Topic: POLICE REPORT - on April 24, 2007 at 2:07:00 PM CEST
Spilled cheese blocks Chicago Skyway
It was unseasonably warm — but not baking — and that probably helped save a portion of the Chicago Skyway from turning into a gigantic, Windy City-style, deep-dish pizza.
The southeast-bound lanes of the heavily traveled route into Indiana were blocked for hours Sunday morning after a tractor-trailer hauling mozzarella cheese was involved in an accident and spilled its contents onto the pavement near the Skyway tollbooth.
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Topic: COMPUTER - on April 24, 2007 at 12:56:00 PM CEST
Beryl: The Cool Linux UI Reviewed
To this day, I still have to smile when new Linux users decide to take the plunge because they want the cool looking visual effects that Beryl offers. To some limited degree, I can understand the motivation. The stunning videos on YouTube are certainly compelling to those who have never tried to use the setup themselves. Unfortunately, there are still some valid reasons for sticking with the alternatives for the time being. Let's explore some of the issues that I have found with using Beryl.
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Topic: COMPUTER - on April 24, 2007 at 12:52:00 PM CEST
Pirates Of Silicon Valley
Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999) is an unauthorized made-for-television docudrama written and directed by Martyn Burke. Based upon the book, Fire in the Valley: The Making of The Personal Computer, by Paul Freiberger and Michael Swaine, this film documents the rise of the home computer/personal computer through the rivalry between Apple Computer (Apple II and the Apple Macintosh) and Microsoft (MITS Altair, DOS, IBM PC, and Windows).
The central story of the film begins in the early 1970s and ends in 1985 when Steve Jobs was fired by CEO John Sculley from Apple Computer.
1 hr 36 min 50 sec
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Topic: COMPUTER - on April 24, 2007 at 12:46:00 PM CEST
25th Anniversary of the Sinclair ZX Spectrum
Twenty five years ago today, Sinclair Research launched Britain's most popular home computer of the 1980s — the Sinclair ZX Spectrum. Costing about one third of the price of its rivals such as the Commodore 64 while having a faster CPU and a better BASIC interpreter, the machine sold well in many guises throughout the 1980s and had more than a staggering 9,000 software titles.
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Topic: DRUGS - on April 24, 2007 at 12:38:00 PM CEST
Connoisseurs of Cannabis
Like fine wine, growing medicinal weed has become so specialized as to inspire tastings and a new vocabulary.
Stephen DeAngelo bent and sniffed deeply over a clump of frizzy purple nuggets in a petri dish, one of eight sitting in the middle of a long refectory table. They were not labeled or arranged in any particular order, although to the experts assembled in DeAngelo's Oakland loft -- "cannabis is my calling," he says -- their identity was no mystery.
"I would describe this as grapey, candy-like, sweet, with a slight undertone of spice," said DeAngelo, a longtime activist and hemp promoter who is now chief executive officer of Harborside Health Center, a medical marijuana dispensary in Oakland. He was holding the tasting at home where he could properly and legally -- at least in the eyes of California, if not the federal government -- evaluate some samples. To prepare, he'd taken off his green tweed coat, loosened his tie and settled in a chair near his vaporizer, an apparatus that allows him to breathe vapor instead of smoke, because it's less harsh.
"It is grapey, but I get flowers," said Rick Pfrommer, the dispensary's purchasing agent, as he inhaled a strain called the Purps. "I would use the word pungent. It has a pungent funk undertone."
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Topic: DRUGS - on April 24, 2007 at 12:33:00 PM CEST
US in record maritime drugs haul
The US Coast Guard says it has seized nearly 20 tonnes of cocaine with a street value of $600m, in the biggest maritime drugs bust in US history.
The drugs haul, unloaded in California on Monday, was seized in a raid last month off the coast of Central America.
Officials said they intercepted a cargo ship sailing under the Panamanian flag, and that the 14 crew - Panamanians and Mexicans - put up no resistance.
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Topic: NEWS - on April 24, 2007 at 12:32:00 PM CEST
Ex-editor decries article suggesting he kept child porn
The former editor for the Santa Barbara News-Press is threatening legal action after the paper published a story suggesting he kept child pornography on his work computer. The furor over Sunday's non-bylined story is the latest salvo in a long and acrimonious battle that has raged between the paper's outspoken publisher and current and former editorial employees that has brought charges of unethical behavior.
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Topic: SCIENCE - on April 24, 2007 at 12:29:00 PM CEST
'Kryptonite' discovered in mine
Kryptonite is no longer just the stuff of fiction feared by caped superheroes.
A new mineral matching its unique chemistry - as described in the film Superman Returns - has been identified in a mine in Serbia.
According to movie and comic-book storylines, kryptonite is supposed to sap Superman's powers whenever he is exposed to its large green crystals.
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