Blue Helm

This woman is dangerous.

I’ve been particularly distracted today by some really interesting tech/science news, so I thought I would share some of the day’s most fascinating “nerd” reports as my requisite blog post.

Cameron Diaz is the world’s most dangerous celebrity. That’s according to McAfee, the antivirus software and computer security company. Apparently, searching for Cameron Diaz’s name on the Internet leads to more harmful spam than any other celebrity name on the planet, beating out Julia Roberts and Jessica Biel. Parents, lock up your children!

Everyone’s freaking out over Facebook…again. The social network wants to unveil its “Places” feature, allowing mobile phone users to disclose their exact location to friends. Of course privacy is a big issue, and critics are blasting Facebook for asking for too much information from its users.

The Moon is shrinking. Its tectonic faults are literally contracting due to the interior’s cooling. Scientists say there’s no need to be alarmed, but I’m concerned the little people that live in the Moon will soon become too cold or too cramped. This leads to irritability….and a potential attack on the Earth.

iPods may be killing our hearing. A recent study suggests that one in five American teenagers now has some hearing loss, perhaps due to iPods and MP3 players. Turn down the volume, folks!

Driving with animals in the car is more dangerous than texting while driving. I mostly like this Fox News article because of the picture they used with the story (you like it too), but it’s a disturbingly interesting news piece too. Someone once told me that texting and driving is worse than drinking and driving. Using that logic, having Fido in the car with you is worse than driving plastered.

Twitter, eBay and MySpace are hitting the big screen?! Well, no. But I love these parodies of the upcoming Facebook cinematic drama, The Social Network. Enjoy.

Have you ever heard of National History Day? It turns out there is a pretty cool organization that encourages children to take more interest in “the discovery of the historic, cultural and social experiences of the past.” Classrooms across the nation participate in a contest that encourages students to submit a presentation on a topic of historical significance. Think of it as a science fair for history.

My 12-year-old sister participated in this year’s National History Day contest. Her project won first place in her region! Unfortunately, she was sick the weekend of the state competition and wasn’t able to go. Otherwise she probably would have won at the state level (there’s no bias in that statement at all). The topic of her project is “Getting Information to the People: From Gutenberg to Twitter”, a topic that is extremely relevant and very interesting. The best part is that there is an interview at the end with a very attractive young man (that would be me for any who are confused). So without further ado, here is her final project. Enjoy: