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Felix Baumgartner's quest to achieve a supersonic parachute jump has run into some legal turbulence.

Energy drinks maker Red Bull, which is sponsoring the effort, said today that it is stopping the program "with immediate effect" pending the outcome of a "multimillion dollar lawsuit" filed earlier this year by a man claiming certain rights to the project.

Working under the auspices of the Red Bull Stratos program, Baumgartner was aiming to be the first person ever to hit supersonic speeds in the atmosphere without the protection of an aircraft around him. The Austria-born daredevil, who … Read more

After 16 years and countless games and appearances, we finally get to play a new side-scrolling Sonic game in Sonic the Hedgehog 4. A direct sequel to Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic 4 propels the franchise into the world of HD gaming but remains loyal to the hard-core fanbase that helped make the franchise so iconic.

Joining us to demo Sonic 4 is Aaron Webber, community manager for the title at Sega. Aaron shares his insight on the game's production, some Sonic trivia, and where the game will go after Episode 1. We'll play through a … Read more

Here's some fodder for discussion at the next Passover seder. Moses might have gotten some serious help from the wind when he parted the Red Sea as chronicled in the Old Testament.

According to a new computer-modeling study, wind patterns at a bend where an ancient river is believed to have merged with a coastal lagoon along the Mediterranean Sea are such that they could have pushed the waters back and created a temporary land crossing.

The researchers at the National Center for Atmospheric Research and the University of Colorado at Boulder made their discovery as part of a larger study of wind's impact on water depths and reported their findings in a recent issue of the online peer-review journal PLoS One. They used archaeological records, satellite measurements, and current maps to reconstruct the likely locations and depths of Nile delta waterways, which have shifted considerably since Moses' time more than 3,000 years ago.

The biblical Exodus account, famously and dramatically presented in the 1956 movie "The Ten Commandments," describes Moses leading the Israelites from slavery in Egypt to eventual safety.

In what is often recounted as a divine miracle, an east wind blows the waters of the Red Sea back, creating a passageway that enables the fleeing Israelities to safely pass through to the other shore. Then, the story goes, the waters engulf and drown Pharoah's pursuing army.

The researchers say this story can possibly be explained by "wind setdown," a phenomenon in which strong offshore winds can temporarily lower water levels in shallow coastal areas.

Using 14 computer models, they found that 63mph winds, lasting for 12 hours, would have pushed back waters estimated to be 6 feet deep. This would have exposed mud flats for 4 hours, creating a dry passage about 2 to 2.5 miles long and 3 miles wide. The water would have been pushed back into a surrounding lake and river channel, creating water barriers on both sides of the exposed mud flats and thus creating a land bridge people could have possibly walked across. … Read more

Sports fans can easily find the live stadium experience to be paradoxically out of touch compared with the instant stats, superior commentary, and HD replays available to home viewers. DVRs, HDTVs, and smartphones can't follow you to the live game. At stadiums, it's hard to get any smartphone to work properly. Streaming radio apps black out live game broadcasts, unless you're using Sirius. As for video, unless you've got some portable TV with an HDTV antenna converter box, you're out of luck.

This is the promise that NFL FanVision offers to a seasoned fan. At first glance, the device--a dedicated ruggedized handheld with a 4.3-inch screen formerly used at Nascar events--looks like a castoff from the early '00s, some idea of a personal media player from the early age of iPods. Purportedly waterproof (though we didn't test it) and boasting a 6-hour battery life for streaming, it's a bit too big to pocket and hangs from a lanyard around one's neck. Sure, it's not nearly as elegant as an iPhone. What it does, however, bears consideration. A live TV feed of the current game (plus audio commentary), multiple viewing angles, instant multi-angle replay after every play, plus live video of other games around the league, the NFL Red Zone channel, and stats...it's compelling for a hard-core fan.

How it works Others might ask, why not just watch the real live game in front of you? That's a valid point, but not for me. I'm a New York Jets fan, and my dad has been one for 45 years. We know the players, and we like to know what's happening down to the fine details. FanVision's audio commentary and stats offer more than what's given via the minimalist PA system and the infrequently updated HD megascreens. And instant replay, the killer app for the home user, is offered up at the press of a button.

Even better, FanVision seems to be set up to be overload-proof. FanVision works via a dedicated local UHF channel that's licensed to broadcast in the stadium and the parking lot area. The device is really a higher-tech TV, one that can receive up to 10 channels of digitally compressed video and stat data and cache highlight videos for replays. Once booted up via a small power button, the device locates the nearby broadcast tower and downloads team-specific data and channel programming. After a few minutes of initialization, the device is up and running. By avoiding Wi-Fi or 3G, FanVision's broadcast concept shouldn't suffer from slowdown.

It all sounds great on paper, but we wanted to test it for ourselves.… Read more

Is texting the biggest road hazard? Not even close. Red lights are getting longer. Are we just over hybrids? OnStar gears up for a major relaunch. And we drive the new 2011 Jetta.

• Major recall for Toyotas that do anything but run away

• Honda Fit hybrid, aka, the new Jazz

• CNET review of the new 2011 VW Jetta

• Is driving while texting overblown as a hazard?

• Why red lights are getting longer

Red Hat made several announcements Wednesday related to the development of public and private clouds, including updates to its Cloud Foundation portfolio, the effort to make its Deltacloud a standard API, a flagship cloud customer, and a new platform-as-a-service (PaaS) offering.

The company is working to create a comprehensive cloud offering--at least in theory--with new products that address the various layers of what can be considered cloud infrastructure.

This is all interesting, especially because Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens recently stated that cloud services are at least a decade away. Apparently, the company is taking the long-term view that the … Read more

You know you have a hit single when Jeff gets off his antiboogie butt and dances to it; such is the case with Cee-lo Green's latest single from an upcoming album titled "The LadyKiller."

The song title described by the Washington Post as a "two-word, Anglo-Saxon, hortatory phrase whose first word is typically rendered by dashes or a string of nonsense characters from the upper levels of a keyboard," rhymes with "Cluck You" and has already racked up over 2 million YouTube hits since its release earlier this week.

The up-tempo beat is … Read more

BRENTWOOD, N.H.--Road Trip 2010 has officially covered enough miles to make it from one coast of America to the other.

Of course, that's not what's really happened. Instead, I've driven 3,000 miles up and down--and up and down, and up and down, following a truly inefficient path--the East Coast in search of great destinations to report on.

And that's what has brought me here, to this town of population 4,200 in the southeastern corner of the Granite State--that quest for great things to write about. It's not that I had … Read more

BOSTON--On April 12, 1912, after two days of rain, the Boston Red Sox and the New York Highlanders played the first game ever at Fenway Park.

Ninety-eight years later, the ballpark is called--by the Red Sox at least--the most adored in Major League Baseball. It's possible that Chicago Cubs fans might dispute that, given how protective they are of Wrigley Field.

Either way, there's no arguing that Fenway is much loved, and on Thursday, as part of Road Trip 2010, I got a chance to visit the park and see many of the areas that are generally used … Read more