Global climate changes could lead to violence

Posted on November 19, 2008  Leave a Comment

Global climate changes could lead to violence

A warmer planet could find itself more often at war.

The Earth’s fast-changing climate has a range of serious thinkers — from military brass to geographers to diplomats — predicting a spate of armed conflicts driven by the weather.

Shifting temperatures lead to shifting populations, they say, and that throws together groups with long-standing rivalries and thrusts them into competition for food and water.

“It’s not hard to imagine violent outbursts,” said Julianne Smith of the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Biggest in 600 Years

Posted on November 18, 2008  Leave a Comment

2004 Indian Ocean Tsunami Biggest in 600 Years

The tsunami that killed 230,000 people in 2004 was the biggest in the Indian Ocean in some 600 years, two new geological studies suggest.

That long gap might explain how enough geological stress built up to power the huge undersea earthquake that launched the killer waves four years ago, researchers said.

The work appears in Thursday’s issue of the journal Nature. Two research teams report that by digging pits and taking core samples in Thailand and northern Sumatra, they found evidence that the last comparably large tsunami struck between the years 1300 and 1400.

A copyright call to arms

Posted on November 16, 2008  Leave a Comment

A copyright call to arms

In the era of peer-to-peer file sharing, on-demand television and easy copying of video games and movies, Canadians often take for granted the availability and ease of using digital media. It’s hard not to: the sheer amount of digital content available online is astonishing. For many, the Web is a black box that provides us with what we want, when we want it.

But with a new session of parliament a week away, a host of proposed changes to copyright legislation threaten to tip the legal balance further in favour of those who sell and disseminate cultural content, rather than everyone who consumes it.

As one example, under legislation sponsored by the Conservatives in the last parliament Canadians could be fined $500 for the downloaded songs on their computer. Thanks to our existing laws, no Canadians have been taken to court for downloading music, but, as customers, we have suffered from increasingly invasive measures taken by those who hold the rights to digital material. Companies aim to limit how many times we can install a song or piece of software, check to ensure that our music was purchased legally and may even track the websites we visit.

20 of the World’s Weirdest Endangered Species

Posted on November 15, 2008  Leave a Comment

20 of the World’s Weirdest Endangered Species

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The ugly redheaded stepchildren of the animal kingdom don’t get much attention compared to the perennial endangered animal favorites like pandas, polar bears, and owls. These are the cute, majestic, and otherwise emblematic creatures of the endangered species list. But there are hundreds more animal species on our wondrous planet that are critically threatened and need both publicity and support. From bats the size of bees to poison-slinging mammals, lizards that don’t eat for a decade to seals with giant inflatable faces, here are the 25 strangest, most bizarre, unusual and important endangered species living on the “EDGE” (Evolutionarily Distinct & Globally Endangered).

Angler Fish

Some guys just can’t catch a break. The male angler fish is 1/20th the size of the female angler fish. The huge, traumatizingly ugly spiny fish with the glowing “fishing rod” lure you saw in Finding Nemo? That’s the female. The male is that tiny little blob attached to his horrific goddess that you never noticed. He burrows in with his teeth and she “feeds” him ex-utero style until he eventually loses his eyeballs, then internal organs and finally his life. By then, she’s got his sperm so it doesn’t matter. Anglers are deep-sea fish, but that doesn’t mean they’re safe from threat.

Treasury predicts huge government borrowing needs

Posted on November 15, 2008  Leave a Comment

Treasury predicts huge government borrowing needs

The financial rescue operation will force the federal government to borrow an unprecedented amount of money as the budget deficit climbs to record heights, a top Treasury Department official said Tuesday.

Anthony Ryan, Treasury’s acting undersecretary for domestic finance, said the administration back in July was forecasting that the deficit for the current budget year, which began on Oct. 1, would hit a record $482 billion. He said that forecast did not include all the government’s efforts since then to deal with the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.

“This year’s financing needs will be unprecedented,” with all the rescue programs now in place, Ryan said.

Classmates.com User Sues

Posted on November 15, 2008  Leave a Comment

Classmates.com User Sues; Schoolmates Weren\’t Really Looking for Him

When Classmates.com told user Anthony Michaels last Christmas Eve that his former school chums were trying to contact him, he pulled out his wallet and upgraded to the premium membership that would let him contact long-lost fifth-grade dodge-ball buddies and see if his secret crush from high school had looked him up online.

But once he\’d parted with the $15, Michaels learned the shocking truth: No one he knew was trying to contact him at all. Classmates.com\’s come-on was a lie, and he\’d been scammed.

At least that\’s what the San Diego resident alleges in a lawsuit (.pdf) filed against one of the net\’s original social networking sites, whose banner ads featuring unflattering yearbook pictures remain a staple around the internet. If the lawsuit, which is seeking class action status, succeeds, it could raise the minimum standards of honesty for online businesses.

War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production

Posted on November 13, 2008  Leave a Comment

War and Social Upheaval Cause Spikes in Zombie Movie Production

There’s been a huge spike in the production of zombie movies lately, and many of them seem to be inspired by war. Everything from 28 Days Later to Zombie Strippers make explicit reference to wartime, as did seminal 1968 zombie flick Night of the Living Dead. Is there really a connection between zombie movies and social unrest? We decided to do some research and find out. The result? We’ve got a line graph showing the number of zombie movies coming out in the West each year since 1910 — and there are definite spikes during certain years, which always seem to happen eerily close to historical events involving war or social upheaval.

Mostly we’ve focused on movies from the U.S. and Europe, and we’ve included the living dead among zombies — so mummies are included, but vampires and ghosts aren’t. Obviously as you look at this chart, you have to correct somewhat for the fact that more movies are being made as we get closer to the present, and (more importantly) there are better records of those movies with better tagging. So it’s easier to research movies with zombies in them if you’re looking at productions from the 1980s onward. In addition, there’s been a huge boom in indie and low-budget horror movies over the past ten years, and that undoubtedly accounts somewhat for the giant spike you see during the last 8 years or so.

Drinking alcohol occasionally when pregnant ‘does no harm’

Posted on November 11, 2008  Leave a Comment

Drinking alcohol occasionally when pregnant ‘does no harm’

Women who drink alcohol occasionally during pregnancy do not harm their unborn babies – in fact their children may even benefit, a large study suggests.

Research involving more than 12,000 children showed that mothers who drank lightly during pregnancy – defined as one to two units, or a single drink a week – did not increase the risk of having babies with mental impairment or behavioural problems.

Rather, children born to light drinkers were found to be less likely to have problems and performed better in some tests compared with offspring of mothers who did not drink at all.

Space Xuttle - Flash Game

Posted on November 10, 2008  Leave a Comment

Space Xuttle - Flash Game

Fly your space ship over a distant planet and collect fuel cells to stay afloat without crashing.

Calculating the Cost of Wall Street’s Rescue

Posted on November 9, 2008  Leave a Comment

A Billion Here, A Trillion There: Calculating the Cost of Wall Street’s Rescue

Consider the numbers: $29 billion for the Bear Stearns mess; $700 billion to buy spoiled assets; $200 billion to buy stock in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac; an $85 billion loan to AIG insurance; another $37.8 billion for AIG; and $250 billion for bank stocks. Hundreds of billions in guarantees to back up money market funds and to guarantee bank deposits. And who knows what expenses are still to come.

All this financial rescue spending recalls the quote attributed to the late Sen. Everett Dirksen: “A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”

Today, substitute trillion.

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