‘Joker’ accused of trying to steal Batman item
July 29, 2008
THREE RIVERS, Michigan – Three Rivers police have arrested a man who they say tried to steal posters and other items related to the new Batman movie from a cinema lobby while dressed up as the Joker.
Detective Mike Mohney said Monday he expects 20-year-old Spencer Taylor to be charged with larceny and malicious destruction of property.
‘Joker’ accused of trying to steal Batman items – Yahoo! News.
OSLO (AFP) – In Norway, many motorists are up in arms over why they have to pay the highest petrol (gasoline) prices in Europe when the country is the world’s fifth-largest oil exporter and a recent tax hike has done little to cool tempers.
“It is really strange: we have lots of oil and we’re a rich country. Why do we have to pay so much?” asks Per-Arne Skjerpingstad, a 38-year-old hospital porter as he fills up the tank of his Peugeot 307 at an Oslo gas station for 750 kroner (94 euros, 148 dollars).
Diesel costs 14.23 kroner (1.78 euros, 2.82 dollars) a litre (quarter gallon) and 95 unleaded 13.84 kroner, putting it at the top of the European league, EU figures show.
And while many countries are discussing how to soften the blow of skyrocketing oil prices on consumers, Norway on July 1 increased its already heavy tax take by 0.05 kroner per litre on petrol and 0.10 kroner (0.1 euro cent, 0.2 dollar cent) on diesel.
In oil-rich Norway, petrol prices most expensive in Europe – Yahoo! News.
The ‘eight don’t asks’ of the Olympics
July 22, 2008
Posters are appearing around Beijing guiding locals about how to interact with the (few) foreigners coming for the Summer Games.
The posters instruct residents on the “eight don’t asks” when chatting with foreign guests. Here’s a rough translation, courtesy of the Peaceful Rise blog:
Don’t ask about income or expenses, don’t ask about age, don’t ask about love life or marriage, don’t ask about health, don’t ask about someone’s home or address, don’t ask about personal experience, don’t ask about religious beliefs or political views, don’t ask what someone does.
BEIJING — London has Big Ben, Paris has the Eiffel Tower , San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge and now Beijing has an iconic structure that’s likely to identify the city forever.
It’s an audacious monolith that looks like two drunken high-rise towers leaning over and holding each other up at the shoulders.
The eye-catching building, which is nearly finished, will be the headquarters of China Central Television, the staid propaganda arm of China’s ruling Communist Party , and it’s perhaps the boldest and most daring of several new buildings that have given Beijing a stunning new appearance for the upcoming Summer Olympic Games.
In keeping with the playful nature of the new buildings, all have weird popular names. There’s “the egg” and the “bird’s nest.” The “water cube” isn’t far away, and lastly there’s “short pants,” also known as the “twisted doughnut.”
The last of them is the new television building, the CCTV headquarters, and it can nearly make one dizzy standing on the ground and looking up at its odd, teetering 49-story towers connected by a multistory, cantilevered, jagged cross section over open space at a vertiginous 36 stories up in the air.
Thanks to Olympics, Beijing gets its Eiffel Tower, of sorts – Yahoo! News.
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Oil dropped more than $6 on Tuesday, the largest drop in dollar terms in 17 years, as growing concern about the economic health of top energy consumer the United States stirred demand worries.
U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said financial markets were under “considerable stress,” adding to concerns about the strain of the weak housing market and high energy and food prices on the U.S. economy.
U.S. crude settled down $6.44 at $138.74 a barrel, the biggest one-day drop since 1991, when prices retreated at the start of Operation Desert Storm. The session low was notched at $135.92 earlier.
Oil plunges $6 on mounting economic concern – Yahoo! News
Nothing was safe today.
Bank shares sink to 1996 levels on loss fears
July 15, 2008
NEW YORK (Reuters) – U.S. bank shares fell to their lowest level since 1996 on fears of greater credit losses for an already battered sector.
The 24-member KBW Bank Index (.BKX), consisting mainly of the biggest U.S. banks, fell as much as 7 percent on Tuesday.
They closed down 3.1 percent, recovering some losses after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke affirmed that helping financial markets return to normal functioning was a top priority for the central bank.
Tiger Woods to be first billionaire athlete
July 10, 2008
Tiger Woods to be first billionaire athlete – Yahoo! News
CANBERRA (Reuters Life!) – Tiger Woods is on course to become the first billionaire athlete with the popular U.S. golfer proving a marketing dream, according to Forbes Magazine.
Woods, who won the U.S. Open last month despite a bad knee, is on track to exceed $1 billion in career earnings by 2010 after earning $115 million in 2007, said the American magazine which publishes an annual list of the world’s richest people.
Amid oil boom, inflation makes Saudis feel poorer
July 9, 2008
Amid oil boom, inflation makes Saudis feel poorer – Yahoo! News
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – Sultan al-Mazeen recently stopped at a gas station to fill up his SUV, paying 45 cents a gallon — about one-tenth what Americans pay these days.
But the Saudi technician says Americans shouldn’t be jealous. Inflation that has hit 30-year highs on everything else in the kingdom is making Saudis feel poorer despite the flush of oil money.
“I tell the Americans, don’t feel envious because gas is cheaper here,” said al-Mazeen, 36. “We’re worse off than before.”
While Saudis don’t feel the pain at the pump, they feel it everywhere else, paying more at grocery stores and restaurants and for rent and construction material. While the country is getting richer selling oil at prices that climbed to a record $145 per barrel last week, inflation has reached almost 11 percent, breaking double-digits for the first time since the late 1970s.
“Gas prices are low here, so what?” said Muhammad Abdullah, a 60-year-old retiree. “What can I do with gas? Drink it? Take it with me to the supermarket?”
Al-Mazeen says his monthly grocery bill has doubled — to $215 — compared to last year, when oil was at around $70 a barrel. During that time period, the price of rice has doubled to about 72 cents a pound, and a pound of beef has gone up more than a third to about $4.
Service lets drivers lock in gasoline prices
July 1, 2008
Service lets drivers lock in gasoline prices – Yahoo! News
NEW YORK (Reuters) – The high price of gasoline has some U.S. drivers looking to the future.
A recently introduced service called MyGallons.com allows drivers to fill up their tanks sometime in the future but at current prices, using a debit-like card which banks gallons rather than dollars.
Verona said that new customers generally begin by purchasing 25 to 50 gallons of gasoline.
“Once they are comfortable with how MyGallons work, they are buying 100 to 200 gallons at a time,” Verona said.
At the pump, the driver swipes his MyGallons card like a debit card. MyGallons.com said that the card is accepted at over 95 percent of U.S. gas stations.
“We don’t sell futures. It’s prepurchased gas,” said Verona, who said MyGallons.com uses a sophisticated hedging strategy to protect and meet obligations to members.
The risk to the consumer is if price of gasoline in the future becomes cheaper rather than more expensive. But if members are dissatisfied, they can drop out of the program and receive a lesser of the current price or what they paid as a refund.
“There is that risk that the price could fall significantly,” said Verona.
“But I think that most people would agree that risk is pretty minimal. Overtime, it is going to go up even if there is no change in the supply/demand relationship because inflation alone would push the price up.”
What’s the catch?! I wonder how they can pull off something like this. I want to know more about their “hedging strategy” but they’re being pretty cryptic about it. How does a company become profitable doing this?
There are a bunch of gas stations that accept their card here Vancouver, though not nearly as much as in the US (where they claim 95% of all pumps). With gas prices at the edge of the $1.50/L mark (currently $1.495/L in Vancouver), and with the carbon tax pushing that a few cents higher tomorrow, this is going to save a lot of people a lot of $$$.
229 dead in Philippines typhoon: official
June 22, 2008
229 dead in Philippines typhoon: official
ILOILO, Philippines — At least 229 people are confirmed dead and at least six missing after Typhoon Fengshen ravaged the central and southern Philippines, Red Cross and civil defence officials said on Sunday.
The toll does not include those dead or missing from a ferry that sank in the central Philippines with about 747 people aboard. Four people have been confirmed dead and there are four survivors from that accident.
The rest are unaccounted for.The central province of Iloilo has suffered the heaviest losses after being hit by the typhoon on Saturday, with 101 dead, Philippine Red Cross chairman Richard Gordon said.
Other fatalities were recorded in the neighbouring provinces of Romblon, Cotabato, Antique and Capiz, Gordon added.The civil defence office recorded 26 fatalities in the southern island of Mindanao.
“This (toll) will definitely rise dramatically when we get the listings from the ship,” he said, referring to the Princess of the Stars ferry that sank off Sibuyan island amid rough seas on Saturday.
Floodwaters in Iloilo rose so swiftly that many residents were forced to take refuge on rooftops or in the branches of tall trees, said provincial administrator Manuel Mejorada.
I was born in Iloilo City and still have plenty of extended family living in the area, so I’ve been hearing a lot about this over the last couple days. This morning has been especially newsworthy when a ship carrying 700+ people capsized. The typhoon has been pretty devastating. The news was all over my Google Reader feeds. Iloilo is a relatively small city (though densely populated as any city is in the Philippines) and I don’t remember the last time it has garnered this much international attention.
Mozilla Ready to Launch Firefox 3 into Browser Wars
June 16, 2008
Mozilla Ready to Launch Firefox 3 into Browser Wars – Yahoo! News
Just more than 10 years ago, Mozilla threw its open-source code into the public domain. Today, its browser — Firefox — is preparing to launch its third major release in hopes of continuing to eat away at Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.
Firefox already has more than 18 percent of the global market, according to Net Applications. With the release of Firefox 3, Mozilla could see a boost in downloads and market share. Microsoft’s next version of Internet Explorer won’t come to market until later this year.
On June 17, Mozilla will release Firefox 3. After more than 34 months of active development and the contributions of thousands of people, Firefox 3 will be downloadable free from the Mozilla Web site. Mozilla is promising this is the best browser — period.
Tomorrow is “Download Day” when Mozilla is attempting to set the record for the most software downloads in a 24h period.
Obama seals Democratic nomination – Yahoo! News
June 3, 2008
Obama seals Democratic nomination – Yahoo! News
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois sealed the Democratic presidential nomination Tuesday, a historic step toward his once-improbable goal of becoming the nation’s first black president. Hillary Rodham Clinton maneuvered for the vice presidential spot on his fall ticket without conceding her own defeat.
Obama’s victory set up a five-month campaign with Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, a race between a 46-year-old opponent of the Iraq War and a 71-year-old former Vietnam prisoner of war and staunch supporter of the current U.S. military mission.
Take that Hillary!
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.
Skip the pretzels: starving may fend off jet lag
May 25, 2008
Skip the pretzels: starving may fend off jet lag on Yahoo Health
CHICAGO Reuters – Starving yourself before a long flight may help prevent jet lag, U.S. researchers said on Thursday.
Normally, the bodys natural circadian clock in the brain dictates when to wake, eat and sleep, all in response to light. But it seems a second clock takes over when food is scarce, and manipulating this clock might help travelers adjust to new time zones, they said.
“A period of fasting with no food at all for about 16 hours is enough to engage this new clock,” said Dr. Clifford Saper of Harvard Medical School, whose study appears in the journal Science.
Working class ‘has lower IQ’
May 23, 2008
Working class ‘has lower IQ’ – Yahoo! News UK
The working classes have lower IQs than those from wealthier backgrounds and should not be expected to win places at top universities, an academic has claimed.
Bruce Charlton, reader in evolutionary psychiatry at Newcastle University, suggested that the low numbers of working-class students at elite universities was the “natural outcome” of IQ differences between classes.
In a paper shown to the Times Higher Education magazine, Dr Charlton questioned the Government’s drive to get more students from poor backgrounds into top universities like Oxford and Cambridge.
He said: “The UK Government has spent a great deal of time and effort in asserting that universities, especially Oxford and Cambridge, are unfairly excluding people from low social class backgrounds and privileging those from higher social classes.
“Yet in all this debate a simple and vital fact has been missed: higher social classes have a significantly higher average IQ than lower social classes.”
