Technically Incorrect

I am told by those who cycle, jog and rob banks that if you're wearing an iPod with earphones, it's quite hard to be aware of imminent dangers. Like buses and cars and policemen.

So some extremely ingenious Koreans have designed a vest-like contraption, called the Sound Walk, that allows you to enjoy speakers built into your shoulder pads.

It looks a little like a harness from a children's army brigade, but you simply slip your iPod, Zune or other player into a pocket at the front which is wired up to the speakers in your shoulder … Read more

Dr. Jeffrey Segal has an interesting business. Called Medical Justice, it proclaims on its home page that it is "relentlessly protecting physicians from frivolous lawsuits."

One thing Medical Justice does in its march against frivolity is help doctors get patients to sign "Mutual Privacy Agreements." These appear to be documents in which the patient promises never to post anything negative about the doctor on review sites or blogs. (2,000 doctors are already using these agreements.)

There are many, many words on the Medical Justice site. And I tried to pay attention to them all. So … Read more

It seems like a case of biting the hand that feeds you and then pinches you in that little place you've never told your wife about.

Today's announcement that Illinois' Cook County Sheriff is suing Craigslist for being the largest source of prostitution in America, seems extremely odd.

I just called a couple of people who know about these things and they tell me that one of the easiest ways for police to round up a few workers of the Paid Sex Sorority is to wander along to Craigslist and take down some of the advertisers' particulars.

So … Read more

What would you do, in this age of green power and greener pastures, to improve the image of the nuclear power industry?

And what would you do if you happened to live in the country where the nuclear power industry brought you, um, Chernobyl?

Well, the Russians, traditionalists to the bitter end, have come up with a brainwave of a quite elevated frequency. Yes, an online beauty pageant.

Who, on this Thursday that seems surrounded only by woes, can resist logging on to this sumptuous contest to find the most beautiful woman working in the Russian nuclear power industry?

In … Read more

You sleep with your boss' lover. You steal a stranger's dog. Or you win the lottery. Who is the first person you tell? And who is the second?

I ask only because I came across this utterly depressing conclusion about humanity from John Cacioppo, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago: Americans have fewer people to confide in now than they did 20 years previously.

Apparently, it's down to two from three.

In 2004, 25 percent of people claimed that they had not been able to confide in anyone for six months. Twenty years previously, that … Read more

First, there was the Cold War. Now, perhaps, there's the Cold Space War.

Retired Major General Leonid Shershnev, the former head of Russia's military space intelligence, thinks the recent collision between an Iridium satellite from the US and an out-of-service Russian Cosmos 2251 may have been a set-up.

I can barely understand traffic, so I will make an extra effort to summarize the Major-General's suspicions.

He seems to believe that the Iridium satellite was part of a project called "Orbital Express." This project, which was officially completed in 2007, was to see if on-board refueling … Read more

Bankers are finding it hard to get a little love these days. Their spouses offer a cold shoulder. Their relatives, a cold consomme. Their golden retrievers, cold comfort.

As they spend their lonely nights sipping their VSOP and trying to make an online appointment at the Emperor's Club, perhaps they might slide over to Facebook just for moment.

Facebook, like the odd banker or two, makes a mess of things sometimes. But there is a certain sweetness in the way in which the company's upper echelons sometimes remember who their customers are. And, perhaps even more importantly, how … Read more

The brains at Flinders University in Australia should know that Paul Gardner-Stephen, one of their systems administrators, has too much time on his hands. And his feet.

Asked to help a theater production of "Get Smart," a TV show that last became a movie starring Steve Carell, Mr. Gardner-Stephen created a shoe that is also a cell phone.

Here's the thing: it actually works. And now he's thinking of selling it online. The shoephone has a cell phone handset in one heel and a Bluetooth headset in the other.

Mr. Gardner-Stephen told the Telegraph: "The … Read more

The latest sad episode of humanity's ugliness allegedly being played out on Facebook's pages has resulted in Facebook itself being sued for $3 million.

Denise Finkel, currently a student at the University of Albany, accused four of her ex-classmates at Oceanside High School of setting up a Facebook group "calculated to hold the plaintiff up to public hatred, ridicule, and disgrace."

The group, whose page was password-protected, allegedly said she had AIDS, was an intravenous drug user, and had "inappropriate conduct with animals."

Ms. Finkel is not only suing those ex-classmates, but also Facebook, … Read more