>Cow that escaped slaughterhouse has new adventure

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This Jan. 9, 2006 photo shows Famous bovine Molly B. at Mickey’s Packing Plant after escaping the slaughter house and leading authorities on a chase through Great Falls, Mont.

Five years after a cow dubbed the “Unsinkable Molly B” leapt a slaughterhouse gate and swam across the Missouri River in an escape that drew international attention, the heifer has again eluded fate, surviving the collapse of the animal sanctuary where she was meant to retire.

Molly B was among an estimated 1,200 animals removed from the Montana Large Animal Sanctuary and Rescue in recent weeks as part of a massive effort to bail out its overwhelmed owners.

Animal welfare groups said they were forced to euthanize dozens of starving and ill cattle, horses and llamas found on the 400-acre sanctuary in rural Sanders County.

The bovine celebrity herself – an overweight black Angus breed said to be sore in the hoof but otherwise relatively healthy – was removed to a nearby ranch and is headed this week to a smaller farm sanctuary.

“Molly B made it OK. She’s a tough old broad,” said Jerry Finch with Habitat for Horses of Hitchcock, Texas, who participated in the rescue effort. “She had bad feet, but she was not anywhere near as bad as some of the others.”

Molly B’s relocation to a 20-acre ranchette known as the New Dawn MT Sanctuary has proven an adventure in its own right. Local media stories had trumpeted her arrival at the Stevensville facility last week, including photos said to be of Molly B and new friend “Misty.”

Yet when New Dawn owner Susan Eakins watched one of the reports on the nightly news, video of the cow climbing a hill revealed the sanctuary had gotten the wrong animal – a male steer named “Big Mike.” A mix-up left Molly B behind on another ranch.

via Cow that escaped slaughterhouse has new adventure – Yahoo! News.

>Oysters are becoming ‘extinct’ as 85 per cent of world’s reefs disappear

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Oyster reefs around the world are disappearing so fast that more than 85 per cent have been lost to disease and over-harvesting, according to a study.

The mollusk is disappearing from its natural habitat and is now ‘functionally extinct’ in many places due to over-exploitation, scientists believe.

In areas such as the Wadden Sea in Europe and Narragansett Bay, Rhode Island, fewer than 1 per cent of former reefs still exist.

Some 75 per cent of the remaining wild oysters in the world can be found at five locations in North America.

An international team of researchers led by Dr Michael Beck of The Nature Conservancy and the University of California studied oyster reefs across 144 bays and 44 ecoregions.

The study rates the condition of oysters as ‘poor’ overall.

via Oysters are becoming ‘extinct’ as 85 per cent of world’s reefs disappear | Mail Online.

>Brazilian Telecom Authority Claims Sharing WiFi Is A Criminal Offense + Be your own ISP

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Marcos points us to a story coming out of Brazil, where a guy who had an internet connection with WiFi, and agreed to share that connection with two neighbors is now facing two to four years in jail (Google translation of the original). Not only that but the Brazilian telecom authority ANATEL has seized his computer, modem and router, and have fined him approximately $1,800. They’re claiming that sharing his WiFi was “providing an internet service without authorization.” The guy is obviously fighting this in court, saying that it’s ridiculous to claim that a guy sharing his WiFi should be classified as a regulated service provider…

via Brazilian Telecom Authority Claims Sharing WiFi Is A Criminal Offense | Techdirt.

We may some day need to entirely bypass the ISPs and form a PeopleNet.

For those who are increasingly frustrated with their ISP’s poor customer service, variable-rate connections, and traffic shaping/filtering, a question arises:  can you be your own ISP?  In some cases, the answer is yes.

Net Neutrality is a big issue in the modern era of Internet usage, especially within countries like America, Australia, and China, but there’s a large secret that many don’t understand:  corporate clients don’t have the same problems regular consumers do.  Those that purchase plans from the “big pipe” providers, like Covad, truly get what they pay for, at great cost, avoiding the issues of traffic shaping/filtering and a lagging rate of bandwidth due to local network overload.

Since buying services from big pipe providers is extremely expensive, and often requires hardware beyond a simple DSL modem, it is essentially a non-option for the average consumer – unless a group of consumers band together.  Chase Rydberg, a reader from Minnesota, has achieved common ISP independence in his condo high-rise, through a complicated and expensive process that ultimately garners far better results than any consumer package would.

Chase’s building was pre-wired for broadband and has a direct fibre connection, but the building’s ISP was using slower and less efficient copper-based delivery, while charging ever-increasing rates for decreasing performance.  After deciding that approximately 80 users sharing a 10mpbs connection over a set of T1 lines was no longer acceptable, he did some research and discovered that, if approached properly, the building could handle much higher speeds at a much more reasonable cost.For a 60mbps fibre circuit from “a fairly well known ISP” handled by Cisco hardware, essentially a router and some switches, the members of the complex pay only $40/mth for a superior, self-regulated service – no bandwidth caps, traffic shaping, or periodic loss of service.  Despite an initial upfront cost of $15,000 for hardware and implementation, paid out of the building’s cash reserves, Chase claims to have over 100 users on their homegrown, managed network, with all costs recouped within the next two years.

This sort of situation should truly scare traditional, consumer-oriented ISPs:  when users have the technical know-how and the financial ability, it’s not that difficult to avoid their services.  …

– via trueslant

 

 

>Eighth car in six years damages home

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A Canadian man said a car slid through the intersection near his home and damaged his house, marking the eighth such incident in the past six years.

Bruce Osiowy of Regina, Saskatchewan, said the car slid through the Campbell Street and Fourth Avenue intersection Thursday and plowed into his car, which was in the driveway, propelling the parked vehicle through his garage door, the Regina Leader-Post reported Friday.

Osiowy said it was the eighth time a car from the intersection, where there is a stop sign, has been involved in a crash on his property in the past six years.

“A couple of speed bumps could solve the problem in a hurry,” he said. “It’s an absolute no-brainer.”

Osiowy said one of the most serious incidents involved a car lodging itself in the wall of his house. …

via Eighth car in six years damages home – UPI.com.

>Eighth car in six years damages home

>

A Canadian man said a car slid through the intersection near his home and damaged his house, marking the eighth such incident in the past six years.

Bruce Osiowy of Regina, Saskatchewan, said the car slid through the Campbell Street and Fourth Avenue intersection Thursday and plowed into his car, which was in the driveway, propelling the parked vehicle through his garage door, the Regina Leader-Post reported Friday.

Osiowy said it was the eighth time a car from the intersection, where there is a stop sign, has been involved in a crash on his property in the past six years.

“A couple of speed bumps could solve the problem in a hurry,” he said. “It’s an absolute no-brainer.”

Osiowy said one of the most serious incidents involved a car lodging itself in the wall of his house. …

via Eighth car in six years damages home – UPI.com.

>The Internet Kill Switch

>In this video, a professor explains how easy it was for the Egyptian government to shut off the Internet, just by telling ISPs to stop carrying traffic. There is a bill to give our own government this ability. We should not allow this to happen. This bill will make all of us vulnerable to a cyber attack by a corrupt government.

With reports of Egypt’s government completing shutting down the Internet in the country, talk about an “Internet kill switch” bill in the U.S. has reemerged. Could it happen here?

The bill in question is the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010, a cyber-security measure introduced in June by Sen. Joseph Lieberman. It was an over-arching cyber-security measure that, among other things, would create an office of cyberspace policy within the White House and a new cyber-security center within the Homeland Security Department.

A provision that got the most attention, however, was one that gave the president the power to “authorize emergency measures to protect the nation’s most critical infrastructure if a cyber vulnerability is being exploited or is about to be exploited.”

Some interpreted that to mean that the president would have the authority to shut off the Internet at random. …

via PCMag

A bill to provide a so-called Internet “kill switch” just won’t die. It should.The bill is being floated again by Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine), even though a previous version died in committee. The new bill has bipartisan support; it wouldn’t enable to actually kill the internet but merely shut down “critical infrastructure” in case of “a true cyber emergency,” Wired was told.

It still sounds like a terrible idea. Predictably, civil liberties groups oppose the bill and we have to agree. …

Via: businessinsider.com | Feb. 1, 2011

>Mice trained to sniff out terrorists at airports

>

… researchers say mice are better at picking up traces of explosives or drugs

Inventor Eran Lumbroso, whose company BioExplorers is looking for a larger firm to help with the final stages of development, said: ‘It is as if they are smelling a cat and escaping. We detect the escape.’

To set the pattern of shifts, air is pumped to a different cartridge every four hours.

This gives the rodents eight hours to sleep and play before they are required to ‘clock on’ again.

The mice take around ten days to learn their first smell. Subsequent odours take just a few days each.

Unlike sniffer dogs, mice do not require constant interaction with their trainers or to be plied with treats to keep them motivated.

The concept may appeal to those who fear that the full-body scanners introduced at many airports are exposing them to harmful radiation and invading privacy.

Security expert Bruce Schneier told New Scientist: ‘Animals’ noses are always a good solution, and the mice don’t see you naked.’

The device was field tested last year on 1,000 shoppers in a Tel Aviv mall when the mice successfully picked out the 22 people with mock explosives in their pockets.

The scanners – which are likely to be cheaper than equipment already in use – could be on the market within months.

It is unclear, however, how the mice would react if a cat was loose in the airport. …

via Mice trained to sniff out terrorists at airports: The real Danger Mouse | Mail Online.

>Mice trained to sniff out terrorists at airports

>

… researchers say mice are better at picking up traces of explosives or drugs

Inventor Eran Lumbroso, whose company BioExplorers is looking for a larger firm to help with the final stages of development, said: ‘It is as if they are smelling a cat and escaping. We detect the escape.’

To set the pattern of shifts, air is pumped to a different cartridge every four hours.

This gives the rodents eight hours to sleep and play before they are required to ‘clock on’ again.

The mice take around ten days to learn their first smell. Subsequent odours take just a few days each.

Unlike sniffer dogs, mice do not require constant interaction with their trainers or to be plied with treats to keep them motivated.

The concept may appeal to those who fear that the full-body scanners introduced at many airports are exposing them to harmful radiation and invading privacy.

Security expert Bruce Schneier told New Scientist: ‘Animals’ noses are always a good solution, and the mice don’t see you naked.’

The device was field tested last year on 1,000 shoppers in a Tel Aviv mall when the mice successfully picked out the 22 people with mock explosives in their pockets.

The scanners – which are likely to be cheaper than equipment already in use – could be on the market within months.

It is unclear, however, how the mice would react if a cat was loose in the airport. …

via Mice trained to sniff out terrorists at airports: The real Danger Mouse | Mail Online.

>Window-licking fox becomes an internet sensation

>

As one viewer punned: ‘Firefox has encountered an unexpected problem with your version of windows’.

The fox seems to enjoy its starring role, eyeballing the camera and savouring each lick, looking as though it is sticking its tongue out for its audience.

More than 219,000 YouTube users have so far viewed the clip of the cheeky animal, called ‘stupid fox’ in Russian.

Stupid it may be, but with its long pink tongue and high-pitched yelping noises, no-one would want to be the other side of the glass.

via Cheeky window-licking fox becomes an internet sensation | Mail Online.

>Secrets of dinosaur footprints revealed, thanks to ‘Goldilocks’

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Terrain thought to be ruled by only the largest dinosaurs to inhabit Earth could have in fact been home to dozens of other creatures, ground-breaking research from The University of Manchester has found.

Writing in the journal of the Royal Society Interface, Dr. Peter Falkingham has discovered that dinosaurs only created lasting footprints if the soil conditions were perfect to do so — and entirely depending on the animal’s weight.

Dubbed the ‘Goldilocks Effect’ — as all conditions have to be ‘just right’ for a print to be created — this work could help to bring ancient environments to life, by showing how a great number of animals can walk over an area, but only a few leave behind tracks.

The findings mean that hugely-significant prehistoric dinosaur track sites, such as Paluxy River in Texas, USA, or Fumanya, Spain could have been host to a much larger number of dinosaurs and other animals than the tracks themselves show.

… Dr. Falkingham’s findings suggest that many more species probably lived there, walking over the same mud, but their footprints either made no impression or have disappeared over time.

The computer method was based on a technique common in engineering, known as finite element analysis.

This method lets scientists simulate the deformation of a material under load. While in engineering this may be an airplane wing supporting the aircraft, Dr. Falkingham and his co-authors applied the method to mud supporting a dinosaur.

via Secrets of dinosaur footprints revealed, thanks to ‘Goldilocks’.