birds

No longer a fledgling upstart, Firefox is the gold standard of alternatives to the still-dominant Internet Explorer. Firefox 3.6 is full-featured, lightning fast, and secure. Its killer selection of add-ons remains strong, with built-in support for the next generation of themes, called Personas, plus the latest update makes version 3.6 about 20 percent faster than version 3.5. However, competition is strong and it can no longer be said that Firefox is the fastest browser available.

Several notable improvements in the latest revamp keep Firefox abreast of current browsing tech. In addition to the aforementioned improvements made to … Read more

LAS VEGAS--With smartphones taking the place of standalone MP3 players more and more, it's no wonder we have a proliferation of stereo Bluetooth headsets on the market. No stranger to this space is JayBird, which has been making uncharacteristically comfy sets for the past several years. The latest release from the company is the BlueBuds Bluetooth Headphones, a lightweight set with earpieces that measure just an inch long.

Despite their small size, the BlueBuds manage to integrate a full array of tactile controls into the right earpiece. There's a volume knob and buttons for controlling music playback and … Read more

I am all for discovering the Meaning of Life. And though I was once concerned that you could never trust scientists enough to find it, many wise people persuaded me that we should still try.

However, I am concerned with the news reported by the Guardian that a hungry bird has halted testing on the Large Hadron Collider.

The Collider, positioned on the increasingly sensitive border between France and Switzerland, has been quiet for more than a year after electrical faults and helium leaks.

It is now being tested to prepare it for action and reaction. However, a de-beaked piece … Read more

If you haven't heard of The Wooden Birds, maybe you know Andrew Kenny from his other band The American Analog Set. Or perhaps Matt Pond from Matt Pond PA?

If you haven't heard of any of these guys, well, you have some catching up to do on your indie rock. The new quartet stopped by the CBS Interactive studios to share some thoughts and tunes from their new LP "Magnolia." The lineup features Andrew Kenny on lead vocals and guitar; Leslie Sisson on vocals; Sean Haskins on drums; and, unexpectedly, Matt Pond on guitar.

Check out … Read more

JayBird first made a name for itself as a Bluetooth company, pushing out a line of stereo headphones with discreet-yet-secure designs that were made with the iPod in mind. So it was both surprising and not when the company elected to move into the wired market with two in-ear models aimed at the fitness-minded. What was surprising was the seemingly backward step in technology, but the move is actually in line with JayBird's focus on active users. Of the two new sets, the Tiger Eyes Earbuds ($89) are the slightly less expensive and more stylish model.

Read the Tiger Eyes review… Read more

A Brazilian musician has just completed a collaboration with an unusual partner: a large group of birds sitting on telephone wires.

According to the Daily Mail, Jarbas Agnelli saw a newspaper photo of a large flock of black birds sitting on the wires and recognized that their configuration looked very much like a musical score.

Starting from there, he arranged and recorded a composition, using xylophone, bassoon, oboe and clarinet and, of course, the notes laid out by the birds.

Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.

"The pleasing melody is not my invention. It was the … Read more

After several months of strain with the developer of a flu database, the Global Initiative on Sharing Avian Influenza Data launched its own, admittedly less robust database interface on Monday.

GISAID has been under contract with the Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics since 2006 to promote its flu data via a platform called EpiFlu, which has been live since 2008. But since SIB removed access to EpiFlu from the GISAID Web site in July due to alleged late payments, GISAID has been working on developing a new version, now live.

It all started in 2006, when Italian veterinarian and researcher Ilaria Capua … Read more

3D Rain Forest Adventure turns a computer desktop into a lush Amazon scene. With beautiful visuals, realistic sounds and a surprising feature, this program will make nature lovers happy.

The program's interface is exclusively through Windows' screensaver menu and was a breeze for us to access and navigate. We enjoyed watching the screensaver's animated, but lifelike, scene operate. A white, splashing waterfall crashed down among dense green ferns, vines, and trees that swayed in the breeze. Brightly colored birds swooped in and out of the frame while all this happened. We found the sound effects to be subtle … Read more