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Television

Submission + - Mythbusters to test cockroaches radiation myth (tri-cityherald.com)

Submitted by
redwoodtree
redwoodtree writes: "As the article quotes so perfectly "Contrary to popular belief, not a significant amount of research goes into cockroach radiation" so the Mythbusters are going out to Hanford Site where plutonium was manufactured for the first nuclear bomb. It's the single most polluted nuclear waste site in the U.S. The Mythbusters are going to take cockroaches and other insects and apply successively higher doses of radiation in a controlled setting. One group of insects will not be exposed to any radiation of course. It turns out that the facility is used to test radiation on electronic equipment, power lines and so forth. It's comforting that all the nuclear waste is being put to some good use before it all washes down into the Columbia river."
Media

Submission + - Radiohead Made $6-$10 Million on Album (wired.com)

Submitted by
mytrip
mytrip writes: "Thom Yorke's representative told me that the band have "decided not to give out any figures" for sales of Radiohead's In Rainbows album, but that isn't stopping people from making their best guesses based on what little information is available.

The Seminal estimates that Radiohead sold about $10 million-worth of albums as of 10/12, assuming that their source was correct that approximately 1.2 million people downloaded the album from the site, and that the average price paid per album was $8 (we heard that number too, but also heard that a later, more accurate average was $5, which would result in $6 million in revenue instead)."
Windows

Standard Web Fonts 'Updated' In Vista 452

Posted by Zonk from the can't-leave-well-enough-alone dept.
BladesP9 writes "Beginning with Vista, Microsoft has updated the standard Web Core Fonts that it has used since the late 1990s. 'With the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft has unleashed something quite new on the Web — the "C" fonts; Cambria, Calibri, Candara, Consolas, Constantia, and Corbel.' The article goes on to state that 'if you're a web designer and not using Vista then this download is mandatory since it will let you see your page as your Vista users see it.' The article includes a PDF document offering visual comparisons of the old and new fonts (pdf)."
NASA

Journal SPAM: No Boom today

Journal by stoolpigeon

Shuttle had to land in CA due to weather. Too bad. What's a couple more million and a few days though? It's just government money.
User Journal

Journal Journal: Ubuntu Is Installed & My Thoughts 3

Journal by dthable

First, thanks to all who helped out with my grub problem. I finally let it loose on the MBR and everything still works. That solved a major problem because I could now boot into my new installation. After that, I had to solve a couple more problems:
Media (Apple)

Submission + - What is Apple without Steve Jobs?

Submitted by
necro81
necro81 writes: "David Pauly at Bloomberg has written a piece that asks "Does Apple Inc. Have a Future Without Steve Jobs?" He writes in the context of Jobs' latest success in launching the iPhone, set against the backdrop of stock backdating troubles. In Pauly's worst-case-scenario, the SEC prosecutes Apple, and the board is forced to ouster Jobs. Even without resorting to such scenarios, it's an interesting question to ask the fanboys and detractors out there: could Apple succeed and continue to innovative without Jobs at the helm?"
Education

Submission + - Global Warming Only a Theory, Says School Board

Submitted by
BendingSpoons
BendingSpoons writes: "A Seattle school board has placed a moratorium on screenings of "An Inconvenient Truth", having found its subject matter too controversial. Echoing the language of the evolution debate, the school board found that students must be told that global warming is only a theory and presented with an opposing viewpoint. The ban was prompted by the complaints of a parent: "'Condoms don't belong in school, and neither does Al Gore. He's not a schoolteacher,' said Frosty Hardison, a parent of seven who also said that he believes the Earth is 14,000 years old. 'The information that's being presented is a very cockeyed view of what the truth is. ... The Bible says that in the end times everything will burn up, but that perspective isn't in the DVD.'""
User Journal

Journal Journal: minimum wage's roots in eugenics

Journal by lpq

This is an eye opening piece -- in the early 20th century, progressives were the ones promoting ideas of eugenics. Their work later was drawn on by Hitler, the results of which are all too well known, but other ideas were promoted to exclude unfit workers, protect women from hazardous work, "uplift" more "deserving" workers, protect male head of households from excess competition and free women to engage in their roles as
Microsoft

Gates Foundation Revokes Pledge to Review Portfolio 236

Posted by Zonk from the no-pledge-no-problem dept.
NewsCloud writes "After the LA Times reported that the Gates Foundation often invests in companies hurting the very communities Bill and Melinda want to help, the Seattle Times reported the foundation planned 'a systematic review of its investments to determine whether it should pull its money out of companies that are doing harm to society'. Shortly after that interview, the Gates Foundation took down their public statement on this and replaced it with a significantly altered version which seems to say that investing responsibly would just be too complex for them and that they need to focus on their core mission: 'There are dozens of factors that could be considered, almost all of which are outside the foundation's areas of expertise. The issues involved are quite complex...Which social and political issues should be on the list? ... Many of the companies mentioned in the Los Angeles Times articles, such as Ford, Kraft, Fannie Mae, Nestle, and General Electric, do a lot of work that some people like, as well as work that some people do not like. Some activities might even be viewed positively by some people and negatively by others.'"

Mars Probe May Have Spotted Sojourner Rover 149

Posted by Zonk from the born-free-as-free-as-the-wind-blows dept.
Maggie McKee writes "NASA's eagle-eyed Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter may have spotted the tiny, toaster oven-sized Sojourner rover just a few meters away from its companion, the Mars Pathfinder lander. It appears to have crawled there in an attempt to re-establish contact with the lander after the lander had already died. But the pictures aren't clear enough to definitively ID the rover, and it's possible Sojourner simply took off on its own. If it were miraculously still alive after 10 years, it could be 3 kilometers away from Pathfinder — and probably impossible to find, even with MRO."

Feed The Real Adult Expo (wired.com)

From feed by wiredfeed
Sex-tech is emerging from the fringe to the middle of the main convention floor. But where are the webcams? Commentary by Regina Lynn.


User Journal

Journal Journal: Pentagon Abandons Active-Duty Time Limit 1

Journal by Real World Stuff

http://www.spokesmanreview.com/ap/story.asp?AP_ID=D8MJFVUG0

By ROBERT BURNS
AP Military Writer
January 11, 2007

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon has abandoned its limit on the time a citizen-soldier can be required to serve on active duty, officials said Thursday, a major change that reflects an Army stretched thin by longer-than-expected combat in Iraq.
United States

Does Income Inequality Matter? 1186

Posted by Cliff from the an-issue-worth-discussing dept.
theodp is concerned about the following: "Alarmed by Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein's record-setting $53M bonus, Charles Wheelan (aka The Naked Economist) argues that income inequality matters. Wheelan notes that the Gini Coefficient (a measure of income inequality) for the U.S. has been moving away from countries like Japan and Sweden and closer to that of Brazil, where the murder rate is 5X that of NYC and crime is materially impacting GDP."
User Journal

Journal Journal: MUSIC: Song of the Day: "I Must Have Been Blind" - B. Perry 12

Journal by eno2001

I Must Have Been Blind - Performed by Brendan Perry (formerly of Dead Can Dance)
From: Eye of the Hunter
Written by: Tim Buckley

Here I am believing words again
Here I am trying to find your love again
Here I am down on my knees again
Praying for a love we used to know

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