Topic: GOOGLE - on September 18, 2003 at 2:44:50 AM CEST
Google Code JAM 2003
Tough problems. Intense competition. No pressure.
Do you have exceptional programming skills? Can you make computers perform like silicon puppets with just a few well-expressed commands? Are you at ease when faced with a hard stop and a group of peers evaluating every line of your code? Here’s your opportunity to display the grace of the true professional in a reward-rich environment.
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Topic: DOPE HEAD - on September 18, 2003 at 2:06:02 AM CEST
Tommy Chong gets the joint
Thirty years ago, Cheech and Chong did a skit in which an unctuous lawyer and his dope-addled client comically plead for leniency but end up proving the defendant is guilty.
Did this memory flash back upon Tommy Chong last week as he stood before a federal judge for selling bongs?
"The whole time," Chong said.
Then, he stepped off the elevator at the federal courthouse and assumed his newest role: street mime. Chong answered every reporter's question by pretending to zipper his mouth shut. Chong didn't even dare autograph a copy of "Up in Smoke" for a fan who awaited him on Grant Street. Best not to further provoke the authorities.
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Topic: SEX - on September 18, 2003 at 1:57:27 AM CEST
World's oldest genitals found
Scientists have discovered fossils of the world's oldest genitals -- belonging to 400 million-year-old insects -- in ancient rocks in Scotland.
The penis of the ancient harvestmen insects, commonly known as a daddy-long-legs, was two-thirds the length of the body and remarkably similar to the modern-day species, New Scientist magazine said on Wednesday.
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Topic: NATURE - on September 18, 2003 at 1:47:56 AM CEST
Pumpkin Records
Giant Pumpkins:
After growers optimistically tried for years to break the 1,000 pound barrier, the barrier fell twice in the same year. That year was 1996. Each year since then, the record has fallen to an even larger pumpkin.
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Topic: NASA - on September 18, 2003 at 1:43:48 AM CEST
Hurricane Isabel
Astronaut Ed Lu snapped this photo of the eye of Hurricane Isabel from the International Space Station on September 13, 2003 at 11:18 UTC. At the time, Isabel was located about 450 miles northeast of Puerto Rico. It had dropped to a Category 4 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale, packing winds of 150 miles per hour with gusts up to 184 miles per hour.
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Topic: LOST FOUND - on September 18, 2003 at 1:29:03 AM CEST
Quiz: Do you know modern manners?
Lessons in manners should be part of the National Curriculum for children as young as four, says Nottingham MP Graham Allen.
But life today can be complicated - how much for instance do you know about modern manners? Take our quiz and see.
¬> BBC... Link (0 comments) ... Comment
Topic: POLITIK - on September 18, 2003 at 1:18:34 AM CEST
OHNE WORTE
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Topic: NATURE - on September 18, 2003 at 1:12:10 AM CEST
Mysterious squid deaths investigated
Scientists are trying to find out what caused two enormous squids, one of them 40 feet long, to wash up dead on Spain's northern coast this week.
"It's not a natural death and it's not the Prestige," Luis Laria, president of marine protection agency CEPESMA said, referring to a massive oil spill from the Prestige tanker late last year. He declined to speculate on the cause.
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Topic: LOST FOUND - on September 18, 2003 at 12:53:23 AM CEST
Ärztepannen online
Schweiz: Ärzte diskutieren Fehler anonym im Internet
Ein richtungweisendes Meldesystem für ärztliche Behandlungsfehler ist in der Schweiz entwickelt worden: Auf der Internetseite www.cirsmedical.org können Mediziner anonym über geschehene oder gerade noch verhinderte Pannen berichten. Ein vergleichbares System in Deutschland gibt es noch nicht. Prof. Ferdinand Gerlach vom Institut für Allgemeinmedizin der Uniklinik Kiel kritisiert in der Apothekenzeitschrift "Gesundheit" die deutsche Praxis: "Thematisiert werden Fehler oft erst dann, wenn sie sich nicht mehr verheimlichen lassen oder Patienten sich beschweren."
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Topic: COPYRIGHT - on September 18, 2003 at 12:48:58 AM CEST
Abwege des Urheberrechts
Garagentoröffner wurden in den USA zum Fall eines Rechtsstreits über das Urheberrecht und die Umgehung eines Schutzmechanismus
Die Urheberrechtsgesetze im Fahrwasser der WIPO-Verträge wie der US-amerikanische Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) und die nun auch in Deutschland umgesetzte EU-Richtlinie zur "Harmonisierung bestimmter Aspekte des Urheberrechts und der verwandten Schutzrechte in der Informationsgesellschaft" enthalten als wichtigen und umstrittenen Bestandteil das Verbot, technische Maßnahmen zum Urheberrechtsschutz zu umgehen. Dabei aber ist noch vieles ungeklärt, was zugunsten der Rechteinhaber in die Gesetze eingeführt wurde, manches wurde von den Gesetzgebern wohl auch nicht wirklich bedacht.
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Topic: COMPUTER - on September 18, 2003 at 12:46:05 AM CEST
Using cellophane to convert a laptop computer screen into a three-dimensional display
We present a novel, inexpensive, stereoscopic technique for generating 3D displays from cellophane and a laptop computer screen. Stereoscopy requires independent manipulation of the left and right eye views.1 Our technique takes advantage of two facts; the first is that the light from the liquid crystal display of a laptop computer is polarized light 2, and therefore we can easily manipulate its transmission with a polarizer sheet. The second fact is that a cellophane half-waveplate can change the direction of polarization of light. The direction of polarization of one half of the laptop screen was rotated by the cellophane half-waveplate. Two images displayed with orthogonal polarization on two halves of the screen become separable by wearing a pair of glasses of orthogonal polarization.
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Topic: COMPUTER - on September 18, 2003 at 12:41:15 AM CEST
Stadt Wien prüft Umstieg auf Linux
Nach München will nun auch die Stadt Wien mittelfristig an den Arbeitsplätzen der Verwaltung Linux einsetzen. Die Magistratsabteilung 14 hat jetzt einen Antrag der Wiener Grünen positiv beantwortet, der die Einführung von Open-Source-Software fordert.
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