Now here's how to ensure your child's Nobel Prize. Babies might not understand the theory of relativity (or words even), but maybe this science quilt will have the little tot thinking early enough to get a jump-start on the competition.

I love the way that images representing atomic physics are laid on top fabric featuring dinosaurs riding in a wagon. It's what I imagine a quilt made by They Might Be Giants would look like.

Check out the link for the rest of the images. And good luck, kid. We're all expecting you to cure cancer now. No pressure. [Reddit]

This photo shows the power of image post-processing. It also shows that we are a tiny speck of nothingness in the middle of a fiery cosmic fluff. Enjoy the famous M51 galaxy, like you have never seen it before.

Click on the image to see it in high definition.

Scientists have digitally reprocessed data from the Hubble's Advanced Camera for Surveys to get this new view of the NGC 5194—the 51st object in Charles Messier's catalog—which is considered "the original spiral nebula." According to NASA, "the processing has further sharpened details and enhanced color and contrast in otherwise faint areas, bringing out dust lanes and extended streams that cross the small companion, along with features in the surroundings and core of M51 itself." The results are amazing, and the battle between 60,000-light-year-wide NGC 5194 and its companion NGC 5195 have never been so crisp and beautiful before. [NASA]

First there was the shoe bomb. Now Al Qaeda has taken it to the next level: Yesterday's failed terrorist attack was supposed to be delivered by a suicide bomber with the payload sewn into his underpants.

ABC News is reporting that Al Qaeda sewed about 80 grams of PETN, an explosive that's similar to nitro-glycerin, into the Nigerian attacker's underwear. For comparison, the shoe bomber only had about 50 grams in his footwear. Luckily, officials are saying the detonator was either too small or wasn't making proper contact with the explosive.

What does this mean for the future of airline security? After the shoe bomb attempt, we all had to start taking off our shoes at the screening line. Are we going to start walking through the detector in our birthday suits now?

Security expert Bruce Scheiner points out that increased security in these sorts of situations just doesn't work, because the tools TSA uses can't detect schemes like these:

I don't want to even think about how much C4 I can strap to my legs and walk through your magnetometers.

Not to mention how ineffective the whole no movement during the last hour of flight idea is. In his words:

Do we really think the terrorist won't think of blowing up their improvised explosive devices during the first hour of flight?

For years I've been saying this:

Only two things have made flying safer [since 9/11]: the reinforcement of cockpit doors, and the fact that passengers know now to resist hijackers.

This week, the second one worked over Detroit. Security succeeded.

Whatever inconveniences this may cause, I'm just glad that we averted another disaster. It's pretty unbelievable that twice—twice!—this stuff has snuck by security in various articles of clothing, and both times we've been incredibly lucky that no one got hurt.

Here's to hoping airport security figures out a way to accurately screen for explosives attached to the body soon, without needing all of us to get a little too friendly with each other at the metal detector. [ABC News]

Images via Pinkycay, Fastfission

Amazon's Kindle hit an important and startling milestone yesterday: On Christmas, the company sold more Kindle books than physical books.

Yes, this is obviously the result of everyone who got a Kindle for Christmas (lots of folks) firing it up and ordering a bunch of eBooks on a day in which most physical-book readers weren't shopping. But it's still important and impressive.

The Kindle's economics are still lousy for Amazon: The company loses money on new releases and makes only a modest amount on older titles, thus losing an estimated $1 per Kindle book.

That said, Amazon's strategy is clearly to drive "ubiquity," and based on stats like those above, it is succeeding. The more Kindle books Amazon sells, the more leverage it will have over publishers when it tries to force them to cut wholesale prices. If Amazon's Kindle momentum continues, the day publishers have to capitulate will come sooner rather than later.

And, despite publishers' cries, this is not necessarily bad for publishers: If publishers cut wholesale prices, Amazon will be able to cut retail prices. If the retail prices are cut to nominal levels—$2.99 or $3.99 per copy—sales velocity should soar. Publishers and writers will make less per unit, but the increased volume should make up a lot of the difference.

Amazon's release below.

See also:
Amazon's Latest Kindle Deal Is Watershed, Will Increase Pressure On Publishers
Amazon Making No Headway With Publishers On Kindle Book Pricing

Amazon Kindle is the Most Gifted Item Ever on Amazon.comOn Christmas Day, for the First Time Ever, Customers Purchased More Kindle Books Than Physical BooksSEATTLE, Dec 26, 2009 (BUSINESS WIRE) — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) today announced that Kindle has become the most gifted item in Amazon's history. On Christmas Day, for the first time ever, customers purchased more Kindle books than physical books. The Kindle Store now includes over 390,000 books and the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read, including New York TimesBestsellersand New Releases.

"We are grateful to our customers for making Kindle the most gifted item ever in our history," said Jeff Bezos, founder and CEO of Amazon.com. "On behalf of Amazon.com employees around the world, we wish everyone happy holidays and happy reading!"

On Amazon's peak day, Dec. 14, 2009, customers ordered over 9.5 million items worldwide, which is a record-breaking 110 items per second.

Amazon Worldwide 2009 Holiday Facts (includes http://www.amazon.com, http://www.amazon.co.uk, http://www.amazon.de, http://www.amazon.fr, http://www.amazon.co.jp and http://www.amazon.ca):

 

• Amazon shipped to over 178 countries.
• One of our most remote shipments contained the EMU Australia Toddler Boot and was delivered to Atqasuk, Alaska.
• On the peak day this season, Amazon's worldwide fulfillment network shipped over 7 million units.
• Amazon shipped over 200,000 units to APO/FPO addresses.
• Amazon shipped more than 99 percent of orders in time to meet holiday deadlines worldwide.

Amazon.com 2009 Holiday Facts (http://www.amazon.com only):

 

• Amazon customers purchased enough fruit cake to equal the weight of a 1967 Volkswagen Bug.
• Amazon customers bought enough gingerbread house kits that if stacked on top of each other would be as tall as the Sears Tower.
• If all the computers customers purchased this holiday were stacked one on top of the other, they would be more than twice as high as Mt. Everest.
• Amazon customers bought over 50 times more Light Therapy devices this holiday season than there are sunny days in Seattle the entire year.
• For the holiday time period alone, Amazon customers purchased enough shoot-and-share camcorders to supply 50 years' worth of non-stop YouTube watching.
• Amazon customers bought enough Levi's jeans to clothe everyone at the opening ceremony of the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver.
• Amazon customers purchased so many Blu-ray disc players that if you lined them up side to side, they would stretch for more than 27 miles.
• During the 2009 holiday season, Amazon customers bought enough 8 GB iPod touches to play 442 years of continuous music.
• In 2009, Amazon customers purchased enough heart rate monitor watches to put one on the wrist of everyone who finished the New York City marathons in 2008 and 2009.
• Amazon customers purchased enough Frustration-Free Package items to eliminate over 32,000 pounds of frustrating plastic materials, such as plastic clamshells.
• The last One-Day Prime order that was delivered in time for Christmas, was placed on Dec. 23 at 9:17 p.m. Pacific and shipped to Boca Raton, Florida for delivery on Dec. 24. The item was a pair of Yellow Gold 8-8.5mm Freshwater Cultured Pearl Stud Earrings.
• The last Local Express Delivery order that was delivered in time for Christmas, was placed by a Prime member and went to Seattle. It was a Kindle that was ordered at 1:43 p.m. on Christmas Eve and delivered at 4:57 p.m. that evening.

Amazon.com's Hot Holiday Bestsellers (Nov. 15 through Dec. 19, based on units ordered):

 

• Electronics: Kindle Wireless Reading Device; Apple iPod touch 8 GB; and Garmin nuvi 260W 4.3-inch GPS
• Toys: Scrabble Slam Cards; The Settlers of Catan; and Scene It? Twilight Deluxe Edition
• Video Games and Hardware: Wii Fit Plus with Balance Board; New Super Mario Bros; and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2
• Sports & Outdoors: Razor A Kick Scooter; Victorinox Swiss Army Champion Plus Pocket Knife; and P90X Extreme Home Fitness Workout Program
• DVD: "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince;" "Star Trek;" and "Up"
• Books: "Going Rogue" by Sarah Palin; "The Lost Symbol" by Dan Brown; and "The Help" by Kathryn Stockett
• Music: "I Dreamed A Dream" by Susan Boyle; "My Christmas" by Andrea Bocelli; and "Crazy Love" by Michael Bublé
• Jewelry: Sterling Silver Marcasite & Garnet Glass Heart Pendant; 10k White Gold Diamond 3-Stone Heart Pendant; and 18k White Gold Round Diamond 4-Prong Stud Earrings
• Watches: Casio Men's Waveceptor Atomic Dual-Time Watch; Invicta Men's II Collection Chronograph Stainless Steel Blue Dial Watch; and Timex Kids' Camouflage Stretch Band Watch
• Beauty: Sephora Brand Color Play Palette II; Santa's Lump of Coal Christmas Soap; and Sephora Brand Ultimate Blockbuster
• Home & Garden: Keurig My K-Cup Reusable Coffee Filter; Vinturi Essential Wine Aerator; and Oster Electric Wine-Bottle Opener
• Clothing & Accessories: The Mountain Three Wolf Moon Short Sleeve Tee; Levi's Men's 550 Relaxed Fit Jean; and Levi's Men's 501 Jean
• Shoes and Handbags (Amazon.com and Endless.com): Steve Madden Women's Bonanza Tall Shafted Flat Boot; Hunter Original Tall Welly Boot; and EMU Australia Women's Hip Boot
• Health & Personal Care: Omron HJ-112 Digital Pocket Pedometer; Philips Sonicare Essence 5300 Power Toothbrush; and Farouk CHI 1 Inch Ceramic Flat Hairstyling Iron
• Gourmet Food: Bon Appetit Gift Basket; Grand Ghirardelli Chocolate Gift Basket; and 50's Decade Box Gift Basket
• Home Improvement: Black & Decker MSW100 Ready Wrench; Bosch Laser Distance Measuring Device; and Joby Gorillatorch Adjustable and Flexible Tripod Flashlight
• Automotive Parts & Accessories: Wagan 12V Heated Seat Cushion; 3M Headlight Lens Restoration System; and Autel MaxiScan MS300 CAN OBD-II Scan Tool
• Baby: Baby Einstein Takealong Tunes; Vulli Sophie the Giraffe Teether; and Baby Einstein Bendy Ball
• Software: Microsoft Office Home and Student 2007; Adobe Photoshop Elements 8; and Microsoft Office 2008 for Mac Home & Student Edition
• Grocery: Coffee People Donut Shop K-Cups for Keurig Brewers; Coffee People K-Cup Santa's Buzz; and Vita Coco 100% Pure Coconut Water
• Wireless: Nokia 5800 XpressMusic Unlocked Phone; Plantronics 510 Bluetooth Headset; and BlackBerry Bold 9700 Phone (AT&T)

Sexting is on the rise, replacing phone sex and even video sex. It's fast, it's easy, and you can do it anywhere. It's getting to the point in which there are even specific iPhone applications for it. Do you sext?

And if the answer is yes, do you sext—send naked pictures of yourself or receive them from other people—often? Or did you just sext once? Perhaps you prefer other remote sex practices, like video sex? Sex chat? Maybe classic phone sex? What about beeper sex?

Here's my answer: I started having phone sex when I was 16. Yes, my then-girlfriend-later-wife-laterer-ex-wife and I were very precocious, and we didn't have enough with sneaking to dark corners to do very naughty things in high school. Then we moved into email sex, then chat sex. Phone sex was my favorite, however, and I only tried video sex a couple of times, much later, when the technology was good enough (good as in "Macs with cameras built in and iChat AV"). The last time I tried video sex it definitely won over my phone sex experiences. Sext, on the other side, has never been very exciting. Exciting, yes, but more like a preamble of the real thing.

Whatever your favorite remote sex practice is, don't watch this video first or you will lost all your sexual appettite. Or maybe you will get it. It can go either way, really.

Write your answers in the comments. [Video via Obsolete]

So, you've got your new laptop, and we've told you what to do. But might still need a bag to carry your new tool/toy around. Timbuk2 has you covered with up to 65% off their messenger bags.

There's a fairly wide selection available, and everything in the sale section is discounted by at least 35%. The sale runs between now and January 7, so start narrowing down your choices from the list now. [Timbuk2]

"TIS is proud to inform that we are the first in our Kominternovsky region to employ Giant Humanlike Combat Robots within the Security Department. Model TIS-1CB." That's the caption for this photo. What are they up to in Ukraine? Updated.

Seriously, if anyone has a detailed explanation for this thing, please shoot me an email. [Pravda]

Update: Thanks to all those who sent in the explanation for this strange metal fellow. Sergey G's details, in particular, were very helpful:

TIS (Transinvestservice) is logistics company near Odessa. They had problems people finding their warehouse (you know - knowing to turn left after 15 km and stuff like that), so TIS set up an giant robot made from old cars as a signpost.

As a side-note: "Giant Human Like Battle Robots" is a popular meme in Russia and Ukraine. "When [are we] going to employ Giant Humanlike Battle Robots to protect our borders?" was a winning question for Putin on his nationwide interview with Internet folk. Yuschenko (Ukrainian president) was asked this as well since then.

[FSJ]

The Apple Tablet, a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, has just gotten a little more interesting. Thanks to some crack investigative reporting, MacRumors discovered that Apple purchased the domain for "islate.com" back in 2007. Dum dum dum!

What we know: islate.com was registered to Apple in 2007, through an intermediary (to disguise its true owner). At the moment, that domain doesn't seem to lead anywhere—and there are a couple explanations. First, Apple bought it as a protective measure, to stop anyone else from using that "i" prefix with that particular word. Second, Apple had or has plans for either a product or a project by that name. Third, it's the tablet. Or fourth, it's Apple's take on Slate.com (sample headline: Why I Hate Christmas Presents). Maybe we'll find out just what that means in January, when the tablet is rumored to be announced. [MacRumors]

You will never find this snow leopard in any Apple promotional shot. Why? Because there's a naked woman in there. And a very sexy one at that. Can't you see her? She's right there, completely nude. Not yet? Look closer:

Yes, now she's very hard to miss. And in three-dee! No amount of Photoshop work could fix this one. [Painted Alive—Thanks David Keyes]

I dare you to try to listen to this retelling of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas without giggling repeatedly. Even if you haven't read or seen Watchmen, it's ridiculously fun and absolutely worth ten minutes of your time.

According to the YouTube credits, the script for this tale was a group effort by Comics & Cartoons, a 4chan community, but nevermind the script, I don't think the story would've been the same without the fantastic imitation of Raw Shark. [Thanks, Matt!]

This is a video that I can't even describe with the usual oh-woah-wow-look-at-this sort of excitement, because it just plain scares me. It shows how a Christmas tree can burn down an entire room in less than a minute.

While I know that this video was filmed under controlled conditions, a room set up by researchers with safety measures to keep the fire from spreading, I still can't watch it without glancing over at my own Christmas tree and shivering. [Wired]

As any diligent weekend reader knows, we don't just find and explain the news around here, we like to do stuff; hack things; make gadgets better. Here's the cream of this year's how to guide crop:

Make Your PC and Mac Share Stuff Like Best Friends: Getting PCs and Macs to play nice over a home network seems like something that should be trivially easy by now; incompatibilities like that feel like a relic from the 90s. Yet somehow, after all these years, it's still a pain in the ass. Unless, of course, you read this guide.

Totally Overhaul Your Phones With Google Voice : You've probably heard about Google Voice in abstract terms, and with a unified, multi-phone phone number, a web-based voicemail dashboard, free text messaging and cheap international calls, it probably sounds great. Also: confusing. Here's how to get totally and painlessly set up with Google Voice.

Clean Your Filthy Gadgets: Look down at your keyboard. Your smartphone. Your PMP. Your DSLR. Your HDTV. Notice how some of the most expensive things you own are completely disgusting? Here's how to clean them up on the cheap.

Back Up Any Smartphone: Smartphones do just about everything your PC used to, so why don't we care about backing them up? We should, and in this post, we do. iPhone, Pre, WinMo, BlackBerry, Android—instructions are all there, ready to indulge your sexxxilyy cautious urges.

Make Windows 7 Play Nice With All Your Gadgets: Windows 7 is the first version of Windows that really respects the gadget hound—it knows us, it understands us, and it gives us tools. Getting your media players, phones, network devices, displays and cameras to work with Windows is easier than it's ever been, but it's also fairly different than it used to be. If you sense tension between your gear and your new Windows 7 PC, look no further.

Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook: From dumpy Dell to full-on Mac netbook in one lazy afternoon. I use mine everyday (for pooping!) and you will to.

Survive Boot Camp (and Run Win 7 on a Mac): Boot Camp, the Mac app that lets you dual boot Windows with OS X, works pretty well, except when it doesn't. Matt runs us through the simplest ways to make sure your Windows 7 install goes smoothly, and how to salvage it when it doesn't.

How To: Virtualize Any OS For Free: A great man once said, "Any sufficiently advanced virtualization software is indistinguishable from magic." Something like that, yes! Who cares. Point is, Virtualbox is free, and it lets you install pretty much any OS within any other OS, so you can introduce your Zune to your Mac, your Word to your Linux, your Ubuntu to your Snow Pussy. Again, magic! And again, free!

Install Homebrew On Palm Pre 1.2.1There's really no reason not to crack your Pre open for homebrew, which offers new apps, new functionality, themes, etc. Plus, software updates don't usually break your patches, like iPhone updates do jailbreaks. The version numbers in this guide are old and the software tools a bit different, but hey, the equivalent tools still work.

Rip Your Music Like a Pro: Please, please don't just leave your music ripping up to iTunes. Do right by your music, by ripping it as cleanly and purely as possible. It's actually pretty easy, once you've got the right tools. Your ears will thank you.

Back Up All Your Stuff For Free, No Hard Drive Needed: Excuse the grotty MacBook, it's been replaced. Which was pretty painless, because I backed up all my important stuff for free! Peace of mind, people.

Kick Your Torrent Addiction With Usenet: Usenet trolls sent me actual death threats over posting this article, which apparently threatened to ruin their top-secret file haven (did you jerks know I went on the radio with this thing? Ha!) So it with it with the utmost glee that I backlink here. Usenet is awesome—faster than just about anything else, and full of sweet, sweet filezs. Here's how you, person who doesn't really know what Usenet is, can be saturdating your internet connection within an hour.

Bake Your Own Chrome OS, Right Now: You can actually download the real Chrome now, so it wouldn't really make much sense to follow this guide today. But it's worth a read, if just to see how close Chrome matched our sad, modest expectations. To the people who said they hope Chrome is nothing like the imagined version in this post: oh well!

Install Windows Mobile 6.5 Right Now: A lot of newer Windows Mobile phones have official updaters, so you can bring your handset up to speed without resorting to hacks. Older ones, though, don't. The ROMs will be different that listed in this guide—better, now—but the process still works.

Calibrate Your Turntable For the Best Possible Sound: Because having a poorly calibrated turntable is more damaging to your audiophile cred than not having one at all.

Manage An All-Lossless Music Library With iTunes: From a music listener's standpoint, lossless music is the way to go. From a person-who-has-to-use-iTunes-because-that's-just-how-things-are-nowadays' standpoint, it doesn't. Luckily, it is possible to make iTunes and a lossless library play nice.

Remote Control Your Home Computer From Anywhere With VNC: VNC, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Vee-Enn-See: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Vee. Enn. See.

Use BitTorrent Like a Pro: It's embarrassing to admit that you don't know how to use torrents properly in this day in age, but let's face it—most people don't. Give them this guide! Or use it yourself, discreetly.

Create Stunningly Realistic High Dynamic Range Photographs: Love them or hate them, high dynamic range (HDR) photos are something any good photographer should know how to take. Ex Gizzer Johnathan Mahoogles lays down the steps to snapping hyperreal photos, one by one.

Rip Blu-ray Discs: Optical media is dead! Well, it should be. Here's how to help kill it, by ripping your entire Blu-ray collection to your PC where it belongs.

Hackintosh a Dell Mini 9 Into the Ultimate OS X Netbook: Remember that Dell 10v hackintosh guide up above? This is that, except for the older, more popular Dell Mini 9.

Install Ubuntu On Your PS3 For Vintage Gaming Emulation: So your PS3 can run Linux, BFD. But what the really means is that your PS3 can play pretty much any vintage game, ever, through emulators. It's all about phrasing!

Add Wi-Fi To Your Xbox 360 Smartly and Cheaply: I was really hoping this guide would be obsolete by now, but man, Xbox wireless adapters are still way, way too expensive. Buying and bridging an entire router, as described here, is still a better deal.

So that's about it (for this year)! Let us know in the comments if there's anything you'd like to see in 2010. Happy holidays, folks.

Giz reader BushmanLA sent in a video of his kids trying to shoot down his flying R/C drone with fireworks. From the perspective of the UAV.

Some of the shots look like they're close, but all I can think about is how fucked we are when the Terminator thing goes down and all we have are sparklers. Videos like this make me think the liberal middle class (me) should think again about the NRA and shotguns. [Pasqualy]

Comcast, the largest ISP in the US, settled their $16m data discrimination lawsuit Wednesday. They didn't admit wrongdoing and customers are only eligible for a $16 award. But, importantly, they set a precedent for other ISPs: Throttle at peril! [Yahoo]

A dress that gradually disappears as you get a magic ball near to it? Yaishplease. That's exactly what Daan Roosegaarde, V2 Lab, and Maartje Dijkstra have created, using a flexible plastic material and radio frequency technology. Very pretty too:

Called Intimacy, the dress' smart fabric reacts to variations in the electric current, smoothly changing its opacity until it gets completely transparent—and viceversa. The change is controlled by a ball, which has an RF tag that gets detected by circuitry in the dress' collar. On a related note, this is what happens to my underpants whenever my fiancée gets close to me, with no RF tag involved whatsoever. [Roosegaarde and v2 via Styleguru via Fashion Tech]

Actor Peter Facinelli says his daughter setup a spy cam to catch Santa. Instead, he placed this video on the device.

Kids have always been smart enough to bust Santa if they wanted to. Now that video tools are easy, faith in the jolly fat bastard ends when kids are old enough and curious enough to click record on their 99 dollar flash camcorders. Unless you're an actor with spare time on your hands like Peter, consider this battle lost, parents. [Twitter]

Since the first transistor was demonstrated 62 years ago, researchers have tried to make the device smaller and smaller. Now they've finally achieved an extreme point in their quest: A single-molecule transistor. Yes, that's really, really freakin' small.

Apparently this itty bitty transistor "has a benzene molecule attached to gold contacts" and "could behave just like a silicon transistor." This is an incredible achievement because of the potential applications in nanomachines since a few atoms would be enough to "perform complex calculations." What I wonder is how long it'll take for these molecular transistors to go from being demonstrated to being put into research use to being something we see in consumer electronics. How much smaller could some gadgets get? [Wired]

Poking more at the info Apple secretly registered iSlate.com a couple years ago, TechCrunch found Apple's possibly setup a shell company called Slate Computing, which has a trademark on "iSlate." The signatory? Apple's Senior Trademark Specialist, MacRumors discovered.

Regina Porter most recently signed for the "iSlate" trademark for Slate Computing this past August—showing Apple's continued with "slate" beyond its initial registration for iSlate.com and the "iSlate" trademark in 2006. In Europe, a law firm Apple typically uses to register trademarks has also filed for major domains containing "iSlate," while another they use has filed for a trademark on ISlate in the European Union, registered to a corporation in Trinidad & Tobago, a country Apple's used to register European trademarks before, including for the iPhone.

Curiously, another trademark registered by Slate Computing in the US is "Magic Slate," which follows the same naming convention as Magic Mouse, obviously. MacRumors wonders if it might be something like a multitouch trackpad for computers, like with a screen (which we've wanted for a long time).

Whatever's going on, Apple's obviously gone through a lot of work to discreetly register a whole lot of "slate" stuff, which seems like a ton of effort for nothing, or simply a ruse to throw people off. It's funny, actually, that everybody "knew" what the iPhone was going to be called years before Steve Jobs took the stage to announce it, but no one really knows the tablet's name. I've always figured that, whatever it is, it'll have just two syllables. iSlate fits the bill. And for now, it's the only one with any evidence. [MacRumors, TechCrunch]

District Attorney Brett Ligon in Montgomery County, Texas will soon be using his Twitter account to name and shame drunk drivers in his area. Based on his current tweets, this is a comedy goldmine in the making.

The Montgomery DA already tweets about legal events—sometimes seriously and sometimes with incredible humor—so this new program will just be expanding on that habit. I may not live in Montgomery Country, or Texas for that matter, but I'll be following along to see if he keeps up this mix.

What I do wonder is whether this will really be a crime deterrent as the county hopes. While the tradition of newspapers publishing the names of individuals busted for DWIs or DUIs has been going for years, no one seems to care about a bit of local shame. Could easily retweetable blurbs actually make someone think twice about driving like a loon? Or will this have about as much of an effect as tweeting mugshots? [Twitter via PC World]