Astronomers announced that they have identified 54 new planets where conditions may be suitable for life as we know it. Five of the candidates are Earth-sized. Now all we need is the Star Ship Enterprise to get us there.
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| Credit NASA |
Thursday, February 3, 2011
Space: the final frontier – "new earth planets" found
Astronomers announced that they have identified 54 new planets where conditions may be suitable for life as we know it. Five of the candidates are Earth-sized. Now all we need is the Star Ship Enterprise to get us there.
Photos: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's leaky condoms
The sexual molestation case against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange hinges on the reported broken condoms. Here are the photos of said condoms from the leaked police report. Assange is currently under house arrest in England fighting extradition to Sweden. Strange,of course, that the women saved the used condoms.
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Patients too fat for ambulance
In the United Kingdom they are finding an increasing number of patients are too fat to fit in regular ambulances and are refitting the vehicles to accommodate the larger patients. Here is the BBC report:
"Some patients are getting so fat that ambulance bosses are having to revamp their fleets to cope, the BBC has learned.
Every service in the UK has started buying specialist equipment, data from freedom of information requests show.This includes wider stretchers, more lifting gear and reinforcing existing vehicles.
Many have also bought specialist "bariatric" ambulances - costing up to $300K each - to ferry the most obese.
These are designed so that double-width trolley stretchers for patients up to 318lbs can be accommodated. They also tend to include hoists and inflatable lifting cushions."
Charlie Sheen 911 call - Porn star two-day party
Wish I could say this better but best straight from the source.
From CNN.com : "Charlie Sheen was "very, very intoxicated, also apparently in a lot of pain" last Thursday morning, according to a 911 call from a doctor who had just talked to the actor.
"Kind of weird, the phone call I received," Dr. Paul Nassif told the Los Angeles Fire Department dispatcher in the recorded call, which was released by the fire department Wednesday.
Porn actress Kacey Jordan has told media outlets that a two-day party preceded Sheen's collapse.
Paramedics went to Sheen's Los Angeles home and then took him by ambulance to a hospital, where he spent several hours."
Egyptians punch out CNN's Anderson Cooper
CNN's Anderson Cooper was punched in the head ten times while covering the protests in Cairo on Wednesday. He and his crew were attacked by supporters of Hosni Mubarak. CNN's Steve Brusk tweeted that Cooper was punched in the head ten times.
The attack came as as pro-Mubarak supporters attacked protesters who were calling for the president to step down. On "American Morning" Cooper said that he and his crew had been trying to go to a neutral zone between the two groups.
"We never got that far," he said.
Man who dressed like school girl "wrongly jailed"
From the BBC: "A man who upset children by dressing up as a schoolgirl was wrongly jailed by magistrates, the High Court has ruled.
Peter Trigger, of Northampton, received an Anti-social Behaviour Order (Asbo) in 2008 banning him from showing bare legs when children arrived for school.The 60-year-old was later given a suspended sentence for breaching the Asbo and the sentence was activated last October." Something seriously wrong here ....
Island of Sark first dark-sky island
From Yahoo Buzz: The Channel Island of Sark, located 80 miles south of England, has been designated as the world's first dark-sky island. Sark is just 4.5 square miles and has "no public street lighting, no paved roads, and no cars." according to Space.com. In other words, save for the occasional flashlight or matchstick, there aren't a lot of things to interfere with the nighttime display, which includes "meteors streaking overhead and countless stars on display.
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| Credit: Nasa |
Blame it on Rio: Brazil wants to put happiness in constitution
We always knew those Brazilians were party animals. Well, at least the ones that aren't living in poverty in the shanty towns. Now, they want to put happiness in their constitution. "In Brazil, we've had economic growth without the social growth hoped for," said Mauro Motoryn, the director of the Happier Movement, a non-governmental organization backing the legislation. "With the constitutional amendment, we want to provoke discussion, to seek approval for the creation of conditions in which social rights are upheld." Like I said, Blame it on Rio.
Why liberals fear vaccines
Interesting Q & A from ScienceInsider: "Why the 'Prius Driving, Composting' Set Fears Vaccines – " Journalist Seth Mnookin's new book, The Panic Virus: A True Story of Medicine, Science, and Fear, explores the public health scare over vaccines and autism. The 1998 paper in The Lancet by British physician Andrew Wakefield that sparked the panic has long since been debunked and retracted, and Wakefield himself has been barred from practicing medicine and accused of fraud. But that hasn't stopped thousands of people from refusing to vaccinate their children out of fear that they could become autistic."
Shocker: It snows in Canada
Today it is snowing! In Toronto! In Canada! And there are several inches of snow on the ground! What to do? Well firstly, cancel all classes at schools in the city. Yes, all those kids that walk a few blocks or take public transit to school will not have to bother because all schools are closed. But wait, what about workplaces? Hmm, seems it is pretty well business as usual for private sector companies, and for a good reason: This is an inconvenience not a disaster. I would love to rant further, but I must get out and shovel the driveway so I can go the office. Which, of course, is open.
Canada's regulators promise expensive internet
A recent ruling by Canadian regulator the CRTC all but guarantees Canadians will face steadily increasing costs for Internet. The recent ruling forces third party Internet providers to provide only metered bandwidth – pay per gigabyte. While in theory there is nothing wrong with paying for services you use , there are several issues that make this ruling troubling. Canada does not allow foreign companies to compete for service in Canada, creating an artificial market from the start.
This applies to cellular service as well, making Canada one of the most expensive countries in the world for cell phone service as well. Now let's get to cable. Essentially, the country in carved up into fiefdoms, with two dominant players – Rogers and Shaw effectively owning the wires and cable service in their regions. Bell and Telus also provide Internet service via their phone lines and some fiber.
Third party Internet providers buy there bandwidth from the big players. But here is the kicker: Rogers, Shaw and Bell are also in the television broadcast business.
Could this simply be a way to ensure revenues as traditional revenues from television migrate to Internet service based ones? You bet.
But hey, I am Canadian and I'm mad as hell!
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Canadian cop, Hells Angels clash in Mexico
From the Toronto Sun: "A Canadian police officer suffered a broken jaw following a run-in with a member of the Hells Angels in Mexico last weekend.
He was among a group of officers from Quebec who were vacationing in Playa del Carmen, a sea resort in southern Mexico that’s also known as a favourite hangout for Quebec gangsters.
The officer had gone to a bar in nearby Cancun with two colleagues and at one point he stepped away to snap a picture of the biker.
When the off-duty officer failed to return, his two friends went looking for him. Assuming he had returned to the hotel, they went back to their room and realized he was missing. They returned to the bar and found him bloodied and bruised from a serious beating.
The officer underwent surgery in Mexico and returned to Canada on Thursday. The assailants have vanished.
It’s not clear whether the officer and the assailants knew each other."
Rejected Super Bowl Commercials
This one didn't make it to the Super Bowl, but it's definitely worth watching:
Nearly 11% of U.S. houses are vacant!
Can this be true? The short answer is YES. There are 31 million housing units in the United Stated, 112.5 million are occupied –18.4 million of them are vacant. This is an incredible statistic and makes me wonder how long it will take the U.S. to climb out of this mess. Vacant housing means these properties are likely deteriorating to some degree as well. There are bargains out there, but not enough bargain hunters at this point.
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| Photo: © Jeff Wasserman |
Man claims drug turned him into gay sex addict
A French father claims a drug taken to treat Parkinson's disease turned him into a gay sex addict and a gambling addict. The 51-year-old father of two says he became addicted to internet gambling after taking the drug and lost the family's savings, resorting to theft to feed his habit. He also claims he became a compulsive gay sex addict and after exposing himself on the internet he entered into high risk encounters that led to him being raped.
The behaviour ended when he stopped taking the drugs but by then he had been demoted in his defence ministry job.
Internet almost out of addresses
The Internet is getting close to running out of IP addresses after the organization (IANA) that handles the Internet protocol addresses assigned two of seven remaining blocks to the Asia Pacific Network Information Center. The Internet could run out of IP addresses as early as September 2011. The current system provides for 4.3 billion addresses. All is not lost, however. A newer system is in the works – the IPv6 registry system, which should take care of the problem for most people – we hope.
RadarOnline.com: Charlie Sheen spends $500k on hookers and drugs
RadarOnline.com is reporting that Two and A Half Men star Charlie Sheen spent more than $500,000 on escorts and drugs in the six months before checking into rehab. Well, a guy has gotta have fun.
Vegas chef serves up $5,000 burger
Vegas chef Hubert Keller is serving one fat burger at his Fleur restaurant at the Mandalay Bay resort for $5,000.
Keller's Kobe beef burger is topped with foie gras, black truffle, and truffle sauce and is served on a brioche truffle bun.
The kicker is that Keller throws in a bottle of Chateau Petrus 1995 – which retails for about $5,000.
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