Apparently the Body of Evidence in Florida Stops at the Neck [Crime]

The strapping young lad you see here is 41-year-old Sunday school teacher Danny Parker—er, ex-Sunday school teacher since he was caught in '09 Photoshopping the heads of his students into porn scenes. But hey, according to a Florida appeals court, at least it's not a felony!

No, really. According to a ruling by a Second District Court of Appeal, "The crudely constructed depictions, fortunately, leave no doubt that no child engaged in the sexual conduct...Accordingly, we cannot conclude that Mr. Parker possessed child pornography. The legislature's words constrain us." And given the overturned sentence, Mr. Parker will likely be released from custody.

I guess intent doesn't count? Either way, if you wanna get pervy in Florida with pictures of your young charges, it's totally cool—just don't make your...*eherm* aides...too realistic. [Lakeland Register via Miami Times News]

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The World's Highest Webcam Is Shooting Mt. Everest As We Speak [Cameras]

Hoping to gain insight into climate change, international researchers, with the help of surveillance experts Mobotix, have installed a solar-powered webcam in the Nepalese Himalayas to capture images of the top of Mount Everest. That's right. Mountains are shooting movies now.

The webcam is powered by solar cells and is situated on the Kala Patthar mountain at a height of 18,514 feet, as it gives one of the best vantage points of Everest in the world. Thankfully not of its "Death Zone", though. While enduring sub-zero temperatures and high winds, the camera will stream images between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. Nepalese time down to the Ev-K2-CNR Pyramid Laboratory/Observatory nearly 2,000 feet below. From there, the photos will be sent back to Italy for further study. But you can keep up with the stream here.

The hope is that the camera feed will work in conjunction with Everest's very own weather station to give clues about global climate change. But if you want to see real-time images of Mt. Everest without having to go there, well, that's fine, too. [Ev-K2-CNR via Gizmag]

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Deadly Progression of ALS Reversed in an Amazing Stem Cell First [Science]

Last May, 39-year-old Ted Herada was diagnosed with ALS, also known as Lou Gehrig's disease. It's one of the worst diagnoses anyone could get.

He and his doctors expected his health to have severely declined by now. But thanks to an experimental stem cell treatment, he has tossed his cane and is once again playing in the pool with his three kids.

"Every day is a good day for me right now," Herada told me. "I've made some quantum leaps after the surgery and... I'm maintaining the drastic improvements I've made."

The prognosis for ALS is likely death in fewer than three years after gradually losing your ability to move, speak and breathe. Herada got exactly that horrible news after losing strength in his left leg and feeling short of breath after just a few stairs or walking to the mailbox. His hands became too weak to open a Ziploc bag.

Then his neurologist told him about an experiment at Emory University that was recruiting ALS patients to test a stem cell treatment.

The surgeons told Herada that injecting the stem cells into his spine likely would not help him personally, and might even cause harm. But the study would hopefully help scientists find an effective treatment in the future. Herada had nothing to lose and expected nothing - he became study subject number 11 and underwent surgery on March 9.

It's incredibly moving to hear Herada talk about his recovery, which he knows might be temporary.

"I've always been the kind of dad to wrestle on the floor with my kids and tickle them and make them giggle, and that was going away before," Herada told me. "Now when we get in the pool and they want to play Marco Polo, I can do that."

The Emory surgeons injected 1 million neural stem cells into 10 locations in Herada's and 11 other patients' spines. All of the cells came from a single voluntarily aborted and donated two-month-old fetus. Using technology developed by Neuralstem, scientists multiplied the cells and created enough of them to treat all of the patients in this trial and beyond.

"We took one small part of the spinal cord and isolated one million stem cells which are now going to, we hope, treat millions of people around the world," Dr. Carl Johe, chief scientific officer at Neuralstem told me.

Going into the study, expectations were low. As a safety precaution, the FDA forced the researchers to inject only one-quarter the number of stem cells they originally planned to use. The investigators hoped to show the cells were safe to use, but anticipated little more.

Two of the 12 patients died during the trial, one after a heart attack and another because of progress of his ALS. The other eight patients' conditions have remain unchanged.

The researchers hope the Food and Drug Administration will approve the second phase of clinical trials with five more patients and with the goal of proving the treatment works. Neuralstem is also awaiting approval to begin the first phase of a fetal stem cell trial in chronic spinal cord patients.

Unregulated stem cell outlets, such as the one promoted by Republican presidential candidate Rick Perry, claim success treating ALS and just about every other disease you can imagine. But they haven't gone through the painstaking methodology required to run an FDA-approved human clinical trial, which demands reams of data with the goal of assuring safety and eventually proving efficacy. Such trials can also help convince insurance agencies to cover the treatments. Otherwise, rogue outlets will continue charge up to 10s of thousands of dollars for treatments.

"We go through the FDA process, which is excruciatingly slow, but we do that because it's what the law says we have to do," Johe said.

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The Behind the Scenes Story of the Nike Air Mag, the McFly Jacket and More [Video]

The Nike Air Mag auction has wrapped up and has raised $5.6 million for the Michael J. Fox Foundation for Parkinson's Research ($11.2 if you count Sergey Brin's contributions). It was an absolutely worthy cause for the iconic shoe.

In all, there were over 38,000 bids on eBay with the cheapest pair being sold for $2,300 (a Size 7) and the most expensive pair being sold for $9,959 (size 10). Other pairs sold for more in different auction settings. Sneaker News has the full recap of the auction and it's a really great source for number nerds.

Also, Nike recently released the full story of the Nike Air Mag and as I'm still absolutely in love with the shoe, I can't stop watching and reading any new material about them. And I'm still learning new stuff! Like I didn't know one version of the "power laces" in BTTF 2 actually had holes in the sole so someone could pull down the laces underneath the street (the magic of the movies!). They've also released videos about the auto-resizing, auto-drying "McFly" jacket too (which I didn't know Nike had a hand in making). Watch them all.

I really hope they come out with a 2015 version. I also really hope I can afford to buy it by then. [Nike, Sneaker News]

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Displace Keebler Elves and Squirrels with the iTree iPhone Dock [IPhone]

Nothing says rugged outdoorsman like a hollowed out tree trunk with an iPhone connected to it. That's not actually true. But the iTree iPhone/iPod dock would fit perfectly in a ski lodge, cabin, or Ewok dance club.

Created by KMKG studios, each iTree is custom built using trees from the forests of Austria and is expertly hollowed out to produce optimal sound. Customers can choose the wood, length, and the technology they want included in their dock. If you're a jet setter and you can swing a trip to Austria, you can even pick the tree. Be sure to bring your favorite arborist because each iTree costs approximately $15,000.

Hipster Ewok DJs will be happy to learn that they can get a turntable installed into their iTree. Perfect for that post-Empire defeating party with the rebels. [KMKG via Geeky Gadgets]

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Dolphin Browser HD for iPad: The Best iPad Browser Not Named Safari [Video]

Even though Dolphin browser on the iPad is similar to what's already been available on Android and the iPhone, it almost makes more sense on the bigger screen. Also, I think it's my most favoritest iPad browser right now.

It's a web browser that's been on Android forever and a half ago and was recently released to the iPhone. And it's pretty much the same thing as the phone version—tabbed browsing, porn mode, full screen browsing, gestures that can trigger actions and webzines that make websites look prettier (or at least more Flipboard-esque). Even loaded with all those features though, my favorite thing about Dolphin is the sidebar bookmarks—I just find it a lot more convenient to use.

Here's where I explain why I really like the sidebars that hide "beneath" the browser. I usually hold my iPad in portrait mode where I have my two hands on the two bottom corners. When I want to go to one of my favorite pages in Safari, I have to move my hand, run it all the way to the top of the iPad's 9.7 inch screen and hope my fat fingers can tap 'giz' to load Gizmodo. It usually doesn't and I try again. To put it bluntly, it's a freaking pain in the ass. It's not the magic the iPad promised! And though the Dolphin browser ain't Copperfield, it's close. I just side swipe to reveal the side bar favorites, tap the favorite site I want to go to and watch it load. No hand movement necessary. Now that's what I'm talking about!

Also, I like "privacy mode".

Dolphin Browser HD

Download this app for:

The Best

Webzines!

The Worst

Gestures are sort of silly

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Everyone Can Now Sign Up for Spotify [Spotify]

According to Tech Crunch, Spotify registrations is now open to all, with the first six months of the service being free and unlimited. Presumably by free, they're referring to the freemium service being offered without limitations. [TechCrunch]

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