Shoes Found in 13th Century Trash Pile

A batch of well-preserved shoe soles have been found in an ancient trash dump in Lyon, France. They date from the 13th to the 18th centuries.

Older shoes have been found, including one from 2,000 years ago discovered in 2005 in a hollow tree trunk in southwest England. Sandals from 10,000 years ago were found in a cave in Oregon and are said to be the oldest footware ever found.

Read the rest at LiveScience.

Astronomical Daily Picture

Comet Lulin and Distant Galaxies

Great shot of an unusual comet. You can see more of this comet and other astronomical pictures at Astronomical Daily Picture.

World's 'oldest' spider web found

Tiny threads of spider silk were found in the amber

Two brothers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest recorded spider's web encased in amber on an East Sussex beach.

The amber, which was found in Bexhill, was formed about 140 million years ago in the Cretaceous period.

Amateur fossil hunter Jamie Hiscocks and his brother Jonathan also found the fossilized remains of an Iguanodon jaw bone on the coastline.

The spider web thread is now being studied at Oxford University.

Read more at BBC News.

Profound Thought

When the past no longer illuminates the future, the spirit walks in darkness.

~ Alexis de Tocqueville

And I Quote

The world is moving so fast these days that the man who says it can't be done is generally interrupted by someone doing it.

~ Harry Emerson Fosdick

A Slice of Philosophy

Those who bring sunshine to the lives of others, cannot keep it from themselves.

~ James Matthew Barrie

Florida shuts down pirate radio station over drugs, gangs

Federal Communications Commission officials and deputies from the Orange County Sheriff's gang unit busted a pirate radio station they say was reportedly broadcasting information on where to buy drugs.

Michigan woman marks her 108th or 111th birthday

Don't ask Mattie Caldwell how many candles go on her birthday cake.
"I don't remember," she said. Medicare records indicate Caldwell's birth date is March 5, 1901.
An old family Bible gives the same date but three years earlier, in 1898.
And there's no legal record of her birth because she was born at home

Stella McCartney Designs Affordable Funny Tees for Money and Charity

From TreeHugger:

Image via: Facebook

As part of the Comic Relief Campaign, Stella McCartney has designed several Red Nose t-shirts, which are all made in Africa and support. The Beatles, Madonna and Morecame & Wise, and even a baby bunny photographed by Mary McCartney each adorn their own tee or tank. Red Nose Day, March 13, 2009 encourages participants to Do Something Funny for Money in its effort to raise funds to fight poverty in the UK and abroad in Africa.

Article continues: Stella McCartney Designs Affordable Funny Tees for Money and Charity

City of New Orleans

CGI video accompanying song

Student gives savings to help ill friend

10-year-old boy donates all he has

– $100 –

to help a classmate who needs a liver transplant.

One hundred dollars is a fortune for a 10-year-old boy.

Enough to buy 112 packs of Bubblicious Strawberry Splash bubble gum.

Or 27 pounds of Skittles.

Or 60 MacGregor baseballs, plus a blue plastic bucket to store them.

None of those possibilities occurred to Gable Brown when the Highland Creek Elementary fourth-grader gave all he had – $100 in saved allowance – to help a classmate in need of a liver transplant.

And where had he been storing this fortune?

“In my underpants drawer,” he said Friday with a shrug. “It was collecting dust.”

He figured it could be put to better use by his classmate Sheranne Khan, who flew to Cincinnati on Thursday night with her dad for medical tests. She has been battling autoimmune liver disease all her life. She hopes for a new liver.

The family has medical insurance, but doctors have said it likely won't cover all costs. So, the school launched a fundraiser: “Lend a Hand for Sheranne.” When Sheranne spoke to the class this month about her situation, Gable was moved.

Off to the underpants drawer.

Gable's dad, impressed, matched his gift. Next thing Gable knew, his teacher told him to go to the principal's office. He figured he must have done something wrong – until he saw the principal, Ann Nivens.

“She was crying,” he said, his blue eyes widening at the memory. “She gave me a hug.”

Melissa Khan, Sheranne's mother, said her family has been overwhelmed by the support from the school, which has raised $4,000. Gable's gift floored her.

“He's a really cute kid, just absolutely selfless,” she said. “He didn't even think twice about it.”

Gable is bowled over by the reaction. He keeps pointing out that he wasn't doing anything with the money anyway. But after landing in the newspaper and on TV, he realizes it's a big deal.

Not that he's letting celebrity change him, though. Asked if he had any parting words of wisdom for other kids, he didn't hesitate.

“If they contact the school,” he said, “they can give money to Sheranne.”

*****

There is a lesson here, folks.

From the "Oh, no! He didn't just go there" Department:

The famous Olympic skier Picabo Street is not just an athlete . . . she is now a nurse currently working at an Intensive Care Unit of a large metropolitan hospital.

She is not permitted to answer the hospital telephones any longer.

It cause too much confusion when she would answer the phone and say, "Picabo, I.C.U."

Married Life

A 16 year old boy comes home with a brand new red sports car.
His father asks,"Where did it come from".
The boy said that he bought it from the lady down the street for $1.00.
The man went to talk with the lady.
He asks her if she had sold his son the car for $1.00.
And she replied that she that yes she did.
He asked, " Why would you do that"
"My husband just called to say that he is leaving me for a much younger woman.
And I was to sell the car and send him the money", she calmly replied.

Science News

In Science News today, we go all spacey on you:

Kepler telescope launches to hunt for alien Earths

Cannibalistic Jupiter ate its early moons

Flying carpets aboard the space station

Just how bad it it ...

Evidence of just how bad the slumping economy is, is stacking up at an Ohio school which has nearly 700 applications for one open janitorial job.

...the full-time position at Edison junior high school pays $15 to $16 an hour plus benefits.

More here

President Obama's Weekly Address

Toward A Better Day

Remarks of President Barack Obama

Weekly Address

Saturday, March 7, 2009

Washington, DC

Yesterday, we learned that the economy lost another 651,000 jobs in the month of February, which brings the total number of jobs lost in this recession to 4.4 million. The unemployment rate has now surpassed 8 percent, the highest rate in a quarter century.

These aren't just statistics, but hardships experienced personally by millions of Americans who no longer know how they'll pay their bills, or make their mortgage, or raise their families.

From the day I took office, I knew that solving this crisis would not be easy, nor would it happen overnight. And we will continue to face difficult days in the months ahead. But I also believe that we will get through this -- that if we act swiftly and boldly and responsibly, the United States of America will emerge stronger and more prosperous than it was before.

That's why my administration is committed to doing all that's necessary to address this crisis and lead us to a better day. That's why we're moving forward with an economic agenda that will jumpstart job creation, restart lending, relieve responsible homeowners, and address the long-term economic challenges of our time: the cost of health care, our dependence on oil, and the state of our schools.

To prevent foreclosures for as many as 4 million homeowners -- and lower interest rates and lift home values for millions more -- we are implementing a plan to allow lenders to work with borrowers to refinance or restructure their mortgages. On Wednesday, the Department of Treasury and Housing and Urban Development released the guidelines that lenders will use for lowering mortgage payments. This plan is now at work.

To restore the availability of affordable loans for families and businesses -- not just banks -- we are taking steps to restart the flow of credit and stabilize the financial markets. On Thursday, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve launched the Consumer and Business Lending Initiative -- a plan that will generate up to a trillion dollars of new lending so that families can finance a car or college education -- and small businesses can raise the capital that will create jobs.

And we've already begun to implement the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act -- a plan that will save and create over 3.5 million jobs over the next two years -- jobs rebuilding our roads and bridges, constructing wind turbines and solar panels, expanding broadband and mass transit. And because of this plan, those who have lost their job in this recession will be able to receive extended unemployment benefits and continued health care coverage, while 95 percent of working Americans will receive a tax break beginning April 1st.

Of course, like every family going through hard times, our country must make tough choices. In order to pay for the things we need -- we cannot waste money on the things we don't.

My administration inherited a $1.3 trillion budget deficit, the largest in history. And we've inherited a budgeting process as irresponsible as it is unsustainable. For years, as Wall Street used accounting tricks to conceal costs and avoid responsibility, Washington did, too.

These kinds of irresponsible budgets -- and inexcusable practices -- are now in the past. For the first time in many years, my administration has produced a budget that represents an honest reckoning of where we are and where we need to go.

It's also a budget that begins to make the hard choices that we've avoided for far too long -- a strategy that cuts where we must and invests where we need. That's why it includes $2 trillion in deficit reduction, while making historic investments in America's future. That's why it reduces discretionary spending for non-defense programs as a share of the economy by more than 10 percent over the next decade -- to the lowest level since they began keeping these records nearly half a century ago. And that's why on Wednesday, I signed a presidential memorandum to end unnecessary no-bid contracts and dramatically reform the way contracts are awarded -- reforms that will save the American people up to $40 billion each year.

Finally, because we cannot bring our deficit down or grow our economy without tackling the skyrocketing cost of health care, I held a health care summit on Thursday to begin the long-overdue process of reform. Our ideas and opinions about how to achieve this reform will vary, but our goal must be the same: quality, affordable health care for every American that no longer overwhelms the budgets of families, businesses, and our government.

Yes, this is a moment of challenge for our country. But we've experienced great trials before. And with every test, each generation has found the capacity to not only endure, but to prosper -- to discover great opportunity in the midst of great crisis. That is what we can and must do today. And I am absolutely confident that is what we will do. I'm confident that at this defining moment, we will prove ourselves worthy of the sacrifice of those who came before us, and the promise of those who will come after.

Noise could mask web searcher's IDs

Adding noise to search-engine records could help keep surfers' identities private. A team from Microsoft Research in Redmond, Washington, says the technique is a major step towards "provable privacy".

Records of internet searches made on websites such as Google and AOL are hugely useful to software engineers trying to improve search technology. Such data also give social scientists a valuable window on our largely uninhibited digital search behaviors. The problem is that such information can easily identify individuals who have carried out the searches, breaching their privacy.

Read the rest here.

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

New Delhi, Delhi, India
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Antwerp, Antwerpen, belgium
Delhi, Delhi, India
Riga, Riga, Latvia
Hyderabad, Andhra Pradesh, India
Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Edinburgh, Scotland, United Kingdom
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom
Vadodara, Gujarat, India
Oslo, Oslo, Norway

as well as Sweden, Germany, Spain and Italy

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You respect other people's choices, but not everyone else does.

True.