03.08.07
Posted in World News at 12:12 pm by bobbyjoe
France has just passed a new law that makes it a crime for anyone to film real-world violence and distribute the images on the internet. Violators will be subject to up to five years in prison and nearly $100,000 US in fines.
Happy slapping is a fad in which an unsuspecting victim is attacked while an accomplice records the assault (commonly with a camera phone or a smartphone). The name can refer to any type of violent assault, not just slapping, even rape and sexual assaults have been classified as “happy slapping” by the media. Within the UK, where the term is used much more frequently than in the U.S., it is associated with the ned/chav sub-culture. — Wikipedia
Media advocacy group Reporters Without Borders said it understood the government’s need to crack down on “happy slapping,” but feared the law draws a “dangerous” distinction that would punish “regular citizens” for doing what journalists are allowed to do.
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03.07.07
Posted in Healthcare, World at 3:28 pm by stark
For those of you out there who visit McDonald’s restaurants and always feel like the burgers just don’t cut it, you may soon have an option to satisfy your cravings. This new burger, nick named the third pounder, is currently available at 600 restaurants in California and weighs in at 1/3 of a pound instead of the previously dominating 1/4 pounder.
“The initial reaction has been overwhelmingly positive,” said Frisbie, who helped conduct the initial tests of the burger during the past four months at two of his family’s 17 franchises in the Anaheim area. “The sales really surprised us”
This is an interesting move by the monster fast food chain due to recent controversy over McDonald’s contributions to the huge US obesity problem. Nevertheless, it appears there is a market for the new burger, and perhaps it will soon be available at a golden arches near you.
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03.06.07
Posted in Entertainment, Movies, Television, Videos at 10:49 am by stark
If you’re a fan of the television series Heroes, you might have noticed that last nights episode came with a little bonus, a preview clip of the upcoming film Spider-Man 3. I warn you though, this clip definitely spoils at least a couple small plot points, so if you’re one of those people who wants to be 100% surprised, stay away from that link. Personally, I think this movie is looking amazing and has loads of potential to beat both the previous two. I guess we only have a few more weeks to wait now, and then we’ll all get to see it…
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03.05.07
Posted in Technology, Environment, World at 3:22 pm by bobbyjoe
Ever wonder what happens to that old PC you put in your trash on garbage day? Well it probably ends up in your local municipal land fill allong with over 80% of the estimated 133,000 PC’s discarded each day in the United States. In addition to PCs the bulk of nearly 2 million tons of our e-waste comes from TVs. “The computer industry is ramping up its campaign against electronic waste, a dangerous byproduct of technology’s relentless expansion.”
ROSEVILLE, California (AP) — This is where computers go to die a green death.
Inside Hewlett-Packard Co.’s cavernous recycling plant in the Sacramento suburbs, truckloads of obsolete PCs, servers and printers collected from consumers and businesses nationwide are cracked open by goggled workers who pull out batteries, circuit boards and other potentially hazardous components.
The electronic carcasses are fed into a massive machine that noisily shreds them into tiny pieces and mechanically sorts the fragments into piles of steel, aluminum, plastic and precious metals. Those scraps are sent to smelting plants, mostly in the Sacramento area, where they are melted down for reuse.
Discarded computers, TVs, radios, batteries, cell phones, and other gadgets contain a stew of toxic metals and chemicals.
Computers are cracked open by workers who pull out batteries, circuit boards and other potentially hazardous components.
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Posted in Science at 1:27 pm by bobbyjoe
How cool is getting a Dinosaur named after you! You will have to ask Nesmo the owner of a Alberta ranch known for decades as a rich area for fossils. Albertaceratops nesmoi is the name of the recently discovered species of dinosaur. “It’s quite an honour for me,” said Nesmo, 62, who’s lived for 58 years on a ranch near Manyberries, a small town about 290 kilometres southeast of Calgary.”
Michael J. Ryan is shown here with the holotype skull of the recently discovered horned dinosaur, Albertaceratops nesmoi, named for Cecil Nesmo, an Alberta rancher who helped the fossil hunters.
(Cleveland Museum of Natural History, Chad Kerychuk/Digital Dream Machine/Associated Press)
Ryan said the large, plant-eating reptile roamed the earth some 78 million years ago. It was as heavy as a half-tonne pickup, he said, with horns as thick as a human arm.
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Posted in Space at 4:21 am by stark
The Cassini spacecraft, which is currently in high orbit around the planet Saturn, has taken some amazing photographs that have never before been seen. The photos show detailed shots of the plants distinctive ring system and both above and below the planet.
‘Sailing high above Saturn and seeing the rings spread out beneath us like a giant, copper medallion is like exploring an alien world we’ve never seen before. It just doesn’t look like the same place. It’s so utterly breath-taking, it almost gives you vertigo.’ The spacecraft will eventually return to its standard orbit parallel to the ring plane in late June.”
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03.03.07
Posted in Web Design at 2:42 pm by stark
Recently the team behind the popular blog engine, Wordpress, released version 2.1.1 of their software but now claims that the version was compromised by a cracker. Anyone running Wordpress is strongly urged to upgrade to version 2.1.2 immediately.
It was determined that a cracker had gained user-level access to one of the servers that powers wordpress.org, and had used that access to modify the download file. We have locked down that server for further forensics, but at this time it appears that the 2.1.1 download was the only thing touched by the attack. They modified two files in WP to include code that would allow for remote PHP execution.
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03.01.07
Posted in Technology, Videos, Microsoft at 5:12 pm by stark
An interesting look and comparison of Microsoft Vista’s AERO interface and Ubuntu Linux’s BERYL interface. It sure looks like Microsoft (and Apple for that matter) has a long way to go. Why don’t these big companies hire some of the talent behind BERYL for their next release?
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