Mona Lisa’s Identity, Solved for Good?

Score another one for Occam’s razor: the sitter for the Mona Lisa was indeed named Lisa, according to German researchers. Lisa del Giocondo, to be exact. From Reuters:

Experts at the Heidelberg University library say dated notes scribbled in the margins of a book by its owner in October 1503 confirm once and for all that Lisa del Giocondo was indeed the model for one of the most famous portraits in the world.

“All doubts about the identity of the Mona Lisa have been eliminated by a discovery by Dr. Armin Schlechter,” a manuscript expert, the library said in a statement on Monday.

Mrs. Giocondo, whose maiden name was Gherardini, was married to a wealthy silk merchant in Florence and was first linked to the painting in 1550, about 50 years after it was finished. But doubts persisted and theories multiplied, including one about Mona Lisa being a man and another that she was Leonardo’s version of the ideal female, not a real person.

For all of those authors offering their theories, one expert had little sympathy after hearing the latest news. “One could even say that books written about all this in the past few years were unnecessary, had we known,” Frank Zoellner of Leipzig University told Reuters.

Among the unsurprised will be the staff of the Louvre, where the painting hangs. The museum doesn’t even have to change the masterpiece’s label — “Portrait of Lisa Gherardini, wife of Francesco del Giocondo” — though it may decide to delete one line from the description of the painting on its web site: “Among the aspects which remain unclear are the exact identity of the sitter.”

If it is indeed time to move on from the Mona Who? identity mystery, many other conundrums about the portrait persist. Millions of annual visitors who will now have less need to check her ID can instead puzzle over her inscrutable, seemingly mutable gaze.

That particular mystery was explored in a 2000 Times article by Sandra Blakeslee, who asked, “What is with this lady’s face? How did the great painter capture such a mysterious expression?”

The answer she received from a Harvard neuroscientist: It isn’t the painting, it’s you. Or rather, the quirky way your brain processes images.

read more | digg story

Free LAX shuttle to In-In-Out Burgers

Stuck at LAX for a few hours on a layover and hankering for one of the best burgers in all of California? Well, you're in luck.

There's an In-N-Out Burger just around the corner from the airport, and Gadling knows a little trick to get you there for free.

An In-N-Out is located on nearby Sepulveda Boulevard right next to the Parking Spot--a parking structure that conveniently provides free shuttle service. All you have to do is wait under the red "Hotel and Courtesy Shuttle" sign outside of any airport terminal, and when the yellow and black polka-dotted Parking Spot shuttle swings by, jump on board. It will take you literally next door to In-N-Out. Follow your nose through the back door, across the parking lot, and right inside where you need to order a double-double and fries to enjoy the best layover of your life.

There are a few things to be very careful about, however.

First off, you need to make sure that you get on the Sepulveda Parking Spot shuttle; otherwise you will end up at the Parking Spot's Century location. Additionally, you should allow yourself at least two hours to be extra safe. The shuttles come pretty regularly and the drive is only five to ten minutes, but the line at In-N-Out can be as long as 20-30 minutes during peak hours. And then you've got to get back to the airport and through security once again.

Since we are unfairly exploiting the generosity of the Parking Spot here, I'd like to take a moment to recommend their services. I actually use them any time I am flying out of town for a few days. They are the one of the closest parking lots to the airport without actually being on airport grounds (and charging airport rates). They a little more expensive than some of the nearby lots, but the structure is clean, has security and friendly staff, and will even valet park your car if you are running late. And, most importantly, after a long flight you can enjoy an In-N-Burger before jumping in your car and driving home. Yum!

read more | digg story

America's Most Wired Cities

Pop quiz: What's America's most wired city? You might guess someplace in Silicon Valley, Los Angeles or San Diego. East Coast fans might bet on New York or even Chicago.

But you've got to head south.

For the second year in a row, Atlanta tops Forbes.com's survey of America's most wired cities in the U.S.

In Pictures: America's Most Wired Cities

A variety of factors boost the Big Peach's techno quotient. As the communications hub for the Southeast, Atlanta boasts regional headquarters for AT&T (nyse: T - news - people ) and Verizon (nyse: VZ - news - people ) and a bustling community of Internet-related start-ups. It's also home to BellSouth and EarthLink (nasdaq: ELNK - news - people )--a major promoter of citywide wireless networks until recent months--as well as cable giant Cox Communications. And it got an early jump on cutting-edge technology after spending millions to wire its downtown area for the 1996 Olympics.

Still, its leading status mystifies some. "It's a dynamic area with a lot of young people, but exactly why it's No. 1 is a mystery to me," notes telecom analyst Jeff Kagan, who coincidentally is a long-time resident of Atlanta.

Here are some clues. To calculate our list, we looked at the percentage of Internet users with high-speed access, the range of service providers within a city and the availability of public wireless hot spots. Atlanta ranks highest in broadband adoption, access options and fourth in wi-fi availability. According to Nielsen Online, 97.2% of the city's home Internet users accessed the Web via a high-speed connection in November.

Some obvious choices finished high on the list. Techie Seattle, home to Microsoft (nasdaq: MSFT - news - people ), came in second, one notch above last year. San Francisco, the closest major city to Silicon Valley, was fourth for the second time. Though rich in hot spots, both lagged behind other cities in broadband adoption. (It works the other way, as well: Boston ranks second in broadband but poorer showings in the other categories dragged it down to 13th overall.) Two other major metropolises, Chicago and New York, improved their standings from 17th to 8th and 12th to 9th, respectively, to make the top 10, driven by more widespread adoption of high-speed Internet.

Other top-10 finishers were more surprising, such as third-place Raleigh, N.C. Raleigh Chief Information Officer Gail M. Roper attributes the city's strong showing to its thriving entrepreneurial culture, technology initiatives, major universities and fast-growing, highly-educated population. As CIO of Kansas City, Mo., (No. 22) from 1996 to 2006, Roper focused on digital-divide issues, working to improve youth and student access to the Internet. In Raleigh, she is considering building a citywide wi-fi network to expedite public services, cut telecom costs and deliver tourism information.

Fifth-place Orlando, Fla., and Baltimore also aren't top-of-mind when it comes to Internet initiatives. But Orlando, home to tourist-magnet Disney World, has "people coming in from all over--it has to be wired," explains Kagan. Baltimore vaulted to a 16th-place finish as the number of broadband providers and the adoption of those services rose dramatically last year.

Los Angeles wasn't as lucky. The entertainment capital suffered the biggest drop, plummeting from No. 11 to No. 27, based on lackluster results in all three categories, particularly in the number of broadband access providers. Close competition makes the tumble look worse than it is. First-place Atlanta is home to 17 broadband providers, while Los Angeles, with only 11, now ranks 25th in access options this year. Houston, Cleveland and Detroit dropped off the list completely, allowing newcomers Denver (No. 17), Indianapolis (No. 24) and Milwaukee (No. 28) to make their debut.

Measuring a city's "wired-ness" is an imperfect science. New York's less-wired outer boroughs weigh down its overall ranking. Some new initiatives aren't yet reflected in the data we used. Several lower-ranked cities, like Philadelphia (No. 26), are building wireless networks that provide wi-fi to downtown areas. In New York, CBS (nyse: CBS - news - people ) is constructing hot spots in midtown Manhattan (See "NYC's Biggest Hot Spot.")

Start-up Meraki recently announced it would offer free high-speed wireless Internet throughout San Francisco by the end of 2008. Top-ranked Atlanta, meanwhile, has seen plans for such a system fizzle in recent months. The ubiquity of such wi-fi networks is difficult to quantify and not measured in our wireless hot spot data.

Longer term, the outcome of the Federal Communications Commission spectrum auction, which is pitting traditional telecom companies against newcomers, including Internet titan Google (nasdaq: GOOG - news - people ), will also have a major impact on the availability of wireless service throughout the U.S. (For more on the auctions, see “Phoning In Wireless Dreams” and “Google’s Wireless World.”)

Though hot spots are sprouting across the country, as major wi-fi provider Wayport powers more than 10,000 in hotel chains, airports and McDonald's (nyse: MCD - news - people ), most Americans still rely on phone and cable firms for their Web access. Nearly half (47%) of adult Americans had a broadband connection at home in March 2007, representing 12% year-over-year growth, according to the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Of those users, 70% had a broadband connection, while 23% used dial-up. A separate Pew study done in December 2006 found that 19% of Internet users have wireless networks in their homes.

Those figures may be upended soon. "Broadband adoption is starting to plateau," says Bruce McGregor, senior analyst of Digital Home Services for market researcher Current Analysis. Telephone companies have traditionally offered digital subscriber lines (DSL) at lower prices while cable firms charged premiums for faster connections. But these days, the broadband industry's focus is bundling services, such as voice, data and TV together for a reduced price.

The new model is pitting telcos against cable providers. AT&T and Verizon have spent the past two years or so upgrading to super-speedy, fiber-optic networks. Verizon's FiOS has had a significant impact in the areas where it is offered, says McGregor, with the company selling service to 6.5 million households by the end of September 2007. AT&T says it will aggressively expand its competing service, U-verse, to 30 million homes by 2010. Meanwhile, Sprint Nextel (nyse: S - news - people ) still appears committed to roll out a nationwide high-speed wireless network using its WiMAX technology sometime this year.

To compile our list, we began with top markets in broadband adoption as determined by Internet market research firm Nielsen Online. Utilizing Nielsen market data eliminated some large, tech-savvy cities, such as San Jose, Calif. (Nielsen aggregates San Jose data with the San Francisco market area, and so San Jose's broadband can't be accessed separately.) We also dropped cities that didn't make the U.S. Census Bureau's top 100 list, including Salt Lake City and Hartford, Conn. We then calculated the number of service providers per city using statistics from the FCC and wi-fi hot spots per capita via public hot spot directory JiWire.

More accurate data may be on its way. A "broadband census" bill proposed by Rep. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and passed by the House of Representatives in November asks the FCC to collect more detailed information on the price and speed of broadband service and the number of subscribers in a particular zip code. That could mean a radically different list in 2009.

read more | digg story