XIAM007 - Making Unique Observations in a Very Cluttered World

Sunday, 24 April 2011

Florida Woman Finds 6-foot Alligator in Bedroom - entered the house by crawling through the house's doggie door -

A Florida homeowner received quite a shock when she returned home on Saturday to find a 6-foot alligator in one of her bedrooms, according to reports from Bay News 9.
"I look to the right, and there's an alligator in my guest bedroom," homeowner Alexis Dunbar said.
The alligator is believed to have entered the house after crawling from a pond in the property's back yard, entering through the house's doggie door.
The gator left a trail of blood that led Dunbar to believe her cats had been devoured.
"My cats are like my daughters," she said. "So I thought my cat was eaten. There was blood everywhere."
The cats were fortunately safely recovered, and it was the determined the blood was seeping from the alligator.
Wildlife crews later trapped the animal in a bathroom and released it back into the wild.
"I'm gonna be scared to sleep here tonight [Saturday]," Dunbar said. "[I'm] definitely gonna go look under my bed again before I go back inside."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/24/florida-woman-finds-6-foot-alligator-bedroom/#ixzz1KU08o1oO

Thursday, 21 April 2011

"Weird Al" Yankovic new album: a parody of “Born This Way” by Lady Gaga called “Perform This Way.” - LOL! -

Wednesday, 20 April 2011

US pledged €86m to seal Chernobyl under new ‘shell' - a 20,000-tonne steel shield - to prevent radiation from escaping -

The ruined nuclear reactor at Chernobyl is to be sealed within a 20,000-tonne steel shield designed to prevent any further radiation from escaping for 100 years. It would be large enough to enclose St Paul's Cathedral in London, or the Statue of Liberty.

Governments from around the world have pledged $785m (£480m) at a conference in Kiev, a week before the 25th anniversary of the nuclear accident in Ukraine – on 26 April 1986 the reactor suffered explosions and caught fire. This brings the total raised for the Chernobyl safety works to $1.8bn.

Twenty-eight governments have so far offered money. The European commission was the biggest contributor with $143m at the Kiev Nuclear Safety Summit. The US pledged $123m and Britain, which still has more than 300 hill farms in Wales under radiation restrictions following the fallout from Chernobyl, will contribute $50m. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development announced an extra $172m. Japan, Italy and Canada are considering whether to contribute.

The planned arch-shaped structure will be 190 metres (623ft) wide and more than 100 metres tall, taking five years to build. It will replace the concrete sarcophagus erected around the reactor in the months following the accident. This shield now has cracks, raising fears that 95% of the original nuclear material remaining inside the reactor could escape.

Radiation levels directly over the sarcophagus are too high for the arch to be built over it, so the structure will be constructed in two pieces, then moved over the site on rails. It is designed so that the authorities could start dismantling the reactor from inside in 100 years.

The shield is intended to stay in place until either the radiation threat decreases or the Ukrainian government finds a permanent storage facility for the 200 tonnes of uranium and 1 tonne of plutonium within the ruins.

World governments, which had already raised more than $1.6bn in international funding for the shelter, as well as for a permanent nuclear fuel store for other reactors on the Chernobyl site, said that the currentcrisis at the Fukushima plant in Japan had persuaded them to respond to the appeal by Ukraine, which estimates that Chernobyl has cost the nation more than $12bn.

"Recent events in Fukushima have reminded us of the danger this issue may represent," said the European commission president, José Manuel Barroso.

The French prime minister, François Fillon, said Fukushima evoked memories of Chernobyl: "More than ever, our responsibility is to join together our efforts to limit the consequences of such disasters and to prepare for the future."

Mikhail Gorbachev, president of the Soviet Union at the time of the Chernobyl disaster and now head of the environment group Green Cross International, used the occasion of the 25th anniversary to say nuclear power was not the answer to the world's energy problems or to climate change.

In a statement he said: "Nuclear power has been presented as a financially sound, economically efficient, clean and safe solution that will bring about energy security and drive economic growth. Recently, the so-called 'nuclear renaissance' has hitched a free ride on the back of the need to find low-carbon solutions to the climate crisis.

"The bottom line on the economics of nuclear power is that it simply does not add up. That is why private investment is wisely focusing on better alternatives.

"It is necessary to realise that nuclear power is not a panacea, as some observers allege, for energy sufficiency or climate change. Its cost effectiveness is also exaggerated, as its real cost does not account for hidden expenses.

"In the United States, for example, direct subsidies to nuclear energy amounted to $115bn between 1947 and 1999, with an additional $145bn in indirect subsidies. In contrast, subsidies to wind and solar energy, combined over this same period, totalled only $5.5bn."

But Mohamed ElBaradei, former head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said: "Today, nuclear power is the only real alternative to fossil fuel as a source of a reliable supply."

He acknowledged that confidence in atomic energy had taken a severe blow after the tsunami-triggered disaster at Fukushima. "Fukushima represents a potentially significant setback for nuclear power," he told participants at the forum, although he stressed that confidence would be "re-established in due course", then added: "Chernobyl and Fukushima should be shown to be aberrations."

New British Beer Is Laced With Viagra - called Royal Virility Performance - created to mark the upcoming Royal Wedding -

Forget the little blue pill. A British company has brewed the first beer laced with Viagra.
The new brew is called Royal Virility Performance, and has been specially created to mark the upcoming Royal Wedding.
Downing just three bottles is equivalent to taking one pill of Viagra, which enhances men's sexual performance.

The 7.5 percent alcohol India Pale Ale also contains extra aphrodisiacs including horny goat weed and even chocolate.

The makers of the beer, BrewDog, have even sent several bottles to Prince William for his wedding night.
Just 40 bottles of the beer will be produced initially, and will go on sale the day of the Royal Wedding, April 29, at BrewDog.com. All the proceeds go to the charity Centrepoint, which Prince William supports. But buyers will be limited to one bottle each due to the powerful effects.
If the new beer is a success, the company plans to continue production.
A string of British brewers have already created special edition royal wedding beers, including Adnams Royal Wedding Ale and Castle Rock Brewery's “Kiss Me Kate.”
Last month, Pfizer started selling a chewable version of Viagra in Mexico to cater to the more than 6 million Mexican men who suffer from impotence.
The U.S. pharmaceutical company said the chewable form of the 13-year-old blue pill, known as Viagra Jet, was developed in response to studies of the Mexican market, which is Viagra's biggest in Latin America after Brazil.
"It's a new alternative for patients and doctors," said Beatriz Romero, Pfizer's marketing manager in Mexico. "The chewable format could appeal to patients, particularly those who can't swallow the tablets."
Viagra Jet is only available in Mexico, but the company may introduce it to other Latin American countries, depending upon local regulatory approval, Pfizer spokeswoman Karla Fuentes said.

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/health/2011/04/19/new-british-beer-laced-viagra/#ixzz1K3d7dBci

Michigan Police Download Cell Phone Data During Routine Motorist Stops - grabs all photos and video off of a phone -

Michigan: Police Search Cell Phones During Traffic Stops
ACLU seeks information on Michigan program that allows cops to download information from smart phones belonging to stopped motorists.

The Michigan State Police have a high-tech mobile forensics device that can be used to extract information from cell phones belonging to motorists stopped for minor traffic violations. The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Michigan last Wednesday demanded that state officials stop stonewalling freedom of information requests for information on the program.

ACLU learned that the police had acquired the cell phone scanning devices and in August 2008 filed an official request for records on the program, including logs of how the devices were used. The state police responded by saying they would provide the information only in return for a payment of $544,680. The ACLU found the charge outrageous.

"Law enforcement officers are known, on occasion, to encourage citizens to cooperate if they have nothing to hide," ACLU staff attorney Mark P. Fancher wrote. "No less should be expected of law enforcement, and the Michigan State Police should be willing to assuage concerns that these powerful extraction devices are being used illegally by honoring our requests for cooperation and disclosure."

A US Department of Justice test of the CelleBrite UFED used by Michigan police found the device could grab all of the photos and video off of an iPhone within one-and-a-half minutes. The device works with 3000 different phone models and can even defeat password protections.

"Complete extraction of existing, hidden, and deleted phone data, including call history, text messages, contacts, images, and geotags," a CelleBrite brochure explains regarding the device's capabilities. "The Physical Analyzer allows visualization of both existing and deleted locations on Google Earth. In addition, location information from GPS devices and image geotags can be mapped on Google Maps."

The ACLU is concerned that these powerful capabilities are being quietly used to bypass Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches.

"With certain exceptions that do not apply here, a search cannot occur without a warrant in which a judicial officer determines that there is probable cause to believe that the search will yield evidence of criminal activity," Fancher wrote. "A device that allows immediate, surreptitious intrusion into private data creates enormous risks that troopers will ignore these requirements to the detriment of the constitutional rights of persons whose cell phones are searched."

The national ACLU is currently suing the Department of Homeland Security for its policy of warrantless electronic searches of laptops and cell phones belonging to people entering the country who are not suspected of committing any crime.

Read more - http://www.thenewspaper.com/news/34/3458.asp

Tuesday, 19 April 2011

Look Up: Spectacular Space Station Flybys This Week - will outshine everything in the evening sky except the moon -

The International Space Station will make several flybys over Europe and North America this week. The flybys will be brief, lasting about five minutes at most. But while it’s overhead, the space station will outshine everything in the evening sky except the moon.

While the ISS constantly circles Earth, it’s only visible just after sunset or just before sunrise; at other times of day it’s outshone by the sun, or cloaked by Earth’s shadow. Thanks to orbital coincidences, this week’s flybys will be exceptionally bright.

To find out when to look up, check Spaceweather.com’s prediction page, NASA’s Space Station Sightingpage, or Heavens Above. You can also have alerts sent directly to your smartphone.

In honor of tax day - 20 Tax fact that will BLOW YOUR MIND -

In honor of tax day, Business Insider put together a slide show on the 20 tax facts that will “make your head explode.” Here’s a sample:

1. The IRS has more employees than there are people in Flint, Michigan (106K vs 102K).

2. Americans spend $28 billion and 8 billion hours each year doing their taxes.

3. The number of pages in the tax code has increased 16,775% in the past century.

4. You could fill Dallas with the number of accountants Americans hire to help with taxes each year (over a million).

You can read the rest here.

FAA Suspends Two for Movie Watching While on Duty -

An air traffic controller has been suspended for watching a movie when he was supposed to be monitoring aircraft, deepening the Federal Aviation Administration's embarrassment following at least five cases of controllers sleeping on the job.
In the latest incident, the controller was watching a movie on a DVD player early Sunday morning while on duty at a regional radar center near Cleveland, Ohio that handles high-altitude air traffic, the FAA said in a statement Monday.
The controller's microphone was inadvertently activated, transmitting the soundtrack of the movie -- the 2007 crime thriller "Cleaner," starring Samuel L. Jackson -- for more than three minutes to all the planes in the airspace that the controller was supposed to be monitoring, the agency said.
The controller's microphone became stuck in the transmit position, preventing him from hearing incoming radio calls or issuing instructions to planes during the incident, the agency said.
The controller was alerted to the mishap when he was contacted by a military pilot.

Besides the controller, the FAA also has suspended a manager at the Oberlin center.
In all now, the FAA has suspended eight controllers and supervisors since late March.
In five of the cases the controllers allegedly fell asleep. In another case, the FAA is investigating why two controllers in Texas were unresponsive to radio calls.
Nearly all the incidents occurred during overnight shifts when traffic is light and people naturally have trouble staying awake.
The incidents have shaken FAA officials, made air traffic controllers the butt of late night comedians and raised public jitters about the safety of air travel.
FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt said early Monday, before the agency had disclosed the incident near Cleveland, that he was "infuriated" that air traffic controllers have been caught snoozing on the job.
"None of us in this business can ... tolerate any of this," Babbitt said. "It absolutely has to stop."
Babbitt was at a regional radar center near Atlanta with Paul Rinaldi, president of the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, the union that represents controllers. The pair met with about 50 controllers and other FAA employees as they kicked off a nationwide tour of air traffic facilities aimed at sending a message as much to the public as to controllers that unprofessional behavior won't be tolerated.
Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood underscored the same message in a series of television interviews over the past several days. Even President Barack Obama joined the chorus, telling ABC News last week: "We've got it under control."

Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/04/18/faa-suspends-2-movie-watching-duty/#ixzz1JxmBBQNJ

Monday, 18 April 2011

Twitter said to be in talks to buy TweetDeck -

Twitter may be trying to pull the rug out from under a potential new direct competitor.

The social networking company is reportedly in "advanced talks" to buy popular Twitter client TweetDeck for about $50 million, according to a report out Monday by the Wall Street Journal.

TweetDeck competes directly with Twitter's Web and mobile clients.

If the report is correct, news of Twitter's buyout move must have come as a surprise to the executives at UberMedia, who have been deep in plans to acquire TweetDeck themselves.

UberMedia and its apps UberSocial, Twidroyd and UberCurrents, have been in the spotlight lately. In February, Twitter suspended UberMedia's three major third-party mobile applications for allegedly violating its use policies, then just one day later, reinstated all three apps.

Then, complicating matters even more, reports hit last week that UberMedia is developing its own microblogging service that would compete directly with Twitter.

Citing unnamed sources, CNN.com reported that UberMedia is looking to attract users to its own microblogging service by addressing common complaints about Twitter, such as its restrictions on the length of a message and how the service can be confusing to newcomers.

Read more - http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9215918/Twitter_said_to_be_in_talks_to_buy_TweetDeck

Now CHILI’S caught serving alcohol to a toddler - an alcoholic “mudslide” drink instead of chocolate shake -

First, there was the the case of the 15-month-old given booze at a Detroit-area Applebee’s.

Then there was the toddler in Florida who was served sangria instead of orange juice.

And now we have a child in Chicago getting an alcoholic “mudslide” drink instead of chocolate shake:

The young girl was taken to a hospital and diagnosed with “alcohol overdose.” CBS 2 reports:

Tyree Davis said she was having dinner with her daughter at a Chili’s at 1750 W. 119th St. in the Morgan Park neighborhood around 5:30 p.m. Sunday, when her daughter’s chocolate shake got swapped with a mudslide alcoholic beverage, which contains vodka.
Davis said her daughter, Brooklynn Morris, 4, was later diagnosed with an alcohol overdose.
The two drinks look similar, and both contain chocolcate. Davis later took a picture of them side-by-side with her cell phone camera.
But Brooklynn drank from the cocktail three or four times, and her mother said the little girl noticed something wasn’t right.
“Brooklynn said, ‘I don’t like it,’ and she said, ‘You don’t like it? Why? Let me taste it,’” Davis said, “and when I tasted it – alcohol. I knew immediately it was alcohol.”
Davis said she tried it herself, and that is when she realized it was an alcoholic drink.
The server said perhaps the drinks had been swapped.
“That’s when I saw the waitress approaching me with the chocolate shake,” Davis said. “How can you make that mistake? And then the manager said they were sitting on the bar side-by-side – the cholocate shake and the mudslide.”
Davis said she called police, who responded to the restaurant and told her to take her daughter to the emergency room, because the girl was dozing off.

Read more - http://www.theblaze.com/stories/now-chilis-is-serving-alcohol-to-toddlers/