Check these vids out: Hot models in bikinis that you can win a date with!Only on OctaneTV

Spy Hunter writes "Photosynth has graduated from a 'tech preview' to a complete service. Now you can upload your own photos and have them automatically transformed into a 'synth': a 3D fly-through reconstruction of your home, your vacation, or anything else you can take pictures of. Learn more about Photosynth at the official blog, see what Walt Mossberg has to say about it, or just go try it out right now." According to Mossberg, Photosynth works on PCs using IE or Firefox, but not yet on Macs. We've been discussing Photosynth since its introduction.

New Episodes of Your Favorite TVShows Added Daily. Watch for Free!

iminplaya sends along a New Scientist article that begins: "One of the driest deserts in the world, the Saharan Tenere Desert, hosted at least two flourishing lakeside populations during the Stone Age, a discovery of the largest graveyard from the era reveals. The archaeological site in Niger [is] called Gobero... It had been used as a burial site by two very different populations during the millennia when the Sahara was lush... 'The first people who used the Gobero cemetery were Kiffian, hunter-gatherers who grew up to two meters tall,' says Elena Garcea of the University of Cassino in Italy and one of the scientists on the team. The large stature of the Kiffian suggests that food was plentiful during their time in Gobero, 10,000 to 8,000 years ago... All traces of the Kiffian vanish abruptly around 8,000 years ago, when the Sahara became very dry for a thousand years. When the rains returned, a different population, the Tenerians, who were of a shorter and more gracile build, based themselves at this site... 'The most amazing find so far is a grave with a female and two children hugging each other. They were carefully arranged in this position. This strongly indicated they had spiritual beliefs and cared for their dead,' says Garcea." The research article is at PLoS One.

Drunk fan videos, hilarious sports recaps, and sports spoofs...

The Washington Post has a story on "Minority Report"-style license-plate scanners that mount on police cars. They are the size of softballs, cost $25K, and can scan and run thousands of plates a day through the local Motor Vehicle Administration database. The easy mission creep these devices encourage is summarized in the article: "Initially purchased to find stolen cars, a handful of so-called tag readers are in use across the Washington region to catch not just car thieves, but also drivers who neglected or failed their emissions inspections or let their insurance policies lapse. The District and Prince George's County use them to enforce parking rules... 'I just think it makes us a lot more effective and a lot more efficient in how our time is being used,' [a senior detective] said." The article doesn't mention what happens to the data on legal plates. Suppose the DHS decides it wants a permanent archive of who was where, when?

Watch the Karate Kid Online Free. Exclusively on Crackle.

Hugh Pickens writes "With the Olympics due to start in less than three weeks, Beijing is cranking up antipollution measures by yanking cars off the roads, expanding mass transit and staggering work hours in a bid to meet its pledge of a 'green' Olympics. Beijing has gone on a spending spree, relocating factories, seeding clouds, retiring old vehicles, planting millions of trees and halting building construction amid concerns that athletes and visitors could suffer breathing problems. For the next two months, owners of 3.3 million private cars can drive only on alternate days in China's capital, based on whether the last digit of their license plates is even or odd. Environmental and sports performance experts have cast doubt on the effectiveness of the measures taken so far. 'Arguably these are all short-term measures, just designed to control air quality for the time when the Olympics are on,' says Dr Andy Jones. Dr Angus Hunter warned that athletes are at risk for low performance if the air quality cannot be brought down to acceptable levels. 'Average times could be lower and the chances of records being broken become less. It's a bit like trying to exercise in a room when the gym is full of smokers.'"

Scott Jaschik writes "At Hunter College, professors are debating the ethics of a course in which an industry group paid for a class to develop a fake student who would write a fake blog to discourage other students from buying knockoff products. The controversy involves both commercial interference with academic freedom and the ethics of 'guerilla marketing.'"

A 20 year old accused of attending a jihad training course in Scotland says that he is innocent. In fact he says he spent his time hunting for the Loch Ness Monster. This reminds me of the time Bigfoot ate my rent check.

GameDaily reports that Sony has had a lot of success with the PSP Slim in Japan, with sales of over a million units since its launch in September of this year. That's more units sold than the original PSP did in its several-year-long lifespan. "Titles such as Crisis Core: Final Fantasy VII and Monster Hunter in particular have helped boost Sony's portable in Japan. Sony is maintaining a sales forecast of 10 million units worldwide by the end of its fiscal year next March. The portable sector is still dominated by the Nintendo DS, however. Nintendo is aiming to sell 28 million units of its handheld by the end of its fiscal year."

1up is reporting on comments made by Sony's Kaz Hirai to the Japanese magazine Famitsu. Hirai states that he personally is still not completely satisfied with the way Sony's ambitious Home project is shaping up. He also talks about the loss of the Monster Hunter franchise to the Wii, the lack of backwards compatibility in the newest version of the PS3, and other weighty holiday issues. "If anything, we believe the delay would have a positive effect. I personally am not satisfied with the current version of Home. This is a very big project for the PS3 and we want to make sure that we deliver to our hearts content. We hope everyone will look forward to its spring release next year."

"PC Gaming is dying," the analysts tell us. "The Massive genre is the only viable business model left," websites report. That they're off the mark is obvious to anyone that's actually played a PC game in the last few years; games like Sam and Max , Battlefield 2 , or any of the numerous puzzle titles available online prove the flexibility and strength of the PC platform. Then, every once in a while, you get an offering like the Orange Box. A value-packed storm of content from Valve, this single sku offers five complete games at an amazing price. That would be great, even if the games weren't any good ... but they are. They're very, very, very good. Read on for my impressions of Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Team Fortress 2, and (the cake is a lie) Portal.

Several pieces of Mass Effect information have come up recently. Eurogamer had the chance to get some hands-on time with the title and speak to BioWare's Greg Zeschuk. " When we started Mass Effect's development, we decided to do a big space epic, we went away and wrote the story, and we just felt it fitted better as installments. But a key thing for us is, we never want to make a game where the end of part one doesn't feel like the end. That's not to say we'll never have any kind of cliffhanger, but you've got to be satisfied with the ending." For more of a sense of the game, check out a video exclusive over at MTV: a tense confrontation between the protagonist and the bounty hunter Wrex. Finally, if you're the type to like extras, they've finally released details of what's going to be in the Limted Edition.

AGE-BIRTH DATE-LOCATION - 65; born Nov. 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pa. EXPERIENCE - U.S. senator, 1972-present; New Castle County Council, 1970-72; sought presidential nomination, 1988 ...

WASHINGTON - Barack Obama told everyone he wanted a running mate who will challenge his thinking, and now he's got one. Joe Biden's tendency to speak his own mind - and speak and ...

Nov. 20, 1942 -- Born in Scranton, Pa., the first of four children. Summer 1953 -- Moves to Claymont, Del. Sept. 1957 -- Attends Archmere Academy in Claymont, a Catholic prep ...

Nov. 20, 1942 - Born in Scranton, Pa., the first of four children. Summer 1953 - Moves to Claymont, Del. Sept. 1957 - Attends Archmere Academy in Claymont, a Catholic prep school ...

WASHINGTON (CBS) ― The chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and former presidential candidate is one of the most influential foreign policy voices in Congress. Joe ...

Nov. 20, 1942 — Born in Scranton, Pennsylvania, the first of four children. Summer 1953 — Moves to Claymont, Delaware. Sept. 1957 — Attends Archmere Academy in Claymont, a ...

AGE-BIRTH DATE-LOCATION — 65; born Nov. 20, 1942 in Scranton, Pa. EXPERIENCE — U.S. senator, 1972-present; New Castle County Council, 1970-72; sought presidential nomination ...

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Barack Obama has chosen Delaware Sen. Joe Biden to be his running mate, reports CNN . Biden , 65, is chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations ...

Name: Joseph Robinette Biden Age: 65 Experience: U.S. senator, 1972-present; New Castle County Council, 1970-72; sought presidential nomination, 1988, 2008. Education: Bachelor's ...

Joe Biden, Barack Obama's vice presidential nominee, began his career in the Senate in 1972. Joe Biden is a foreign policy guru with 35 years in the Senate, providing a sense of ...