Beverage Company Drilling For Whiskey In Antarctica’s Ice

68_drilling-for-whiskyWELLINGTON, New Zealand — A beverage company has asked a team to drill through Antarctica’s ice for a lost cache of some vintage Scotch whisky that has been on the rocks since a century ago.

The drillers will be trying to reach two crates of McKinlay and Co. whisky that were shipped to the Antarctic by British polar explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton as part of his abandoned 1909 expedition. [MORE]

Keep an Ear on Crime With Scanner 911 for iPhone

785IndyScan.com used to be a site that cataloged radio scanner frequencies for the state of Indiana.  While I still like to listen to local Police & Fire radio traffic, I’m not as into it as I once was.

Steve over at Kremer.com sent me a link to an iPhone app that he thought I would like.  You can now take your scanner with you & listen to radio traffic from all over the world!

If you are interested in a free alternative the folks at RadioReference.com have a very extensive list of on-line scanners all over the U.S.

These tools are great to have around when things are happening in your neighborhood or in the case of severe weather!

Signal to Noise

hlg_twitter_firedI realized the other day that I really was not using Twitter as mush as i used to…  I realized that following 250+ people just created to much noise & no matter how hard I tried I just could not keep up with the noise.

So, in a last ditch effort to keep my Twitter activity alive I decided it was time to thin the herd.  Reviewing all of the people I was following made me realize i just was not interested in a lot of these people.  I started un-following with abandon & managed to trim things down to a more reasonable 100.

I’m going to make it a point to keep the number I’m following on Twitter to 100.  if I want to add someone, someone has to go…

Anyone else find twitter to be unusable over a certain number of “friends”?

The Roku, NetFlix Streaming & More!

rokuBeing hooked by the ability to stream videos from NetFlix on my laptop, I purchased a refurbished X-Box 360 to do the same in the basement (as well as play games). After using the streaming ability on the X-Box for several of my daughters slumber parties (do they still call it that?) and a few movies for the family I decided it was time to bring the streaming functionality to the family room.

Enter the Roku. This $99 device does one thing & does it VERY well! It streams select content from NetFlix, Amazon & Major League Baseball. With rumors circulating all over the internet of additional functionality coming soon $99 was a small price to pay for a new toy!

Setup is as simple as plugging the device in, hooking it to the TV using one of several wiring methods (I chose HDMI), and setting up your network connection. The Roku supports wired and wireless connections. I’m currently using it with my wireless network with great results but I plan on hard wiring it to the network soon.

Overall I have to say the device was well worth the $99 (one time) cost of admission.  I’m hoping NetFlix will release their entire catalog for streaming soon as well as the rumored new features (YouTube, Revision3, etc.).  If you are a current NetFlix subscriber and want to take advantage of their “free” streaming media offerings, check out the Roku, I think you will really enjoy it!

U.S. Can’t Trace Foreign Visitors on Expired Visas!

In this day and age of technology are you kidding me?  How in the world are we losing these people?passport

From the New York Times:

DALLAS — Eight years after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and despite repeated mandates from Congress, the United States still has no reliable system for verifying that foreign visitors have left the country. [MORE]