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Angry eBay pulls Google adverts

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:14:29 GMT

clipped by: invictus
clipper's remarks:

EBay spends an estimated $25m (£12.6m) a year advertising on Google in the US.

Wow, let's see what will happen now...

Clip Source: news.bbc.co.uk

Angry eBay pulls Google adverts

PayPal is the biggest name in single online payments

Auction website eBay has pulled its US advertising from search engine giant and adversary Google.

The move comes after Google angered eBay with a provocative decision to hold an event on the same evening as eBay's annual merchants' conference.

Google's party was aimed at attracting attention away from eBay's payment system PayPal to its own card processing service, analysts say.

EBay spends an estimated $25m (£12.6m) a year advertising on Google in the US.

This makes eBay potentially the biggest single user of AdWords, Google's advertising system that shows adverts based on words in web searches and the biggest money-spinner for the internet search engine.

Tags: google, ebay, internet, advertising, web

Do Dogs Have A Sense Of Humor?

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:39:14 GMT

clipped by: debbyski

Clip Source: pets.yahoo.com

Does your dog ever make you laugh – on purpose? Does he know he’s being funny? An even stranger question – does your dog find things funny?

There are countless stories of dog antics and behavior that are funny, but most of those you’d have to say are unintentional. Humorous behavior may be repeated because of the positive reaction received. In this case, you can’t say the dog has a sense of humor, but is acting on positive reinforcement.

But dogs may be a little smarter than that. Just as some people enjoy making others laugh, it would seem, so do some dogs

A dog’s world of humor would have to be mostly on the physical level, through simply behaving in a goofy manner, or playing little tricks on you.

It’s really not so hard to believe that dogs have the mental prowess to grasp humor, since they so readily grasp the concept of play. Dogs completely understand the difference between play and something more serious, and are careful to make the distinction.

Tags: dogs, humor, play

73-year-old takes high school exams for 39th time

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 11:02:06 GMT

clipped by: Newfman

Clip Source: www.cbc.ca

JAIPUR, India (AP) - This year, like the past 39 years, Shivcharan Jatav tried to pass his 10th grade high school exams - and failed again.

The 73-year-old from western India was undeterred, vowing Friday to try again next year, in the hope that an education would improve his job and marriage prospects.

Jatav, a farmer from the desert state of Rajasthan, who had no formal education as a child, said he had been trying to pass the exams since 1969, when an army recruiter told him it would improve his chances of being accepted into the military.

"Since then I have been trying to pass this examination, but without any success," Jatav said, days after receiving the bitter news that he had failed again.

Jatav passed only one subject, the ancient language of Sanskrit, and scored just 103 out of a total of 600 in the examinations, he said.

Even though he is too old to join the army he has kept at it, hoping to become a more eligible bachelor.

Tags: odd

Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than ...

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:30:26 GMT

clipped by: liotropi

Clip Source: mamavision.com

mamaVISION

your life is now

Clip Source: mamavision.com

mamasMISSION

To change this statistic: "Young girls are more afraid of becoming fat than they are of cancer, nuclear war or losing their parents" (Lisa Berzins, Dying to be thin).

Tags: health, body image

Do Living People Outnumber the Dead?

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 08:17:29 GMT

clipped by: thisnamecantbetaken

Clip Source: www.sciam.com

Fact or Fiction?: Living People Outnumber the Dead

Booming population growth among the living, according to one rumor, outpaces the dead

The human population has swelled so much that people alive today outnumber all those who have ever lived, says a factoid whose roots stretch back to the 1970s. Some versions of this widely circulating rumor claim that 75 percent of all people ever born are currently alive. Yet, despite a quadrupling of the population in the past century, the number of people alive today is still dwarfed by the number of people who have ever lived.

To calculate how many people have ever lived, Haub followed a minimalist approach, beginning with two people in 50000 B.C.—his Adam and Eve.

For this myth ever to be valid there would have to be more than 100 billion people living on Earth. "How cozy," Cohen says. "It just doesn't seem plausible," he adds.

the U.N. predicts the world population will stabilize at 10 billion inhabitants sometime after 2200.

Tags: life, death, population, sustainability, earth

Do Men or Women Dream More about Sex?

Fri, 15 Jun 2007 05:21:17 GMT

clipped by: muckdog
clipper's remarks: Now if Big Pharma could create a pill that induced sexual dreams... Just saying.

Clip Source: www.ctv.ca

Do men or women dream more about sex?

Both men and women dream about sex in equal measure, according to the findings of a Canadian study.

About 8 per cent of everyday dream reports from both genders contain some form of sexual-related activity,

The most common type of sexual dream content was sexual intercourse, followed by sexual propositions, kissing, fantasies and masturbation.

Both men and women reported experiencing an orgasm in about 4 per cent of their sexual dreams.

Women reported that orgasms were experienced by other people who figured in their dreams, in about 4 per cent of their dreams.

In contrast, men did not report other characters experiencing orgasms in their dreams.

Current or past partners were identified in 20 per cent of women's sexual dreams, compared to 14 per cent for men.

Public figures such as movie stars and politicians were twice as likely to be the object of women's sexual dreams, while men were twice as likely to report dreaming of multiple sex partners.

Tags: sex

America's Exploding Mortgage Crisis Reveals That Home Ownership Isn't Paradise for Everyone

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 12:43:19 GMT

clipped by: JICWyllie

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

What's conspicuously absent from the news reports is the effect of the subprime lending debacle on poor and working-class families who bought into the dream of homeownership, regardless of the price. Sold a false bill of goods, many of these families now face foreclosure and the loss of the small savings they invested in their homes.

Clip Source: www.alternet.org

Homeownership is no automatic hedge against rising housing costs. On the contrary: lower-end affordable housing stock is typically old, in need of repair, and expensive to maintain. Low-income families often end up paying inflated prices for homes that are beset with major structural or mechanical problems masked by cosmetic repairs.

the expenses of home°©ownership also include property taxes and homeowners insurance, both of which have skyrocketed in cost in the last decade.

Low-income homeowners in distressed neighborhoods are hit especially hard by high insurance costs.

Tags: consumers, assets, householding, i-debt, i-risks, i-increase

Heart study suggests an upside to obesity

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 09:48:41 GMT

clipped by: aizwaikcha

Clip Source: www.msnbc.msn.com

Heart study suggests an upside to obesity

Heavy men with heart disease tend to live longer than slimmer patients

NEW YORK - Among men with symptoms of heart disease, those who are obese tend to live longer than their normal-weight counterparts, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that among nearly 6,900 male veterans assessed for symptoms of heart disease, those who were obese were less likely to die over the next seven-and-a-half years compared with normal-weight men.

Tags: obesity, heart

Iran moves to execute porn stars

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 05:05:57 GMT

clipped by: wiccantexan

Clip Source: www.cnn.com

TEHRAN, Iran (AP) -- Iran's parliament on Wednesday voted in favor of a bill that could lead to the death penalty for persons convicted of working in the production of pornographic movies.

With a 148-5 vote in favor and four abstentions, lawmakers present at the Wednesday session of the 290-seat parliament approved that "producers of pornographic works and main elements in their production are considered corrupter of the world and could be sentenced to punishment as corrupter of the world."

The term, "corrupter of the world" is taken from the Quran, the Muslims' holy book, and ranks among the highest on the scale of an individual's criminal offenses. Under Iran's Islamic Penal Code, it carries a death penalty.

Tags: iran, porn, death, koran, islam, muslim, death penalty, movies, criminal

Virtual Hallucinations drive police crazy

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 23:57:34 GMT

clipped by: kkcapricorn
clipper's remarks: I would love to see that!!

Clip Source: www.wired.com

Being crazy is hard, but it's worth the effort. Especially if you're a cop, paramedic, or social worker who may someday need to deal with a person having a psychotic episode. At those times, empathy can be crucial.

That's where Virtual Hallucinations comes in. The training device, created by Janssen L.P., is a rig with earphones and goggles that plunges the wearer into the mind of a serious schizophrenic. The system offers two interactive scenarios. In one, you're riding a bus in which other riders appear and disappear, birds of prey claw at the windows, and voices hiss, "He's taking you back to the FBI!" The other features a trip to the drugstore, where the pharmacist seems to be handing you poison instead of pills, and hostile customers stare at you in disgust.

that can make all the difference when it comes to understanding what a mentally ill person is going through. And there's nothing crazy about that.

Tags: police, mental illness, psychology, knowledge

KC man gets life for exposing lover to HIV

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 22:02:22 GMT

clipped by: skwirlinator
clipper's remarks: Twisted headline: If he has HIV he already has a death sentence so getting life is a strange way to word this

Clip Source: www.stltoday.com

KC man gets life for exposing lover to HIV

ASSOCIATED PRESS

ST. JOSEPH, Mo. (AP) -- A Kansas City man who spent five years in jail for exposing sexual partners to HIV was sentenced Tuesday to life in prison for knowingly exposing another woman to the virus.

"I think it's fairly clear he is a very dangerous individual," Buchanan County Prosecutor Dwight Scroggins said after the sentencing. "If he is not in prison, he would likely continue to spread HIV."

Prosecutors said Sykes began having a sexual relationship with a St. Joseph woman in 2004, never telling her that he had HIV.

Tags: hiv, aides, prison, life, death, murder, disreguard for life

Plants "Recognize" Their Siblings

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 21:38:10 GMT

clipped by: egsnyder

Clip Source: science.slashdot.org

"Researchers at McMaster University have found that plants get fiercely competitive when forced to share their pot with strangers of the same species, but they're accommodating when potted with their siblings. [...] Though they lack cognition and memory, the study shows plants are capable of complex social behaviours such as altruism towards relatives, says Dudley. Like humans, the most interesting behaviours occur beneath the surface."

Tags: interesting, fun, gardening

FL Principal Gets Jail For Buying Crack Cocaine At School

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 17:09:48 GMT

clipped by: dorine
clipper's remarks: The NEA opposes background checks. Another reason to homeschool.

Clip Source: www.wftv.com

A former middle school principal has pleaded guilty to buying crack cocaine in his office and was sentenced to a year in jail.

Anthony Giancola was arrested in February when he made a deal to buy $20 worth of crack cocaine from an undercover officer while students were still on campus at Van Buren Middle School in Tampa.

Giancola was sentenced to 364 days in the county jail. If he completes a drug-treatment program in jail, the remainder of the sentence will be suspended.

Giancola also got three years probation, 200 hours of community service and must forfeit his teaching license.

Tags: crime, school, home school

China Likely Blocks Flickr

Wed, 13 Jun 2007 15:36:47 GMT

clipped by: tonya-yvonne
clipper's remarks: sounds like something Bush would do

Clip Source: www.pcworld.com

SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Flickr.com, one of the world's most popular online photo-sharing sites and owned by Yahoo Inc. , is likely being blocked by the Chinese government, Yahoo's Hong Kong unit said on Tuesday.

Flickr -- popular among a growing class of digital photo enthusiasts in the world's second-largest Internet market -- has not shown photos to users in mainland China since last week, amid rumors Beijing took action after images of the Tiananmen massacre in early June 1989 were posted.

"It appears that the Chinese government is restricting access to Flickr, although we have not received confirmation from them," the spokeswoman said in the email.

"It is our understanding that Flickr users in China are not able to see images on Flickr, and we have confirmed that this is not a technical issue on our end," a spokeswoman for Yahoo Hong Kong said in an email in response to a Reuters inquiry.

Officials from China's Ministry of Information Industry could not be reached for comment on Tuesday.

Tags: bush, flickr, camera, banned, censorship, internet, ministry

UGA study finds that weaker nations prevail in 39 percent of military conflicts

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 23:30:54 GMT

clipped by: PatrisTimoris

Clip Source: www.eurekalert.org

Athens, Ga. – Despite overwhelming military superiority, the world’s most powerful nations failed to achieve their objectives in 39 percent of their military operations since World War II, according to a new University of Georgia study.

Sullivan said the most important factor influencing whether the more powerful nation is successful is whether its strategic objective can be accomplished with brute force alone or requires the cooperation of the adversary.

Based on Sullivan’s model, the current war in Iraq has a probability of success of nearly 26 percent with an estimated duration of 10 years.

Sullivan analyzed all 122 post World War II wars and military interventions in which the United States, the Soviet Union, Russia, China, Britain or France fought a weaker adversary.

Tags: history, military, military strategy, war, conflict, statistics, iraq, russia, us