Nothing beats the beauty and wonders of Mother Earth. And can you just imagine bringing that beauty literally on your desktop? EarthDesk from Xeric Design replaces your desktop picture or Windows wallpaper with a breathtaking snapshot of our planet continuously updating in the background while you go about your work.

Features include:

•     Real-time clouds (updated at 3-hour intervals) with transparency and moonlight reflection.
•     Accurate sun, moon and city lighting.
•     High quality twilight shading.
•     Automatically updates when waking from sleep.
•     Moonlight shading can be turned on or off.
•     Complete multi-display support.
•     Eleven different map projections.
•     Includes both satellite and political maps.

And now, Xeric is offering EarthDesk 3.5 for a fraction of a cost. If you order within this week you save 35% by only paying for $12.95.

Ex-marine Brad Collum has written down eight ways to kill someone with an iPod Nano. They include some original ways, so check 'em out. Anyone willing to try these out?

1. Break it in half with your hands (very easy to do) and use the glass viewing screen's broken edge as a razor blade to slice the jugular when they are looking the other way.

2. Take off one sock (a dress or tube sock; pantyhose will work in a pinch), place the Nano in the sock, swing it around as fast as you can (being careful to not hit yourself), and whack the intended target right on the temple.

3. Take the reflective shiny part and catch the sun's ray and shine it in a vehicle driver's eyes, or if you are at a rock concert and the lead singer is prancing around on a center stage that protrudes into the audience like a phallus, you can use the same technique.

4. The cord on the earbud headphones can be used to strangle someone. A knee in the back can give extra leverage.

5. Dig a pit about 5 feet deep, then take about 15 3-foot-long stakes 2 inches in diameter and sharpen one end to a fine point, like a very sharp pencil. Jam the sticks at least a foot into the ground, with the sharp ends pointing up. Cover the hole with pine boughs, grass, and leaves. Treat the Nano like a slice of cheese pizza in a deep, hot oven and place it gently in the middle.

6. Carefully unstaple a tea bag and pour the contents on a plate. Break into the lithium-ion battery pack and saturate the tea with the battery's poison, then dry the tea in the sun (or with a hair dryer if you are in a hurry). Put tea back in tea bag and bend the staple back to its original position. Put the tea bag back where you got it.

7. Download to the Nano "We've Only Just Begun" by the Carpenters. Tell someone you will give him or her your Nano if they listen to that song a hundred times in a row.

8. Hide the Nano in a bowl of lutefisk, then take it to the annual Norsefest Lutefisk Eating Competition in Madison, Minnesota.