character who could understand alien spaceships for their new Dark Void saga, they found him in Nikola Tesla....

“Save your receipts” may be the rule in the workplace for getting reimbursed for expenses, but those slips of paper are just so much trash to a college student. That’s what Drexel University student Bradley Ericson pondered as he observed transactions at the checkout counter at campus dining halls. Students have a meal plan and tap it electronically by using their student identification card. But the cashier still hands over a printed piece of thermal paper. Soon after, that receipt winds up on the floor or counter. A freshman at Drexel’s LeBow College of Business in the fall of 2008,...

What does everyone think was the best new gadget to come out in the past decade?

Lester Shubin, a government scientist who saw the potential of using Kevlar to strengthen bullet-resistant vests for the police, an advance that has saved the lives of more than 3,000 officers, died Nov. 20 at his home in Fairfax, Va. He was 84. The cause was a heart attack, his son, Harry, said. Working with the Army in the early 1970s, Mr. Shubin helped develop the first vests made of Kevlar, an extraordinarily strong fabric invented by the DuPont Company. At the time he was a program manager with the National Institute of Justice, an arm of the United States...

Disney debuted its uber-high-tech simulator experience that features a first-of-its-kind robotic arm, Wednesday. The Sum of All Thrills ride, sponsored by Raytheon Co., utilizes something called a KUKA RoboSim 4-D Simulator to power the attraction, where guests design and ride their own custom roller coasters and other simulated-motion experiences.

Toronto researchers have developed a portable device they say will accurately diagnose prostate cancer in 30 minutes. The microchip technology, created by a pair of University of Toronto scientists, will be able to determine the severity of the tumours through a simple urine sample and produce quick diagnosis with no need for painful biopsies.

A controversial cooker that 'grows' meat and fish by heating animal cells in your kitchen claimed first prize in the Electrolux design competition tonight. The invention, called Cocoon, could develop food with the make-up and nutrients of real meat. Mr Hederstierna, 27, said: 'This will create 100 per cent pure meat without the need for animals to be killed and with no risk of contamination. It will change everything.'

A Jones County inventor has filed a lawsuit against two Internet server companies. John Ishmel Henry of Soso, in May, filed a lawsuit in the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi. In his suit, Henry claims that “he was called and depicted as a n----r on two of the Internet service provider search engines, AOL and Google.” Henry, the original inventor of the vibrating toilet seat, was featured on the Jay Leno Show in November, 2008. “Needless to say that my invention garnered a lot of attention,” he said. “I was completely humiliated and horrified...

On a particular fall day in 1889, the members of the Ogden Rifle Club of Ogden, Utah, were out in force. The men were target shooting, but doubtless found the brilliant fall colors of aspens and oaks on the high peaks of the Wasatch Range a distraction. Enticing too were the flocks of migratory waterfowl wheeling overhead and grouse calling in the brush. But all rifles that day were trained on paper targets, although one of the competitors, an unusually tall man with stern but handsome features, was having trouble concentrating on hitting the mark. As his good friend Will...

(PhysOrg.com) -- A new study challenges the traditional view that patents foster innovation, suggesting instead that they may hinder technological progress, economic activity and societal wealth. These results could have important policy implications, because many countries count on patent systems to spur new technology and promote economic growth.

Synopsis ... chock full of GE products

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The Hubble space telescope, the object of NASA's fifth and last servicing mission next week, is a veritable time machine that has revolutionized humankind's vision and comprehension of the universe. Put into orbit at an altitude of 600 kilometers (360 miles) by the shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, Hubble has transmitted more than 750,000 spectacular images and streams of data from the ends of the universe, opening a new era in astronomy. But the telescope, the fruit of a collaboration between NASA and the European Space Agency, had a troubled start and did not become operational...

It’s the typical story of American ingenuity. Two buddies get together, get an idea to build something and before you know it, they’ve come up with a one-of-a-kind item. And of course there’s an engine involved. “We just started throwing parts at it,” said Russ Freeman, one of the inventors of the unique MotorHead Grill. Freeman’s good friend, Jay Thurman, had come into his garage and said he wanted to build a functional grill out of an engine block for his dad. The West Jones High School grads tried this and tried that. Eventually they had what looked like...

Before we break into 2009 and consider what the future may offer, it is worthwhile looking back to review the year that passed. So I’ll do that right now, in real time. 2008 was a signature year of change - and not just in politics and economics. The changes in technology and the technology market were many and various, and some were profound. Here are the ones that I suspect were the most important. 1. The GPU and the CPU: The GPU (graphics processing unit) is in the process of usurping the CPU on client computers and access devices (but...

Segway Inventor Builds Bionic Arm Tuesday , December 09, 2008 FOX NEWS The man behind the Segway scooter has a new invention: bionic arms for wounded soldiers. Called the "Luke Arm" after the prosthetic hand sported by Luke Skywalker in the "Star Wars" movies, Dean Kamen's device is lightweight, self-contained and fully capable of picking up grapes, baby bottles, even electric drills. ... snip The Luke Arm has four fingers and an opposable thumb, and was designed to be controlled by muscular movement in the wearer's remaining limbs. But thanks to neurological advances in "targeted renervation" by Dr. Todd Kuiken...

Local man invents vibrating toilet seat By Eloria Newell James, community@leadercall.com  Jones County native Johnny Henry talks about his invention, the vibrating toilet seat.Photo/Eloria Newell James / A Jones County native has developed a new twist to a traditional item.Johnny Henry of Laurel has developed the vibrating toilet seat.“I believe in thinking out of the box,” Henry said. “I wanted to create something that is a little unusual.“This invention is designed to stimulate,” he said. “It’s to make you feel good while you are there.”Because of Henry’s invention, he recently attended the Invent Bay International Inventors Convention held at the...

To Timbuktu by flying car: it sounds the most unlikely journey on earth; a sci-fi voyage from the pages of Jules Verne. But this is no fantasy. The car really flies. And the journey will become reality early in the new year when two explorers set off from London in a propeller-powered dune buggy heading for the Sahara. The seed of this improbable adventure was sown four years ago when Gilo Cardozo, a paramotor manufacturer, had a eureka moment. For those not familiar with paramotors, picture a parachutist with a giant industrial fan strapped to his back, which provides...

This ya gotta see...One of those "Would be nice...if true". http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=efCelx7qe_M&feature=related

Al Gore has a new boat and even it is green. The boat is docked at Hurricane Marina on Center Hill Lake in Smithville, about 70 miles east of Nashville. While it doesn't have solar panels yet, a spokesperson at Gore's office told News 2 they are scheduled to be installed Wednesday. The boat is named Bio-Solar One and has been called the "Toyota Prius of boats"...

Bruce E. Ivins, the government biodefense scientist linked to the deadly anthrax mailings of 2001, stood to gain financially from the huge federal spending in the fear-filled aftermath of those killings, the Los Angeles Times has learned. Ivins is listed as a co-inventor on two patents for a genetically engineered anthrax vaccine, federal records show. Separately, Ivins is also listed as a co-inventor on an application to patent an additive for various biodefense vaccines. Ivins, 62, died Tuesday, apparently in a suicide. Federal authorities had informed his lawyer that criminal charges related to the mailings would be filed. As a...

FORT SAM HOUSTON, Texas, June 13, 2008 – A new lifesaving standard of care has garnered the U.S. Army Institute of Surgical Research here a prestigious recognition: invention of the year. The innovation, called Damage Control Resuscitation of Severely Injured Soldiers, was named one of the Army’s “Top Ten Greatest Inventions of 2007.” “The American Association for Trauma Surgeons calls this one of the biggest improvements to trauma care in the last 10 years,” said Michael Dubick, senior research pharmacologist for the Institute of Surgical Research. The invention is aimed at saving severely injured soldiers with internal injuries that...

Bo (woof) In Product Review: Kong-every dog knows what it is. It’s the iPod for the canine set. But is it really all it’s cracked up to be? Well read this review and find out. How did the greatest invention in canine treat history, The Kong, come about? Well, it begins with a German Sheppard named Fritz, his owner and a Volkswagen Van. Fritz, a police dog, enjoyed chewing rocks to relieve the stress of the day. This activity wore Fritz’s teeth down, frustrating his owner Joe Markham as well as his dentist, Dr. Christian Szel One afternoon while working...

The historian Hugh Trevor-Roper, who died in 2003, was often depicted as hostile to the Scots (or 'Scotch', as he insisted on calling them). Yet, as he would sometimes remark, he had a long association with Scotland and its people. He was brought up in Northumberland, only 20 miles or so from the border. As a boy he had been cared for by a Scots nanny, before attending a preparatory school in Dunbar. After an interval, he married a Scots wife, and together they bought a home near Melrose, where he lived during the university vacations for almost 30 years....