] LOS ANGELES -- Nearly six years after NASA's Mars
] Polar Lander vanished during a landing attempt on the Red
] Planet, a scientist has spotted what appears to be
] wreckage of the spacecraft.
]
] The observation came in a re-examination of grainy,
] black-and-white images taken by the orbiting Mars Global
] Surveyor, which searched for the probe with no success in
] 1999 and 2000.

Mars Polar Lander believed found

Good listing of many kinds of sushi, and the associated nutritional content of each type.

Sushi Nutrition Chart

For anyone who may be trying to track down friends or long lost relatives in Brazil, here's the Brazilian "people search" site. Type in a name, get a phone number and address (if of course they're wealthy enough to have a phone).

Brazilian Phone Directory

] This list indexes primarly the Polish language sources in
] the collection.

A good comprehensive list of Polish surnames from the nobility class, and their associated coats of arms. My own was "Labedz" (pronounced Wah-behnj), the swan.

Poland Nobility Genealogy

] The Internet's Most Comprehensive Source of U.S.
] Political Biography,
]
] or,
]
] The Web Site That Tells Where the Dead Politicians are
] Buried

I was doing genealogical research, and ran across this site. Sure enough, it listed my great-uncle Alfred Niezychowski, who was a (defeated) Democratic candidate from Michigan for the U.S. House of Representatives. 1932, 1st District.

I'd heard that he, or possibly my great-grandfather Edward Werner, had pulled strings with (Republican) Senator Homer Ferguson of Michigan, to get some war-orphaned children from Poland, along with their Auschwitz-survivor aunt, into the United States. The family stories which I've heard, say that Senator Ferguson got a rider added to a bill somewhere, to allow for the children to immigrate.

I'd very much like to see the text of that bill.

Why am I so interested? One of those refugee children was my father.

The Political Graveyard

] METHUEN, Mass. (AP) -- Two men digging up a small tree in
] Methuen, Massachusetts, found more than just roots.
]
] The men uncovered a wooden box, which contained nine
] rusty tin cans filled with $1, $2 and $20 bills. There
] were about 1,800 bills in all, dating from 1899 to 1929.
] There also were some gold and silver certificates as well
] as notes from local banks at the time.

Details are still sketchy, but estimated current value: $100,000

And no, I don't think this has anything to do with the Beale Ciphers. That was supposed to be actual buried gold and gems, at a very specific location in Virginia. And was from the mid-1800s, not early 1900s.

Still though, sounds like a great find!

A bit more information available here.

Buried Treasure Found in Massachusetts

] The distractions of constant emails, text and phone
] messages are a greater threat to IQ and concentration
] than taking cannabis, according to a survey of befuddled
] volunteers.
]
] Doziness, lethargy and an increasing inability to focus
] reached "startling" levels in the trials by 1,100 people,
] who also demonstrated that emails in particular have an
] addictive, drug-like grip.

I don't know if I'd agree that it's causing a drop in my intelligence level, but I absolutely agree that the constant distractions have a negative effect on my own productivity. Even when I try to get disciplined and turn off IMs and minimize my email apps, I find that after about 10-15 minutes of "work", I get an overwhelming urge to peek back at my email queue to see if anything new has come in.

On the other hand, I know that I *am* still very productive, and I get an enormous quantity of things done, which I could not do as quickly if I were isolated in a rustic unwired mountain cabin somewhere -- my connection to cyberspace enables a very rapid flow of information and fact-checking which speeds many other processes. But I've found that the *kind* of work I tend to gravitate to, is the work which gives me quick feedback on how I'm doing. Like talking to customers, or making a webpage change where I can watch the hit counter, or compiling a program and checking if it has any errors. If it's more isolated work (like editing a lengthy document), I find it less satisfying since I can't plug into that immediate gratification loop. And I find myself pushing projects like that to the side, unless I go into a very obsessive tunnel-vision "Don't talk to me until I'm done with this project" mode. The kind where I forget food and sleep, and I ignore friends who are trying to contact me. :/

Emails 'pose threat to IQ'

] The full-featured professional genealogy program that
] helps you track, organize, print, and share your family
] history. Includes sourcing, reports, merging, To Do list,
] slide shows, multimedia, Web pages, spell checking,
] import and export and much more. And, it's free!

I've been doing a whole lot of family tree sleuthing lately. This app is free, easy to use, comprehensive, and easy to download and install. The more I've been playing with it, the more cool options and features I've been finding. Recommended.

Legacy Family Tree Software

] Los Angeles, CA, Apr. 20 (UPI) -- Ian McKellen and Alfred
] Molina are joining the cast of director Ron Howard's
] adaptation of "The Da Vinci Code," Daily Variety reported
] Wednesday.
]
] Brian Grazer and John Calley are producing the Sony
] Pictures Entertainment project, from Akiva Goldsman's
] adaptation of Dan Brown's best-selling novel. Goldsman
] won an Oscar for his adapted screenplay for Howard's "A
] Beautiful Mind."
]
] McKellen will play a wealthy benefactor who helps Harvard
] symbologist Robert Langdon (Tom Hanks) but has his own
] designs on acquiring the Holy Grail. Molina will play
] Bishop Arigarosa. The cast also includes Audrey Tautou
] and Jean Reno.
]
] Production is scheduled to begin in June, with plans for
] a May 2006 release.

Ron Howard, Gandalf, Jesus, codes, and sex. Yum. :)

Ian McKellen joins cast of 'Da Vinci Code'

] About the year A.D. 1139, Saint Malachy O'Morgair,
] Archbishop of Armagh, Ireland, wrote down a list of
] Popes. He listed 112 future Popes, each described by a
] phrase in Latin.

For the pope after John Paul II, the prediction was "Gloria olivæ"

] Some say that this prediction of St. Malachy, "From the Glory
] of the Olive," refers to the Order of St. Benedict, because they
] have a well-known group within their order called
] the 'Olivetans.'

Which either means it's a really good prediction, or that Ratzinger knew about it and chose his name Benedict XVI accordingly, or that it's one of those weird coincidence things. :)

The next Pope on the list is the last one that Saint Malachy predicted: In persecutione extrema S.R.E. sedebit Petrus Romanus, qui pascet oves in multis tribulationibus: quibus transactis civitas septicollis diruetur, & Judex tremêdus judicabit populum suum. Finis.
(In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed, and the formidable Judge will judge his people. The End.)

More info here: http://www.catholic-pages.com/grabbag/malachy.asp

Prophecy: The Future and the Popes