Scientists in Australia's tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile's immune system kills the HIV virus.

The crocodile's immune system is much more powerful than that of humans, preventing life-threatening infections after savage territorial fights which often leave the animals with gaping wounds and missing limbs.

However, the crocodile's immune system may be too powerful for humans and may need to be synthesized for human consumption.

"There is a lot of work to be done. It may take years before we can get to the stage where we have something to market," said Britton.

Crocodile blood may yield powerful new antibiotics | Reuters.com

A training device mistakenly left by a Secret Service contractor at a Washington hotel was the "suspicious package" that prompted a building evacuation Sunday afternoon, law enforcement sources said.

CNN.com - The 'suspicious package' that wasn't - Aug 15, 2005

Mayor Siegfried Hauppl has asked visitors to lay off the signs which began to attract outside attention after British and US soldiers passing through in 1945 illuminated the locals as to the English meaning of Fucking, Ananova reports.

Hauppl explained: "We had a vote last year on whether to rename the town, but decided to keep it as it is. After all, Fucking has existed for 800 years, probably when a Mr Fuck or the Fuck family moved into the area. The 'ing' was added as a word for settlement."

We reckon that Fucking has been around a lot longer than 800 years, otherwise there wouldn't have been any Fucks to lend their name to the village in the first place, would there?

Cummings GA, Fucking Austria.

There's a village in Austria...

bucy wrote:

Last time we saw The Legend of Zelda's Link in a proper console adventure was 2003's The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker. He was just a wee lad back then, barely taller than the shield he wore in the stellar Ocarina of Time. The elfin hero of Hyrule is coming back in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, and this time he's all grown up.

However, it's apparently taking Link a little longer to mature than expected. In what could be the most disappointing delay to fans rabid for a sequel since Bungie's Halo 2 was knocked back a few seasons, Nintendo today announced that the Twilight Princess will miss its original ship date of 2005's holiday season.

Not much more to the story than this. I've come to believe that the quality of videogames (like any other software, really) is directly proportional to the amount of testing that they undergo and the degree of interaction between the testers and the rest of the development cycle. I've played many games in which it was glaringly apparent that the developers cut corners on testing to hit a ship date and the gameplay was resultingly poor.

On the other hand, there were a number of occassions in Wind Waker where I managed to do something really weird and the game did something reasonable. And it made me smile because I could tell that it had been well-tested. So I wholeheartedly support this delay.

As long as the delay is for better testing I am all for it. I am looking forward to this next release. The feel of the game seems to have taken a darker turn. At least from the screenshots on the nintendo site.

RE: New Zelda won't see Twilight 'til 2006 - GameCube News at GameSpot

It is noteworthy that a combination of features as depicted on these morphed photographs is impossible to find in any of living people. A human face can be wrinkless if only it is a digitalized picture. There are no perfect eyebrows, eyes or lips either. One may thus conclude that the woman on this picture is an absolutely unnatural, albeit a beautiful individual. Natural beauty cannot compete with digital perfection: the latter always wins, although it does not exist in reality. The top five of the computer pageant was made of only digital pictures. Furthermore, 79 percent of original male faces and 70 percent of original female faces were described as "not pretty" or even "ugly."

Underestimating their own beauty, humans fall victims to glossy magazine covers

Have you ever rifled through your socks drawer to find only three socks. One green, one blue and the other yellow? Where did the other one go? Unfortunately these lonely socks are usually thrown away like a piece of rubbish. :(

We're all too embarrassed to walk into Marks and Spencer and ask for one sock. This is the true motivation behind the site. To reunite socks with their long lost partners.

Such a noble cause

Reuniting socks

Matthew McGrory, the 7-foot-plus actor who portrayed Karl the Giant
in 2003's Big Fish, died Tuesday at his home in Los Angeles. He
was 32.

McGrory also starred as Tiny Firefly in Rob Zombie's 2003 horror flick House of 1000 Corpses and its gory sequel, The Devil's Rejects, released last month.

Tiny is dead.

"Mom shouldn't we pick a place we should meet? If you aren't home should we goto the neighbor's house?..."

"There is no reason to not have a plan in case of a terrorist attack."

Quotes from that little piece of cinematic wonder. While at a friend's house tonight I saw this PSA air and just busted out laughing. Are we that scared of terrorists now? Ad Council page where the video is linked off of.

The Ad Council - Terrorist Attack

The other day while I was working in the yard my son urgently called to me. "Dad, a praying mantis caught a hummingbird!"

Awesome! The mantis totally speared a hummingbird and then ate it.

Praying Mantis Eats Hummingbird (Bird Watcher's Digest)

The carwhisperer project intends to sensibilise manufacturers of carkits and other Bluetooth appliances without display and keyboard for the possible security threat evolving from the use of standard passkeys.

...

Once the connection has been successfully established, the carwhisperer binary starts sending audio to, and recording audio from the headset. This allows attackers to inject audio data into the car. This could be fake
traffic announcements or nice words. Attackers are also able to eavesdrop conversations among people sitting in the car.

This could be fun. :)

trifinite.org - the home of the trifinite.group