Archive for May, 2006

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Wednesday, May 24, 2006

 

Morning Show Surprise Announcement

‘Morning Show Surprise Announcement On a recent episode of Australia’s Sunrise morning show one of their guests took the opportunity to make a big announcement on live TV to his girlfriend of seven years. Some lucky girl named Jo just had her dreams come true, I hope she said yes!’

(2meg Windows media)

see it here »


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The truth about global warming – it’s the Sun that’s to blame

`Global warming has finally been explained: the Earth is getting hotter because the Sun is burning more brightly than at any time during the past 1,000 years, according to new research.

A study by Swiss and German scientists suggests that increasing radiation from the sun is responsible for recent global climate changes.

Dr Sami Solanki, the director of the renowned Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research in Gottingen, Germany, who led the research, said: “The Sun has been at its strongest over the past 60 years and may now be affecting global temperatures.

“The Sun is in a changed state. It is brighter than it was a few hundred years ago and this brightening started relatively recently – in the last 100 to 150 years.”

Dr Solanki said that the brighter Sun and higher levels of “greenhouse gases”, such as carbon dioxide, both contributed to the change in the Earth’s temperature but it was impossible to say which had the greater impact.’


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Boy, 8, Arrested After Bus Kills Girl

`An 8-year-old boy was arrested after he sneaked onto a school bus and released its parking brake, causing it to roll forward and fatally strike a second-grader, police said Tuesday.

The boy was to be charged with criminally negligent homicide, Officer Doris Garcia said. Police were withholding his name because of his age, she said.’


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Police act on German file-sharing

`Police in Germany have charged 3,500 users of a file-sharing network in the biggest single action against the illegal distribution of music online.

The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI) – the record industry’s global body – said each could face five years in prison.

They may also have to pay compensation for offering up to 8,000 files at a time for download on the eDonkey site.

The investigation led to searches in 130 locations across Germany.’


Lawmakers shouldn’t show up drunk, panel says

`Legislators and staff members should not be drunk while performing official duties, a citizen commission recommended Monday.

The Public Commission on the Oregon Legislature left it up to House and Senate leaders to draft rules against intoxication and possible penalties.

“We were uncomfortable acting as a nanny,” said Kerry Tymchuk, a commission member and state director for U.S. Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore.

The proposal was put forth March 13 by Steve Doell of Lake Oswego, the president of Crime Victims United, who said he and member Anne Pratt of Springfield noticed alcohol on the breath of at least one legislator at the end of the 2005 session while they were advocating tougher drunken-driving penalties.’


Protecting yourself against the BitTorrent bandits!

`At its worst, when downloading major copyrighted torrents, as much as a fourth of the peers you are connected to can be attributed to various Anti-P2P agencies. There is also a much more serious side to this. Once you’ve established a connection to one of these fake “peers”, your IP has been logged and will most likely be sent to the RIAA/MPAA!

But there is a way to fight back! [..]’


Teacher Claiming To Be ‘Luke Skywalker’ Had Super Human Strength

`McCann then allegedly charged the officer, who sprayed him in the face with an irritant. Two officers tried unsuccessfully to handcuff him as McCann wildly swung his fists, the report says.

The incident further escalated, with McCann continuing to allegedly attack officers after he was repeatedly kicked and struck with a baton, according to the report. Officers also used a Taser to attempt to subdue him.

“He continued to attack with super human strength and made no attempt to escape,” according to the report.

McCann was finally brought under control when two responding officers struck him three times with a Taser gun and another hit him four more times with a baton, according to the report.’


Spray Artist

Making art with spraypaint.

(9.8meg Windows media)


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Woman ‘chomped’ at officer’s groin

`Brace yourself boys: you will cringe.

Police Constable Anthony Jennings certainly did when he felt a “crushing sensation” in the groin.

“Excruciating pain” were the words he used to describe the moment Maria Klaus allegedly “chomped” on his penis after a domestic violence incident in Maroochydore a year ago.

The softly spoken Const Jennings, 43, had to share possibly his worst day on the job in the Maroochydore District Court in front a jury and the woman accused of seriously assaulting him twice.’


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Workers flee explosive chips

`Workers at a factory making chips were evacuated two days running last week after bomb parts turned up in potatoes imported from France and Belgium, the site of battles in World War One and Two.

The Scarborough plant, owned by Canada’s McCain Foods, the world’s largest producer of frozen chips, was emptied on Friday after a worker spotted a shell tip among the potatoes as they were being cleaned for slicing.

“The police were called and the bomb squad advised a 100 metre exclusion zone should be set up,” said a McCain spokesman.

On Saturday, an entire hand grenade was discovered in the potatoes and the Yorkshire plant was evacuated again.’


Creator of Internet Auschwitz rave clip on trial in Holland

`A student who used images of the concentration camp at Auschwitz in a hoax publicity video for a techno rave will be prosecuted for discrimination, a prosecution spokeswoman said Monday.

The student, identified as the 23-year-old Dickie Thijssen by Dutch media, will appear before a magistrate Wednesday, Jechien de Graaf of the Rotterdam prosecutor’s office said.

If convicted he faces a maximum sentence of one year in prison and a 4,500 euros fine.

Thijssen, who is living in the southwest of the country, apologised extensively on the internet for the offence caused by his video.

The clip, which was widely circulated on the Internet last year, purported to give details of a techno music festival called “Housewitz”, a reference to techno “house” music.’

Followup to Housewitz – Tanzen Macht Frei.


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Cool Salt

Using sound waves to make patterns out of salt.

(3.3meg Windows media)


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Cocaine In Breast Milk Caused Death, Prosecutors Say

`A Michigan woman is charged with involuntary manslaughter after prosecutors say her 5-month-old daughter died from drinking breast milk containing cocaine.

Sara Shelby was arraigned Thursday. If convicted, she faces up to 15 years in prison.

Prosecutors claim Shelby used cocaine and the drug was passed on to the baby through her breast milk.

Shelby’s lawyer said that he and his client disagree with the prosecution’s theory about what caused baby’s death last year.’


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Monday, May 22, 2006

 

chronon ver.0

From the maker of those Grow games I like so much. Fun fun, but not too easy.


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PHP5 Benchmark

Time domain nenchmarks of some PHP functions.


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Sunday, May 21, 2006

 

Guantanamo Prison Guards, Inmates Clash

`Prisoners wielding improvised weapons clashed with guards trying to stop a detainee from committing suicide at the U.S. prison in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the military said Friday.

The fight occurred Thursday in a medium-security section of the camp as guards were responding to the fourth attempted suicide that day at the detention center on the U.S. Navy base, said Cmdr. Robert Durand.

Detainees used fans, light fixtures and other improvised weapons to attack the guards as they entered a communal living area to stop a prisoner who was trying to hang himself, Durand said.

Earlier in the day, three detainees in another part of the prison attempted suicide by swallowing prescription medicine they had been hoarding.’


Hallucinations lead to bust

`Terrified drug dealers committed a serious error by calling police for help with their hallucinations.

A group of friends were partying on drugs when they saw a group of tiny, white men coming up out of the fjord. This terrified them so much they rang police to ask for protection, newspaper Bergensavisen reports.

Police responded to the call from a cabin in Fusa. They found no little white men, but rather three confused Bergen residents and a pile of drugs.’


World’s First Hard Drive

`Presenting the world’s first hard drive, first introduced in 1956 — IBM’s 5MB Random Access Memory Accounting: RAMAC®, magnetic-disk memory storage. It stored information on fifty disks, which spun at 1,200 rpm.’


Grandma’s Sex Museum

`Miami’s South Beach is famously sexy. Everywhere you look there’s glistening, touchable skin, and every impulse that goes with it. But some of SoBe’s steamiest scenes aren’t in the clubs. Lots of images — naked celebrities, people doin’ it with game birds and women straddling airplanes — gather in a more discreet location, overseen by a 71-year-old grandmother.

On a corner building in the heart of South Beach, a small neon sign quietly advertises the “World Erotic Art Museum,” and inside is most of the $10 million erotic art collection of Naomi Wilzig, who has been hunting down images of our glorious sex lives for the past 15 years. She used to collect garden-variety antiques until that fateful day when her son asked her to find something a little more blue — not in color — for his apartment. She took up the challenge and found a new thrill in the world of sexy old things.’


China’s 15-year lesson in how not to build a dam

`The last of 16 million tonnes of concrete will be poured in today, making Chairman Mao’s dream of a reality, and giving China’s current generation of engineers-turned-leaders the chance to proclaim another colossal step forward in the country’s “harmonious development”.

But the completion of the Three Gorges dam has been anything but harmonious. It is now being cited as a textbook example of how not to build a dam. Before it even starts operating, the giant hydro-electric scheme is threatened by silt – the solution to which is to pour yet more concrete into the Yangtse river.’


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Earth Sandwich

Help the League of Awsomeness turn the Earth into a giant sandwich.

(2.9meg Quicktime)

see it here »


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Arizona High School Bans Bottled Ketchup

`One Arizona high school has added another item to its list of banned substances: bottled ketchup.

One student at Basha High School in Chandler was disciplined after being caught with a ketchup bottle two days in a row. And the principal said the school called the parents of several others found with the contraband.

The smuggling began after the school cafeteria limited students to three packets of ketchup per hamburger. You can get extra packets, but they cost 25 cents each.’


Couple Arrested For Asking For Directions

`Baltimore City police arrested a Virginia couple over the weekend after they asked an officer for directions.

WBAL-TV 11 News I-Team reporter David Collins said Joshua Kelly and Llara Brook, of Chantilly, Va., got lost leaving an Orioles game on Saturday. Collins reported a city officer arrested them for trespassing on a public street while they were asking for directions .

“In jail for eight hours — sleeping on a concrete floor next to a toilet,” Kelly said.

“It was a nightmare,” Brook said. “I was in there thinking I was just dreaming and waiting to wake up.”‘


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Researchers Make Vitamin E Offshoot A Potent Cancer Killer

`Researchers here have learned how a derivative of vitamin E causes the death of cancer cells. The researchers then used that knowledge to make the agent an even more potent cancer killer.

The compound, called vitamin E succinate, or alpha tocopheryl succinate, is taken by some people as a nutritional supplement, mainly for its antioxidant properties. In addition, it has a weak ability to kill cancer cells, and it has been tested as a cancer chemopreventive agent.

The substance kills cancer cells by causing them to undergo a natural process known as programmed cell death, or apoptosis. Until now, no one knew how the agent caused this to happen.

These findings answer that question and also indicate that the molecule’s antitumor activity is separate from its antioxidant effect.’


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Climber carried piano but not tune

`It was a discovery that flabbergasted conservationists cleaning Britain’s highest mountain last weekend. There, beneath a pile of stones on the plateau that caps Ben Nevis, was a piano.

Speculation began as to how it had arrived on such a blustery clime: perhaps it was a prank by a team of students and a helicopter pilot, perhaps a tornado had dropped it there?

But an even more incredible truth has emerged. It was carried there by one man as part of a charity stunt 35 years ago.

“It must be mine,” said Kenneth Campbell, 64.’


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Federal Source to ABC News: We Know Who You’re Calling

`A senior federal law enforcement official tells ABC News the government is tracking the phone numbers we (Brian Ross and Richard Esposito) call in an effort to root out confidential sources.

“It’s time for you to get some new cell phones, quick,” the source told us in an in-person conversation.

ABC News does not know how the government determined who we are calling, or whether our phone records were provided to the government as part of the recently-disclosed NSA collection of domestic phone calls.

Other sources have told us that phone calls and contacts by reporters for ABC News, along with the New York Times and the Washington Post, are being examined as part of a widespread CIA leak investigation.’


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Elevator Horror

`A man’s legs were severed early today as he tried to escape from inside an elevator packed with revelers leaving a party in The Bronx, police and witnesses said.

The bizarre accident occurred at 12:15 a.m. when an apartment building elevator at 2395 Tiebout Ave. in the Fordham section got stuck between the first floor and basement, police said.

That’s when the man – who was not identified, but only described by cops as being in his 20s – was following two other men who had safely climbed out of the elevator to the lobby.

As he shimmied through the open doors, the elevator began to move, severing the man’s legs, witnesses said.’


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Thursday, May 18, 2006

 

Doggy Style Gone Wrong

(flash video)


Tumbler

Interesting little time killer. Those lasers kept getting me.


A future with no bananas?

`Go bananas while you still can. The world’s most popular fruit and the fourth most important food crop of any sort is in deep trouble. Its genetic base, the wild bananas and traditional varieties cultivated in India, has collapsed.

Virtually all bananas traded internationally are of a single variety, the Cavendish, the genetic roots of which lie in India. Three years ago, New Scientist revealed that the world Cavendish crop was threatened by pandemics of diseases such as that caused by the black sigatoka fungus. The main hope for survival of the Cavendish lies in developing new hybrids resistant to the fungus, but this is a difficult and time-consuming task because the seedless modern fruit does not reproduce sexually and has to be bred from cuttings.’