Dane Cook is a comedian who made his name on MySpace. I guess I can’t get as worked up about it as Wired, but it’s probably a good indication of how much more effective word-of-mouth advertising is on the web than mass media in the real world.

One way to secure guns against unauthorized use is to secure the bullets. But I have a really hard time believing that people concerned with protecting their homes are going to take the time to key in a password on their gun when there’s a bump in the night. Biometric authentication is a better approach, though from what I’ve read biometrics aren’t rock solid yet either.

The quasiturbine engine has fewer intricate parts than traditional combustion engines, uses less fuel and provides more power, and almost completely combusts its fuel, leaving near zero emissions.

Japanese researchers have announced a new breed of semiconductor laser technology that can produce beams ten times thinner than the regular flavour. And if you can make your lasers ten times thinner, that means that you can squeeze ten times the data storage out of your digital optical media, among other things.

The Tau Zero Foundation has been established to promote technology, science and education, to further the goal of getting the human race off-planet and into space. Spokesperson Mark Millis lays out the agenda at the Centauri Dreams blog.