Depending on whom you ask, either ice-fiends are suckers who pay for frozen water or ice-avoiders are cheapskates with a perverse attachment to warm fountain syrup. To settle this once and for all, we went to a local cineplex and bought three Cokes with varying amounts of cubes at 4 smackaroos each. Then we broke out our thermometers and measuring cups. The cold, hard data says it all. .headerDivOuter {width:250px;clear:both;float:left;margin-right:12px;} .headerDiv {padding:6px;color:#fff;background-color:#000} .headerDiv2 {color:#A3A3A3} .nImg {clear:left;display:block;float:left;margin-right:12px;margin-bottom:18px;} .nTable {width:300px;} .nTable td {border-bottom:solid 2px #000;padding-top:4px;padding-bottom:4px;} .n_cont {margin-bottom:26px;} No Ice, Please Temperature 40&deg; F Volume of Liquid 31 oz Cost per Degree of Chilling N/A Total Cost for Cold 0&#162; Verdict Not fridge-frosty, but at 40 degrees you can't call it tepid. Easy On The Cubes. Temperature 36&deg; F Volume of Liquid 28 oz Cost per Degree of Chilling 9.8&#162; Total Cost for Cold 39&#162; Verdict Sacrifice just 3 ounces of fizzy corn syrup for a nice, nippy temp. Sweet. Ice,...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=wyS5pX"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=wyS5pX" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414451081" height="1" width="1"/>

My first full day with the iPhone 3G turned out to be too full. At least as far as the iPhone was concerned. It was just two in the afternoon when the screen displayed the most unwelcome dialog box in mobile computing: low battery: 20% of battery remaining. In my experience, that message's real meaning is make your last call NOW, because the lights are going out soon. Though it didn't happen instantly, within a few minutes that gorgeous screen looked like the closing shot of the The Sopranos finale. I had been enjoying the iPhone 3G. The out-of-the-box price was right &mdash; as low as $200, with a two-year contract &mdash; if you qualify for the subsidy from AT&amp;T. It was slimmer and sleeker than its predecessor. It had real GPS. And, addressing my biggest problem with the original iPhone, data loaded much faster when a 3G network was available. Most of all, I was itching to try out loads of the intriguing applications from the iTunes App Store, about a dozen of which I'd already downloaded. But there's no joy in a juiceless phone. How bad is the problem? No way around it &mdash; 3G cellular chips eat energy. But Apple's Bob Borchers contends that the iPhone team succeeded in extending battery life to an acceptable level. There's evidence to back this up: The iPhone does best its 3G rivals when it comes to run time. Nonetheless, battery life is more of a challenge for the iPhone than for its competitors, because Apple's multitouch darling entices you to actually...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=v3IayB"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=v3IayB" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414451082" height="1" width="1"/>

1582: Nobody does anything, anything at all. In fact, nobody does anything whatsoever between Oct. 4 and Oct. 15, 1582, because the 10 intervening days have simply been declared out of existence by the pope. (This offer may not apply outside Italy, Spain and Portugal.) Where did those days go? By the mid-1570s, the Julian Calendar established in 45 B.C. was 10 days behind the real seasons of the year. The spring equinox was actually occurring on March 12 or thereabouts, and Easter (set by a formula based on an arbitrary March 22 equinox date) was falling too late in the real springtime. All this happened because the Earth year is about 11 minutes short of the 365&#188; days set by Julius Caesar. It's really 365 days, 5 hours, 48 minutes, 46 seconds. If the drift kept up, Easter would eventually have been observed in the summer, and Christmas in the spring. So Pope Gregory XIII appointed a commission to tweak the Julian Calendar. Under the leadership of physician Aloysius Lilius and Jesuit astronomer Christopher Clavius, the commission consulted with scientists and clergy. After wrestling with various ideas for half a decade, the commission proposed eliminating three leap years in every 400 (years ending in 00, unless they are divisible by 400). That would prevent further creep of the calendar against the seasons (except for a minuscule under-correction). But resetting the calendar so the equinox would come in late March needed a more drastic solution: 10...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=IwJwzH"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=IwJwzH" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414451084" height="1" width="1"/>

: Image: Mihai Panaitescu Space is vast, and so is the fantasy fleet of futuristic vessels that could be used to survey galaxies and engage in interstellar battles. Typically left to the imaginations of writers and moviemakers, concept ships are being dreamed up by designers and illustrators with a taste for science fiction's endless possibilities. Found on conceptships.org, a website run by Igor Tkac, these nine wildly inventive vehicles supplement Wired.com's earlier gallery of sci-fi-inspired concept ships. Left: Car designer Mihai Panaitescu cranked out this spiky, metallic craft with a futuristic pirate ship in mind. Part of a larger fleet, its inhabitants would be rogue scavengers, scouring remote planets for valuable materials like energy resources and selling them for profit. Built from junkyard parts, the ship would be able to swiftly divide in half for ease of travel -- and quick getaways. "I do these images for relaxation between vehicle projects," said Panaitescu. "I always admired concept artists and their freedom of thought, freedom which is usually restrained in a car design studio." See more of Panaitescu's work. : Image: Gonzalo Golpe Freelance designer Gonzalo Golpe imagined this subterranean craft navigating deep within Earth's oceans as an underwater exploration vehicle that could be deployed in the event of an emergency. Golpe envisioned his craft being made of sustainable materials and possibly salvaged parts. See more of...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=9Kk5dr"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=9Kk5dr" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414451086" height="1" width="1"/>

As the Guys Who Can't Stop Talking About Warcraft Party candidate for president of the United States, I am subject to irksome levels of scrutiny. My critics say I have not been properly vetted. Even though most of them think "vetted" means "examined by an animal doctor," I feel it's important to answer their charges so that you, America, know who I am, what I stand for and where I bathe. It is true that I have been cordial with a former domestic terrorist and political radical. I was 8 years old when he committed his crimes, and so was he. My contact with him was limited to working together on the school play, the occasional game of four square and admiring his Evel Knievel wind-up stunt bike. I did not know that he was plotting attacks on the Pentagon and Toys 'R' Us in his spare time, and I still don't. I'm like a goldfish that way; I turn around and, whoop, it's a blank slate. Alt Text Podcast Download audio files and subscribe to the Alt Text podcast. It is true that my youngest child is not mine, and is in fact my daughter's. Actually, none of my supposed children are mine. They're all my daughter's, including those older than her. And herself. She's a naughty girl. It is true that I was involved in a bribery scandal. However, I have been exonerated twice: I have been exonerated of the original crime, and then exonerated of bribing the panel that exonerated me. Charges that I bribed the second panel to exonerate me of bribing the first panel to exonerate...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=Sw6CHJ"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=Sw6CHJ" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414451087" height="1" width="1"/>

In Palm Beach County, the results in a race for county judge have flipped twice, as thousands of ballots have been lost and found, while vote tabulation machines spit out different results on every recount. With November around the corner, voting advocates worry that the Sunshine State may wind up at the center of a new presidential election fiasco. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=6j2TkR"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=6j2TkR" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414341327" height="1" width="1"/>

America is becoming so lousy at building spy satellites that "the United States is losing its preeminence in space," a Congressional intelligence report declares. What's worse, the decline comes as "emerging space powers such as Russia, India and China" are getting better and better at snooping from above. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=LZrAhT"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=LZrAhT" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414275487" height="1" width="1"/>

IBM Almaden researchers are adding their research projects to the iPhone App Store in a bid to bring them to real world users. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=cDTLp0"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=cDTLp0" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414295617" height="1" width="1"/>

Mozilla has released a new add-on for Firefox called Geode. The plug-in, which is now available to beta testers, will make the browser more location-aware, adding greater relevancy to local search and other location-based web services. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=pugZXN"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=pugZXN" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414234859" height="1" width="1"/>

A new report from the United Nations lays much of the blame for rising fuel costs on biofuels, but the data in the report do not support that assertion. Biofuel production is just one factor among many and does not account for the majority of the cost increases. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=qwiTtK"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=qwiTtK" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414245448" height="1" width="1"/>

So you forgot to record the debates and you're afraid you'll look stupid around the watercooler tomorrow. Here's a solution: Set up your home computer's BitTorrent client for remote control. Set it to download the video from work and it will be waiting for you when you get back. We'll show you how. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=jayXo6"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=jayXo6" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414266245" height="1" width="1"/>

Both the campaigns of John McCain and Barack Obama are calling on the Commission on Presidential Debates to use internet technology to open up the general election debate formats to better reflect the questions on the minds of the electorate. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=C77jke"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=C77jke" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414275488" height="1" width="1"/>

Searching for terrorists in masses of electronic data doesn't work and will lead to unacceptable privacy invasions, a government-funded commission reported Tuesday. Instead, the government should carefully evaluate how it uses the same technology as book recommendation software, and update the nation's privacy laws. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=PPZyid"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=PPZyid" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414275489" height="1" width="1"/>

Sega's blazing-fast mascot makes an unlikely comeback in BioWare's new role-playing game for Nintendo DS. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=hpxIoZ"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=hpxIoZ" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414253573" height="1" width="1"/>

Mozilla is planning to release a new add-on for Firefox called Geode. The add-on, which will be made available to beta testers Tuesday, will make the browser more location-aware, adding greater relevancy to local search and other location-based web services. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=IEOTfI"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=IEOTfI" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414080204" height="1" width="1"/>

A new experimental feature for Google's free e-mail service forces the user to stop and answer simple math questions before sending after-hours messages on Friday and Saturday nights. Curbing your drinking, however, is still up to you. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=66bP52"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=66bP52" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414052052" height="1" width="1"/>

Oh Lord, have mercy, we've seen a lot of netbooks this year: Everything from the good to the bad to the downright confusing. But Lenovo seems to have gotten the precarious balance of price, power and features measured out just right in its newest S10. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=taWsnb"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=taWsnb" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414168610" height="1" width="1"/>

The Army says it wants to build what could be the world's most powerful solar power plant, as part of a far-reaching effort to cut back on the service's dependence on fossil fuels. But the military has broken its green promises before. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=qeJtgn"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=qeJtgn" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414052065" height="1" width="1"/>

Who should win the Nobel Prize in chemistry? Cast your vote on the Wired.com Science blog. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=8XQ1v5"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=8XQ1v5" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414099271" height="1" width="1"/>

The Nobel Prize committee went off the board yesterday, awarding -- despite Wired Science readers' clear preference for graphene's discoverers -- the prize in physics to three theoretical physicists whose work has illuminated the nature of matter. We didn't see that coming, but now we ask: did the Nobel Prize committee get it right? <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=fwHNkv"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=fwHNkv" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413933436" height="1" width="1"/>

Licensing songs to commercials, videogames and even homemade videos could be the next area of music to benefit from the long-tail effect. YouLicense has reduced much of the friction that has been holding this back with its eBay-like market for synchronization licenses. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=pJEZQO"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=pJEZQO" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/414234862" height="1" width="1"/>

Google releases a useful new Gmail feature which could help prevent the intoxicated from sending embarrassing late-night emails they might regret in the morning. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=hXqxna"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=hXqxna" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413868983" height="1" width="1"/>

This newly christened DSi is an obvious member of the DS family, with its stylus and minimalist clamshell design, but Nintendo would seemingly like us to believe that it is a wholly different animal. Well, I guess that depends on how these new features stack up. Let’s take a look, shall we? <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=UAq5B7"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=UAq5B7" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413804320" height="1" width="1"/>

The Sandman author reads from his new book, about a boy who hangs out with dead people, and posts the clips online for free. Gaiman talks about Graveyard in a video interview with Wired.com. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=gIb7Un"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=gIb7Un" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413448831" height="1" width="1"/>

A California company has a billion dollars worth of orders in hand for a new solar product that could soon blanket the tops of flat-roof buildings across the nation. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=frIJO5"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=frIJO5" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413461717" height="1" width="1"/>

1959: The space probe Luna 3 takes the first photographs of the dark side of the moon. The radio-controlled Luna 3 was part of the Soviet Union's highly successful lunar program, which completed 20 missions to the moon between January 1959 and October 1970. Although the United States won the race to land a human on the moon, the Russians achieved a number of their own lunar milestones, including the first flyby (Luna 1), first surface impact (Luna 2), first soft landing (Luna 9) and first lunar orbiter (Luna 10). Luna 3's mission objective was to provide the first photographs from the moon's far side. To achieve this, the probe was equipped with a dual-lens 35mm camera, one a 200mm, f/5.6 aperture, the other a 500mm, f/9.5. The photo sequencing was automatically triggered when Luna 3's photocell detected the sunlit far side, which occurred when the craft was passing about 40,000 miles above the lunar surface. Luna 3's camera took 29 photographs over a 40-minute period, covering roughly 70 percent of the moon's far side. The photographs were developed, fixed and dried by the probe's onboard film processing unit. Seventeen images were successfully scanned and returned to Earth on Oct. 18, when Luna 3 was close enough to begin transmitting. Although the low-resolution images had to be boosted by computer enhancement on Earth, in the end they were good enough to produce a tentative map of the dark side. Among the identifiable features were two seas, named Mare...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=EsZlsg"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=EsZlsg" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413448833" height="1" width="1"/>

: Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com FREMONT, California -- Solar photovoltaics make up a tiny percentage of the world's power largely because they just cost too much. Burning fossil fuels remains cheaper than even the best solar panels. But Solyndra's new thin-film technology could substantially cut the cost of manufacturing and installing solar electricity, perhaps reaching the cost of standard power within a few years. The venture-backed company, which came out of stealth mode today, gave Wired.com access to their new whirring fab, installed in a former hard-drive factory. Most of the equipment was designed in-house by Solyndra's 500 employees with the aid of more than $600 million in venture capital. "We've put a lot of effort into very sophisticated process control," Kelly Truman, VP of business development told Wired.com. "We design and build all the critical equipment in the factory ourselves." Left: Solyndra's solar modules enter the factory as simple glass tubes a few feet long, seen here awaiting a special cleaning process. : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com Designed with automation in mind, the factory's many robots do much of the work in transporting the panels of glass tubes around the floor. : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com The glass tubes are dipped in a series of solutions including coatings of copper indium gallium diselenide, known as CIGS. Here we see finished tubes, which have lost their transparency. : Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com As the panels receive...<br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=Xh6IoU"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=Xh6IoU" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413448834" height="1" width="1"/>

If it wasn't immediately obvious why Comcast forked over a reported $150 million for Plaxo, a social networking site, it may become clearer later this month, when Plaxo officially launches Fan Pages for FanCast, Comcast's online video site. The social features available in beta now let users join fan groups of various TV shows, where they can share episodes and discuss plot developments to their heart's content with fellow obsessives. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=FPzl8x"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=FPzl8x" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413762795" height="1" width="1"/>

A small meteoroid is predicted to burn up in Earth's atmosphere over Sudan tonight. This is the first time astronomers have been able to predict when a meteoroid will enter the atmosphere. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=h5IWLP"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=h5IWLP" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413242347" height="1" width="1"/>

A federal judge seals a decision tentatively blocking RealNetwork's sale of DVD-copying software. <br/> <br/> Wired.com <p><a href="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?a=VqCHIA"><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~a/wired/index?i=VqCHIA" border="0"></img></a></p><img src="http://feeds.wired.com/~r/wired/index/~4/413142636" height="1" width="1"/>