‘A court decision reached last month but under seal until Friday could force Web sites to track visitors if the sites become defendants in a lawsuit.
TorrentSpy, a popular BitTorrent search engine, was ordered on May 29 by a federal judge in the Central District of California in Los Angeles to create logs detailing users’ activities on the site. The judge, Jacqueline Chooljian, however, granted a stay of the order on Friday to allow TorrentSpy to file an appeal.
The appeal must be filed by June 12, according to Ira Rothken, TorrentSpy’s attorney.
TorrentSpy has promised in its privacy policy never to track visitors without their consent.’
‘A seventy year old lady gets pulled over by a cop and while he attempts to radio in to dispatch she reaches her hand in his pocket. He explains that she should not do that with a swift knee to the forehead.’
(2.5meg Windows media)
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Careful preparation has served me well. I’ve overcome many obstacles to get where I am. A new relationship is just around the corner.
‘A study in which teetotal Spanish nuns drank a regular half-liter of beer showed that beer may help reduce cholesterol levels, a group financed by the Spanish Beer Makers’ Association said on Thursday.
The study also showed that the beer did not need to contain alcohol or to be drunk in large quantities to be good for you.
The “magic” ingredient is hops.
“Hops, one of the basic components of beer, may provide benefits … in reducing levels of total cholesterol and triglycerides,” the Centre for Information on Beer and Health said in a statement.
The experiment did not appear to have won many new beer fans among the teetotal Cistercian nuns who took part, chosen on the basis of their steady lifestyle and balanced diet.’
‘An Ohio charter school that emphasizes African history and culture served gin to sixth graders at a graduation ceremony and state education officials said they plan to investigate.
Four students were given a teaspoon of gin mixed with water in a ceremony modeled on a Ghanian rite of passage event, said Kwa David Whitaker, a Phoenix Village Academy official.
The ritual was intended to teach truthfulness, said Whitaker, who oversaw the Tuesday ceremony.
The students were blindfolded, giving them the uncertain feeling that goes with moving from one stage of life to another, he said. Each student was given a teaspoon of water and a teaspoon of the gin-water mix, and then asked to identify which contained water.
The students recognized that the gin wasn’t water and spit it out before swallowing, Whitaker said. The point is to teach the children to be honest, he said.’
‘National spelling bee champion Evan Odorney took time off from his busy schedule of hooking up with girls to appear on CNN. And he proves that he is also a champion of social skills.’
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‘A clean-cut vision of a future freed from the rat’s nest of cables needed to power today’s electronic gadgets has come one step closer to reality.
US researchers have successfully tested an experimental system to deliver power to devices without the need for wires.
The setup, reported in the journal Science, made a 60W light bulb glow from a distance of 2m (7ft).
WiTricity, as it is called, exploits simple physics and could be adapted to charge other devices such as laptops. [..]
Measurements showed that the setup could transfer energy with 40% efficiency across the gap.’
‘They say they have built a prototype high-speed quantum key distribution (QKD) system that can perform a theoretically unbreakable “one-time pad” encryption, transmission and decryption of a video signal in real-time over a distance of at least 10 kilometers. [..]
One important requirement for any candidate system is that it be compatible with existing fiber-optic telecom networks that transmit at wavelengths of either 1550 or 1310 nanometers (nm) to reach the greatest distance. Another requirement is a highly efficient photon detector that can detect single photons reliably without introducing significant amounts of “noise.” One of the best low-noise detectors, a silicon-based avalanche photo diode (Si-APD), does not function at the telecom wavelengths. Instead, it operates best at much shorter wavelengths around 700 nm. To take advantage of the Si-APD, the NIST group designed a sub-system to “up-convert” single photons from a transmission wavelength of 1310 nm to 710 nm for high-efficiency detection.’
‘A major advance in understanding the genetics behind several of the world’s most common diseases has been reported.
The landmark Wellcome Trust study analysed DNA from the blood of 17,000 people to find genetic differences.
They found new genetic variants for depression, Crohn’s disease, coronary heart disease, hypertension, rheumatoid arthritis and type 1 and 2 diabetes.
The remarkable findings, published in Nature, have been hailed as a new chapter in medical science.
It is hoped they will pave the way for research into new treatments and genetic tests.’
This is a short clip from The Chasers War on Everything.
(5.3meg Windows media)
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‘Three words on a cardboard sign outside a luxury downtown high rise have senior citizens outraged. One senior was so upset she took a picture outside The Vue at Lake Eola, on the corner of Rosalind and Robinson streets.
Some senior citizens were across the street in a small rally when they noticed the construction workers laughing at them. Then they looked by the fence and saw a sign they consider very offensive. The words were scrawled in bold white paint on cardboard.
Sandra Taylor, 64, stood across the street and could feel the sign shouting at her.
“The next thing we knew, we looked over and he had made a sign, holding it, said ‘Old People Suck,'” Taylor said.’
‘Marine scientists in Canada and abroad are puzzled by bizarre photographs that appear to show the skeleton of a large mammal jutting out of an iceberg that recently drifted past Newfoundland’s east coast.
The six pictures show what looks like a brown rib cage and spinal column, slightly bent, sticking out of a crust of ice.
But researchers throughout Canada, Greenland and Norway are unable to determine the origin of the skeleton, said Garry Stenson, a marine mammal scientist with the federal Fisheries Department.
“It’s definitely unusual,” Stenson said Monday. “It’s not something that I’ve encountered before.”‘
‘Yesterday, someone found my blog by searching Google for the following phrase: “Is it safe to have your dog lick your vagina?” I fear that this poor soul didn’t find the answer she was looking for on my site, so I wanted to help her out in case she stops by again. And since I don’t know her name, I’m just going to come up with a handy mnemonic to remember it.
So, dear Dog Fucker, the simple answer to the question “Is it safe to have your dog lick your vagina?” is, of course, yes.’
‘A European investigator said on Friday he had proof Poland and Romania hosted secret prisons for the Central Intelligence Agency in which it interrogated top al Qaeda suspects using methods akin to torture.
Swiss senator Dick Marty said Poland housed some of the CIA’s most sensitive prisoners, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who says he masterminded the September 11, 2001, attacks on the United States that killed almost 3,000 people.
“There is now enough evidence to state that secret detention facilities run by the CIA did exist in Europe from 2003-2005, in particular in Poland and Romania,” Marty said in a report for the Council of Europe human rights watchdog.’
‘Scientists say they have discovered a new gene linked with late-onset Alzheimer’s disease.
People with a damaged copy of the gene, GAB2, may be at four times increased risk of developing dementia, Neuron journal reports.
Experts said the latest findings were some of the most significant to emerge since the discovery of the ApoE4 Alzheimer’s gene.
Late-onset Alzheimer’s affects one in 10 people over 65 and half of over 85s.
The researchers, from 15 institutions including the Institute of Neurology in London, analysed the DNA of 1,411 people and found GAB2 influenced the risk of dementia among those with APOE4.’
‘She was taken handcuffed and crying from her home. She was escorted into court disheveled, without makeup, hair askew and face red with tears.
Crying out for her mother when she was ordered back to jail, Paris Hilton’s cool, glamorous image evaporated Friday as she gave the impression of a little girl lost in a merciless legal system.
“It’s not right!” shouted the weeping Hilton. “Mom!” she called out to Kathy Hilton, who also was in tears.
The 26-year-old hotel heiress tried to move toward her parents but was firmly steered away by two sheriff’s deputies, who held her by each arm and hustled her from the courtroom. [..]
The sheriff later hinted at a news conference that Hilton had psychological problems, and said she would be watched in jail “so that there isn’t anything that is harmfully done to herself by herself.”‘
Followup to Paris Hilton ordered to return to court.
‘A New Zealand judge halted a court hearing when he suspected that a defendant facing charges of drinking and driving was drunk on the dock.
Lyle George Morgan, a builder from the southern city of Invercargill, appeared to fall asleep in the city’s district court on Wednesday while his lawyer was questioning a prosecution witness, The Southland Times newspaper reported. [..]
When Judge Kevin Phillips noticed the defendant dozing he halted proceedings and asked defense counsel David Slater if Morgan was drunk.
“A distinct possibility,” Slater replied.
Judge Phillips said he wouldn’t continue a hearing for a man who was drunk and had slept through most of the evidence.
Morgan, awake again, responded: “I’m not drunk in your court. You want to see me drunk in your court?”‘
‘The singer in the Police jumps like a “petulant pansy,” the drummer is making a “complete hash,” and who knows what the guitarist is doing?
Notes from a bitter critic? Actually, it’s a disarmingly frank concert review from the aforementioned drummer of the newly reunited rock trio.
A philosophical Stewart Copeland unleashed his vitriol in a posting on his Web site on Thursday, a day after the band played its second show in Vancouver, the Canadian city where it began its first world tour in more than 20 years on Monday.
“This is unbelievably lame,” Copeland wrote of Wednesday’s show at the GM Place arena. “We are the mighty Police and we are totally at sea.” [..]
“The mighty Sting momentarily looks like a petulant pansy instead of the god of rock,” Copeland reported.’
This is the audio recording of various 911 calls regarding the man whose wheel chair got stuck in the grill of a truck as the truck happily drove him around the highway.
Followup to Local man goes for the ride of his life.
(14.6meg Windows media)
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‘Dutch researchers are trying to grow pork meat in a laboratory with the goal of feeding millions without the need to raise and slaughter animals.
“We’re trying to make meat without having to kill animals,” Bernard Roelen, a veterinary science professor at Utrecht University, said in an interview.
Although it is in its early stages, the idea is to replace harvesting meat from livestock with a process that eliminates the need for animal feed, transport, land use and the methane expelled by animals, which all hurt the environment, he said.
“Keeping animals just to eat them is in fact not so good for the environment,” said Roelen. “Animals need to grow, and animals produce many things that you do not eat.”‘
‘A man is accused of paying underage girls to let him jab their buttocks, and he now faces charges under a new law that specifically addresses crimes committed for sexual gratification, prosecutors said.
Frank Ranieri, 25, of Staten Island, paid at least five girls — all between the ages of 15 and 17 — thousands of dollars since 2003 to engage in “piquerism,” a sexual fixation on penetrating the body with sharp objects, such as pins, nails and stilettos, the Staten Island district attorney’s office said.
The Daily News, citing unidentified sources, reported that Ranieri was a member of the Police Academy’s July 2004 class, but that he left after two months. It was not clear why.’
‘Developed by a team of researchers at Universiti Malaya (UM) for the past two years, a tablet containing walnut extract has shown potential as a local alternative to Viagra.
One of the researchers, UM Faculty of Medicine Physiology Department lecturer Prof Dr Kim Kah Hwi, said that so far 40 volunteers had tried the tablet and responded positively.
On its efficacy, Prof Kim said the new pill was comparable to Viagra and he claimed that it was safer as well, although a person would have to consume about 3.3kg of walnuts for the same effect as one tablet. [..]
Prof Kim said the active ingredient was arginine, an amino acid that is absorbed into the body and converted into nitric oxide.
“This enlarges blood vessels and enhances blood flow to the penis,” he said, adding that the walnuts were sourced from China because they were cheaper there.’
This apparently happened somewhere in Germany, as people were protesting the G8 summit.
(745kB Flash video)
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‘Poland’s 1,200 troops assigned to NATO forces in Afghanistan will not achieve full combat readiness for up to several weeks due to stolen vehicle keys, the defense ministry said Thursday.
“We had been told a 10 percent theft rate was likely in convoys brought in from Pakistan, but we had not expected the spare car keys to go missing,” defense ministry spokesman Jaroslaw Rybak told news channel TVN24.
“We shall have to send away for spares, so it may take from several days to several weeks for our contingent to become combat ready.”‘
‘Annapolis police raided the wrong apartment Wednesday night, using flash grenades and kicking a resident in the groin before they realized their mistake, police and the family said.
Police spokesman Hal Dalton said something must have gone amiss in the briefing beforehand. “We don’t know how the mistake was made,” Dalton said.
Silvia Bernal, 30, told The (Annapolis) Capital that about 15 officers burst through the front door of her apartment while she was cooking dinner about 8:20 p.m. She said the officers kicked her husband in the groin while she fled into a bedroom and barred the door with her body.
Then she said both of them were taken to the ground and handcuffed. The Capital said a police officer went outside and realized they had raided the wrong residence.’
‘An 81-year-old retiree was back in court on Tuesday facing a felony charge of allegedly assaulting a Kern County deputy. [..]
Last March, Montgomery was in the middle of a dispute with his neighbor over his pig farm. The feud boiled over when he decided to paint a wall facing his neighbor’s property using an assortment of old paint, according to the Kern County Sheriff’s Department. The neighbor then called the authorities to stop Montgomery.
A Kern County sheriff’s deputy who arrived at his home in Northwest Bakersfield told him to stop painting the wall. Montgomery said he explained to the deputy the fence was his to paint.
“He accused me of graffiti on my own fence,” said Montgomery.
The deputy said Montgomery ignored the deputy and continued to paint the wall with a long-handled paint roller.
According to Deputy District Attorney Alex Harper, Montgomery hit the deputy over the head with the roller when the deputy tried to wrestle it away. The deputy was covered in paint and required medical attention for the gash in his head. Harper said the deputy received several stitches.’
‘Prime Minister John Howard says he is opposed to gay couples adopting children and heterosexual adoption is a benchmark society should maintain.
But he said that didn’t mean gay and lesbian people had no affection for children.
The Victorian Law Reform Commission has recommended to the Victorian Parliament that gay couples be allowed to adopt and lesbians have access to IVF treatment.
Mr Howard said today he believed children should ideally have a mother and a father.
“It gives children the best opportunity in life,” he said on Southern Cross radio.’
This is the promo video for that ugly London 2012 Olympics logo. The one that causes seizures.
Not safe for epileptics.
Followup to Logo promo caused epileptic seizures.
(6.2meg Flash video)
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‘Fears are mounting that the grounded bulk carrier Pasha Bulker could break up as traces of fuel begin washing up on a Newcastle beach.
Two creases on each side of the ship can be seen as engineers begin efforts to assess the damage.
The Newcastle Port Corporation said there is a possibility of the ship breaking up, ABC radio reported.
Meanwhile, at least two more ships are expected to run aground in Newcastle as raging winds and monster waves batter the coast.’
