RC Drone films the Majestic Mountains of Pakistan

This Is Myspace

Could Facebook be in trouble?

Oregon Mutated Corn Near Portland, OR

The following disturbing photos were reportedly taken in an organic garden near Portland, Oregon recently.

These gross mutations are likely the result of the severe radiation and hot particles that blanketed the West Coast from the Fukushima nuclear disaster after 3-11-11.

http://rense.com/general95/or-mutated-corn.html 

Husband ‘shot his neighbour because he believed he’d telepathically raped his wife’

A man shot his neighbour because he believed the 41-year-old had 'telepathically raped' his wife, a court heard.
'Delusional' Michael Selleneit - who has claimed rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen visits him 'in his mind' - is accused of shooting and wounding Tony Pierce as he was working in his garden in Centerville, Utah, U.S.
The 54-year-old has said he was acting in self-defence when he shot Mr Pierce, claiming the neighbour had threatened him 'telepathically' and had 'telepathically raped' his wife many times, the court heard.

 http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2209894/Husband-shot-neighbour-believed-d-telepathically-raped-wife.html

Craig Tracy’s Unbelievable Body-Painting Optical Illusions

New Orleans-based artist Craig Tracy is considered a trendsetter in the art of body painting. He spends hour painstakingly painting his subjects’ bodies with water-based paint, before taking photos of them in unique positions.

Read more at http://www.odditycentral.com/pics/craig-tracys-unbelievable-body-painting-optical-illusions.html#WjzWeYdhmq8OV3Yg.99

IDIOTS v. IDIOTMETERS Should "Idiots" File a Malpractice Class Action against IQ-test Designers?

Should lawyers file a class action against psychologists for malpractice on behalf of all those who took flawed IQ tests and discovered that they were idiots? Could they make a successful "faulty design" argument and establish mental pain and suffering, loss of self esteem, and loss of confidence in their mental activity? If they could, I bet there are millions of Americans out there eager to take their revenge, including those who were matched by MENSA with partners presumably sharing comparable IQs and then ending up with shared nightmares and divorce. I bet that the IQ Tests have contributed to sales of the Complete Idiot's Guide or Incomplete Imbecile's Guide (is coming soon!) series by convincing millions that they are indeed Idiots and Imbeciles.

I do believe that IQ tests measure some intellectual capabilities of individuals, sure with reasonable margins of error. But, out of curiosity, I have checked several IQ tests and found them riddled with flawed questions. I am not writing this criticism because I got low scores. To the contrary, I have received very high scores on each test I have taken so far (even my zealous religious opponents have conceded my high IQ in their books and articles). Furthermore, I do not claim that it is easy or even possible to design a flawless IQ test, and I am not dreaming or suggesting to design a test to test the test makers either. But I believe that many IQ tests on the market could be improved easily, if only the test designers had subjected them to trials and considered the results. Or they simply could have handed them to lawyers for cross-examination! Even if a lawyer who does not obtain good score on an IQ test, he or she is professionally skilled to smell flaws as long as it is presented as the evidence of an opposing party. (I am not practicing law, but I still feel a duty towards my comrades; they always need clients, especially psychologist ones!).

http://www.yuksel.org/e/rainbow/iqtest.htm

Rent-to-Own Laptops Secretly Photographed Users Having Sex, FTC Says

Seven rent-to-own companies and a software maker are settling charges with the Federal Trade Commission that rental computers illegally used spyware that took “pictures of children, individuals not fully clothed, and couples engaged in sexual activities.”
As per the course, the FTC slapped the hand of DesignerWare of North East Pennsylvania and the rent-to-own companies. The settlement, announced Tuesday, only requires them to halt using their spy tools, which has been employed on as many as 420,000 rentals.

The software, known as Detective Mode, didn’t just secretly turn on webcams. It “can log the keystrokes of the computer user, take screen shots of the computer user’s activities on the computer, and photograph anyone within view of the computer’s webcam. Detective Mode secretly gathers this information and transmits it to DesignerWare, who then transmits it to the rent-to-own store from which the computer was rented, unbeknownst to the individual using the computer,” according to the complaint.

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2012/09/laptop-rental-spyware-scandal/ 

Sweet times for cows as gummy worms replace costly corn feed

"It's a pretty colorful load," said Yoder, who operates about 450 dairy cows on his farm in northern Indiana. "Anything that keeps the feed costs down."
As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year's U.S. corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed.
In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.

Spy rock explodes near secret Iranian nuclear compound

Iranian troops patrolling the perimeter of a secret uranium enrichment site have reportedly found a monitoring device disguised as a rock. The spy gadget exploded when disturbed, probably on a self-destruct trigger.
­The incident happened last month, although no link to espionage operations was known before The Sunday Times newspaper broke the news. At the time Iranian Revolutionary Guards were checking terminals connecting communication links at Fordo, an underground site near Qom in northern Iran, the British newspaper reported Sunday citing intelligence sources.

http://rt.com/news/iran-spy-rock-nuclear-777/? 

http://www.darkgovernment.com/news/the-u-k-spy-rock/

Buddhas of Bamiyan

Smaller Bamyan Buddha from base, Afghanistan 1977-08-10

The two most prominent statues were the giant standing Buddhas Vairocana and Sakyamuni, identified by the different mudras performed, measuring 55 and 37 metres (180 and 121 feet) high respectively. Before being blown up in 2001 they were the largest examples of standing Buddha carvings in the world (the 8th century Leshan Giant Buddha is taller,^[8] but the statue is sitting). Since then the Spring Temple Buddha has been built in China, and at 128 m (420 ft) it is the tallest statue in the world. Plans for the construction of the Spring Temple Buddha were announced soon after the blowing up of the Bamiyan Buddhas and China condemned the systematic destruction of the Buddhist heritage of Afghanistan.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buddhas_of_Bamiyan 

Self-driving cars now legal in California

California is the latest state to allow testing of Google's self-driving cars on the roads, though only with a human passenger along as a safety measure.

Gov. Edmund "Jerry" Brown signed the autonomous-vehicles bill into law Tuesday afternoon alongside Google co-founder Sergey Brin and State Sen. Alex Padilla, who authored the bill, at Google's headquarters in Mountain View, California. The bill, SB 1298, will set up procedures and requirements for determining when the cars are road-ready.

Brin hopes that self-driving cars will be able to drive on public streets in five years or less.

http://edition.cnn.com/2012/09/25/tech/innovation/self-driving-car-california/index.html 

NASA team to fly to space to 'save' Earth from asteroid

A NASA team will fly to space to investigate a giant asteroid and deflect it if it's on collision course with Earth.
Major Tim Peake, a British astronaut is part of a NASA team due to fly to investigate one of the cosmic rocks by the mid-2020s.

http://www.business-standard.com/generalnews/news/nasa-team-to-fly-to-space-to-save-earthasteroid/62018/

Anti-Muslim filmmaker who sparked violent protests jailed after being arrested for 'violating probation by posting video online'

The man who sparked protests across the Muslim world with a video mocking the prophet Muhammad was yesterday arrested and jailed for violating his probation.
Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, 55, has been on probation for a 2010 federal cheque fraud conviction that brought a 21-month prison sentence.
Under the terms of his probation, he was not to use computers or the internet for five years without approval from his probation officer.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2209733/Anti-Muslim-filmmaker-sparked-violent-protests-arrested-violating-probation.html#ixzz27kye9LF7 

France Rolls Out Left-Wing Austerity Budget With Top Marginal Income Tax Rate of 75 Percent

The question of fiscal austerity has become very aligned with partisan and ideological debates in the United States even though really it's a separate issue. And that's something you can see on full display in France, where the recently elected Socialist Party government is going all-in on fiscal austerity in its new budget, but doing so in a very left-wing way. The government is convinced that it needs a debt-reduction program and is determined to do it through progressive taxation. The most eye-catching headline element is that President François Holllande and Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault are proposing a new 75 percent top marginal income tax bracket.

http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox/2012/09/28/france_s_new_budget_left_wing_austerity_will_put_top_marginal_income_tax_rate_up_to_75_.html

Officials see Iran, not outrage over film, behind cyber attacks on US banks

National security officials told NBC News that the continuing cyber attacks this week that slowed the websites of JPMorgan Chase and Bank of America are being carried out by the government of Iran. One of those sources said the claim by hackers that the attacks were prompted by the online video mocking the Prophet Muhammad is just a cover story.
A group of purported hackers in the Middle East has claimed credit for problems at the websites of both banks, citing the online video mocking the founder of Islam. One security source called that statement "a cover" for the Iranian government's operations...

http://openchannel.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/20/13990206-officials-see-iran-not-outrage-over-film-behind-cyber-attacks-on-us-banks?lite

Bagel Head Surgery

The bizarre look is created by injecting saline into the forehead until it swells up, and then pressing in the centre of the swollen area with a thumb. The result gives the appearance that someone has the doughnut-shaped bread stuck to their head. The process takes two hours to complete, but lasts just 16-24 hours, after which the saline is absorbed by the body and the forehead skinks to its normal size. - THE SUN.

Tungsten Gold Bars Surface In New York Sept 19th, 2012

Emma Goldman

“Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…” 

 

“The philosophy of Atheism represents a concept of life without any metaphysical Beyond or Divine Regulator. It is the concept of an actual, real world with its liberating, expanding and beautifying possibilities, as against an unreal world, which, with its spirits, oracles, and mean contentment has kept humanity in helpless degradation.” 

 

 

 ― Emma Goldman

 

Lake disappearing in Texas

Kyle Lyssy is scoping out a spot to drop his boat -- drop it and hit water, that is -- in a lake that's literally hit rock bottom.

"I've lived around here my whole life and this is a new, personal record for me to see it like this," he says.

The views are armageddon-like, with boat docks clutching at cliff sides, and stairs and ramps that lead nowhere. With some merchants reporting business down 70 percent, recreational sports have dried up a bit, too.

Medina Lake is at 13 percent capacity - the victim of more than two years of drought. Built a hundred years ago to help farmers irrigate their crops downstream, the lake serves its purpose well...

 

http://www.theweathernetwork.com/news/storm_watch_stories3&stormfile=lake_disappearing_in_Texas_12_09_2012 

Cameras on the ISS provide early 2013 live version of Google Earth

The International Space Station (ISS) will soon be offering photographs of the earth using two HD cameras on the outside of the ISS will be made. Since the ISS fifteen times a day around the earth orbits, there will be several daily snapshots of your house to see. In fact, you can call when you hang up the ISS and so just go to wave.
The company RAL Space, near the British town of Oxford, one of the camera's built. "A meter will be approximately equal to one pixel, similar to the images of your house on Google Earth," says Ian Tosh from RAL Space. "You will be the tiles of your roof can not count, but the details of your garden will recognize." What makes this project different from Google Earth is that they are updated several times a day.

The basic service of the project will be free. Users can then log onto the website and live or archived images of anywhere on earth. The ISS floats daily 15 times around the earth, so sooner or later there will be something you want to see...


http://translate.google.nl/translate?hl=nl&ie=UTF8&prev=_t&sl=nl&tl=en&u=http://www.demorgen.be/dm/nl/5403/Internet/article/detail/1502415/2012/09/17/Camera-s-op-het-ISS-zorgen-binnenkort-voor-live-versie-van-Google-Earth.dhtml 
 

Scientists Create Molecule to Make Teeth Cavityproof

Scientists have discovered a new molecule that will make your teeth cavityproof and may change dental care forever. They have appropriately named it Keep 32—for your 32 teeth—and it can kill the bacteria that produces cavities in 60 seconds flat.
José Córdoba—a researcher at Yale University—and Erich Astudillo—from the Universidad de Santiago, Chile—claim that this molecule can be added to any dental care product, from toothpaste to mouthwash. In fact, they say it can be added to anything, even candies and chewing gum.

http://gizmodo.com/5924447/scientists-find-molecule-that-will-make-your-teeth-cavityproof 

Ultimatum to US: ‘Criminalise blasphemy or lose consulate’

The rally was addressed by Jamatud Dawa chief Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, THR head Ameer Hamza, JD leader Hafiz Abdul Rehman Makki, Pakistan Muslim League (Zia) head Ijazul Haq, Jamaat Ulema Islam-Sami (JUI-S) leader Asim Makhdoom and Jamaat Ahle Hadith ameer Hafiz Abdul Ghaffar Ropari.
One of the participants of the rally, Abdullah Ismail, passed away after he was taken to Mayo Hospital. Witnesses said he had complained of feeling unwell from the smoke from US flags burnt at the rally.
Hafiz Saeed alleged that the film, Innocence of Muslims, had been produced with the backing of US establishment. He said the director, the producer and all those involved in the production and release of the movie must be hanged publicly. “The US must make a law against blasphemy – or we will not let the US consulates in Pakistan function,” he said.


 http://tribune.com.pk/story/437772/ultimatum-to-us-criminalise-blasphemy-or-lose-consulate/

New Software Makes Synthesizing DNA As Easy As ‘Drag and Drop’ With Icons

In an analogous way, Amirav-Drory wants to create a graphic user interface that would empower people to manipulate the arcane logic of DNA. His new software, Genome Compiler (free and available for download at www.genomecompiler.com), converts the various parts of a DNA sequence into easy-to-understand, and easily manipulable, icons. The software turns the complex task of DNA design into an easy drag-and-drop exercise. I caught up with Amirav-Drory recently at Singularity University where he took me through a demo of the program and told me how it might be used by researchers, biology hackers, and what sorts of risks are involved in bringing genetic design into the DIY space.
Trained as a biochemist at Tel Aviv University, Amirav-Drory knows firsthand that designing and constructing the DNA tools used for experiments is labor-intensive and plagued with too many fatal errors. “I hated cloning,” he admits. “It seemed silly to me.”...


 http://singularityhub.com/2012/09/17/new-software-makes-synthesizing-dna-as-easy-as-using-an-ipad/

‘Innocence of Muslims’ filmmaker was a federal informant

Much remains unanswered about the US-made film that sparked riots across the Arab World, but more is unraveling by the day regarding the movie’s producer. Now it’s reported that the man behind 'Innocence of Muslims' was once a federal informant.
In the wake of a serious of violent outbursts that have targeted American facilities abroad and left at least 40 dead including one US ambassador, authorities and media outlets in the United States continue to comb through information about the film that’s considered the catalyst in the attacks, an anti-Islam flick branded overseas under the name ‘Innocence of Muslims.’ Less than a week after four Americans were killed at a US consulate in Benghazi, it’s now being revealed that the film’s producer, Nakoula Basseley Nakoula, worked for the feds...

http://rt.com/usa/news/innocence-muslims-informant-nakoula-349/ 

'Moordende' rechercheur onderzocht integriteit

Petters rol als integriteitsbewaker krijgt een gevoelige en wrange lading, nu uit politie-onderzoek zou blijken dat hij in zijn woning een man en vrouw uit Millingen heeft doodgeschoten en vervolgens zichzelf doodde. Ook werd in zijn woning een middelgrote hennepkwekerij aangetroffen. 

http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/12957679/___Moordende__agent_integer__.html

Sharia4Holland waarschuwt voor 'serieus geweld'

Afgelopen weekeinde protesteerden de islamisten in Amsterdam met 215 medestanders tegen de gewraakte anti-islamfilm 'Innocence of Muslims'. Het gros van de demonstranten, zo'n tweehonderd, waren afkomstig uit Nederland, de overige vijftien vanuit België, zegt woordvoerder Abu Qaasim van Shariah4Holland. "Dit was de grootste opkomst ooit bij een van onze demonstraties." 

 http://www.telegraaf.nl/binnenland/12957942/__Sharia4Holland_waarschuwt__.html

Why Do Schizophrenics Hear Voices?

"You're always generating an internal voice and listening to it... But imagine now that you got the timing wrong. So you think you heard the voice before you generated it. You would have to interpret that as somebody else's voice," Eagleman told Science Friday host Ira Flatow. 

Eagleman's theory has some historical support. One study conducted in 1977 compared schizophrenics' perception of time to that of non-schizophrenics. Subjects were required to work on a task until an experimenter stopped them, and then were asked to estimate the amount of time that had transpired. At judging five-second intervals -- the briefest length of time tested -- schizophrenics significantly differed from the other subjects in their estimations.

Additional research is currently underway at Eagleman's Baylor College laboratory. If further substantiated, Eagleman believes that this theory could potentially lead to entirely new rehabilitative strategies for schizophrenia.

http://www.realclearscience.com/blog/2012/08/is-schizophrenia-simply-a-matter-of-time.html 

World’s first bionic eye gifts blind woman eyesight

Over the next 18 months, scientists will work in the laboratory with Ashworth and two other sight-restricted patients.
But the next big step is installing a camera, so that the patient is able to receive representations of real objects, not just those created by the scientists.
Even at this stage, the signals Ashworth will receive will be unlike normal eyesight, but the aim of the invention is practical.
"What we're going to be doing is restoring a type of vision which is probably going to be black and white, but what we're hoping to do for these patients, who are severely visually impaired, is to give them mobility," says Penny Allen, the lead surgeon on the procedure.
Eventually, with a greater number of electrodes, a more detailed picture could be beamed into the blind person’s brain...

 http://rt.com/news/bionic-eye-blind-australia-962/

Real Mars Mysteries for NASA's Curiosity

Chinese farmer grows Buddha-shaped pears to sell in Europe

Yup, you read that right. The farmer hails from the village of Hexia, in Hebia, northern China, and has spend six years perfecting his method. The baby pears grow inside a clear Buddha-shaped mould, and are plucked from the tree in the shape of a tiny seated Buddha. From the top of the figure's head extends the pear's stem which the farmer has opted to leave attached, perhaps as an indicator that this is in fact still a fruit.
So far he's made about 10,000 of the fruits, and locals are eagerly forking out about $8 for the deity-shaped treats, according to the Daily Mail. The inventor has plans to export his idea to Europe.

 http://ca.shine.yahoo.com/blogs/shine-on/chinese-farmer-grows-buddha-shaped-pears-sell-europe-155512052.html

Sweden aims to be cashless society

Swedes are amongst the technologically savvy people on the planet, based on their high rates of use of mobile phones and internet banking. In fact, only three per cent of all financial transactions in the country are made using cash these days. Even public transport tickets can now be pre-paid using mobile phone technology, and most people use similar services to pay for everything from groceries to major purchases.

Hermit Crabs Migration

FBI Caught Spying on Millions of Apple Customers

In 2010, Apple told a congressional inquiry that it cannot track iPhones in real time. A hacker named Eric Smith noted that third party applications can transmit UDIDs, which could potentially be linked to the owner and used to track that person. This is precisely what hackers with Anonymous think the FBI was doing.
Anonymous claims to have hacked into a laptop owned by a FBI cyber security expert, and downloaded several files including one that contained over 12 million Apple iOS devices including UDIDs. Personal detail fields appear all over the files and no file or folder mentions any purpose of the list...

http://zazenlife.com/2012/09/05/fbi-caught-spying-on-millions-of-apple-customers/ 

FBI launches $1 billion face recognition project

The Next Generation Identification programme will include a nationwide database of criminal faces and other biometrics

"FACE recognition is 'now'," declared Alessandro Acquisti of Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh in a testimony before the US Senate in July.

It certainly seems that way. As part of an update to the national fingerprint database, the FBI has begun rolling out facial recognition to identify criminals.

It will form part of the bureau's long-awaited, $1 billion Next Generation Identification (NGI) programme, which will also add biometrics such as iris scans, DNA analysis and voice identification to the toolkit. A handful of states began uploading their photos as part of a pilot programme this February and it is expected to be rolled out nationwide by 2014. In addition to scanning mugshots for a match, FBI officials have indicated that they are keen to track a suspect by picking out their face in a crowd...

http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21528804.200-fbi-launches-1-billion-face-recognition-project.html 

Brusspop illusion

The Chinese were first to come up with such illusions in 180 A.D

Swede deal: Cambodia gets $60M ‘social aid’ after Pirate Bay founder arrest

n a move that’s set the blogging world alight, Sweden has pledged to give Cambodia $60 million for ‘democratic development’. Some think the timing of the deal - right on the heels of Pirate Bay co-founder Warg’s arrest – is no coincidence.
Many have already dismissed the possible cause and effect between the “imminent deportation” of Gottfrid Svartholm Warg at Sweden’s request and the 60 million US dollar social package as ‘ridiculous’.
Sweden regularly sends financial aid to the struggling Southeast Asian state. But information available on the OpenAid website, which shows where Sweden sends taxpayer money – and how much, shows that this latest promise of help will exceed all previous donations by 50%. 

http://rt.com/news/pirate-bay-sweden-cambodia-aid-542/ 

Liu Bolin – Lost in Art

http://www.bbcicecream.com/2012/03/30/liu-bolin-lost-in-art/#more-29911

THE MAN WHO LOST HIS BODY (Part 1 of 5)

Assange: Swedes May Drop Case

In a South American television interview, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says that he thinks he could be living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London for up to a year, and that the Swedish government could drop its sexual assault investigation.

Assange, 41, has been holed up in the Ecuadorean embassy since June, when he fled there after British authorities okay his extradition to Sweden. The Swedish government wants to question Assange about allegations of assault made by two women. The Ecuadorean government officially granted Assange asylum earlier this month, but British authorities have said they will arrest him if he leaves the embassy.

Assange told Telesur, a channel seen in Ecuador and neighboring countries, that he thinks it will take six to 12 months for a resolution of his situation, and that he expects the standoff will be solved via diplomacy or through "an unusual world occurrence that we can't predict."


http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/assange-swedes-drop-case/story?id=17129463#.UEYJ4pYkrCU

50 years too late... thalidomide drug maker issues an 'apology' to victims

Remember thalidomide, developed for morning sickness and prescribed to pregnant women in the 1950s and 1960s? The aftermath of this Big Pharma fiasco left around 10,000 reported babies born with malformed limbs and missing arms or legs. Victims of thalidomide defects said that a recent apology from the German inventor of the drug is too little, too late. After repeatedly reminding this errant company of its criminal behavior at the negotiating table, British thalidomide victim Geoff Adams-Spink is not satisfied with this apology.

But Adams Spink, head of the European Dysmelia Reference Information Centre, says: "This is an important first step. The next is to compensate everyone damaged by their so-called 'totally harmless' drug." At a ceremony in the western German city of Stolberg, where the company is based, Chief executive, Harald Stock said: "In the name of Gruenenthal ... I want to take this opportunity to express our deep regret over the consequences of Contergan and our deep sympathy for the victims, their mothers and families."...

http://www.naturalnews.com/037061_thalidomide_victims_apology.html

Brain Controls A Quadrotor for the Handicapped

Honduras signs deal to create private cities

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) -- The government of Honduras has signed a deal with private investors for the construction of three privately run cities with their own legal and tax systems.


The memorandum of agreement signed Tuesday is part of a controversial experiment meant to bring badly needed economic growth to this small Central American country...  

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_HONDURAS_PRIVATE_CITIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2012-09-04-21-45-18

Crazy Moths

See more:
http://www.grindtv.com/outdoor/blog/34608/moth+that+looks+like+a+poodle+has+internet+abuzz+bizarre+photos/

LG demonstrates wireless Linux Web pad called Ipad - 2001

The Digital iPAD, a Linux-based Web pad, was demonstrated for the first time by South Korean hardware manufacturer LG Electronics at the CeBIT computer fair in Hanover, Germany this week. The device was demonstrated running on the latest version of the Linux kernel, 2.4. First unveiled in January, the iPAD is aimed at home users wanting Internet access and multimedia thrills without all the bells and whistles of a conventional PC.

 http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/LG-demonstrates-wireless-Linux-Web-pad-at-CeBIT/

Sony Inspired Apple's iPhone

All was revealed in a filing made by Apple, in which CAD mock-ups of early design prototypes revealed a strong Sony influence, with one prototype actually bearing the word "Sony" on its rear, a prototype which appears to have been the foundation for the current iPhone 4(s) design, though, with the concept originally a contender for the original iPhone, designed back in 2004-2006, perhaps halted by technological limitations. Quite hilariously, at the time, senior Apple designer, Richard Howarth, stated the the design "looks old", when comparing against another design labeled 'P2' which appears quite similar to what is now the iPod Nano...

 http://hexus.net/business/news/legal/42989-sony-inspired-apples-iphone-court-filing-reveals/