Bill Gates vs. hurricanes?

Bill Gates, in his continuing quest for global domination, is now ready to take on mother nature. Earlier this month, Gates (and co-inventors) filed patent applications for a proposed way of slowing hurricanes by pumping cold water directly into storms. As you may know, hurricanes draw strength as they move over warm surface waters in the ocean. Gates' applications propose a system of turbine-equipped barges strategically placed in a storm's path to cool surface waters by using cold water pumped from the ocean depths.

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I understand the general idea behind weakening a hurricane with cooler waters, but the logistics of placing these barges in the direct path of a storm in a timely manner seems a bit far-fetched to me.

Unreleased Michael Jackson track appears online

It only took a few weeks for the first of Michael Jackson's unreleased tracks to show up online. Somehow, TMZ obtained an unreleased Jackson song entitled "A Place With No Name." Read more about the song at TMZ, and listen to the audio.

Korn frontman goes solo

Korn frontman Jonathan Davis has signed a solo deal with the Warner Music Group. For months, Davis has been working on his debut album that is to be released late this year or early 2010. In a recent interview, Davis had this to say about his new solo work:

I want the record to be the most amazing record I could possibly put out. I want all songs to be amazing and different. I want it to be really a very artistic, crazy album that no one's ever heard before. 'Cause it's very world music-y and dark, heavy, PETER GABRIEL-esque type music and I want all the songs to be different, and nothing like KORN.

Korn has also been working on a new studio album expected to be released next year. The band is currently without a record deal.

No more iTunes for Pre

One of the major selling points of the new Palm Pre has been the ability of the smartphone to sync seamlessly with iTunes like an iPod or an iPhone. I hope Pre users had fun while it lasted because Apple officially disabled the Palm's much-hyped feature today in the latest iTunes update.

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Black Wii coming soon

Nintendo will be releasing a new black Wii console on August 1 in Japan. There's no official word yet on when we'll be seeing this new color in the United States, but maybe it will arrive in time for the holidays. I really wish this color option was available when I purchased my Wii because the white console sticks out like a sore thumb beside my other sleek, black electronics.

Free Microsoft Office

There's big news coming out of Microsoft today. FREE MICROSOFT OFFICE! No, really. Microsoft will be giving away the Office suite online for free. How you ask? Think Google Docs. A version of Microsoft's upcoming Office 2010 will be made available online as a free service accessed through your browser. This sounds great, but if you're like me (and many others), you're probably assuming this free Office will be exclusive to Internet Explorer. Not so. Microsoft has really outdone themselves this time by announcing support for IE, Firefox, and Safari browsers. Both the free online version and the traditional desktop versions of Office 2010 are scheduled to be released in the first half of 2010.

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I am El Nino

On Thursday, scientists announced the return of weather phenomenon known as El Nino. Upon reading the article, my mind drifted to the classic SNL bit of Chris Farley playing the part of El Nino. Never one to disappoint, YouTube came through with the video. Enjoy!