The couple fed their 3-month-old daughter once a day between marathon stretches in a local Internet cafe, where they were raising a virtual child in the fantasy role-playing game Prius Online, police told local reporters Friday.

Prius Online is a 3-D game in which players nurture an online companion, Anima, a young girl with mysterious powers who grows and increases her skills as the game progresses.”

(Source: Police: Couple nurtured virtual child while real baby starved – CNN.com)

Made public Thursday, the files are the fifth collection of records about unidentified flying objects to be released by the Ministry of Defence and The National Archives as part of a project to open the files up to a wider audience.

Thursday’s release is the largest so far, totaling more than 6,000 pages of material from 1994 to 2000.”

(Source: Britain releases new UFO files – CNN.com.)

‘It’ll be possible for constructs that we build in Second Life and things like it in a simulated space to actually think,’ he told me in 2007. ‘It’s only a decade away, the simulation engines.’ I just didn’t imagine he’d essentially take the helm on that project himself.”

(Source: New World Notes: Philip Rosedale Attempting to Create Sentient Artificial Intelligence That Thinks and Dreams in Second Life!.)

Yet his parents say this is the only way they can guarantee not to lose him.

His father Chen Chuanliu works as an unlicensed rickshaw cyclist in Beijing, taking fares all over the city, while the boy’s disabled mother collects rubbish at the roadside. “

(Childcare, Chinese style: Father chains two-year-old son to a post while he’s at work | Mail Online)

While it might be easy to mistake BT as a DJ based on his active touring and dance floor success from the mid-90’s, it is clear that BT’s talents rest not in spinning and mixing, but in creating audio tapestries that appeal to the listener in ways that are entirely unique. BT does this not only by creating new music, but by inventing new ways to present that music to the listener. He is, quite literally, our mad scientist of electronic music and his latest invention is worth adding to your collection.

These Hopeful Machines is likely to please a variety of music connoisseurs. You’ve got beats, catchy dance-floor lyrics with a hint of House appeal that will cater to the club DJs or spice up your work out. You’ve got kick-ass electronic blends intermixed with the dance tunes providing signature transitions and the BT patented stutter-edits. Combine that with sonic explorations and some trance-like haunting vocals on a few tracks and you’ve got an album full of win. In fact, it is a challenge to identify a bad track on this album.

Speaking of tracks, you’ll only find two on These Hopeful Machines as BT decided to release this album as continuous tracks entitled simply A Side and B Side. With this approach BT is demanding the listener’s attention and it is a testimony to his commitment to presenting the user with an holistic audio experience. The gamble works as the immersion experience pays dividends to the listener that would not have been present for all but the most disciplined. For those seeking dance floor mixes or versions of hit singles to put on their iPod for the morning commute or work-out mix, have no fear. Many of the songs are being released as singles including remixes by a who’s who of top DJs.

It is quite apparent that BT hears the world in a way that most of us are oblivious to and his ability to extract sounds and amplify them through his music is certainly a gift we should cherish. Therefore, we give this album the highest of ratings. In fact, the first person to buy this album and email us that they don’t like it – we’ll refund your money over PayPal.

These Hopeful Machines is available via Amazon and iTunes.

(Source: World of Fedcraft: SAIC buys virtual world company Boing Boing.)

I had the opportunity to travel with one of these cases for my MacBook Pro 13″ this past week and it performs a very simple function very well with a unique style and elegance you rarely see in accessory products like this.

The BookBook provides great protection for your laptop without being overly bulky. In addition, the external sides are hard enough to provide form to messenger bags that don’t have dedicated laptop pouches. I really liked the styling of this case the quality of materials from the leather exterior to the zippers is exceptional.

The BookBook also provides some added security by hiding the laptop in plain site. In fact, I put my laptop in the case and placed it on my hotel room desk, figuring it was safer there than in my laptop bag which is the obvious place to look.

If you are looking for a great case for your Apple laptop or something that goes well with your Belstaff bag, you can’t go wrong with the BookBook.

They are available at the TwelveSouth website.

Disclaimer – Our BookBook was purchased at full retail price for review.

After reporting fourth-quarter results that were in line with Wall Street’s expectations, Verizon said weak corporate spending hurt its traditional fixed-line business, offsetting subscriber growth at Verizon Wireless. Shares fell 2 percent.”

(Verizon to cut 6 percent of its workforce – Earnings- msnbc.com)

(The Web’s Return To Chaos – Forbes.com)

(Data breach costs top $200 per customer record – Network World)