Camera-snatching octopus is Web star
People are buzzing about footage accidentally shot by a thieving sea creature.
Also: 
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Supreme Court strikes down law aimed at banning animal cruelty videos
In another example of incorrect decisions this 'court' has made recently:
The Supreme Court struck down a federal law today aimed at banning videos that show graphic violence against animals, saying it violates the right to free speech.
Woman Accused Of Hitting TSA Agent Over Applesauce
More stupidity from the TSA
A judge Tuesday threw out a case against Nadine Hays, who is accused of hitting a TSA agent who allegedly tried to take away her elderly mother's applesauce."I just said I am not going to plead guilty to something I did not do," Hays, 58, of Camarillo, said before her court appearance.
Contraband could hide in plain sight
As airport security employees scan luggage for a large variety of banned items, they may miss a deadly box cutter if they find a water bottle first.
According to new research at Duke University, identifying an easy-to-spot prohibited item such as a water bottle may hinder the discovery of other, harder-to-spot items in the same scan.
Speaking of birthers and teabaggers
"They cannot stand being called racist.
Another thing they cannot stand is black people."
~ Bill Maher on birther/tea baggers,
How your Web coupons are spying on you
How your Web coupons are spying on you
Coupons printed from the Internet can be loaded with your personal information.
Also: Idiot law
...or wingnuttery manifest ...
A new law in Arizona authorizes local cops to enforce federal immigration laws, including checking the immigration status of anyone cops "reasonably" believe might be an illegal immigrant.
In other words, May I see your papers please? Since illegal immigrants rarely wear t-shirts emblazoned "illegal immigrant", it's difficult to see this as anything but a new excuse to hassle non-white folks, but c'mon — cops in Arizona didn't need a new excuse for that in the first place.
A new law in Arizona authorizes local cops to enforce federal immigration laws, including checking the immigration status of anyone cops "reasonably" believe might be an illegal immigrant.
In other words, May I see your papers please? Since illegal immigrants rarely wear t-shirts emblazoned "illegal immigrant", it's difficult to see this as anything but a new excuse to hassle non-white folks, but c'mon — cops in Arizona didn't need a new excuse for that in the first place.
Key 'point man' emerges in fraud case
Key 'point man' emerges in fraud case
Paolo Pellegrini made $175 million on a huge housing bet tied to the Goldman Sachs suit.
Also: It's The Economy Stupid
It's The Economy Stupid
Repugicans in SEC vote against Goldman lawsuit
Why do the repugicans hate America?
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission split 3-2 along party lines to approve an enforcement case against Goldman Sachs Group Inc., according to two people with knowledge of the vote.
SEC Chairman Mary Schapiro sided with Democrats Luis Aguilar and Elisse Walter to approve the case filed on April 16, said the people, who declined to be identified because the vote wasn’t public. Republican commissioners Kathleen Casey and Troy Paredes voted against suing, the people said yesterday.
Charges Against Goldman Sachs Boost Case for Financial Reform
The Obama administration's efforts to reform the financial industry is getting an unexpected boost after the Securities and Exchange Commission (S.E.C.) accused one of the largest U.S. investment bankers of fraud. Goldman Sachs denies it misled its investors by selling them mortgaged backed securities that were expected to fail. But analysts say the civil charges filed against Goldman Sachs on Friday could lead to closer scrutiny of the way financial firms do business.
Habits putting your retirement at risk
6 habits putting your retirement at risk
These bad decisions could leave you working longer or even flat broke at retirement.
Also: The work chore everyone loves to hate
The work chore everyone loves to hate
A management expert calls for an end to a "bogus practice" that almost all companies require.
Also: In Matters Of Health
In Matters Of Health
50 secrets from real-life dentists
Dentists from across the country share what they're really thinking as they peer at our teeth.
Also: 
Dietary sugar linked to high cholesterol
Added sugars in packaged foods may increase the risk of heart trouble, a new study says.
Also: 
Extra pounds can boost breast cancer risk
Even gradual weight gain nearly doubles women's chances of breast cancer, a new study finds.
Also: 
Report: FDA may set legal limits on salt
Health advocates say regulating sodium could be the best way to reduce heart attacks.
Also: Why you don't need laundry detergent
Why you don't need laundry detergent
Many people put way too much soap in their washing machines already.
Also: Seven easy dinners
Seven easy dinners
These quick and delicious mu shu-style pork roll-ups will please your entire family.
Also: School lunches a national security threat?
School lunches a national security threat?
Some retired military officers worry about the effects of cafeteria food on future recruiting.
Also: Want a higher GPA?
Want a higher GPA? Try a private college
Grade inflation has affected public and private universities much differently, a study shows.
Also: School with no tests, no books, no rules
School with no tests, no books, no rules
For the Biegler kids, education means learning about what they think is important.
Also: Frontal Cortex: Classroom Creativity
This interesting study, which looked at how elementary school teachers perceived creativity in their students. While the teachers said they wanted creative kids in their classroom, they actually didn’t. In fact, when they were asked to rate their students on a variety of personality measures – the list included everything from “individualistic” to “risk-seeking” to “accepting of authority” – the traits mostly closely aligned with creative thinking were also closely associated with their “least favorite” students. As the researchers note, “Judgments for the favorite student were negatively correlated with creativity; judgments for the least favorite student were positively correlated with creativity.”
This shouldn’t be too surprising. The point is that the classroom isn’t designed for impulsive expression – that’s called talking out of turn. Instead, it’s all about obeying group dynamics and exerting focused attention. Those are important life skills, of course, but decades of psychological research suggest that such skills have little to do with creativity.
Viruses harnessed to split water
A team of MIT researchers has found a novel way to mimic the process by which plants use the power of sunlight to split water and make chemical fuel to power their growth. In this case, the team used a modified virus as a kind of biological scaffold that can assemble the nanoscale components needed to split the hydrogen and oxygen atoms of a water molecule.
Splitting water is one way to solve the basic problem of solar energy: It’s only available when the sun shines. By using sunlight to make hydrogen from water, the hydrogen can then be stored and used at any time to generate electricity using a fuel cell, or to make liquid fuels (or be used directly) for cars and trucks.
Scientific Minds Want To Know
Scientific Minds Want To Know
Our planet has taken its share of hard knocks over the years – here's our rundown of chart-topping blasts from the past
Once more, a subtle mental trait thought to be uniquely human has been found in great apes
From the mysterious and unplumbed depths of the ocean, a National Geographic gallery of tiny sea critters inventoried in the recent Census of Marine Life. These otherworldly beasties are weird, wonderful and captivating.
Winds blow volcanic ash back over Britain
Winds blow volcanic ash back over Britain
While planes gradually take to the skies in parts of Europe, U.K. travelers are hit with more bad news.
Also: World's rarest tree gets some help
The tree species known only as Pennantia baylisiana could be the rarest plant on Earth. In fact, the Guinness Book of World Records once called it that. Just a single tree exists in the wild, on one of the Three Kings Islands off the coast of New Zealand, where it has sat, alone, since 1945.
Mysterious volcano lightning captured
Mysterious volcano lightning captured
They look like special effects, but the scenes shown in the plume of Iceland's volcano are real.
Also: Mideast's mysterious desert lines explained
Mideast's mysterious desert lines explained
The shapes were first spotted by pilots flying over the eastern Sinai in the early 20th century.
Also: Mystery creature sightings create stir
Mystery creature sightings create stir
Reported discoveries of the Montauk Monster and a yeti were not what they seemed.
Also: For Sale: Naming Rights to Newly Discovered Species
Article continues: For Sale: Naming Rights to Newly Discovered Species
Venus flytraps in the wild, and in danger
The most famous of carnivorous plants, the Venus flytrap, is surprisingly rare in the wild. The plant is only found on the 100-mile-long wet pine savannas on the edge of South and North Carolina. And apparently, there are only 150,000 of them out there. And according to James Luken, a botanist at Coastal Carolina University, that population is in danger from development and poaching, among other threats.
From Smithsonian:
From Smithsonian:
In and around North Carolina's Green Swamp, poachers uproot them from protected areas as well as private lands, where they can be harvested only with an owner's permission. The plants have such shallow roots that some poachers dig them up with butcher knives or spoons, often while wearing camouflage and kneepads (the plants grow in such convenient clumps that flytrappers, as they're called, barely have to move). Each pilfered plant sells for about 25 cents. The thieves usually live nearby, though occasionally there's an international connection: customs agents at Baltimore-Washington International Airport once intercepted a suitcase containing 9,000 poached flytraps bound for the Netherlands, where they presumably would have been propagated or sold. The smuggler, a Dutchman, carried paperwork claiming the plants were Christmas ferns... There have been some victories: last winter, the Nature Conservancy replanted hundreds of confiscated flytraps in North Carolina's Green Swamp Preserve, and the state typically nabs about a dozen flytrappers per year. ("It's one of the most satisfying cases you can make," says Matthew Long of the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission, who keeps a sharp eye out for hikers with dirty hands.) Gadd and others are pushing for stronger statewide protections that would require collection and propagation permits. Though North Carolina has designated the flytrap as a "species of special concern," the plant doesn't enjoy the federal protections given to species classified as threatened or endangered...
Recently, Luken and other scientists used a GPS device to check on wild flytrap populations that researchers had documented in the 1970s. "Instead of flytraps we'd find golf courses and parking lots," Luken says. "It was the most depressing thing I ever did in my life." Roughly 70 percent of the historic flytrap habitat is gone, they found.
CNBC's Porn Special Re-run Gets Bigger Young Audience Than Goldman Sachs Scandal Coverage
Looks like porn is still a big hit for CNBC.TVNewser wrote that a re-run of "Porn: Business of Pleasure," the network's hour-long special report on the adult entertainment industry, was the most-watched hour in the 25-54 age demographic out of CNBC's entire programming lineup last Friday, the same day Goldman Sachs got sued by the federal government.
"Porn: Business of Pleasure," which premiered last July and is hosted by Melissa Lee, drew 178,000 viewers in the 25-54 age bracket when CNBC aired it at 10 p.m.
In terms of total viewers, "Business of Pleasure" wasn't the most-watched hour on CNBC on April 16. According to Nielsen's stats, it attracted 240,000, versus the second hour of "Squawk on the Street" (10-11 a.m., the time when the Goldman news broke), which had a total of 272,000, or "The Call" (11 a.m-12 p.m.) which had the most viewers: 336,000.
But still, it's a wildly popular show for CNBC (it feels like we stumble upon it at least twice a week while channel surfing!) and one that appears to be bringing in a younger audience.
Odds and Sods
Odds and Sods
In Cop News
Colorado cop faces charge for arresting and jailing emergency medical worker who sought to help domestic violence victim
The biweekly water aerobics class at a holiday park in northern Australia was postponed today when an unwanted guest entered the pool - a 5-foot-long crocodile.
Monday, April 19, 2010
The Daily Drift
The Daily Drift
Today's horoscope says:Whatever you do to deal with frustration, make sure that you've got it in reserve today.
None of your best-laid plans are likely to work out the way you want them to for a little while, which is hard on you.
You can deal with it, of course, just as you always do, because preparedness is one of your key strengths. Make sure that you've got everyone on your side.
Some of our readers today have been in:
London, England, United Kingdom
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Chatswood, New South Wales, Australia
Uberlandia, Minas Gerais, Brazil
Paris, Ile-De-France, France
Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Dublin, Dublin, Ireland
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Oldenburg, Niedersachsen, Germany
Copenhagen, Kobenhavn, Denmark
Ankara, Ankara, Turkey
Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Nicosa, Nicosa, Cyprus
Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, South Africa
New Delhi, Delhi, India
Dundalk, Louth, Ireland
as well as Poland, Malaysia and the United States in such cities such as Casselberry, Tifton, El Cajon, Wilkes Barre, Simi Valley and more
Today is Monday, April 19, the 109th day of 2010.
There are 256 days left in the year.
Halley's comet was able to be seen with the naked eye after weeks of only being able to see it via a telescope on this date in 1910.
As The World Turns
As The World Turns
Warships sent to rescue stranded travelers
The U.K. enacts a new plan as tempers flare on Day Five of the ash-cloud travel crisis.
Also: 12-year-old Indian girl is headmistress at school
As an infant, Bharti Kumari was abandoned at a railway station in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. Now, at the age of 12, she has become the head teacher at a school in Kusumbhara, her adopted village.Every morning and evening, under the shade of a mango tree, she teaches Hindi, English and maths to 50 village children who would otherwise receive no education.
In between, she attends a state school in Akhodhi Gola, a two-mile walk away. Dressed proudly in her school uniform, she passes on the knowledge gleaned from her lessons to the village children, aged between four and 10, in her own class.
“I have a long day. My school is from 10am to 3pm and I study late,” she said. “This is what I love doing. I enjoy teaching children their ABCs as well as the Hindi alphabets.”
Her pupils are among the 10 million Indian children who are outside the state education system because their parents are so poor that they need them to work or no schools are nearby. Earlier this month the Indian government pledged £3.6 billion for a “right to education” scheme which aims to provide free schooling for all.
Bharti’s adoptive father, Rampati, an impoverished farmhand, said he would not follow the rural tradition of pushing girls into early marriages but would allow her to continue her studies. Her future career has already been decided. “I definitely want to become a teacher when I grow up,” she said.
At least 7 killed, 30 injured after magnitude 5.3 earthquake hits northern Afghanistan
A magnitude 5.3 earthquake struck in mountains north of Afghanistan's capital early Monday, killing at least seven people and injuring 30, officials said.
Full Story
Full Story
Local Hospitality
Local Hospitality
An Asheville official said the value of having the president of the United States for a weekend vacation is "Priceless."
South Carolina teens who drop out of school could lose more than opportunity -- they could also lose their license.
Upping the cute factor
Cat and pigeon are best friends
Putting the cat among the pigeons is not normally an affectionate affair, but in Wainoni, New Zealand, an unlikely bond has formed between a pair of natural enemies. Homer, the pigeon, and Henry the cat, are living proof that differences can be put aside, since the pair each adopted their owners, Sandra and Murray Campbell.
"They eat together and play fight together. The pigeon flaps its wings and the cat puts its paws up. Homer even sits on the cat's back and when the cat stalks sparrows on the front lawn, old ding-dong pigeon follows behind to watch,'' Mrs Campbell said.
Henry arrived as a stray at the Campbell's a year ago. Six months later, Homer landed. "My daughter was visiting from Australia and we were sitting here looking out the door when my daughter goes `Oh my God there's a pigeon with Henry!'
"We thought it was going to have its head bitten off. But no, they got along fine." The pair have been found sleeping on a bed together although Henry is more likely to be found in the bird house Mr Campbell built for Homer.
Where the pair came from remains a mystery, but the Campbell's speculate the pair may have come from the same home originally. "We'd love to know but we're quite attached to them now."
Homer doesn't stick around at night, disappearing about 6pm each evening. "But he's back the next morning about 6.30am coo-ing and carrying on," Mrs Campbell said.
"They eat together and play fight together. The pigeon flaps its wings and the cat puts its paws up. Homer even sits on the cat's back and when the cat stalks sparrows on the front lawn, old ding-dong pigeon follows behind to watch,'' Mrs Campbell said.
Henry arrived as a stray at the Campbell's a year ago. Six months later, Homer landed. "My daughter was visiting from Australia and we were sitting here looking out the door when my daughter goes `Oh my God there's a pigeon with Henry!'
"We thought it was going to have its head bitten off. But no, they got along fine." The pair have been found sleeping on a bed together although Henry is more likely to be found in the bird house Mr Campbell built for Homer.
Where the pair came from remains a mystery, but the Campbell's speculate the pair may have come from the same home originally. "We'd love to know but we're quite attached to them now."
Homer doesn't stick around at night, disappearing about 6pm each evening. "But he's back the next morning about 6.30am coo-ing and carrying on," Mrs Campbell said.
Meerkat goes online looking for love
Small? Furry? Looking for love? The owners of a lonely meerkat hope to find the perfect partner on the internet.Lilly, a single lady meerkat living at a theme park in Leicestershire, began to pine after an arranged marriage fell through. In desperation her owners decided to build a dating website for meerkats in the hope of finding her true love.
Since the site went live, Lilly has been inundated with messages from well-wishers, though so far no proposals, indecent or otherwise.
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