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You can view the entire process the builder in Russia went through to create the little guy.
| Birmingham police beating video |
Five Birmingham police officers have been fired for a January 2008 beating of an already-unconscious suspect with fists, feet and a billy club, a battering caught on videotape until a police officer turned off the patrol car camera, city and police officials said today.
Authorities believe the video, [see the full chase here] taken after a high-speed chase by several area law enforcement agencies ended when the fleeing suspect’s van flipped, has been seen by numerous Birmingham officers and up to a half dozen supervisors over the past year. But top city and police officials weren’t made aware of the taped beating until they were contacted by the district attorney’s office two months ago.
In fact, investigators say, the suspect, Anthony Warren, didn’t even know he’d been beaten until the tape surfaced at his trial in March. Warren was ejected from the vehicle and knocked unconscious, and thought all of his injuries were sustained in the wreck.
Police Chief A.C. Roper called the video “shameful.” Mayor Larry Langford said it was “disgusting.”
If the cops ever get wise to the fact they are being taped, we will being seeing much less of this. Of course it will still go on, we just won’t see it.
 Captain Jack Harkness will sort this lot out! |
While you may be sure Cardiff is the capital of Wales, Facebook users in the city were baffled after the social networking website put it in England.
People in Swansea, Wrexham and even the very Welsh sounding Llandrindod Wells were confused too as the location on their profile was also moved there. Over 8,000 users joined campaign groups demanding the locations on their profiles be returned to Wales.
Facebook blamed the problem on a bug and apologised…
Student Alex Smith said his friends had changed their location on their profiles to different Cardiffs elsewhere in the world as a protest.
Mr Smith, 18, said he had been a user of the site almost since it launched in 2004 and the problem had never happened before…
A spokesperson for Facebook said: “There was a bug causing this issue which has been fixed. We apologise to users who were affected.”
Let’s see. Facebook was founded by American college graduates. It’s maintained and run in the GOUSA.
Do you know anyone in the United States who knows squat about geography?
There is some criticism of exactly where this fossil fits on the evolutionary tree with respect to man, but as one report put it, if this species isn’t our great, great… grandmother, it’s definitely a great, great… aunt. One thing isn’t disputed: this and other fossils found at the ancient lake site in Germany are some of the best ever found from the period.
Meet “Ida,” the small “missing link” fossil that’s created a big media splash and will likely continue to make waves among those who study human origins.
In a new book, documentary, and promotional Web site, paleontologist Jorn Hurum, who led the team that analyzed the 47-million-year-old fossil seen above, suggests Ida is a critical “missing link” species in primate evolution.
The fossil, he says, bridges the evolutionary split between higher primates such as monkeys, apes, and humans and their more distant relatives such as lemurs.
“This is the first link to all humans,” Hurum, of the Natural History Museum in Oslo, Norway, said in a statement. Ida represents “the closest thing we can get to a direct ancestor.”
Ida, properly known as Darwinius masillae, has a unique anatomy. The lemur-like skeleton features primate-like characteristics, including grasping hands, opposable thumbs, clawless digits with nails, and relatively short limbs.
 Lives in basement |
Bedford School Board Member Living with Parents Gets Scolded for Not Cleaning Room | Cleveland Leader — Oh brother.
An Ohio man who says he was arguing with his adult son over a messy bedroom is now admitting that he may have gone a bit too far when he called 911. Andrew Mizsak called the emergency line complaining that his 28-year-old son, who happens to be a member of the Bedford school board, threw a plate of food and made a fist at him when he was told to clean his room.
The elder Andrew Mizsak is reported to have said: “Andrew is 270 pounds and he can’t fight him, that they do everything for Andrew and he doesn’t even pay rent.”
The police report also says that: “Andrew was sent to his room to clean it. He was crying uncontrollably and stated he would comply.”
His father declined to press charges on the basis that he did not want to ruin his son’s political career.
Political career? Cripes.
Related link:
The guy’s incredibly long BIO. Note: he was an important campaigner for John Kerry.
- Palm Pre has best PR.
- Hubble fixed.
- Google and Google alone gaining in market share.
- New Atom chip from Intel.
- Dell has germ free notebook.
- Wal-Mart wants Apple.
- Mockingbirds have a long memory.
- Slew of HP stories telling how great the company is. All are planted as far as I can tell.
- Oracle may sell Sun hardware business.
- Microsoft clones the Wii remote.
- Windows 7 getting more ink too.
- GPS system could fail within a year. Oh no!
- Todays show brought to you by Avis.com/tech5. Get a discount.
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RICHMOND, Va., May 18 (UPI) — Some people recently laid-off from religious institutions in Virginia said they were shocked to find the state does not offer them unemployment benefits.
Carol Bronson, who was laid off from her secretarial job at Temple Emanuel synagogue in Virginia Beach, said she was told her unemployment claim was denied because the tax exemptions for religious organizations under Virginia law include an exemption from paying unemployment taxes, The (Norfolk) Virginian-Pilot reported Monday.
“I had no idea that there would not be any benefits for me after leaving my job,” she said.
Rabbi Howard Mandell of Temple Emanuel said the synagogue was unaware of the Virginia tax law at the time of the layoff.
Jane Dembert, who worked for 17 years at the Christ and St. Luke’s Episcopal Church in Norfolk, most recently as director of communications, said she was also surprised to have her unemployment claim denied after she was laid-off earlier this year.
Coleman Walsh, chief administrative law judge with the state employment commission, said most people he has spoken to were unaware that faith-based groups are exempt from unemployment taxes.
The Catholic Diocese of Richmond has a voluntary self-insurance arrangement with the state that allows laid-off workers to file for unemployment. If the claim is accepted, the state bills the diocese for the amount of the benefits collected by the recipient.
Hmmm, tough break. Maybe they can take up a collection…say, on Sunday.
 Apple Boutique in Best Buy |
Wal-Mart’s move to overhaul the electronics departments in many of its retail stores with Apple-designated shopping areas is being seen as a sign that the mega-retailer is making a pitch to eventually carry Apple’s line of Mac personal computers.
The Bentonville, Arkansas-based discounter began revamping the electronics departments in approximately 3,500 of its stores this week — including 2,600 Supercenter locations — in a bid to capitalize on a large slice of the big-screen TV market vacated by Circuit City, which shut down its operations after filing for bankruptcy in November.
As part of the renovations, which should provide for a more spacious and interactive shopping experience, Wal-Mart will also be rolling out specialized in-store boutiques for popular brands such and Nintendo and Apple, similar to the Apple store-within-a-store layouts found in Best Buy retail stores.
Ben Reitzes, an analyst with Barclays Capital, sees the move as a precursor to Wal-Mart extending its reach beyond iPods, iPhones, and accessories to Apple’s Mac line of computers.
“We believe Wal-Mart is actively pitching Apple to carry more products,” he said. “With Wal-Mart improving its retail displays, we believe that the mega-retailer could eventually earn the right to sell select Mac products without diluting Apple’s brand…”
That said, the analyst doesn’t see the existing Mac line as a particularly good fit for the discount retailer outside of the $599 Mac mini and $999 MacBook offerings, but said he believes the company is working on more sub-$1000 products that may eventually appeal to Wal-Mart’s customer base.
Har!
(UPI) – MTV Monday announced plans to air a new reality series called “16 & Pregnant,” which will document the true stories of several pregnant teens.
The series is slated to debut June 11 and will be comprised of six one-hour episodes, the network said.
“MTV has a long history of reflecting the lives of our viewers with compelling reality stories,” Tony DiSanto, MTV’s president of programming, said in a statement. “’16 & Pregnant’ follows the journey of six young women going through an immensely life-changing experience at such a young age. Each episode tells a new, unique story and shows the real-life challenges they face from dealing with family and friends to school and finances as new mothers. This is the real secret life of an American teenager.”
“Given that the teen birth rate is on the rise for the first time in a generation, MTV’s ’16 & Pregnant’ is extremely timely,” added Sarah Brown, chief executive officer of The National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy. “We applaud MTV for using their unique and compelling style of storytelling to bring this important programming to their devoted audience. The show provides an honest portrayal of the challenges of too-early pregnancy and parenthood. The stories in ’16 & Pregnant’ are full of hope, heartbreak, and real-life consequences and should be a must viewing for teens nationwide.”
As in all MTV programming, I am certain this will be done in good taste.
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Daylife/Reuters Pictures used by permission
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| Xie Zhenhua at the UN climate change conference, December 2008 |
A high-powered group of senior Republicans and Democrats led two missions to China in the final months of the Bush administration for secret backchannel negotiations aimed at securing a deal on joint US-Chinese action on climate change.
The initiative, involving John Holdren, now the White House science adviser, and others who went on to positions in Barack Obama’s administration, produced a draft agreement in March, barely two months after the Democrat assumed the presidency…
“My sense is that we are now working towards something in the fall,” said Bill Chandler, director of the energy and climate programme at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and the driving force behind the talks. “It will be serious. It will be substantive, and it will happen.”
(Click pic to embiggen.)
Actually, this photo is a bit out of date. Two were laid off due to cutbacks. Several were reassigned to watch those in the office who fill out Sarbanes-Oxley paperwork. Andre’s job was outsourced to China, so he’s gone. The other guys are still watching the hole. Hey, someone’s got to do it. Can’t let passersby fall in and sue the company!
- Napster goes to $5 a month for its subscription services.
- Craigslist getting peeved at South Carolina.
- Biz Week slams iPhone in offhanded way.
- MSFT Win Mobile 6.5 is announced.
- Scribd.com has new sales model worth looking at.
- TSA in trouble over naked picture scanner.
- Duke Nukem may live.
- MSFT will buy any search start-ups.
- JP Morgan says Win7 will not help PC business.
- AMD and Intel in a beef as usual.
- Today’s show brought to you by SQUARESPACE.COM. Use the code word TECH for discount.
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Lifehacker is running a poll on what Windows version people are using. We’re expanding it to all operating systems. Now if you’re like Uncle Dave (one with Vista, two with XP, two with OSX) you have multiple OS’ and versions going. Since the poll software apparently will only let you vote once, enter the OS you use the most.
And if you have something else, tell us what. And why.
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