May 28, 2004
Russian Museum to Exhibit Rasputin’s Penis
Photo: Reuters
The first Russian museum of erotica is opening in St. Petersburg, Russian Nezavisimaya Gazeta daily reports. The museum is founded by Igor Knyazkin, the chief of the prostate research center of the Russian Academy of Natural Sciences.
Knyazkin told the newspaper that museums of sex and erotica exist in many European countries and he wanted Russia to be a civilized country with a view on the future and with correct views on erotica.
There is one exhibit in the museum which makes Knyazkin be especially proud of. This is the 30-centimeter preserved penis of Grigory Rasputin. “Having this exhibit, we can stop envying America, where Napoleon Bonaparte’s penis is now kept. … Napoleon’s penis is but a small ”pod“ it cannot stand comparison to our organ of 30 centimeters…” the head of the museum said.
(via memepool)
Rasputin, nicknamed “Mad Monk” by historians was born in 1869 in Siberia, arrived in St. Petersburg in 1911 and within a few years had become one of the most influential men in government circles. His rise to preeminence was due to his close relationship with Nicholas II’s wife, Alexandra. The heir to the throne suffered from hemophaelia, and only Rasputin could stop the boy’s bleeding. Because of this, Alexandra believed he was a holy man sent to protect Alexis and she kept him close by at all times.
However, many historians point to the unusual cult that Rasputin practiced at the Emperors’ court — a strange mixture of Christianity and sexual practices. Many of the noble women were believed to be in sexual relations with Rasputin, possibly including the Empress.
At the end of 1916, a group of aristocrats decided that Rasputin’s influence had grown too great and that he had to be killed in order to save Russia. They lured him to the palace of one of the princes; fed him poisoned cakes and wine, shot him and then threw him into the frozen river.
A Manhattan Sunset
Credit & Copyright: Neil deGrasse Tyson (AMNH)
Explanation: Today, if it is clear, Manhattan will flood dramatically with sunlight just as the Sun sets precisely on the centerline of every street. Usually, the tall buildings that line the gridded streets of New York City's tallest borough will hide the setting Sun. This effect makes Manhattan a type of modern Stonehenge, although only aligned to about 30 degrees east of north. Were Manhattan's road grid perfectly aligned to east and west, today's effect would occur on the Vernal and Autumnal Equinox, March 21 and September 21, the only two days that the Sun rises and sets due east and west. If today's sunset is hidden by clouds do not despair -- the same thing happens every May 28 and July 12. On none of these occasions, however, should you ever look directly at the Sun.
( Astronomy Picture of the Day via MetaFilter)
Bondage, Inc.
Bondage, Inc. by reddoghud for Directors Cut 3 (advanced photoshop contest at Worth 1000)
May 27, 2004
Cisco Announced CRS-1, World's Fastest Router
Cisco CRS-1
Steve Stadland, CIO Today, reports:
Cisco Systems, Inc., today announced the Cisco CRS-1 Carrier Routing System, which is the world's fastest router. The Cisco CRS-1 router is aimed at telecommunications carriers who route phone calls over IP networks.
It took Cisco four years, half a billion dollars, and 500 engineers to produce the world's fastest router, known as the CRS-1. According to the Cisco, the new router represents "the future of communications… the most ambitious project the company has ever undertaken."
The CRS-1 Carrier Routing System is designed for telecommunications carriers to transport voice, data, and video services over a converged Internet Protocol (IP) network.
According to the company, the CRS-1 is a new class of routing system designed to deliver continuous system operation, service flexibility and extended system longevity to telecommunications service providers and research organizations.
Answering the Internet Call
As phone calls are being converted more and more into digital data that is transported over the Internet, telecommunications companies are being forced to upgrade their infrastructure equipment. For example,VoIP (Voice over IP) telephony has enabled new communications carriers to provide their customers with phone service at vastly reduced rates when compared against regular phone service. This cost savings has convinced many companies to switch over to VoIP, although other companies and home users are still concerned with the quality of the phone calls, as Internet traffic congestion has been known to make Internet phone calls choppy. Cisco, the manufacturer of telecommunications infrastructure equipment has responded to those concerns with the CRS-1.
Mike Volpi, senior vice president/general manager, Routing Technology Group at Cisco Systems, stated "To be profitable, service providers are focusing on network and service convergence to reduce total cost of ownership, and adding new, revenue-generating services. The Cisco CRS-1 sets new industry standards for reliability, IP service flexibility and scalability, which will enable service providers to become more cost-efficient while delivering a new suite of exciting, multimedia services to business and residential customers."
All That and Safe, Too
Another key concern of telecommunications carriers is reliability, and now, data and system security. The CRS-1 is built to address those issues.
According to Cisco, the Cisco CRS-1 provides continuous system operation, permitting maintenance and upgrades without any service interruptions. This fault-tolerance capability is achieved through Cisco IOS XR Software, the industry's only self-healing operating system for multishelf carrier infrastructures scaling up to 92 Tbps.
The memory-protected, microkernel-based operating system enables process-level in-service upgrades, and enables fully distributed processing by separating of the control, data and management planes. This modular design provides fault containment and automatic fault recovery so that processes can be started, stopped and upgraded without human intervention. In addition, the Cisco CRS-1 features self-defending network capabilities to automatically recognize disruptive activities, such as distributed-denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, with hardware- and software-based infrastructure.
May 26, 2004 6:14PM
Chinese Soy Sauce Made from Human Hair
Shanghai. (Interfax-China) - The Chinese government has shown an unusually high level of concern as a result of a bold media exposure towards a scandal in which human hair was used to make soy sauce. The government has now ordered an immediate inspection of all domestic food seasoning plants before the end of January.
China Central Television (CCTV), the state television station, first raised public worries over the quality of domestic soy sauce by uncovering a substandard workshop in central China's Hubei Province, where piles of waste human hair were found. The hairs were treated in special containers to distill amino acid, the most common substance contained in soybean sauce.
Human hair is rich in protein content, just like soybean, wheat and bran, the conventional and legally accepted raw ingredients for the production of soy sauce.
(via BoingBoing)
The plant, describing itself as a bioengineering company, made around 100,000 tons of amino acid daily, in either syrup or powder form, making it easier for delivery, plant workers said. They were then distributed to diluting plants in or near the province, where it was diluted with approximately ten times water, was then made into ready-for-use soy sauce and was bottled or packaged.
In one such plant shown on the CCTV program, more chemical additives were poured into the amino acid syrup and heated and stirred continuously by a worker.
The additives include one whole bag of solid hydroxide to make the sauce taste better, and bottles of hydrochloric acid to balance the acid and alkali content in the mixture in order to make it safer for human consumption. Both additives were for industrial use only, according to their packaging.
By producing soy sauce from such raw materials, the producers were said able to cut costs by half. Workers employed at the plants, however, never bought soy sauce marked as "blended" on the packaging, because that usually meant that human hair was the basic material in the sauce.
Soy sauce made from human hair is not the first low-quality food product exposed by state television, which launched a program called "Weekly Quality Report" around half a year ago. The program, which conducts investigations into the low quality of some of China's most common food products, has frequently ruined the public appetite.
In related news the Beijing Star Daily reported the Beijing government has begun closer monitoring and supervision of 14 kinds of foods, including rice, meat, vegetables, bottled water, dairy products and cooking oil due to fears of large-scale food-poisoning cases.
Wi-fi lifeline for Nepal's farmers
Aerials in Nepal bounce the net signal to the villages
Yak farmers in the mountains of Nepal are using wireless internet technology to keep in touch with their families.
They are taking advantage of a wi-fi network set up in a remote region of the mountain kingdom where there are no phones or other means of communication.
It is the result of a campaign led by local teacher Mahabir Pun, and backed by volunteers and donations, to bring the internet to an isolated part of the world.
So far, the Nepal Wireless Networking project has hooked up five villages in the area using wireless technology.
Online chat
"Yak farmers are using the network to buy and sell livestock, and exchange vetinerary tips," said Mr Pun.
Aerials bounce the net signal to the villages
"From the village where I live, the yak farm is two days' walk away, so that was one of the reasons why I thought about using wireless technology," he told the BBC programme Go Digital.
"After we had the network, we could talk to the people taking care of the yak and ask them if they had problems, for example if they needed medicine or food or if they had any messages for their families.
"They can send message via e-mail and also they can do it through NetMeeting video conferencing software, so they can also talk."
The project was featured in a BBC News Online article in 2001, at a time when Mr Pun was struggling to get the initiative off the ground.
The article prompted a big response from readers, with offers of aid and advice.
Through donations of second-hand equipment and visits by volunteers, Mr Pun was able to turn his vision of a networked Nepal into reality.
Teaching hopes
Three years later, the villages of Nangi, Paudwar, Ghara, Tikot, and Sikha are connected to the world via the web.
Mahabir Pun wants to used the network in schools
"Villagers are using it to send messages between the villages and to the outside world," said Mr Pun, "and they are putting online things they have to sell."
"It is very useful and exciting also, as no means of communication exists in the rural areas of Nepal right now because of the fighting."
Mr Pun said they were now looking at ways of using the wi-fi network for distance learning as there is a shortage of qualified teachers in the area.
"We are trying to find ways of doing live teaching from one school by one teacher to several schools at the same time," he said.
"If we could do that, it would be very helpful."
May 05, 2004
Gov't: Habitual Pot Use Is Up Among U.S. Adults
CHICAGO — Habitual marijuana use increased among U.S. adults over the past decade, particularly among young minorities and baby boomers, government figures show.
The prevalence of marijuana abuse or dependence climbed from 1.2 percent of adults in 1991-92 to 1.5 percent in 2001-02, or an estimated 3 million adults 18 and over.
That represents an increase of 800,000 people, according to data from two nationally representative surveys that each queried more than 40,000 adults.
Among 18- to 29-year-olds, the rate or abuse or dependence remained stable among whites but surged by about 220 percent among black men and women, to 4.5 percent of that population, and by almost 150 percent among Hispanic men, to 4.7 percent.
Among all adults ages 45 to 64, the rate increased by 355 percent, to about 0.4 percent of that population.
[..] Overall use of the drug -- that is, casual use and habitual use -- remained stable at around 4 percent of adults. [..]
The report, published in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association, was led by Dr. Wilson Compton of the National Institute on Drug Abuse (search), who said the rise in dependence was probably due at least partly to increases in the potency of pot over the past decade.
Also, the figures may indicate that baby boomers "bring their bad habits with them into old age," he said.
The researchers said adults were considered marijuana abusers if repeated use of the drug hurt their ability to function at work, in school or in social situations, or created drug-related legal problems.
Drug users were considered dependent if they experienced increased tolerance of marijuana, used it compulsively and continued using it despite drug-related physical or psychological problems.
Overall use of the drug -- that is, casual use and habitual use -- remained stable at around 4 percent of adults.
"This study suggests that we need to develop ways to monitor the continued rise in marijuana abuse and dependence and strengthen existing prevention and intervention efforts," said Dr. Nora Volkow, the institute's director. Programs that target young black and Hispanic adults are particularly needed, she said.
Increases in dependence among young minorities may reflect their growing assimilation into sectors of white society where marijuana use is more accepted, Compton said.
Researchers from the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (search) contributed to the report.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Belarus Woman Celebrates 116th Birthday
YURAS KARMANAU, Associated Press, reports:
MINSK, Belarus (AP) -- A woman believed to be the oldest in the world celebrated her 116th birthday Wednesday in the former Soviet republic of Belarus.
"I'll drink to my own health with pleasure," said Hanna Barysevich, a former farm worker who lives in a house outside the Belarusian capital Minsk.
"I'm tired of living already, but God still hasn't collected me," she said with a smile.
Barysevich was born on May 5, 1888, in the village of Buda, 37 miles east of Minsk, according to her passport. Her parents were poor, landless peasants.
"From my early childhood I didn't know anything but physical labor," said Barysevich, who never learned to read or write. She worked in a kolkhoz, or collective farm, until age 95, then moved to the house she shares with her 78-year-old daughter Nina.
Barysevich lived through the Bolshevik Revolution, two world wars and the collapse of the Soviet Union. The worst period for her was the reign of dictator Josef Stalin: Her husband Ippolit was declared an "enemy of the people" for allegedly harming the collective farm, arrested and taken to Siberia. He was never heard from again.
She raised her three children on her own, including throughout World War II, when she used to take her family to the woods outside the village to hide from the Nazis.
"A lot of men courted me but I preferred to live on my own," she said.
Today, Barysevich moves with difficulty but unaided. She complains of occasional headaches and worsening vision "but nothing else bothers me."
She attributes her longevity to genes: Her paternal grandmother was 113 when she died. As to diet, Barysevich prefers simple village food: homemade sausages, pork fat, milk and bread.
Daughter Nina said her mother has a good appetite, a tough character and very strong nerves.
"Throughout my long life, I understood that it isn't worth it to get upset and take everything too close to the heart," Barysevich said.
For her birthday, she hoped for a raise in her monthly pension, equal to about $50, and a chance to go to a Catholic church for confession.
Last month, the Guinness Book of Records recognized a 114-year-old Puerto Rican as the world's oldest living woman. Barysevich said she'd never thought of applying for the distinction.
Copyright 2004 Associated Press. All rights reserved.
May 5, 8:37 AM EDT
Anhydrous Tank Tips Officers To Possible Meth Lab
OMAHA, Neb. -- A large anhydrous ammonia tank helped Sarpy County Sheriff's deputies bust a suspected methamphetamine lab Tuesday night.
Anhydrous is the key ingredient in meth, and officers spotted a 9,600-gallon tank in front of a house at 151st and Chandler streets. The owners had run a hose from the tank inside the house, according to deputies.
Several arrests were made. No further information was immediately available.
Copyright 2004 by TheOmahaChannel.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
POSTED: 8:48 am CDT May 5, 2004
UPDATED: 11:38 am CDT May 5, 2004
Disney Forbidding Distribution of Film That Criticizes Bush
JIM RUTENBERG, The New York Times, reports:
WASHINGTON, May 4 — The Walt Disney Company is blocking its Miramax division from distributing a new documentary by Michael Moore that harshly criticizes President Bush, executives at both Disney and Miramax said Tuesday.
The film, "Fahrenheit 911," links Mr. Bush and prominent Saudis — including the family of Osama bin Laden — and criticizes Mr. Bush's actions before and after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
Disney, which bought Miramax more than a decade ago, has a contractual agreement with the Miramax principals, Bob and Harvey Weinstein, allowing it to prevent the company from distributing films under certain circumstances, like an excessive budget or an NC-17 rating.
Executives at Miramax, who became principal investors in Mr. Moore's project last spring, do not believe that this is one of those cases, people involved in the production of the film said. If a compromise is not reached, these people said, the matter could go to mediation, though neither side is said to want to travel that route.
In a statement, Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Miramax, said: "We're discussing the issue with Disney. We're looking at all of our options and look forward to resolving this amicably."
But Disney executives indicated that they would not budge from their position forbidding Miramax to be the distributor of the film in North America. Overseas rights have been sold to a number of companies, executives said.
"We advised both the agent and Miramax in May of 2003 that the film would not be distributed by Miramax," said Zenia Mucha, a company spokeswoman, referring to Mr. Moore's agent. "That decision stands."
Disney came under heavy criticism from conservatives last May after the disclosure that Miramax had agreed to finance the film when Icon Productions, Mel Gibson's company, backed out.
Mr. Moore's agent, Ari Emanuel, said Michael D. Eisner, Disney's chief executive, asked him last spring to pull out of the deal with Miramax. Mr. Emanuel said Mr. Eisner expressed particular concern that it would endanger tax breaks Disney receives for its theme park, hotels and other ventures in Florida, where Mr. Bush's brother, Jeb, is governor.
"Michael Eisner asked me not to sell this movie to Harvey Weinstein; that doesn't mean I listened to him," Mr. Emanuel said. "He definitely indicated there were tax incentives he was getting for the Disney corporation and that's why he didn't want me to sell it to Miramax. He didn't want a Disney company involved."
Disney executives deny that accusation, though they said their displeasure over the deal was made clear to Miramax and Mr. Emanuel.
A senior Disney executive elaborated that the company had the right to quash Miramax's distribution of films if it deemed their distribution to be against the interests of the company. The executive said Mr. Moore's film is deemed to be against Disney's interests not because of the company's business dealings with the government but because Disney caters to families of all political stripes and believes Mr. Moore's film, which does not have a release date, could alienate many.
"It's not in the interest of any major corporation to be dragged into a highly charged partisan political battle," this executive said.
Miramax is free to seek another distributor in North America, but such a deal would force it to share profits and be a blow to Harvey Weinstein, a big donor to Democrats.
Mr. Moore, who will present the film at the Cannes film festival this month, criticized Disney's decision in an interview on Tuesday, saying, "At some point the question has to be asked, `Should this be happening in a free and open society where the monied interests essentially call the shots regarding the information that the public is allowed to see' "
Mr. Moore's films, like "Roger and Me" and "Bowling for Columbine," are often a political lightning rod, as Mr. Moore sets out to skewer what he says are the misguided priorities of conservatives and big business. They have also often performed well at the box office. His most recent movie, "Bowling for Columbine," took in about $22 million in North America for United Artists. His books, like "Stupid White Men," a jeremiad against the Bush administration that has sold more than a million copies, have also been lucrative.
Mr. Moore does not disagree that "Fahrenheit 911" is highly charged, but he took issue with the description of it as partisan. "If this is partisan in any way it is partisan on the side of the poor and working people in this country who provide fodder for this war machine," he said.
Mr. Moore said the film describes financial connections between the Bush family and its associates and prominent Saudi Arabian families that go back three decades. He said it closely explores the government's role in the evacuation of relatives of Mr. bin Laden from the United States immediately after the 2001 attacks. The film includes comments from American soldiers on the ground in Iraq expressing disillusionment with the war, he said.
Mr. Moore once planned to produce the film with Mr. Gibson's company, but "the project wasn't right for Icon," said Alan Nierob, an Icon spokesman, adding that the decision had nothing to do with politics.
Miramax stepped in immediately. The company had distributed Mr. Moore's 1997 film, "The Big One." In return for providing most of the new film's $6 million budget, Miramax was positioned to distribute it.
While Disney's objections were made clear early on, one executive said the Miramax leadership hoped it would be able to prevail upon Disney to sign off on distribution, which would ideally happen this summer, before the election and when political interest is high.
May 04, 2004
Worm brings down coastguard PCs
Coastguard stations around the UK have been severely disrupted after a computer worm brought down IT systems.
The Sasser worm has hit all 19 coastguard stations and the service's main headquarters, leaving staff reliant on paper maps and pens.
A UK Maritime and Coastguard Agency spokeswoman said search and rescue operations were not affected and there was no danger to the public.
Swansea and Liverpool coastguards later said systems were coming back on line.
The Sasser worm has affected coastguard logging operations but left its command and control systems and lifesaving equipment unaffected.
Coastguards are still able to use telephones and radios but fax and telex machines have been put out of action.
Search and rescue
The Maritime and Coastguard Agency said staff had reverted to manual map reading as soon as its computerised mapping systems started to fail.
The paper-based system known colloquially as "pinkies", was in use before the service was fully computerised and had "served the coastguard well over many years," it said.
Peter Dymond, head of search and rescue at the agency, said radio and other forms of communication with ships at sea were unaffected.
And the IT department was working hard to get the rest of the service back online, he added. Liverpool coastguard, which covers much of Britain's west coast from Colwyn Bay to Mull of Kintyre, said the worm was causing major problems for its operations.
Falmouth coastguard, which is the main station for receiving information from abroad, said its work was being hampered by the problem.
The Sasser worm infects computers via the internet
And Great Yarmouth coastguard said the worm was causing "great inconvenience".
A coastguard spokeswoman said the worm had brought systems down on a relatively quiet day.
"The most problems we are experiencing are on an administration level," she said.
Staff were all fully trained in using paper maps instead of computer systems, she added.
The coastguard service is the latest casualty of the worm, which is thought to have affected millions of Windows PC users since it was first discovered on 1 May.
Unlike recent viruses, Sasser does not travel by e-mail but makes its way around the internet unaided.
It can infect PCs running Windows 2000 and Windows XP that are not protected against the system loophole it exploits.
According to anti-virus firms, machines running Windows 95, 98 and Millennium Edition can help spread Sasser even though they cannot be infected by it.
'Pinkies'
Sasser is called a worm rather than a virus because it searches out machines to infect by itself without any help from users.
So far, four variants of Sasser have been seen, the fourth of which - Sasser D - scans so aggressively for new computers to infect that it can cause networks to become congested with data and slow down.
The worm has spread rapidly around the world, causing disruption wherever it strikes.
Taiwan's national post office said 1,600 of its machines were hit by the virus which forced more than 400 of its 1,200 branch offices to revert to pen and paper.
The disruption left customers queuing in long lines at many of the company's offices, according to television reports.
Two Hong Kong government departments and some hospitals on the island were hit by Sasser.
In Australia, Railcorp trains were halted apparently because a computer problem disrupted the radio systems and stopped drivers talking to signalmen.
Also in Australia, Westpac Bank staff were forced to use manual methods to record transactions as the worm made computers unusable.
And Finnish company Sampo temporarily closed all its 130 branch offices as a precaution against Sasser.