Elliot Chang writes "Last month Germany announced plans to completely phase out the use of nuclear power by 2022 in favor of renewable energy sources — however what is to become of the nation's nuclear plants after they have been shut down? Enter East Germany's Wunderland Kalkar — an incredible adaptive reuse project that transformed a never-used nuclear reactor into an amusement park. The remarkable renovation attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year."

gizmodolt writes "The entrenched Malaysian governing party, Barisan Nasional, has spent almost $600,000 on six Facebook pages promoting tourism in the country. This has sparked criticism from opposition parties, decrying the 'ridiculous' reasoning behind this waste of taxpayer funds and garnered widespread recrimination from Malaysians around the globe, who have made their sentiments known, quite publicly, on those very same Facebook pages."

fysdt writes "Cookies are a pretty awesome treat, but sometimes making them from scratch can be a bit of a chore. Fortunately, there is now a robot created to specifically bake cookies--although it probably isn't good enough to replace human kitchen staff or grandma just yet. Created by MIT Lab student Mario Bollini, the PR2 Bakebot loves nothing more than to bake up a batch of cookies from scratch. The robot's left hand holds onto the mixing bowl, while its right hand does the hard work, mixing ingredients with a rubber spatula. Its head contains a laser scanner and sensor camera used to determine what each ingredients is and how much mixing and stirring it needs to do."

dotarray writes "If your parents tell you that playing video games will never get you anywhere, point them in the direction of Lucas Ordoñez. Three years ago, Lucas heard about a competition for racing game fans – the Nissan PlayStation GT Academy. Inspired, Lucas picked up a PlayStation 3 and a copy of Gran Turismo and practiced and practiced and practiced. This week, along with his teammates Franck Mailleux and Soheil Ayari, Lucas could not stop smiling as he stood on the Le Mans 24 Hours podium after taking second in class."

If you've ever wondered how LBJ liked his chili, what was in JFK's clam chowder, or wanted to read Eisenhower’s three-page treatise on vegetable soup, the What's Cooking Uncle Sam? exhibit might be for you. From the article: "Beyond presidential menus and Queen Elizabeth’s recipe for scones sent to Eisenhower, curators looked back at the history of farming, food processing, nutrition guidelines and the effects of military food and school lunches. The exhibit includes the story of explorers sent around the world by the U.S. Agriculture Department in the late 1800s and early 1900s to find seeds and plants to cross-breed and help American crops survive harsh climates."

Egypt is hoping that their new economic problems have an old solution. Taking a page out of the Roman playbook, they plan on introducing lion fighting to increase tourism. Panthera leo fighting enthusiast al-Sayed al-Essawy plans to fight a full-grown African lion in front of the Pyramids at Giza. “The world will flock to see the Egyptian man who defeated a lion with his bare hands. After the revolution, with the economy the way it is, I've been given the perfect opportunity to realize my dream," he says. Adding: "I discovered my incredible strength at the age of 13, and, almost immediately afterwards, promised myself that, one of these days, I would fight a lion. If America, or any other country, had a man with the ability to combat the strongest creature on the planet, they would properly promote him, and use his strength to their advantage."

Hugh Pickens writes "Ever been annoyed during that nail-biting darkened hallway scene by someone turning on their phone to send a text? Well, don't mess with Texas or you may end up on the screen in a public service announcement. Alamo Drafthouse, a local chain of dine-and-screen movie theaters in Austin, Texas, has long waged a war against impolite moviegoers booting out customers who talk or text during performances. Phoebe Connelly writes that according to Tim League, the Drafthouse's founder, a woman was recently warned twice about texting during a screening, and then, in accordance with company policy, was escorted out without a refund. 'I don't think people realize that it is distracting,' says League. 'It seems like nothing, but if you spend as much time as I do at the movies, you realize the entire theater sees it and it pulls you out of the movie experience. It's every bit as intrusive as talking.' The irate customer called up the Alamo Drafthouse and left a profanity-laced (and perhaps slightly inebriated) message decrying the theater's policies, but the theater got the last laugh as they took the audio of the woman's voicemail, transcribed it, and turned it into an in-house preview [tl: Note, YouTube video contains some profanity] that warns theatergoers against cell phone use during movies. 'Part of what we're trying to do is have a comedic message about what to us is a very serious issue,' says League, declining to give any more details about the woman at the center of the recent PSA."

Unlike the CDC, a freedom of information request submitted to the Leicester City Council has revealed that the council is not prepared for an unexpected zombie invasion. From the article: "'We've had a few wacky ones before but this one did make us laugh,' said Lynn Wyeth, head of information governance. The Freedom of Information Act allows a right of access to recorded information held by public authorities. Ms Wyeth said she was unaware of any specific reference to a zombie attack in the council's emergency plan, however some elements of it could be applied if the situation arose."

itwbennett writes "Now in its second day of productivity destruction, Google's Guitar Doodle is still making music, beautiful music. Here's a roundup of some of YouTube's best, from beginner favorite Seven Nation Army to an ambitious version of Paint it Black, and, yes, Stairway to Heaven."

sethmad writes "As everyone who's ever passed the GRE knows, there are two major hypothetical operational problems with Star Wars lightsabers. More accurately I should say there were two problems, because I solved both of them."

jfruhlinger writes "If you've used Facebook or Twitter, you're almost certainly familiar with 'bimbots' — accounts that have profile pics of attractive women, but seem to exist only to send send spam links with varying degrees of subtlety. Henry Copeland, the founder of BlogAds, tracks the social network of one such Facebook bot, and finds that she's friends with a long list of influential tech and media folks. Copeland also tracks down the origin of the photo that accompanies the account."

nk497 writes "A PC maker is suing Google over the Chromebook name, saying the brand infringes on its own computer, the ChromiumPC — which was originally intended to run the open-source Chrome OS. Isys Technologies wants Google and its partners to stop marketing Chromebooks, and is hoping to delay the 15 June launch. The company also claims that Google had originally been planning to call the netbook-like devices 'Speedbooks.'"

abhatt writes "German authorities have found vultures as very valuable creatures and as such have trained some of them to be detectives. The work of the vultures is well defined — as you might have guessed they are being used to find hidden bodies. From the article: 'A police officer in Hannover, Rainer Herrmann, told reporters that, "The vultures may work much more effectively than sniffer dogs... There's a lot of interest in this. We've had inquiries from Germany, Austria and Switzerland.'"

HockeyPuck writes "Why are end user license agreements and terms of service so long and convoluted? CNET asked Academy Award winner Richard Dreyfuss if perform a dramatic reading of the Apple EULA." If Jobs doesn't hire him as the voice for all their end user agreements he's crazy.

hasanabbas1987 writes "What is the height of creepy but faithful friendship? Getting 152 Facebook friends' profile pictures tattooed on your arm."

CWmike writes "He was hired to fix their computers, but police say that Trevor Harwell instead installed spyware software that took candid photos of his clients in various states of undress. Harwell had been a Macintosh specialist with a Los Angeles-area home computer repair company called Rezitech. That's how he allegedly had the opportunity to install the spy software, called Camcapture, on computers. While working on repair assignments, the 20-year-old technician secretly set up a complex system that could notify him whenever it was ready to snap a shot using the computer's webcam, according to Sergeant Andrew Goodrich, a spokesman with the Fullerton Police Department in California. 'It would let his server know that the victim's machine was on. The server would then notify his smartphone... and then the images were recorded on his home computer,' he said. Police say they've found thousands of images on Harwell's computers and have identified dozens of victims, all of them women in Los Angeles and Orange County. Harwell was arrested Wednesday by Fullerton police." But was he a good repairman?

KWInt1601 writes "A man who believes he is Christ files a patent application — and the formal dance of responding to office actions from the USPTO begins. Invoking the 1998 State Street decision, the applicant argues, 'like software, godly powers is a method, and affects a machine. Like business methods, godly powers produces a useful, concrete, and tangible result, and that should be all that's needed for statutory material.'"

jfruhlinger writes "Are you an elected official? Do you think that it'd be fun to send pictures of your underwear to ladies online? We say, go for it! Just follow these five rules if you want to stay out of trouble." You'd think someone with a name like Weiner would have been more careful.

DeviceGuru writes "Not content with revealing the source code to his mom's banana bread, two-time BattleBots champion Christian Carlberg has developed an open source flashlight. Carlberg first achieved notoriety shredding competitors' robots with Minion's 14-inch saw blade on BattleBots. Now he's all fired up to begin shipping what they say could be the 'world's first open source flashlight.' But why in the world would you want a reprogrammable flashlight?"

fangmcgee writes "Capable of charging your cellphone or MP3 player, the solar bikini comprises thin, flexible photovoltaic film strips and USB connectors, woven together with conductive thread. Each bikini, coming in at just under $200, is entirely hand-stitched, requiring an average of 80 hours to make. No need to worry about your iPod running out of juice; the solar bikini will charge your favorite gadgets while you soak up the rays."