Friday, November 30, 2007

dun buy that beagle


Our view on animal welfare: Beware of doggie in window - Yahoo! News
Under federal rules, a beagle could legally spend its life in a dishwasher-sized cage. Nor are there enough inspectors: 105 are charged with overseeing about 10,000 facilities, including kennels, zoos and research labs. High-volume operations that sell directly to the public don't need a federal license, and most state laws and enforcement are weak.

snogo i promise to be good


Fearing Divorce, Japanese Husbands Learn to Be Loving
Everything boiled down to the desire of wives to hear their husbands say "three magic phrases" more often: "Thank you," "Sorry," and "I love you".

Perched on a beer case serving as a makeshift podium in central Tokyo, a group of middle-aged Japanese men are standing up to save their marriages -- and, they hope, marriage in Japan generally. "I'm sorry I always forget to put the toilet seat down," said one man in a suit and tie confessed as he balanced on the beer box at Shimbashi, Tokyo's hub of "salaryman" corporate workers.

"I hereby declare that I will stop going to the hostess bar, I'm sorry," said another man as his wife looked on amid a crowd of curious bystanders.

Said another man: "I love you, even though I don't really say it."

In a country where reticence about one's private life is the norm, these men are trying to prove their worth to their wives by making their vows as public as possible.

The 20 men taking part in the unlikely rally chant their slogan together: "Say 'thank you' without hesitating. Say 'sorry' without being scared. Say 'I love you' without being shy."


hi snogo. i promise to put away the dishes every night.

Thursday, November 29, 2007

please give me my money


Lottery winner wasn't supposed to gamble - Yahoo! News
BOSTON - The winner of a $1 million lottery scratch ticket may not be so lucky after all: He's a convicted bank robber who isn't supposed to gamble. Timothy Elliott faces a Dec. 7 court hearing over whether he violated his probation when he bought the $10 ticket for the $800 Million Spectacular game at a supermarket in Hyannis.
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Elliott was placed on five years' probation after pleading guilty in October 2006 to unarmed robbery for a January 2006 heist at a bank on Cape Cod. Under terms of his probation, he "may not gamble, purchase lottery tickets or visit an establishment where gaming is conducted, including restaurants where Keno may be played."

Thursday, November 22, 2007

Please dress my doggie


Dog owners go barking mad for fancy dress - Yahoo! News
Sales soared by 300 percent over Halloween. Now costumiers have lined up a festive big seller -- the one-size-fits-all Santa pet hat for the dog determined to have a great Christmas.

"Some cynics would say the British love their dogs more than they do other people," said Benjamin Webb, spokesman for Angels Fancy Dress who have been supplying costumes for humans since 1840 and are now on a canine winning streak.


Wednesday, November 21, 2007

american eagle loses bags!


Travelers’ Odds Decline on Airline Baggage - New York Times
Counting together American and the regional airline it owns, American Eagle, mishandled bags rise to 8.69 for every thousand passengers, or a total of 639,146 through Sept. 30.

American Eagle had the worst bag-handling record of 20 airlines tracked by the Bureau of Transportation Statistics during that period, the agency reported.


lost luggage recovery!



Travelers’ Odds Decline on Airline Baggage - New York Times
“We never hit 100 percent — 90 percent is acceptable,” she said. Airlines are fond of saying that they have a success rate of more than 99 percent in getting luggage to its destination along with its owner. And every big airline has stepped up efforts to improve its operations. But the baggage problem is getting worse. One in every 138 checked bags was lost during the first nine months of this year, compared with one in 155 bags a year earlier.

Monday, November 19, 2007

free evdo!


Techcrunch
But Amazon must be taking a big hit up front on this. My Sprint EVDO data plan costs $60 a month. That is a consumer price. Obviously, Amazon was able to negotiate a much lower price. Even at $10 a month per Kindle, Amazon would need to sell a dozen books just to recoup its wireless network costs. Maybe it got a better deal than that, since the device is designed more for a download-and-read experience than an always-on experience. So the Kindles may not end up using a lot of bandwidth. It is not like most people are going to be downloading a new book everyday. If Amazon was able to negotiate the rate down closer to $1 a month, that would make more sense, because that would only require one or two book downloads per customer to pay for a year’s worth of wireless access. Amazon would not comment on how much it is paying for the wireless network. If it is paying Sprint on a per-device basis, it won’t really matter unless the Kindle takes off in sales.



The new device has evdo! this is great!

Saturday, November 17, 2007

To get mysql to autostart on startup


LAMP (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) HOWTO: Installing MySQL and Apache with PHP support on Linux
/sbin/chkconfig --level 3 mysql on



I had to use:

/sbin/chkconfig --level 3 mysqld on

instead

Friday, November 16, 2007

goodbye doogggie


Dog gives up life to save man from fire - Yahoo! News
CARTER LAKE, Iowa - Bryan Smith has pictures of his dog in his coat pocket, a reminder of the pet that sacrificed itself to save him from his burning house.
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It was Tuesday night when Storm jumped on the slumbering Smith and alerted him to the growing smoke and flames outside his bedroom.

Smith says he grabbed his curtains, wet them for a mask and grabbed his puppy Daisy while the older dog ran ahead.


Thursday, November 15, 2007

aiden gets his revenge


Popular NYC eatery shut down for rodents - Yahoo! News
While serendipity may be the art of finding pleasant things by chance, what health inspectors found at celebrated eatery Serendipity 3 was not very agreeable.
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Officials closed the restaurant Wednesday night after it failed its second inspection in a month. An inspector spotted a live mouse and mouse droppings, fruit flies, house flies and more than 100 live cockroaches.



send me videos!


TV sets a turnoff for South Korea's youth | CNET News.com
User-generated content sites such as "ipop" have clubs where users can pay by the download or pony up monthly subscription fees of about 10,000 won to 20,000 won ($11 to $22) that will let them tap into a huge library of U.S., Japanese, Chinese, and Korean TV programming and movies.

One of the most popular peer-to-peer clubs, Mansal, has had nearly 50 million visitors. While many are repeats, the total is still almost equal to the country's population.

"I like to download stuff because I don't have to wait to watch something" Seong-sun said.

The clubs make money from subscription fees and advertising. Young professionals with little time to spare and students with an abundance of time to search for material are the main clients for these services--making cable TV and TV sets obsolete.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

don't eat me


Polar Bears on Yahoo! News Photos

Dolphins rescue surfer from shark - People: Tales of survival - MSNBC.com
That attack shredded his back, literally peeling the skin back, he said, “like a banana peel.” But because Endris’ stomach was pressed to the surfboard, his intestines and internal organs were protected.

The third time, the shark tried to swallow Endris’ right leg, and he said that was actually a good thing, because the shark’s grip anchored him while he kicked the beast in the head and snout with his left leg until it let go.

The dolphins, which had been cavorting in the surf all along, showed up then. They circled him, keeping the shark at bay, and enabled Endris to get back on his board and catch a wave to the shore.

Our finned friends
No one knows why dolphins protect humans, but stories of the marine mammals rescuing humans go back to ancient Greece, according to the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society.

A year ago in New Zealand, the group reports, four lifeguards were saved from sharks in the same way Endris was — by dolphins forming a protective ring.