MIAMI (Reuters) - An eagle ray leaped onto a boat off the Florida Keys on Thursday and stabbed a woman with its barb, knocking her to the deck and killing her, a Florida wildlife investigator said.

Jumping eagle ray kills boater off Florida Keys | U.S. | Reuters

Arthur C. Clarke, a writer whose seamless blend of scientific expertise and poetic imagination helped usher in the space age, died early Wednesday in Colombo, Sri Lanka, where he had lived since 1956. He was 90.

Arthur C. Clarke, 90, Science Fiction Writer, Dies - New York Times

As news of Arthur C. Clarke's death spread through communities of scientists, writers and science fiction fans, many people shared their memories of how the visionary writer, inventor and futurist inspired and influenced them.

SPACE.com -- Arthur C. Clarke: Luminaries Pay Tribute

Very cute.

DOTHETEST

Customs officials had no plans to upgrade the $5 bill until they discovered that counterfeiters were bleaching $5 bills and printing $100 bills on the paper because the security thread was in the same spot on both. In addition, both bills contained a portrait watermark in the same spot, making them difficult to distinguish.

New $5 bill goes into circulation - Los Angeles Times

dmv wrote:

March 6, 1937: Birth of a Soviet Hero, First Woman Into Space

Happy birthday, Dan!

RE: March 6, 1937: Birth of a Soviet Hero, First Woman Into Space

Don't miss the First USENIX Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats, which will take place in San Francisco, CA, on April 15, 2008.

Best conference name ever!

First USENIX Workshop on Large-Scale Exploits and Emergent Threats (LEET '08)

Other information:
Ghosts I-IV is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial Share Alike license.

An exciting partnership and experience regarding this release will be announced soon.

Linked from Lessig's blog.

Latest NIN Album released under a CC license

Soaring birds, it turns out, use pretty much the same approach. And it’s a good bet that they have never heard of Paul MacCready, the man behind the formula.

Falcons Used Formula for Glider Thermals Before Human Pilots - New York Times

The failure to recognize the housing bubble is the core reason for the collapsing house of cards we are seeing in financial markets in the United States and around the world. If people do not see any risk, and see only the prospect of outsized investment returns, they will pursue those returns with disregard for the risks.

Were all these people stupid? It can’t be. We have to consider the possibility that perfectly rational people can get caught up in a bubble. In this connection, it is helpful to refer to an important bit of economic theory about herd behavior.

Three economists, Sushil Bikhchandani, David Hirshleifer and Ivo Welch, in a classic 1992 article, defined what they call “information cascades” that can lead people into serious error. They found that these cascades can affect even perfectly rational people and cause bubblelike phenomena. Why? Ultimately, people sometimes need to rely on the judgment of others, and therein lies the problem. The theory provides a framework for understanding the real estate turbulence we are now observing.

How a Bubble Stayed Under the Radar - New York Times