The article isn't actually amusing, but I interpreted the headline as the campaigners dissing millions of people in the ads. That would be such an awesome burn.
Analysts said Google bid up the price of the airspace in order to invoke special FCC rules that would require the airwaves to be open to anyone.
Google got the FCC to agree to a stipulation: if the slice of airwaves Google was bidding for (known as C-Block) reached $4.6 billion, the winner would have to keep it "open access."
On one hand it's sorta awesome, but at the same time this seems awfully sneaky for a company with the motto "Don't be evil".
Well, it benefits us too! Now we won't have to deal with restrictions within that airspace. This is very good, especially since they predict Verizon to win, and Verizon is famous for restricting their crap.
Titan’s surface organics surpass oil reserves on Earth
13 February 2008
Saturn’s orange moon Titan has hundreds of times more liquid hydrocarbons than all the known oil and natural gas reserves on Earth, according to new Cassini data. The hydrocarbons rain from the sky, collecting in vast deposits that form lakes and dunes.
The new findings from the study led by Ralph Lorenz, Cassini radar team member from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, USA, are reported in the 29 January 2008 issue of the Geophysical Research Letters.
"Titan is just covered in carbon-bearing material—it’s a giant factory of organic chemicals," said Lorenz. “This vast carbon inventory is an important window into the geology and climate history of Titan.”
At a balmy minus 179º C , Titan is a far cry from Earth. Instead of water, liquid hydrocarbons in the form of methane and ethane are present on the moon's surface, and tholins probably make up its dunes. The term ‘tholins’ was coined by Carl Sagan in 1979 to describe the complex organic molecules at the heart of prebiotic chemistry.
Cassini has mapped about 20% of Titan's surface with radar. Several hundred lakes and seas have been observed, with each of several dozen estimated to contain more hydrocarbon liquid than Earth's oil and gas reserves. The dark dunes that run along the equator contain a volume of organics several hundred times larger than Earth's coal reserves.
Proven reserves of natural gas on Earth total 130 thousand million tons, enough to provide 300 times the amount of energy the entire United States uses annually for residential heating, cooling and lighting. Dozens of Titan's lakes individually have the equivalent of at least this much energy in the form of methane and ethane.
"This global estimate is based mostly on views of the lakes in the northern polar regions. We have assumed the south might be similar, but we really don’t yet know how much liquid is there," said Lorenz. Cassini's radar has observed the south polar region only once, and only two small lakes were visible. Future observations of that area are planned during Cassini’s proposed extended mission.
Scientists estimated Titan's lake depth by making some general assumptions based on lakes on Earth. They took the average area and depth of lakes on Earth, taking into account the nearby surroundings, like mountains. On Earth, the lake depth is often 10 times less than the height of nearby terrain.
"We also know that some lakes are more than 10 m or so deep because they appear literally pitch-black to the radar. If they were shallow we'd see the bottom, and we don't," said Lorenz.
The question of how much liquid is on the surface is an important one because methane is a strong greenhouse gas on Titan as well as on Earth, but there is much more of it on Titan. If all the observed liquid on Titan is methane, it would only last a few million years, because as methane escapes into Titan's atmosphere, it breaks down and escapes into space. If the methane were to run out, Titan could become much colder. Scientists believe that methane might be supplied to the atmosphere by venting from the interior in cryovolcanic eruptions. If so, the amount of methane, and the temperature on Titan, may have fluctuated dramatically in Titan’s past.
“We are carbon-based life, and understanding how far along the chain of complexity towards life that chemistry can go in an environment like Titan will be important in understanding the origins of life throughout the universe,” added Lorenz.
Cassini's next radar flyby of Titan is on 22 February 2008, when the radar instrument will observe the landing site of ESA’s Huygens probe.
Notes for editors:
The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, ESA and the Italian Space Agency (ASI).
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), a division of the California Institute of Technology, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate. JPL designed, developed and assembled the Cassini orbiter. ESA developed the Huygens Titan probe, while ASI managed the development of the high-gain antenna and the other instruments of its participation. The radar instrument was built by JPL and the Italian Space Agency, working with team members from the United States and several European countries.
CLEVELAND (AP) -- The nation's foreclosure crisis has led to a painful irony for homeless people: On any given night they are outnumbered in some cities by vacant houses. Some street people are taking advantage of the opportunity by becoming squatters.
Foreclosed homes often have an advantage over boarded-up and dilapidated houses abandoned because of rundown conditions: Sometimes the heat, lights and water are still working.
"That's what you call convenient," said James Bertan, 41, an ex-convict and self-described "bando," or someone who lives in abandoned houses.
While no one keeps numbers of below-the-radar homeless finding shelter in properties left vacant by foreclosure, homeless advocates agree the locations -- even with utilities cut off -- would be inviting to some. There are risks for squatters, including fires from using candles and confrontations with drug dealers, prostitutes, copper thieves or police.
"Many homeless people see the foreclosure crisis as an opportunity to find low-cost housing (FREE!) with some privacy," Brian Davis, director of the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless, said in the summary of the latest census of homeless sleeping outside in downtown Cleveland.
The census had dropped from 40 to 17 people. Davis, a board member of the National Coalition for the Homeless, cited factors including the availability of shelter in foreclosed homes, aggressive sidewalk and street cleaning and the relocation of a homeless feeding site. He said there are an average 4,000 homeless in Cleveland on any given night. There are an estimated 15,000 single-family homes vacant due to foreclosure in Cleveland and suburban Cuyahoga County.
In Texas, Larry James, president and chief executive officer of Central Dallas Ministries, said he wasn't surprised that homeless might be taking advantage of vacant homes in residential neighborhoods beyond the reach of his downtown agency.
"There are some campgrounds and creek beds and such where people would be tempted to walk across the street or climb out of the creek bed and sneak into a vacant house," he said.
Bertan, who doesn't like shelters because of the rules, said he has been homeless or in prison for drugs and other charges for the past nine years. He has noticed the increased availability of boarded-up homes amid the foreclosure crisis.
He said a "fresh building" -- recently foreclosed -- offered the best prospects to squatters.
"You can be pretty comfortable for a little bit until it gets burned out," he said as he made the rounds of the annual "stand down" where homeless in Cleveland were offered medical checkups, haircuts, a hot meal and self-help information.
Shelia Wilson, 50, who was homeless for years because of drug abuse problems, also has lived in abandoned homes, and for the same reason as Bertan: She kept getting thrown out of shelters for violating rules. "Every place, I've been kicked out of because of drugs," she said.
Michael Stoops, acting executive director of the National Coalition for the Homeless, hasn't seen evidence of increased homeless moving into foreclosed homes but isn't surprised. He said anecdotal evidence -- candles burning in boarded-up homes, a squatter killed by a fire set to keep warm -- shows the determination of the homeless to find shelter.
Davis said Cleveland's high foreclosure rate and the proximity of downtown shelters to residential neighborhoods has given the city a lead role in the homeless/foreclosure phenomenon.
Many cities roust homeless from vacant homes, which more typically will be used by drug dealers or prostitutes than a homeless person looking for a place to sleep, Stoops said.
Police across the country must deal with squatters and vandalism involving vacant homes:
-- In suburban Shaker Heights, which has $1 million homes on wide boulevards, poorer neighborhoods with foreclosed homes get extra police attention.
-- East of San Francisco, a man was arrested in November on a code violation while living without water service in a vacant home in Manteca, Calif., which has been hit hard by the foreclosure crisis.
-- In Cape Coral, Fla., a man arrested in September in a foreclosed home said he had been living there since helping a friend move out weeks earlier.
Bertan and Wilson agreed that squatting in a foreclosed home can be dangerous because the locations can attract drug dealers, prostitutes and, eventually, police.
William Reed, 64, a homeless man who walks with a cane, thumbed through a shoulder bag holding a blue-bound Bible, notebooks with his pencil drawings and a plastic-wrapped piece of bread as he sat on a retainer wall in the cold outside St. John Cathedral in downtown Cleveland. He's gone inside empty homes but thinks it's too risky to spend the night.
Even the inviting idea of countless foreclosed empty homes didn't overcome the possible risk of entering a crack house.
"Their brains could be burned up," said Reed, who didn't want to detail where he sleeps at night.
Sometimes it's hard to track where the homeless go.
In Philadelphia, the risk is too great to send case workers into vacant homes to check for homeless needing help, said Ed Speedling, community liaison with Project H.O.M.E. "We're very, very wary of going inside. There's danger. I mean, if the floor caves in. There's potential danger: Sometimes they are still owned by someone," Speedling said.
William Walker, 57, who was homeless for seven years and now counsels drifters at a sprawling warehouse-turned-shelter overlooking Lake Erie, has seen people living in foreclosed homes in his blue-collar neighborhood in Cleveland. He estimated that three or four boarded-up homes in his neighborhood have homeless living there from time to time.
Sometimes homeless men living in tents in a nearby woods disappear from their makeshift homes, Walker said. "The guys who were there last year are not there now. Are they in the (foreclosed) homes? I don't know. They are just not in their places," Walker said.
Honour sought for 'Soldier Bear'
Voytek the bear - Picture courtesy Imperial War Museum
Voytek was billeted in the Borders (Picture: Imperial War Museum)
A campaign has been launched to build a permanent memorial to a bear which spent much of its life in Scotland - after fighting in World War II.
The bear - named Voytek - was adopted in the Middle East by Polish troops in 1943, becoming much more than a mascot.
The large animal even helped their armed forces to carry ammunition at the Battle of Monte Cassino.
Voytek - known as the Soldier Bear - later lived near Hutton in the Borders and ended his days at Edinburgh Zoo.
He was found wandering in the hills of Iran by Polish soldiers in 1943.
He liked a cigarette, he liked a bottle of beer - he drank a bottle of beer like any man
Augustyn Karolewski
They adopted him and as he grew he was trained to carry heavy mortar rounds.
When Polish forces were deployed to Europe the only way to take the bear with them was to "enlist" him.
So he was given a name, rank and number and took part in the Italian campaign.
He saw action at Monte Cassino before being billeted - along with about 3,000 other Polish troops - at the army camp in the Scottish Borders.
The soldiers who were stationed with him say that he was easy to get along with.
"He was just like a dog - nobody was scared of him," said Polish veteran Augustyn Karolewski, who still lives near the site of the camp.
Voytek the bear - Picture courtesy Imperial War Museum
The bear travelled with troops (Picture: Imperial War Museum)
"He liked a cigarette, he liked a bottle of beer - he drank a bottle of beer like any man."
When the troops were demobilised, Voytek spent his last days at Edinburgh Zoo.
Mr Karolewski went back to see him on a couple of occasions and found he still responded to the Polish language.
"I went to Edinburgh Zoo once or twice when Voytek was there," he said.
"And as soon as I mentioned his name he would sit on his backside and shake his head wanting a cigarette.
"It wasn't easy to throw a cigarette to him - all the attempts I made until he eventually got one."
Voytek was a major attraction at the zoo until his death in 1963.
Eyemouth High School teacher Garry Paulin is now writing a new book, telling the bear's remarkable story.
'Totally amazing'
Local campaigner Aileen Orr would like to see a memorial created at Holyrood to the bear she says was part of both the community and the area's history.
She first heard about Voytek as a child from her grandfather, who served with the King's Own Scottish Borderers.
"I thought he had made it up to be quite honest but it was only when I got married and came here that I knew in fact he was here, Voytek was here," she said.
"When I heard from the community that so few people knew about him I began to actually research the facts.
"It is just amazing, the story is totally amazing."
Finally, HD DVD users now have the empirical evidence they've been looking for to prove that the universe really is conspiring against them. We figured we'd make ourselves useful over here and give you a list of things you can do with your poor, obsolete HD DVD player -- starting with taking it out to dinner, excusing yourself to the bathroom before the check comes... then getting the hell out of there.
Gimmes
* eBay
* Doorstop
* Entertainment center cup-holder
* Destroy it. Office Space style.
Oh, the humanity
1. Mail it to the office of Howard Stringer in protest of Blu-ray's victory.
2. Plug it into your clothes dryer's 240-volt outlet. Woops, honey! My bad, guess we have to buy a Blu-ray player now.
3. Finally, replace your Betamax player.
4. Buy the Blu-ray player of your choice, put it in the box, attempt to return it as "defective."
5. Channel it through Whoopi Goldberg and make some pottery with it.
6. Put a Blu-ray disc in the tray and then call up Toshiba when it doesn't work. Repeatedly.
7. Put it in a time capsule, just to confuse future generations.
8. Buy a few dozen of 'em and build a little hut for your Blu-ray player.
9. Lock it alone in a room with a few lethal weapons... let it die honorably.
10. Use it to upscale DVDs, which is all you ever used it for anyways.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.
The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua crossbreed Monday at their home near Kuranda in Queensland state.
Stuart Douglas, owner of the Australian Venom Zoo in Kuranda, said scrub pythons typically eat wild animals such as wallabies, a smaller relative of the kangaroo, but sometimes turn to pets in urban areas.
"It actively stalked the dog for a number of days," Douglas said.
"The family that owned the dog had actually seen it in the dog's bed, which was a sign it was out to get it," he added.
"They should have called me then, but (the snake) got away and three or four days later, I was called and went around and removed it" after the dog had been killed, Douglas said.
By the time Douglas arrived, all that could be seen of the dog was its hind legs and tail.
The zoo manager, Todd Rose, said pythons squeeze their prey to death before swallowing it whole. The 5-year-old dog would have been suffocated within minutes. Watch snake handler show off dog-eating python »
"The lady who was there threw some plastic chairs at the snake, but you've got to remember that this is about 50 kilograms (110 pounds) of aggressive muscle," Rose said.
Removing the half-swallowed dog could have harmed or even killed the python, Rose said, because dogs have sharp teeth and claws that could do the snake internal damage if it were wrenched out.
The snake was still digesting the dog at the zoo Wednesday. It will soon be moved to the bush, Douglas said.
Again, some people's opinions on what is "somewhat amusing" versus "fucked up" seem to differ greatly from mine. A family pet getting killed and devoured by a predator while the family looks onward, powerless to stop it, doesn't scream "somewhat amusing" to me.
I guess opinions do differ. If it had been a person or a child that was killed by a snake, that would certainly warrant being in the fucked up news thread. But it's just a little dog. They'll get over it.
A 16-foot python stalked a family dog for days before swallowing the pet whole in front of horrified children in the Australian tropics, animal experts said Wednesday.
The boy and girl, aged 5 and 7, watched as the scrub python devoured their silky terrier-Chihuahua
say what you will... that's kind of funny. they sat and watched for DAYS in horror as a snake stalked their dog... I hate to make the comparison - but it's like that guy in Austin Powers getting run over with a steam roller. If you're too dumb to take a step to the left... of course you're gonna get run over. CALL ANIMAL CONTROL YOU MORONS.
U.S. Sen. Barack Obama, who is running for the Democratic presidential nomination, has sent the mayor of Obama, Fukui Prefecture, a letter of gratitude for the city's show of support, city officials said Tuesday.
"We share more than a common name; we share a common planet and common responsibilities," the Feb. 21 letter addressed to Mayor Toshio Murakami says. "I am touched by your friendly gesture, and I wish you all the best."
The letter closes with the candidate's signature.
The city supports the senator because his name, although not Japanese, is coincidentally the same as the city's, officials say. In January 2007, the mayor sent Obama a letter and a local specialty — lacquered chopsticks. Last month, the city sent out another letter and a lacquered "daruma" doll with a wish for Obama's decisive victory in the nomination.
Obama is a port town with a 1,300-year history. It was once a center of trade between ancient Nara and China and the Korean Peninsula.
SOUTH PASADENA, California (AP) -- What the $%*&*? This community on the edge of Los Angeles has become a cuss-free zone.
So if you're headed to South Pasadena this week, be sure to turn down the volume on that Snoop Dogg CD, and, if the little old lady from Pasadena cuts you off in traffic, don't even think about flipping her the bird.
Not that police will slap cuffs on you and haul your sorry, er, butt off to jail in light of the proclamation passed Wednesday by the City Council. But you could be shamed into better behavior by the unsettling glares of residents who take their reputation for civility seriously.
"That's one of the purposes of this," Mayor Michael Cacciotti said of his city's proclamation designating the first week of March as No Cussing Week. "It provides us a reminder to be more civil, to elevate the level of discourse."
The proclamation will be in effect until Friday, and then the first week of every March hereafter.
South Pasadena, a tranquil city of tree-shaded cottages at the base of a mountain range eight miles north of downtown Los Angeles, isn't the first to try to rein in potty mouths. Earlier this year, the St. Louis suburb of St. Charles, Missouri, proposed banning swearing in bars. Last year, hip-hop mogul Russell Simmons called for an industrywide ban on racially and sexually charged epithets.
But what's different about the latest push to stop public cussing is that it was proposed by a 14-year-old boy.
"My mom and dad always taught me good morals, good values, and not cussing was one of them," said McKay Hatch, the founder of South Pasadena High School's No Cussing Club, during a recent break between study hall and tennis practice.
"I've cussed before, I'm not gonna lie to you," Hatch quickly added. "But I try not to cuss any more."
He was in junior high school when he became fed up with all the blue language around him.
He understood why his friends use foul language: "They just want to fit in like everybody else and they don't know how. They figure if they cuss maybe it's an easy way to do that."
But it wasn't for him.
"I finally told my friends, `I don't cuss.' And I said, `If you want to hang out with me, you don't cuss."'
It took a couple of years, but enough friends finally came around that Hatch formed a 50-member club, handed out fliers and called the group's first meeting, held June 1.
Nine months later, the No Cussing Club has a Web site, claims a membership of 10,000 and boasts chapters in several states and countries. Hatch considers his greatest achievement, though, to be getting his hometown of 25,000 to become a cuss-free zone.
Cacciotti, the mayor, isn't surprised that South Pasadena started the movement. He noted that the city broke off from its much bigger neighbor 120 years ago when residents unhappy with the saloon trade in downtown Pasadena voted 85-25 to go their own way.
By midweek, however, it was unclear just how many people in South Pasadena knew about the no-cussing edict.
A clerk behind the counter at Buster's Ice Cream & Coffee Shop just laughed and said, "That sounds pretty funny."
David Salcedo, who manages High Life Burgers, a popular hangout near the high school, hadn't heard of it either.
But, come to think of it, he said, the language among the after-school crowd has been pretty clean lately. The biggest problem these days, Salcedo said, is kids talking too loudly.
"But they're good kids," he added. "They just eat their chili fries and go home."
For his part, Hatch hopes his No Cussing Club will lead to cuss-free zones in other cities. He believes it could be a quality-of-life issue, and that there may be less violence if people behave better.
"You have to start with the little things," he said.
Comments
The article isn't actually amusing, but I interpreted the headline as the campaigners dissing millions of people in the ads. That would be such an awesome burn.
On one hand it's sorta awesome, but at the same time this seems awfully sneaky for a company with the motto "Don't be evil".
Bear cavalry indeed.
Now if it was a cat that got swallowed...
say what you will... that's kind of funny. they sat and watched for DAYS in horror as a snake stalked their dog... I hate to make the comparison - but it's like that guy in Austin Powers getting run over with a steam roller. If you're too dumb to take a step to the left... of course you're gonna get run over. CALL ANIMAL CONTROL YOU MORONS.
Gosh darn! Cussing banned in California town
The reason swear words are so awful is because of people like this who only add to their taboo-ness! Is that so hard to fucking understand? Fuck!