Car manufacturers sometimes use cadavers in crash tests, according to Wired magazine. Researchers claim that, despite advances in dummy technology, there's still nothing like good old flesh and bone to validate new safety features. Everyone knows that medical students rely on cadavers, too—but are there other unexpected uses for donated remains? [ more ... ]

Microsoft's plans to expand its huge datacenter in Quincy will undergo a public hearing, giving people a chance to weigh in on the addition of 13 diesel backup generators planned for the complex. The center already has 24 generators that can produce 60 megawatts of backup power. The expansion would add the capacity for an additional 32 megawatts, according to a release from the state Department of Ecology. A higher level of environment review is being done with the expansion because of new state rules that took effect in 2008 and because the state's looking at the effect of the cluster of datacenter that developed in Quincy. From the release: Considered by itself, the Microsoft expansion would not necessitate the third-tier review. But due to the interest expressed by other data companies to...

if you're looking for a example that defines the concept of 'derivative television,' here you go: Alloy Entertainment's First Day has TV-level production values, a strong lead actress and nothing to set it apart from a show intended for television, as opposed to the web.

I feel like all I've written about the past few weeks is Facebook's need for a new social dynamic. Specifically, I want Facebook to  break their social graph into two : those people who you are friends with, and those who you follow -- for sharing purposes. It seems that Facebook may be testing something like that out -- well sort of, maybe. Facebook appears to be testing out a new feature called 'Subscribe.' A source who supposedly has it enabled, tells All Facebook that ' by subscribing you don’t miss any updates from people you subscribe to. ” While on the face of it, this would seem to be a lot like the idea of 'follow' it's not clear from that wording if you actually already need to be friends with a person in order to follow them.

Good news if you're a Comcast subscriber and you've been looking into their High-Speed 2go product. Comcast just announced that they've picked Novatel as the provider for the USB modems used in their mobile broadband service.