Do you have an iPhone 4? Are you left handed? Having signal problems? Well, it could be worse — you could be allergic to the device.

(A portrait of the droid C3PO, by Greg Peltz.)

As a fencer, I have a bit of an affinity for duels. But I have read of no greater duel than that between Baron Eberhard and a Spaniard, in which the winner had to successfully wrestle the loser into a bag.

What could possibly follow such a duel? A scuba diving dachshund, of course.

During the second world war, Alan Turing played a key part in breaking the German’s enigma code and laid the foundations on which computer science was built. The computer that you’re reading this on? Turing’s fault. The algorithm? Turing’s idea. The fact that Germany did not wipe out the UK during World War II? Turing’s work.

Because of all this, nobody cared that Turing was homosexual … until the war was over. Turing was arrested for gross indecency, chemically castrated, and eventually killed himself. There is now a campaign requesting that the UK government make an official apology for the prejudices that ended his career and his life.

The image of the day is not behaving itself. Instead of posting it here, I merely link to it. It’s funny. You’ll like it.

Does the ubiquity of mobile phone cameras, together with “social” websites help to make us more honest?

Are you a writer? Do you like whiskey? Then we have an opportunity for you.

Something bizarre is happening just outside of Saturn. Something is disturbing the ring.

(by fire design)

What happens when physics meets computer science? Matter and energy bump into a third fundamental concept: information. It is encoded in atomic structures and DNA. Decoded through complex neural firings in the brain, or biological processes that I don’t understand. And this has led one man to believe that the universe is a computer.

Youtube is now host to Ghostbusters. But if you live in the UK (and probably most other places that are not the USA), this link to the video will not work, thanks to outdated copyright laws.