I know the concepts of typing speed and words per minute are mindblowingly difficult ones. And if they're too much for you to wrap your head around, perhaps you should consider this USB Mice Wheel (no, that's not my grammatical error) that measures your words per minute in revolutions per minute. So when you're typing REALLY, REALLY FAST on that foldable witchcraft machine, the mouse wheel is spinning REALLY, REALLY FAST. Where would we be without technology? [Product Page via Red Ferret via Crunch Gear]

Beauty is in the eye of the beholder—68 different beholders in the case of Tommer Leyvand's new "beautification engine." The software, featured in a story in the New York Times, takes preferences from a poll of 68 men and women from Israel and Germany who looked at pictures and chose the most beautiful subjects. Measuring common traits like smaller eyes, rounder chins and higher foreheads, it applies those rules of attractiveness, Photoshop-style, to images of other faces. If need be, it can do a full-on virtual nip-tuck-and-slice yet in some cases, the beautification engine won't change a thing.

In the top shot, you can see how the girl's face has been radically altered. Many people I know would of course find the face on the right beautiful, but you can't help but be shocked at the overall impact that a few minor feature alterations can have on the appearance of a face.

In some cases, it's just funny, like Woody Allen here:
In case you couldn't tell, the machine judged that Allen is, for the most part, devastatingly handsome, but that nose of his just had to be trimmed.

I am not sure what that says about the panel of judges. I wonder what would happen if a beauty poll of 100 different countries was used to create the rules. Maybe we'd discover a universal concept of beauty. Or maybe we'd learn that with so many opinions of beauty, nothing would need changing.

In the short term, the computer doesn't say a lot that Hollywood can't already tell us. Shots of James Franco, for instance, go through the process untouched, while the nerdier Michael Cera gets more of a going over. Check out these shots and more, plus the full story of Leyvand's software. [NYT via BBG]

Google just rolled out a new set of ads, making the total number of ad-based revenue streams roughly equal to the number of petabytes they search daily. This one appears at the bottom of the map when you search for a fairly generic topic. After I saw it written up on CNet, I gave it a try, and as you can see from my image above, the ads pop up even if you're searching for things you'd really not want broadcast to to the world, a stark reminder that the thing called privacy is just a memory from a time before electrons and radio waves joined us all.

In this example, I chose "erectile dysfunction" as the search term, and you can see what comes up. On the left there is a single ad followed by presumably helpful resources. But below the map, there are three ads, which you can navigate through with the arrow buttons. The first was Viagra, the second Cialis, and the third was the rather shadier sounding one you see above.

The funny thing is, not all embarrassing searches will serve up an ad. ED was actually my second choice after "escort." While the Google search itself naturally turned up plenty of services in the Seattle area (gotta be something to keeping all them highly paid Microsoft software engineers happy), there was no ad. So get scramblin', Sweet Cherries Escort Service—there's a vacant ad space on Google that could proudly bear your name! [CNet]

One of our favorite apps for the iPhone is the iTunes remote, so we're thrilled to see one for Android. Jeff Sharkey says that he reverse engineered the remote protocol from the iPhone and touch and used it to create an iTunes remote for Android (a process he details here). As you can see in the video, it looks amazing and works perfectly in the Android emulator, just like Apple's (in the real thing, you won't actually have to enter the IP address or pairing code). Since Jeff is already a $275,000 winner of the Android Dev Challenge, we're hopeful it'll work just as beautifully on a real live handset. [Jeff SharkeyJ

It is no secret that NASA is looking to the past to help us go back to the moon and, eventually, to Mars. Today NASA revealed that scientists working on the Orion crew module visited the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum Garber Facility in Suitland, Md. over the summer to unpack Apollo heat shields for the first time in 35 years.

"We started working together at the end of June to track down any Apollo-era heat shields that they had in storage," said Elizabeth (Betsy) Pugel of the Detector Systems Branch at NASA Goddard. "We located one and opened it. It was like a nerd Christmas for us!"

Specifically, the team is hoping to gather information on how to build next gen shields by examining the design of the carrier structure that connected the shield to an Apollo capsule that flew in Low Earth Orbit. They are also interested in the shields thermal response.

Honestly, every time I watch a documentary, read an article or visit a museum dealing with early spaceflight I am reminded of how brilliant the engineers behind these accomplishments really were. This is yet another example. [NASA and Science Daily]

Yes, my friends, it looks like the death spasms are might be kicking in for Circuit City—it's definitely twitching in any case. Fresh off losing $239 million and watching its stock plunge below 50 cents a share, a firm that advises on manufacturers on whether or not to ship their wares to retailers has just yanked its recommendation for Circuit City. In other words, they don't think Circuit City can pay for the merch. It may very well be seeing CompUSA in retailer heaven soon (before being re-animated like a zombie). [WaPo via Consumerist]

Given the recent rumors about a "revolutionary" new manufacturing process from Apple involving water jet-cut aluminum for new MacBooks, it seemed appropriate to discuss a new product coming out of the 2008 Fabtech International & AWS Welding show. The FLOW is a 6-axis system that perform full 3D water cutting without a bulky gantry holding it back. Instead, the entire system runs off a flexible robotic arm for more precision work (although its accuracy has been described as "mid range"). Either way, it looks like the FLOW 6 will be used to fabricate some awesome stuff down the line. [AVING via Slashgear]

According to a leaked memo obtained by Mobile Tech Addicts, UK based cellphone carrier Orange have pulled the BlackBerry Bold off of their shelves temporarily citing quality issues with the device. What specific issues they are referring to are unknown, but Orange claims they are awaiting solutions from RIM and plan to have the device back on shelves in "a couple of weeks." As you probably already know, the US debut of the Bold has been pushed back repeatedly—perhaps these issues have something to do with the delay over here as well. [Mobile Tech Addicts via Mobility Today]

Next month will apparently be a busy one for RIM. Besides launching its first ever touchscreen phone, the Storm, they'll be pushing out their all-new Curve 8900 on T-Mobile Germany, says the carrier's site. Formerly known by the codename Javelin, it brings the Bold's design and updated, slicker OS down to a smaller form factor. Unfortunately, it doesn't carry over 3G, but it will definitely be cheaper. Expect it everywhere else shortly thereafter, since it's unlikely to be plagued by the same certification issues that the Bold has been wrestling with. [T-Mobile.De via BGR]

Given the focus on "greenness" and energy efficiency these days, you have probably been bombarded with messages about tossing out your old incandescent bulbs for CFLs. It is definitely an easy way to save a few bucks on your electric bill, but in many cases there can be a trade-off in light quality. This has become less of an issue in recent years, but I'm sure it still keeps people on the fence about switching. But what about you? Have you made the switch?

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[Ecosaber Shirt]