If you've used a point-and-shoot camera, the Flip MinoHD should seem at least familiar, though the MinoHD is held in a vertical, portrait format versus most cameras' landscape. With the same 3.94" x 1.97" x 0.63" dimensions and 3.3 ounce weight as its older Flip Mino (SD) brother, the Flip MinoHD is noticeably smaller and lighter than previous non-Mino generations. It is also roughly the same size and shape as many point-and-shoot digicams, though a bit thicker by today's standards. Sporting an integrated lithium-ion rechargeable battery, a 1.5 inch display, and 4GB of internal, non-expandable memory (providing 60 minutes of 720p HD footage at 30 fps), the Flip MinoHD is significantly smaller than competing pocket camcorders. Kodak's Zi6, by contrast, runs on AA batteries, has an expandable SD slot that supports up to 32GB, can shoot 640 x 480 stills, and features a larger 2.4 inch display, but weights in at 3.8 ounces and is a bit larger at 4.5" x 2.5" x 0.9". It should also be noted that, like the original Mino, the Flip MinoHD can be customized with a number of styles available at Pure Digital Technologies' website, or you can upload your own image if you're really gunning to destroy your resell value. My test model was the base gadget black design with silver trim, however, cuz that's how we roll. The most noticeable thing about the Flip MinoHD right out of the box is that it is light. Extremely light. I admittedly haven't used other pocket camcorders, but after touting around Canon Elph point-and-shoot cameras with metal enclosures for the last few years, the MinoHD's closed, plastic design and rounded edges feel comfortably light in my hand. (...read more, arstechnica.com)

(...) The surprise use for the national tipple emerged when researchers at the National Autonomous University experimented with making ultra-thin films of diamond from organic solutions, such as acetone and ethanol. The mix that worked best, 40% alcohol and 60% water, was similar to the proportions used in tequila. Diamond films are extremely durable and heat resistant and can be used to coat cutting tools. By carefully adding impurities to the films, it is also possible to make diamond semiconductors for use in electronic circuits. Luis Miguel Apátiga, a member of the team, brought a bottle of cheap tequila into the lab to see if it could be turned into diamond. When he heated a shot to 800C it vaporised and broke down into its atomic constituents, producing a fine layer of carbon on nearby metal trays. Close examination of the films at high magnification revealed that the carbon had formed into crystal structures identical to diamond. Each was around one thousandth of a millimetre across. (...read more, guardian.co.uk -- see also Scientists Turn Tequila into Diamonds, physorg.com)

In the dark, abysmal depths, there dwell timeless alien horrors that once roamed the void of space in the ages before the earliest building blocks of life congealed within the primordial waters of our doomed planet. From far beyond the stars, they came to this world when it was young and forged mighty edifices in the inaccessible places where nothing else could exist, there to rest in dreamful torpor for endless aeons. Though the presence of these Great Old Ones has long been obscured from humanity, we are surrounded by subtle signs and portents of the secret horrors that will one day awaken and rise from the depths to blot out our feeble existence. An artifact that prophesies their grim return has come into my possession: the dread Cthubuntu Linux distribution—an arcane relic of ineffable power that originated in a dark time beyond reckoning. The incomprehensible apparatus is an otherworldly chimaera forged by alchemical arts unknown to modern science. It came into my possession after the sudden death of my mentor, an elderly UNIX system administrator who was wise in the ways of ancient lore. He was the head of the IT department at Miskatonic University and was regarded by many as an expert in the history of computer science. He was killed when a chair flung by an unseen assailant collided with his head; the mysterious circumstances of his sudden demise generated much speculation among his friends and colleagues. He had no children and no family, so I was called upon to oversee the execution of his will. (...read more, arstechnica.com)