Crunks 2008: The Year in Media Errors and Corrections
"It's rare to look back over a year of corrections and errors and see so many examples of organizational failure. Years past have seen plenty of malfeasance by individuals, but 2008 is remarkable for news organizations that pursued completely outrageous behavior." The most outrageous newspaper corrections of the year!
Dec 17, 2008 in Breaking News | Comment
Linens n' Things is Going Out of Business
A sad statement on the current state of the economy -- these used to be everywhere, and usually had pretty good stuff! You wonder what they did wrong that Bed, Bath and Beyond is still out there but they aren't? Anyway, great deals just in time for the holiday season, so get yours while you can I guess!
Oct 30, 2008 in Breaking News, Consumer Lust | Comment
Dangerous Straits
"The Strait of Malacca. Pirates haunt it. Sailors fear it, Global trade depends on it." The story of a journalist's meeting with the pirates and how they work.
Oct 9, 2008 in Breaking News | Comment
Giant Puts on a Fresh Face For Its Supermarket Upgrades
"It's a bird! It's a fruit bowl! It's . . . Giant Food's new logo." Shopping at our neighborhood Giant is a staple memory of my youth. Sadly, they've changed from their mediocre, outdated old logo to a hideous new one that looks like something Carmen Miranda would've approved of.
Via Uni Watch
Aug 27, 2008 in Breaking News | Comment
What comes after a trillion?
"Inflation in Zimbabwe is 9m%, a Z$50bn note is worth just 17p - the cost of a single egg - and there is more than 80% unemployment. How are ordinary people coping with this disastrous economic meltdown?"
Jul 24, 2008 in Breaking News | Comment
Britney's behavior has cost her $61 million!
"In addition to the enormous tab for legal bills, rehab and psychiatric care, Britney’s inability to work has cost her a fortune. 'by not touring for her last album [Blackout], she lost out on $50 million...'" Someday, I want to have $61mm to waste!
May 1, 2008 in Breaking News | Comment
The Complete List Of Players Mentioned In The Mitchell Report
The players found to have been using performance-enhancement drugs. Actually, a surprisingly short list. Too short to have many surprises, although, Lenny Dykstra? Wasn't he an awful long time ago to be on this report? Also, wonder how many used these drugs to recover from injury vs. gain strength (although obviously using them would give you both). I'll admit I was a bit worried I'd see Cal Ripken's name there, just because, how else do you stay so invulnerable? Good to know it was hard work & luck. Also, shocking number of SoCal players on that list -- did the Dodgers & Angels have a real problem?
Dec 13, 2007 in Breaking News, Spurts | Comment
Church finances are made public
Westboro Baptist -- the church that pickets the funerals of dead soldiers, arguing that our servicemembers died because America doesn't hate gays enough -- argues that it doesn't have enough assets to pay the $10mm judgment against it. Well, if you can't pay the fine, don't do the crime! I'm sure that the family of Lance Cpl. Matthew Snyder would be happy to get a slice of the defendants' paychecks every two weeks.
Nov 15, 2007 in Breaking News, Politicks | Comment
New bill would punish colleges, students who don't become copyright cops
"A massive education bill... introduced into Congress contains a provision that would force colleges and universities to offer 'technology-based deterrents' to file-sharing under the pain of losing all federal [student] financial aid." Appears to mandate that schools monitor or block some kinds of traffic and buy music services for their students. Seems like a bad idea to say "hey, let's not educate kids!" as punishment for file-sharing. Actually, it seems evil!
Nov 12, 2007 in Breaking News, Tech | Comment
Fire damage database
"Find homes damaged or destroyed in the fires. This is a partial list from a variety of government sources. It will be updated as information becomes available."
Oct 27, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
USC Marshall Best Entrepreneurial MBA Program
I can't believe I keep forgetting to blog this -- Entrepreneur Magazine and Princeton Review voted my alma mater as the #1 graduate entrepreneur program! Naturally, I'm exceedingly proud.
Oct 23, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Dallas homeowner shoots, kills intruder after parrot's warning
Junior would totally say hello to anyone who walked in. Seamus, if he's around, has a big-dog bark and would both wake me and scare off the intruder. Pets are great!
Via Obscure Store
Oct 17, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment (1)
Poverty line out of touch with costs, advocates say
"A person working full-time for th [California]'s minimum wage of $7.50 an hour earns $15,600 annually. But a single adult in Los Angeles needs to make $28,126 a year to live modestly, while a single parent needs $62,393, according to the California Budget Project, the policy group behind the report being released today." Not surprising, but still scary!
Oct 17, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Taco Bell attempts to sell gringo tacos in Mexico
I can't imagine why the fact that Taco Bell is now opening restaurants in Mexico City isn't getting bigger press. I mean, shouldn't we expect revenge of some type? At least everything's becoming more like Demolition Man.
Oct 12, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Popular lipsticks test positive for lead
I knew we were trying to make our beautiful women stupid, just like they are in the movies. Either that or this is part of the gigantic Chinese conspiracy to make all of us stupid by putting lead in everything we import from there. Crafty folk, those Chinese, playing the long game to become the dominant power in the world!
Oct 12, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
New revelations in attack on American spy ship
It's nice when our closest allies sink our ships and steal our nuclear secrets. Good thing that tail wags this dog!
Oct 11, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Deportees file motion over forced sedation
"The ACLU filed a motion Tuesday in federal court to stop immigration authorities from forcibly drugging deportees in order to send them back to their home countries on commercial airlines." How Soviet! I guess it never occurred to me that this would be something that, you know, we'd have to tell people not to do, insofar as it seems obvious that people shouldn't be drugged against their will.
Oct 10, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
A band of survivors returns from Iraq
The story of my cousin Huber's company in Iraq. Scary stuff -- I hope that our leaders do something to make the sacrifices of our men and women there worthwhile.
Oct 8, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Bulgaria Suffering From Too Much Democracy; Must Import Envelopes to Hold It All
"[S]o many candidates are running in local elections next month in Bulgaria that the ballots are now too large to fit in any Bulgarian-made envelopes. Due to this humiliating deficiency in the domestic Bulgarian envelope industry, authorities have said that they will have to import more than 11 million foreign envelopes that are sufficiently large to hold the ballots..."
Oct 1, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Alex the Gray Parrot Dies
Alex was the subject of a fascinating, years-long study into language use in parrots. His sudden death, at least 10 years before would be expected, is both sad and unfortunate for our knowledge about the world around us.
Sep 9, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
State OKs final piece of Expo light-rail funding
"The California Transportation Commission on Wednesday approved a crucial piece of funding for construction of the Exposition Line light-rail line, committing the final $314 million needed to build the project." Yay, light rail from near my house to downtown! Hope it makes it to Santa Monica too.
Sep 7, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
O's give up 30 runs in loss to Rangers
"The Texas Rangers became the first team in 110 years to score 30 runs in a game, setting an American League record Wednesday in a 30-3 rout of the Orioles." Oy, I think it's time for me to start becoming embarrassed.
Aug 22, 2007 in Breaking News, Spurts | Comment
Forced to Pick a Major in High School
"[S]tarting this fall, freshmen at Dwight Morrow High School here in Bergen County must declare a major that will determine what electives they take for four years and be noted on their diplomas." Brilliant, since I and so many of my friends have jobs that we prepared for in High School. Also, please note: this is how the French do it.
Aug 16, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Signal fixes get the green light
"L.A. officials Wednesday approved traffic improvements for the car-clogged Westside, including traffic signal upgrades at 361 intersections and the addition of 33 left-turn lights...The nearly $6 million in projects approved by the City Council on Wednesday are funded in part by developers' fees that are paid to the city to mitigate traffic problems..." Good news, but "Last month, [Councilman Jack] Weiss asked the city Department of Transportation for its master plan and list of top needs, and found out there were none." Oops!
Aug 16, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Litigious Judge's Future Unclear
"The D.C. judge who sued his dry cleaners for $54 million over a pair of pants may want to begin looking for a new job." Apparently they're dotting all the "i"s and crossing all the "t"s to start the non-reappointment process.
Aug 13, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Court Rules: Novell owns the UNIX and UnixWare copyrights
If you've been following the long, and quite absurd, SCO vs. Novell case, then you may be excited to hear that the court ruled that Novell does indeed own the UNIX copyrights. This pretty much puts paid to SCO's overall lawsuit strategy. If you're not familiar, this means that the things you're used to getting for free on the Interwebs, you can continue to get for free.
Aug 11, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
King-Harbor fails final check, will close soon
The scandal-plagued hospital, which can't seem to stop killing people through sheer incompetence, will finally be shut down. Scary: "The fate of the hospital's 1,600 employees is unclear. Some will remain at the outpatient clinics; others could be reassigned to other county health facilities." Um, how about "fired and out of healthcare permanently"?
Aug 11, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Work begins on light-rail line from downtown to Westside
Yay! I hope they take it all the way down to Santa Monica, too; I'd ride that all the time. I don't know why, but light rail seems more fun to ride than buses, to me.
Aug 11, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
NYC Backs Down on Photo Rules
The NY Mayor's office has backed down on proposed rules that, in my reading, would've required me to get a permit to simply be a tourist and take nice pictures. I'm a big believer in regulating commercial work to prevent traffic disruption, but a tourist town needs to err on the side of caution.
Aug 6, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Harry Potter and the Digital Fingerprints
The person who leaked the whole, real copy of the latest Harry Potter, by photographing every page and uploading the photos? Turns out their camera embedded its serial number in every photo. Oops, this could be trouble for someone. For those who think they're not being tracked, your printer and CD burner also put uniquely-identifiable data on everything you produce with them.
Jul 23, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Driving with danger in tow
Probably best not to move with U-Haul, after all, since they don't so much care about things like "safety" and "inspections" and stuff like that. (Although, I don't quite understand how a company hopes to get ahead by maximizing liability...)
Jun 28, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Judge tosses $54 million suit over missing pants
Remember the DC Judge who sued for $54mm over some pants he said his dry cleaners lost? The one who I think lost his job over it? Well, apparently the judge tossed the case even before a verdict was returned; looks like the guy wasn't able to prove he was damaged in any way. Now he has to pay the opponent's court costs, and may get stuck paying their lawyer costs! I guess it pays to be reasonable!
Jun 25, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
The Soviet Collapse, by Yegor Gaidar
"The timeline of the collapse of the Soviet Union can be traced to September 13, 1985. On this date, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani, the minister of oil of Saudi Arabia, declared that the monarchy had decided to alter its oil policy radically. The Saudis stopped protecting oil prices, and Saudi Arabia quickly regained its share in the world market. During the next six months, oil production in Saudi Arabia increased fourfold, while oil prices collapsed by approximately the same amount in real terms." "Between 1991 and 1994, [Gaidar] was acting prime minister of Russia, minister of economy, and first deputy prime minister."
Via blog.pmarca.com
Jun 22, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Death on the streets
"Baltimore's homicide rate last year surpassed all of the nation's largest cities with the exception of Detroit, according to FBI crime statistics released yesterday... 'Baltimore is becoming an increasingly safer city for law-abiding citizens but has become an increasingly dangerous city for those that live outside the law,' [Matt Jablow, a spokesman for the Baltimore Police Department] said. 'We see it over and over with our homicide victims and suspects: They're people who've been arrested, five, 10, 15 times. We have to get these people off the streets for longer periods of time.'"
Jun 5, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Vets 'pop' hedgehog to safe its life after it balloons to size of football
Adorable, but, let's face it, hedgehogs are, like Marmaduke, assholes.
Jun 5, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment (1)
Court: Menu Foods harassed pet owners
"The pet food company that recalled 60 million cans of contaminated dog and cat food repeatedly made harassing phone calls to pet owners who had lawyers and said they didn't want to talk, even after a judge ordered the firm to leave them alone..." At first I thought they just had incompetent PR, now I think they're bad people. I hope Menu Foods goes bankrupt from the lawsuits.
May 28, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Making less than dad did
"Relying on Census Bureau figures, the study's authors found that after adjusting for inflation, men in their 30s in 2004 had a median income of about $35,000 per year, for a 12 percent drop compared with $40,000 per year for men in the same age group in 1974."
May 25, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Mars Rover Spirit Unearths Surprise Evidence of Wetter Past
"A patch of Martian soil analyzed by NASA's rover Spirit is so rich in silica that it may provide some of the strongest evidence yet that ancient Mars was much wetter than it is now. The processes that could have produced such a concentrated deposit of silica require the presence of water."
May 22, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Toyota cutting hybrid costs, claims every car produced will be hybrid by 2020
Economies of scale and experience will make hybrids affordable across-the-line, if this is what Toyota really wants. A good solution for green consumers, because Toyota's hybrids don't demand any new infrastructure, unlike plug-in and hydrogen cars.
May 17, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment (1)
Lawmakers Find $21 a Week Doesn't Buy a Lot of Groceries
"[Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio)] and three other members of Congress have pledged to live for one week on $21 worth of food, the amount the average food stamp recipient receives in federal assistance. That's $3 a day or $1 a meal." Darned right that doesn't go far, especially now that food prices eat deeper into wallets.
May 17, 2007 in Breaking News, Politicks | Comment
Edward James Olmos and Katee Sackhoff Confirm Final Season of Battlestar Galactica!!!
This is news that definitely deserves four exclamation marks!!! However, it seems like most good shows these days have limited runs, usually 4-6 seasons. It just seems to keep the quality up. I'll be happy to see BSG go out on top, and, with cable around, the 50-ish episodes should be enough to live extensively in syndication. (Interesting that the cause for the series' end -- cost -- is the same reason that the original BSG was cancelled.)
May 11, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Colorado sheriff haunted by hostage dilemma
Good perspective on all of the second-guessing going on around the Virginia Tech shootings. There's rarely an ideal possible decision under pressure, with incomplete information; you just try for good enough.
Apr 24, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Hi, My Name is Kurt Vonnegut, and I'm Dead
Gosh, that's sad. He was so together on John Stewart last year; I almost feel he was cut down with some possibility of having a prime left.
Apr 11, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Mystery cat takes regular bus to the shops
"The feline, which has a purple collar, gets onto the busy Walsall to Wolverhampton bus at the same stop most mornings - he then jumps off at the next stop 400m down the road, near a fish and chip shop."
Via Fark
Apr 10, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Arkansas House Passes Grammar Resolution
"The state House approved a resolution declaring "Arkansas's" the possessive form of the state's name - a bill so weird it prompted the sponsor to offer an apology." I don't understand why they're apologizing, they're clearly promulgating the right possessive form, and nobody can spell these days so it's badly needed. Arkansas's, Los Angeles's, that's they way you make the possessive!
Apr 5, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment (3)
LA Homicide Report Map
If you like the LA Times Homicide Blog, then you can't miss this map of where all the violence takes place! Surprisingly, no homicides near me (too bad they don't have other crimes!).
Apr 2, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
One-way streets may get Westside on the fast track
Run Pico and Olympic one-way only? This might be a good idea -- the major issue being that the streets are too far apart to easily circle around -- but why is it being considered instead of the Expo Line light-rail extension? Should be a as well as thing, to relieve congestion.
Mar 29, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Giant Pool of Water Ice at Mars' South Pole
"[T]he planet has enough water ice at its south pole to blanket the entire planet in more than 30 feet of water if everything thawed out." This is a cool new discovery! I mean, with this water, Mars + sufficent effort = habitable, right?
Via Slashdot
Mar 15, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Fact or Fiction?: Living People Outnumber the Dead
"The human population has swelled so much that people alive today outnumber all those who have ever lived, says a factoid whose roots stretch back to the 1970s. Some versions of this widely circulating rumor claim that 75 percent of all people ever born are currently alive." True or not? The truth may shock you!
Mar 4, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Energy Dept.'s missed deadlines on appliance efficiency cost billions, report says
"All told, the Department of Energy has missed every one of 34 mandatory rule-making deadlines for setting minimum energy efficiency standards involving 20 products including refrigerators, dishwashers, freezers, pool heaters, furnaces and central air conditioners, analysts at the Government Accountability Office reported."
Mar 3, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Colorado to use inmates to fill migrant shortage
Inmates get paid $0.60/day for work -- so we're basically using slave labor to work our fields. Question: are we becoming more like China faster than China is becoming more like us? If so, does that mean they win?
Mar 1, 2007 in Breaking News, Politicks, Race | Comment (2)
Walter Sondheim, RIP
How many people were both responsible for the first school desegregation south of the Mason-Dixon line and revitalizing the downtown of a major city? ("He said he regretted the white flight let loose by desegregation, but he regretted segregation more.") Sondheim was a major force in the city I grew up in and will be missed.
Feb 18, 2007 in Breaking News, Race | Comment
Nation's gin tree in need of a tonic
Juniper may die out in Britain, giving us no authentically British Gin. Who wants Slovenian Gin? This, folks, is serious!
Via Fark
Feb 18, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Lead-laden lunchboxes OK'd by government
I'm super-glad that I used one of these to carry my dinner all through b-school. In general, I imagine this is a brilliant Chinese conspiracy (since I imagine the bags , being inexpensive, were made in China): if you're keeping your eye on winning in the next 100 years, not now, then what's a better strategy than to poison America's kids in a way that makes them stupid, thus reducing our ability to compete in 20 years? Yep, brilliant.
Feb 18, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment (2)
L.A. mayor wants citywide wireless access
"Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa outlined plans Tuesday to blanket Los Angeles with wireless Internet access in 2009... The L.A. Wi-Fi initiative would give Los Angeles residents, schools, businesses and visitors uninterrupted high-speed Internet connections — for work, research, Web browsing or even phone calls." Cool, but is this the best use of our money?
Feb 14, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
In Culver City, Calif., Art and Food Turn a Nowhere Into a Somewhere
Apparently, my 'hood has so arrived that they're writing about it on the other coast. I vote we don't turn into Santa Monica; Silverlake would be just fine. (Perhaps we'll be saved by the fact that LA Can't Drive)
Jan 30, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
BET Walks on The Wire
BET will be showing all episodes of all four seasons (so far) of The Wire starting on the 10th! Woo hoo!
Jan 4, 2007 in Breaking News | Comment
Wild parrots invade Pomona Valley
"The large colony of wild parrots first appeared about three weeks ago, north Pomona and Claremont residents say. Perched high in neighborhood trees, they roost in flocks of hundreds." There's parrots in my 'hood too, but pionus, I think, rather than those Red-Crowned Amazons that the IE seems to have. Wish they'd had these there when I was in college!
Via Fark
Dec 31, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
300-Plus Sick After Olive Garden Meal
Not food poisoning this time, but an infectious disease. The predictable consquence of our never-go-home-sick society?
Dec 24, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Olive oil 'can cut cancer risk'
"A study of 182 European men found those who had 25 millilitres of olive oil per day had reduced levels of a substance which indicates cell damage. The Danish team said it may explain why many cancer rates are higher in northern Europe than the south, where olive oil is a major part of the diet."
Dec 24, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Chiefs' founder Lamar Hunt dies
"Hunt was one of the creators of the AFL in 1959 and was a principal negotiator in the merger of the AFL and NFL in 1966. He was credited with coining the term 'Super Bowl' for what’s turned out to be the country’s most-watched sporting event, with the name coming from his children’s toy 'Super Ball.'" Hunt was a great sportsman and one of the big men of American sports, and football will be worse off without him.
Dec 14, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Sound Output Levels of the iPod and Other MP3 Players: Is There Potential Risk to Hearing?
"The results of this study suggest that MP3 players produce high enough sound levels to pose a risk of hearing loss, if used at high enough volumes for extended durations." Don't listen to your iPod at 90% volume through the stock earphones for more than 18 minutes a day, k?
Dec 8, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Older than the sun, the meteorite scientists call 'the real time machine'
"[A] team lead by Keiko Nakamura-Messenger and Michael Zolensky show the levels of the isotopes in the meteorite could only arise from chemical reactions taking place in an extremely cold climate, where temperatures were as low as -260C. Those conditions would only be found in remote molecular clouds before the formation of the solar system." That's potentially billions of years older than anything we've seen before.
Dec 7, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Prince Charles to reduce his 'carbon footprint'
"Putting his money where his environmentalist mouth is, Prince Charles is swapping gas-guzzling private planes and helicopters for commercial flights, train journeys and biodiesel cars." Go Chas!
Dec 7, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Photos show evidence of recent water on Mars
As recent as several years ago. Holy crap!
Dec 7, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Gender pay gap narrows -- for unexpected reasons
"Women are closing in on men when it comes to wages, but not for the reasons anticipated — or hoped for — when gender pay equity became a rallying cry in the 1970s. Data show that the pay gap has been narrowing not because women have made great strides, labor experts say, but because men's wages are eroding." Yay tax cuts!
Dec 3, 2006 in Breaking News, Politicks | Comment
Aching Back? Sitting Up Straight Could Be The Culprit
"A 135-degree body-thigh sitting posture was demonstrated to be the best biomechanical sitting position, as opposed to a 90-degree posture, which most people consider normal," and lazy good-for-nothings are proven to be ergonomically-correct.
Via Slashdot
Nov 29, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Four Were Framed With The FBI's Help
In order to protect informants in a Mafia case, the FBI framed four innocent people for a murder the informants comitted. The four were sentenced to death, later commuted to life, but two died in prison. The $100 million they ask for seems small.
Via Fark
Nov 20, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Satire hands a right
"Now Fox News Channel, a primary source of material for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, is teaming with the exec producer of 24 to try its hand at a news satire show for conservatives to love... 'The way I look at it, almost every comedy show or satire show I see uses the same talking points against George W. Bush and Dick Cheney,' [producer] Surnow said. 'The other side hasn't been skewered in a fair and balanced way.'"
Via Defamer
Nov 20, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment (4)
We Have Nothing To Fear Except Fear Itself, Which it Turns Out We Should Be Really Scared Of
Also known as "how the Republican party is driving the entire country insane."
Nov 14, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
In the fields, a rude awakening
In a remarkable turn of events, a company has actually exploited immigrant laborers, brought in through the new guest worker program, by promising them the moon and then delivering bad working conditions. Oops -- worker's rights organizations noticed.
Nov 5, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Grocers enter produce-safety debate
"The nation's largest supermarket chains have given produce growers six weeks to establish new safety rules to prevent deadly E. coli outbreaks." An interesting example of the free market vs. regulation; growers had ignored government warnings and resisted regulation, but now have an extremely short deadline in which to fix their practices or go out of business. Which is better for the growers: government regulation instituted over a moderate period, through a process in which everyone has a say, or their customers saying "do this right quick or never sell your product anywhere again"?
Nov 2, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment (2)
How iTunes saved 'The Office'
"'I'm not sure that we'd still have the show on the air' without the iTunes boost, says Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal Television Studio, which owns and produces 'The Office.' 'The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.'" Makes me want to download a few shows I like on iTunes even if I won't watch 'em!
Via Ars Technica
Nov 1, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Pink plastic flamingo faces extinction
Oct 31, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Extra anus kills four-legged chick
"'He developed two bottoms and I think he got glugged up,' she said." With classic photo.
Oct 27, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
U.S. Jails Man Once Tortured by Taliban
This is good stuff -- a guy imprisoned and tortured by the Taliban and then by the US; a guy hired to be a guard for the Karzai regime, thrown in Guantanamo because he has the same name as a terrorist; maybe we won't let people out of Guantanamo because we'd look too incompetent for having picked them up in the first place
Via Fark
Oct 23, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Transplant group is lax in oversight
If you thought that organ transplants -- you know, cutting one person open, taking out a major part of what makes their body operate, and moving that part to another person in order to allow that second person's body to continue to operate -- was regulated or supervised by some organization that ensured the safety of transplant patients, well, you were wrong!
Oct 22, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment (2)
Lichtenstein: creator or copycat?
High school art teacher David Barsalou has collected many of the original comic panels Roy Lichtenstein turned into his art. Is Lichtenstein a great artist or just a copycat? And, if he is a copycat, what are the legal consequences?
Via The Legal Reader
Oct 20, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Warriors Against Fascism Reunite in Madrid
"George Sossenko was a 16-year-old boy in Paris when he left a note for his mother and ran off to fight in the Spanish Civil War. 'I know this will cause you pain' he wrote, 'but the future of the world is being played out in Spain.' Sossenko and about 35 of his former comrades in arms came together in Madrid on Monday to mark the 70th anniversary of the start of the war triggered when Gen. Francisco Franco rebelled against Spain's elected government. They formed part of the International Brigades, about 35,000 men and women from more than 50 countries who journeyed to Spain to fight fascism, an ultimately losing battle that is often regarded as the precursor to World War II."
Oct 10, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Novel police tactic puts drug markets out of business
"In a counterintuitive approach, police here are trying to shut down entire drug markets, in part by giving nonviolent suspected drug dealers a second chance. Their strategy combines the "soft" pressure from families and community with the "hard" threat of aggressive, ready-to-go criminal cases. While critics say the strategy is too lenient, it has met with early success and is being tried by other communities afflicted with overt drug markets and the violence they breed."
Via Kottke
Oct 3, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Two Months Before 9/11, an Urgent Warning to Rice
Hmmm, the CIA Director says "let's worry about Bin Laden!" and the administration ignores it... good job!
Oct 1, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
"Saved by the Bell's" Dustin Diamond does the dirty
"...[W]e just found out, courtesy of the New York Daily News and the excellent Defamer, that Dustin Diamond, aka Screech on 'Saved by the Bell,' is the star of his very own sex tape -- featuring him with two women... It is currently being shopped around for a distributor. Working title, I kid you not: 'Saved by the Smell.' This is no doubt due to a widely circulated nasty detail that goes by the delicate nickname 'Dirty Sanchez.'" And now it turns out that "The sex tape got out because Diamond and some buddies have a 'monthly gathering' wherein they exchange such tapes (emphasis mine) which earn points based on 'what [we're] able to accomplish' on the tapes"
Via Fark
Sep 29, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Army Warns Rumsfeld It's Billions Short
"According to a senior Army official involved in budget talks, Schoomaker is now seeking $138.8 billion in 2008, nearly $25 billion above budget limits originally set by Rumsfeld. The Army's budget this year is $98.2 billion, making Schoomaker's request a 41% increase over current levels." Guess we can't do a half-assed job on the cheap anymore, we're going to have to pay full price. Too bad it's too late to do the job right; nothing's quite as crappy as an expensive, mediocre outcome.
Sep 25, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Special forces stretched thin by two wars
"So many of America's special operations commandos have been thrown into combat in Iraq and Afghanistan that only a handful of the elite troops are available for the quiet but critical work of training local security forces and stabilizing governments elsewhere -- raising worries about al-Qaida and related terrorist groups expanding in other parts of the world." Is there any way in which this Iraq plan is not failing?
Sep 24, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Macho Men Fall for Purse-Sized Pooches
"According to Wendy Diamond, editorial director of Animal Fair Magazine, the trend is a big one. 'Men with small dogs tend to be secure with themselves; they're confident,' Diamond said. 'They don't need a big dog to prove something.'" Sounds like my kind of dog.
Sep 18, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Diamond in the Rough
Screech's "I'm gonna lose my house, give me money" thing? Turns out it was all a put-on, if not a scam.
Sep 11, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
NSA eavesdropping program ruled unconstitutional
"[The judge]further declared that the program 'violates the separation of powers doctrine, the Administrative Procedures Act, the First and Fourth amendments to the United States Constitution, the FISA and Title III.' She went on to say that 'the president of the United States ... has undisputedly violated the Fourth in failing to procure judicial orders.'"
Aug 17, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Hezbollah Leads Lebanon Cleanup
"Only days after guns fell silent, Hezbollah has emerged as the lead player in the cleanup in the towns and villages of southern Lebanon. It has the volunteers, owns the equipment, and has spent years burnishing its image as the champion of ordinary people, from poor tobacco farmers to doctors and lawyers, who see Hezbollah as much more than a militia."
Aug 16, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Round and Orbity? Must Be a Planet
"There goes the solar system. The elite society of nine lordly bodies of rock, ice and gas would grow to at least 12 and as many as 53 members under a new definition of "planet" proposed Tuesday by the International Astronomical Union. The core of the definition? Planets are round. And they orbit a star."
Aug 16, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Security 'bad news for sex drive'
"They found 60% of 30-year-old women wanted sex "often" at the beginning of a relationship, but within four years of the relationship this figure fell to under 50%, and after 20 years it dropped to about 20%. In contrast, they found the proportion of men wanting regular sex remained at between 60-80%, regardless of how long they had been in a relationship. "
Aug 15, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Bush Staff Wanted Bomb-Detect Cash Moved
"While the British terror suspects were hatching their plot, the Bush administration was quietly seeking permission to divert $6 million that was supposed to be spent this year developing new homeland explosives detection technology." Hooray for competence.
Aug 11, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Hello, Young Workers: One Way to Reach the Top Is to Start There
"He found that the performance of the stock market in the two years the students were in business school played a major role in whether they took an investment banking job upon graduating and, because such jobs pay extremely well, upon the average salary of the class. That is no surprise. The startling thing about the data was his finding that the relative income differences among classes remained, even as much as 20 years later... And as economists have looked at the economy of the last two decades, they have found that Dr. Oyer's findings hold for more than just high-end M.B.A. students on Wall Street. They are also true for college students." Great, I graduated from college in a recession and from b-school during a short positive bump in a not particularly prosperous time.
Jun 16, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
It's Called Soccer
"[A]s much as the world likes to mock Americans for their ignorance of the beautiful game, football just isn't the correct term for it in English. Soccer is right." Note the source - Der Spiegel.
Jun 9, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Humans, chimps may have bred after split
May 19, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Verizon sued for $50 billion over wiretap program
"AT&T Corp., BellSouth Corp and Verizon Telecommunications are facing lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages for the decision to turn over calling records to the government, the New York Times reported Saturday. A federal lawsuit was filed in Manhattan yesterday seeking as much as $50 billion in civil damages against Verizon on behalf of its subscribers. Under telecommunications law, the phone companies are at risk for at least $1,000 per person whose records they disclosed without a court order, according to Orin Kerr, a former federal prosecutor and assistant professor at George Washington University." Donate to the EFF -- they're protecting your rights!
May 13, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Israel killed top-wanted Palestinian with chocolate
May 7, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Study: Songbirds can learn basic grammar
"The simplest grammar, long thought to be one of the skills that separate man from beast, can be taught to a common songbird, new research suggests."
Apr 27, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
'Galactica' Prequel on Tap at Sci Fi
Hmm, make something really good and you can create a franchise out of it. Who'd've thunk it?
Apr 26, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Magician David Copperfield robbed after show
"Copperfield said he pulled out all of his pockets for [the robber] to see he had nothing - even though he had a cell phone, passport and wallet stuffed in them."
Apr 25, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Wildlife defies Chernobyl radiation
"As humans were evacuated from the area 20 years ago, animals moved in. Existing populations multiplied and species not seen for decades, such as the lynx and eagle owl, began to return. There are even tantalising footprints of a bear, an animal that has not trodden this part of Ukraine for centuries."
Apr 21, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Diplomatic faux pas at US-China summit
Forget the heckler, Chinese Premier Hu was introduced as coming from the "Republic of China", also known as Taiwan, which is viewed as a renegade province by the "People's Republic of China", also known as China.
Apr 21, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Crossfield, First to Fly at Mach 2, Killed in Crash
"Scott Crossfield, a test pilot who was the first person to fly at two times the speed of sound, was found dead today in the wreckage of a single-engine plane that crashed in northern Georgia. He was 84."
Apr 21, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
The One Certainty About Iraq: Spiraling Costs for Americans
"ABC analyst Tony Cordesman, who also holds the Arleigh A. Burke Chair in Strategy for the Center for Strategic and International Studies, says the exorbitant costs come down to poor planning. 'When the administration submitted its original budget for the Iraq war, it didn't provide money for continuing the war this year or any other. We could end up spending up to $1 trillion in supplemental budgets for this war.'"
Apr 21, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
ENEMY WEAPON: Russian VA-111 Shkval
The basis for the "super torpedo" that Iran has boasted of having, the Shkval has been in Russian service since the mid-70s and has not been particularly feared because of its several substantial weaknesses, including inaccuracy and short range. Also, an explosion of the propellant in a Shkval is one of the possible causes of the Kursk's loss.
Apr 21, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Case of bubonic plague confirmed in L.A.
Apr 19, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Results of First Multicenter Trial of Intercessory Prayer, Healing Touch in Heart Patients
"Distant prayer and the bedside use of music, imagery and touch (MIT therapy) did not have a significant effect upon the primary clinical outcome observed in patients undergoing certain heart procedures, researchers at Duke Clinical Research Institute (DCRI), Duke University Medical Center, the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center (VAMC) and seven other leading academic medical institutions across the U.S. have found."
Apr 3, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Facebook turns down $750mm buyout, wants 2B
One wonders how diluted the original founders are that they need that kind of money to make their 15-50x return. Or do their projections actually have the company reasonably valued at that number?
Mar 28, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Solaris author Stanislaw Lem dies at 84
"Lem, whose books have sold more than 27 million copies and have been translated into more than 40 languages, won widespread acclaim for The Cyberiad, stories from a mechanical world ruled by robots, first published in English in 1974." Lem is one of my favorite sci-fi authors, try the famous Solaris or the hilarious The Futurological Congress: From the Memoirs of Ijon Tichy.
Mar 28, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Hidden CJD is new threat to thousands
"Thousands of people in Britain may be infected with variant CJD, the human equivalent of mad cow disease, without knowing it, research suggests. Experiments have confirmed that it is possible for a much wider group of people than had been assumed to be infected with the incurable brain condition. The presence in the population of undetected carriers of the infection has serious implications for the safety of the blood supply, and it increases the risk of passing on vCJD to others through infected surgical instruments."
Mar 27, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Oglala Sioux Tribe on the South Dakota Abortion Ban
"To me, it is now a question of sovereignty." President of the Oglala Sioux Tribe on the Pine Ridge Reservation, Cecilia Fire Thunder, says "I will personally establish a Planned Parenthood clinic on my own land which is within the boundaries of the Pine Ridge Reservation where the State of South Dakota has absolutely no jurisdiction."
Mar 26, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Decades later, Marines hunt Vietnam-era deserters
"Thirty years after the war ended, hundreds of Vietnam-era deserters are still on the loose. [Recently-captured Vietnam-era deserter] Conti's attorneys, Louis Font and Tod Ensign, say the Pentagon, and the Marine Corps in particular, are cracking down on long-term cases in an effort to warn current-day troops in Iraq against deserting."
Mar 10, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Scientists: Liquid water erupting on Saturn moon
"The Cassini spacecraft has found evidence of liquid water spewing from geysers on one of Saturn's icy moons, raising the tantalizing possibility that the celestial object harbors life."
Mar 9, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Record Set for Hottest Temperature on Earth: 3.6 Billion Degrees in Lab
That's hotter than the sun!
Mar 8, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Mechanic finds $30,000 worth of pot in car
"Police said the vehicle’s owner, Charles Warholic, of Jermyn, has no involvement with the drugs, other than that he’s driven around with them hidden in his bumper since November. That’s when he purchased the used car from Eynon Pontiac-Buick."
Mar 7, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Red rain could prove that aliens have landed
"On 25 July, 2001, blood-red rain fell over the Kerala district of western India. And these rain bursts continued for the next two months... [Godfrey] Louis [a physicist at Mahatma Gandhi University in Kottayam] decided that the rain was made up of bacteria-like material that had been swept to Earth from a passing comet. In short, it rained aliens over India during the summer of 2001."
Mar 6, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Jupiter's New Red Spot
That big storm on Jupiter that forms the enormous Red Spot? Well, it has a little brother!
Mar 4, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Scientists find Antarctic ice shrank significantly
"Using data from the NASA/German Aerospace Center Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE), scientists concluded that Antarctica's ice sheet decreased by about 152 cubic kilometers annually from April 2002 to August 2005."
Mar 4, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Study: Movie Critics Speak Even When They Don't Utter a Word
"It finds that many film critics, faced with far too many movies to write about, tend to avoid writing reviews of bad films that they’ve seen. At the same time, a few critics, faced with the same overwhelming choice, tend to avoid reviewing good movies that they’ve watched."
Feb 23, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
The Ugly Face of Crime
"Not only are physically unattractive teenagers likely to be stay-at-homes on prom night, they're also more likely to grow up to be criminals, say two economists who tracked the life course of young people from high school through early adulthood." Thank goodness I'm downright gorgeous!
Feb 19, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Israeli group announces anti-Semitic cartoons contest!
"'We’ll show the world we can do the best, sharpest, most offensive Jew hating cartoons ever published!' said Sandy 'No Iranian will beat us on our home turf!'"
Feb 18, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
RIAA et al. says CD ripping, backups not fair use
"The [submitted arguments in favor of granting exemptions to the DMCA] provide no arguments or legal authority that making back up copies of CDs is a noninfringing use. In addition, the submissions provide no evidence that access controls are currently preventing them from making back up copies of CDs or that they are likely to do so in the future. Myriad online downloading services are available and offer varying types of digital rights management alternatives... Presumably, consumers concerned with the ability to make back up copies would choose to purchase music from a service that allowed such copying. Even if CDs do become damaged, replacements are readily available at affordable prices." Remind me again what the advantage to legal music purchase is, besides a warm feeling in one's heart?
Feb 16, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Cowboys: Gay Since 1981, per Willie Nelson
"Cowboys Are Frequently, Secretly (Fond of Each Other)' may be the first gay cowboy song by a major recording artist... Available exclusively through iTunes, the song features choppy Tex-Mex style guitar runs and Nelson's deadpan delivery of lines like, "What did you think all them saddles and boots was about?" and "Inside every cowboy there's a lady who'd love to slip out. The song... was written by Texas-born singer-songwriter Ned Sublette in 1981."
Feb 15, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
“The $200 Billion Broadband Scandal.” -- AKA Where’s the 45MB/s I Already Paid for!
"One of the most damning indictments, that United States residents have already paid for upgrades to our existing broadband infrastructure -- being charged for services never delivered -- and not a small amount either, but actually to the tune of $200,000,000,000. When you break it down, that’s roughly a $2,000 refund for every household that’s due for contractual obligations never fulfilled."
Feb 7, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Infection Killed King Tut
"According to the Italian doctors, it was likely that King Tut suffered a violent blow, most likely by a sword. The blow would have lodged gold fragments from the decorations of the pharaoh's armour or dress into the knee. Shortly after, infection set in, bringing Tutankhamun to death at the age of about 19."
Feb 4, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
End of a (Telegram) Era
"Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage."
Feb 2, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Video captures octopus attack on sub
"Rare video footage shows a giant octopus attacking a small submarine off the west coast of Vancouver Island. Salmon researchers working on the Brooks Peninsula were shocked last November when an octopus attacked their expensive and sensitive equipment."
Jan 28, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Britons unconvinced on evolution
"More than half the British population does not accept the theory of evolution, according to a survey. Furthermore, more than 40% of those questioned believe that creationism or intelligent design should be taught in school science lessons." Yay! At least one other country is as screwed up as we are!
Jan 26, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Spy Agency Data After Sept. 11 Led F.B.I. to Dead Ends
"More than a dozen current and former law enforcement and counterterrorism officials, including some in the small circle who knew of the secret program and how it played out at the F.B.I., said the torrent of tips led them to few potential terrorists inside the country they did not know of from other sources and diverted agents from counterterrorism work they viewed as more productive." Sounds like a culture clash, more than anything: "[t]he N.S.A., an intelligence agency, routinely collects huge amounts of data from across the globe that may yield only tiny nuggets of useful information; the F.B.I., while charged with fighting terrorism, retains the traditions of a law enforcement agency more focused on solving crimes."
Jan 17, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
100 things we didn't know this time last year
Jan 5, 2006 in Breaking News | Comment
Polar bears drown as ice shelf melts
"Scientists have for the first time found evidence that polar bears are drowning because climate change is melting the Arctic ice shelf." Could this be because global warming is past the point of no return?
Dec 18, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Baby thrown from burning building
"An ex-rugby player relied on his safe pair of hands to catch a baby boy after his mother was forced to drop him out of her burning home."
Dec 12, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Fake journalism, real consequences
"It’s always the first question people ask when they see someone being more or less made fun of on 'The Daily Show With Jon Stewart': Didn’t they know it’s a joke? Well, yes, usually."
Dec 10, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
DART cops put a guy in jail 11 days for jaywalking
In case you forgot that some people just can't afford even the smallest amount of bail, what being arrested can do for a (potentially innocent) person.
Dec 9, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Marquette suspends dental student for blog comments
"A dental student at Marquette University has been suspended for the rest of the academic year and ordered to repeat a semester after a committee of professors, administrators and students determined that he violated professional conduct codes when he posted negative comments about unnamed students and professors on a blog." Remind me not to be associated with Marquette in any way in the future. However, also note that I mention almost nobody by name on this blog and talk about others very little.
Update: more at Inside Higher Ed and Marquette Warrior Blog.
Dec 7, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Baltimore dims as thieves snatch lights
"City streets are getting darker because thieves, some disguised as utility crews, are stealing 30-foot light poles, authorities said."
Nov 26, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Bird-like dinosaur forces rethink
"One theory suggests the lineage of dinosaurs the new animal belonged to, the dromaeosaurs, originated in the Cretaceous Period (144 to 65 million years ago)... But this discovery suggests their lineage can be traced further back in time, to the Jurassic (206 to 144 million years ago), experts say... This branch is distinct from Laurasian dromaeosaurids, including Velociraptor and some of the famous feathered dinosaurs from China. Birds are commonly thought to have evolved from this group."
Oct 14, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
On their own
"Among thousands of homeless schoolchildren in Baltimore is a group of teenagers who choose to care for themselves rather than submit to the help offered by social agencies." This is the story of two -- and a happy story, for one. I ran a couple of races against Eastern when I was in High School.
Oct 11, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Python Explodes After Eating Alligator
"The snake apparently tried to swallow the gator whole — and then exploded. Scientists stumbled upon the gory remains last week."
Oct 5, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Katrina, Rita may have released armed, killer US Navy dolphins into Gulf
"Experts who have studied the US navy's cetacean training exercises claim the 36 mammals could be carrying 'toxic dart' guns. Divers and surfers risk attack, they claim, from a species considered to be among the planet's smartest. The US navy admits it has been training dolphins for military purposes, but has refused to confirm that any are missing." If a British newspaper prints it, then it must be true!
Sep 27, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Ex-Tyco Execs Get Up to 25 Years in Prison
"Kozlowski, 58, was led out of the courtroom in handcuffs as his wife quietly sobbed from a bench three rows back. He will be eligible for parole after eight years and four months behind bars in a state prison in New York." This ain't Club Fed here, folks!
Sep 19, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Apparenty a real note written by the President to Condi Rice...
Sep 14, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Grammy winner "Gatemouth" Brown dies
"Clarence 'Gatemouth' Brown, the singer and guitarist who built a 50-year career playing blues, country, jazz and Cajun music, died Saturday in his hometown of Orange, Texas, where he had gone to escape Hurricane Katrina. He was 81." Gate was one of my favorites -- I'm sad to hear he died of a broken heart.
Sep 11, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Cockpit Confusion Found in Crash of Cypriot Plane
"The crew members of a Cypriot airliner that crashed Aug. 14 near Athens became confused by a series of alarms as the plane climbed, failing to recognize that the cabin was not pressurizing until they grew mentally disoriented because of lack of oxygen and lost consciousness, according to several people connected with the investigation into the crash."
Sep 7, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Living Paycheck to Paycheck Made Leaving Impossible
"To those who wonder why so many stayed behind when push came to water's mighty shove here, those who were trapped have a simple explanation: Their nickels and dimes and dollar bills simply didn't add up to stage a quick evacuation mission."
Sep 7, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Dinosaurs may have been a fluffy lot
"The popular image of Tyrannosaurus rex and other killer dinosaurs may have to be changed as a scientific consensus emerges that many were covered with feathers."
Sep 7, 2005 in Breaking News | Comment
Subway Flasher Caught!
That flasher who was caught on camera was IDd and caught! Apparently masturbating in front of unwilling witnesses is just "a misdemeanor", says the alleged perp, who owns the Quintessence restaurants.
Hunt perv caught in a flash
That guy that was caught on cameraphone allegedly masturbating on the subway? His picture just ran on the front page of the New York Daily News! Also, the meme seems to have spread to Paris (NSFW).
What Makes People Gay?
"The debate has always been that it was either all in the child's upbringing or all in the genes. But what if it's something else?" An article including the story of two identical twins, one gay, one not.
Moonbat anti-evolutionist: Deepak Chopra
A good response to Chopra's anti-evolution comments on Larry King, and to creationists in general.
Letter may solve 1930 mystery of missing judge
The mysterious case of the disappearance of Judge Crater may now be solved!
Porn will make you blind
It's true. Proven by science. And not quack science either.
Climate warning as Siberia melts
"The world's largest frozen peat bog is melting. An area stretching for a million square kilometres across the permafrost of western Siberia is turning into a mass of shallow lakes as the ground melts, according to Russian researchers just back from the region."
IP Oversight Costs "Dukes of Hazzard" $17.5 Million
Apparently, The Dukes of Hazzard TV show was based on a movie, and the makers of the original movie only sold the rights to make a TV show back in the '70s. So, no right to make a movie actually existed. The settlement was sizable!
A hit below the belt?
"Mike Tyson might be turning from his fists to another body part to make a living. The former champ says he's been approached by reps for porn star Jenna Jameson to co-star in a X-rated movie." (Article towards the bottom of the page -- complete with surprising vital statistics.)
Redesign Is Seen for Next Craft, NASA Aides Say
"The plan would separate the jobs of hauling people and cargo into orbit and would put the payloads on top of the rockets - as far as possible from the dangers of firing engines and falling debris, which were responsible for the accidents that destroyed the shuttle Challenger in 1986 and the Columbia in 2003."
Ice lake found on the Red Planet
"A giant patch of frozen water has been pictured nestled within an unnamed impact crater on Mars." This is incredible for future exploration of that planet.
Here's why you can't buy the News Journal at Wal-Mart
"[Wal-Mart Manager] Hart, however, said he and his stores couldn't tolerate a newspaper that would print the opinions of someone who was as mean and negative as [News Journal Columnist] Mark O'Brien... Mr. Hart said he wanted the newspaper to get its racks off his lots. But he also said that if I fired Mark, we could talk about continuing to sell the newspaper at his stores."
Russia's great leap for tourism - a $100m trip to the moon
"Russia's federal space agency took a giant leap in the field of cosmic tourism yesterday with the announcement it will offer a $100m (Ł57m) trip to the moon." Sadly, this trip only gets you to orbit the moon, not land on it. Instead of charging such a large fee why not, as one Slashdot reader suggested, sell 10 million $10 raffle tickets to win a trip to the moon?
Genetic flaw leaves felines without sweet tooth
"Researchers at the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia and their collaborators said Sunday they found a dysfunctional feline gene that probably prevents cats from tasting sweets, a sensation nearly every other mammal on the planet experiences to varying degrees."
'Star Trek' Icon Doohan Dies
One third of Americans believe in ghosts
"A Gallup poll has revealed that 32 per cent of all adult Americans believe in ghosts. Nineteen per cent aren't so sure, while a level-headed 48 per cent dismissed the idea outright." Hey, I'm pretty level-headed, and I'm in that third!
Bus firm takes car sharers to court
"[A] group of French cleaning ladies who organised a car-sharing scheme to get to work are being taken to court by a coach company which accuses them of 'an act of unfair and parasitical competition'.
The women, who live in Moselle and work five days a week at EU offices in Luxembourg, are being taken to court by Transports Schiocchet Excursions, which runs a service along the route. It wants the women to be fined and their cars confiscated." Read more in The french-language original.
Now, the Sun Prevents Skin Cancer -- Right?
"Scientists are excited about a vitamin again. But unlike fads that sizzled and fizzled, the evidence this time is strong and keeps growing. If it bears out, it will challenge one of medicine's most fundamental beliefs: that people need to coat themselves with sunscreen whenever they're in the sun. Doing that may actually contribute to far more cancer deaths than it prevents, some researchers think."
Scientists Create Zombie Dogs (It's True!)
"Pittsburgh's Safar Centre for Resuscitation Research has developed a technique in which subject's veins are drained of blood and filled with an ice-cold salt solution... scientists have succeeded in reviving the dogs after three hours of clinical death, paving the way for trials on humans within years."
German soldiers allowed to keep mullets
"German soldiers will be allowed to sport mullets and ponytails after a court ruled army hair regulations were unconstitutional."
The Incredible Sinking M1 Abrams Tank
"Iraqi swamps are the most lethal anti-tank weapons known to man." Also check out the classic missed call.
A Wiki for Your Thoughts
"How do you like the [LA Times] editorial? A lot? Thanks! Not so much? Do you see fatuous reasoning, a selective reading of the facts, a lack of poetry? Well, what are you going to do about it? You could send us an e-mail (or even write us a letter, if you can find a stamp). But today you have a new option: Rewrite the editorial yourself, using a Web page known as a wiki, at latimes.com/wiki." I'm not sure I understand why! Update: Taken down after excessive posting of obscene content.
The Munitz Collection
The Getty's flamboyant director, Barry Munitz, is criticized in some circles for living a bit too high. Here's what the Getty pays for, for Mr. Munitz.
How Mark Felt Became "Deep Throat"
Woodward's story of the appearance and development of his source.
Underwear shortage strikes Thai prisons
Too much homework can be counterproductive
"Instead of improving educational achievement in countries around the world, increases in homework may actually undercut teaching effectiveness and worsen disparities in student learning, according to two Penn State researchers."
Court Nixes 'Broadcast Flag'
Means that entertainment providers can't restrict what you do with their entertainment after they broadcast it to you. Love the court's reasoning: "In other words, the Flag Order imposes regulations on devices that receive communications after those communications have occurred; it does not regulate the communications themselves... Because the demodulator products are not engaged in 'communication by wire or radio' when they are subject to regulation under the Flag Order, the Commission plainly exceeded the scope of its general jurisdictional grant."
Which towns stand in the face of depression
Check out LA at #17! I'm moving back to Bawlimer.
Junk Fax Prevention Act Will Legalize Junk Faxes!
Apparently this law will actually make it legal to send junk faxes so long as there's an "unsubscribe" phone number on the fax. This is a bad law! Contact your congresspeople!
Low-carb Atkins diet foods that never sold sent to food banks
"Formerly hot low-carb Atkins diet foods that never got sold are being shipped to food banks in Appalachia, The Associated Press reports." Yay for leafy green vegetables!
Terri Schiavo's Parents Needed Activist Judges
A nice conservative take on the whole thing.
Papal Chase:Will the next pope be black, Hispanic, American, a Jew?
Yes, I could grow up to be Pope! But my money's on the Honduran.
Expiring offer: Best Buy will stop rebates
"In response to customer complaints, Best Buy Co. Inc., the world's largest electronics retailer, promised Friday to eliminate mail-in rebates within two years."
Strained life of the nonstop American family
"With all the scheduling and management, family life begins to resemble running a small business." Ouch.
Lab Fireball 'May Be Black Hole'
"A fireball created in a US particle accelerator has the characteristics of a black hole, a physicist has said."
Hit by iPod and Satellite, Radio Tries New Tune: Play More Songs
"After years of tight playlists and narrow music formats, KCJK in Kansas City, Mo., is trying to prove that it can give listeners the same thing an iPod does: an eclectic selection of music."
Cookie Kvetcher May Have To Leave Town
Remember those two girls who got sued for baking cookies for their neighbors? Well, the person who sued them says "This has turned into quite a fiasco. It's something that never should have happened, and it's just devastating. My phone hasn't stopped ringing. My life has been threatened, and I'll probably have to move out of town." There is a downside to having no sense of humor and little of human decency!
Dot-Con Job: How InfoSpace Took Its Investors for a Ride
InfoSpace was once worth hundreds of millions. Now it's worth much less. This is how that happened. Amazing how much of this they taught us not to do in b-school!
$3.5B Bid to Buy All 30 NHL Teams
A weird idea, but, with the current impasse, maybe not a bad one. Not sure I'd want to absorb all that risk though, were I the buyer.
Salt Should Be Regulated Food Additive, Group Says
We could regulate salt, because of its connection to heart disease, or we could suggest to people that they don't need to eat a Super Size fries.
T-Mobile Voice Mail Compromised; How to Protect Yourself
"If you’re a T-Mobile customer, John’s written up a few short steps you can take to protect yourself from this specific technique. A few minutes of time can save you from an outbound voice mail message that says 'I’m a real douche.'"
US Makes First Arrest for Spim
Spim = spam sent to your mobile phone. Hopefully this will keep spim from being a problem, especially given that I pay for every kilobyte of data that's sent to my phone.
Swimming Pool Stolen
"A Norwegian family's swimming pool wasn't just bolted down. It was in the ground. But that didn't stop a band of determined thieves."
The Theory That Self-Interest Is the Sole Motivator Is Self-Fulfilling
Economists -- who believe that everyone acts rationally, in their own self-interest, are more selfish than non-economists. That explains that girl I dated my sophomore year of college...
NASA Researchers Claim Evidence of Present Life on Mars
"What Stoker and Lemke have found, according to several attendees of the private meeting, is not direct proof of life on Mars, but methane signatures and other signs of possible biological activity remarkably similar to those recently discovered in caves here on Earth."
'Pack Ice' Suggests Frozen Sea on Mars
"A frozen sea, surviving as blocks of pack ice, may lie just beneath the surface of Mars, suggest observations from Europe's Mars Express spacecraft. The sea is just 5° north of the Martian equator and would be the first discovery of a large body of water beyond the planet's polar ice caps."
Egyptian Doctors Remove Baby's Second Head
"The condition occurs when an embryo begins to split into identical twins but fails to complete the process and one of the conjoined twins fails to develop fully in the womb. The second twin can form as an extra limb, a complete second body lacking vital organs, or, in very rare cases, a head." Article includes pictures!
Priests Sign Up for Exorcism 101
"The Roman Catholic Church is facing a shortage you may not have heard about: qualified exorcists." Would you like some bourbon in that, father?
The Lure of Sex Can Drive Roaches to Their Deaths
"The compound that lures males to their potential mates is so powerful that cockroaches near death from starvation will forgo peanut butter for a chance to copulate." And scientists have synthesized it!
Juice Makes You Fat
I can't drink juice, I can't drink soda, I can't drink milk, what do I drink when I get tired of water? I hope vodka doesn't make me fat...
SCI FI Renews Galactica
Yay! My favorite show has been renewed! Apparently the last episode was seen by 3.2 million people, which is a lot!
Judge Slams SCO's Lack of Evidence
Could this be the end of SCO vs. IBM? (Not to mention the end of SCO!)
Pfizer, Microsoft Sue Web Sites on Viagra
"Pfizer Inc. and Microsoft Corp. said on Thursday they filed parallel lawsuits against Web site operators and spam advertisers that sell illegal versions of Pfizer's Viagra."
North Korea Admits Having Nuclear Weapons
Apparently our foriegn policy has not been entirely effective in this case.
You There, at the Computer: Pay Attention
"But in the era of e-mail, instant messaging, Googling, e-commerce and iTunes, potential distractions while seated at a computer are not only ever-present but very enticing. Distracting oneself used to consist of sharpening a half-dozen pencils or lighting a cigarette. Today, there is a universe of diversions to buy, hear, watch and forward, which makes focusing on a task all the more challenging."
Carly Fiorina Forced Out At HP
My former fantasy deservedly falls from grace.
Smart People Choke Under Pressure
"A new study finds that individuals with high working-memory capacity, which normally allows them to excel, crack under pressure and do worse on simple exams than when allowed to work with no constraints. Those with less capacity score low, too, but they tend not to be affected by pressure."
Deceased Woman Named in File-Sharing Suit
"More than a month after [the 83-year-old, computer-hating] Walton was buried in Beckley, a group of record companies named her as the only defendant in a federal lawsuit. They claimed Walton made more than 700 pop, rock and rap songs available for free on the Internet under the screen name 'smittenedkitten.'"
Bake Your Neighbors Cookies? Go To Jail!
Blame Canada!
Emergency Broadcast Test Mistakenly Calls For Evacuation
"Despite what residents may have seen on television, the state of Connecticut was not ordered evacuated on Tuesday."
Cell Phone Users Drive Like the Elderly -Study
"Drivers who talk on cell phones end up driving like elderly people, with slower reaction times and a tendency to miss what is right in front of them, U.S. researchers said on Wednesday."
Fidgeting Helps Separate the Lean From the Obese, Study Finds
"'There are these absolutely staggering differences between people who are lean and people who are obese,' said James A. Levine of the Mayo Clinic... 'The amount of this low-grade activity is so substantial that it could, in and of itself, account for obesity quite easily.'"
Disgruntled Asian Tattoo Artist Inks His Revenge
"Pitt junior Brandon Smith wanted a tattoo that proclaimed his manliness, so he decided to get the Chinese characters for “strength” and “honor” on his chest. After 20 minutes under the needle of local tattoo artist Andy Sakai, he emerged with the symbol for “small penis” embedded in his flesh."
First Amendment No Big Deal, Students Say
"[W]hen told of the exact text of the First Amendment, more than one in three high school students said it goes "too far" in the rights it guarantees. Only half of the students said newspapers should be allowed to publish freely without government approval of stories."
Sharon Stone Raises $1MM in 5 Minutes For Malaria Prevention
Why is this filed under weird news? Money's being raised to do good, and it's weird because she stood up at a conference and challenged the rich people in the audience to donate?
Man Peed Way Out Of Avalanche
"A Slovak man trapped in his car under an avalanche freed himself by drinking 60 bottles of beer and urinating on the snow to melt it."
Monkeys Pay For Porn
"A new study found that male monkeys will give up their juice rewards in order to ogle pictures of female monkey's bottoms. The way the experiment was set up, the act is akin to paying for the images, the researchers say."
At Fast-Food Chains, Era of the Giant Burger (Plus Bacon) Is Here
"In November, Hardee's unveiled Mr. Frazer's Monster Thickburger: a pair of 5.7-ounce patties, four strips of bacon and three slices of American cheese on a buttered sesame-seed bun slathered with mayonnaise. It weighed in at 1,418 calories... the Monster Thickburger's 107 grams of fat far exceed the maximum daily fat-gram intake recommended by the federal government."
Mobile Virus Infects Lexus Cars
"Lexus cars may be vulnerable to viruses that infect them via mobile phones. Landcruiser 100 models LX470 and LS430 have been discovered with infected operating systems that transfer within a range of 15 feet."
Ukranian Hasn't Slept in Twenty Years
A 63-year-old man who hasn't slept for more than two decades has been told there is nothing wrong with him by doctors.
Women Lack "Natural Ability" In Some Fields, Harvard President Says
"Lawrence H. Summers, speaking Friday at an economic conference, also questioned how great a role discrimination plays in keeping female scientists and engineers from advancing at elite universities."
Who's Buying What At The Super Bowl?
Buyer name, ad length and in what quarter it will be shown, creative content, and agency, all in a handy chart.
Advertisers on Google Are Told to Keep It Proper
"Taking the stance that unorthodox usage and punctuation and slang create a less straightforward searching experience, Google's AdWords division, which is responsible for the contextual ads that appear alongside search results, insists on standard English and punctilious punctuation."
U.S. Tells D.C. to Pay Inaugural Expenses
"D.C. officials said yesterday that the Bush administration is refusing to reimburse the District for most of the costs associated with next week's inauguration, breaking with precedent and forcing the city to divert $11.9 million from homeland security projects."
For The Record On Social Security
"In this and other ways, the administration is manipulating information - a tacit, yet devastating, acknowledgement, we believe, that an informed public would reject privatizing Social Security."
Really, Please Stop Using IE Now, Folks
Malicious images and help files can take control of your computer. Watch where you surf, or get Firefox! You don't want to be the last sucker using IE when the perfect virus comes along, do you?
Fugitive Hid Since June In North Carolina Store
It's like From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, but now featuring thirtysomething, acne-scarred miscreants!
Justice Is Supreme, But Not On Jury
"No one took notice of the tall, slim man who appeared yesterday for jury duty in Marlborough. Had he worn his black robe, Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer no doubt would have drawn more attention." (Also read the blog entry by a juror who was there.)
Family Guy Un-Cancelled Blog
Fox is bringing back Family Guy, and has a blog to track it!
New DRM Scheme Could Make Current DVD Players Obsolete
Hmmm, a new product that's incompatible with what I currently own? How 'bout I don't buy that product.
USC, OU Fans All Buddy-Buddy
"Said 20-year-old Kasey Conners: 'Nobody doesn't like us. We're from USC, University of Sexy Chics. Come on now.'"
Reinventing the Wheel (And The Tire, Too)
"Engineers at Michelin's American technology center here envision a future in which vehicles would ride on what they call the Tweel, a combined tire and wheel that could never go flat because it contains no air."
TV Revolution Spells "End Of Ads"
British Satellite TV giant BSkyB's customers could be recieving a set-top box that automatically removes commercials for them (BSkyB gets almost all of its revenue from subscriptions).
Starbucks' Leaves Cup Of Coffee On Cab Roof
"The coffee ad, a creation of Clear Channel Taxi Media, is a venti-sized Starbucks cup magnetically connected to the roofs of about 100 cabs citywide."
Not Bad For A Little Open-Source Project, Huh?
"Pretty much since the day we released Firefox 1.0 people have been asking me to post a graph of the downloads and not just occasional postings of the total download number."
New Obesity Boom
"The belief that rotund women are more desirable as wives helps explain why much of the Arab world -- which stretches from the Persian Gulf in the east to Mauritania in North Africa -- is experiencing an explosion of obesity. About half of women in the Middle East are overweight or obese, according to the United Nations' World Health Organization." I should be dating Arab women!
Disney Float Knocks Woman Unconscious
My personal experience is that Disney people are awfully aggressive!
Zoo Monorail Breaks Down; Hundreds Stranded For Hours
"Once part of the 'zoo of the future,' the monorail is now considered a relic."
Cell Phones: Taking The Drunk Dial To Entirely New Level
"Cellphones can be loaded weapons. Having a phone filled with numbers of everyone you know provides the opportunity for instant gratification with potentially embarrassing results. It is possible to dial toxic numbers, those of exes and crushes. They may answer -- or not -- and either way, the caller must deal with the aftermath."
Mmmm Hot Dogs
"Police said the women provided personal services along with knishes, Fritos and Cheez Doodles from a wiener wagon parked alongside Sunrise Highway at Rockwood Ave. in Baldwin."
Delta Grounding Caused By Old Computer System
"The computer software that crashed and grounded Comair's entire fleet on Christmas Day was an antiquated system due to be replaced in the coming months."
They're Not Worthy
"This New Year's Day, a wonderful thing will happen in Europe that won't occur again in the US until 2019: Copyrights on music and television recordings will expire. After a half century of monopoly protection granted artists in exchange for their creative work, the public will get its justly earned free access to an extraordinary range of both famous and forgotten creativity."
Army Reboots GIs' Tired Fatigues
"'We're stripping the soldier down to his skin, and building out from there,' said Jean-Louis 'Dutch' DeGay, an equipment specialist at the Army's Natick Soldier Systems Center, which is supervising the seven-year, $250 million overhaul, dubbed Future Force Warrior, or FFW."
First-Hand Account Of Tsunami
A Washington Post reporter's experience swimming at sea when the tsunami came.
SpaceShipOne Designer Talks About Flight’s Future
The designer of the first commercial craft to reach orbit talks about his plans for future flights and increased commercialization -- and NASA's role in all that.
Gravity May Lose Its Pull
"Rather than traveling at a constant velocity of more than 25,000 mph toward the edge of the solar system, Pioneers 10 and 11 were inexplicably slowing down. Even factoring in the gravitational pull of the sun and its other planets couldn't explain [it]."
A Fatal Blow To Shrinkwrap Licensing?
"In January 2003, California resident Cathy Baker walked into her local CompUSA store to return copies of Windows XP and Norton AntiVirus she'd purchased there. When trying to install the programs, she had of course been confronted by all the obnoxious terms in the Windows and NAV End User License Agreements. Instead of clicking OK, she took them back to the store for a refund, as the EULAs said she was supposed to do if she refused to accept the terms. At CompUSA, however, Baker was told the store's policy was that it could not give refunds for software once the customer has opened the package. But Baker did something most others before her had not - she went and got a lawyer."
Ten to Avoid—The Worst Products Of The Year
"Here are two handfuls of devices to avoid at any cost this holiday season, culled from the worst-scoring products we tested this year." A good guide, except for the eMac, which seems to be tagged for problems it doesn't have.
Rice University Computer Scientists Find a Flaw in Google's New Desktop Search Program
A trojan or virus on your computer could potentially feed the contents of your search index to a third party.
NSA Conspiracy Theories
Former NSA Director and Admiral Bobby Ray Inman apparently thinks there's some sort of conspiracy going on involving both Bushes, Ollie North, and some more. Kinda cracked, but we've got a guy speaking from a position of authority.
Christmas: The Deadliest Day For Americans
"Christmas is the deadliest day of the year for Americans with 12.4 percent more deaths than normal, researchers said on Monday."
Forecast Predicts Apartment Rent Hikes Next Two Years in Southern California
"Southern California's strong economy, continued immigration and a shortage of new units will drive up the region's apartment rents an average 6 to 8 percent over the next two years, according to the Casden Real Estate Economics Forecast released today by the University of Southern California Lusk Center for Real Estate."
Man Ordered To Pay Damages For Motel Mess
"A Virginia man who admitted Monday to coating his motel room with the contents of 14 jars of petroleum jelly in May will have to pay $3,886 for damages to the motel... after he coated every object in a Motel 6 room..... with petroleum jelly..."
Long-Lost Soldiers Emerge From Jungle
" When Vietnamese troops overran his village in 1979, Romam Chhung Loeung, a Khmer Rouge guerrilla, had no option but to flee with friends and family into the dense jungle of northeast Cambodia. Twenty-five years later, the group emerged from the forest in clothes made of bark and leaves, unaware that the war was over, the Vietnamese had gone and Pol Pot was dead"
What Corporate America Can't Build: A Sentence
Eye can knot right a co-hearint sentunce. Yet eye am a senyur exucutuve. Eye guess you'n must send me'n to a skool to lern how to right rite. By CEO Dave age 47.
Chimps Hand Over New Clue To Brain
Apparently, those pesky left-handers have been around longer than we thought. Sinistralism: a high-risk, high-return approach?
Activists Dominate Content Complaints
"According to a new FCC estimate obtained by Mediaweek, nearly all indecency complaints in 2003 -- 99.8 percent -- were filed by the Parents Television Council, an activist group."
Chinese PC Maker To Acquire IBM's Consumer Windows Line?
"Although virtually unknown in the United States, Lenovo -- said to be in talks to buy I.B.M.'s personal computer business -- is China's largest PC maker and the world's fastest-growing one."
Congress Impedes NASA Prizes
NASA wants to create its own prizes, after the manner of the Ansari X-Prize; these prizes would award contracts to people who actually build working products. Congress, however, is against this plan.
Stewart: Subscribers Faithful To Martha's Namesake Magazine
"The renewal rate is 19% better than the magazine industry average, a circulation consultancy group said."
Kiduage
Safire on the latest words those darned kids are using these days.
iPod Fans Dump PCs For Macs
"According to a survey of iPod users by financial analysis firm Piper Jaffray, Macs are basking in the reflected glory of the iPod, with some who own the music player saying they have already or are intending to ditch their PCs for Macs."
Your Laser Printer Is Spying On You
"According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters."
Too Much Junk In J-Lo's Badonkadonk
"The 35-year-old star was filming Pepsi's £11m new advert when they reportedly discovered she couldn't fit into her skimpy costume." (Sounds like a good thing to me!)
Child Spells 310-Letter Word
Maximize your browser window to read the word!
Wanted by the Police: A Good Interface
"Since June, the police department has been using a new mobile dispatch system that includes a Windows-based touch-screen computer in every patrol car. But officers have said the system is so complex and difficult to use that it is jeopardizing their ability to do their jobs."
How "Balanced" Coverage Lets the Scientific Fringe Hijack Reality
The Columbia Journalism Review points out how hard it is to write a "balanced" article about a scientific issue when one side has essentially no backing from the scientific community and the other side is supported by virtually all of the scientific evidence available. The verdict: fringe viewpoints are dealt with too softly.
Satellite Crashes Into House
"'The satellite landed in our home. Maybe this means we'll have good luck this year,' the tenant of the wrecked apartment, Huo Jiyu, was quoted as saying."
Girl Says Bones Belong To Ghost
"[The] Sheriff... said an initial analysis shows the bones are from the pelvis and leg of a child at least 10 years old, and the child has been dead at least 10 years... Stephanie said a black girl in a white dress started visiting her room when she was about 5 years old... 'She told me that somebody put her in the floor,' Stephanie said. 'She said he had a mask on, and that he chopped her up. She didn't know who the person was, because he had a mask on.'"
Carter: Florida Voting Set=Up Does Not Meet "Basic International Requirements"
"[The veteran international poll-watcher] said a repeat of the irregularities of the much-disputed 2000 election - which gave President George W Bush the narrowest of wins - 'seems likely'."
Fantasy Sports Cost Companies $36.7MM Daily
Imagine, productive employees wasting their time on fantasy sports rather than around the water cooler!
Dad To Retire
"USC Provost Lloyd Armstrong, Jr., who has overseen some of the most significant academic advances in the university’s history, has announced his decision to retire as provost at the end of this academic year, returning to the USC faculty."
My Freshman Year RA Is A Defense Attorney For The Rigases
The RA down the hall from me freshman year -- who we always bothered by playing hall bowling with aluminum cans and a real bowling ball -- is a defense attorney for one of the Adelphia-looting Rigases!
Pup Shoots Man, Saves Litter Mates
"A man who tried to shoot seven puppies was shot himself when one of the dogs put its paw on the revolver's trigger."
Apprentice's Emmy Campaign Threatens To Send Omarosa To Voters' Houses
Vote for an Emmy for The Apprentice or we give Omarosa your home address!
Schwarzenegger Misremembers Austrian History
Russian tanks in Austria's streets? Nope; he grew up in the British-occupied zone. Socialist government? He left when a conservative Roman Catholic party was in power. Bad Governator!
Drunk Driver Decapitates Friend, Passes Out
This is an awful article. My friend blogged it and it stuck with me so I'm blogging it too. Pass it on.
Happy 20th, PG-13!
And here I thought I was about 13 when PG-13 came out! I'm young! Young again, young!
Windows XP SP 2's Security System Vulnerable To Spoofing
Census: More Americans Living In Poverty
"The number of Americans living in poverty increased by 1.3 million last year, while the ranks of the uninsured swelled by 1.4 million, the Census Bureau reported Thursday." Vote Bush!
Bear Guzzles 36 Beers, Passes Out
"It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge."
Battlestar Galactica: Coming Jan. 2005
January: playoffs and Battlestar Galacticz. How could the new year be any better?
Bush Misspeaks During Signing Ceremony
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we."
Could Astronauts Sleep Their Way To The Stars?
"The state of suspended animation that astronauts enter during long-haul space flights is a staple of science-fiction movies. But now the European Space Agency (ESA) wants to turn it into reality."
George, You're Not My Daddy, By Ron Reagan
"Does anyone really favor an administration that so shamelessly lies? One that so tenaciously clings to secrecy, not to protect the American people, but to protect itself? That so willfully misrepresents its true aims and so knowingly misleads the people from whom it derives its power? I simply cannot think so. And to come to the same conclusion does not make you guilty of swallowing some liberal critique of the Bush presidency, because that's not what this is. This is the critique of a person who thinks that lying at the top levels of his government is abhorrent. Call it the honest guy's critique of George W. Bush."
Judge Says Artist Can Make Fun of Barbie
Artist produces parody works. Big Company sues over parodies. Judge says, hey, parody is parody. Artist gets to keep producing parody works. Big Company must pay artist's $1.8 million legal bill.
Sony Digital Walkman: You're No iPod
"Our verdict: While the new Sony is smaller than the iPod and has much better battery life, it is markedly inferior overall. It has a confusing, complex user interface that makes it hard to use; weak software for the PC; an oddball music format that makes loading it with songs tedious; and a companion music download service that offers less than Apple's. The iPod wins this round, and remains champion."
Firefox Spoof Demonstration
IE may be dangerous, but Firefox is too! They can hijack your browser and give you a spoofed window. Time to change to Opera?
MSN Newsbot
MS's alternative to Google News
Electoral Vote Predictor
"This website is dedicated to tracking the electoral vote by examining the state-by-state polls. As new state polls are released, the maps, spreadsheets, and tables will be updated."
Showering Now Legal In Indiana
“Tun was taking a shower in a place explicitly designated and designed for that activity and was, naturally, nude while doing so. To suggest that this conduct constitutes public indecency is the same as saying everyone who showers at the YMCA or athletic club commits a criminal act in the state of Indiana.”
Monkey Starts Walking Like A Human
"Natasha, a five-year-old macaque at the Safari Park, near Tel Aviv, now walks exclusively on her hind legs."
Krispy Kreme Introduces Donut-Flavored Drink
Mmmm, 700 calories!
This Is Your Brain on Meth: A 'Forest Fire' of Damage
Like I've always said, it's the worst drug ever!
The Price Of Multi-Tasking
"...multi-tasking, which many have embraced as the key to success, is instead a formula for shoddy work, mismanaged time, rote solutions, stress and forgetfulness."
The True Sex Story Of Britney's Marriage
RIAA Dumps Unsold Merchandise On WA Schools
"But some teachers are not sure what they will do with, for example, 114 copies of Meredith Brooks' 'Blurring the Edges,' which includes the Grammy-nominated song, 'Bitch.'
'There were several that were clearly marked, "For Promotional Use Only,"' she said. Tacoma Public Library received dozens of CDs that were notched, indicating that they were not resalable. "
Super-Boy Found; World Quakes In Terror Of Future Genetic Overlords
"The baby, it turned out in the first such documented case in a human, had a double dose of a genetic mutation that causes immense strength in mice and cattle."
British Develop Force Field Armor For Tanks
Shaped-charge warheads, like the RPGs you hear about in Iraq, work by firing a jet of molten metal that burns through armor. This force field has a charged plate, an insulator, and an outer armor plate. When the armor is pierced, the insulator is destroyed and the armor is suddenly charged with thousands of amps. The electricity arcs powerfully across the breach in the armor, and, because all of this is happening at the speed of light, the jet is vaporized by the electricity. Cool!
Canada's Spam King Apologizes
"A Canadian man accused of being one of the biggest spammers in the world by Yahoo Inc. has agreed to stop sending unwanted e-mails and plans to help educate children about the dangers of the Internet."
DirecTV Stops Suing People Right And Left
"After discussions with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Internet and Society (CIS) Cyberlaw Clinic, satellite television giant DirecTV has agreed to modify its nationwide campaign against signal piracy in order to reduce threats and lawsuits against innocent users of smart card technology. Chief among these changes is a promise to no longer sue or threaten to sue people merely for possessing smart card devices."
900-Pound Man Vows He'll Dance Weight Off
"Cooper, who also goes by the last name McConneghey, said his troubles began when he was shot in the leg in 1994 and could no longer dance.
Already weighing as much as 400 pounds, he sought solace in the refrigerator, eating up to 10 meals a day.
'I was overdosing,' he said. 'I would eat everything - a pound of bacon, a dozen eggs. I was basically killing myself and didn't know it,' he said."
Art or Terorism?
Harmless bacteria used as part of art and performance art have been seized, along with scientific equipment used in the performance art, as tools to make weapons of mass destruction.
Study finds dogs understand language
"German researchers have found a border collie named Rico who understands more than 200 words and can learn new ones as quickly as many children."
Ducks Have Accents
"While cockney ducks make a rough 'shouting' quack so that their mates can hear them above the din of urban life, their laid-back counterparts in the west country give off a Cornish burr of a quack, rather like a 'giggle'."
Web Porn Entices Far More Surfers Than Search-Study
"Online porn sites get about three times more visits than the top Web search engines, including market leader Google Inc., a research firm said on Thursday."
US Soldiers Beat Fellow Soldier Impersonating Detainee In Exercise
"A Georgetown resident and former Kentucky National Guardsman is angry that the military is denying his claims that he suffered brain injury while being severely beaten by U.S. soldiers during a training exercise at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in January 2003."
Broad Effort Launched After '98 Attacks
The right wing says Clinton did nothing about Bin Laden. This is untrue; he authorized virtually everything short of invasion to get him.
Dr. Who's Hot New Companion?
D. Who gets a hot babe as a companion? I hope they don't screw this up!
David Crosby On The Music Business
"The people who run record companies now wouldn't know a song if it flew up their nose and died. They haven't a clue, and they don't care. You tell them that, and they go, "Yeah? So, your point is?" Because they don't give a s---. They don't care. They're actually sort of proud that they don't care."
Dinosaurs Fried Within Hours of Cosmic Collision
"Most dinosaurs were incinerated in a matter of hours after an asteroid impact 65 million years ago kicked up a global rain of broiling debris, according to a new study."
"I killed innocent people for our government"
"I talked with my commanding officer after the incident. He came up to me and says: 'Are you OK?' I said: 'No, today is not a good day. We killed a bunch of civilians.' He goes: 'No, today was a good day.' And when he said that, I said 'Oh, my goodness, what the hell am I into?'"
Texas: Unitarians Not A Religion
The Unitarians have been around for hundreds of years. They're in every state. John Adams was one. But, in Texas, it's not a religion anymore.
Pentagon Study On Climate Change
What are the national security consequences of climate change? The Pentagon had a study done. (Also read the interview with one of the authors.)
Childless couple told to try sex
"A German couple who went to a fertility clinic after eight years of marriage have found out why they are still childless - they weren't having sex."
'Wedgie' led to death near sports bar, lawyers say
"What started with a 'wedgie' inside a Southwest Roanoke sports bar ended with a disembowelment and fatal neck wound in a dark field beyond."
Newest High-Tech Land Mine Hunter
Rats are abundant, cheap and easily transported. At three pounds, they are too light to detonate mines accidentally. They can sift the bouquet of land-mine aromas far better than any machine. Unlike even the best mine-detecting dog or human, they are relentlessly single-minded.
Zogby: Kerry Will Win
Based on the numbers, pollster John Zogby thinks Kerry is the sure winner in November! Check back in six months.
Turtle flies into van windshield on I-95
"'It is amazing (the turtle) wasn't injured,' he said. 'He came flying through the windshield at 70 miles per hour. Not many things can live going through a windshield like that.'"
Italian Cops Get Lamboghini
Warning Italian speeders: you can't outrun the cops just by going 200mph anymore...
A Proven Formula For How Many Troops We Need
In Germany, after World War II, our occupation forces were large enough that we had 1 soldier for every 40 Germans. In Iraq, today, we have 1 soldier for every 160 Iraquis. And people wonder why we can't control the whole country.
Dissension Grows In Senior Ranks On War Strategy
"Army Maj. Gen. Charles H. Swannack Jr., the commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, who spent much of the year in western Iraq, said he believes that at the tactical level at which fighting occurs, the U.S. military is still winning. But when asked whether he believes the United States is losing, he said, 'I think strategically, we are.'"
John Waters the original Jackass, and proud of it
"I'm from Baltimore," he announces proudly, "and although I love it madly, it's not a city that encourages you to have many illusions about yourself."
The Tech Interviews Jack Valenti
Valenti comes off as smart and erudite, but not as fully-informed about the ramifications of some of the positions he takes.
John Kerry's USN Fitness Reports
"LTJG Kerry is one of the finest young officers with whom I have served in a long naval career... it is hoped that he will be of further perhaps greater service to his country..."
(warning: PDF)
Crying Wolf
That Mac "virus"? Nothing new, although technically clever, and, as usual, completely overblown in the news. Nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah nyah Windows users!
Save An IM Conversation, Go To Jail
"You are engaged in a chat session with some friends and colleagues, when one of them makes a witty remark or imparts a pithy bit of information. You hit CTRL-A and select the conversation, then copy it to a document that you save. Under a little-noticed decision in a New Hampshire Superior Court in late February, these actions may just land you in jail."
(n.b., CA is a two-party consent state.)
The Permanent Scars of Iraq
New system no easy touch for 134 voters in Broward
New electronic voting systems aren't perfect, as seen in this election in Florida in which some people who started voting never had votes recorded for them. User error? Political statement? Bad interface? Without any kind of a paper trail, we may never know.
End Of The World Nigh
NOAA says "Unusually hot weather has entered the region for December ... as the Earth has left its orbit and is hurtling towards the sun"
RIAA Sues Computerless Grandma, Grandpa for MP3 Distribution
"Among the RIAA's recent targets is retiree Ernest Brenot, 79, of Ridgefield, Wash., who wrote in a handwritten note to a federal judge that he does not own a computer nor can he operate one."
German law struggles with case of voluntary cannibal victim
"The crime of cannibalism is gruesome enough, but what about when the victim has apparently consented to being eaten? That's the case being presented in Germany and which has Europe gripped."
Missing!
Bill Watterson, the stripper who drew Calvin and Hobbes, has become Ohio's latter-day J.D. Salinger -- a recluse who keeps no connection to his ouevre or his fans. But, if you're as obsessed with his comic as I am, you may still enjoy reading about where he is (or, maybe, isn't).
Dodge plans Lingerie Bowl
"DaimlerChrysler's Dodge unit is sponsoring a pay-per-view 'Lingerie Bowl' during halftime of the Super Bowl on Feb. 1 featuring models dressed in lingerie playing a seven-on-seven tackle football game."
Mackovic made me stop loving football
After just a few years of tumultuous disaster, John Mackovic was fired as football coach of the Arizona Wildcats. This is the story of a kid in his program -- a good kid who clearly got on the wrong side of a very bad situation. It's a touching story that tells of the best in a scholar-athelete and the worst in a taskmaster.
Global Mission Accomplished With 7 Marathons in 7 Days
"...Carrying a miniature defibrillator for Fiennes, who had double-bypass heart surgery last June, they finished their seventh marathon in seven days on almost seven continents
They have not decided on their next adventure.
'I'll ring him up next year,' Fiennes said.
Stroud replied, 'I may not answer.'"
Plot was Guy-normous
"If Guy Fawkes had succeeded with his gunpowder plot he would have devastated much of London as well as blowing the palace of Westminster sky-high."
Turn into a sex kitten
"A microscopic parasite which the pets can pass on to humans may cause personality changes, scientists have discovered.
It can make women behave like 'sex kittens' and men like 'alley cats'."
A Little Perspective on $87 billion
A visualization of just how big the $87 billion we want to spend on Iraq is.
Man steals identity of sex offender
"Police offer these helpful tips for those who would engage in the crime of identity theft:
First, try very hard not to steal the identity of someone who is a convicted sex offender.
Second, if having stolen and then assumed the identity of someone who turns out to be a sex offender, try very hard thereafter to refrain from domestic disputes that might result in your arrest for disorderly conduct. "
Md. Plans Vote System Fixes After Criticisms
"An independent review released yesterday found 328 security weaknesses, 26 of them critical, in the computerized voting system Maryland has just purchased, flaws that could leave elections open to tampering or allow software glitches to go undetected."
Unintended Consequences: Five Years Under The DMCA
An excellent overview by the EFF of how the Digital Millennium Copyright Act has chilled innovation and research since its passage five years ago.
2003 Ig Nobel Prize Winners
Include the authors of a study on "An Analysis of the Forces Required to Drag Sheep over Various Surfaces," a study proving that taxi drivers are smarter than the average Londoner, and a study investigating why pigeons didn't poop on a certain statue. Win one yourself next year!
Half Life 2 source code leaked due to Outlook flaw
Thanks to a virus vulnerability in Outlook, the makers of top-selling video game Half Life have had the source code for the sequel, Half Life 2, leaked on the Web. This means that anyone out there can play the game without having to buy it. Bad Outlook flaw!
City hopes wireless Inner Harbor helps it plug into economic growth
"Starting at lunchtime today, you'll be able to surf the Internet for free while dining on the surf and turf at a Harborplace cafe or sitting on a bench at Baltimore's Inner Harbor."
Japan's three-day orgy enrages China
"THE Chinese Government has ordered Japan to teach its citizens how to behave following an "extremely odious" mass orgy between hundreds of Japanese tourists and Chinese prostitutes."
Failing at Living
"I hate Ms Gonick, she's such a dooshe bag."
New Mexico kicker becomes first woman to score in Division I [Football]
"Katie Hnida became the first woman to score in a Division I game when she kicked two extra points for New Mexico in a 72-8 win over Texas State-San Marcos on Saturday night."
Wrongful amputation suit settled
"A 68-year-old Wichita County man who said his penis was wrongly removed during surgery settled his lawsuit against two local doctors Wednesday morning. "
Candidate With A Diff'rence
"Far from seeing himself in the governor's chair, Gary Coleman instead imagines an altogether alternative universe, how his life might have been blissfully perfect as a nobody."
Microsoft Windows: Insecure by Design
"Between the Blaster worm and the Sobig virus, it's been a long two weeks for Windows users. But nobody with a Mac or a Linux PC has had to lose a moment of sleep over these outbreaks -- just like in earlier "malware" epidemics."
Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos Goes Ga-Ga Over Anna Kournikova
Now that's a photo. Hope Jeff's wife doesn't see it!
Woman burned by exploding cellphone
"... Nokia was aware of 'three or four' similar incidents of exploding mobile phones over the last six months or so."
Rockin' on without Microsoft
"[S]ince jettisoning all of Microsoft products three years ago, Ernie Ball has... gained notoriety as a company that dumped most of its proprietary software--and still lived to tell the tale."
The Picture Arnold Doesn't Want You To See
NSFW!
No-smoking law creates quandary for 'sober bar'
"EDMONTON - A 'sober bar' that caters to recovering alcoholics was told Thursday to get a liquor licence and start serving alcohol if it wants to let customers smoke."
Baltimore Police Blotter
"Between Friday afternoon and Monday morning, someone entered the city Police Department's auto repair facility in the 200 block of Fallsway, jacked up a Ford Crown Victoria patrol car and stole all four tires."
Hipsters Run Riot
Upper-class New Yorkers loot trendy store during blackout.
Jesus Jones Sells Out
Cloning Yields Human-Rabbit Embryo
Miracle dog survives gas chamber
Voting machine review ordered
Calif. Democrat Raises Possibility of a Retaliatory Recall Bid
After four divorces, man prefers blow-up doll
"Polar Bear Turns Purple After Medication"
Saddam's Sons Uday and Qusay Killed
Marriage may tame genius
"Creative genius and crime express themselves early in men but both are turned off almost like a tap if a man gets married and has children, a study says."
Ducks' odyssey nears end
"A consignment of thousands of rubber ducks is expected to wash up any day on the coast of New England - after more than a decade at sea."