An astonishing mist-shrouded lost world
of previously unknown and rare animals and plants high in the mountain rainforests of New Guinea has been uncovered by an international team of scientists — via digg
After 145 years, Western Union has quietly stopped sending telegrams. On the company’s web site, if you click on Telegrams in the left-side navigation bar, you’re taken to a page that ends a technological era with about as little fanfare as possible: Effective January 27, 2006, Western Union will discontinue all Telegram and Commercial Messaging services. We regret any inconvenience this may cause you, and we thank you for your loyal patronage
— via digg
Paper made from kangaroo and wallaby dung has shot an Australian paper company into the global spotlight. Joanna Gair, manager of handmade paper company Creative Paper Tasmania, says production of roo poo paper
only started in the past two weeks but she has been thinking about the idea for some time. I’ve been inspired by the African paper makers who’ve created an enormous industry out of elephant dung paper,
she says. I thought we needed an Australian version
— via Improbable Research
A former postal worker who had been put on medical leave for psychological problems shot five people to death at a huge mail-processing centre and then killed herself. The attack Monday night in Santa Barbara, California was also the biggest bloodbath at a US postal installation since a massacre 20 years ago helped give rise to the term going postal — via Warren Ellis
The Russian justice ministry has asked a court to shut down the Russian Human Rights Research Centre, one of the country’s oldest human rights group — via Boing Boing
According to a new UK survey done for the BBC, only 48 percent of Britons accept evolution. Forty-percent of the 2,000 participants think that creationism or intelligent design should be taught in schools — via Boing Boing
Google’s new China search engine not only censors many web sites that question the Chinese government, but it goes further than similar services from Microsoft and Yahoo by targeting teen pregnancy, homosexuality, dating, beer and jokes. In addition, contrary to Google founder Sergey Brin’s promise to inform users when their search results are censored, the company frequently filters out sites without revealing it
The collision was inevitable. Google has vowed to provide unbiased, accurate, and free access to information
to people around the world, while touting a corporate motto of don’t be evil
. And China, which controls information with an iron grip, has blossomed into the world’s second-biggest and fastest-growing Internet market. For those wondering what would happen when the irresistible force of Google and its altruistic motives finally met up with the immovable object of China, with its lure of higher profit, the answer came when Google unveiled its first search service inside China. Its concession: Google will play by government rules and censor results of sensitive queries, such as Falun Gong
or multiparty elections
. There’s already a workaround
In a recent literacy study it was found that more than half of students at four-year colleges — and at least 75 percent at two-year colleges — lack the literacy to handle complex, real-life tasks such as understanding credit card offers. The literacy study took a look at three different type of literacy: analysing news stories and other prose, understanding documents, and having basic math skills needed for checkbooks or restaurant tips
A group of Papuans who arrived on Queensland’s Cape York yesterday have accused the Indonesian Government of genocide. The group of 30 Papuan men, six women and seven children displayed a banner on their 25-metre canoe, asking for help to save West Papua
Sony BMG has finally jumped on the iTunes bandwagon, with the music giant today confirming it had added its roster of artists to Apple’s Australian on-line music store
It seems likely that the world and all its continents were discovered by a Chinese admiral named Zheng He, whose fleets roamed the oceans between 1405 and 1435. His exploits, which are well documented in Chinese historical records, were written about in a book which appeared in China around 1418 called The Marvellous Visions of the Star Raft
— via Warren Ellis
A Swedish farmer sentenced to gaol for shooting a wolf preying on his sheep petitioned the government on Thursday for a pardon as a dispute grew between the wildlife lobby and farmers alarmed at growing wolf numbers. Depleted by centuries of hunting, Sweden’s wolf population has benefited from preservation programmes and legislation to now number about 150. Wolves have even been seen near Stockholm. Animal rights groups say the population is still critically low, making it vulnerable to inbreeding and disease, but the farming and hunting lobby says wildlife laws introduced in 2001 leave their livestock and dogs unprotected from attack
Idaho Department of Fish and Game intends to kill up to 75% of the wolves in the Lolo elk zone to bolster struggling elk herds there, pending approval from the Idaho Fish and Game commission and the US Fish and Wildlife Service — via TidePool
Microsoft has admitted to removing the blog of a Chinese journalist from MSN Spaces. The censored site has been re-hosted elsewhere after a short down-time, but is no longer accessible to the folks in China
A hoax press-release claiming Narnia had walked out of the World Trade Organisation talks in Hong Kong because it was fed up with being bullied by the US and Europe was picked up and run as news by many outlets including Forbes — via Boing Boing
Millions of Australians who tape TV shows and copy CDs will soon get the right to do it with a clear conscience. The Federal Government will next year legalise the video recording of television shows for personal use, and the transfer of songs from CDs to MP3 players, in a bid to overturn a ban which has made criminals of much of the population
Australia’s wealthiest man, Kerry Packer, has died at the age of 68. Mr Packer, who was head of the Nine Network and PBL, died peacefully at home last night with his family by his bedside
The volume of information that the NSA has harvested from telecommunication data and voice networks, without court-approved warrants, is much larger than the White House has acknowledged
The French Parliament voted into law an amendment to the DADVSI bill that allows free sharing of music and movies over the internet, considering the downloaded files as a private copy. This decision goes against the French government and the music industry’s recommendations, who argue the deputies only wanted to show their independence from the government. The initial bill’s detractors who pushed for this amendment want a tax for author rights to be paid by everyone on the ISP fees
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