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Thursday, April 30, 2009

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Drugs, elephants and American prisons

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 07:30 PM PDT

Are the 305 million people living in the United States the most evil in the world? Is this the reason why the U.S., with 5 percent of the world's population, has 25 percent of the world's prisoners and an incarceration rate five times as high as the rest of the world? Or is it a matter of a criminal justice system that has gone dramatically wrong.


Ad Fail: Aussie football team uses KKK in all-white promo

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 07:20 PM PDT

The Torquay Tigers website, an Australian football team looking to promote what we in the United States wisely call a "white-out," called the event an All-White Night and used pictures of members of the KKK. Oops.


AT&T Quietly Updates Its Wireless Plans... Again

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 07:10 PM PDT

In the latest changes to AT&T's service terms, it looks like the company is trying to exempt its own video services while prohibiting competing services like the Slingbox. It's not very "Internet" when the ISP is picking and choosing what legal activities you may and may not do with your connection.


Star Wars Marketing Scores Rare Home Run

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 07:10 PM PDT

From George Lucas's excessive tinkering to its sputtering theatrical continuations, few Hollywood properties have been driven into the ground as obsessively and destructively as Star Wars. But every now and then its creator's self-seriousness abates, and we're all reminded that it's actually OK to have fun with the Force...


Colbert: Thank You Fox News For Exposing Liberal Text Books!

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:50 PM PDT

This is why we need to do away with the socialist public education system and let private entities fund our schools. Only when our children are reading Exxon Presents Dow Chemical's American History Featuring Pfizer will we be able to rest easy, knowing their minds aren't being poisoned.


British Firefighters Or Imperial Storm Troopers? (pics)

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:40 PM PDT

Fire Depts. throughout the country have replaced the old hats with something drastically new. Dark Side to the rescue?


Godaddy: Don't Buy dot-TV Domains, The Island is Sinking.

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:30 PM PDT

If I'm reading the pop-up window correctly, domain registrar Godaddy recommends against purchasing .tv domain names because the island of Tuvalu, which the domain represents, is sinking.


Dancing Birds Feel the Beat

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:30 PM PDT

Birds can boogie to the beat, according to two new studies that found birds, especially parrots, have rhythm and an apparent appreciation for certain songs that compel them to bob their heads, tap their feet and sway their bodies in time to music.


Do you have swine flu?

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:20 PM PDT

Apparently I do...


Box Office Predictions: The Top 20 Movies of Summer 2009

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:10 PM PDT

This summer movie season is filled with more box office potential than perhaps any year previous. So, when the summer 2009 box office has closed, which movies will be at the top? (Here's a hint: Invest in Transformers.) Here are some educated guesses for the final box office tallies for (what should be) the 20 highest-grossing movies of the summer.


Cenk Uygur: Condi Rice Pulls A Nixon!

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:10 PM PDT

Condoleezza Rice was recently speaking at Stanford when students asked her an excellent question on waterboarding and torture. They have her answer on tape and it isn't pretty. Condi Rice absolutely pulls a Nixon.


“World’s Fastest Camera” Snaps 6 Million Pictures in a Sec

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:00 PM PDT

Optics researchers have invented a camera that uses infrared lasers to bounce light off an object, and say the result should leave shutterbugs with a serious case of technology envy. Their device can take 6.1 million pictures in a single second, at a shutter speed of 440 trillionths of a second.


'Willow' predicted the swine flu 20 years ago!

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 06:00 PM PDT

As you can see in this incredible clip, Willow predicted the Swine Flu outbreak (and some might argue the later stages of Val Kilmer's career) more than 20 years ago. Look, all I'm saying is that if a few babies had to die in order to make Willow references timely again, so be it.


Top 5 Most Shocking Skydiving Disasters (Videos)

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:50 PM PDT

*****


Sam Raimi's 'Drag Me to Hell' (Official Trailer)

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:40 PM PDT

EVIL DEAD director Raimi isn't messing around; writing, producing, and directing DRAG ME TO HELL


4 Surprising Swine Flu Facts and Theories

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:30 PM PDT

Learn why young healthy adults are adversely affected, the similarity between human flu and swine flu, conspiracy claims, and more.


Loyal Fans Are Batting Cleanup in 2009 Baseball Season

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:20 PM PDT

As corporate sales slide, major-league baseball teams look to reward long-ignored season-ticket holders.


Mexico to shut government in flu fight

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:20 PM PDT

MEXICO CITY - Mexico's government is temporarily suspending all nonessential activity of the federal government and private business as the number of confirmed swine flu cases jumped.


Google Custom Search Cuts uTorrent Off

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:20 PM PDT

The immensely popular BitTorrent client uTorrent recently added a Google powered torrent search engine to its website. This added search capability used Google's custom search program and allowed visitors to search for .torrent files on Google. For reasons unknown, Google appears to be blocking the use of its search technology on the site.


Chandra Cuts Through the Fog | Bad Astronomy | Discover

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:10 PM PDT

When you look up on a dark, clear, moonless night, you might just see a faint fuzzy streak cutting across the sky. That's the Milky Way, called that because it looks like milk has spilled across the sky. But when you look at it through a telescope, it resolves itself into millions upon millions of stars. [...]


My school is doing it RIGHT! (Pic)

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT

*****


Wii Madden NFL 10 gets complete makeover

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 05:00 PM PDT

EA Sports ditches complete realism and retools Madden 10's visual style to compliment the Wii console. See the new look and judge for yourselves!


Why Having Wolverine's Claws Would Suck

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 04:40 PM PDT

*****


Shareholders Strip BofA CEO of  Chairman Role

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 04:30 PM PDT

Ken Lewis was ousted as chairman of Bank of America Wednesday after shareholders angry about the company's acquisition of Merrill Lynch voted to separate the job from that of chief executive.


Wolverine vs. Terminator - Who Would Win in Real Life?

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 04:20 PM PDT

Healing - The Terminator may be able to heal its organic covering at an accelerated rate compared to human flesh, but Wolverine can heal his entire body at a rate that doesn't even compare to human healing. Advantage- Wolverine …


Swine Flu: Don't Blame the Pig

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 04:10 PM PDT

Pity the poor pig. The otherwise estimable mammal has never had a very good rep — something about the mud, the snout, the oink. Now add the flu.


2 Stem Cell Research Breakthroughs You Should Know About

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 04:10 PM PDT

Stem cell therapy has the potential to rejuvenate Alzheimers-damaged brains, and has already helped cure some kinds of blindness. And there are two more reasons to be hopeful about stem cell treatments, announced this week.


10 Essential Herbs to Grow [with Planting Tips]

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 03:50 PM PDT

Coriander -- Uses: Grind dry seeds to powder and dust over veal, pork, or ham before cooking. Young leaves are knows as cilantro. The roots, which can be frozen are used to flavor soup; serve chopped with avocados.


The Great Pacific Garbage Patch

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 03:40 PM PDT

INFOGRAPHIC :: The floating pile of 100 millions tons of trash is caused by currents in the Pacific Ocean that create a circular effect pulling in debris from North America, Asia and the Hawaiian Islands.


50 Tools Everyone Should Own (With Tips!)

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 03:40 PM PDT

We need tools to build, repair and maintain the mechanical world in which we live. With these 50 tools, you'll be ready for just about any project.


Swine flu and hype – a media illness

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 03:30 PM PDT

Even if the predicted millions don't die, a risk is still a risk – and that's why I've turned down everyone from the BBC to al-Jazeera


APOD:Framed by Clouds

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 03:10 PM PDT

*****


Marvel Comics Movies, Worst To Best

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 03:10 PM PDT

With X-Men Origins: Wolverine debuting this weekend, we decided this week's Total Recall would be the perfect place to pay homage by looking back at every theatrically released adaptation in the studio's history.


Sports Science: the Happy Gilmore swing

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:50 PM PDT

Happy Gilmore segment from Sport Science on FSN....re-enacted by Padraig Harrington.


Palm Eos: super-thin, 3G, and headed to AT&T?!

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:50 PM PDT

Liked that blurry photo of a new Palm webOS phone we saw earlier? Well how about some specs, a name, and a better look at this thing? Enter the device above, apparently dubbed the Palm Eos (codenamed Castle... where have we seen that before?), which it seems will be the company's proper follow-up to the Centro! Full specs list, coming to AT&T!


Linux : Group Test: Netbook Distros.

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:40 PM PDT

Ultraportable laptops – netbooks such as the Eee PC – are becoming increasingly popular. A computer that's small enough to live permanently in your bag without giving you backache can be incredibly useful, especially as wireless connectivity and 3G hardware are growing in ubiquity.


The Pentagon's Beetle Borgs

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:40 PM PDT

With the mind of a machine and the nimble body of an insect, this bug-bot may be the perfect scout: inexpensive, expendable, and capable of surreptitious reconnaissance.


When Fixing Government, Beware of the Brainiacs

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:40 PM PDT

Rotten economy? Not if you're in the business of radically overhauling American government. Between the Obama administration and Congress, the assembly line for Big Ideas is running triple shifts, cranking out stimulus plans, bank rescue plans, foreclosure prevention plans, health care reform plans, alternative energy plans, auto-industry...


First dino 'blood' extracted from ancient bone

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:30 PM PDT

A dinosaur bone buried for 80 million years has yielded a mix of proteins and microstructures resembling cells. The finding is important because it should resolve doubts about a previous report that also claimed to have extracted dino tissue from fossils.


Windows 7 Release Candidate 1 impressions and expectations

Posted: 30 Apr 2009 02:30 PM PDT

When you get RC1 in your hands, it's not going to feel drastically different than the previous beta. There are UI tweaks and tucks, and some functionality added, but mostly it's more of the same -- which is to say a really cleaned up, streamlined, nicer looking version of Vista.