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Steven J. Vaughn-Nicols, eWeek.com, reports:

Sun Microsystems Inc. is ending its Cobalt server product line, but that’s not the end of the Cobalt story. Sun has elected to release the Cobalt RaQ 550 server appliance source code under a Berkeley style open-source license, thus giving the old product line new life.

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On BoingBoing, Mark Frauenfelder writes:

I’ve been opening my bananas stem-side first all my life. On Friday, David showed me how monkeys open bananas. They pinch them on the other end. Boy, it’s a lot easier. I’ll never open a banana the dumb way again.

Reader comment: Kevin says: “I learned this genius monkey technique a few years ago and it was a defining moment in my life. An added bonus is that the stem end of the banana pops out easily once you’ve eaten down that far.”

Jonny Evans, Macworld.co.uk, reports:

Microsoft has killed Internet Explorer on the Mac.

The software giant will end support for it at the end of the year (i.e.in 13 days) and will make no additional security or performance updates available from that point.
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joris Evers, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, reports:

A new worm that targets users of America Online’s AOL Instant Messenger is believed to be the first that actually chats with the intended victim to dupe the target into activating a malicious payload, IM security vendor IMlogic warned Tuesday.

According to IMlogic, the worm, dubbed IM.Myspace04.AIM, has arrived in instant messages that state: “lol thats cool” and included a URL to a malicious file “clarissa17.pif.” When unsuspecting users have responded, perhaps asking if the attachment contained a virus, the worm has replied: “lol no its not its a virus”, IMlogic said.
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Editors at write about The Pebble and the Avalanche by Dr. Moshe Yudkowsky:

Important revolutions of the past 30 years include the Internet, personal computers, the XML programming language, and the breakup of AT&T. What do they have in common? All are based on innovations that break technology apart. After breaking a technology apart, it still works — phone calls could still be made after the breakup of AT&T — but it is composed of smaller and more flexible pieces that can be used to create new innovations. This process is called “disaggregation,” so named because the pieces of the technology that were formerly stuck together are pried apart but not destroyed. Using the simple metaphor of the pebble and the avalanche — prying rocks loose from a mountaintop releases tremendous energy — this book explains the workings and benefits of disaggregation. Author Yudkowsky uses case studies from familiar companies and industries to explain how to generate similar innovations, in the process identifying strategies and tactics that maximize these innovations.

Rob at cockeyed.com reports, that Alex says:

“I’m a former Marine I in Afghanistan. Silly string has served me well in Combat especially in looking for I.A.Ds., simply put, booby traps. When you spray the silly sting in dark areas, especially when you doing house to house fighting. On many occasions the silly string has saved me and my men’s lives.“

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Inexplicata - The Journal of Hispanic Ufology, via Scott Corrales (), via reports:

CIUFOS-La Pampa (Raul Oscar Chaves)

(Editor’s Note: One of the most startling aspects of the 2002 cattle mutilation wave in Argentina was the disappearance of tremendous amounts of water from the large cisterns known as “tanques australianos” (literally, Australian tanks) in Argentina’s cattle ranching communities. Entire swimming pools were drained empty in Santa Rosa, Argentina, around this same time. As a curious aside to this situation, psychic Silvia Browne, a regular guest on TV’s Montel Williams Show and radio’s Coast to Coast with George Noory, mentioned a year ago that a similar swimming pool draining in the USA had been brought about “by UFOs”. Food for thought. — Scott Coralles)

In the early morning hours of October 31, 2005, 70,000 liters of water were found to be missing from a tank habitually employed to provide livestock with water.. Miguel Garrone, who leases the “La Caba’a” ranch, says that the tank was filled to the maximum on Saturday evening and was found completely empty in the early morning hours of Monday. No signs of breakage or filtration were found, nor signs of moisture in its perimeter that could provide an answer to such a strange phenomenon.

The livestock rancher indicated his astonishment, stressing that this is not the first time that such an event occurs in the area.
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The Hippo Water Roller, via BoingBoing:

Millions of people worldwide are forced to walk long distances on a daily basis to collect their water requirements for the day. Traditional methods of collecting water include the use of 20-liter (5-gallon) buckets, which are laboriously carried on the head. Extensive suffering occurs in the process. This method is very time and energy consuming and is also the cause of many serious health problems.

The Hippo Water Roller was specifically designed to alleviate the suffering caused by a lack of access to water. The Hippo Water Roller is a barrel-shaped container designed to transport 90 liters (20 gallons) of water. It comprises of a drum with a large screw-on cap and a clip-on steel handle.
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Family Photo (Sharon Cekada/Associated Press)

Associated Press, reports:

APPLETON, Wisconsin — When Emily the cat went missing a month ago, her owners looked for their wandering pet where she had ended up before — the local animal shelter.

But this week they learned Emily sailed to France.

Lesley McElhiney figures her cat went prowling around a paper warehouse near home and ended up in a cargo container that went by ship across the Atlantic Ocean and was trucked to Nancy, a city in northeastern France near the border with Germany.

Employees at a French lamination company found her in the container, checked her tags and called Emily’s veterinarian back in the U.S., John Palarski.
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On Slashdot, xbmodder writes:

 ”Two tier one ISPs are down today. At about 23:30PST both Verio and Level 3 starting having problems with routes. According to Level 3 this is a software upgrade gone awry. Is this the end for Level 3?” Many, many reports about this are coming in, and if you’re wondering why the stories were rather sparse overnight, it’s because it’s difficult to post them without internet access. Hope everyone else is back online too.

By DAWN WALTON, Friday’s Globe and Mail, reports:

Calgary — Forget the stereotype about dopey potheads. It seems marijuana could be good for your brain.

While other studies have shown that periodic use of marijuana can cause memory loss and impair learning and a host of other health problems down the road, new research suggests the drug could have some benefits when administered regularly in a highly potent form.

Most “drugs of abuse” such as alcohol, heroin, cocaine and nicotine suppress growth of new brain cells. However, researchers found that cannabinoids promoted generation of new neurons in rats’ hippocampuses.

Hippocampuses are the part of the brain responsible for learning and memory, and the study held true for either plant-derived or the synthetic version of cannabinoids.

“This is quite a surprise,” said Xia Zhang, an associate professor with the Neuropsychiatry Research Unit at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

“Chronic use of marijuana may actually improve learning memory when the new neurons in the hippocampus can mature in two or three months,” he added.

The research by Dr. Zhang and a team of international researchers is to be published in the November issue of the Journal of Clinical Investigation, but their findings are on-line now.

The scientists also noticed that cannabinoids curbed depression and anxiety, which Dr. Zhang says, suggests a correlation between neurogenesis and mood swings. (Or, it at least partly explains the feelings of relaxation and euphoria of a pot-induced high.)
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AFP reports

WASHINGTON (AFP) - More bicycles than cars have been sold in the United States over the past 12 months, with rising gas prices prompting commuters to opt for two wheels instead of four.

Not since the oil crisis of 1973 have bicycles sold in such big numbers, according to Tim Blumenthal, executive director of Bikes Belong, an industry association.

“Bicycle sales are near an all-time high with 19 million sold last year — close to the 20 million sold during the oil embargo in the early 1970s,” said Blumenthal, whose association is based in Boulder in the western state of Colorado.

The US Chamber of Commerce says more bicycles have been sold than cars over the past 12 months.
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CNN reports:

MOBILE, Alabama (CNN) — More than 656,000 homes and businesses across Alabama were without electricity Tuesday, and water and debris still closed off many roads.

In a demonstration of Katrina’s wide reach, more than 182,000 customers in the Birmingham area and another 132,000 in and around Tuscaloosa — both cities more than 150 miles inland — were without power.

Alabama Power spokesman Bernie Fogarty warned customers they would be in for a “prolonged outage.”
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U.S. Border Patrol Yuma sector public affairs officer Michael Gramley pulls the cover off one of the rotors of a Border Patrol helicopter that was struck by a rock Tuesday night. Sun photo/Alfred J. Hernandez

Dan Whitcomb, Reuters, via Google News, reports:

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A U.S. Border Patrol helicopter was forced to make an emergency landing after illegal immigrants pelted it with baseball-sized rocks, damaging a rotor, a spokesman for the agency said on Thursday.
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Doohan’s last public appearance was in October 2004 when he received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The BBC reports:

Actor James Doohan, who played the chief engineer Montgomery Scott in Star Trek, has died at the age of 85.
Doohan, whose role was immortalised in the line “Beam me up, Scotty”, had been suffering from pneumonia and Alzheimer’s disease, his agent said.

His wife of 28 years, Wende, was by his side, Steve Stevens added.
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via BoingBoing:

The Playpump is an ingenious made-in-Africa water pump driven by a childrens’ roundabout. The kids spin, water is pumped.

The Playpumps are specifically designed and patented roundabouts (1) that drive conventional borehole pumps (2), while entertaining children. The revolutionary pump design converts rotational movement to reciprocating linear movement by a driving mechanism consisting of only two working parts.

This makes the pump highly effective, easy to operate and very economical by keeping costs and maintenance to an absolute minimum. The pump is capable of producing 1400 litres per hour at 16 rpm from a depth of 40 metres and is effective up to a depth of 100 metres. A typical hand pump installation cannot compete with this delivery rate, even with substantial effort.

Playing on a roundabout or merry-go-round has always been fun for children, so there is never a shortage of ‘volunteers’. As the children spin, water is pumped from underground (3) into a 2500 litre tank (4), standing seven metres above the ground. A simple tap provides easy access for the mothers and children drawing water (5).

China Daily reports:

(Xinhua) — Two persons died of bubonic plague and three others are recovering from the disease in the Tibet Autonomous Region in southwest China, the regional government’s information office reported on Saturday.
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You know, I haven’t thought about tube socks in any serious way since I was about 10, back in the ’70s, when tube socks ruled the planet and the longer they were, the better, and if they had those cool stripes by the knee they were totally way bitchin’. Now, suddenly, tube socks are very, very impressive items indeed. Suddenly they look positively delicious. (Courtesy of American Apparel)

By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist, writes:

It’s all destructive and debilitating and morally dubious, the fact that the oddly patriotic clothing company called American Apparel dares to photograph barely of-age girls and boys in sly, smiling, half-lidded, gritty, delightfully sexy poses in order to sell socks and underwear and T-shirts, all manufactured by an L.A.-based company that swears it doesn’t employ sweatshop labor and claims it treats its local work force fairly and lovingly and decently, while at the same time it has zero moral issue with hiring — has anyone noticed? — true-blue porn starlet and AVN Performer of the Year Lauren Phoenix to model their tube socks and undies and boy-beater tanks.

To which we can only say: God bless them. Mostly.
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News Channel 5 (WEWS, Cleveland, Ohio), reports:

LORAIN, Ohio — Police departments use the x26 Taser to shock unruly suspects into submission, but Lorain residents are stunned that an officer used one on a school bus to subdue to 12-year-old boy, reported NewsChannel5.

According to the police report, police were called to remove the boy from the bus after he tried to steal another boy’s CD case.

Police Capt. Russ Cambarare said the boy cussed at the officers and then threatened her.
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KAREEM FAHIM, The New York Times, via BoingBoing, reports:

A man’s leg and part of his spine came crashing onto the roof of a woman’s home in Nassau County near Kennedy International Airport yesterday morning, and a short while later the man himself was found dead in the wheel well of a South African Airways jetliner that had just landed.
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The Associated Press reports:

WATERTOWN, S.D. - Investigators suspected lightning as one possible cause of a fire that killed thousands of turkeys near Watertown Friday morning.

Fire crews were called to Oak Valley Farms around 6 a.m. and found the processing plant filled with flames. The plant is 3 miles southwest of Watertown.

The fire chief said 13,000 turkeys were killed.

Investigators were looking for the cause, but suspected either a lightning strike or faulty wiring.

Cory Doctorow, BoingBoing, reports:

The Vienna streetcar system (which is excellent, efficient and clean as a whistle) has created an in-city freight service that hauls all kinds of weighty loads around town. Link (Thannks, Alex!)

In Vienna, they’ve started running freight over the tram system. The Wiener Linien, the public transport authority, runs perhaps the best system I’ve ever met (especially as they haven’t discovered the ticket barrier yet), including an intricate network of tramways carrying a variety of different trains that I’m not sick enough to detail. The plan, now, is to carry goods needed to maintain the system on goods trams like the one shown, and then perhaps also deliveries to businesses in the city, waste for disposal, and maybe also post. Link (in German) and more pics: here.

The trams are known as “bims” from the sound of the bell that invites the unwary to stand clear, as they go like a bat out of hell at the slightest provocation. For some reason, in my experience, the further east you go in Europe the faster the trams get - the Bratislava ones are quicker, and the huge ones in Budapest are a public menace rivalled only by the cars.

On Slashdot, CTealL writes:

“Apparently Intuit thinks it’s okay to share information about taxes with third paries. According to this article, Intuit is using a third party tracking technology on all tax forms submitted to the IRS. “We could capture your name, your Social Security number or any other information that you willingly pass to a Web site,” acknowledged Matt Belkin, who serves as vice president of best practices for Utah marketing giant Omniture, which tracks the online activities of people using Intuit’s TurboTax. The IRS disavows any knowledge of this, saying “The IRS does not take a position on Web tracking tools.” Makes you wonder where your tax information is going…”
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PTI News, via Make NewKerala, reports:

(PTI News) Beijing: China will tap the nation’s largest copper mine located in southwest China’s Tibet, the state media reported today from the remote Himalayan region.
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Kate Palmer, Foreign Policy, writes:

People can get almost anything on the black market—drugs, passports, even human organs. Now add Web sites to the list. Inside many authoritarian regimes that closely monitor and censor the Internet, access to blocked Web sites has become a black market commodity like any other. Typically, the process is simple: Savvy black marketers in cybercafes, universities, private homes, and elsewhere exploit technological loopholes to circumvent government filters and charge fees for access. According to the OpenNet Initiative (ONI) (www.opennetinitiative.net), a research organization devoted to tracking blocked Web sites, black market access to filtered pages in Saudi Arabia runs anywhere from $26 to $67 per Web site.
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