Government blows heads off to make you think twice about fireworks
It's July 4, and the US Consumer Product Safety Commission wants you to be extra careful while you celebrate.
Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives.
On July 4, we in the US celebrate our independence from the forces of the stiff upper lip.
We let our hair down, eat a lot and then let off explosions.
Perhaps it's not unlike many of our other days, but this one is even more exciting.
We tend to let off a lot of fireworks on this day. However, having let our hair down and eaten (and drunk) a lot, we can be a little cavalier.
So the US Consumer Product Safety Commission released a YouTube video this week, demonstrating how dangerous fireworks are. It's not one for the faint of heart (or head).
Perhaps trying to shock people is the only way the agency felt that it could grab our attention.
The video shows the ways that people can lose limbs and heads if they don't pay attention to safety procedures.
The victims in this video are dummies. They do reflect, however, some of the injuries that can (and, sadly, do) occur in real life.
The last place you want to end up on Independence Day is the ER. So please watch this video and follow its instructions -- even if it seems like nagging
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Solar Impulse breaks record for longest sun-powered flight
By landing safely in Hawaii after a five-day leg, the Swiss plane -- on an around-the-world trip -- also sets the record for longest solo flight by time.
Hawaii always looks good, but perhaps never as good as it looked to pilot André Borschberg, who broke records Friday after landing a completely sun-powered plane after an arduous five-day flight.
"Just landed in #Hawaii with @solarimpulse! For @bertrandpiccard and I, it's a dream coming true," Borschberg tweeted upon landing, referring to Bertrand Piccard, with whom he is piloting the Solar Impulse 2 around the world.
"I feel exhilarated by this extraordinary journey. I have climbed the equivalent altitude of Mount Everest five times without much rest," Borschberg later added in a statement.
The single-seater Solar Impulse 2 landed around 6 a.m. local time (9 a.m. PT) at Hawaii's Kalaeloa Airport after flying nonstop from Nagoya, Japan, according to Solar Impulse's website, which live-streamed the event. It was the eighth of 13 expected legs of the trip around the globe. Borschberg and Piccard, who co-founded the Swiss outfit Solar Impulse, are taking turns piloting the plane.
The 4,000-mile leg -- considered one of the most dangerous because there was no immediate landing zone if the plane ran into trouble -- set a record for the world's longest solar-powered flight both in terms of time and distance. It also was the longest solo flight by time.
But the landing also furthers Solar Impulse's larger mission: to legitimize the possibility of zero-fuel airplanes in the future. While there are no plans to bring a solar-powered airplane to the passenger industry anytime soon, the Solar Impulse 2 presents a possible alternative to fuel-guzzling airplanes. Environmentalists have long panned airplane manufacturers for their products' heavy use of fuel and have called on agencies around the world to seek new ways to power aircraft.
"What André has achieved is extraordinary from the perspective of a pilot, " Piccard said. "But furthermore, he has also led the technical team during the construction of this revolutionary prototype. It is not only a historic first in aviation it is also a historic first for renewable energies."
The Solar Impulse 2 is completely powered by the sun and made of carbon fiber. At 236 feet (72 meters), the aircraft's wingspan is longer than that of the Boeing 747, but slightly shorter than that of the world's largest passenger plane, the Airbus A380.
Despite its size, the Solar Impulse 2 weighs less than 5,070 pounds (2,300 kilograms), or about the same as a pickup truck.
Piccard will fly to Phoenix for the next leg before the mission continues to New York, Europe and Abu Dhabi where it all started.
CNET's Don Reisinger contributed to this report.
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Prince won't stream music 4 U: Artist drops Spotify, Rdio
After Taylor Swift revived a public debate over payments to artists by streaming-music services, Prince is the next high-profile musician to pull his catalog off some Web venues.
The artist known for "1999" is following the playbook of the artist known for "1989."
Prince is pulling a Taylor Swift, asking for his popular catalog of music to be removed from some streaming-music services.
Don't go to Spotify if you're hoping to hear "Raspberry Beret" or "Kiss." The service's page for Prince now lacks any of his music, instead posting the message: "Prince's publisher has asked all streaming services to remove his catalog. We have cooperated with the request and hope to bring his music back as soon as possible."
The vanishing follows a high-profile exchange between Swift and Apple, which launched its first subscription music service Tuesday. Swift warned she would keep her hit "1989" album off the Apple Music because of a royalty complaint: Apple wouldn't be paying artists any royalties during three-month free trials. Later that same day, Apple made an about-face and capitulated on the free-trial terms. It was reminiscent of Swift's high-profile pull-out from Spotify, a rival music subscription service, in November -- but Spotify and Swift never found common ground.
The saga has made Swift the standard bearer for artists disgruntled by how streaming services compensate them for playing their music. Prince has a storied history with technology -- five years ago, he declared the Internet was "dead" -- but he has been less vocal about the rationale behind his latest move.
Last week, Prince tweeted links and quotes from a Daily Beast article that compared Swift's recent campaigns against streaming royalty structures to Prince's decades-long efforts to regain control over the rights to his master recordings.
But that doesn't explain why his publisher, which is a company Prince founded, has asked some services to remove his catalog but may not have asked others. His catalog has been removed from Spotify and Rdio, and was never part of Apple Music, but it remains available on Google Play Music, the subscription service offered by the search giant, and Tidal, the streamer owned by Jay Z and a lineup of other music megastars. Songs of his were still available on YouTube by Warner Bros. Records, his current label.
In addition, Prince released a new track Wednesday on the streaming service SoundCloud. SoundCloud, among all the major streaming sites, has one of the least mature systems for paying artists, as it lacks any listener subscription options and began including limited advertising to generate revenue only in the last year.
Messages left for Prince's representative and his publisher weren't immediately returned.
Representatives for Google Play Music, YouTube, Rhapsody and Tidal didn't immediately respond with confirmations about Prince in their catalogs.
However, Prince can't keep his songs from streaming everywhere. Services like Pandora aren't exposed to the take-down requests from ticked-off artists because they pay royalties through a statutory system, rather than direct deals with labels and publishers. That means companies including Pandora and Sirius XM play any music they like -- which is why they're the only places you can find the Beatles
So why not enjoy a Prince dance party, courtesy of Songza?
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