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Final Fanstasy XI Gamers Fall Ill Attempting to Defeat Extremely Difficult Enemy
Introduced in the game's latest downloadable update, the boss monster "Pandemonium Warden" remained perfectly fit after a group of high-level adventurers wailed away at it nonstop for over 18 hours straight.
"People were passing out and getting physically ill," leaders of the player guild said in a forum post. "We decided to end it before we risked turning into a horrible news story about how video games ruin people's lives."
Too late.
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Are Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games truly destructive to people's lives? Introduced in the game's latest downloadable update, the boss monster "Pandemonium Warden" remained perfectly fit after... more -
AP: Joe Lieberman is a Prick
A little bit of rare, accidental truth from the Associated Press.
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Bad Typo: Joe Lieberman a Real #%&*!
By E&P Staff
Published: August 19, 2008 7:55 AM ET
NEW YORK One of the most amusing typos of the season turned up for awhile overnight in a major Associated Press dispatch. Some in the liberal blogosphere, who have often criticized Sen. Joe Lieberman -- the Democrat turned Independent who has endorsed John McCain -- found it all too apt.
The typo, in an article on the upcoming vice presidential picks due from McCain and Barack Obama and written by one of the top AP political scribes, Nedra Pickler, was soon corrected but can still be found viewed via Google at numerous news sites early this morning.
After focusing on Obama, the article discusses several possible McCain picks, and relates, "His top contenders are said to include Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney. Less traditional choices mentioned include former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, an abortion-rights supporter, and Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Democratic vice presidential prick in 2000 who now is an independent."
It's still up at such sites as the Houston Chronicle, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Cleveland's Plain Dealer and many more. A little bit of rare, accidental truth from the Associated Press. ... more -
Katrina Caretaker Charged with Kidnapping
HOUSTON - A woman who took in a family recovering from Hurricane Katrina was arrested and charged with kidnapping Thursday after authorities said she refused to return five children to their mother and went on the run with them for a month.
The caretaker, Rhonda Tavey, 44, gave up the children voluntarily after negotiations with authorities and was being taken to the Harris County jail in Houston. Her attorney, Dick DeGeurin, said she was arrested by the FBI while on her way to his office.
The children, ages 3 to 8, are in the custody of Child Protective Services and will be held until the agency can determine whether it is safe for them to return to their mother, said spokeswoman Estella Olguin.
-By ANA LEY, Associated Press Writer HOUSTON - A woman who took in a family recovering from Hurricane Katrina was arrested and charged with kidnapping Thursday after autho... more -
Perfect 16 the new Perfect 10.....
BEIJING (AP)—Turns out, the perfect 10 wasn’t so perfect.
At least not in the minds of international gymnastics officials.
Four years after a series of scoring errors marred the competition at the Athens Olympics, fans who tune into gymnastics once every four years are in for a big shock Saturday. The perfect 10 is passe. Fifteens, 16s—maybe even a, gasp! 17—are all the rage.
“I hate the new scoring,” said Mary Lou Retton, whose Olympic gold medal came courtesy of a 10 on vault. “The perfect 10, you don’t have to say anything to describe it. The perfect 10, you were perfect.”
Even more than the 6.0 in figure skating, the 10 was gymnastics’ brand. Think of Nadia Comaneci, and you immediately think of that mesmerizing string of seven 10s in Montreal. Somehow, seven 15s doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
Regardless of whether you knew a pommel horse from a pony, it wasn’t hard to figure out if a routine was good or bad. Start at 10 and count backward. The closer to 10, the better the routine. The further away, the less chance somebody’s getting a medal.
“I thought they were crazy,” Bela Karolyi said of the new scoring system. “Why? Why is it needed? It attracted so much attention. The perfect 10 was something that was cherished.
“I thought it was crazy to take it out, a humongous waste. I still feel that kind of in this way, maybe selfishly.”
But the 10 returned to its pre-Comaneci mythical status after the 1992 Olympics, with none awarded afterward in international competition. That meant judges had to get creative when it came to separating the world’s best gymnasts, with only so many tenths and hundredths of points to spread around.
That flaw in the perfect 10 was glaringly apparent in Athens, when scoring errors left fans and athletes alike unhappy. The men’s high bar, vault and all-around all had issues, and the International Gymnastics Federation finally decided it had had enough.
“Something needed to be done to try and make it more fair,” Retton acknowledged.
The FIG’s solution was an open-ended scoring system. Unlike the 10-point scale, where evaluations of artistry and difficulty had to be jammed together, each now gets its own space and, theoretically at least, there is no limit on how high a gymnast can go.
The first score, the difficulty mark, measures how hard the routine is. Starting from zero, the values of the 10 hardest tricks in a routine are added together. The harder the routine, the higher the difficulty score will be.
The second mark is for execution. Starting from 10—the FIG’s way of claiming the 10 still exists—deductions are taken for errors big (wobbles) and small (bobbles).
“I’m always thinking about that. You can still strive for perfection in the B score,” Nastia Liukin said. “I’m always thinking how to get closer to a 10 on that part.”
Put the two together, and that’s the final score.
Depending on the event, scores at the Beijing Games should range from the high 14s to the high 16s. Oh sure, there’ll be some 13s thrown out there, maybe even an 11 if someone really struggles.
But see a 16, and you know somebody is doing something right. See a 17, and you’ll have seen something really special; there have only been a handful awarded in the three years the scoring system has been used.
******More at the LINK BEIJING (AP)—Turns out, the perfect 10 wasn’t so perfect. At least not in the minds of international gymnastics officials. ... more -
1,900 year old chariot discovered In Bulgaria
Daniela Agre said her team found the four-wheel chariot during excavations near the village of Borisovo, around 180 miles east of the capital, Sofia.
"This is the first time that we have found a completely preserved chariot in Bulgaria," said Agre, a senior archaeologist at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences.
She said previous excavations had only unearthed single parts of chariots — often because ancients sites had been looted.
In a separate pit, they unearthed skeletons of two riding horses apparently sacrificed during the funeral of the nobleman, along with well preserved bronze and leather objects, some believed to horse harnesses.
Some 10,000 Thracian mounds — some of them covering monumental stone tombs — are scattered across Bulgaria.
-VESELIN TOSHKOV, Associated Press Writer
Interesting find. I wonder what this will tell us about the history of the Thracian people.. Daniela Agre said her team found the four-wheel chariot during excavations near the village of Borisovo, around 180 miles east of the ... more -
Bush Ok's Execution of Army Inmate
President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private, the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirmed a death sentence for a member of the U.S. military.
With his signature from the Oval Office, Bush said yes to the military's request to execute Ronald A. Gray, the White House confirmed. Gray had had been convicted in connection with a spree of four murders and eight rapes in the Fayetteville, N.C., area over eight months in the late 1980s while stationed at Fort Bragg.
Unlike in the civilian courts, a member of the U.S. armed forces cannot be executed until the president approves the death sentence. Gray has been on death row at the U.S. Disciplinary Barracks at Fort Leavenworth, Kan., since April 1988.
-Associated Press Writer Martha Waggoner in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report. President Bush on Monday approved the execution of an Army private, the first time in over a half-century that a president has affirme... more -
Vegetables attack !!! Salmonella Poisoning
Oh my God! We don't know where its coming from !!!
It's tomatoes .... no its.... peppers.... wait.....
Don't eat vegetables !!! Hysteria !!! Panic !!! Kill the plants before they kill us !!!
More than 1,000 people now have become ill from salmonella initially linked to raw tomatoes, a sobering milestone Wednesday that makes this the worst foodborne outbreak in at least a decade. Adding to the confusion, the government is warning certain people to avoid types of hot peppers, too.
But people at highest risk of severe illness from salmonella also should not eat raw jalapeno and serrano peppers, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention urged Wednesday. The most vulnerable are the elderly, people with weak immune systems and infants.
Perhaps there was some truth in that move "The Happening".
CDC food safety chief Dr. Robert Tauxe told The Associated Press:
“We are quite sure that neither tomatoes nor jalapenos explain the entire outbreak at this point. ... We’re presuming that both of them have caused illness.”Tauxe said. “But we really are working as hard and as fast as we can to sort out this complicated situation and protect the health of the American people.”
Added FDA food safety chief Dr. David Acheson: “It’s just been a spectacularly complicated and prolonged outbreak.”
The outbreak isn’t over, or even showing any sign of slowing, said Tauxe — with about 25 to 40 cases being a reported a day for weeks now, to a total of 1,017 known since the outbreak began on April 10.
Illnesses now have been reported in 41 states — and even four cases in Canada, although three of those people are believed to have been infected while traveling in the U.S. and the fourth is still being probed. Oh my God! We don't know where its coming from !!! It's tomatoes .... no its.... peppers.... wait..... ... more -
Russia warns of retaliation after Prague signs US 'star wars' pact
Dmitry Medvedev today warned Russia may take retaliatory steps after being "extremely upset" by a US defence pact with the Czech Republic.
The Russian president reacted angrily yesterday after the Bush administration capped a five-year campaign to extend its controversial "star wars" missile shield project from the US to Europe by signing a deal to build a radar station south of Prague.
The first formal agreement between the US and central Europe on the defence scheme instantly prompted threats from Moscow that it would retaliate militarily if the agreement is ratified.
Speaking at a news conference at the G8 summit in Japan, Medvedev said Russia was still open to talks with the US.
"We will not be hysterical about this but we will think of retaliatory steps ... We are not closed to further negotiations and we will continue these.
"It is completely obvious that, after the signing of the agreement a new stage in implementing the idea of the missile shield has started. We are extremely upset by this situation".
(End of excerpt)
Full story at link by Ian Traynor, Europe editor, and Angela Balakrishnan// guardian.co.uk
Photo: AP Dmitry Medvedev today warned Russia may take retaliatory steps after being "extremely upset" by a US defence pact with the C... more -
Scholars make finds in Nazi archive
From prison brothels to slave labor camps, 15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository of millions of Nazi records, and hailed it as a rich vein of raw material that will deepen the study of the Holocaust.
It was the first concentrated academic sweep of the long-private archive administered by the International Tracing Service since it opened its doors last November to Holocaust survivors, victims’ relatives and historical researchers.
German historian Christel Trouve said the nameless millions of forced laborers began to take shape as individual people as she studied small labor camps - which existed in astonishing numbers.
Among the striking revelations was the identification of the man who rescued an 8-year-old boy in Buchenwald, Israel Meir Lau, who later became Israel's chief rabbi.
Lau said his rescuer was a person called Fyodor from Rostow. Kenneth Waltzer of Michigan State University found it was Fyodor Michajlitschenko, 18, arrested by the Gestapo in 1943, who gave the small boy ear warmers and treated him like a father in Block 8 until the camp's liberation.
Jessica Anderson Hughes of Rutgers University discovered that prostitutes servicing other prisoners in concentration camp brothels often came from ordinary backgrounds - exploding the myth that most had been prostitutes before their arrest.
Hughes said the lists in Bad Arolsen allowed her to attach names to the prisoner-prostitutes at Buchenwald, one of the largest concentration camps which had one of eight known brothels for prisoners.
With the names she could look up incarceration records and she found some women were married, some single, some were mothers. The records said many were arrested for petty theft or other minor crime.
"We always portrayed them as volunteers, but I wanted to know why they volunteered," she said. She believed the prostitutes faced "a choiceless choice."
The opening of the files to scholars followed pressure from survivors and from the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum. The importance of the archive was highlighted in a series of stories by AP, which was the first news organization to be granted extensive access to the long-restricted papers.
The research project was organized jointly by the tracing service and the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, which brought scholars from six countries to begin assessing the significance of the archive, the largest collection of Nazi documents.
The 50 million pages stored in this central German spa town since the mid-1950s previously had been used by Red Cross staff to respond to inquiries about missing persons or the fate of family members, and later to document compensation claims.
With the population of survivors quickly shrinking, the 11 countries that govern the archive agreed in 2006 to widen access to the files. It took another 18 months for all 11 to ratify the required treaty amendments before the archive could open.
The gray metal shelves and cabinets contain 16 miles (25 kilometers) of transport lists, camp registries, medical records, forced labor files and death certificates of some 17.5 million people subjected to Nazi persecutions.
Taken together with written and oral testimonies and the transcripts of war crimes trials, the dry data at Bad Arolsen add texture to the known picture of the Holocaust, from the first concentration camps created within weeks of Hitler's rise to power in January 1933 to the defeat of Nazism in May 1945.
"I've been working on concentration camps for 15 years. We know there was forced laborers in Germany — millions of them," she said. "But then you go through these lists. You see the farmer employing so many people. You see the factory employing hundreds of people. Everything was blurred, but suddenly you have a clear image." From prison brothels to slave labor camps, 15 scholars concluded a two-week probe Thursday of an untapped repository of millions of Na... more -
What will the MDC pull-out mean for Zimbabwe?
Pulled from the BBC Website:
"The Zimbabwean opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai has taken refuge in its embassy in the capital Harare, hours after he pulled out of the presidential run-off. What do the latest development mean for Zimbabwe?
The Dutch government says Mr Tsvangirai spent the night at the embassy because of fears for his safety and was welcome to stay longer.
But it says the leader of the opposition Movement for Democratic Change has not sought asylum.
Shortly before the Dutch announcement, Zimbabwean police raided the MDC headquarters in Harare.
President Mugabe has accused the MDC of lying about political violence ahead of the presidential run-off.
Are you in Zimbabwe? How do you respond to the latest development? Is the MDC right to pull out of the election race? How should the world react?"
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BBC News online is allowing people to give thier opinions on the topic, and I thought it would be interesting to see what people on Current.com think about this. Pulled from the BBC Website: ... more -
More than 1M homeless from flooding in China
GUANGZHOU, China - Weeks of rain pushed rivers over their banks in southern China, killing at least 112 people, displacing more than 1.27 million and forcing some to huddle on rooftops Monday as the region braced for more downpours.
The deaths have been reported in 12 provinces, the Ministry of Civil Affairs said on its Web site on Tuesday. Raging rivers have collapsed tens of thousands of homes, damaged crops across more than two million acres and causing more than an estimated $1.5 billion in economic losses. GUANGZHOU, China - Weeks of rain pushed rivers over their banks in southern China, killing at least 112 people, displacing more than 1... more -
Obama camp sees possible win without Ohio, Fla
"Barack Obama's campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain states, but not necessarily the pair of battlegrounds that decided the last two elections — Florida and Ohio.
In a private pitch late last week to donors and former supporters of Hillary Rodham Clinton, Obama campaign manager David Plouffe outlined several alternatives to reaching the 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House that runs counter to the conventional wisdom of recent elections."
So what do you think? Is this a defense against possible voting fraud, or simply neglecting two powerhouse states? Ladies and gentlemen, start your comments... "Barack Obama's campaign envisions a path to the presidency that could include Virginia, Georgia and several Rocky Mountain ... more -
McCain urges end to ban on offshore drilling
With gasoline prices rising and the United States chronically dependent on foreign oil, the Republican presidential contender said his proposal would "be very helpful in the short term resolving our energy crisis."
McCain also suggested giving the states incentives, including a greater share of royalties paid by companies that drill for oil, as an incentive to permit exploration. With gasoline prices rising and the United States chronically dependent on foreign oil, the Republican presidential contender said his... more -
The Associated Press to set guidelines for using its articles in blogs
The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear standards as to how much of its articles and broadcasts bloggers and Web sites can excerpt without infringing on The A.P.’s copyright. The Associated Press, one of the nation’s largest news organizations, said that it will, for the first time, attempt to define clear s... more
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Techcrunch encourages bloggers to boycott AP stories
Techcrunch is encouraging bloggers and website owners to not mention any AP stories due to their latest restrictions.
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Oil rises more than $11 to record high
NEW YORK - Oil prices made their biggest single-day leap ever Friday — clearing $139, dragging the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 400 points and raising the once-unthinkable prospect of $150 oil and even higher gas prices by the Fourth of July.
The meteoric rise of nearly $11 for the day piled atop an increase of almost $5.50 the day before, taking oil futures more than 13 percent higher in just two days, easily a record on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
And those weren't the only stunning numbers of the day: The government also reported the nation's unemployment rate zoomed to 5.5 percent in May, a monthly rise of half a percentage point, the biggest in 22 years.
Oil surged higher after Morgan Stanley analyst Ole Slorer predicted strong demand in Asia and tight supplies in the Western Hemisphere could drive prices to $150 by Independence Day, when millions of Americans take to the roads.
That means no end in sight for spiraling gas prices, already above $4 per gallon in much of the country.
Even longtime market observers were shocked by the magnitude and speed of oil's rally.
"We're into unchartered territory, and somewhat off the map as far as historical precedents are concerned," said Jim Ritterbusch, president of energy consultancy Ritterbusch and Associates in Galena, Ill.
Besides the jump in the unemployment rate, the Labor Department said employers had cut 49,000 jobs in May, the fifth straight month of nationwide losses. Job losses for the year reached 324,000.
The White House said President Bush was considering further plans to help energize the economy, already teetering on the edge of recession and crippled by a tumbling housing market and other factors.
On Wall Street, the Dow plunged 394.64 points, more than 3 percent, to close at 12,209.81, the biggest drop in more than 15 months in both percentage and points terms.
Wall Street had managed to shrug off oil's advance on Thursday but succumbed to extreme anxiety Friday.
The stock market's great concern of late has been whether consumers would curb their spending on non-essentials as they were forced to pay more for gas and other staples.
The previously unthinkable idea of $150 oil, and gasoline that will keep climbing above $4, made it clear to investors that consumers would be forced to be even more conservative than they have been in recent months.
Before Thursday, oil had receded nearly $13 a barrel from its highs, a respite from its nearly record-every-day march. But the end of the week sent it right back up again.
The burst in oil prices also raised the prospect of accelerating inflation by adding to already strained transportation costs — which will send prices higher throughout the economy.
Light, sweet crude for July delivery officially finished the day at $138.54, up $10.75 on the Nymex. But after the settlement, the contract jumped as high as $139.12. Prices hit a previous record of $135.09 a barrel on May 22, and settled Thursday at $127.79.
Traders also zeroed in on remarks by an Israeli Cabinet minister who was quoted as saying his country will attack Iran if it doesn't abandon its nuclear program. Transportation Minister Shaul Mofaz added that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad "will disappear before Israel does," the Yediot Ahronot daily reported.
Iran is the second-biggest oil producer in the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, and traders worry that any conflict with Israel could disrupt global supplies.
A further weakening of the dollar also helped send oil prices higher by enticing overseas buyers armed with stronger currencies and others looking for a hedge against the greenback. But it also represented a stampede by bullish traders and optimistic computer models betting that prices still have further to rise... NEW YORK - Oil prices made their biggest single-day leap ever Friday — clearing $139, dragging the Dow Jones industrials down nearly 4... more -
Car bomb kills at least 16 people in Baghdad
A suicide truck bomber struck near the Baghdad home of an Iraqi police general Wednesday, killing 16 people in the biggest such attack on the capital in months.
Meanwhile, three U.S. soldiers were shot dead in northern Iraq, and the bodies of at least 23 Iraqis were discovered in a shallow grave and a sewer shaft at separate sites near Baghdad.
Wednesday's suicide bombing was the deadliest such attack in Baghdad since early March. A suicide truck bomber struck near the Baghdad home of an Iraqi police general Wednesday, killing 16 people in the biggest such attack... more -
Possible Democratic Vice-Presidential canidates
Here is a list of some possible Democratic vice presidential canidates, in alphabetical order:
* Joseph Biden, 65 - The senator from Delaware, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is a respected foreign policy expert who would give Obama authority on the issue. But Obama might not want to add a second senator to the ticket, and could be looking for a fresher face to reinforce his message that this election is about change and the future.
* Wesley Clark, 63 - A retired Army general and former NATO commander who ran unsuccessfully for the presidential nomination in 2004, Clark is a supporter of Hillary Clinton who could help rally the party and provide a boost on national security issues. But he did not run a strong campaign in 2004 and he would be unlikely to generate much enthusiasm among party activists.
* Hillary Clinton, 60 - Polls have shown strong Democratic support for a "dream team" ticket of Obama and Clinton, his top rival for the nomination. Obama has not ruled out the option, which would help unify the party after a grueling nominating battle. But Clinton also would bring complications, including the return of former President Bill Clinton to the White House. A joint ticket could help attract some of Clinton's supporters -- including women and white working-class Democrats -- who have been reluctant to support Obama. Here is a list of some possible Democratic vice presidential canidates, in alphabetical order: ... more -
Director Mel Ferrer dies
Mel Ferrer, the tall, darkly handsome star of such classic films as "Lili," "War and Peace" and "The Sun Also Rises," as well as producer and director of movies starring his then-wife, Audrey Hepburn, has died at age 90.
Ferrer died Monday at a Santa Barbara convalescent home, his son Mark Ferrer told The Associated Press on Tuesday. He had been in failing health for the past six months and had recently moved to the home from his nearby ranch in Carpinteria, his son said. Mel Ferrer, the tall, darkly handsome star of such classic films as "Lili," "War and Peace" and "The Sun Also... more -
Digital Cable Lasts Forever? A Cable Box Dies
WASHINGTON - The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable televisions for decades, is moving toward extinction.
A leading television manufacturer, Sony Electronics Inc., and the National Cable and Telecommunications Association said Tuesday they signed an agreement that will allow viewers to rid themselves of set-top boxes, yet still receive advanced "two-way" cable services, such as pay-per-view movies.
In most cases, cable viewers also could dispose of another remote control since they could use their TV's control rather than one tied to the set-top box.
The agreement marks a significant meeting of the minds between cable companies and one of the world's dominant makers of consumer electronics. The two industries have been feuding for a decade about how best to deliver cable service to customers while allowing them to buy equipment of their own choosing.
Sony agreed to use the cable industry's technology in its sets as soon as possible but could not say when the first such televisions might be appear in stores.
The agreement is between Sony and the nation's six largest cable companies: Comcast Corp., Time Warner Cable Inc., Cox Communications Inc., Charter Communications Inc., Cablevision Systems Corp. and Bright House Networks. The six companies serve more than 82 percent of cable subscribers.
Cable subscribers are generally locked into renting a set-top box from their provider if they want more than the most basic cable TV service.
More than a decade ago, Congress ordered the cable industry to allow outside electronics makers to compete for the boxes. The industry developed the cable cards, which are inserted into televisions and add-on devices equipped to handle them.
The cards have been the source of frequent customer complaints and never proved popular. In addition, sets can only receive signals from their cable company, not vice versa. Subscribers were unable to enjoy "two-way" features such as video on demand, on-screen channel guides and cable company-provided digital video recorders.
Customers will still be able to attach their own devices — like TiVo digital video recorders, according to the NCTA.
Under the new system, customers will still need to get a cable card from their provider, but the agreement means, hopefully, technical glitches will be eliminated, "two-way" services will be available and there will be no need for the clunky boxes.
The cable association said it was hopeful other electronics manufacturers will also agree to use the same technology.
The industry hopes to head off action by the Federal Communications Commission to impose a two-way standard on the industry. The FCC declined to comment on the agreement Tuesday. WASHINGTON - The set-top box, a necessary appendage for millions of cable televisions for decades, is moving toward extinction. ... more
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