Archive for July 12th, 2007
Baby mammoth discovery unveiled
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Straight from BBC News: “A baby mammoth unearthed in the permafrost of north-west Siberia could be the best preserved specimen of its type, scientists have said.
The frozen carcass is to be sent to Japan for detailed study.
The six-month-old female calf was discovered on the Yamal peninsula of Russia and is thought to have died 10,000 years ago.
The animal’s trunk and eyes are still intact and some of its fur remains on the body.”
Texas State Lawmaker Opposing Deadly Force Bill Shoots Would-Be Thief
Straight from Fox News: “HOUSTON — A state lawmaker who opposed a bill giving Texans stronger right to defend themselves with deadly force pulled a gun and shot a man he says was trying to steal copper wiring from a construction site, police said Monday.
Rep. Borris Miles told police he was fixing a leak on the second floor of the Houston house he’s building Sunday night when he heard a noise downstairs and saw two men trying to steal the copper. After Miles confronted the pair, one of the men threw a pocketknife at him, Houston Police spokesman Victor Senties.
Miles, a former law enforcement officer, shot the man in the left leg, police said. The wounded suspect was being treated at a Houston hospital. Police were trying to identify the other suspect.
Charges of aggravated robbery are pending against the wounded suspect, Senties said.
Police said Miles, who is in his freshman term, is licensed to carry a concealed weapon. No charges have been filed against Miles, Senties said.
Miles, a Democrat, voted against a bill that gives Texans stronger legal right to defend themselves with deadly force in their homes, vehicles, and workplaces. The so-called “castle doctrine,” passed by the Legislature this year, states that a person has no duty to retreat from an intruder before using deadly force. The law goes into effect Sept. 1.”
Tretton Gets Grilled On PS3 Price Drop
Straight from Kotaku: “Man, SCEA president Jack Tretton has a much easier time of it when his interviewer is a cue card. Unfortunately for Mr. Tretton, his interview on CNBC with host Bill Griffeth was a much different affair from the Sony produced explanation of today’s price drop announcement. Griffeth takes Jack to task, asking fairly bluntly and with extremely windy “Why?”s just what we’re supposed to infer from the price cut. It’s probably the most exciting 3 minutes and 43 seconds worth of CNBC you’ll watch today.”
Wrecking Ball Runs Amok In Pa. Town
Straight from Local 6: “MEADVILLE, Pa. — A wrecking ball wreaked havoc on a small college town in northwest Pennsylvania on Monday.
The 1,500-pound, 3-foot-wide ball broke loose from a crane cable and rolled nearly a mile downhill.
It smashed more than a dozen vehicles and injured three people as it bounced from curb to curb.
The ball slammed into the back of a car stopped at an intersection. The force caused a chain reaction with two other cars at the traffic light.
The driver, an Allegheny College junior, said he thought a car had hit him when his back windshield exploded.
The ball came to rest in the trunk of a car and pushed it nearly 20 feet.
Workers had been using the wrecking ball to demolish part of a library at Allegheny College when the cable snapped.”
65 Reasons to own a Nintendo DS
Straight from Videolamer: “The DS is a weaker machine than the PSP but it still has a few tricks that can be used as bullet points on the back of its box. Everyone knows about the second screen, the touch screen, and the wireless. Frankly, if it were up to small features, a DS list wouldn’t get very high. But those things aren’t what make the system worth owning. The DS is ultimately popular with gamers because of its games. Any list that wants to convince a gamer to buy a system should focus on games, and so without further lecturing…here are the games (in no particular order)…”
Video of XREP Wireless Taser Shotgun Shocking Some Dude
Straight from Gizmodo: “What do you get when you combine a Taser with a shotgun shell? Something you really, really don’t want to get hit with. The new Taser XREP is a tiny wireless Taser that can be fired from a standard issue 12 gauge, taking down perps from up to 100 feet away. And hey, if you’re worried that there’s just no way that they can cram all the pants-pooping power of a full Taser into a bullet, don’t sweat it!
Each battery is crammed with enough juice to dole out a full 20-second cycle of pure “non-violent” punishment. 20 seconds! Good lord, that’s a long time to be gettin’ Tasered. It also has such neat features as three “torsion spring fins” which help the XREP stay straight and fly right into the fleshy part of that guy trying to steal an air conditioner. Well, that settles it: I’m giving up my life of crime. You’ve convinced me, Taser! No more breaking and entering for this guy.”
No Samba for Microsoft and Its Linux ‘Partners’
Straight from Usenix.org.uk: “The Samba team will continue to provide security fixes to the GPLv2 versions, but new features will be added only to the GPLv3 versions, the team said. The Free Software Foundation has already released a number of elements of its Gnu’s Not Unix (GNU) project under GPLv3, including the widely used “tar” command for compressing and decompressing files.”
Man flies 193 miles in lawn chair
Straight from CNN: “BEND, Oregon (AP) — Last weekend, Kent Couch settled down in his lawn chair with some snacks — and a parachute. Attached to his lawn chair were 105 large helium balloons.
Destination: Idaho.
With instruments to measure his altitude and speed, a global positioning system device in his pocket, and about four plastic bags holding five gallons of water each to act as ballast — he could turn a spigot, release water and rise — Couch headed into the Oregon sky.
Nearly nine hours later, the 47-year-old gas station owner came back to earth in a farmer’s field near Union, short of Idaho but about 193 miles from home.
“When you’re a little kid and you’re holding a helium balloon, it has to cross your mind,” Couch told the Bend Bulletin.”
Awesome Ubuntu/Linux Apps you might not know about
Straight from Little Ubuntu: “After spending some time on the offical Ubuntu Forums I came across this awesome thread which let users post applications they thought were noteable but were rarley mentioned. The only problem was it was 40+ pages of content. So in turn i decided to make a post with these applications that anyone can read in just one page or post. Enjoy”
