A Russian taxi driver got a rude shock when he discovered his blind ex-wife, who thought he had died in an explosion, had him buried in a Moscow cemetery. Oleg Lunkov learned of his apparent death when he applied for a passport and was told he died in a bomb blast on Moscow’s metro on February 6. His ex-wife thought he was on the train, but being blind, she got her mother to identify the remains — via Rogue Sun
The aerial spraying (using helicopters) of plantation timbers appears to be responsible for large-scale losses of commercial oyster following heavy rainfall events. The normal environmental protection methods do not appear to be in place and no policing of the State’s own Forestry Code of Practice appears to be occurring. More disturbingly, the problems associated with oysters also correlate with tumours and mortality in Tasmanian Devils. Further there appears to be a risk to human health as contamination of local drinking water supplies is also possible
It seems that multimedia search engines are making a comeback, and Google is likely to add audio and video clips to its search service, according to some plans the co-founders revealed at a conference last week. The idea has led to some speculation within the community that Google would go beyond multimedia clips and enter the online music business
After nearly 30 years of arguing that a black hole destroys everything that falls into it, Stephen Hawking now says he was wrong. The about-turn might solve one of the long-standing puzzles in modern physics, known as the black hole information paradox — and cost the physicist an encyclopaedia
ANZ Banking Group has made changing banks easier with the launch of an online account switching service that allows customers to simply enter all their relevant details once and it automatically generate the necessary written advice to third parties telling them to switch accounts to ANZ
A group of media and technology companies, including Microsoft, Disney, IBM, Intel, a Warner Bros, have agreed in principle to allow consumers to make legal backup copies of next-generation video discs and share their content on portable devices
Toshiba plans to announce a new laptop model next week that allows users to watch TV on it without having to boot up the computer’s Windows operating system — the first in what analysts say will be a new crop of multimedia notebooks to come
Loony fundie US conservatives have failed in their bid to change the American Constitution to ban gay marriage. The retarded monkey boy had urged Congress to support a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage after several states moved to make it legal. But the proposal failed to win enough support in the Senate. The head of the human rights campaign, Cheryl Jacques, said: Today we saw President Bush and the Republican leadership attempt to divide America and it backfired
. Michael Organ gave the finger to the fundies who are trying to same stunt locally
The rights and wrongs of using radio frequency identification (RFID) tags on humans have been debated since the tracking tags reached the technological mainstream. Now, school authorities in the Japanese city of Osaka have decided the benefits outweigh the disadvantages and will now be chipping children in one primary school. The tags will be read by readers installed in school gates and other key locations to track the kids’ movements. The chips will be put onto kids’ schoolbags, name tags or clothing in one Wakayama prefecture school. Denmark’s Legoland introduced a similar scheme last month to stop young children going astray
I like strange houses and the Silo Home is certainly that.
During the late 1950s and early 1960s when the Cold War was escalating, the US government built hundreds of Atlas-F missile silos (each for 18 million in 1961, with the rising cost of construction today one could barely fund the excavation.) to prepare the country for an attack that never came. Today, most of these silos lie abandoned and filled with water, monuments to a bygone era of American history and left to waste. But now, thanks to two entrepreneurial cousins, Bruce Francisco and Gregory Gibbons, one of these silos located in beautiful Adirondack State Park near Lake Placid is finding new life as a luxury home safe haven getaway complex assessable by plane or car.
On the surface it features a hangar and spacious open living room with a fireplace and a wrap around porch. Below ground in what was once the launch control centre, now is a two level, three bedroom, 2½ bath with an open living area and kitchen adjoined by a spiral staircase. Star Wars like doors open to a large tunnel that accesses the silo.
How can you not like a house that comes complete with massive blast doors? Mmm… blast doors…
The silohome is a surface mountain home with an underground 1,850 m² vault one can habitat in with luxury. Francisco and Gibbons have restored the 200 m² two level launch control centre. Their complex is climate controlled using the earth temperature to moderate the surface and below ground environments. The same principals can be built into the large and expansive additional 1,850 m² silo area.
Sony are planning to officially reveal the PlayStation 3 at the E3 Expo in May 2005. They’re obviously not wanting to be outdone by Nintendo, who announced the same plans for the GameCube successor, as well as Xbox 2’s rumoured debut around that time
Telstra unit Sensis is to launch a new search engine as part of a move to make the White and Yellow Pages more attractive to advertisers. The search engine will look not only for web sites, but will also rely upon listings in Sensis’ White and Yellow Pages and its online site Whereis and CitySearch. Analysts say it’s a move to prevent advertisers switching from Sensis to rivals such as Google or Yahoo, where advertisers pay for higher listings in searches
Yahoo has acquired Oddpost, a San Francisco startup that provides an innovative, Web-based e-mail service, and plans to use its technology to spruce up Yahoo Mail and other Yahoo services
I’m a big fan of Dare’s Wicked Chocolate flavour and have been far from impressed to find that it’s missing from shelves and hideous coffee concoctions are in its place.
Had a chat to Dairy Farmers and it seems some cocaine-snorting sub-human from marketing thought it would be a good idea to drop the entire Dare product line and replace it with crappy coffee variants. Wrong!
The Dairy Farmers girl I spoke to said there had been a lot of negative feedback about the change. I suspect I wouldn’t be the only one to show the nameless marketing wanker exactly what he can do with his crap idea. I want my Wicked Chocolate Dare back.
Charles Green, a would-be novelist, was doing a crossword puzzle during his flight, and scribbled a line of dialogue in the margin: I know this is kind of a bomb
. It seems his terminally stupid seatmate panicked and dobbed him in. When they landed, Mr Green was accosted by police, and now is on Homeland Security’s watch list — via HogBlog
A pilot project in Africa that aims to provide a single computer that can be used by four students simultaneously has stumbled across one of the business world’s basic facts of life. Why make a cheap machine when customers in the developed world will pay good money for a more expensive one?
Paul Khlebnikov, editor of the Russian edition of Forbes magazine, walked out of his office late on Friday in northeastern Moscow when a car pulled up and several shots were fired at him. Khlebnikov, a US citizen of Russian origin, died on his way to hospital. He was the latest victim of post-Soviet city-center killings which have struck down officials, businessmen and journalists
A Kirkland man arrested last week on allegations that he stole proprietary technology from the AltaVista search engine two years ago is a Microsoft employee who has been working on the MSN Search initiative
San Francisco talk show host, Katherine Fettke, has filed a lawsuit against McDonald’s, accusing the world’s largest fast-food restaurant company of failing to switch to healthier lower-fat cooking oil as it had pledged
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