News.com Extra

We couldn't resist passing along these examples of horribly executed sound design: Wired ran a blog on Monday that outs all the poorly manufactured talking toys that end up sounding like they're saying evil, vile, or otherwise inappropriately suggestive things to their young masters.

It's kind of like watching "America's Scariest Serial Offenders," but with Furby instead of Charles Manson.

Read the roundup and watch the videos on Wired: "Attack of the Trash-Talking Toys: Nine of the Nastiest"

In a field known for instantaneous response and constant updating, what really stands the test of time? Whose technology writing will make it into the collective unconscious, defining a whole generation's relationship to inventions and improvements? Newsweek's editor in charge of the Technologist column takes on this question in a book analyzing and ranking tech coverage.

Read the full review on Ars Technica: "Ars Book Reviews: The Best of Technology Writing 2007"

What's half deer, half dog, and half robot? Give up? It's Boston Dynamics' DARPA-funded "BigDog," a four-legged, all-terrain creature designed to go anywhere, carry heavy loads, and, presumably, perform dangerous tasks.

Watch the video on Gizmodo of the BigDog prancing its way up a wooded hillside, regaining its footing on icy asphalt, and clambering over obstacles: "New Video of BigDog Quadruped Robot Is So Stunning It's Spooky"

Was Steve Jobs right when he said, in critiquing the Kindle Reader, that people just don't read anymore? Well, no, as it happens. According to a recent study, there's no drop in people reading. There's just a decline in people reading print media. People of all ages seem to be gravitating to online news, commentary, and fiction.

What are some other trends affecting the way people find engaging, useful content? Read the full story on Read Write Web: "Steve Jobs was only half right: People do read--even kids--they just do it online"

Just about every day brings new advances in using computers to customize medical treatments. How are chips and bodies interfacing to change disease treatment, repair damaged brain tissue, and even manufacture micro-specialized drugs to be released directly into the bloodstream?

Read the full story on MSNBC: "The future of biomedicine: virtual humans"

In its heyday some years back, Polaroid was one of the crown jewels of the Boston area business scene, a luminescent union of art and technology. But that was then. Today, post-bankruptcy proceedings and in the hands of new owners, it exists as little more than a brand name. Last month came the end-of-an-era announcement that it would no longer make its trademark instant film.

On Sunday, The Boston Globe ran a pair of articles in separate sections looking at the Polaroid mystique. Mark Feeney's piece, "Instant karma," pairs the Polaroid Swinger camera with the Ford Mustang as "embodiments of '60s affluence and liberation." Feeney reminisces about Polaroid's role in pop culture, from ads featuring Ali McGraw to its cameo in Madonna's hands in Desperately Seeking Susan and the oversize portraits by photographer Elsa Dorfman.

Business writer Scott Kirsner, meanwhile, catches up in "Polaroid's entrepreneurial legacy" with company alumni now plying their cutting-edge skills at tech endeavors ranging from printing spin-off Zink Imaging to display specialist E Ink and solar cell maker Konarka Technologies.

Plus, see: "Old and outrageous Polaroids from Boston.com readers"

Mark Cuban often makes news, whether it's in his role as owner of the Dallas Mavericks, tech entrepreneur, or ballroom dancer.

This time, Cuban has some advice for the news media: "newspapers having 'bloggers' is easily one of the many bad decisions that newspapers have made over the past 10 years." He goes on to offer some marketing and branding tips: don't call them blogs, call them "Real Time Reports."

Mark Cuban

You can read his take on his blog.

What prompted this? Cuban's recent move to ban bloggers from the Mavericks locker room has drawn much criticism. (I can see the headline in The Onion now: "Cuban bans himself from Mavericks locker room.")

Saul Hansell of The New York Times offers his take in (what else?) a blog posting: "Call it whatever you want, but if it links like a blog, and is open like a blog, and interacts like a blog, then it is a blog. Readers can decide if it is worth their time, as they do with the columns, analysis, reviews or anything else on paper."

Read the full blog on The New York Times site: "What I've Learned as a Blogger for The New York Times"

You might already know what your DNA looks like, at least approximately, but what about your RNA and the enzyme that crawls along each strand, determining its precise length? Never thought about that, did you? The "Design for the Elastic Mind" exhibit at MOMA in New York did. The program is displaying a handful of new films depicting the micro-details of your innermost cell life. Designed for science classrooms, the films make use of beautifully rendered digital images, and are a mighty far cry from the "film strips" of yore.

Now you can be at least as caught up as a grade-schooler. Check out the images and notes on science fiction blog i09: "Macrophages Squirming Along the Outside of Your Capillaries"

Not content with merely mapping the 180-terabyte network of a mouse brain, researchers at Seattle's Allen Institute for Brain Science are going after bigger quarry: mapping the human brain, at least 2,000 times more complex. Their findings will shed light on the biochemistry behind gene expression and brain function.

Funded by software high-roller Paul Allen, the institute also hopes to create a 4D atlas demonstrating the growth of neural patterns over time.

Read the full story on MSNBC: "New brain map on tap"

Do you get the sweats if you send in your old phone for a replacement and have to go without your cell for two or three days? Could you ever go on vacation without your BlackBerry? What if your Internet connection were cut off? How would you survive?

If these questions seriously give you pause, you might be one of the many suffering with "Disconnect Anxiety," which affects--some would say unsurprisingly--27 to 41 percent of our society.

Want more gruesome details? Read the full story on Ars Technica: "Disconnect Anxiety: A malady for the 21st century"