Snake charmer walked into tax office and dumps several dozen snakes, including four cobras, upset about a land deal -

Snake charmer walked into tax office and dumps several dozen snakes, including four cobras, upset about a land deal - 


Getting through the work day can be hard enough without having a bunch of cobras unleashed in your office.


Bureaucrats in a rural village in Northern India had a tough start to the week when an angry snake charmer walked into their tax office and dumped several dozen snakes, including four cobras, on the floor because he was upset about a land deal that had not gone through, according to numerous reports.


The workers jumped on their desks and some shook table cloths at the snakes who rose up with the strike position. It was "total chaos," said Ramsukh Sharma who was at the office in Harraiya, in Uttar Pradesh.


"Snakes started climbing up the tables and chairs. Hundreds of people gathered outside the room, some of them with sticks in their hands, shouting that the snakes should be killed," he said, according to the Australian newspaper.


No one was hurt and the snakes were eventually recaptured by experts.


The snake charmer claimed that he had apparently applied for a plot of land for the snakes but that officials wanted bribes to approve it. The office reportedly said that they had no record of the filing.


Read more - 
http://news.blogs.cnn.com/2011/12/01/snake-charmer-unleashes-cobras-in-india-office/?hpt=hp_t2

Google’s Chrome overtakes Firefox in browser war -

Google’s Chrome overtakes Firefox in browser war - 


Google Inc.’s Chrome internet browser overtook Firefox for the first time globally in November and it continues to narrow the gap to market leader Microsoft Corp’s Internet Explorer, web analytics firm StatCounter said on Thursday.


“We can look forward to a fascinating battle between Microsoft and Google as the pace of growth of Chrome suggests that it will become a real rival to Internet Explorer globally,” Aodhan Cullen, StatCounter chief executive, said in a statement.


In November Chrome saw its market share roughly doubling from a year ago to 25.7 per cent, while Internet Explorer’s share dropped to 40.6 per cent from 48.2 per cent.


The market share of Firefox — which is popular in Europe — slipped globally to 25.2 per cent from 31.2 per cent.


Apple Inc’s Safari is a distant No 4 on the market with a 5.9 per cent share of all browsing, with No 5 Opera controlling 1.8 per cent of the market.


Read more - 
http://www.thestar.com/business/article/1095334--google-s-chrome-overtakes-firefox-in-browser-war?bn=1

Defence Minister MacKay used a military helo to pick him up from a 2010 fishing trip - called it search-and-rescue demo -

Defence Minister MacKay used a military helo to pick him up from a 2010 fishing trip - called it search-and-rescue demo - 

 senior air force officer warned against using a military helicopter to pick up Defence Minister Peter MacKay from a 2010 fishing trip because of the backlash that would occur if the public found out, according to emails obtained by the Toronto Star.

The officer accurately predicted the storm of objections and accusations that flew in parliament and in the media this fall when it emerged that MacKay had commandeered one of three search-and-rescue Cormorant helicopters serving the Atlantic coast at an estimated cost of $16,000.

Likely to inflame those passions once again is the military’s assessment, contained in defence department emails, that the alternative route out of the fishing camp would have taken a mere two hours — a 90-minute boat ride and a 30-minute drive.

Word of MacKay’s flight of fancy — one that his office insists was a long-delayed search-and-rescue demonstration for the minister — has raised questions about politicians using sparse military resources. The charge is particularly acute because of the Conservative government’s boasting of having scaled back this practice after seeing how their Liberal predecessors took advantage of government aircraft.

MacKay’s travel occurred in the second week of July 2010. It sent military personnel in three provinces scrambling to fulfill the minister’s last-minute request that he be evacuated from the remote Burnt Rattle fishing lodge on Newfoundland’s Gander River.

There were approvals to be sought, schedules to be arranged, a reconnaissance mission to be flown and significant safety risks to be addressed.

All of the planning was carried out in the space of four days so that MacKay could catch a flight on a Challenger jet to London, Ont., from the nearby Gander airport for the sole purpose of attending a hastily arranged government announcement.

The request was sent out through the senior ranks of the Royal Canadian Air Force on Tuesday July 6 at 8:49 a.m. It took just a few hours for then-Col. Bruce Ploughman, director of the Combined Aerospace Operations Centre in Winnipeg, to raise a red flag.

Read more - 

http://www.thestar.com/news/canada/politics/article/1095436--exclusive-air-force-warned-about-optics-of-mackay-s-fishing-lodge-flight?bn=1

Software installed on all Android phones is secretly tracking every key stroke, Google search, and text message -

Software installed on all Android phones is secretly tracking every key stroke, Google search, and text message - 




An Android app developer in America has posted a video showing what he claims is 'conclusive proof' that 'Carrier IQ' software installed by manufacturers of many US phones record the way those phone are used in real time, as well as their geographic locations.
Carrier IQ has claimed that the software only tracks information for the benefit of users, not for any spying purposes, and that it is “counting and summarising” information rather than recording it.
However, in a YouTube video posted on Monday, the developer, Trevor Eckhart, did a “factory reset” on his Android phone, returning it to the condition in which it is shipped to customers, and linked it to a computer screen which allegedly displayed what the Carrier IQ software was tracking.
The demonstration showed that the software read every keystroke put into the phone, as well as every text message sent to it. It also appeared to log location data, and transmit this to Carrier IQ.
Mr Eckhart, claims it is used by manufacturers of phones that use Google's Android operating system, as well as some BlackBerry and Nokia handsets. It is not thought to be used in Apple’s iPhones.


Read more - 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/mobile-phones/8927164/Software-on-Android-phones-tracking-every-key-stroke.html

Word to the wise: It's not the smartest thing to jog in a gas mask and body armor, and jam a package in post office box -

Word to the wise: It's not the smartest thing to jog in a gas mask and body armor, and jam a package in post office box - 


Word to the wise: Maybe it's not the smartest thing to jog in what looks like a gas mask and body armor, and then jam a package in a post office box.
It could touch off what happened Tuesday at the busy San Jose post office on Lundy Avenue: a full-scale police response, complete with the bomb squad and a robot.
But San Jose police said the suspicious-looking jogger seen fidgeting with a package at a drop-off box was only working out in hard-core, albeit odd-looking, exercise gear.
"The guy said he was wearing a cardio mask," said Sgt. Jason Dwyer. "It was his cardio day, and he was trying to lose weight."
That's not what a post office customer thought when the man in the weird mask and vest was stuffing a package in a blue mail box about 12:30 p.m. The customer called police, and in a flash, the post office was on lockdown until 4:30 p.m., with 150 employees and customers tucked away in the back. The San Jose police bomb squad, the Fire Department's hazardous materials unit and the postal inspector descended on a normally quiet strip of North San Jose. A robot detonated the package, which turned out, police said, to be a bunch of calendars.
"My friends kept messaging me, Is this you? Is this you?" recounted Long Hoang, who lives near the post office and is a student at Cal State East Bay in Hayward.
It was.
About 12 weeks ago, Hoang became an avid follower of the CrossFit exercise regimen, which he said, exuberantly,
combines "this really creative combination of weight lifting, gymnastics and rowing." He wears the mask to simulate high-altitude training. Hoang, who is 5 feet 4 inches, said he's lost at least 20 pounds, and is now 142 pounds.


Many neighbors in the area frequently spot him running in his gear, doing squats and lunges at corners while he waits for the light to turn green.
As Hoang tells the story, he mistakenly received a package of calendars at his home, and thought he'd mail them back to the proper recipient while on an exercise run. The package didn't fit the first time in the mail box, he said, so he had to fold it up and try a second time.
When Hoang later realized his actions had caused such a commotion, captured by this newspaper and many other media organizations, he called police Tuesday evening to say the suspicious man was him: a nursing student trying to get into shape.


Read more - 
http://www.mercurynews.com/bay-area-news/ci_19440928

Dog shoots man - dog jumped up on the bow and stepped on the gun. The gun fired and shot the man in the buttocks -

Dog shoots man - dog jumped up on the bow and stepped on the gun. The gun fired and shot the man in the buttocks - 







It wasn't his dog's bark or bite that had a Brigham City man concerned, it was his aim.


A man was recovering Wednesday after being shot over the weekend by his dog.


A 46-year-old Brigham City man and a friend were duck hunting Sunday about 8:30 a.m. on the north end of the Great Salt Lake near the bird refuge, about 10 miles west of Brigham City.


The two had their canoe-like boat in a shallow marsh area when the man got out of the boat to either set up or collect decoys. He laid his 12-gauge shotgun across the bow of the boat, said Box Elder County Sheriff's Chief Deputy Kevin Potter.


After the man got out of the boat, a dog inside the vessel jumped up on the bow and stepped on the gun. The gun fired and shot the man in the buttocks.


Medical crews later removed 27 pellets of birdshot.


"(The dog) did something to make the gun discharge," Potter said. "I don't know if the safety device was on. It's not impossible the dog could have taken it off safety."


The men called 911 and walked to the main road to wait for emergency crews. The fact the man was wearing waders likely helped prevent a more serious injury, Potter said. The gun was fired from approximately 10 feet away, he said.


Potter did not have information on the type of dog that stepped on the shotgun.


Even though the two were duck hunting near a bird refuge, Potter said it was legal.


Read more - 
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=18299091&title=dog-shoots-man

Tis the season for finding cross-border drug tunnels - Feds Seize 32 Tons of Marijuana under U.S.-Mexico Border -

Tis the season for finding cross-border drug tunnels - Feds Seize 32 Tons of Marijuana under U.S.-Mexico Border - 




Tis the season for finding cross-border drug tunnels.
The latest secret passage -- equipped with a hydraulic lift, electric rail carts and a wooden staircase -- was discovered Tuesday on the U.S.-Mexico border, highlighting an emerging seasonal trend. For three years, authorities have found sophisticated tunnels shortly before the winter holidays in what officials speculate is an attempt by drug smugglers to take advantage of Mexico's fall marijuana harvest.
The discovery of the 600-yard tunnel resulted in seizures of 32 tons of marijuana, one of the largest pot busts in U.S. history. It linked warehouses in San Diego and Tijuana and was equipped with lighting and ventilation. Wooden planks lined the floor about 40 feet underground.


"This is an incredibly efficient tunnel designed to move a lot of narcotics," said Derek Benner, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's special agent in charge of investigations in San Diego said Wednesday.
Authorities recovered nearly 17 tons of marijuana at the warehouse in San Diego's Otay Mesa area, nearly 12 tons inside a truck in Los Angeles and about 4 tons in Mexico. Six people were charged in federal court in Southern California with conspiracy to distribute marijuana.
As U.S. authorities heighten enforcement on land, tunnels have become a major tack to smuggle enormous loads of marijuana. More than 70 passages have been found on the border since October 2008, surpassing the number of discoveries in the previous six years




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/11/30/feds-seize-32-tons-marijuana-from-underground-us-mexico-border-tunnel/?test=latestnews