(YouTube link)

According to Steve Spangler, the tiny amount of water in Ivory’s famous air bubbles heat up and expand. The end product is a “soap souffle”! -via The Daily What

Excerpt from:
Ivory Soap In A Microwave

Apple upgraded the Mac Pro in 2010 with Westmere Xeon CPUs, including a dual six-core option that can power through multithreaded workflows with aplomb. But what if you don’t want to shell out all that money for a new Mac Pro? A clever hacker has discovered a firmware hack to effectively transform 2009 vintage Mac Pros into 2010 Mac Pros, including compatibility with Westmere CPUs, faster RAM, and audio output via Mini DisplayPorts.

A member of the forums on netkas.org—where lots of hackintoshers and system tweakers exchange tips—discovered the mechanism Apple uses to install EFI firmware updates. By exploiting that mechanism, a user named “MacEFIRom” was able to develop scripts to force older, 2009 Mac Pros to accept a firmware update intended for the 2010 Mac Pros. That firmware enables a 2009 Mac Pro to act and operate just like the 2010 Mac Pro.

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Firmware hack can transform a 2009 Mac Pro into a 12-core monster

Hahn Bin (born in 1988 in Seoul, South Korea) began his violin studies at age five and won a top prize at the

We all tend to be forgetful once in a while or have thoughts that are counterproductive. However in psychology there are several areas of human thought that have been identified as common faults.

The vast majority of Mac users do absolutely nothing to prevent malware or viruses from infecting their systems, and very few of them have experienced anything that would make them think twice about it. The fact is, however, that Mac malware does exist, and there are tools available to ensure that your Mac is as safe as possible from emerging threats. More

Sitting is killing you. Numerous studies have pointed to the health risks of sitting all day, but here you have in one illustration how prolonged sitting affects our bodies and reminders to interrupt sitting time whenever possible. More

For over a decade, people suffering from Morgellons disease have been told that they’re experiencing delusions. Even when they show doctors evidence that strange, multicolored fibers are growing out of itchy patches on their skin. More

Is it possible to improve upon a work by Van Gogh? Instructables user CopperTwist proves, beyond all doubt, that the answer is ‘yes’. Just substitute various pork products for paint.

Link via Craft

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Vincent Van Gogh’s Starry Night Rendered in Pork Products

A new piece of malware is spreading, notable because it targets computers running Mac OS X, rather than Windows. Reports of the trojan “MAC Defender” (aka Mac Protector, aka Mac Security) first surfaced on May 2, but the malware has since morphed and proliferated.

The basics: it spreads as search engine optimization (SEO) poisoning, using popular search terms for prominent search engine results.

More: PC World, MacWorld, Ars Technica, Fortune, and a full description updated today at SecureMac.com.

And if you are a Mac user, now is as good a time as any to consider installing *actual* anti-virus and malware scan apps. Intego’s VirusBarrier, Sophos and MacScan are several with free demo versions.

Apparently, “osama bin laden” is one of the popular search terms used to deploy. I just encountered a MAC Defender come-on page in Safari after clicking on a poisoned msnbc.com link via Twitter, hence the inspiration for this blog post. Pretty sure one of the remnant ads on msnbc.com served it. The serving IP is below, load it at your own risk, I paste it for informational purposes only.

http://178.17.162.163/7d81dd5ca78c961d206fb04f2f1709c2fbc6f0515ca0adda

More:
Beware MAC Defender: OSX malware disguised as anti-virus software

When the Wall Street Journal reported last night that Microsoft was going to buy Skype, the response was puzzlement. Though Skype has some value, the estimated $7 billion-8 billion valuation was unfathomable. Microsoft has now confirmed the purchase and held a press conference to announce the takeover. The morning after the night before, is it making any more sense?

From what little the company has said, not really. Microsoft will buy Skype for $8.5 billion in cash. The companies have entered into a definitive agreement, and the deal has received approval from both boards of directors; pending regulatory approval, it will close by the end of the year. Skype will be run as a new business division within Microsoft, with Skype CEO Tony Bates taking a new role as president of the Microsoft Skype Division, reporting directly to Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. Speaking at the press conference, Ballmer said that Microsoft originally planned a partnership before deciding to buy the company outright.

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Why Skype? Microsoft confirms $8.5 billion purchase, clarifies nothing