If you’re one of our UK readers, you’ll be happy to hear that Amazon’s UK site is offering free Super Saving shipping for the Christmas season until Jan 1, 2010. Naturally, there are caveats, etc., but for the most part, you can get free 3-5 day shipping. Check out the details here.
Here is some more movie-magic made real by today’s science. UK University researchers funded by the UK’s Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) and supported by London’s Metropolitan Police have come up with a weapons scanner that picks up concealed guns & knives without needing to be close to the subject.
The scanner works using electromagnetic waves and neural net technology to determine whether it’s a weapon or some other non-dangerous object. It also does not produce an image of the subject’s body.
The scanner could be put into use as soon as the next 2 years.
The residents of Broughton, a village north of London, decided that they did not want Google’s StreetView team taking any photos of their homes, so they took matters into their own hands. They not only flagged down the Google StreetView driver, and angrily remonstrated with him, they called the police as well.
As much as I (we) all love StreetView, we can certainly appreciate the rights and wishes of the residents not to have their homes appear on a public website. Now if only Google could ammend their policy to include the ability of homeowners to not appear on StreetView in the first place. Right now, you can request to have your home removed from StreetView within a matter of hours.
