B.C. man found guilty of cooking a cat alive
May 31, 2008
globeandmail.com: B.C. man found guilty of cooking a cat alive
VANCOUVER — A British Columbia man has been found guilty of animal cruelty for putting a cat in a microwave.
The incident occurred on Valentine’s Day, 2005. John Ronald Hughes, who had been drinking earlier in the evening, was at his girlfriend’s house when he sat on a couch that collapsed, causing severe injuries to his girlfriend’s cat underneath it. The animal was left gasping for air.
Mr. Hughes woke his girlfriend, Sara Kons, who was sleeping upstairs. She told him the local veterinarian was out of town and advised him to break the cat’s neck to put it out of its misery.
Ms. Kons went back to sleep, but was awakened shortly afterward by the sound of the microwave door. When she went downstairs, she saw Mr. Hughes holding the cat outside the microwave oven. The cat, still breathing, was convulsing and making a scream-like sound.
That’s just unnecessarily cruel.
Billboards That Look Back
May 31, 2008
Billboards That Look Back – NYTimes.com
In advertising these days, the brass ring goes to those who can measure everything — how many people see a particular advertisement, when they see it, who they are. All of that is easy on the Internet, and getting easier in television and print.
Billboards are a different story. For the most part, they are still a relic of old-world media, and the best guesses about viewership numbers come from foot traffic counts or highway reports, neither of which guarantees that the people passing by were really looking at the billboard, or that they were the ones sought out.
Now, some entrepreneurs have introduced technology to solve that problem. They are equipping billboards with tiny cameras that gather details about passers-by — their gender, approximate age and how long they looked at the billboard. These details are transmitted to a central database.
Cigarette display rules spark controversy
May 30, 2008
globeandmail.com: Cigarette display rules spark controversy
Cigarettes will disappear by the end of the year in most parts of Canada.
Convenience stores across the country are facing new rules on displaying cigarettes that require them to keep the packages behind closed doors or in drawers out of public view.
The display ban is set to take effect in Ontario and Quebec tomorrow and follows similar moves that have already been adopted or are pending in other parts of the country. Newfoundland is the only province that isn’t moving to ban retail cigarette displays.
According to the Ontario Campaign for Action on Tobacco, the display ban is designed to prevent children from being exposed to images of cigarettes and to “de-normalize” the product in the rest of the population.
After Saturday, most retailers will be required to keep cigarettes out of sight. Health advocates hope the deadline is enforced.But the change is creating significant controversy among retailers and health advocates over the business of smoking and whether the government should be able to restrict one of the convenience store industry’s most profitable products.
Bioscientists photoshop their cultures to fake results – Boing Boing
Jeff sez, “Researchers often use Photoshop to clean up the images they produce in the laboratory. If the experiment didn’t go quite right, a bit of tampering can make a gel look like things did work. Editors at Science, Nature, and other journals are turning into detectives, using new tools to hunt for fraudulent images.”
And the level of tampering they find is alarming. “The magnitude of the fraud is phenomenal,” says Hany Farid, a computer-science professor at Dartmouth College who has been working with journal editors to help them detect image manipulation. Doctored images are troubling because they can mislead scientists and even derail a search for the causes and cures of disease.
Ten to 20 of the articles accepted by The Journal of Clinical Investigation each year show some evidence of tampering, and about five to 10 of those papers warrant a thorough investigation, says Ms. Neill. (The journal publishes about 300 to 350 articles per year.)
Tsk tsk. When your peers are unable to reproduce your results, they’ll find out you’ve been tampering your results anyways.
Japanese man finds woman living in his closet
May 30, 2008
Japanese man finds woman living in his closet
TOKYO – A Japanese man who was mystified when food kept disappearing from his kitchen, set up a hidden camera and found an unknown woman living secretly in his closet, Japanese media said on Friday.
The 57-year-old unemployed man of Fukuoka in southern Japan called police on Wednesday when the camera sent pictures to his mobile phone of an intruder in his home while he was out on Wednesday, the Asahi newspaper said on its Website.
China bans free plastic bags
May 30, 2008
reportonbusiness.com: China bans free plastic bags
BEIJING — China will become the latest country to ban free plastic bags this weekend, part of a government-led campaign to cut down on waste and help the environment.
The nationwide measure that goes into effect Sunday eliminates the flimsiest bags and forces stores to charge for others.
Beijing has promised to hold a green Olympic Games this summer, giving extra impetus to a number of environmental policies and projects. Officials have vowed to cut down on the “white pollution” of discarded bags that choke China’s cities, farms and waterways.
How very proactive of you China.
Keeping Chlorine Out of the Pool
May 29, 2008
Keeping Chlorine Out of the Pool – NYTimes.com
Ms. Glazer has been a swimmer for 30 years and was tired of dipping into chemically treated water. “I’d get out and my sinuses would be inflamed,” she said. “If I swam on a lunch break, I’d walk into the office smelling like chlorine.”
Several pool experts she consulted told her that chlorine was the only option; others suggested a saline system, which uses sodium chloride, but because that produces chlorine in the pool, it did not address her concerns.
Ms. Glazer eventually learned of a system that eliminates the need for chlorine and other chemicals, using a combination of ozone and copper and silver ions. That system can be added on to existing pools, at a cost ranging from $10,000 to $20,000. Because Ms. Glazer was starting fresh, she spent $60,000 to build her pool, which has a panoramic view of the ocean, roughly $20,000 more than if she’d built a chlorinated model.
I hate chlorine in the pool. In addition to all the reasons most people hate swimming in a chlorinated pool (smell, dry skin, red eyes, brittle hair), chlorine is actually very bad for your teeth! Those who swim very regularly often have yellow-ish teeth and it also erodes the enamel. If one day, I’m wealthy enough to have a pool in my backyard, it definitely will not be the chlorinated variety.
Stonehenge Used as Cemetery From the Beginning
May 29, 2008
Stonehenge Used as Cemetery From the Beginning – NYTimes.com
At least part of the mystery of Stonehenge may have now been solved: It was from the beginning a monument to the dead.
New discoveries shed light on the original purpose of the Stonehenge monument, shown here in a photo from the June 2008 issue of National Geographic.
New radiocarbon dates from human cremation burials among and around the brooding stones on Salisbury Plain in England indicate that the site was used as a cemetery from 3000 B.C. until after the monuments were erected around 2500 B.C., British archaeologists reported Thursday.
What appeared to be the head of a stone mace, a symbol of authority, was found in one grave, the archaeologists said, indicating that this was probably a cemetery for the ruling dynasty responsible for erecting Stonehenge.
Strong earthquake rocks Iceland
May 29, 2008
BBC NEWS | Europe | Strong earthquake rocks Iceland
A strong earthquake measuring 6.1 has hit southern Iceland, 50km (30 miles) from the capital, Reykjavik.
In the town of Selfoss, near the epicentre, buildings were damaged and up to 20 people needed treatment for minor injuries, reports say.
Residents in the capital felt buildings shake and aftershocks were felt in the south-west of the country.
The US Geological Survey said the earthquake struck at 1546 GMT at a shallow 6.2 miles (10 km).
Another big earthquake in the same month. Coincidentally, my friend Ken arrived in Reykjavik today. I got in touch with him this morning, when I first heard about the earthquake, to see if he was alright. As he put it, “I was wondering what that was”. A little anti-climatic. But, I’m glad you’re ok! (But how much more exciting would your trip have been if you had survived a massive earthquake?!)
For her own good, I hope Sharon Stone keeps her mouth shut this time.
Woman in iron lung dies during power outage – Los Angeles Times
ATLANTA — For the first time in more than half a century, the Odell residence is quiet.
There are no squeaks and pops from the electric motor that powered an “iron lung” pumping air in and out of Dianne Odell’s body.
A thunderstorm knocked out the power to her home Wednesday, shutting off the massive metal machine that had helped her breathe for nearly 60 years.
It was about 3 a.m. when the electricity went out at Odell’s home in Jackson, a small Tennessee town about 90 miles northeast of Memphis. An emergency generator did not start, and Odell died as her father and brother-in-law took turns pumping the iron lung manually.
This is the first time I’ve heard of an “iron lung”. It looks almost like a coffin. How eerie to live your entire life within the confines of that machine.
Iceland gets well-connected
May 29, 2008
BBC NEWS | Programmes | From Our Own Correspondent | Iceland gets well-connected
The signs of the super rich in Reykjavik are as clear as the snow on the black volcanic mountains beyond its harbour.
Until a few decades ago, Iceland was dependent on the harsh whims of the North Atlantic. Now, its banks are twice as big as its fishing.
And that means the usual trappings of riches: the Hummers and the Porsche Carreras, driven by young men with chiselled faces, with tans that could not have come from the weak Icelandic sun; and the bankers who split their time between Reykjavik and the City of London, living on adrenaline and caffeine.
One told me he thought breakfast was for losers.
The signs are also at the airport in Reykjavik. While the riff-raff fly to Keflavik, 40 miles (64 km) away on cheap flights, the hyper-rich (dare I say, the hyper-rich riff-raff) fly straight to the capital from New York on private jets.
reportonbusiness.com: China’s rich have insatiable appetite for haute couture
HONG KONG — European and American fashion designers feeling the pinch from the credit crisis can look to the growing ranks of China’s nouveau riche to boost sales.
China’s millionaires’ club is expanding rapidly and many new members are women who don’t even blink when asked to pay a cool $10,000 (U.S.) for a cocktail dress from a top international designer.
“The Chinese are the newcomers to the global market,” said Sebastian Suhl, Asia-Pacific chief executive of Italian fashion house Prada, which has nine stores in China.
“They’re very hungry to learn about fashion. Fashion represents obviously status, but luxury is also a kind of bridge to the modern world for them.”
As the Chinese economy surged more than 10 per cent annually over the past five years, the country boasted 345,000 U.S. dollar millionaires by the end of 2006, a third of whom were women, according to a report by Merrill Lynch and consultancy Capgemini.
Drinking water can be harmful to smallest babie
May 29, 2008
Drinking water can be harmful to smallest babies – Yahoo! News
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – Babies younger than six months old should never be given water to drink, physicians at Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore remind parents. Consuming too much water can put babies at risk of a potentially life-threatening condition known as water intoxication.
“Even when they’re very tiny, they have an intact thirst reflex or a drive to drink,” Dr. Jennifer Anders, a pediatric emergency physician at the center, told Reuters Health. “When they have that thirst and they want to drink, the fluid they need to drink more of is their breast milk or formula.”
Runners, especially long-distance runners, should also be aware of this. Runners who constantly drink water to quench their first during a race may be in danger of water intoxication (there have been deaths). Remember to drink Gatorade instead.
Man Allegedly Bilks E-trade, Schwab of $50,000 by Collecting Lots of Free ‘Micro-Deposits’
May 28, 2008
Man Allegedly Bilks E-trade, Schwab of $50,000 by Collecting Lots of Free ‘Micro-Deposits’ | Threat Level from Wired.com
A California man has been indicted for an inventive scheme that allegedly siphoned $50,000 from online brokerage houses E-trade and Schwab.com in six months — a few pennies at a time.
Michael Largent, of Plumas Lake, California, allegedly exploited a loophole in a common procedure both companies follow when a customer links his brokerage account to a bank account for the first time. To verify that the account number and routing information is correct, the brokerages automatically send small “micro-deposits” of between two cents to one dollar to the account, and ask the customer to verify that they’ve received it.
Michael Largent allegedly used a script to open 58,000 online brokerage accounts in the names of cartoon characters, and other aliases.
Largent allegedly used an automated script to open 58,000 online brokerage accounts, linking each of them to a handful of online bank accounts, and accumulating thousands of dollars in micro-deposits.
Anger over star’s quake remarks
May 28, 2008
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Anger over star’s quake remarks
Actress Sharon Stone has sparked criticism in China after claiming the recent earthquake could have been the result of bad “karma”.
The US star, speaking at the Cannes Film Festival, linked the recent disaster to Beijing’s policy on Tibet.
She said: “I thought, ‘Is that karma?’ When you are not nice, bad things happen to you.”
