Google announced that Picasa for the Mac is now available in public beta form through Google Labs. Picasa is a free desktop application for fucking with, and passing around your digital photos. It's great for organizing your obscene webcam snapshots and doctored images of celebrities.

The Mac version is supposed to be relatively seamless. So whenever you get tired of iPhoto, maybe you should take a looksy.

So why did it take so damn long for Google to move it over to the Mac? The company is claiming that the wait was timed to coincide with The Macworld Expo (which happened today). They know how to keep the acne-ridden, pocket-protector-wearin' brace-faced people drooling with anticipation.

[Source]

Kevin Spacey was asked to take a year-long position as a theater professor at Oxford University. He's such a nice guy, he couldn't say no.

"It really is an honor for me to have been invited to follow such illustrious names and take up this role at Oxford," Spacey said in a statement. "The university is steeped in tradition and has a great heritage in the arts, and I look forward to working with the students and staff."

Professor Roger Ainsworth, the college's master called Spacey "a truly international star" who "will bring an enormous wealth of talent and experience in both film and theater to bear on the role."

None of my professors played Lex Luther :(

[Reuters]

A new program of pavement trickery called "Drive CarePhilly" is being put into practice in... well, Philly. Around 100 intersections will be stuck with 3D decals that they think will fool drivers into thinking there's chalky-looking speed-bumps in the road.

They probably already realize that people are going to get used to this and in a year, the only purpose it'll have will be to play pranks on your extended family when they're in town. That means there's probably something on the way that'll be even better!

Wait, what? There's nothing else on the way? Well at least you still have brotherly love.

[KYW]

Retro Pic, Right? /\/\/\

Atlantic Records filed the lawsuit in Manhattan yesterday against STP singer Scott Weiland and drummer Eric Kretz, saying that they're trying to get out of their record contract with Warner Music Group prematurely.

It seems the catalyst for this mess was when Weiland and Kretz sounded off that they'd refuse to play and terminate their contract unless the label made some big changes. In the suit, Atlantic says that despite STP recording six LP's, it has the right to a seventh, and two more, which could be live or greatest hits compilations.

The band issued a statement today, and sounds pissed:

"Stone Temple Pilots were deeply disappointed to see that Atlantic filed a surprise lawsuit against two members of the legendary band ... when they were in the middle of what were believed to be cordial and positive discussions about STP returning to the studio to make a new album after 5 years... Despite the allegations in the complaint, the band never threatened anything more than remaining away from the studio until equitable terms could be arranged. The precipitous filing of this action is yet another example of the difficulties facing artists in the new music environment, as relationships between artists and their labels fall further and further apart.

"Eric and Scott have not yet been served and hope that Atlantic will allow cooler heads to prevail and have the courtesy of shelving this action to permit negotiations to continue in a positive spirit rather than under a dark cloud of hostility," the statement continued. "Should everyone operate in good faith, STP are certain that a new album from the band will be available soon. Should Atlantic instead pursue this scorched-earth policy towards the band, the ultimate victims will be STP's fans, who will never be able to enjoy a new album from the group."

I really like these guys, and I think I want to continue working with them. Let's sue 'em!

[MTV.com]

I ran across this web page that claims to be able to teach you how to turn your car into a water powered vehicle or a water/gasoline hybrid. Can anyone give me any insight into this? If it's the real deal, this could change so many things. God, even the idea of filling my tank from the tap just made my day!

This Fox News report looks pretty convincing, too!



[Daves Daily]

In Tibet, there are two ways to cook your food: an open fire fueled by yak dung or wood (which isn't exactly easy to obtain); or solar cookers, which consist of two-inch-thick concrete covered with tiny glass mirrors.

Fire produces lots of smoke that leads to lung disease in people who do most of their cooking indoors. Solar cookers are much cleaner, but are so heavy that they need 4 people just to move one. Plus their focus isn't always dead-on, which can damage food, cooking equipment and even start fires.

Scot Frank, a student at MIT, and Catlin Powers of Wellesley College took a trip to Tibet in 2006. One thing they heard regularly from the villagers is that life would be so much easier if there was a light mobile version of their solar cookers. This way they could go take care of their flocks or fields and still eat. But it need to be strong enough to handle the fierce winds that whip across the plateau.

Ask and you shall receive.

Some MIT students and some students from Qinghai Normal University in Tibet's Amdo region cooked up exactly what they were looking for. The cooker they made, which was inspired by the nomadic tents in the region, is made from yak-wool canvas panels, the supports are bamboo, and the dish is covered with a reflective mylar. It can be assembled and disassembled easily and one person can carry it. Plus it can be anchored to hold against the wind. The students will begin testing a prototype of the cooker this fall, and make it available for mass production in local factories.

The students called themselves SolSource Tibet, and entered MIT's yearly IDEAS comp., winning one of two Yunus Innovation Challenge awards and $3k to put towards the project.

The solar cooker cost about $17 to make and, for an additional $26, can be fitted with an extra attachment and used to heat homes.

[MIT News]

I know this is the third post about WALL-E in like 3 days, but I who can blame me? This film looks like tons of fun. If it's half as good as Finding Nemo... ah, whatever. I'm a Pixar fanboy. Take a looksy at Stanton's insight [ComingSoon.net] into the new movie. Especially how he pinned down WALL-E's language with beeps and squawks.

So Google wants to get bigger, huh? News to me. Looks like they're about to buy Web 2.0 aggregation website Digg.com.

Check out this quote from Valleywag:

…we hear [Google’s Marissa] Mayer is pushing hard for an acquisition of Rose’s Digg, for a price below $200 million…A source familiar with the talks says Google and Digg reached an agreement last month; it’s not clear whether the offer was verbal or a formal termsheet. So why the delay? One possibility: Digg may have been exploring whether it could hire a rock-star CEO and raise more money.

I doubt the army of Digg users will be down with this, but it I dont see any reason why it wouldn't happen. Google is surely after the technology and algorithms that make Digg so effective. But a power so great can't be taken, it can only be given.

[ValleyWag]

Its getting closer and closer to June 30th, the when the Screen Actors Guild's Contract runs out and negotiations start. Maybe this means a strike, maybe it doesn't, but the film industry isn't taking any chances.

The Alliance of Motion Picture & Television Producers (AMPTP) says a de facto strike is already happening "limiting the green-lighting of features and disrupting pilot production" On talent attorney said "No one is doing anything that finishes after June 30, (and) nobody's starting anything now. There is the impact of a strike already."

There's a pretty fantastic lineup of films that will finish production before the contract deadline, but will they be enough to last another work stoppage?

Here's some for-sures.

DreamWorks' - John Hamburg's "I Love You, Man"; Peter Jackson's "The Lovely Bones"
Paramount - "G.I. Joe"; Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island with Leonardo DiCaprio
Warner Bros. - Steven Soderbergh's "The Informant"; "Observe and Report" starring Seth Rogen; and "Ninja Assassin"
Universal - Will Ferrell starring "Land of the Lost"
Disney - "When in Rome"; "High School Musical 3"
Columbia/MGM's - Newest Bond Film "Quantum of Solace"

That's not gonna be enough to satisfy the masses... not even close.

[Reuters]

Just in case you wanted to save some dead presidents of your power bill AND keep playing video games on your PC 8 hours a day, boy does LG has a pitch for you! The Flatron W2252TE-a monitor claims to be "the world's most energy efficient." It uses roughly 45% less power than a traditional display, which means about 40 watts less. But it still looks great with a 1680 x 1050 resolution, 2ms response time, 170 degree viewing angle, and a 10,000:1 contrast ratio. The price has yet to be set.

[Pocket-lint]

According to Joystiq, an ad promoting a yet-to-be-released MTV2 track pack for Harmonix's Rock Band gives away a few of the new jams up for grabs.

These tracks include:

* Avenged Sevenfold - Afterlife
* Machine Head - Aesthetics of Hate
* Nine Inch Nails - Burn
* Nirvana - Breed

There's also the matter of the entire "Who's Next" album that has been in the works for months now, but has been delayed or canceled altogether due to theft. Give me Pinball Wizard!

[Shack News]

Family Guy is somewhat of a legend since it's become such a force to be reckoned with not only as a cartoon, but as a primetime show in general. After being resurrected on Adult Swim, and making it's way back to FOX, the show has become a fan favorite and a huge financial success.

Now it has it's own spin-off and IGN did a preview of what to expect. Here's some of the finer points:

* Mike Henry, who played the voice of Cleveland in Family Guy, will return.
* Cleveland is more unattached after finding out that his wife was sleeping with Quagmire.
* He's moved on with an old girlfriend and moved to Stoolbend, Virginia to live with her and her teenaged daughter and infant son. Cleveland Jr. comes too!
* As you can tell from the image, Cleveland has two neighbors that are bears.. more on that later.



[IGN]

An Australian judge put the brakes on a trial yesterday because some of the jurors were too busy playing sudoku to notice the evidence being presented.

The two fellas on trial were facing a possible life sentence for drug conspiracy charges. After running for 66 days, the trial had cost Australian taxpayers around 1 million dollars ($950,000).

Sydney District Court Judge Peter Zahra noticed that the jurors, who appeared to be taking notes, were writing vertically. The jury foreman said "Yes, it helps me keep my mind busy paying more attention," and "Some of the evidence is rather drawn out and I find it difficult to maintain my attention the whole time, and that doesn't distract me too much from proceedings."

No action can be taken against the jurors and a new trial is expected to begin in a few weeks. Rumor has it there will be a Jenga tournament.

[FrostFireZoo]

HBO has bought a minority stake in funny-ass website, FunnyOrDie.com. And thats not all! They've also ordered 5 hours worth of online tomfoolery that will be broken up into half-hour episodes on their network.

Their stake is said to be less than 10% out of FunnyOrDie's approximately $100 million worth. I'm sure the fact that Will Ferrell and Judd Apatow have their names all over it has nothing to do with how much confidence HBO has in the site. I guess star power and an empire of a cable network is all it takes to make some of those dead internet presidents.

[Variety]

In the great American Tradition of recycling old material, the Smurfs are coming to the big screen for a live-action/CGI movie adaptation with Columbia Pictures. What a way to celebrate your 50th anniversary.

Neither the cast nor the director have been chosen yet, but the Studio is in talks with David Stem and David Weiss, who wrote both "Shrek" sequels and "The Rugrats Movie."

[Reuters]

Spore, Electronics Arts' new universe and life simulations game, won't require a whole lotta' computer to run it. Check it out.
SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS

FOR WINDOWS XP

* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 512 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space

FOR WINDOWS VISTA

* 2.0 GHz P4 processor or equivalent
* 768 MB RAM
* A 128 MB Video Card, with support for Pixel Shader 2.0
* At least 6 GB of hard drive space

MAC SYSTEM REQUIREMENTS
Spore requires at least the following:

* Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard or higher
* Intel Core Duo Processor
* 1024 MB RAM
* ATI X1600 or NVidia 7300 GT with 128 MB of Video RAM, or Intel Integrated GMA X3100
* At least 4.7GB of hard drive space for installation, plus additional space for creations.*

It will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (PowerMac).

It's set for release on Sep. 7th, and don't forget to check out the PC Creature Creator for Spore on June 17th to help you get ready for the full release.

[ShackNews]

Now that's a faucet. 300,000 gallons of water a second, which is part of a 60-hour flow of around 75,000,000,000 gallons of water meant to revitalize the Colorado River and the Grand Canyon.

Since 1995, 27 agencies have been working on a plan to mimic natural flooding that will redistribute sediment from central riverbeds to the riverside. This would rebuild sandbars downstream and create a better habitat for endangered fish, such as the humpback chub, and create better recreational spaces for people to use.

The first discharge was in 1996, and carried a small amount of sediment through the Grand Canyon into Lake Mead. Blast number two, in 2004, didn't move enough sand.

Results for this flow should be in within the end of the year and will provide a benchmark to base the next one on. So far, the initiative doesn't look too successful.

[Popular Science]

"There are 120 bodies and 97 survivors," Major-General Mohamed Osman Mahjoub said when he spoke with Reuters. Other officials disagree, thinking the number smaller. The plane was carrying 203 passengers and 14 crew members.

"The operation to recover bodies from the plane is going on now," said police deputy director general Al Adel Ajeb. "It is a difficult operation because some bodies are completely burnt and there are body parts..."

According to one passenger, the plane had tried to land at Khartoum airport "but then the captain told us we couldn't land because of bad weather". The plane continued to Port Sudan, next to the Red Sea, but returned to Khartoum an hour later. That's where the crash happened.

A dust storm limited visibility, but that was apparently not the problem. Mabrouk Mubarak Salim, Minister of State for Transport, said there was an explosion in the right side of the engine. "So far we don't have precise information but we think the weather is a main reason for what happened."

[Reuters]

Paper airplanes of the future will be feared. This paper is made from cellulose like normal paper, no big deal. The thing is, science nerds at the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, Sweden made the fiber so tiny and free of defects that it 7 times stronger than that legal pad of yours.

To achieve this, they break down the pulp with enzymes, beat it with a machine, and treat the fibers with carboxymethanol. I don't know what that is or does.. neither does Google Search :) Anyway, this process gives the paper a tensile strength of 214 megapascals, compared to the 30 MPa you get with regular paper.

This wouldn't really mean much to us regular folks except it could replace other plastic items, the manufacturing of which would put out petroleum waste. Green team go!

[OH GIZMO!]

Hulu.com has grabbed Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report to run on their fine website. Get full episodes of your favorite irreverent political humor shows in 480 at the click of a button. Now if you'll excuse me, I need to bow and worship the almighty web for a while. God bless it.

[G4TV The Feed]