According to an article in the Scotsman, the number of crashes and fatalities involving commercial aircraft is down significantly since last year. With 12 crashes accounting for 362 deaths (worldwide) instead of 18 crashes with 716 fatalities, the skies were certainly safer during the first six months of this year …

Not wanting to be left out of the online music game, buy.com will introduce today their BuyMusic.com service, intended to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Service, according to this report from the Associated Press (carried by Yahoo!). When I am able to actually access the system, I will …

The New York Times has an article about the latest trend in caviar in the United States, domestic caviar. Made from paddlefish instead of sturgeon, the caviar doesn't taste the same as the expensive Russian and Iranian caviar, but it is gaining popularity in the US. According to the article …

In order to protect the sanctity of the French language, the government of France has officially outlawed the use of the words "email" and "e-mail" in deference to the word "courriel." A story from the Associated Press, carried by the Washington Post tells the tale. Not surprisingly, outside of the …

According to an article from Macworld UK, analysts from Needham and Company believe Apple is poised to take 20% of the online music market. The article goes over the various numbers, including the analysts estimates of what Apple makes per song (they think it is between 5 and 10 cents …

In what is likely to be the stupidest public relations mistake in RFID history so far, British supermarket chain Tesco has apparently been testing RFID tags with Gillette by photographing customers when the pick up the chipped merchandise from the shelves and also as they leave the store. By comparing …

Raindog Records (a subsidiary of Oasis CD Manufacturing) has just announced a service for independent musicians who want to get on to Apple's iTunes Music Service. The package includes everything from getting the data into the right formats to clearing albums (except for cover tunes) straight through to the service …

Whatcha gonna do when a sequel like Bad Boys II comes out? Well, that's going to depend on how much you believe in the chemistry between Will Smith and Martin Lawrence. If you liked the two in the first movie, Bad Boys, you will probably like them in this one …

Those interested in snorkeling and diving will find an article (subscription required) in this week's Science of concern. It sounds the alarm about a regional decline (which is paired with a worldwide decline) in coral population. The article is mostly an analysis of 65 studies covering 263 sites across the …

According to an article in this week's Science (subscription required), summarized in the New York Times, there is evidence for a genetic predisposition towards clinical depression triggered by high degrees of stress. The articles are interesting, but the main gist is that depression is commonly brought on by acute trauma …

An article (subscription required) in this week's Science discusses hydrogen fuel use for transportation and whether it makes sense for us to concentrate on hydrogen now as a replacement for fossil fuels due to global warming, air quality, and energy security concerns. In short, David W. Keith (CMU) and Alexander …

CNet is reporting about a new house bill, just passed by the House, with a component by Homeland Security Committee Chairman Chris Cox (R-CA), that is designed to fund finding ways to reduce or circumvent internet censorship worldwide. The funding is $16 million over the next two years, down from …

Citing second amendment concerns and personal safety issues in DC, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) is calling again for the repeal of the stringent gun control laws in the District of Columbia. An article from the Washington Post describes his position (also available in his press release) Senator Hatch has introduced …

Wired has an interesting article describing the "guerrillas" who have invaded this week's MacWorld show in New York to taut their favorite software package (Final Cut Pro) as a mechanism for revolutionizing film. What surprised me was that there are 27,000 members of the FCPUG (Final Cut Pro User …

Wired has a good article about a new bill proposed in Congress that would "clarify" that uploading a single copyrighted file to a P2P network would make you eligible for a 5 year prison term and $250,000 fine. The proposed bill (sponsored by two Dem's, John Conyers, Jr. (MI …

This story from the Washington Post is just funny. It appears that our intrepid would-be thieves decided that they would steal the money from an ATM using brute force... they were wrong. After prying it from its concrete base and dropping it to the ground a number of times, the …

Are you paying too much for your dial-up ISP service? Once you read this article from PCWorld, you may think so. The article surveys some very basic ISPs that run in price from $4.50 per month (that's right, dial-up internet access for ~$50/year) to $22 per month (EarthLink …

In what I strongly hope will not be a trend, Quentin Tarantino will be releasing his next film voyage Kill Bill in two parts, according to an article from the New York Times. The supposedly three-hour film is slated to be released in two installments starting this fall with a …

Don't like the way Safari looks or acts? Microsoft Internet Explorer got you down? If you're a Macintosh developer and have installed the latest SDK from Apple, you can write your own web browser with "one line of code" by following the instructions in this article from CocoaDevCentral. Admittedly, the …

PalmInfoCenter is reporting that Sony Japan is introducing a new PDA tomorrow, complete with larger keyboard, WiFi, Bluetooth, and camera. The Clie PEG-UX50 runs PalmOS, has a 480x320 screen, a 300kpixel camera (with 3x zoom), and accepts Sony's Memory Stick Pro cards for storage.