Topic: NEWS english - on June 27, 2007 at 10:04:00 AM CEST
The Price of Gas Around the World
The next time you pull into the station for a fill-up, keep this in mind before you curse the prices: people elsewhere have it a lot worse than we do in America (and we tend to gripe about it the most, it seems!) Take Asia for instance -- Hong Kong averages a whopping $6.30 per gallon, with Seoul, South Korea not too far behind. Europe also pays well above what we do in America. London, Berlin, Oslo, and Paris are all well above $6 a gallon. On the low end of the spectrum, places in the Middle East like Kuwait City and Tehran, Iran pay under $0.50 for their gas. Big surprise there.
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Topic: NEWS english - on June 26, 2007 at 1:46:00 PM CEST
UFOs, Laser Weapons, "Screwballs" in CIA Document Dump
Okay, it ain't the "family jewels" -- the CIA's documents, detailing Cold War assassination plots, kidnappings, and "behavior modification experiments." But, "very quietly, the Agency has put literally thousands of documents online on their website," Entropic Memes points out. Many of them are formerly classified. And they cover everything from spy satellites to "screwballs" to Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.
wired.com gwu.eduCIA Press Releases download the full CIA's 702-page "Family Jewels"
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Topic: NEWS english - on June 21, 2007 at 10:37:00 AM CEST
How to Soundproof an Apartment to Muffle Your Wife's Drumming
Last year, when my wife and I had to beg permission from our co-op board in Jackson Heights, Queens, to swap our one-bedroom apartment for a two-bedroom unit, only one thing stood between us and our dream of getting our one-year-old son into his own room.
Noise.
My wife is a professional percussionist. After three years of hearing her play marimba, djembe and conga in our living room -- and hearing me fumble around on our upright piano -- our neighbors wanted assurances that we would keep things quiet in our new home.
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Topic: NEWS english - on June 1, 2007 at 3:23:00 PM CEST
Nessie caught on tape? You decide
A man has captured what Nessie watchers say is possible footage of the supposed mythical creature beneath Scotland’s most mysterious lake.
“I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw this jet black thing, about 45 feet [13 meters] long, moving fairly fast in the water,” said Gordon Holmes, a 55-year-old lab technician from Shipley, Yorkshire, who took the video Saturday.
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Topic: NEWS english - on May 18, 2007 at 12:00:00 PM CEST
Sea monster cast ashore
Details are sketchy on these photographs of what is being labeld a Mystery Giant Marine Turtle (or is it a decomposing whale), thusfar, other than they are a record of a body from a recent Pacific Ocean beaching. Look for updates, but, for now, I wanted to rush these photos here, for your attention.
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Topic: NEWS english - on May 14, 2007 at 10:49:00 AM CEST
High style in the Alps
Heidi wouldn't recognise the place - today even Alpine supermarkets are at the cutting edge of design.
Brooding ominously by the Thames, Tate Modern is a key symbol of London as a centre of art, architecture and design. So where did its creators turn to find architects capable of transforming an old power station into this beacon of modern Britishness? To Switzerland, of course, and the award-winning practice of Jacques Herzog and Pierre de Meuron.
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Topic: NEWS english - on May 12, 2007 at 4:40:00 PM CEST
Honda to debut hydrogen fuel-cell car in 2008
Honda yesterday laid out its future green motoring technology strategy for the world's media with announcements and demonstrations in Washington DC.
The only piece of mainstream kit in the near future will be a new hybrid car, to go on sale in the USA within two years priced below the current Honda Civic hybrid variant, which goes for $25,000. The Civic hybrid hasn't achieved sales to match Toyota's groundbreaking Prius: Honda believes this may be because it doesn't look visibly different to the ordinary Civic. The theory is that green motorists like to be seen to be green, and to that end the new hybrid will have unique styling.
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Topic: NEWS english - on May 10, 2007 at 12:47:00 PM CEST
Biofuels Could Do More Harm Than Good, UN Report Warns
The global boom in biofuels is laden with environmental and social risks, even as it presents strong new prospects for mitigating human-caused global warming, a new UN study says.
The study also suggests that biofuels—energy sources derived from plant matter like corn or sugarcane—would serve better for heating and industrial power than for cars and buses, as is the current trend.
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Topic: NEWS english - on May 5, 2007 at 12:33:00 PM CEST
Paris Hilton sentenced to jail
Hotel heiress and reality TV star Paris Hilton was ordered on Friday to spend 45 days in jail for violating the terms of her probation for alcohol-related reckless driving.
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge ordered the 26-year-old celebrity socialite jailed for driving on a suspended license in February. He ordered her to report to jail on June 5.
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Topic: NEWS english - on April 27, 2007 at 12:26:00 PM CEST
PlayStation's creator to retire
The man behind the Sony PlayStation console is to retire, after the electronics giant sharply cut shipment targets for the PlayStation 3 (PS3).
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Topic: NEWS english - on April 26, 2007 at 12:51:00 PM CEST
Pensioner making tea is unharmed as house explodes around him
A pensioner had a miracle escape when a gas blast destroyed his home while he stood in the kitchen - and walked away unharmed.
Pensioner Jimmy Brown, 70, had just returned from a walk with his dog Bessie when he lit a gas ring to make a cup of tea - and his 500-year-old stone cottage exploded.
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Topic: NEWS english - on April 18, 2007 at 11:01:00 AM CEST
China criticised for 'tiger wine'
China has come under fire for allowing tigers to be bred for the production of so-called "tiger bone wine".
The drink is reportedly made by steeping tiger carcasses in rice wine. Those who drink the wine believe it makes them strong.
Chinese delegates at the International Tiger Symposium in Nepal are arguing for the lifting of a current ban on the trade in tiger bones and skins.
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