Share interesting articles you've found on the web here:
Turner Broadcasting plans to bomb america
BOSTON � Officials in Boston announced the arrest of a man they said placed several harmless, blinking electronic devices at bridges and other spots that panicked the city on Wednesday, and also vowed to pursue any possible legal sanctions Turner Broadcasting, which apologized for what it said was a publicity campaign for a late-night cable cartoon.
Turner Broadcasting, a division of Time Warner Inc. and parent of Cartoon Network, said the devices were part of a promotion for the TV show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force," a surreal series about a talking milkshake, a box of fries and a meatball.
"The packages in question are magnetic lights that pose no danger," Turner said in a statement, issued a few hours after reports of the first devices came in.
It said the devices have been in place for two to three weeks in 10 cities: Boston; New York; Los Angeles; Chicago; Atlanta; Seattle; Portland, Ore.; Austin, Texas; San Francisco; and Philadelphia.
I think it's actually sort of funny. The fact that so many people don't know about the show sort of shocks me, because it always came off to me that ATHF was extremely popular.
All I can say is that I bet the young people of Boston are getting a kick out of this.
Search for missing Bay Area Microsoft exec abandoned
By The Associated Press
SAN FRANCISCO – The Coast Guard has abandoned its search for an acclaimed computer scientist whose sailboat has disappeared off Northern California, ending a four-day hunt. Despite unusually calm weather, searchers have exhausted any area Jim Gray, who headed Microsoft's Bay Area Research Center, could have drifted or sailed after leaving for a solo sailing trip Sunday to scatter his mother's ashes at sea, a Coast Guard spokesman said. "Although this search is suspended, if new information arises, it will be investigated," said Capt. David Swatland, the Coast Guard's deputy sector commander for the Northern California area. A cargo plane, a helicopter and six patrol boats dispatched by the Coast Guard had scoured more than 132,000 square miles of the Pacific since Monday in the search for Gray, whose database innovations led to some of the most widespread technological innovations of the past 30 years.
A Mr Microsoft has gone missing… His yacht is no where to be seen! I wonder what happened top him? Kidnap? Did he sink, if so, what sunk him? Maybe he's faked his disappearance? -Wouldn't be the first time someone did that.
Ugh… I can't stand the use of "sail boat". It's the same as "horse back riding". Jeeeeebus, it's just "Horse riding", no "back" in there because you don't ride any other part of the animal, and "sail boats" are known as "yachts"! Yes yachts can also be great huge cruisers and motor yachts and all sorts of things, but in those cases you can call them "pleasure Yachts", "Motor Yachts" etc… :p I just hate that term "sail boat", ugh!
A young disabled man who receives care for his life-limiting illness at a hospice run by a nun spoke yesterday of his decision to use a prostitute to experience sex before he dies.
Sister Frances Dominica gave her support to 22-year-old Nick Wallis, who was born with Duchenne muscular dystrophy. Sufferers usually die by their thirties.
Mr Wallis told staff at the Douglas House hospice in Oxford that he wanted to experience sexual intercourse. He explained that he had hoped to form an intimate and loving relationship with a woman, but his disability had acted as a barrier.
He told The Daily Telegraph: It was a decision two years in the making and I discussed it with my carers and my parents. Telling my mother and father was the hardest part, but in the end they gave me their support.
There are many aspects of life that an able-bodied person takes for granted but from which I am excluded.
I had hoped to form a relationship when I went to university, but it didnt happen. I had to recognise that if was to experience sex I would have to pay for it out of my savings. My mind was made up before I discussed it with anyone else.
The hospice staff, after taking advice from a solicitor, the clergy and health care professionals, decided to help him.
I found an advert from a sex worker in a magazine for the disabled, said Mr Wallis. The initial contact was by email and then by phone.
It was arranged for the prostitute to visit his home in Northampton. My parents went out, he said.
It was not emotionally fulfilling, but the lady was very pleasant and very understanding. I do not know whether I would do it again. I would much rather find a girlfriend, but I have to be realistic.
Mr Wallis has decided to talk in public about his decision as part of the BBC documentary series about life inside Douglas House and its associated hospice for children, Helen House.
I have done so in order that people may understand the issues that face people in my situation. I suppose some people may be judgmental.
He said he did not discuss his decision directly with Sister Frances, who founded the two hospices. But I know she gave me her support.
Sister Frances described Mr Wallis as delightful, intelligent and aware young man.
I know that some people will say You are a Christian foundation. What are you thinking about?. But we are here for all faiths and none, she said.
It is not our job to make moral decisions for our guests. We came to the conclusion that it was our duty of care to support Nick emotionally and to help ensure his physical safety.
Three young boys grew breast tissue after exposure to lotions and shampoos containing lavender or tea tree oil, researchers say.
It is not uncommon for boys to develop breast tissue during puberty or just after, but the boys affected by the plant oils were aged four, seven and 10.
The natural oils may be gender-bendingâ chemicals mimicking effects of the female hormone, oestrogen, the findings suggest. The boys were otherwise normal, and lost the breast tissue within months of discontinuing use of the products.
Researchers who identified the oils as the cause of the abnormalities in the three pre-pubertal boys have warned parents and doctors to beware of the effects of any toiletry products containing the oils.
If consumers are concerned about exposure to lavender or tea tree oil, they should talk to their physicians, says Derek Henley of the US National Institute of Health Sciences labs in Research Triangle Park, North Carolina, US. Now that physicians are aware of the problem, they can document cases, adds Henley, whose team identified the oils as the probable cause in three affected boys. Oestrogen mimics
In follow-up lab tests on breast cells, they confirmed that the oils act both as oestrogen mimics, and as suppressors of masculinising hormone signals. These are definitely the first substances to show a combination of oestrogen mimicry and anti-androgenic activity, says Henley.
This report raises an issue of concern, since lavender oil and tea tree oil are sold over-the-counter in their pureâ form and are present in an increasing number of commercial products, including shampoos, hair gels, soaps and body lotions, the researchers warn.
Henley says that there are multitudesâ of products on offer containing the oils. But despite finding the connection, he says that the scale of effects remain completely unknown.
Its not fair to speculate on what the effects might be in girls, older women or older men, he says.
Because the boys were each exposed to the oils regularly for weeks, the researchers speculate that there might be a threshold dose for the effects to kick in. This, in turn, could depend on the concentration of the oil in the product, the duration of use, the frequency of use and genetic factors which make certain people, but not others, vulnerable to the effects.
Journal reference: New England Journal of Medicine (vol 365, p 479)
The article about the poor disabled man was touching…
This breast thing is… hmm. Why would prepubescent boys develop breast tissue? That explanation doesn't ring true with me, not at all. The whole thing sounds like a lie, those "oils" don't even do the "Healing" stuff they're meant to; the idea that boys way below the age of puberty would grow breast tissue when their bodies aren't secreting any kinds of sex hormones in any significant amounts just because of minor exposure while washing to some ordinary natural oils seems a bit preposterous! I mean, those oils have been around for hundreds of years. I think we'd have noticed this before.
What next? "Extra, extra: Rose quartz gives man full sex change! Man lands job in Milan as Top Super model!" :)
…But I won't just dismiss it out of hand. Anything is possible, I'm just sceptical, that's all.
ORLANDO - A NASA astronaut was arrested before dawn Monday at Orlando International Airport and charged with attempting to kidnap a Patrick Air Force Base captain.
Lisa Marie Nowak, 43, a mission specialist on NASA's second post-Columbia test flight in July, was also charged with battery for spraying Capt. Colleen Shipman with a chemical, Orlando police said.
Nowak apparently drove from Houston to Orlando to confront Shipman. Nowak told police that she wanted to talk with Shipman about their relationships with astronaut Bill Oefelein, who piloted his first shuttle mission in December.
Police gave this account:
When Shipman arrived at the airport on a flight from Houston about 1 a.m., Nowak followed Shipman to her car in the airport's Blue Lot, police said.
In the lot, Nowak, wearing a trench coat and wig, rushed Shipman's car and began pounding on the window. When Shipman, an engineer in the 45th Launch Support Squadron at Patrick Air Force Base since May 2005, wouldn't open the car, Nowak burst into tears.
Shipman cracked the window down about two inches and Nowak sprayed some type of chemical spray into the vehicle, reports said. Shipman drove away and called police.
As Orlando police arrived on scene, they saw Nowak place a black bag into a garbage can. Inside the bag they found her wig, trench coat, a BB pistol, a new steel mallet, a new folding knife with a 4-inch blade, three to four feet of rubber tubing, several plastic garbage bags and about $600 in cash. Also in the bag was a hand-written list of the previous items.
Police later searched Nowak's car, parked at the La Quinta Inn about two miles from the airport, and found six latex gloves, directions from Houston to the Orlando airport, e-mails from Shipman to Oefelein, a love letter from Nowak to Oefelein and hand-written directions to Shipman's house.
Diapers also were found in the car, which Nowak told police she wore so she didn't have to stop to urinate during the 950-mile drive.
Ewwww… She wore nappies in her car and pissed herself (and prolly worse o_O) all the way there! Must be in her astro training. Eww. And what was she planning with the bags, hose, hammer, knife etc? Freaky chick, I smell attempted murder… of the cold blooded, carefully planned sort. More here.
Basically Sub, one woman who happens to be an astronaut was trying to do something very nasty to another woman who is a flight engineer because they both have some kind of relationship with a male astronaut.
NASA is reviewing its psychological screening process for astronauts, following astronaut Lisa Nowak's arrest for allegedly attempting to murder a romantic rival.
Police in Orlando, Florida, US, say that Nowak drove 1500 kilometres to try to kidnap and possibly kill Air Force Captain Colleen Shipman (see Astronaut accused of attempted murder released on bail). Both women may have been vying for the affections of NASA astronaut Bill Oefelein.
In response to the shocking event, NASA Administrator Michael Griffin has requested an internal review of the psychological screening procedures used to admit new astronauts. He also asked for a review of the nature and extent of ongoing psychological evaluations of working astronauts, including who conducts the screening.
When people apply to become members of NASA's astronaut corps, they undergo two-hour interviews with psychiatrists and psychologists. A panel of experts then reviews the results to make a recommendation to the astronaut selection board.
The interviews include questions about the applicants' medical histories, designed to screen for psychiatric problems that tend to run in families, such as bipolar disorder and schizophrenia (see Did huge career pressures aid astronaut's undoing?). Annual medical exams
All of those accepted as astronauts then have to undergo annual medical examinations. During those examinations, doctors can refer an astronaut to a mental health expert. NASA officials declined to comment specifically on Nowak's medical case, citing privacy concerns.
The astronauts, like all NASA employees, are able to receive counselling if they request it.
"In terms of the astronauts facing stresses, I don't believe the stress response would be dissimilar to other high-stress organisations," says Jeff Davis, director of space life sciences at NASA. "It's just that we have very unique, focused missions and we prepare astronauts not only through training but also through their medical evaluations to face those stresses."
Though astronauts are ultra-competitive by nature and are all vying for a limited number of spots on space shuttle missions, they tend to come to each other's aid when needed, says Johnson Space Center deputy director Bob Cabana. Signs of distress
"From within the astronaut corps, I think we look out for one another," says Cabana, who is himself an astronaut. "It's competitive, yes, but it's also a close-knit group that ensures that everybody is doing well. Like any group, sometimes some things get missed."
NASA will be looking at whether anyone noticed anything amiss with Nowak before she allegedly threatened Shipman. "They [the astronaut office] saw no indications of concern with Lisa, but that is part of the review we want to embark upon," says NASA deputy administrator Shana Dale.
In addition, the agency will also be looking at whether it needs to revise any of its procedures or practices, including its code of conduct for employees � which may spell out the agency's position on romantic relationships among staff members.
NASA's chief medical officer will head a separate review of the agency's medical and psychological screening. That group, which will include external health officials, will also look at an ongoing 20-year study of the long-term health of current and past astronauts. Temporary leave
Nowak is on a 30-day leave from NASA and has been removed from flight duty. On Tuesday, she and chief astronaut Steve Lindsey took a commercial flight from Orlando, where she was jailed, back to Houston, Texas. Her parents have flown to Houston to be with her, NASA officials said.
Nowak was scheduled to become the lead 'capcom' � the person in mission control who communicates directly with the orbiting space shuttle � for the next shuttle mission in March. Another astronaut will be trained to take her place.
Nowak flew on the space shuttle in July 2006 (see US astronaut Lisa Nowak: a short biography).
Oefelein is returning to Houston from Florida. He is still authorised to fly to space but is on a leave, Cabana says. NASA officials said it was Oefelein who first notified them of Nowak's arrest on Monday.
Video game addicts, rejoice: US researchers have found that playing action-packed computer games can be good for your eyes.
A study by scientists at the University of Rochester shows that people who play action video games for a few hours each day over the course of a month can improve their performance in eye examinations by about 20%.
"Action video game play changes the way our brains process visual information," says Daphne Bavelier, professor of brain and cognitive sciences.
"These games push the human visual system to the limits and the brain adapts to it," Bavelier adds. "That learning carries over into other activities and possibly everyday life."
Bavelier and graduate student Shawn Green tested college students who had played very few, if any, video games in the preceding year. "That alone was pretty tough," says Green. "Nearly everybody on a campus plays video games." Crowded out
Test subjects were given an eye test similar to one used at regular eye clinics. They were asked to identify the position of a "T" within a crowd of other symbols � a so-called "crowding test".
Participants were then divided into two groups. One played the "shoot-em-up" action game Unreal Tournament for an hour a day while the other played the less visually complex computer game Tetris for the same amount of time.
After 30 hours of gaming, both groups had their vision tested again. Those who played Tetris saw no improvement in their test score. However, the group that played Unreal Tournament scored 20% better in the eye test on average.
The researchers believe the spatial resolution of these players' vision had improved as a result of playing the fast and furious computer game. This enabled them to pick out figures on an eye chart more clearly, despite other symbols crowding in.
The researchers say their findings could help patients with certain visual defects such as amblyopia, or "lazy eye". Such people might perhaps benefit from using specially designed training software.
Finding it hard to give up smoking? Perhaps it's because cigarettes are becoming more addictive.
The amount of nicotine that smokers typically inhale increased by 11 per cent per cigarette between 1998 and 2005, according to data supplied by tobacco companies to the Massachusetts Department of Public Health.
The increase is due both to higher concentrations of nicotine in cigarettes and to a reduced burn rate, which allows more puffs per cigarette. "It's not an accident," says Gregory Connolly, director of tobacco-control research at the Harvard School of Public Health, which analysed the companies' figures. "It's time we had the Food and Drug Administration step in and make this product less addictive."
The study was based on machine tests that simulate smoking. They do not reveal if people smoke any fewer cigarettes to compensate for the extra hit from the higher nicotine levels.
A bill that would have given the FDA extensive authority over the sale, distribution and advertising of tobacco products failed to pass in 2004. Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy plans to reintroduce it this month.
Meanwhile, a recently approved anti-smoking drug called varenicline, which partially blocks nicotine in the nervous system, triples the odds of a person quitting smoking, according to a review of studies involving nearly 5000 people (Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006103.pub2). From issue 2588 of New Scientist magazine, 27 January 2007, page 5
on a related note:
One in three of us will get cancer at some point in our lives. Once so feared its name was whispered, the disease is no longer an inevitable death sentence. Today, almost two-thirds of those who develop cancer will still be alive five years later, compared with just half in the 1970s. Cancer has turned out to be tougher to crack than everyone hoped when US President Richard Nixon launched the War on Cancer in 1971. But death rates are falling, thanks to earlier detection of tumours and improved use of existing treatments - mainly chemotherapy and radiotherapy. The success has been biggest for children: since the mid-1970s, death rates from cancers of childhood have halved. Of those with the most common childhood cancer, acute lymphocytic leukaemia, 85% are still alive five years later, compared with just 53% in the 1970s.
Insight: Oil giants' money fuels a climate of suspicion
REMEMBER the days when tobacco companies denied there was a link between smoking and cancer? Litigation put an end to that, but the tactics live on elsewhere. The US Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) says that misinformation and denial continue when it comes to global warming. This time it's the world's biggest company, ExxonMobil, that has been fingered as the bad guy.
UCS, a non-profit organisation based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has published a 68-page report accusing ExxonMobil of exaggerating uncertainties over the causes of global warming. UCS says ExxonMobil has done this by funding 43 bodies critical of claims of climate change, such as Frontiers of Freedom based in Washington DC, in the apparent expectation that these groups will propagate disinformation about global warming even when what they are publicising has been shown to be wrong. "They gave life to views discredited by the scientific community," says the report's main
It is no secret that the MPAA and other anti-piracy organizations track down alleged pirates by uploading fake torrents. Up until now it was always unclear where those files came from, and how to identify them.
mpaa blockThe MPAA and other anti-piracy watchdogs try to trap people into downloading fake torrents, so they can collect IP addresses, and send copyright infringement letters to ISPs. They hire a company to put up fake copies of popular movies, music albums, and TV series. They even use pirate like filenames such as “Battlestar Galactica S03E07 REPACK DSR XviD-ORENJi†and “Miami Vice[2006]DvDrip[Eng]-aXXo“.
One of the btjunkie admins has found a unique way to identify trackers that host these fake files, which makes it easy to efficiently remove them.
Virtually all the servers that spread these fake files are located in Southern California and Las Vegas. The administrators of these servers follow patterns that make it easy to identify them. The content of the trackers and seed amounts make them stand out. There are more unique characteristics, but we wont reveal all the tricks because they could take counter measures.
All the information was provided to me by one of the admins of btjunkie, who works together on this with other torrent site admins. He says that the MPAA and friends use a variety of tactics. The tracker will either stall everyone at around 90% or the content will just be a blank monochrome screen.
“I really think this is being done by professionals with a budget, that’s a lot of servers to setup and it takes some expertise to setup in the manner that they did it,†says the btjunkie admin. “I don’t think I really need to say who would spend money on something like this.â€Â
Here are some good examples of how these fake torrents clutter up the search results. Virtually all of those X marked torrents are coming from the ip-ranges we mentioned, and are fake files. The good thing is that Torrentportal’s report system is well used by their users.
The server boxes that host these torrents fall in serveral ip-ranges. Here are a few of the ranges that were discovered recently. You can easily add these to the blocklist of your torrent client (if it supports one), filewall, or blocklist manager. # 66.172.60.XXX, 66.177.58.XXX, 66.180.205.XXX, 209.204.61.XXX, 216.151.155.XXX
The anti-piracy servers use hostnames like 101tracker.dhcp.biz, aplustorrents.qhigh.com, bitnova.squirly.info, bittorment.ocry.com, and pirate-trakkrz.leet.la. All these hostnames can be traced back to the same IP Ranges, these ranges contain possibly hundreds of fake trackers, so feel free to block them:
A list of infohashes of fake torrents can be found over here.
Note that it’s not only MPAA material that is hosted on these fake trackers. It is more likely that the servers are owned and operated by an organization that logs IP addresses for several copyright owners and or anti-piracy organizations.
Update: according to one of out readers these ip-ranges belong to “Media Defender“, a company that is hired by copyright owners, to log IP-addresses. This reader, who worked for Media Defender until recently, confirmed that some of the torrents that were mentioned, are indeed on the MPAA’s list.
This video/article was shown to me by a terminal operation agent there at FLL. I and a few other workers got a pretty good giggle from it. One employee mentioned he recognized that guy. He isnt a "passenger" like they say but a homeless guy who has been found several times locked in a women's handicap stall sleeping.
Its things like this that make me glad I work on the airfield and not anywhere near passengers. Sometimes, things get a little too wild.
Take a look at this ladies reaction.. and you have to wonder how much is staged for the camera and how the heck the news just happened to be there to film it when it happened.
Here is a new story from a very poor, predominately black area of my home town of Mobile, Alabama (which I left a little over a year ago). I got a good laugh out of it, but its actually also sparked remarks about how its racist and makes black people look stupid. I cant say that I agree with that. There are tons of stupid white people on news all the time. ESPECIALLY in Alabama ;-p
Take a look… The guy who made the amateur sketch deserves an award!
Yeah, I don't know if they're really stupid or anything, people act in silly ways like that occasionally everywhere. They're probably all just treating it like a bit of fun; A silly community event… Especially since there's a news crew there, that always makes something like this seem bigger because a crew attracts more people to see what's going on. That sketch was pretty sad though and I don't know about the guy with the "Leprechaun Flute"… Maybe he is nuts?
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia - Lucky and Flo, the two Labradors who helped sniff out nearly 1 million illegal discs last week within days of joining Malaysia's anti-piracy effort, have been moved to a safe house, a news report said Thursday.
The New Straits Times reported that a source had tipped off officials about a bounty offered for killing the sniffer dogs, who are on loan for a month from the Motion Picture Association of America. The amount was not disclosed.
"The dogs are a genuine threat to the pirated disc syndicates, thus the instruction to eliminate them," Firdaus Zakaria, the enforcement director of the Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs, was quoted as saying.
He did not elaborate on the information received by the ministry.
Firdaus and senior ministry officials could not be immediately reached for further details on the report. A spokesman contacted by The Associated Press declined to comment.
Lucky and Flo, who were pressed into service on March 13, gained fame after they sniffed out a massive shipment of pirated movie DVDs in office complex in southern Johor state on March 19.
The canines detected the discs hidden behind locked doors, which officials broke open with crowbars to reveal a cache of nearly 1 million discs worth $2.8 million. Five Malaysians and a Vietnamese man also were arrested in the operation.
It is the first time dogs have been used by authorities anywhere in the world to detect contraband discs, according to Mike Ellis, regional director for the MPAA.
The MPAA says its members including top Hollywood studios Paramount Pictures, Warner Bros., 20th Century Fox and Universal lost $1.2 billion to Asia-Pacific movie pirates in 2006.
Lucky and Flo are trained to detect polycarbonates chemicals used in the disc manufacturing process. They cannot tell the difference between real and pirated discs, but can detect discs hidden in shipments or concealed places.
Malaysia is among the world's top illegal movie producers and exporters, Washington and the MPAA have said. It is one of 36 countries on a U.S. watch list of serious copyright violators.
Officials say 5 million discs were seized in more than 2,000 raids in the Southeast Asian nation last year, and 780 people were arrested.
China remains at the top of the MPAA's movie piracy list.
memebers of the MPAA could probably turn this into a movie hahaha
