california

Live streaming penguins. Need I say more? This article could easily have stopped at those first three words and you would have gotten the idea.

The free Pocket Penguins app from the California Academy of Sciences offers three different live video views on the academy's endangered African penguin exhibit. The app is free and is available for both Android and iPhone.

The sleekly feathered little birdies romp, swim, nest, snooze, and paddle right up to the camera. Choose from the main view, underwater camera, or the biologist's-view Webcam.

The penguins are adorable at any time of the day, but the action really gets hopping during feeding times at 10:30 a.m. and 3 p.m. PT. The live audio presentation, chatter from the penguin feeder, and penguin eating frenzy make for riveting viewing. … Read more

Amazon.com said today that it's reluctantly severing ties with affiliates in California, a move that it hopes will let it continue shipping products to state residents without collecting sales taxes.

But a little-noticed clause in the legislation that Gov. Jerry Brown, a Democrat, signed into law today gives California tax collectors a second, albeit legally untested, cudgel to use against the Seattle-based company. The law takes effect immediately.

The measure says that any retailer who "through a subsidiary" has any "place of business" in California must collect sales taxes. And--surprise!--Amazon has two subsidiaries … Read more

California's rebate program for electric and hybrid cars has run out of money for this fiscal year.

The Clean Vehicle Rebate Project has been offering California residents who purchase an electric or hybrid vehicle a rebate of $1,500 to $5,000, depending on the type of vehicle purchased.

The state budget had allocated $5 million for the program for the 2010-2011 fiscal year with an additional $2 million coming from the state's Energy Commission. However, as with the federal Cash for Clunkers program, citizens responded much more enthusiastically than anticipated.… Read more

The U.S. Supreme Court today reaffirmed the principle that the First Amendment protects free speech in the digital age, rejecting a 2005 California law that severely restricted the sale of "violent" video games to minors.

The statute had been blocked from taking effect by lower court rulings in suits brought by industry representatives. Following today's decision by a 7-2 majority of the court (PDF), the law is now a dead letter.

The decision was highly anticipated, and the result entirely expected.

The decision in Brown v. EMA is the second in as many weeks from the … Read more

In a ringing endorsement of free speech and new technology, the U.S. Supreme Court this morning struck down a California law that restricts the sale or rental of violent video games to minors.

"Even where the protection of children is the object, the constitutional limits on governmental action apply," Justice Antonin Scalia wrote in the majority opinion (PDF). The ruling was 7-2.

The Supreme Court's ruling unambiguously reaffirms that video games, which have become increasingly complex and in some cases more expensive to produce than movies, also qualify for full First Amendment protection.

Scalia noted that … Read more

Facebook users can lean on a new app to help them fight spam and malware.

Designed by a team of students at the University of California at Riverside, MyPageKeeper is a free Facebook app that continually monitors wall posts and news feeds for malicious content. If the app suspects that any content may contain spam or malware, it alerts you and gives you the ability to remove it.

Beyond protecting your own Facebook account, it can also protect the accounts of friends who may get infected by viruses or hit by spam just by viewing your page.

The app was … Read more

Zeta Communities broke ground yesterday on a net-zero housing development in Stockton, Calif., the company announced.

The housing community, which will consist of 22 units, is being developed by the nonprofit group Visionary Home Builders of California.

Zeta Communities is known for its affordable, green prefab homes that are constructed using sustainable or recyclable materials at its factory in Sacramento, Calif. Building 90 percent of a home in the factory will cut construction time by 70 percent, according to Zeta.

In the case of the so-called Tierra del Sol community planned for Stockton, the Zeta prefab homes will be 1,… Read more

I'm not sure the kids are going to like this.

At least not the kids in California. For it seems the California Senate has, with a show of hands that left none hanging, decided to add sexting to the list of bad behavior for which a student can be expelled from school.

In a move that seemed designed to avoid too much naked publicity, the Associated Press reported that the Senate passed a bill Tuesday that specifically cited sexting and defined it as "the sending or receiving of sexually explicit pictures or video images by means of an … Read more

Tesla Motors and Electric Power Research Institute join U.S. Department of Energy, automaker research teams and energy companies to accelerate the development of new energy-efficient technologies for cars and light trucks and the infrastructure needed to support them.

According to the DOE, the collaborative effort formerly known as FreedomCAR and Fuel Partnership, is now U.S. DRIVE--Driving Research and Innovation for Vehicle efficiency and Energy sustainability. The goal is to beef up research and development of not only new vehicle technologies, but to also work on a broad range of energy infrastructure technologies.

"Government-industry partnerships like U.… Read more