] Investigators into the space shuttle Columbia accident
] said Thursday that they have uncovered flaws in the
] shuttle's system of explosive bolts that could do
] catastrophic damage to the remaining spacecraft.

*sigh* so much for flights resuming this year. :(

USATODAY.com - Inquiry finds new threat to shuttles

Quick story:
Get some scientists, throw them in a boat. Make them go out 500mi east of New England and dive to deep coral reefs to study ancient weather patterns. (+ fun pretty pictures and swimming robots)

Detailed story:
The hypothesis states that the cyclical (over many many years) movement of the deep North Atlantic causes dramatic weather changes affecting the entire planet. To test the theory coral in the north atlantic will be sampled to reconstuct past weather conditions.

A fundemental problem in the understanding Earth's weather pattern is the movement of deep ocean currents. Specifically it seems (http://www.meteor.iastate.edu/gccourse/alumni/ocean/ocean.html) that the movement of warm north atlantic water down to the equator acts like a meteorilogical "engine" driving climate change. But very little is known about the "engine" part.

The New England Seamount is a large ridge in the middle of the atlantic ocean. It rises steeply out of the sea floor and is direct line with these north atlantic ocean currents. By studying the composition of the coral rock scientists are able to backsolve and figure out what ancient weather was like.

DIVE AND DISCOVER: Expeditions to the Seafloor

The ones you cry because you are watching a frail but spirited Ray Bradbury sing the praises of his longtime friend Ray Harryhausen as the latter gets a star placed on Hollywood Blvd.

The crowd was small, but packed with people from every creative part of the film industry. Forrest J. Ackerman, Rick Baker, James Cameron and animation guys of every stripe cheered as Ray's movies were listed.

The most fun was telling people wandering by what was going on...although few people knew him by name, almost everyone of every age remembered Sinbad's skeletons.

Frank Darabont (director of Shawshank Redemption and Green Mile)told a story about asking Tom Hanks why he had wanted to become an actor. Tom replied that as a boy, when he saw Sinbad fighting those skeletons he knew that was exactly what he wanted to grow up and do.

Ray H. looks strong ang robust and it was a great event.

What Are Real Geek Tears?

A good interview with a good musician, albeit one that is only admired by the dregs of society, like hackers! Lesbians! Lesbian hackers!

Excerpt:
In "Serpentine" you say, "I've been around the world now/ and I can say this about America:/ The mind control is steep here/ the myopia is deep here." What do you mean by mind control in that song?

I'm not really that well traveled. I've just been a few places. I exaggerate. I form big opinions based upon small bits of knowledge. [Laughs.] One thing that is great about traveling so much is learning about where you come from. We all speak from our own perspectives, but I think the American tendency is to be very ethnocentric. I began to experience it as a kid growing up, learning history from the perspective of the elite ruling class. As I travel around, I've begun to realize that there's a way of looking at it where America is a pretty big evil empire that is trying to carry out an imperialist program in the world. And we're becoming very hated and we have very little awareness of it because we're so saturated with corporate propaganda. I keep trying to explain to people outside America, "No, we're not all evil. We're just ignorant."

At least she doesn't have to worry about the radio stations not playing her music because of this interview, since Clear Channel stations don't normally play her music at all...

Salon Interview with Ani DiFranco

] A lottery winner who scooped a jackpot worth almost £2
] million has failed to come forward in time to claim the
] life-changing prize.
]
] A luckless south Wales winner missed last night's 11pm
] final deadline, despite efforts over six months to trace
] the owner of the winning ticket.

This story shortly to be followed by a suicide report somewhere in south Wales.

Of all the dumb luck...

Ananova - Lottery jackpot winner misses deadline

] Ikea has apologised after accidentally naming a child's
] bunk bed after an obscene German expression.
]
] The Swedish firm didn't realise the problem until after
] the £110 bed went on sale across Europe.
]
] The wooden bed is called the "Gutvik" which means "Good
] f***" in German.

Why market research is so important.

Ananova - Ikea's new bed shares name with German obscenity

] More than 7,000 people have taken part in Spencer
] Tunick's largest nude art installation to date - a sea of
] bodies stretching across a Barcelona street.

You just have to see it. People are a lot of funny colors.

Ananova - 7,000 pose for nude art installation

Laughing Boy wrote:
] ]An American doctor has claimed that cheese can be as
] addictive as
] ]morphine.
]
] ]Dr Neal Barnard, president of the Physicians Committee on
] ]Responsible Medicine, says cheese is addictive because it
] contains
] ]small amounts of morphine from cows' liver.
]
]
] THATS IT! Thats what was wrong with the cheese-heads I lived
] among in Wisconsin - they were all morphine addicts! And here
] I just thought they were inbred morons.
]
] Laughing Boy

Hey, I LIKE cheese. A lot.

[Hey man, know where I could score some gruyere? Aw, come on, just a little brie won't hurt...]

RE: Cheese can be as addictive as morphine

Does the inflatable pub come with inflatable beer?

Inflatable Church

] Wired magazine is planning to publish the underlying code
] for the Slammer worm that slowed Internet traffic to a
] crawl in January, raising questions over whether such
] articles inspire future hackers or educate potential
] victims.

Do they really think that anyone who wants access to the code can't get it?

Wired magazine story to detail Slammer Web attack