A little pricey but definitely unique

Inflatable Church

] Beginning July 1, Tennessee motorcyclists can legally run
] red lights -- if they stop first and "exercise due care"
] -- under a bill signed into law by Gov. Phil Bredesen.
]
] Motorcyclists had complained they were forced to wait
] excessive periods of time at stop lights because sensors
] that control the lights did not recognize motorcycles,
] which are now made mostly of aluminum and fiberglass, not
] metal.

ajc.com | News | Law allowing motorcycles to run red lights effective July 1

] The Earth has become significantly greener over the past
] two decades, the result of climate changes that have
] furnished plants with more heat, light, water and carbon
] dioxide, according to a new Science magazine report.
]
] The overall plant bulk went up about 6 percent over much
] of the planet, with spikes in the tropics and high
] latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere accounting for 80
] percent of the gains, researchers said.

Good news. Too bad the rain forests continue to be clear-cut for live stock. :/

Laughing Boy

Climate changes making planet greener

]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.

Behold the power of cheese!

Cheese can be as addictive as morphine

] Joel Freedman grew upset at seeing lobsters, with rubber
] bands on their claws, piled atop one another in a
] supermarket tank. The animal-rights advocate figured it
] was time to make his anger known.
]
] Freedman bought a pound of scallops and, before anyone
] could intervene, lifted the tank lid and dumped them in.

What a waste of perfectly good scallops.

Yahoo! News - Man Feeds Lobsters at Supermarket

This is the funniest story of the day. The thief almost succeeded in a mid-air theft of 1.5 million pounds, but darn those baggae handlers.

Clumsy cargo handlers foil James-Bond-style heist

] NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of International Business
] Machines Corp. IBM.N were halted on Monday in
] over-the-counter trading, pending news.
]
] IBM said in a statement shortly after the halt it is the
] subject of an investigation by the U.S. Securities and
] Exchange Commission.
]
] It said the probe is related to revenue recognition in
] 2000 and 2001.

Stay tuned for more information about this. This could be very bad.

Reuters | Latest Financial News / Full News Coverage

Elonka wrote:
]My favorite of the Flash Cow "Mooovies". Do not watch with anyone ]under 18 -- unless you're ready to do a *lot* of explaining. ;)

That is just some funny stuff. Twisted, but funny.

(Not Safe for Work!) Flash Video - 'I'm A Cow'

]Elonka:
]For cat-lovers: 90 seconds of very funny cat-related home movies. ]About a 3 MB download.

That's good stuff.

Funny Cat Videos

The Kryptos sculpture at CIA Headquarters has 4 sections of code on it. The first three have been solved. In 1999 there was a big media splash as Jim Gillogly announced his solution, which had been obtained via a computer attack. Part 4 (the last 97 characters) is as yet unsolved.

I wish I could say that I'd solved Part 4, but I haven't (yet). What I *did* do this week though, was come up with a new solution technique for part 3 which I believe to be the "pencil and paper" method that the original authors of the sculpture intended to be used. It's a way of eyeballing the code, such that anyone with access to the ciphertext ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/national/daily/july99/kryptoscode19.htm ) could quickly make a grid and check the letters off to get the entire message. -- no elaborate mathematical formulae or number-crunchers required.

I've written to Gillogly and a couple other cryptographers to check my work. If anyone else would like to take a look in the meantime, I've got a page describing the technique which is posted at my Kryptos site:

Elonka's Solution to Part 3 of Kryptos