FireFox and Thunderbird phone home daily

Several of you have emailed me to let me know of a Firefox and Thunderbird feature that you might not be aware of - both applications phone home on a daily basis.

Here’s the info as posted on Reddit:

I found this out a few days after I decided to start using Thunderbird and created strict firewall rules as a precaution.

I noticed that Thunderbird would, for no reason at all, sometimes try to contact a server over SSL. I looked up the ip address 63.245.213.32 and found it belonged to Mozilla.

On researching the problem further I found that the cause of the connection is a feature that cannot be disabled from any menu, only the about:config configuration page.

Look up extensions.blocklist.enabled for more information. It’s present in Firefox also and is enabled even if all the options are disabled through the menus.

What this tells Mozilla each day:

- IP address
- What time you were using the product
- What exact version number you were using
- If you are using any of the plugins or addons sent in the disabled list
- Total number of active users of their software

More info on this feature over on the Mozilla support site (this link also shows you how to disable this phone home feature). Seems that this is related to checking the extensions blocklist for malicious add-ons (won’t a malicious add-on just disable the check feature???).

Personally, I’m not too fussed about this feature, but I can understand why some folks are getting hot under the collar.

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Speech by a school girl in UN conference on environment

Thanks Crystal

XP petitioners: It’s time to raise the white flag.

XP petitioners: It’s time to raise the white flag.

After months of rumors that Microsoft might rethink its decision to pull the plug on Windows XP, the official word is out: XP is on its way out.

Microsoft is sticking to its plan to cease providing PC makers with XP to preload on new PCs after June 30, as Microsoft is now letting customers know via a letter it has posted to its Windows XP and Windows Vista Web sites.

The June 23 letter, entitled “An Update on the Windows Roadmap,” from Bill Veghte, Senior Vice President, Online Services & Windows Business Group, reiterated that PC makers won’t be getting more copies of Windows XP to load on new machines after June 30, 2008. (There are two exceptions to this rule: “white box” system builders and makers of ultra-low-cost PCs are both allowed to continue to preload XP through 2009.)

Microsoft support for XP doesn’t end on that date; free Microsoft-provided support for XP continues through April 2009. Microsoft “Extended” support — for which users must pay (other than for security-specific hot fixes and various self-help tools, which are free) — lasts through 2014.

There is no new information about the Windows roadmap in Veghte’s letter. Veghte acknowledged that Vista — especially in its initial release — was not an easy Windows release for many customers to swallow. From his letter:

“The architectural changes that improved security and resilience in Windows Vista led to compatibility issues with existing hardware and applications. Many hardware drivers and applications needed to be updated, and while the majority worked well when we launched Windows Vista, some key applications and drivers were not yet available. Since then, Microsoft and its industry partners have been hard at work to address compatibility issues and now the situation is fundamentally different.”

Windows 7 is coming three years after Windows XP’s Vista’s release, Veghte reminded users. (Microsoft officials have been saying lately on the record that the company is shooting for a late 2009 release for Windows 7.)

What’s your take? Should Microsoft have extended XP’s end-of-life date one more time? Or is the company right in not wanting to send mixed messages to the public about whether Vista is really (finally) ready for prime time?

How it feels to have a stroke

Kudos to Apple for bringing the latest technology to consumers.

Finally, a modern file system on a consumer OS
As if Grand Central weren’t enough bad news for Microsoft, now they have ZFS to contend with. Building a reliable, high-performance file system takes years and Microsoft doesn’t have years to respond.

The formal announcement is for Snow Leopard server, which is how Apple introduces new file systems. HFS+ first arrived on a server version as well.

Who cares?
Anyone who stores data should.

Microsoft’s NTFS is 20 year old technology borrowed from DEC. Fine for small disks and puny CPUs. Not so great for today’s data intensive systems and applications.

Silent data corruption is common - only you don’t know it - because the corruption shows up as other problems, like missing DLLs.

ZFS: open source from Sun
ZFS is the first desktop file system with true end-to-end data integrity. Thanks to sophisticated tree-based checksums it detects and corrects silent data corruption anywhere in the data path: disks, cables, interfaces and more.

The checksums are stored with the parent block, so the file system always knows that the child block is both uncorrupted and the correct block. That’s just one of the errors that NTFS and most other commodity file systems - including the Mac’s HFS+ - are prone too.

Sun’s ZFS engineering team started working on ZFS 7 years ago as a clean-sheet design. It combines file system and volume management functionality. Instead of managing individual disks, you manage a pool of blocks. ZFS takes care of the details.

Turning up the heat on Microsoft
For all of Microsoft’s fine talk about innovation they don’t do squat unless someone else does it first. Remember IE 6? ZFS is a modern and innovative file system that solves some difficult data storage and integrity problems. Like these:

No more Disk Warrior
Data corruption on PCs and Macs is a sad and stupid fact of life. Power failures, flaky RAM, poor grounding, (slowly) failing hard drives, driver glitches, phantom writes and more conspire to rot your data.

ZFS eliminates that. All blocks are checksummed and the checksum is stored in a parent block. ZFS always knows if the block is correct and/or corrupt. Every block has a parent block (with one obvious exception that gets special treatment), so the entire data store is self-validating. You’ll never have to wonder if all your data is correct again. It is.

No RAID cards or controllers
ZFS implements very fast RAID that fixes the performance knock-off against software RAID. In ZFS all writes are the fastest kind: full stripe writes. And the RAID is running on the fastest processor in your system (your Mac), rather than some 3-5 year old microcontroller.

Just add drives to your system and you have a fast RAID system. With Serial Attach SCSI and SATA drives you’ll pay for the drives (cheap and getting cheaper), cables and enclosures.

No more volumes
Every time you add a disk to your Mac you see another disk icon on the desktop. If you want to RAID some disks you use Disk Utility (or something) to create the volume. Slow, error-prone, confusing.

ZFS eliminates the whole volume concept. Add a disk or five to your system and it joins your storage pool. More capacity. Not more management.

Backup made easy
ZFS does something called snapshot copy, which creates a copy of all your data at whatever point in time you want. Copy the snapshot up to a disk, tape or NAS box and you are backed up.

Create a snapshot on every write if you want, so if your database barfs you can go back to just before it choked.

But that’s not all!
For in-depth treatment of ZFS see here and here. Includes links to more technical info and benchmarks.

The Storage Bits take
It would be nice if Microsoft were driving innovation and reliability, but - like General Motors - they prefer to rest of their laurels. And like General Motors, they are facing a long and painful decline if they don’t get their act together.

GM says they are proud that 1 in 4 cars sold in America are GM - but the number used to be 3 out of 5. Microsoft is rightfully proud of their 90% market share. But that share can change - as it has for IE - and they have nowhere to go but down.

As users we benefit from the competition. Kudos to Apple for bringing the latest technology to consumers.

Cantinflas Cruzando el muro en la Frontera

CANTINFLAS CRUZANDO EL MURO EN LA FRONTERA

Honda's FCX Clarity, the first commercial hydrogen car on the market.

Honda produces first commercial hydrogen cars

Honda has begun the first commercial production ever of a hydrogen fuel cell-powered car.

The Japanese auto manufacturer ceremoniously launched production of its first hydrogen-powered vehicles on Sunday in Tochigi, Japan, and announced its first customers.

The four-door sedan, called the FCX Clarity, runs on electricity from a fuel cell battery that is powered by hydrogen fuel. Steam is the car's only byproduct. The car can get a combined (city and highway driving) fuel efficiency of about 72 miles per kg of H2 which, according to Honda's own estimates, is the equivalent of getting about 74 mpg on a gas-powered car. The car can be driven for about 280 miles before needing to be refueled.



Honda CEO Takeo Fukui drives some of the first people who will lease the Honda's FCX Clarity hydrogen car: actress Laura Harris (front passenger), Southland Industries CFO Jon Spallino (behind her), and film producer Ron Yerxa.
(Credit: Honda Motor)
While many automakers and researchers have prototypes and pilot projects using hydrogen fuel to power fuel cells on electric hybrids, or as a direct fuel source for vehicles with converted engines, there are no hydrogen-powered cars yet available for lease or purchase to the average consumer.

Honda claims it is the first company to have a hydrogen car certified for regular commercial use by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

"This is an important day in the history of fuel cell vehicle technology and a monumental step closer to the day when fuel cell cars will be part of the mainstream," John Mendel, executive vice president of American Honda, said in a statement.

The car was first introduced as a concept vehicle in 2005 at the Tokyo Motor Show.

Starting in July, Honda plans to offer the hydrogen-powered FCX Clarity through a lease program at three dealerships in California: Power Honda Costa Mesa, Honda of Santa Monica, and Scott Robinson Honda in Torrance. Honda also plans to make the cars available in Japan. The cars will be leased on a three-year basis for about $600 per month, according to Honda.

Among the first owners will be actor/author Jamie-Lee Curtis and her husband, filmmaker Christopher Guest of This is Spinal Tap fame.

Of course, hydrogen cars are not going to be widely driven anytime soon. Honda estimates it will lease only about 200 FCX Clarity vehicles over the next three years. In order to qualify for the lease program, would-be owners will have to meet a set of criteria that includes living within range of a hydrogen filling station, according to Honda. As part of the lease, Honda will provide any necessary service or maintenance on the vehicle.

The biggest obstacle in mass market appeal of hydrogen-powered vehicles vs. gas-electric hybrids is where owners could fill up their cars. While the U.S. Department of Energy has been a proponent of hydrogen fuel as an alternative energy for cars, there are currently few hydrogen-fuel filling stations the U.S.

There is also an ongoing debate as to whether hydrogen, a fuel that requires large amounts of electricity to be produced, is truly energy efficient when its entire food chain is taken into consideration.

Risky Sport of Free Diving Making a Bigger Splash

· Pearl divers and sponge fishermen have been doing it for thousands of years: swimming into the depths and holding their breath underwater for longer than many people might think possible.

It's called free diving, and it's emerging as a popular sport in the United States and around the world. Free-diving fans say it's addictive, but there are significant risks.

David and Robert Richardson have been diving most of their lives. After a recent day of spearfishing, the brothers decided to do some free diving to see how deep they could go on a lungful of air. David, 16, got down to the bottom in 90 feet of water and was headed back up when he blacked out.

"The next thing I remember, I was waking up coughing and spitting blood in the back of the boat," he recalls, laughing.

Fortunately, his 20-year-old brother, Robert, was headed to the surface after his own dive and spotted the trouble.

"I looked down and I saw David had stopped moving. ... I grabbed him and headed up to the surface," Robert says. "And the next thing I know, I was in the back of the boat."

Robert made it to the surface holding onto his brother, but then he, too, lost consciousness. Friends in a nearby boat quickly took action, rescuing the brothers from almost certain drowning.

Among free divers and spearfishers, it's not an uncommon tale. Last year in the Florida Keys, at least three people died while free diving. Even the most seasoned free divers experience blackouts.

World champion free diver Mandy-Rae Cruickshank says she's probably experienced 10 blackouts.

"They look bad to people watching them because our eyes are usually open, we're unconscious, we're very blue in the lips when it happens and we're not breathing," she says. "You look like you're dead, essentially."

Cruickshank and her husband and dive partner, Kirk Krack, are apostles of the fast-growing sport of competitive free diving. They trained escape artist David Blaine for his recent record-setting appearance in April on The Oprah Winfrey Show in which he stayed underwater for 17 minutes. They've also worked with Tiger Woods, another free-diving enthusiast.

In addition, Krack and Cruickshank teach courses in free diving to educate people about safety — and about physiology.

"In the 1950s, doctors thought that people couldn't dive deeper than 50 meters because our alveoli in our lungs would implode and we'd die," Cruickshank says. But she notes that humans are capable of diving to even greater depths because we possess what's called mammalian diving reflexes.

These are reflexes we share with seals, dolphins and other marine mammals. Researchers have learned that as people go underwater, their heart rates slow and blood vessels constrict — reducing flow to the extremities so more oxygen is sent to the brain.

The downside of the diving response is that as divers near the surface, their constricted vessels return to normal and can create a sudden lack of oxygen to the brain — causing a blackout. Too often, this leads divers to drown even in shallow water.

Krack devotes much of his free-diving classes to safety — stressing the buddy system and not pushing beyond one's limits. But he also shows students breathing and kicking techniques that get them deeper and keep them underwater longer than most have ever experienced before. After several training sessions, many find they can stay underwater for three minutes or longer.

Angel Vasquez, 60, was among nine students in one recent class held in 200 feet of water in the middle of Miami's Biscayne Bay. He says he's been spearfishing and free diving for 35 years but didn't realize he's been doing it wrong.

"You come to this class and you realize it is a totally different way of doing things — you know, your breathholds and the preparation for it."

After three hours in the water, Krack and Cruickshank's students clamber back into the boat. Most are elated at their dives.

Vasquez checks the depth calculator on his wrist.

"Deep, it says deep," Vasquez exclaims. He twice reached a depth of 99 feet and says he "didn't even feel like, no problem at all coming up or anything. It was just incredible, just incredible."

In Florida, California, Hawaii — anywhere there's water — free diving is growing in popularity. Cruickshank says that with better training and information, she hopes the sport can outgrow the perception that it's a death-defying activity.

Pushing the envelope always carries risk. French competitor Audrey Mestre died during a dive in 2002.

And when Cruickshank recently attempted to set a new free-dive record in the Cayman Islands, she swam to a depth of more than 300 feet but blacked out on the way to the surface. She was brought up by her safety diver, Krack.

Happy Birthday Jenny

Che Guevara

click on Title above to see this movie and ton's of other's Free
An intentionally noncommittal version of the Cuban revolution told through flashbacks, the film recounts Che's switch from doctor to politico in Castro's campaign.-


Title Details
Network / StudioTwentieth Century FoxTitleChe!
Description =Argentine guerrilla Che Guevara helps Fidel Castro overthrow Batista, then leads his own revolution in Bolivia.
Genre= Action and Adventure
Release Date= June 27, 1969

Run Nike+WWF and help fight climate change!

Nike+ Human Race
Like to run? Run for WWF and help fight climate change! On August 31, 2008, Nike is hosting the world's biggest one-day running event--the Nike+ Human Race. This 10K global race will take place over the course of one day, with a goal of one million runners, across 25 cities and featuring 25 top musical acts. Nike and runners will raise funds to donate at least $3 million to three global charities--including WWF. Runners can also take advantage of the Nike+ Human Race online pledge tool to raise additional funds for the cause of their choice. In the U.S., runners can register at www.nikeplus.com and choose to participate at race events in Los Angeles, New York City, Chicago or Austin. Or, you may register to run where you live and track your miles online with nikeplus.com

Code execution vulnerability found in Firefox 3.0

It’s not all about world records for Firefox 3.0.

Just hours after the official release of the latest refresh of Mozilla’s flagship browser, an unnamed researcher has sold a critical code execution vulnerability that puts millions of Firefox3.0 users at risk of PC takeover attacks.

According to a note from TippingPoint’s Zero Day Initiative (ZDI) , a company that buys exclusive rights to software vulnerability data, the Firefox 3.0 bug also affects earlier versions of Firefox 2.0x.

Technical details are being kept under wraps until Mozilla’s security team ships a patch.

According to ZDI’s alert, it should be considered a high-severity risk:

Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, permitting the attacker to completely take over the vulnerable process, potentially allowing the machine running the process to be completely controlled by the attacker. TippingPoint researchers continue to see these types of “user-interaction required ” browser-based vulnerabilities - such as clicking on a link in email or inadvertently visiting a malicious web page.

It looks very much like the vulnerability researcher was hoarding this vulnerability and saving it for Firefox 3.0 final release to make the sale.

In the absence of a fix, Firefox users should practice safe browsing habits and avoid clicking on strange links that arrive via e-mail or IM messages.

There are no reports of this issue being exploited but, if you are worried about being at risk of drive-by attacks, consider using a different browser.

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Min

watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind just click on the title above -sign in = its FREE -Tons of movies on your computer= enjoy- C U Soon joe

Is Another Bubble Behind Soaring Gas, Food Prices?

ECONOMY
Is Another Bubble Behind Soaring Gas, Food Prices?
First, there was the dot-com bubble, when wads of investor cash made millionaires out of pimply teens seemingly overnight. When that burst, investors sought safety in housing, lulled by the false conventional wisdom that "real estate never goes down." We all know how that turned out. Now, as Americans feel their pocketbooks pinched by skyrocketing fuel and food costs, lawmakers on Capitol Hill have been holding a raft of hearings into whether speculative frenzy is once again to blame.

Here, a look at whether a "commodity bubble" is in the works.

Why do lawmakers think speculators are driving up food and energy prices?

It all has to do with what's been going on in commodities futures markets. Traditionally, these markets were used by players such as farmers, miners or refineries — who either produce the commodities being traded, or rely on them to do business. Activity on futures markets helps set the benchmark global price for food and energy.

In recent years, however, commodities markets have seen a flood of new money from institutional investors — such as hedge funds, pension funds and index funds linked to commodities. Investment from commodities-linked indices jumped from $13 billion in 2003 to $260 billion today, according to Michael Masters, the head of Master Capital Management LLC, a hedge fund. These investors aren't in commodities because their business depends on it; they're simply looking to make a profit from fluctuations in prices (that's the classic definition of speculation, and it's perfectly legal). But many lawmakers and other critics blame these new investors for driving up prices.

So how much of the jump in oil and food prices can be attributed to increased demand, and how much is due to speculation?
Investors have almost certainly helped push prices higher than they otherwise would be, but no one knows how much higher. In May, Masters testified before Congress that institutional investors are largely responsible for soaring food and fuel prices.

But other market experts aren't so sure. On Tuesday, for example, Merrill Lynch analysts issued a note arguing that speculative frenzy isn't to blame; supply and demand is, along with low interest rates that have made emerging markets more liquid and hungrier for raw materials. They point out that even commodities that aren't traded in funds — such as coal, rice and steel — have seen big appreciation.

Even lawmakers who blame speculators for soaring prices also acknowledge the reality of increased demand for food and energy from emerging markets such as India and China.

Is there evidence that market manipulation is at work?

None that has been documented. There's no disputing that the jump in food and oil prices has been astounding. Since January 2007, the price of crude has leaped from $60 to more than $130 a barrel. And prices for corn and other staples have reached record highs. But there's also no evidence that market manipulation is at play.

Nonetheless, those suspicious of the spike in energy prices are quick to point to so-called "dark markets" — energy trading markets that were deregulated in late 2000 at the request of Enron. Some people suspect nefarious transactions are taking place in these unpoliced markets, and that traders are raising prices basically at will. Again, there's no actual evidence that that is the case.

What kind of legislative solutions are lawmakers proposing?

Most proposals focus on energy speculation. On Tuesday, the Senate held a hearing looking at whether the Commodity Futures Trading Commission has the tools it needs to police the world's crude oil markets. In the last eight years, the commission's workforce has shrunk more than 20 percent, while the volume of trading it is supposed to keep an eye on has multiplied six-fold. Lawmakers are considering adding more staff and additional tools as a safeguard against possible market manipulation.
One proposal would limit the number of contracts that institutional investors — such as banks and pension funds — are allowed to hold. Another would require traders to put up more collateral in the energy futures market, to avoid what CFTC Acting Chairman Walter Lukken calls "excessive speculation."

Would this help lower prices?

Not likely. Even if investors are bidding up crude prices higher than supply and demand would dictate, unless market manipulation is occurring — and so far, there's no proof of that — increased oversight wouldn't help lower prices. And it could very well be that current oil prices do, in fact, accurately reflect current conditions: a world where economies and populations are growing very fast, and where refinery capacity is stretched.

What role does the weak dollar play in all of this?

The dollar's weakness is a big factor. The price of crude is set in dollars, so when that price fluctuates, Americans feel the pinch more acutely than, say, Europeans buying oil with the stronger euro. And as investors flee the dollar, they are lured to other more promising options, including oil.

Will it help if the Fed tightens monetary policy?

Yes and no. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said that he's more concerned about rising inflation than economic growth — a signal that the Fed's interest-rate cutting spree may be at an end. Higher interest rates are a double-edged sword. On one hand, they would make the U.S. dollar more attractive to foreign investors and bolster the currency. And that, in turn, would make it cheaper for Americans to buy oil. But higher rates would also make it more expensive to do business, and for U.S. consumers to take out a mortgage or buy on credit.

Blizzard of Snow Leopard Scat

Mac OS X 10.6, aka Snow Leopard, was announced last week at Apple’s developer conference and there are few details creeping out from under the developer non-disclosure agreements. Mac enthusiast sites are busy posting conjectures that fill in some of the blanks, including which processors that will run it, its performance, or whether it will run on the PowerPC.

A French Mac enthusiast site shows a list with the system requirements for Mac OS X Snow Leopard and an Intel processor tops the list. There’s no word about PowerPC support.

That could be. A number of developer blogs have expected this move for more than a year.

Still, from what I heard from Mac developers following the Macworld Expo, today’s Leopard is fairly abstract and there’s more trouble supporting the older Tiger version of the OS than having an application that runs only on Leopard, whether on Intel or PowerPC. One said, Xcode 3.0 “gives you the PowerPC version for free.” So, perhaps the deep plumbing changes coming in Snow Leopard will be difficult to achieve on PowerPC. (Or perhaps this situation will change as the year progresses.)

An Apple representative said on the subject: “We haven’t confirmed what architectures it’ll run on at this point.”

According to Apple, Snow Leopard’s big themes are primarily plumbing-related rather than a flurry of new features: 64-bit support for 16TB of RAM, “Grand Central” multicore optimization, and improved graphics support with Open Computing Language (OpenCL), which is called Botan.


(In my pre-WWDC post, Sean Safreed, co-founder of Red Giant Software, scored with one of his wishes for Snow Leopard:

“My Apple wish list really focuses on helping developers exploit the power of mutli-core and multi-GPU options to increase processing speed, a commodity that is always in short supply for video users. CPUs are only going to get more cores-even laptops will have four CPU cores in 2009 and likely the graphics card will have mutliple cores as well. Users can already load up to 4 GPUs into one machine but few games can even exploit this power fully.”)

Meanwhile, reader Mythic on Reddit last week said he had interviewed at the Apple team working on Open Computing Language. He offered more information on the scope of Apple’s work:

I think it’s more than that. I interviewed with Apple’s GPGPU group (they do have several people working full time on this stuff) a few months ago and got the impression that OpenCL is intended to abstract over a variety of cards and computing platforms. So you could write your program once in OpenCL and be able to run it on an ATI card, an NVIDIA card, or just your multi-core CPU. More interestingly, you could run it in tandem on your GPU and CPU with some sort of adaptive load-balancing performed automatically. I have no idea how much of this actually made it into Snow Leopard, but it’s a cool idea.

On the architecture front, DigiTimes said that Snow Leopard will arrive in time for Intel’s Nehalem family of processors. (The story is now available only to the site’s paid subscribers.)

Intel’s plans for Nehalem are to scale the architecture from between one to eight (or more) cores per CPU across mobile, desktop, workstation and server platforms, an increase from the limit of one to four available in current CPUs. Additionally, Intel will introduce (or re-introduce) simultaneous multi-threading technology (SMT), similar to its Hyper-Threading technology which allowed each core to execute two threads per clock cycle. …

The final correlation between the two companies is the launch date for Snow Leopard which Apple gives as in “about a year.” Intel is set to start introducing Nehalem later this year with Bloomfield for desktops and Nehalem-EP (Gainestown) for 2-way workstations or severs, but the mobile platforms Clarksfield and Auburndale are not scheduled to hit the market until the second quarter of 2009.

Sierra Leone's Refugee All Stars

Click on Title to go to Pangeaday.org

Rare pregnant Male sea dragon

ATLANTA, Georgia (CNN) -- He's pregnant.


This male weedy sea dragon became the third ever in the U.S. to become pregnant outside of its habitat.
Click on title to see more video's

After setting the mood with lighting and finessing, the Georgia Aquarium's attempts to coax rare sea dragons to mate have finally worked -- just in time for Father's Day.

The pregnant male weedy sea dragon is now only the third of its kind in the United States to successfully become pregnant outside of its natural habitat.

The sea dragon, found in nature only in the waters off southern Australia, became pregnant Tuesday when a female transferred her eggs onto his tail.

Dennis Christen, assistant manager of animal care and husbandry, said that male sea horses, sea dragons and pipe fish all carry the eggs instead of the female.

Christen said that recently the staff took steps to try to assist in mating.

They altered the mood by adjusting the lighting and thinning the plants, Christen said.

But so much is unknown about the creatures, including their mating routines, that a lot about the pregnancy remains a mystery, Christen said.

When the animals finally do mate, the sea dragons arch their tails and swim side by side until they latch onto each other before swimming vertically together during their version of a "date."

"When they're courting they do a really ritualistic dance," he said.

What little is known about that dance could hold a key to problems with breeding the animals in small tanks similar to those at the aquarium.

"Some people think that problems are if the tank isn't deep enough they don't have enough time to swim vertically," Christen said.

Of the 70 small pink eggs wrapped around the male's tail, nobody knows how many are viable and could actually hatch. Christen said that they are relying on other experiences with breeding, where about 60 percent of the eggs survived, to estimate how things may go.

At the Georgia Aquarium, children and teachers were abuzz about the pregnant dragon and circled around the tank trying to pick it out.

"Which one is the mommy?" one little boy shouted before a guide corrected him and said the male was carrying the eggs.

When the eggs hatch, Christen said they will essentially be miniature versions of the adults.

And unlike many animals the weedy sea dragons will not spend their first days, weeks and months shadowing their parents to learn.

"They basically hatch and are on their own," he said. "There's no real parental training."

The eggs are expected to hatch in four to six weeks.

Phone's Pop popcorn

Pop corn et téléphone : c'est une pub

Twitter’s Biz Stone: No pay model planned

Twitter co-founder Biz Stone shot down the concept of a paid model for the messaging service and reiterated that the company will get its infrastructure right.

Stone dismissed the suggestion that Twitter use a pay model to bolster its architecture. Stone said:

It is very important that Twitter remains free for people to remain connected. Some people are suggesting a paid model so that we can improve the service but money is not our issue; we have plenty of money. It’s about getting the right architecture in place and boosting reliability. We want to keep it free.

Obviously architecture was a key topic for Stone. Among the takeaways:

Stone’s big priority is reliability, but Twitter is interested in adding new features such as grouping.
Bringing third-party applications isn’t a priority right now.
Stone isn’t concerned about so-called Twitter killers like FriendFeed because the service’s fate is dictated by its own uptime.
We definitely don’t want to disappoint our users. But I do not think its right to have our innovation and progress be driven out of fear of what might happen; that isn’t a healthy way to work. Getting the reliability issues resolved so we don’t disappoint our current users is critical and we know our success is directly affected by our reliability.

So you think you know everything

>> A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.
>
>A cat has 32 muscles in each ear.
>
>A crocodile cannot stick out its tongue.
>
>A dragonfly has a life span of 24 hours.
>
>A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.
>
>A "jiffy" is an actual unit of time for 1/100th of a second.
>
>A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.
>
>A snail can sleep for three years.
>
>Al Capone's business card said he was a used furniture dealer.
>
>All 50 states are listed across the top of the Lincoln Memorial on the back

>of the $5 bill.
>
>Almonds are a member of the peach family.
>
>An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.
>
>Babies are born without kneecaps. They don't appear until the child
reaches
>2 to 6 years of age.
>
>Butterflies taste with their feet.
>
>Cats have over one hundred vocal sounds. Dogs only have about 10.
>
>"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters
"mt".
>
>February 1865 is the only month in recorded history not to have a full
>moon.
>
>In the last 4,000 years, no new animals have been domesticated.
>
>If the population of China walked past you, in single file, the line would
>never end because of the rate of reproduction.
>
>If you are an average American, in your whole life, you will spend an
>average of 6 months waiting at red lights.
>
>It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.
>
>Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
>
>Maine is ! the only state whose name is just one syllable.
>
>No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange, silver, or
>purple.
>
>On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over the Parliament building

>is an American flag.
>
>Our eyes are always the same size from birth, but our nose and ears never
>stop growing.
>
>Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
>
>Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.
>
>"Stewardesses" is the longest word typed with only the left hand
and
>"lollipop" with your right.
>
>The average person's left hand does 56% of the typing.
>
>The cruise liner, QE2, moves only six inches for each gallon of diesel that

>it burns.
>
>The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a
>chocolate bar melted in his pocket.
>
>The sentence: "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses
every
>letter of the alphabet.
>
>The winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze completely solid.
>
>The words 'racecar,' 'kayak' and 'level' are the
same whether they are read
>left to right or right to left (palindromes).
>
>There are 293 ways to make change for a dollar.
>
>There are more chickens than people in the world.
>
>There are only four words in the English language which end in
"dous":
>tremendous, horrendous, stupendous, and hazardous
>
>There are two words in the English language that have all five vowels in
>order: "abstemious" and "facetious."
>
>There's no Betty Rubble in the Flintstones Chewables Vitamins.
>
>Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.
>
>TYPEWRITER is the longest word that can be made using the letters only on
>one row of the keyboard.
>
>Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.
>
>Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
>
>Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks; otherwise

>it will digest itself.
>I brew my tea for 3 min.s
>my E-mail is 9gsjoe@gmail.com
>.............Now you know everything
>

ExxonMobil to sell 2,220 gas stations

(CNN) -- Oil giant Exxon Mobil Corp. plans to sell its company-owned gas stations, saying they aren't profitable enough even with gasoline selling at $4 per gallon.


The 2,220 stations make up about 1/5 of the Exxon and Mobil stations in the United States.

The nation's largest oil company, which earned nearly $41 billion last year, says it will sell more than 2,000 stations over the next few years.

"The fuels marketing sector is a very challenging market," ExxonMobil spokesperson Prem Nair said, adding that the company is feeling particular pressure from hypermarkets like Wal-Mart that sell gasoline.

ExxonMobil plans to sell 820 owned and operated stations as well as 1,400 stations leased to dealers. The 2,220 stations make up about 1/5 of the Exxon and Mobil stations in the United States. The company says the stations to be sold will continue to sell ExxonMobil product.

"As the highly competitive fuels marketing business in the U.S. continues to evolve, we believe this transition is the best way for ExxonMobil to compete and grow in the future," said Ben Soraci, U.S. director of retail sales for ExxonMobil.

Tree Grown From 2,000-Year-Old Seed

June 12, 2008 -- Just over three years old and about four-feet tall, Methuselah is growing well. "It's lovely," Dr. Sarah Sallon said of the date palm, whose parents may have provided food for the besieged Jews at Masada some 2,000 years ago.
The little tree was sprouted in 2005 from a seed recovered from Masada, where rebelling Jews committed suicide rather than surrender to Roman attackers.
Radiocarbon dating of seed fragments clinging to its root, as well as other seeds found with it that didn't sprout, indicate they were about 2,000 years old -- the oldest seed known to have been sprouted and grown.
Just click on the title to go to complete story

Controversial World War II book questions 'just war'

SOUTH BERWICK, Maine (AP) -- Even the staunchest opponents of the wars in Vietnam and Iraq are loath to take issue with World War II, the quintessential conflict between good and evil that became the model of a morally just war.


Nicholson Baker's nonfiction work about World War II has generated controversy.

So it's no surprise that novelist Nicholson Baker's latest venture into nonfiction, "Human Smoke," has stirred up strong feelings. After all, he questions the popular notion of the just war and indicates that Winston Churchill and Franklin Roosevelt share blame with Adolf Hitler in setting the stage for the deadliest and most destructive war in history.

Baker makes his case through hundreds of brief vignettes culled from newspapers, diaries and secondary sources that are presented chronologically and without context or commentary by the author. The book ends on December 31, 1941, as the world plunges into the abyss.

In a two-page "afterword," Baker dedicates the book to pacifists who risked public scorn and imprisonment by fighting to stave off the war.

Outraged by the invasion of Iraq, Baker said he was familiar with arguments that some wars had to be fought and that World War II is the premier example.

"If this is the war that everyone holds up as the benchmark of a morally justified war, let's look very closely at how it began, let's find out what happened, in what order and where the moments were that things could have turned out differently.

"Let's ask the question, 'Was it a good war?' " he said in an interview at his 18th-century farmhouse in this New Hampshire border town where he and his family have lived for the past decade.

Exploring the origins of World War II may seem something of a reach for an unconventional author known for quirky novels such as "Vox," which details a phone sex conversation and became a footnote to history after it was learned that Monica Lewinsky had given a copy to President Bill Clinton. Another novel, "The Mezzanine," explores the thoughts of an office worker who rides an escalator during his lunch hour.

KOXIE - GARCONS

I can only say Enjoy =

National Geographic News

RELATED STORIES
Volcano Erupts in Chile; Spews Ash 12 Miles Up (May 6, 2008)
Volcanoes: Facts, Photos, More
PHOTOS: Chile Volcano Threatens Animals, Farms
May 6, 2008—After 9,000 years of silence, Chile's Chaitén volcano (pictured on May 3) is erupting with lava, ash—and lightning (full story).

Since the volcano awoke on May 2, it has continued erupting intermittently, blanketing the area in ash and forcing more than 4,000 people to flee.

(Related photos: "Chile Volcano Threatens Animals, Farms.")

The mingling of lightning and ash seen above may be a "dirty thunderstorm."

The little-understood storms may be sparked when rock fragments, ash, and ice particles in the plume collide to produce static charges—just as ice particles collide to create charge in regular thunderstorms.

The Wonders of Baking Soda

Baking Soda
repost by joe acosta by Mary Hunt
There's probably a box of the stuff in your refrigerator, and most chocolate chip cookie recipes call for at least a half-teaspoon of it. But beyond that, you might not have any idea how to use baking soda around the house. And you should because not only is baking soda extremely versatile but it's highly effective and best of all … cheap!

Scientifically referred to as sodium bicarbonate, baking soda is a naturally occurring substance that is found in all living things, helping regulate pH. Soda ash is mined and mixed with carbon dioxide to produce pure, safe and natural baking soda. Most of the baking soda in the U.S. is mined in Wyoming.

And why does it deodorize? Baking soda helps regulate pH, keeping a substance neither too acidic nor too alkaline. It reacts to odors in the same way by neutralizing them.

Here are some great ways to use baking soda that you may not have considered -- compliments of Arm & Hammer, the company that's been supplying us with baking soda since the early 1800s.

CAMPING NECESSITY. Baking soda is a must-have for your next camping trip. Use baking soda as a dish washer, pot scrubber, hand cleanser, deodorant, toothpaste and even a fire extinguisher.

CLEAN GRILLS. Grill grime is no picnic, so get ready for your next barbecue by sprinkling dry baking soda on a damp brush, scrubbing the grill with it and rinsing clean. For tough, greasy stains, scrub with a wire brush and a baking soda paste (three parts baking soda to one part warm water).

DRY BATH FOR DOGS. Help dogs stay fresh-smelling by giving them periodic dry baths. Sprinkle baking soda into their fur and rub, then comb or brush it through.

CLEAN PET TOYS. Clean plastic and rubber toys by washing in a solution of baking soda (four tablespoons dissolved in one quart of warm water). Give furry toys a dry shower by sprinkling with baking soda and brushing off after 15 minutes.

SCRUB FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. Baking soda is the food-safe way to clean dirt and residue off fresh fruit and vegetables. Just sprinkle a little on wet produce, then gently scrub and rinse the produce.

CREATE A PRISTINE PREP AREA. Clean your food prep area with natural, food-safe baking soda. Sprinkle it onto a clean damp sponge or cloth, and wipe the area clean. Rinse thoroughly, and then dry. Great for counters, stainless steel sinks, cutting boards, plastic containers, stove tops and more!

COOL TAN. If you are a fan of the self-tan, before you apply products that give you that natural "glow," remove dead skin cells to leave your skin soft and smooth, perfect before application. Make a paste of three parts baking soda to one part water. Rub in a gentle circular motion to exfoliate the skin. Rinse clean.

For more household tips and product samples, visit the Arm & Hammer Web site at ArmAndHammer.com.

5,000 year old writing Tablets get Virtual Makeover

The Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs has sponsored a project to protect and preserve Iraqi antiques; Engineers are using lasers to recreate physical replicas of the historical artifacts. Click on title above to view video.

San Andreas Fault Cores = Go Live Online

(Click on Title above to Link Live )
San Andreas Fault Cores Go Live, Online
Larry O'Hanlon, Discovery News


How It Works

       May 30, 2008 -- For the first time ever, the thrashed and jumbled innards of the notorious San Andreas Fault are now available online for anyone to see.
     The new Google Maps-based "Core Viewer" allows scientists and the general public to peer at high-resolution images of the rock cores drilled and extracted directly from the steadily slipping section of the infamous fault two kilometers (1.2 miles) beneath Parkfield, Calif.
     "That's where all the action is," said U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist Steve Hickman. At Parkfield, that action is already contorting the metal casing installed in the San Andreas Fault Observatory at Depth (SAFOD) borehole at a rate of two centimeters (0.8 inches) per year.
     The core viewer shows the fronts and backs of the long cylindrical rocks, marked in centimeters, drilled out with circular drill heads. The cores reveal two sub-faults of the San Andreas where rocks are currently being ground up by the sidewise meeting of the Pacific and the North American tectonic plates.
      The most important parts of the core show not only highly ground-up rocks, but rocks that have been polished by the shearing forces in the fault. There are also chunks of green rocks made of a very weak, slippery mineral called serpentine, which has long been a suspect in the lubricating of the San Andreas along this section in central California.
     "The serpentine is really an important find for us," said Hickman, referring to a section shown in the Core Viewer under Hole G, Run 2, sections 7 through 9. "It allows the fault to creep. The presence of that serpentine is kind of a smoking gun."
Section 8 of the same area reveals dark rocks that appear to shimmer like opals. These rocks were essentially ground smooth by the fault, like stones polished by a rock tumbler, Hickman explained.
      The bright white minerals in the same sections are calcite, a sign that water as been present and plays a role in the fault as well. These and other important sections of the core will be marked with bubbles containing scientific information as more work is done, Hickman told Discovery News.
     "The core viewer is to show the scientific community what the core looks like," said Stanford University's Charley Weiland, who serves as SAFOD's data manager. Already there are 800 samples requested from researchers who want to conduct all sorts of research on the rocks.
     "The core is a very scarce commodity," Weiland told Discovery News. The actual core is locked away at 4 degrees Centigrade with ocean drilling cores in a store facility in Texas, he said.
     SAFOD is one of three "observatories" encompassed by the EarthScope project. The other two are the Plate Boundary Observatory, which measures the ongoing tectonic mangling of the crust throughout the Western United States, and the U.S. Array, which is moving a high-density network of seismic stations across North America to uncover the physical structure of the continent.