(by Canters Hi)

(by Canters Hi)

Google Voice now lets you port your own phone number (update: option disappears) (Ross Miller/Engadget)

Ross Miller / Engadget:

Google Voice now lets you port your own phone number (update: option disappears) — We'd be lying if we said we hadn't been waiting on this feature since the service's debut. As one reader just notified us (and verified by a number of staffers), Google Voice now lets you port your own phone number …

Police: Robbery crew steals, snorts cremated ashes - CNN International

The Sun

Police: Robbery crew steals, snorts cremated ashes CNN International By the CNN Wire Staff (CNN) -- Police said they will search Thursday for what is left of the cremated remains of a man and two dogs that robbers stole from a Florida house and then snorted after mistakenly thinking it was cocaine. ... Thieves snort cremated human, animal remains believing the ashes were cocaineNew York Daily News Burglars snort dead dad's ashesRegister A bunch of dumb 'ashes'New York Post 10 Connects -Sun-Sentinel -Digital Spy all 77 news articles »

That Was a Very Smart Thing You Just Did There, Amazon

Congratulations, Amazon, you just got us to sign up for Groupon's competitor. Actually, congratulations to anyone who gets us to sign up for anything at all! Our New Year's resolution was to opt out. Today, LivingSocial, the deal-a-day site in which Amazon just invested $175 million, offered a $20 gift certificate to Amazon for just $10. More than 550,000 people have signed up with eighteen hours left on the deal, which means LivingSocial just generated over $5.5 million in gross sales in less than half a day, minus whatever chunk of change goes back to its investor, who just guaranteed itself more web traffic. Now to get us to keep using the site, have you considered offering a similar half-off deal on iPads? Just think how much steam you could suck out of Groupon's IPO then! [Mashable]



Read more posts by Nitasha Tiku
Filed Under: the future is coming, amazon, groupon, livingsocial, massaging the hand that feeds you, we didn't actually click buy yet but we're sure we totally won't forget to later

Urinal games help men aim straight

Tokyo urinals fitted with games enabling users to test power and accuracy
A Japanese entertainment company has combined men's obsession with video games with their perennial inability to aim straight to create a range of distractions in selected Tokyo urinals.
Sega has installed the Toylets in male lavatories at four bars and games arcades in the Japanese capital.
The games use pressure sensors attached to eye-level LCD screens that test users' accuracy as they answer the call of nature.
The four games include one in which the object is to spray the screen clean of graffiti. Another, Manneken Pis, named after the famous statue in Brussels, measures the volume of the urine stream.
Splashing Battle, meanwhile, pits one user against another – though thankfully not directly – by challenging him to produce a more powerful stream than the previous visitor.
In the fourth game, the North Wind and the Sun and Me, sensors control a digital wind blowing up a young woman's skirt. The greater the stream's intensity, the higher the skirt travels.
The games sit (or stand) well with Japan's open attitude to all matters micturition.
Children are raised on tales of ghosts who inhabit toilets, perhaps to encourage cleanliness, while girls are encouraged to keep on the good side of the female deity who supposedly resides in domestic WCs.
While many foreign visitors to Japan find themselves befuddled by hi-tech 'washlets' in upmarket hotels and restaurants, locals are accustomed to heated sets, multidirectional jets of warm air and water, and even face-saving 'perfume bursts'.
For the easily embarrassed, the toilet maker Toto offers Otohime (Sound Princess) – a gadget tailored for women's public lavatories that emits the sound of running water.
Sega said the Toylet games would be available only until the end of the month, and it had no plans to market them commercially.
Household versions would be unlikely to succeed. According to a 2009 survey by Toto, more than 33% of Japanese men prefer to urinate while sitting down.

• Japan
• Games

Justin McCurry

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News - "Dark Knight Rises" Villains Revealed

A press release from Warner Bros. Pictures has just confirmed the two key members of Batman's Rogues Gallery that will appear in the much-anticipated upcoming 'The Dark Knight Rises' - Catwoman and Bane. Check it out below:


'Warner Bros. Pictures announced today that Anne Hathaway has been cast as Selina Kyle in Christopher Nolan’s “The Dark Knight Rises.” She will be starring alongside Christian Bale, who returns in the title role of Bruce Wayne/Batman. Christopher Nolan stated, “I am thrilled to have the opportunity to work with Anne Hathaway, who will be a fantastic addition to our ensemble as we complete our story.”


In addition, Tom Hardy has been set to play Bane. Nolan said, “I am delighted to be working with Tom again and excited to watch him bring to life our new interpretation of one of Batman’s most formidable enemies.”


Nolan will direct the film from a screenplay he wrote with Jonathan Nolan, from a story by Christopher Nolan and David S. Goyer. Nolan will also produce the film with his longtime producing partner, Emma Thomas, and Charles Roven. “The Dark Knight Rises” is slated for release on July 20, 2012. The film will be distributed worldwide by Warner Bros. Pictures, a Warner Bros. Entertainment Company.'

Study: Google “Favors” Itself Only 19% Of The Time

For the past year or so, there’s been a rising meme that Google is altering its search results in ways to favor itself over competitors. Now a new study is out showing the opposite. Google is far more likely not to show its own products in the first spot of its search results. The survey [...]



Please visit Search Engine Land for the full article.