UNCONVENTIONAL WORLD RECORDS

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full story at af.mil

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somebody commented: i cant wait to see what’s displayed on the top shelf at the newsagent’s…….

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Cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens.

The firm says the low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers’ attention as they move along the aisle.

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Courtesy of TechWeb News

By Gregg Keizer

For the second time in three months, the Mozilla Foundation-sponsored marketing site for the popular Firefox browser was hacked by unknown intruders. This time, a notice on the now-down site says that SpreadFirefox.com won’t be up and running again until Oct. 15.

In a message to users, the Spread Firefox team said that hackers broke into its servers using a vulnerability in Twiki — open-source software for creating a structured Wiki — which was installed, but not in use, on those servers.

The team didn’t believe any sensitive data was hijacked, but to be on the safe side, the site has been taken offline, and is being completely rebuilt. The group also recommended that SpreadFirefox.com registered users change their password once the site is back up.

Spread Firefox was last hacked in July; in that instance, the site was also taken offline, although only for approximately three days.

“After Spread Firefox was compromised in July, we instituted procedures to ensure that we apply all security fixes to the software running the site as soon as they become available,” said the Spread Firefox team in its message. “Unfortunately, those procedures overlooked the installation of the TWiki software since it is not used by the main Spread Firefox site. When the system is rebuilt, all the software will be audited to ensure that security updates will be applied in a timely manner. We deeply regret this incident and any inconvenience this may have caused you.”

The Spread Firefox team also said that the hack didn’t affect the primary Mozilla Web site, or any of the Mozilla software. It was, however, yet one more embarrassment to the open-source organization, which has long touted its Firefox browser as a more secure alterative to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer.

As in the July incident, a few anti-Microsoft conspiracy enthusiasts quickly blamed Firefox’s rival. One poster, identified only as “tfg,” wrote on the mozillaZine blog that “I blame the MS employees seeing the 96% domination of IE dropping to FF! You’ve just got to hope they’re using IE and haven’t disabled activex controls, vengeance shall be thine!”

But cooler heads responded. A follow-up comment, posted by “Kelson,” noted that “Some people don’t care who they attack. Some only care how high-profile the target is. I wouldn’t be surprised if these people were Firefox users themselves.”

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can feel that messers Abramovich, Gerrard and Rio Ferdinand wont be too pleased…

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FIFA president Sepp Blatter has vowed to stop ‘greed ruling the world of football’ and launched a blistering attack on hugely-wealthy club owners he claims are threatening the future of football.

In an astonishing column in the Financial Times, the FIFA president says the ‘pornographic amounts of money’ being thrown around by some club owners could suffocate the game.

Blatter insists a new FIFA task force set up to deal with corruption and multiple ownership issues will deal with the excesses.

Excerpts:

A fortunate few clubs are richer than ever before. What makes this a matter of concern is that, all too often, the source of this wealth is individuals with little or no history of interest in the game, who have happened upon football as a means of serving some hidden agenda.

Having set foot in the sport seemingly out of nowhere, they proceed to throw pornographic amounts of money at it. What they do not understand is that football is more about grass-roots than idols; more about giving entertainment and hope to the many than bogus popularity to a predictable few; more about respecting others than sating individual greed, whether for adulation or money.

This cannot be the future of our game. FIFA cannot sit by and see greed rule the football world. Nor shall we.

The time has come to take action to curb the excesses and ensure that the sport protects its roots.

If nothing is done, this new money could suffocate a sport that has no fewer than 1.3 billion active followers around the world.

The professional game is now shot through with practices that, at best, expose the ugly side of club football and, at worst, threaten its very existence.

The practice, in Latin America especially, of speculators buying the commercial rights to promising child players is unacceptable and a new form of slavery.

Equally unacceptable are the sort of wage negotiations that can produce the spectacle of semi-educated, sometimes foul-mouthed, players on ?100,000 a week holding clubs to ransom until they get, say, ?120,000.

More often than not, these players are guided in these endeavours by unsavoury agents.

It is simply insane for any player to ‘earn’ ?6 million – ?8 million a year when the annual budget of even a club competing in the UEFA Champions League may be less than half that. What logic, right or economic necessity would qualify a man in his mid-20s to demand to earn in a month a sum that his own father – and the majority of fans – could not hope to earn in a decade?

Unlimited cash has given a handful of club owners the wherewithal to control the global club game by splashing unimaginable sums on a tiny group of elite players. More than ever before, the majority are fighting with spears, while the greedy few have the financial equivalent of nuclear warheads.

No wonder empty seats in stadiums and saturation live television coverage of matches have become issues. What is interesting about a league whose champions can be predicted with confidence after about five games?

Why is it good for football to take the excitement away from fans by overcharging them for tickets to see ‘their’ team? And is it really still ‘their’ team when one club in England has a squad with 19 nationalities?

What we are faced with today is a football society of haves and have nots.”

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as reported by the star, 10th oct.

Jilted Singaporean teen goes on sex binge

A HEARTBROKEN teenager in Singapore had had sex with 60 strangers in the past eight months after her boyfriend dumped her, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The 17-year-old girl did it to get even with her boyfriend, after he met another girl online.

The jilted teenager, too, found her men on the Net by posting her photos, personal particulars and the type of man she was looking for.

The daily said the teenager would charge S$150 (RM360) for each sexual service and, sometimes, even gave it free to men she liked.

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A Brazilian second string side, without eight top players, should be still too strong for Bolivia. It has the following line up (my selection):

1 Julio Cesar (Inter Milan)
2 Luisao (Benfica),
3 Lucio (Bayern Munich),
4 Roque Junior (Bayer Leverkusen)
5 Renato (Sevilla)
6 Gilberto Silva (Arsenal)
7 Juninho Pernambucano (Olympique Lyon)
8 Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich)
9 Julio Baptista (Real Madrid)
10 Robinho (Real Madrid)
11 Adriano (Inter Milan)

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TERESOPOLIS, Brazil, Oct 7 (Reuters) – Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Roberto Carlos, Cafu and Kaka will be among eight players rested by world champions Brazil for Sunday’s World Cup qualifier away to Bolivia.

Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira announced on Thursday that Brazil, who have already made sure of their place in Germany, would also leave goalkeeper Dida, defender Juan and midfielder Emerson at home for the game.

‘We will take the chance to observe some players who haven’t been playing and will now get the chance to show what they can do,’ Parreira said.

‘Despite the game being at altitude, I’m confident that this team will put on a good performance and can win the game.’

Parreira added that Brazil, who are second in the 10-nation South American World Cup qualifying group with 30 points from 16 games, could still overhaul arch-rivals Argentina, who are one point ahead.

‘Brazil must always think about being first, for our ego, for our position in world football,’ he said. ‘We have to win our last two games and hope that Argentina slip up.’

Brazil complete their programme at home to Venezuela in Belem on Wednesday.

Goalkeepers: Julio Cesar (Inter Milan), Gomes (PSV Eindhoven)

Defenders: Cicinho (Sao Paulo), Gustavo Nery (Corinthians), Luisao (Benfica), Lucio (Bayern Munich), Roque Junior (Bayer Leverkusen)

Midfielders: Renato (Sevilla), Gilberto Silva (Arsenal), Gilberto (Hertha Berlin), Juninho Pernambucano (Olympique Lyon), Ze Roberto (Bayern Munich), Julio Baptista (Real Madrid), Ricardinho (Santos), Alex (Fenerbahce)

Forwards: Robinho (Real Madrid), Ricardo Oliveira (Betis), Adriano (Inter Milan)

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original story from /., which referred to zdnet.com’s report.

…a recent outage between Level 3 Communications and Cogent Communication. A business feud inadvertently highlighted the fragility of the Internet’s skeleton. From the article: “In theory, this kind of blackout is precisely the kind of problem the Internet was designed to withstand. The complicated, interlocking nature of networks means that data traffic is supposed to be able to find an alternate route to its destination, even if a critical link is broken. In practice, obscure contract disputes between the big network companies can make all these redundancies moot. At issue is a type of network connection called ‘peering.’ Most of the biggest network companies, such as AT&T, Sprint and MCI, as well as companies including Cogent and Level 3, strike “peering agreements” in which they agree to establish direct connections between their networks. “

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pic and news courtesy of bbc.co.uk

Two hackers have been jailed for helping to create a virus that infected thousands of computers worldwide.

Andrew Harvey, 24, of Sherburn Village, Co Durham, was jailed for three months, and Jordan Bradley, 22, of Darlington, was jailed for six months, on Friday.

The men admitted a conspiracy charge in May this year for their part in creating what was called the T-K Worm.

It used internet chat channels to infect other computers which then gave the hackers control of them.

They were arrested in 2003 after a joint investigation by hi-tech crime officers in Britain and the US.

The men, who did not benefit financially from their actions, were part of a group called the “Threat Krew “.

Newcastle Crown Court heard how one police computer became infected with the worm and spread it to 19,000 other computers in two weeks.

Harvey, of Meldon Avenue, Sherburn Village, and Bradley, of Bates Avenue, Darlington, admitted conspiracy to cause unauthorised modification of computers with intent between 31 December 2001 and 7 February 2003.

The arrests were witnessed by officers from the US Computer and Technology Crime Hi-tech team which flew in from southern California.

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Either the story is amazing or the storyteller is amazing, or both. This is the kind of news story that will grip me vice-like.

from yahoo.com

By Ching-Ching Ni Times Staff Writer Thu Oct 6

[this is the first part of the story, you can call it a summary of the whole deal. For full story, read the yahoo link above]

YELLOW SHEEP RIVER, China ? This village on the edge of the Gobi desert entered the 21st century much as it had the previous one, with yellow sand blanketing the mountains and poor farmers sharing their mud huts with cows, donkeys and pigs.

No homes had running water. No shops sold clothes, just bundles of fabric to be sewn into shirts and pants. Donkey carts plied the dusty main street, rarely troubled by the rumble of a motor.

No one in this forgotten section of northwestern China seemed to realize that the nation’s east coast was booming or that dot-coms were changing the world. But then, out of the blue, came an idea ? and a multimillionaire ? that promised to bring prosperity here.

High-tech entrepreneur Sayling Wen heard about the village and decided that by harnessing the power of computers, he could beam its 30,000 inhabitants into the Information Age economy.

Never mind that the Taiwanese tycoon had never laid eyes on the place. He would turn Yellow Sheep River into China’s first “Internet village.”

“The plan seemed unthinkable, like jade falling from the sky,” said local Communist Party secretary Zhang Xusheng.

Wen donated 100 new computers and arranged for teachers to be trained. He believed that by teaching computer basics to schoolkids, he could quickly develop a labor force to perform simple tasks for Western high-tech firms looking to outsource work.

Next he began building a $50-million, 140-room hotel and convention center in the village, with high-speed Internet connections, state-of-the-art meeting rooms, swimming pool, sauna and even a stable for horse- and camel-back riding.

Wen planned to have villagers staff the hotel, and would invite tech-savvy workers from China’s east to train others. High-tech executives could use it as an exotic conference locale, and meet Yellow Sheep River’s labor pool. The project would spawn more development.

Just as things were looking up, Wen dropped dead.

Now the people of Yellow Sheep River are at a crossroads, unsure how to move forward without their visionary leader, unwilling to go back to their old way of life.

“Just like Mr. Wen used to say, we are a bunch of lonely soldiers,” said Chen Ming, the hotel’s manager. “All we can do now is press on.”

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soccernet.com report

Wayne Rooney insists he has matured since joining Manchester United.

The ?27million star has shown flashes of his fiery nature in recent times and is currently suspended for both club and country following his Champions League dismissal in Villarreal and his booking in last month’s World Cup defeat to Northern Ireland.

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Apart from i-bands.net, Bode hangs out here: http://forum.jamtank.com/
Eggs registered already, http://studiorocks.com (thanks lumandai)

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rich enough to pay the USD20 million ‘fare’

PhD in materials science
holds 12 patents, incl infrared camera

company
bio

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