Slice of News

I'm in a rush so I'm going to just post some quick links to stuff that I found to be an interesting read.

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Roundup of NASA's 50 years in space, the retirement of the shuttle and what's it all about?

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Google Maps Great Barrier Reef

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Fifty years in space and 100 years on the road - Ford celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Model T and have a car design competition.  The winner is an air-powered three wheeler!

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Take a look at these picture.  They are actual photos of clouds floating across another planet's sky! Courtesy of Phoenix Lander

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Skype users?  China is listening!

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Tech News

Couple of noteworthy tech news items...

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Bill Gates is retiring from Microsoft. Love him or hate him, one cannot deny the impact he has had on our lives. I have spent many years buying, using, fixing, playing with and even selling Microsoft operating systems and software. Although he is generally considered a lousy programmer, he was a great business man and in these later years he has improved his personal image dramatically through his philanthropy with his fortunes.

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The Internet is about to open up to an unlimited number of top-level domain names. For a long time we've been pretty much stuck with .com, .org, .gov, or .country (.au, .uk, .jp). but now - if you can afford it you can have whatever top level domain you like. Expect to see .city (.sydney, .london, .tokyo, .nyc) and .company (.ford, .google, .microsoft, .bhp). Buying and setting one up will cost in the tens of thousands of dollars range so don't expect a .dgar anytime soon! :)

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OS X is starting to become noticed by malware writers. Two new trojans have been discovered that can compromise the security of Mac computers. I've had antivirus software running on our Mac since we got it. ClamX is free antivirus software for OS X and has regular updates. Firewall is built in and on by default in Leopard but Safari seems to get some nasty security holes in it like Internet Explorer does! Perhaps the big companies should give up on trying to build Internet browsers and let the entire world create, build and use Firefox3.

Other News

Apple buys comet for advertising purposes.

Petrol station attendant too busy for armed robber.

Rugby Union chairman stands down - drunk and disorderly complains Bundaberg Rum.

Mythbusters to test if cockaroaches can actually survive nuclear holocaust.

Orgasmic ring tone in courtroom almost guarantees return visit to court.

Greenpeace - Save the Planet - Eat Kangaroo!.

Guitar Heros are overdubbed on YouTube - made to look bad.

Sydney woman accidently swallows spoon.

A boy survives a two hour flight on the wing of a 737.

Monkey assassain.

Haunted swing freaks people out.

Drunk man in Halloween costume reported murdered.

Daniel Bowen - Toxic Custard

Daniel Bowen of ToxicCustard.com is an Australian Champion. Probably not a sporting champion or a chess champion, but a champion in the more colloquial sense that he comes across as a top bloke. He's been blogging for longer than the word blog has been around and he's been an ambassador of Australia to many foreigners across the world, answering the tricky questions about our great country and offering valuable advice to visitors on what you can expect during their stay. He's been doing it since... well... back when you had to know HTML to put your thoughts on the web. And the look of the site really hasn't changed much over the years. His Guide to Australia is something everyone should browse through at least once and his blow-by-blow photographic story of how he took vengeance on his VHS video player just shows how long this site has been around. Maybe he should update it with a DVD player... or a Media Center! Anyway the Toxic Custard News (The News You Had To Have) caught my eye tonight with some mad stories, a 10 year old girl being sued by the Record Industry and Man wakes up with headache to find that he had been shot in the head while he was sleeping.

Also, Jonathan Ross from the BBC said that the logo made for the London 2012 Olympic Games resembles Lisa Simpson giving a blow job. I'm not sure what that means, but see what you think?


And to top off my theft of news from Toxic Custard, a story from his Only in America file: Firearm Owner's Identification card issued to 10-month-old baby.

Thanks Daniel for a great website that you've managed to keep great over time.

Microsoft reduce choice again!

Computer makers have been told they'll no longer be able to get Windows XP OEM by the end of this year, despite consumer resistance to Vista and its compatibility problems.

By early 2008, Microsoft's contracts with computer makers will require companies to only sell Vista-loaded machines...

The full story on the APC Mag website on NineMSN. It's worth having a look at if only for the artwork of "The Scream" painted over a Windows logo.

Dolphin massacre in Japan

Water power

The Internet is a place for public forum the likes that has never been seen before in history. The views in blogs are now having an effect on how big companies operate and in some cases they are having an effect on governments. It's not only free speech that is causing this effect. It's access to knowledge. The freedom to read what others are saying and learning what others are teaching, regardless of where they are in the world, irrespective of race or religion.

Use it.

Visit YouTube, Wiki, Google Video, Google Search, Google News and Google Blogsearch and watch and read and most importantly, learn.

Search for

Water Power,
Over Unity,
HHO,
Global Warming,
Bush,
Net Neutrality,
PNAC,
Stan Meyer

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The Australian Water Manipulation Motor

Water for Fuel

• Their MySpace Videos

Overunity.com

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I'm not saying that all the information on the sites above are true and accurate. I am saying there seems to be a lot of people who have apparently come up with ways to create clean and renewable energy and while there are plenty of very smart and reputable people saying that these things can't be true, there doesn't seem to be many willing to look at the inventions properly and find out if they really do work. Search, read, learn and decide for yourself.

Google Video Australia

Google Video has come to Australia with a video.google.com.au address. I assume this means faster access for viewers down under but it also means a custom Aussie homepage. For instance Film Australia has its own section on Google video as does the Australian Film TV & Radio School and the Sydney Morning Herald.

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Street Fighter II vs Jackie Chan

The Mumbai Mirror

"Mumbai , formerly known as Bombay, is the capital of the state of Maharashtra, and the most populous city of India, with an estimated population of about 13 million."

- From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

While browsing for news about what is happening in North Korea, I found a news site in India called the Mumbai Mirror with some other interesting stories. Stephen Hawking is divorcing his second wife of eleven years, sex in space can jepordize missions and a story about Australian farmers not coping with the drought.

The Australian farmers story is particurlarly interesting becuase is claims...

"One Australian farmer commits suicide every four days, defeated by the country’s worst drought in 100 years which has left them with dust-bowl paddocks and a mountain of debt, says a national mental health body."

I hadn't heard any news like this locally so I thought I'd Google "Australian farmers commit suicide" and restrict the results to Australia only. The top link was from Oxfam Australia which had a story about...

"the growing crisis on the farm front that there is hardly a week when a couple of farmers do not commit suicide in several parts of southern India"

While it was strange to see these two stories one after another, a little further digging finds that both countries, and possibly many other countries are suffering from this problem. While I have heard some people comment on the drought our farmers are going through at the moment and opinions are mixed. Some think "They'll be fine, they got plenty of money to see them through..." but you wouldn't think that someone with plenty of money to see them through would want to top themselves.

There are departments and organizations that recognize the problem like The Rural Mental Health Network. Like I said, first I'd heard of it.

Journalist

I got an e-mail from a Flikr member today that I didn't know about and have never met. This sheila Gail Orenstein likes taking photos and posts them on Flickr, but she copy and pastes a news clipping with it touching on some of the latest headlines. Here are a couple of interesting ones that you may want to look at. The photos are great and are added to the story for dramatic effect but they weren't taken by the journalist or the team that did the story.

14 year old minor questioned by Feds about anti-Bush MySpace page-pulled out of History class and questioned without parents present.

Guru of Ganja indicited-Ed Rosenthal was convicted for cultivating the plants for Oakland medical marijuana program. Does weed help Cancer patients?

Education 101-School Children taught to take gunman down. As important as Science and Math? Should kids be armed in school?

Daily blood bath-Thousands of Iraqis fleeing the country every day. why are Iraqis leaving such a safe place, Bush claims Iraq is a victory, is it?

I will point out that bloggers and photographers are not journalists, but Gail is doing a great job of bringing news and issues to people who may otherwise not bother to read them.

About Gail Orenstein

Snap on!

Also, some may already know, YouTube was bought by Google and will prolly eventually be intergrated into Google Video. Here is the "Thanks, and don't worry, it's all going to be fine" message from the YouTube Team

Lebanon/Israeli War

In case you didn't know, go and catch up at ABC News Online or Google News. There is also a wiki entry for the conflict that is rather in-depth.

Some photos.

War sucks.