We can't even imagine what would happen here in the US of A if our government suddenly stopped everyone under the age of 16 from chatting it up on a mobile, but it looks like we just may find out how it goes down overseas when Karnataka, India does just that. Reportedly, its government is going to "ban cellphone use by children less than 16 years on the basis of advice of medical experts," and while specifics weren't divulged, apparently someone up high believes that "prolonged use of [handsets] by teenagers does affect their health" in an adverse way. Additionally, mobile dealers will no longer be allowed to sell handsets to youngsters under 16, and while a hard date for the ban hasn't been announced just yet, notification should be "issued soon."

[Via OnlyGizmos, image courtesy of BBC]

California certainly won't go down as the first place to ban cellphones whilst driving, but if Governor Schwarzenegger signs a new bill into law, mobiles won't be the only thing teens can't operate while behind the wheel after July 1, 2008. The bill, which was overwhelmingly approved by the Assembly, prevents anyone "under the age of 18 from using their cellphone," even with handsfree devices; as if that wasn't enough, any "mobile service device" -- such as "walkie-talkies, pagers, two-way messaging devices, PDAs, and laptops" -- will also be illegal for teens under 18 to use while driving. If signed into law, violators will reportedly be fined "$20 for the first offense, and $50 for subsequent offenses with no violation points on the driver's record."

[Via Textually]

If you didn't see this one coming, we'll just assume the glaring sun had you blinded, as the Sunshine State has apparently had quite enough of the e-voting woes within its borders. Florida Governor Charlie Crist signed into law a bill "requiring that all voting districts in the state replace most touchscreen electronic voting machines with optical scan machines." From day one, the state has been plagued with one mishap after another, and while some touch-screen systems will be maintained for "handicapped voters that require its features to vote unaided," the vast majority of the Direct Recording Electronic (DRE) machines will be nixed in favor of a less hackable flavor. Flinging one last blow of frustration at the e-voting curse, Crist went so far as to suggest that ditching them would allow Floridians to "leave the polling place knowing that their vote had been counted and recorded and can be verified." Of course, we're sure the tax-paying citizens of the state are entirely more focused on the $27.8 million he approved to buy all new optical scan equipment.

It's one thing to sacrifice your freedom to snatch 39 iPods from a retail shelf in an act of desperation fanboyism, but to devote a substantial chunk of square footage in one's ultra-modern home to Apple is an entirely different type of determination. Sure, we've seen various forms of collections before, but this edition features no fewer than 74 Mac computers, posters galore, and a dedicated bar to boot. In total, Jeremy Mehrle of St. Louis, Missouri has 30 classic Macs situated at the bar, 18 different CRT-based iMacs, various PowerMacs, a plethora of iPod paraphernalia, Mac OS boxes spanning years of development, Apple printers, Newtons, a PowerBook 165c, a Next Cube, four Apple IIs, and to top it off, a 20th Anniversary Mac as well -- and that's still leaving quite a few out. Although we can't fathom how much time, loot, and resources it took to essentially construct an Apple museum with a modernized style similar to Apple retail locations today, we can't help but give credit where its due, so here's your props Mr. Mehrle, now make sure your security system is in working order, okay? Click on through for a few more snapshots, and be sure to tag the read link for all the Mac mania you can handle.

[Via ChipChick]

Call us crazy, but we had a sneaking suspicion all along that all these e-voting woes were due to a lack in quality control testing somewhere along the approval line, and now it seems the US government has found its scapegoat. Ciber, Inc., the Colorado-based company responsible for testing a majority of the nation's electronic voting terminals, "has been temporarily barred from approving new machines after federal officials found that it was not following its QC procedures, and moreover, could not document that it was conducting all the required tests." Aside from wondering where the oh-so-critical auditors were during this entire debacle (read: federal scrutiny of the testing began just recently), this brings into question the legitimacy of the votes that were actually placed and counted through the potentially faulty machines, but alas, what's done is (presumably) done. Eager to keep that expectedly gigantic government contract money pouring in, Ciber seems to be on top of the issues at hand, and a spokesperson for the outfit even stated that "the company believed that it had addressed all the problems, and that it expected to receive its initial federal accreditation later this month." We just hope that undercover chess functionality somehow goes unnoticed.

[Via Slashdot]