Streaming Oscar Footage for Just $5

Now that organizers have spruced up the envelopes, all is ready to be revealed as never before for the Oscars, as 360-degree cameras will be available for the first time, via the Internet.

For just $5, you can sign up to access a series of 11 separate cameras that will stream a constant signal from their varied vantage points. TV has offered backstage shots before, but this is all live, all the time, so you can what those movie stars do backstage during the commercial breaks.

With just the click of a mouse, you can see in any direction. You'll also get access to the Governors Ball after-party, so you can see the stars really let their hair down.

The red carpet is a vantage point, so you can stay there if you want. The stream will be running throughout, long before and long after the show.

The movable cameras will augment existing coverage from stationary cameras, giving the online viewer a very immersive experience.

Offering the service is Dallas-based BigLook360, the company that brought us inside-looking-out views of the recent implosion of Texas Stadium, where the Dallas Cowboys used to play.

The company has set up a test camera at a few recent awards events, including the Emmys, Golden Globes, and Grammys.

Now, it's all on for the Oscars.

One word of caution, though: This is Flash technology we're talking about here, so your iPad experience might be a bit limited. The company is offering a $1 fee for Apple users, who will see a slightly less high-definition stream.

Super-tiny computer system fits in your eye

The eyes have it — or they will.

The world's smallest computer system has been designed to be an eye pressure monitor for glaucoma patients, something that can be implanted in the eye and then transmit information wirelessly to sensor networks housed in a radio-equivalent device. A few years from now, this device should be commonplace.

The system is no larger than a letter in the sentence you are now reading. (It does have to go into the human eye, after all.) The system will be powered by a tiny solar cell and by a tiny battery, and the microprocessor will be extremely low power (but enough to do the job).

One benefit of the system is that it transmits on a single frequency, to which the radio-like device is also tuned. This cuts down on interference and on possible disruptions from other signals. However, it also means that the computer and the receiver (or one like it) must both be operating in order for the system to work properly.

It is, as one scientist termed it, the world's first millimeter-scale complete computing system. Other scientists in other fields are already talking about possible future benefits of such a system, including the monitoring of pollution and the structural integrity of buildings.

Weather Wham from Outer Space: Our Next Big Threat

on't throw away those typewriters and land-line phones just yet. The next decade or so could be a bumpy ride, if the bigshots over at NOAA are to be believed.

Seems the administrator of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is going on about the increasing frequency and severity of space storms coming in the next several years. A particularly nasty (read: crackling with geomagnetic disruptive power) storm could play havoc with the world's communication and computer systems, sending our newly wired societies into a tailspin that not even Twitter could help us out of for a few hours if not days.

This is serious stuff. I mean, if we can't tweet about this kind of thing, what good are those mobile phones, smartphones, websites, cell towers, and GPS devices? Who's going to tell the world that the big solar storm is on? How will we know?

Oh, wait. We'll figure it out.

It is rather serious, actually. The scientists — it's not the NOAA administrator but a whole pack of bright guys and gals gathered for the annual of the American Association for the Advancement of Science — are warning that critical computer systems could be disrupted. And by critical they mean financial systems, communication systems, and potentially even weapons systems.

See, it is serious.

Solar flares and other kinds of space storms are nothing new. We Earthlings have been buffeted by them for years. Every once in awhile, a big one hits and the cell towers shudder and the network goes down for a few milliseconds and lots of people get nervous in a Dr. Strangelove kind of way. But things always go back to normal, largely before anyone but the most senior circle of secret-seekers is the wiser. Still, it goes without saying that we're going to run out of luck one day. And the chances of that happening are a good sight better than the chance of being hit by a rogue asteroid (even if you leave out the Bruce Willis factor).

Electronic disruption due to space storm is a reality. Whether we like it or not, we're going to have to get ready for "the big one." We can start by doing simple things like these:

• writing down all those phone numbers on your mobile phone
• making printouts of critical files and storing them in an easy-to-access place like a filing cabinet or a box under the bed
• updating (or, in some cases, creating) a disaster preparedness plan akin to "What to Do in an Earthquake/Tornado/Flood," with a special focus on what to do if electrical power isn't an option for an extended period of time

All kidding aside, we should be ready for something like this because even if we get some sort of warning, the damage is likely to be severe.

Oscars to Unveil Envelope 2.0

t's all about the viewing, really, isn't it? Stars get all dressed up in their finery, designed by famous people, and then they go to the before-parties and the after-parties and they look fabulous. The one thing that they really want, though, is their name inside an envelope.

It's a particular kind of envelope, the one handed out by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, the one that results in a statue that once looked like someone's uncle Oscar. And this year, even that envelope will get dressed up.

The plain white envelope is getting a makeover. It will look great on television and next to the mantle, next to the statuette. The envelope is made of gold paper and is lined with shiny red paper. A shiny red sticker seals the envelope, and two strips of red ribbon make sure the seal sticks. Images of Oscar dot the inside and outside of the envelope. When the presenter opens the envelope, what comes out is a piece of heavy red lacquered paper containing the winner's name and category.

All that detail will result in a lot of missed opportunities, since the design company, not knowing who the winners are, will have to design envelopes containing paper naming every nominee as the winner. Still, it's a vast improvement over the existing office supply store variety white envelope. Let's just hope there isn't too much red in the lights shining on the stage that night.

Driver Arrested for Video of Him Going 140 MPH

"Just plain crazy" is how the police spokesperson described the behavior of the guy who was arrested for driving his BMW 118 mph down the Oregon interstate. That's probably a fair enough comment.

But wait … there's more.

See, the guy had his video camera out and was filming the sheriff's deputy as he walked from the patrol car to the speeder's car to write out the ticket. Yes, the driver was aware that he had broken the law. Yes, he knew this because he had been recording himself driving that fast.

But wait … there's still more.

See, the guy also had to give up his video camera to the deputy, who confiscated it as evidence once he realized what he thought was on it — which was not only that the driver had exceeded the speed limit to the tune of 118 mph but also that he had actually reached speeds of 140 mph and had it on tape!

But wait … there's a bit more.

See, the guy had no choice to report to a nearby jail because he was arrested and charged with not only speeding but also reckless driving. (It's rare to see the one charge without the other, but the deputy included them both just to be sure.)

When this driver gets to tell his side of the story, he will be tempted to plead that he was doing it for a laugh or a stunt or for some fame on YouTube. That probably won't matter. He's probably lucky to be alive. Winds were gusting up to 50 mph that day, and tree branches had been blown across the highway.

What some people will do for fame.

Sound in Space: Astronaut Plays Flute Onboard Space Station

No, it wasn't Captain Picard finding his Inner Light.

But it really was flute music coming from space, even if we here on Earth couldn't hear it. Cady Coleman, a NASA astronaut serving aboard the International Space Station, made good use of some down time by playing her flute, specifically a sea shanty titled "Bluenose," a song written by Stan Rogers, a folk musician from Canada.

The song is about being far from home, and Coleman said it was an apt musical statement to make about herself, orbiting high above Earth with five other astronauts, including Scott Kelly, the brother-in-law of Gabrielle Giffords, the Arizona congresswoman who has survived a gunshot wound to the head.

Coleman played the tune on her personal flute. She also brought three other flutes with her on her assignment, and one of them belongs to Ian Anderson, founder of the band Jethro Tull.

It wasn't the only time she made use of the woodwind instrument, though. She said it was a nice feeling to play music while floating in zero-gravity and gazing out at the starts — and Earth — although she had to be careful that the air she was breathing into the flute didn't send her spiraling around the station.

Watch the video here.

Coleman wasn't the first astronaut to play music, or even the flute, in space. Ellen Ochoa played her flute onboard the space shuttle back in 1993. More recently, Ed Lu and Carl Walz have played an electronic keyboard aboard the space station.

Drug-sniffing Mice? Yep, and That's Not All

Had enough of pat-downs and sniffing dogs? Make way for mice.

Yes, those furry, four-legged fidgety friends will be making your life a bit more difficult — but only if you're carrying drugs or bombs through an Israeli airport.

Seems this company has designed a drug detector that makes use of the advanced technology of mice's olfactory nerves to raise the alarm on whether drugs are onboard your person. It looks like a scanner, but it's really a mouse house. Eight specially trained (Aren't they all?) mice hang out in each of three hidden cartridges in the scanner, working a half-day (only four hours, you know) on guard duty.

How do they do it? Well, the scanner gets a whiff of the air around it and gets all the smells contained therein and then transmits those smells inside the cartridges, where the mice can get a whiff, and then the mice go crazy if they smell even a whisker of illegal or explosive paraphernalia and make their intentions known by running into a side chamber.

Wonderfully precise drug testing, no? "Wait," you say, "what about the mouse that gets a wild hair and just starts running around just because?"

Good question. BioExplorers, makers of the scanner, have an answer: It's not considered a drug detection unless more than one mouse goes in the special side chamber. And when at least two mice go in there, they trigger an alarm and red lights flash and security gates come crashing to the ground and people get carted off to interrogation rooms without their luggage or their traveling companions … well, that's how it could work.

It might just work, if the device gets picked up on the open market. The manufacturers did test it, and it did work, after a fashion, identifying a large handful of people carrying mock explosives. So, hey, maybe it's worth a shot.

Runner Completes 365th Straight Marathon

I have a new running idol. I used to revere Dean Karnazes. I still do, actually. However, he is nowhere near this guy.

Stefaan Engels, a 49-year-old guy from Belgium, just finished a marathon, a day after he finished a marathon, a day after he finished a marathon … He ran 26.2 miles each day for one year straight. That's 9,563 miles on the road, running.

His average time was about 4 hours. His fastest time was 2:56.

An asthmatic child, Engels promised himself that he would overcome that problem and he did, clocking in with his first marathon when he was 25.

Let's do that math again: 26.2 miles each day for an entire year. "Ouch" is right!

It wasn't just running the same route around where he lived, either. Engels ran in seven countries. He began in Barcelona and then ran also in Belgium, Canada, Mexico, Portugal, the U.K., and the U.S.

He has a slow resting heartbeat and excellent recovery, both of which help. But this is a towering achievement of physical and mental skill and fortitude.

Why did he do it? Engels said he wanted to inspire other people to take up exercise, if only a little bit. He figured that if he ran 26.2 miles, then maybe people could be convinced to run 26 steps or ride 26 miles on a bicycle — anything to combat an overwhelming obesity problem in much of the world.

Was it a world record? What do you think? He obliterated the world record, which had been 52 straight days of marathoning, set by a Japanese runner, Askinori Kusuda, in 2009. (Kusuda, by the way, was 65 when he did that.)

We probably should have seen this coming. Engels completed 20 Ironman triathlons in 2008. An Ironman is 2.4 miles of swimming, 112 miles of cycling, and then a marathon. If Engels did 20 in a year, he did more than one a month. Wow!

Dean Karnazes is still the Man, because he did 50 marathons in 50 states in 50 days. But Stefaan Engels is now the Big Man.

Invisible Paper Clips? That's Nothing: I've Found the Missing Socks!

Science is not done in isolation. Some of the greatest discoveries have come on the backs of others. Such is the case with this invisible paper clip business. As a result, I now know where the missing socks are. They haven't dropped in a crack in the universe. They haven't been eaten by mice or stolen by nosy neighbors. No, those socks are invisible!

See, this Star Trek-type "cloaking device" has been around for awhile now, and scientists have been forced into the open about it because of a whistleblower-type campaign by certain media moguls who shall remain nameless. This calcite crystal and its amazing technicolor invisibility dream sequence business isn't news, really — we're only just now seeing it for what it's worth.

In case you missed it, scientists have been able to use calcite crystals to bounce light completely around a paper clip, making the paper clip "disappear" because to our naked eyes and instruments, it can't be "seen." The paper clip is still there, it just isn't visible — to us. This is an extension of work that scientists have done before. Not too long ago, they announced similar results with tiny particles — nowhere near the size of a paper clip. "Ho hum," we said then, "come back to us when you can encloak something as large as Harry Potter.

Well, they're almost there.

That's the key distinction. The whole light-bending exercise is just an entertainment exercise, playing with our definition of what it is real and unreal, seen and unseen. If we can't see something, then we conclude that it isn't there — or, more fully, that nothing is there. We know the paper clip was there because we saw it with our own eyes; yet now we don't see it, so we conclude that it isn't there, merely because we can't see it.

This has tremendous implications for the life, the universe, and everything outside our realm of understanding — aliens, black holes, genius politicians. We so badly want to see these things, but we don't. We go through our lives assuming that things that we can't see just aren't there.

Which brings me back to the socks. See, I'm off to the dryer now to give it a really good search, inside and out and behind and under and on top. I won't give up until I find those darned socks!