From the B.I.N. # 5

Death Star anyone? If you are looking for the next big laser thing, I give you this:  "it is fired to produce [10] large laser beams several feet wide that are then combined and focused down onto a tiny spot..." That will,  "tear apart the fabric of space." with 200 petawatts of laser power; "100,000 times the power of the world's combined electricity production."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8857154/Worlds-most-powerful-laser-to-tear-apart-the-vacuum-of-space.html


Are you ready for Cyber War? ('Cause it's coming...)
http://news.sky.com/home/technology/article/16101158


Genetically modified mosquitoes designed to kill off their children before reaching maturity released into the wild.
https://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/31/science/concerns-raised-about-genetically-engineered-mosquitoes.html?_r=4&ref=business


Threaten to wipe Israel off the map, and for some strange reason, they consider a preemptive attack; you know, before you finish building your nukes. Go figure.
http://news.sky.com/home/world-news/article/16101552

From the B.I.N. # 3

Putting the Intelligence Into AI
Not content to create an AI that could learn how to play the computer game Civilization on it's own (and win 46% of the time) researchers at MIT taught the AI how to learn how to read English. (Note that they did not teach it English, they actually made it smart enough, that it was able to learn English it on it's own by playing the game and looking at the manual!) When it was given the general help / instruction manual for Civilization, it was smart enough to assimilate that knowledge, and increase it's win rate to a staggering 79% of the games it played.
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2011/language-from-games-0712.html

Synthetic Burgers
Professor Mark Post, from Maastricht University in the Netherlands, and his team have grown synthetic pork  strips and claims that within a year, they will also be able to grow synthetic beef for use as a cheap and efficient  meat source.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2008347/Test-tube-burger-coming-soon-Lab-grown-meat-needed-feed-world.html

Global warming?
"The earth is heating super rapidly! It's caused by man! We are killing our planet!" Only, the temperature has not moved in over a decade. Hmmm. Asia pollution "blamed" for halt in warming. The key sentence from the article: "World temperatures did not rise from 1998 to 2008, while manmade emissions of carbon dioxide from burning fossil fuel grew by nearly a third, various data show." (emphasis added.)
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/04/us-climate-sulphur-idUSTRE7634IQ20110704

Man Induced Climate Change?
"Global warming will cause terrible storms which will grow to truly epic proportions!" Only, "During the past 6-years since Hurricane Katrina, global tropical cyclone frequency and energy have decreased dramatically, and are currently at near-historical record lows." (emphasis added.)
http://www.coaps.fsu.edu/~maue/tropical/

Don't take no pictures!
"Be afraid. Fear everything and everyone!" That's the message we hear every time you get near an airport. Fear is used as a catch-all excuse to do anything. Don't like a passenger taking a picture of your name badge when you are rude to passengers? Call them a "security risk" and have them booted off the airplane!
http://www.pixiq.com/article/woman-escorted-off-us-airways-flight-for-snapping-iphone-photo

From the B.I.N. # 2

The Pentagon finally starts to move into the future of cyberwarfare. Now they have guidelines:
  --http://apnews.myway.com/article/20110622/D9O0SERG0.html

Scientists create blobs of cooled light particles.
  --http://www.mnn.com/green-tech/research-innovations/stories/new-kind-of-light-created-in-physics-breakthrough

New Japanese machine takes the super computer lead, and they're not even done building it. The "K" will rise from 8.16 petaflops to reach 10 petaflops once it is at full power.
  --http://news.techworld.com/data-centre/3286946/japan-builds-worlds-most-powerful-supercomputer/

Scientists grow rat organs in mice, and are ready to try growing human organs in pigs. Don't mix up that bacon!
  --http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8584443/Pigs-could-grow-human-organs-in-stem-cell-breakthrough.html

Micro drones are on their way.
  --http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/20/world/20drones.html?_r=3

Chart of current drone in use by the US military:
  --https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2011/06/19/world/drone-graphic.html?ref=world

Apple to decide when you are allowed to use the video camera on new iPhones. Forget recording that favorite band of yours.
  --http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/3641676/Apple-to-ban-iPhone-gig-filming.html

Obama: Libya isn't a war. Because flying aircraft over a country and dropping bombs on people isn't war as long as there are no troops on the ground and the targets can't return fire effectively. According to Obama's arguments, he could nuke a country off the map without Congressional approval.
  --https://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/16/us/politics/16powers.html?_r=4

Bizarre / Interesting / Newsworthy (BIN # 1)

From the B.I.N. for this week, I give you the following articles:

In China, genetically modified cows produce human breast milk. It will be sold in stores within three years. Other cows modified are resilient against mad cow disease, and yet other beef cattle are genetically modified to produce more nutritious meat.
  --http://www.myfoxny.com/dpp/news/china-genetically-modifying-cows-to-produce-human-breast-milk-20110608-ncx


Matt Stutzman, a man born with no arms, still has none. But what he does have is a qualification for the National U.S. Olympic team in archery. Yep. Armless archery.
 --http://www.newtondailynews.com/articles/2011/06/06/r_sxx109pfrlwa_cpzlzx6rw/index.xml


A mother in the UK has volunteered to donate her womb to her infertile daughter, to be transplanted so that the daughter can have a daughter (or son) of her own. If successful, Sara could conceive and carry a child in the same womb she herself was born from.
  --http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/jun/13/uk-mother-agrees-donate-womb-daughter


I don't care so much about the game aspects of this, but the voice controls  in "Ghost Recon: Future Soldier" is really rather impressive. As shown in the video near the bottom of the article, even with another demo blasting near by, the Xbox (via Kinect) was able to pick up almost every voice command given by the both the interviewer and interview-y. It's still not as good as you've seen on the Enterprise, but it sure is getting close.
  --http://www.engadget.com/2011/06/08/kinect-integration-in-ghost-recon-future-soldier-hands-off-vi/