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Virgin America formally launches: Last week, Virgin America offered free Wi-Fi on its single Internet-equipped aircraft, My Other Ride's a Spaceship. Today, the service goes commercial ($10 for flights 3 hours or shorter; $13 for longer flights), and the rollout to other planes begins. Virgin has a special URL--http://wifitracker.virginamerica.com/--that takes you to a tracking page showing which flights in progress have Wi-Fi, but they don't yet tell you how to determine whether a given flight you'll be on will offer the service. With 24 planes and a plan to add service one per week, that shouldn't be a problem for long.

Heathrow Airport Coach Link adds Internet service: Icomera, a leading transportation Wi-Fi firm, has added free Wi-Fi to FirstGroup's RailAir coach service that connects Heathrow Airport with Reading in England. RailAir runs every 20 minutes for a 50-minute route. FirstGroup handles 3 million passengers a day across all its routes, which makes it a plum market for future expansion.

Awareness Technologies adds Wi-Fi positioning for laptop recovery: Awareness is the latest firm to partner with Skyhook Wireless to use Wi-Fi positioning to its products, in this case Laptop Cop, software designed to aid in recovery. The software starts at $50 for a 1-year license, with discounts for quantity.

Watching video through virtual-reality goggles of a mannequin's body while you look down at your own can trick your brain into believing the mannequin's body is yours. Swedish neuroscientists find that threatening the mannequin's body with a knife caused a physiological response in the person watching the video, indicating they have taken psychological ownership of the other body.

The White House censored her subversive Christmas tree ornament -- only to spread its anti-Bush cheer.

This year has seen several young companies--including Orbius--offering to harness the power of social networking for business.

It wasn't a Merry Christmas A few years ago while visiting friends in Germany, we made a trek to Verdun, France. As an American, I had no clue as to what was there other than it was an old city dating to the (Pre)- Roman era.
I was shocked and humbled to what I saw. The greatest battle (possibly in the history of modern warfare) was at the very place I was walking.
At the Douaumont Ossuaire, we video taped our tramping about. Below the bldg, there are windows that peer into...what to call it? A giant room filled to the top with bones and skulls. I taped for a few minutes and then felt an overwhelming sense of sadness. I was looking at 130,000+ forgotten warriors. I shut of the camera and destoyed the tape. This month, please take a moment to remember the fallen. My respect to those who died. As an American. Previosly.