europe

Counterfeiting is as old as money itself, with the history of currency including a millennia-long arms race between mints and the forgers that copy them. While governments have finally crafted paper money so intricate that counterfeiting isn't a major problem, detecting counterfeit coins remains a challenge. Now, Spanish scientists have modified a regular optical computer mouse to create a cheap and easy device for sniffing out phony Euro coins.

The media generally portrays hacker as criminals going after law-abiding computer users, but one Dutch hacker has turned his sights on more fertile prey: other less-skilled, or even aspirational hackers. Like a digital stickup boy, he has remotely kidnapped illegally (according to Apple) jailbroken iPhones in the Netherlands, holding them hostage for five Euros.

Any Mars rover worth its wheels must prove itself capable of navigating safely on Earth, never mind millions of miles away on the red planet. British scientists took a prototype of Europe's ExoMars rover out for a spin around a quarry in Southern England last week.

The rover design by EADS Astrium has two front-mounted navigation cameras and four cameras at each corner to avoid close scrapes. A pair of scientific cameras also provides stereoscopic vision and depth perception, and lends the rover a bit of a WALL-E or Short Circuit appearance. Check out the robot's wanderings below:

Portland is arguably the furthest along of any American city as far as far as bicycle-friendly infrastructure goes (Seattle and Davis are close seconds). But none of them even approaches the level of cultural saturation prevalent in the Netherlands; the grand Mecca of cycle commuting. That is not to imply the American cities' efforts are futile, I mention the disparity only to convey the weight behind a statement this week from the Dutch Cycling Federation calling on the government to mandate the installation of air bags on cars. On the outside.