Modern Warfare 2 Multiplayer AC130

The first look at Modern Warfare 2 multiplayer, introducing the AC130 killstreak reward.

Available for pre-order and releasing worldwide on November 10th, 2009.

youtube

Read The Details

Jake Lloyd: Ten Years After Star Wars Ep One

The original video from SCI FI PI, The SCI FI Channel Australia Blog! Jake talks candidly about growing up in the shadow of Star Wars. Interview conducted at Supanova, Sydney June 2009

youtube

Read The Details

Baboon Gang Raid Visitors' Luggage

Baboons at a safari park in northern England have learnt how to break into car rooftop luggage boxes.

In a staged recreation of recent events, Knowsley Safari Park show how the baboons have learnt to open luggage containers on roof racks.

Recently, visitors to the park have had their possessions stolen by the anti-social primates.

The safari park has now warned visitors that they enter the park at their own risk.

reuters

Read The Details

Google Promises 'The End of Viruses'

Engineering director claims Chrome OS will finally defeat malware

Google's Engineering Director has promised that its forthcoming Chrome OS will see 'the end of malware'.

Google is promising what the latest issue of New Scientist magazine refers to as "a carefree antivirus nirvana" with its forthcoming Google Chrome OS.

Linus Upson, Google's Engineering Director, has promised the company is: "Completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates. It should just work."



Chrome browser patched

Ironically, Google is also in the news this week due to security flaws in its Chrome browser.

Two of the most recent Google Chrome web browser security flaws (one relating to malicious code exploitation in the Chrome tab sandbox and one relating to memory corruption in the browser tab processes) have now been fixed.

You can see the full run-down of all the latest changes over on Google's Chrome site.

So is the cloud computing future really going to be more secure than our current system of downloading regular security patches to constantly fix the software that's sitting on our hard drive?

"Downloading updates is always going to be a step or two behind the cloud approach because it takes a while to get a fix out to a PC to install it," argues Paul Jackson of Forrester Research.

And while Jackson agrees that "the cloud approach allows patches to be applied much faster" he notes that any web-based OS is still going to be at risk from malware targeting the browser or Linux.

Robert Caunt, an analyst from CCS Insight in London, notes that Google has a good record on security to date: "Its Gmail spam filter and search engine's phishing-detection is good. They know what needs doing."

Major computing brands such as Nvidia, Dell, Asus, Acer and others have already confirmed that they will be fully supporting Google's Chrome OS. Stay tuned for further Chrome OS news updates as and when we get them.

www.techradar.com

Read The Details

Dazed Giant Squid Wash Up After Earthquake

From NBC: Dazed Giant Squid[s] Wash Up On La Jolla, California Beach After Earthquake - July, 12th, 2009

youtube

Read The Details

World's Oldest Man Dies

LONDON – Only death could silence Henry Allingham.

He went to war as a teenager, helped keep flimsy aircraft flying, survived his wounds and came home from World War I to a long — very long — and fruitful life.

But only in his last years did he discover his true mission: to remind new generations of the sacrifices of the millions slaughtered in the trenches, killed in the air, or lost at sea in what Britons call the Great War.

Allingham, who was the world's oldest man when he died Saturday at 113, attributed his remarkable longevity to "cigarettes, whisky and wild, wild women."

Jokes aside, he was a modest man who served as Britain's conscience, reminding young people time and time again about the true cost of war.

"I want everyone to know," he told The Associated Press during an interview in November. "They died for us."

He was the last surviving original member of the Royal Air Force, which was formed in 1918. He made it a personal crusade to talk about a conflict that wiped out much of a generation. Though nearly blind, he would take the outstretched hands of visitors in both of his, gaze into the eyes of children, veterans and journalists and deliver a message he wanted them all to remember about those left on the battlefield.

"I don't want to see them forgotten," he would say quietly. "We were pals."

Only a handful of World War I veterans remain of the estimated 68 million mobilized. There are no French veterans left alive; just one left now in Britain; and the last living American-born veteran is Frank Woodruff Buckles of Charles Town, West Virginia. The man believed to have been Germany's last surviving soldier has also died.

"It's the end of a era_ a very special and unique generation," said Allingham's friend, Dennis Goodwin. "The British people owe them a great deal of gratitude."

Born June 6, 1896, during the reign of Queen Victoria, Allingham would later recall sitting on his grandfather's shoulders waving a flag for King Edward VII's coronation in 1902. Transportation was horse drawn, coal was the primary fuel, street lighting was gas and in the financial heart of London, there was same-day mail delivery.

But the world was changing fast. In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright flew an airplane at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and in 1913, Henry Ford began making Model Ts on an assembly line in Michigan.

Allingham left school at 15 and was working in a car factory in east London when war broke out in 1914.

He spent the war's first months refitting trucks for military use, but when his mother died in June 1915, he decided to join up after seeing a plane circling a reservoir in Essex, east of London.

"It was a captivating sight," he wrote in his memoir. "Fascinated, I sat down on the grass verge to watch the aircraft. I decided that was for me."

That chance encounter with an early flying machine was to change his life.

It was only a dozen years after the Wright brothers first put up their plane, and Britain's air resources were primitive. Allingham and other valiant airmen set out from eastern England on motorized kites made with wood, linen and wire. They piled on clothes and smeared their faces in Vaseline, whale oil or engine grease to try to block the cold.

"To be honest, all the planes were so flimsy and unpredictable — as well as incapable of carrying large fuel loads — at the start of the war that both British and German pilots would immediately turn back rather than face each other in the skies if they did not enjoy height supremacy," Allingham would later write. "But I remember getting back on the ground and just itching to take off again."

As a mechanic, Allingham's job was to maintain the rickety craft. He also flew as an observer on a biplane. At first, his weaponry consisted of a standard issue Lee Enfield .303 rifle — sometimes two. Parachutes weren't issued.

He fought in the Battle of Jutland, the largest naval battle of World War I. He served on the Western Front, by now armed with a machine gun. He was wounded in the arm by shrapnel during an attack on an aircraft depot, but survived.

After the war he worked at the Ford motor factory and raised two children with his wife, Dorothy. She died in 1970, and when his daughter Jean died in 2001, friends say he waited to die, too. His will to live was waning; his life seemed without a larger purpose.

That's about the time he met Goodwin, a nursing home inspector who realized that veterans of Allingham's generation were not getting the care they needed to address the trauma they had experienced at the Somme, Gallipoli and Ypres and the other blood-drenched World War I battlefields. Some veterans ached to return to the battlefields to pay their respects to their slain friends, and Goodwin found himself organizing trips to France for that purpose.

He encouraged Allingham to share his experiences and the veteran, even though he had passed the century mark, started talking to reporters and school groups, providing the connection to a lost generation some had forgotten. He found himself leading military parades. He was made an Officer of France's Legion of Honor and received other honors.

He met Queen Elizabeth II and wrote his autobiography with help from Goodwin. It was called "Kitchener's Last Volunteer," a reference to Britain's Minister for War who rallied men to the cause. Prince Charles wrote the introduction.

He grew accustomed to being one of the last ones standing. Last year, he joined Harry Patch, Britain's last surviving World War I soldier, and the late Bill Stone, the country's last sailor, in a ceremony at the Cenotaph war memorial near the houses of Parliament in London, to mark the 90th anniversary of the war's end at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month in 1918.

As the wreaths were being laid, Allingham pushed himself up out of his wheelchair to place his arrangement at the base of the memorial — refusing the help of an officer deployed at his side. He leaned forward and placed the red poppy wreath beside the others. Tears flowed.

Allingham remained outspoken until his death, pleading for peace and begging anyone who would listen to remember those who died.

"I think we need to make people aware that a few men gave all they had to give so that you could have a better world to live in," he said. "We have to pray it never happens again."

Goodwin said Allingham's funeral will take place in Brighton. He is survived by five grandchildren, 12 great-grandchildren, 14 great-great grandchildren and one great-great-great grandchild.

yahoo/cnn

Read The Details

Dogs At Work And Play

A woman walks with a bichon frise and a poodle both coloured with various dyes on a street in Wuhan, Hubei province July 11, 2009. Amid China's current pet boom, dog owners are flocking to pet beauticians to pamper their pets with everything from shampooing to hair trimming, and nail care to hair-dye, local media reported. Picture taken July 11, 2009.

yahoo

Read The Details

Touch To Cook

General Electric believes it's found a way to lower costs and pollution. Capital News 9's Steve Ference reports.

cnn

Read The Details

Michael Jackson's Final Resting Place A Mystery

LOS ANGELES – Michael Jackson's glimmering casket took center stage at the Staples Center, sitting for more than two hours as celebrities memorialized the King of Pop under the watchful eyes of millions. And when the ceremony was over, it was gone.

By law, the golden casket that presumably held Jackson's body should be exactly where his death certificate says it is: back at Forest Lawn Memorial Park Hollywood Hills cemetery, the site of a private family memorial service held before the Staples ceremony. Los Angeles County records show the cemetery as the temporary location, where it must stay until those records are officially updated.


But where Jackson's body will eventually be laid to rest remained a mystery, fed by the same level of rumor and speculation that surrounded much of his life. Will he be interred at Forest Lawn? Is Neverland Ranch still a possibility?

What if he's not buried at all, but cremated? The family isn't talking — and may not even have decided yet.

The casket was first seen leaving the mortuary at Forest Lawn, where it got into a hearse for the 10-mile trip to the Staples Center. But before the service even started, the hearse was seen leaving the facility — empty — and wasn't spotted again.

But to keep in good standing with the law, the casket would have needed to return to Forest Lawn at some point, presumably after the crowds went home and the television cameras were long gone.

Robert J. Biggins, a former president of the National Funeral Directors Association, said Jackson's body is likely in his casket which he identified it as a custom-made, top-of-the-line coffin made by the Indiana-based Batesville Casket Company that is called a "Promethean." The casket is probably in a temporary holding area — perhaps a mausoleum — pending a final location, he said.

"This happened so quickly that it's something that has to have an awful lot of thoughtful consideration," said Biggins, who is the owner of Magoun-Biggins Funeral home in Rockland, Mass. "This is bigger than your average burial."

Conjecture about Jackson's final resting place has been as fraught as the rumors about where his memorial service would be held in the days before the Staples Center was announced. His 5-page will, signed in 2002, does not include final wishes for his body.

Forest Lawn is one likely possibility. If Jackson is buried there, he would join other celebrities such as Liberace, Gene Autry, Bette Davis and Andy Gibb. Recently deceased actor David Carradine and "Tonight Show" sidekick Ed McMahon also are buried there.

The Jackson family seems divided over whether the body should go to Neverland, which would surely turn the Santa Barbara County ranch into a West-coast Graceland. But Jackson abandoned the 2,500-acre estate after going into seclusion following his acquittal on child molestation charges in 2005, and many of the things that made it unique — the merry-go-round, Ferris wheel and zoo — are gone.

Billionaire Thomas Barrack, who owns Neverland in a joint venture with Jackson, has expressed an openness to the idea of having the singer's body buried at the ranch. The family would need to get permission from local land-use officials to bury Jackson on private property, then submit an application and paperwork with the state Cemetery and Funeral Bureau.

The state application would then need to be approved by the funeral board, a process that could take anywhere from seven to 30 days.

Beyond that, accessibility remains an issue at Neverland. A single two-lane highway leads to the property about 130 miles north of Los Angeles, and infrastructure changes would likely be necessary to accommodate the additional traffic.

Another possibility is cremation. State law requires that the person who has control of the cremated remains obtain written permission of the property owner or governing agency to scatter on the property.

Funeral experts said the delay in Jackson's funeral may be due to the fact that such celebrity deaths create logistical, security and legal headaches.

"One of the issues you're going to run into with any high-profile name, whether it be a former president of the United States or somebody of Michael Jackson's stature, is what does the cemetery — if it's to be a burial — do to establish security, to protect the remains, to protect the privacy of the family during the service, to protect remains afterward and what kind of built-in overhead comes with it," said Paul Elvig, former president of the International Cemetery, Cremation and Funeral Association.

Experts said even a two-week delay between death and funeral is not unusual. The body of singer James Brown was kept in a sealed gold casket inside his South Carolina home for more than two months before being interred in 2007 at the home of one of his daughters.

"You're probably talking more about an impatient public and an impatient press wanting to know what's going to happen and that impatience needs to be understood," Elvig said. "If a body's been properly prepared by an embalmer, it can be held for a considerable period of time with minor touchups to it."

Biggins said he is even encouraged by the delay.

"I think the fact that there's this pause is a wonderful thing because it's being given thoughtful consideration," he said, "to make sure this is done right and this is done in a way that honors his legacy."

yahoo

Read The Details

Commercial : Evian Roller Babies

So small yet already incredible!
Tout petits et déjà incroyables !

youtube

Read The Details

Jackson Memorial Breaks Records

Michael Jackson's memorial draws millions both online and off but it's unclear if viewers top the estimated 2.5 billion who watched Princess Diana's 1997 funeral.

Manoush Zomorodi reports.

reuters

Read The Details

Rumor : Michael Jackson's Ghost In Neverland

Michael Jackson Ghost During CNN Larry King Interview. Very strange !!

youtube

Read The Details

Michael Jackson Last Rehearsal Footage (More)

Here's the video of the rehearsal two days before his death. Thanks to CNN and AEG Live for the footage. CNN reports that there is over 100 hours of rehearsal footage.

Performing "They Don't Care About Us" mixed with some "HIStory".
Filmed Tuesday, June 23, 2009. Aired Thursday, July 2, 2009, exactly one week from Michael Jackson's death.

youtube & cnn

Read The Details

Jackson Funeral Set for Tuesday

Tickets for a public memorial service for Michael Jackson in Los Angeles on Tuesday made available through an online lottery.

Los Angeles confirms it will hold a memorial service for Michael Jackson next Tuesday.

It will be held at the Staples Center in California, the rehersal venue where the singer last performed.

Organizers of the event said fans wishing to attend would have to register online.

reuters

Read The Details

Unknown Lifeform in North Carolina Sewer

An unknown lifeform picked up by sewer snakecam in North Carolina. Believed to be of ET origin.

Courtesy of www.UFORADAR.com and Flying Saucers Cafe, Santa Monica CA

youtube

Read The Details

Michael Jackson's Last Video

The footage shows glimpses of what would have been an elaborately choreographed show as Jackson is seen performing his song "They Don't Care About Us."

reuters

Read The Details

Vegetarian Diet Weakens Bones

SYDNEY (AFP) – People who live on vegetarian diets have slightly weaker bones than their meat-eating counterparts, Australian researchers said Thursday.

A joint Australian-Vietnamese study of links between the bones and diet of more than 2,700 people found that vegetarians had bones five percent less dense than meat-eaters, said lead researcher Tuan Nguyen.


The issue was most pronounced in vegans, who excluded all animal products from their diet and whose bones were six percent weaker, Nguyen said.

There was "practically no difference" between the bones of meat-eaters and ovolactovegetarians, who excluded meat and seafood but ate eggs and dairy products, he said.

"The results suggest that vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, are associated with lower bone mineral density," Nguyen wrote in the study, which was published Thursday in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

"But the magnitude of the association is clinically insignificant," he added.

Nguyen, who is from Sydney's Garvan Institute for Medical Research and collaborated on the project with the Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine in Ho Chi Minh City, said the question of whether the lower density bones translated to increased fracture risk was yet to be answered.

"Given the rising number of vegetarians, roughly five percent (of people) in western countries, and the widespread incidence of osteoporosis, the issue is worth resolving," he said.

yahoo

Read The Details