QUOTE:
"The Great Ape Trust in Des Moines, Iowa, is home to seven bonobos -- a close relative of the chimpanzee -- and three orangutans. But if you think Iowa might be a strange place for them to live, don't say it out loud … these apes understand English. "


http://abcnews.go.com/WN/Story?id=3222942&page=1

Quote:
" A new Japanese robot twists and rolls to iPod tunes in an intricate dance based on complex mathematics, a technology developers said will one day enable robots to move about spontaneously instead of following preprogrammed motions."

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/070531/ipod_robot.html?.v=5

Nathan Sawaya has built a career out of little plastic bricks

http://www.cnn.com/video/player/pla...ego.art.cnn.cnn

Quote:
"Astronomers have discovered 28 new planets outside of our solar system, increasing to 236 the number of known exoplanets, revealing that planets can exist around a broad spectrum of stellar types-from tiny, dim stars to giants. "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/space/20070...anetsdiscovered

Quote:
"In the race for ever thinner displays for TVs, cell phones and other gadgets, Sony may have developed one to beat them all - a razor-thin display that bends like paper while showing full-colour video.

Sony Corporation posted video of the new 2.5 inch display on its' web page.

In the video, a hand squeezes the 0.3 millimetre (0.01 inch)-thick display, which shows color video of a bicyclist stuntman, a picturesque lake and other images
"

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...in_page_id=1965

-R

Quote:
"A robotic submarine yesterday mapped the bottom of the world's deepest water-filled sinkhole in Mexico for the first time. Similar autonomous craft could some day be used to explore the oceans of Jupiter's moon Europa, researchers hope.

DEPTHX (Deep Phreatic Thermal Explorer) is 2 metres wide, weighs 1.3 tonnes and is equipped with movement, depth, temperature, and salinity sensors in separate pressurised chambers. Sonar beams all around the probe to provide a map of its surroundings for navigation. A sampling arm can extend to collect samples from the walls of the sinkhole. "

[url ]http://www.newscientisttech.com/article/dn11890-robotic-submarine-reaches-new-depths.html[/url]

Quote:
"Loud pipes may save lives, but quiet, all-electric motorcycles may save the planet. Well, sort of. But, hey, at least they'll save some coin when you silently whiz past the gas station. We got a chance to see a lithium-ion powered chopper when Hybrid Technologies (the same guys with the electric roadster and the electric mini cooper) swung by out office. Their Stealth motorcycle has a horsepower equivalent to a 500-cc bike, and it tops out at around 50 mph. That's not much on the highway, but it's plenty of speed to zoom around town. And at least your neighbors won't complain about the noise: This is one good looking, yet nearly silent hog. Check out the video below.... —Benjamin Che

http://www.popularmechanics.com/blo...ws/4216271.html

Quote:
"The high-tech brolly allows you to take pictures with a built-in camera. These can be uploaded to Flickr (a photo-sharing website) via a wireless internet connection and within two minutes you can watch downloaded photo-streams on your umbrella screen with a simple wrist-snapping movement. "
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/li...in_page_id=1965

-R

Quote"THE DAYS of electronic paper coming in two colours, black and white, could be a thing of the past.
Apparently LG Philips boffins have come up with the world's first A4 sized colour electronic-paper.

The e-paper, measuring 14.1 inches across its diagonal is 300 micrometres thin and can display up to 4,096 colours. The paper only users power when the image changes on the display."

http://www.theinquirer.net/default.aspx?article=39587

Quote:
"Segment discovered along Mongolian border was built more than 2,000 years "

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/2007050...ll_070509153014

Quote:
"One of the first seven 'original' American astronauts and the only one to fly Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo missions, Walter M. "Wally" Schirra passed away on Wednesday, after having been hospitalized for cancer."

http://www.space.com/news/cs_070503_schirra_obit.html

Quote:
"Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.
A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.

According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman's powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals.

The real mineral is white and harmless, says Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

"I'm afraid it's not green and it doesn't glow either - although it will react to ultraviolet light by fluorescing a pinkish-orange," he told BBC News. "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/6584229.stm

Quote:
"Thom Mayne designed a building that seems to move — and actually does — as California's regional transportation headquarters in Los Angeles, the city of cars. Now the prize-winning architect has set his sights higher — with plans for a soaring tower in Paris aimed at bringing brightness and life to a bleak part of the city of light."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/...storyId=9892526

-R