Giant Elephant Fossil Found in Indonesia

Animal fossils are rare in the hot, humid climate near the equator because decomposition occurs there extremely quickly; however, paleontologists are now in the process of reconstructing the most complete skeleton of a prehistoric elephant ever discovered in the tropics. Scientists believe it was submerged in quicksand shortly after dying on a riverbed in Java and was therefore protected from high temperatures, erosion, and decay for some 200,000 years. When monsoon rains caused an old sand quarry to collapse in March, the unusually intact skeleton was uncovered. The creature is believed to have been 13 ft (4 m) tall and 16 ft (5 m) long and probably weighed about 10 tons

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Reckless Teens Think Death is Near

The longstanding notion that teens engage in risky behavior because they feel a sense of immortality and invincibility is being challenged by new data that suggest that 15 percent of American teens think they will die before the age of 35. This fatalistic attitude prompts them to engage in risky behavior like drug use, fighting, unprotected sex, and other unsafe activities, increasing the chances that they will be arrested, contract HIV, or attempt suicide. Ethnicity, gender, and socioeconomic status were all linked to the teens’ outlook, with members of minorities and those from low-income households most likely to have a negative view of the future.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Hadrosaur Chewed Food in Unusual Way

Researchers have long wondered how the hadrosaur, a duck-billed dinosaur that lacked the type of hinged jaw common to today’s mammals, chewed its food. Now, scratch marks on the extinct herbivore’s teeth have led scientists to conclude that their "chewing" technique involved a complex series of up and down, sideways, and front-to-back motions. A hinge between the upper jaw and the rest of the skull was responsible for this unique chewing action. Hadrosaurs roamed the Earth more than 65 million years ago, during the Cretaceous period.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Passenger fixes faulty airliner

The airliner landed at Glasgow only 35 minutes late
Holidaymakers avoided a long delay to their flight home when a passenger fixed a mechanical problem with their plane.

Passengers on Thomas Cook flight TCX9641 from Menorca were told to expect an eight-hour wait while an engineer was flown out from the UK.

One passenger then identified himself as a qualified aircraft engineer and offered to try to remedy the fault.

He was successful, and the plane landed in Glasgow only 35 minutes late.

A spokeswoman for Thomas Cook said the company followed strict procedures to ensure the man was qualified to work on the aircraft, a Boeing 757-200, during the incident on Saturday.

The passenger worked for another airline, Thomsonfly, which has a reciprocal maintenance agreement with Thomas Cook.


"When they announced there was a technical problem he came forward and said who he was, " she said.

"We checked his licence and verified he was who he said he was, and he was able to fix the problem to avoid the delay.

"We are very grateful that he was on the flight that day."

Holidaymaker Keith Lomax, from Stirling, was travelling home from a week's break with his wife when the plane's captain announced the expected delay.

"We were in the plane, ready for take-off, when he announced there was a technical problem and that an engineer might have to be flown out from Manchester to fix it," he said.

"Then a stewardess told us there was an engineer on board and they were checking out to see if he could work on it. He was obviously successful. When he came back onto the plane there was a round of applause from the back of the aircraft.

"It was reassuring to know the person who had fixed it was still on the aeroplane. What are the odds of something like that happening?"

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Old enough to know better(but)still young enough not to care

Woman Stashes Squirrel in Cleavage
http://news.aol.com/article/squirrel-in-cleavage/555485

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Google to launch operating system
Google is developing an operating system (OS) for personal computers, in a direct challenge to market leader Microsoft and its Windows system.
Google Chrome OS will be aimed initially at small, low-cost netbooks, but will eventually be used on PCs as well.
Google said netbooks with Chrome OS could be on sale by the middle of 2010.
"Speed, simplicity and security are the key aspects of Google Chrome OS," the firm said in its official blog.
The operating system, which will run on an open source licence, was a "natural extension" of its Chrome browser, the firm said.
The news comes just months before Microsoft launches the latest version of its operating system, called Windows 7.

Back to basics
"We're designing the OS to be fast and lightweight, to start up and get you on to the web in a few seconds," said the blog post written by Sundar Pichai, vice-president of product management, and Google's engineering director Linus Upson.
Read More...



Governments hit by cyber attack
The US recently expressed concerns about cyber security
A widespread computer attack has hit several US government agencies while some South Korean government websites also appear to be affected.
The White House, Defense Department and New York stock exchange were all hit by the attack that started on July 4.
An analysis of the software used revealed its targets also included the National Security Agency, the Nasdaq stock market and the Washington Post.
Many of the organisations appear to have warded off the attack.
In South Korea, the presidential Blue House and Defence Ministry, National Assembly fell victim.
US officials have not released details of the attack.
Ben Rushlo, head of internet technologies at web performance firm Keynote Systems described it as a "massive outage".
Amy Kudwa, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security said the body's US Computer Emergency Readiness Team told federal departments about the issue and of steps "to mitigate against such attacks".
Recently the US homeland security secretary Janet Napolitano told the BBC that protecting against virtual attacks was a matter of "great concern" and something the US was "moving forward on with great alacrity".
The attacks in South Korea seemed to be connected to the attack of US government services, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokesperson at Korea's Information Security Agency.
South Korea's Yonhap News Agency is reporting that North Korea may be behind Tuesday's cyber attack.
The country's National Intelligence Service (NIS) suspects North Korea or its sympathisers may have been behind the attack, according to sources who spoke to the news agency on condition of anonymity.
It will present a report to the parliamentary intelligence committee on Thursday.
The attack slowed down and, in some cases, shut government websites, including the site of the presidential office, for several hours.

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"Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former." - Albert Einstein
Vextor Homepage | Vextor Blog

DNS is affected from what I understand as sites like ebay, angelascottage, cnn.com, etc are unreachable so far from My 2 DNS numbers, There may be others, But those are My 3 that I do know of.

Seems like My DNS troubles are over, I hope.

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The T1 Trust, PRR T1 Class 4-4-4-4 #5550, 1 of America's First HST's

World's Oldest Christian Bible Goes Online

More than half of the 1,600-year-old Codex Sinaiticus, about 800 pages and fragments of the manuscript, can now be viewed online by users around the globe. Discovered in a monastery in Egypt’s Sinai desert more than 160 years ago, the handwritten manuscript is the oldest known copy of the Christian Bible. The four-year project to digitize the surviving portion of the manuscript aimed to "virtually reunify" and preserve the ancient parchments, which were separated long ago and are now housed at institutions in Egypt, Russia, Germany, and Britain.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Sweetener May Help Prevent Cavities

Xylitol, a naturally-occurring sweetener, is believed to prevent tooth decay by inhibiting the growth of bacteria that cause cavities. Giving youngsters a syrup containing the sugar substitute may make them less likely to develop early childhood cavities known as baby bottle tooth decay or nursing cavities. Severe tooth decay in early childhood can become a lifelong problem. In a recent study, just 24.2 percent of 9 to 15 month olds receiving two doses of xylitol per day for nearly a year had tooth decay, compared with 51.7 percent in a control group.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Cats Purr-fectly Capable of Manipulating People

Researchers at the University of Sussex have discovered that cats use a "soliciting purr" to manipulate their owners into doing their bidding, especially when they want to be fed. Unlike regular, low frequency purring, this "solicitation purr" includes a higher-pitched sound with a frequency similar to a baby's cry, a sound humans are naturally inclined to respond to and find difficult to ignore. Researchers believe that when cats learn that this food-seeking purr, which typically occurs at a low level in cats' normal purring, effectively generates a response from humans, they begin to dramatically exaggerate it.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

China Bans Shock Therapy for Internet Addiction

For over a year, the Chinese government has campaigned against Internet addiction, saying young people's excessive time in Internet cafes is hurting their studies and damaging family life. However, after media reports surfaced regarding the use of electroshock therapy to treat teenage Internet addicts, the Ministry of Health released a statement questioning the safety and effectiveness of the treatment and banning its use in this population. Nearly 3,000 teens have been subjected to the "electric impact therapy" as part of a four-month Internet addiction treatment program at Linyi Mental Hospital.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Dog Becomes Surrogate Mother to Panda Cubs

After two red panda cubs were rejected by their mother at birth, a dog owned by a nearby farmer stepped in to act as a surrogate. The dog is now raising the two panda cubs like its own pups, and they are thriving. In a strange twist of fate, the confused dog is now refusing to nurse its own pup, convinced the panda cubs are its young. The pandas, just three weeks old, have doubled in length to 8 inches (20 centimeters) since their birth but have yet to open their eyes. When they mature, they will resemble raccoons with long, bushy tails.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Impact Leaves Mark on Jupiter

An amateur astronomer has discovered a disturbance near Jupiter’s southern pole, indicating that the planet was struck by a large meteor or asteroid. NASA scientists have confirmed that the dark mark is the result of a new impact. According to the astronomer who first identified the disturbance, the impacting object that left an Earth-sized mark on the gaseous planet was likely moving at speeds of about 31 to 62 miles (50 to 100 kilometers) per second and was probably 50 to 100 miles (80 to 161 kilometers) across. Thermal images indicate that the crash warmed the lower atmosphere in that area.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Swine Flu Impacts Upcoming Hajj

Citing fears of a swine flu epidemic, Arab health ministers have agreed to ban children, the elderly, and those with chronic illnesses from attending this year’s hajj pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The decision to ban these vulnerable populations was made at an emergency meeting between health ministers from across the Muslim world and members of the World Health Organization. Approximately 3 million Muslim pilgrims from more than 160 countries converge on the holy city of Mecca in western Saudi Arabia each year, making the hajj one of the world's largest religious gatherings

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Last British Army WWI veteran dead at 111

News Article

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Tanning Beds as Dangerous as Tobacco

For years, scientists have listed tanning beds and ultraviolet (UV) radiation as "probable carcinogens." Recently, however, a group of international cancer experts changed their stance, determining that UV emitting tanning beds are more dangerous than previously suggested and moving them to their highest cancer risk category, "carcinogenic to humans." The new categorization means that sunbeds—like cigarettes, arsenic, the hepatitis B virus, and asbestos—definitely cause cancer. A new analysis of about 20 studies found that found using tanning beds could increase the risk of developing cancer by 75 percent, especially if such exposure begins before age 30

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

TV Watching Bad for Kids' Blood Pressure

It has been widely documented that sedentary activities such as TV viewing, computer use, video game playing, and even reading contribute to obesity and overall poor health. However, it seems that not all sedentary activities are equally harmful. According to a recent study monitoring both obese and normal weight children and their choices of sedentary activities, those who watched the most TV tended to have the highest blood pressure readings. Other activities, such as computer use, were not linked to similar blood pressure hikes. Experts believe that the elevated blood pressure levels may be the result of sleep disruptions as well as unhealthy snacking behaviors associated with TV viewing.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Spine Surgery No Better than Sham Procedure

Vertebroplasty, a common spine operation in which medical cement is injected into a fractured vertebra to stabilize it, worked no better than a sham treatment in the first major study of the popular procedure. About 750,000 Americans endure painful compression fractures in the bones of the spine each year, sometimes suffering debilitating pain, limited mobility, and a loss of height or a stooped posture as a result. Of these, tens of thousands undergo vertebroplasty, perhaps unnecessarily, as researchers now believe that those who receive a fake treatment experience the same improvement as those who have the real thing

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

US Life Expectancy Rises to All-Time High

According to new statistics from the National Center for Health Statistics, part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, life expectancy in the US has reached an all-time high: 77.9 years. This is two and a half months longer than previously recorded. Men now have a life expectancy of 75.3 years, while for women, it is 80.4 years. Despite these gains, the US still trails behind some two dozen other countries, including Japan, Australia, Italy, France, Israel, Singapore, and Spain, in terms of life expectancy

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010

Lost People Wander in Circles

When humans are not presented with reliable direction cues, they really do walk in circles. Researchers used GPS tracking devices to record the paths of people told to walk a straight line in the forest or desert and found that the walkers were only able to maintain a straight path when the sun or moon was visible. To test the theory that people have one leg longer or stronger than the other, prompting them to unintentionally veer in one specific direction, the researchers blindfolded participants and asked them to walk in a straight line. Though most walked in circles, the circles were rarely in a systematic direction, with the same person sometimes veering left and sometimes right.

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LETS BEGIN IN 2010