Two couples have been charged in a price-switching scheme that allegedly defrauded Wal-Mart stores in 19 states of $1.5 million over the last decade.

Authorities said the scheme involved using a home computer to produce UPC bar codes for cheaper products and slipping them over the real codes on high-priced items. The suspects then allegedly sold the merchandise, or returned it for refunds or store gift cards that also were sold.

via CBS News

This method originally apeared online a few years ago as a project called Re-Code a website which provided a whole inventory of barcodes to be downloaded, printed on stickers and placed on higher-priced merchandise in Wal-Marts. The site provided well detailed tutorials + videos to help users through entire process. -cw

Scientists at the University of the West of England (UWE) have designed a robot that does not require batteries or electricity to power itself.

Dr Chris Melhuish and his Bristol-based team hope the robot, called EcoBot II, will one day be sent into zones too dangerous for humans, potentially proving invaluable in military, security and industrial areas.

via CNN

ScreamBody is the first of the series of Wearable Body Organs. ScreamBody is a portable space for screaming. When a user needs to scream but is in anynumber of situations where it is just not permitted, ScreamBody silences the user’s screams so they may feel free to vocalize without fear of environmental retaliation, and at the same time records the scream for later release where, when, and how the user chooses.

via ScreamBody / near near future

The program is an example of organic information design, which is the process of creating software visualizations that demonstrate and express features of large, dynamic data sources.

Anemone is a creation of Ben Fry, one of the initiators of Processing.

more on ben fry

Jared Tarbell has an impressive collection of java applets written in Processing, a programming language based on Java geared toward visual arts and design. These applets are essentially canvases of algorithms revealing the beauty in hard coded chaos.-cw

via Gallery of Computation

In the wake of Sunday’s devastating tsunamis in Southeast Asia, said to have killed at least 40,000 people and left up to a million homeless, Architecture for Humanity, which organizes architectural services for humanitarian crises, is soliciting funds and services to aid much-needed reconstruction in the region.

image via WorldChanging

image via DigitalGlobe

Our aim as a two-person team of photographer and biologist is to
combine scientific exactness with aesthetic appearances thereby
helping to bridge the gap between the world of science and the
world of art. Our commitment is to the evidence of scientific
investigation but also to the use of colour as a creative and harmonious
tool to achieve beauty. In the combination of the aesthetics and the science
we hope to inspire the public. Day by day, in a world beyond human vision, we
explore fascinating forms and structures.

via boingboing

The Trans-Texas Corridor project, as envisioned by Republican Gov. Rick Perry in 2002, would be a 4,000-mile transportation network costing an awesome $175 billion over 50 years, financed mostly if not entirely with private money. The builders would then charge motorists tolls.

But these would not be mere highways. Proving anew that everything’s big in Texas, they would be megahighways — corridors up to a quarter-mile across, consisting of as many as six lanes for cars and four for trucks, plus railroad tracks, oil and gas pipelines, water and other utility lines, even broadband transmission cables.

via Slashdot

The Son-O-House is an interactive sounding architecture commissioned by the industry at ekkersrijt, Son, Holland. It’s a collaboration between NOX architects (Lars Spuybroek) and Edwin van der Heide. Son-O-House is a permanent installation that opened the 14th op may 2004. It’s freely accesible 24 hours a day.

"The NowHouse was conceived to give consumers and builders alike a
fully functional example of the advances that have taken place in home
construction," said Scott Redmond, project director. "This innovative
structure was built using a proprietary panelized construction system
featuring patent-pending technologies, construction tools, and
processes in over 300,000 square feet of robotic factories which are
online and ready to build as of today, at a fraction of the cost and
time of traditional home building."
via nowhouse