Navy Ship Again Survives Disaster...Again.
The U.S. Navy's amphibious assault ship USS New York has already made history — twice — and it hasn't yet even touched the water. Built with 24 tons of scrap steel from the World Trade Center, it also weathered Hurricane Katrina.

The combination of disasters gives the ship a unique standing among the 2,000 workers building it in a shipyard near New Orleans, says Philip Teel, head of its ship systems division, in a recent Associated Press article (via Newsday): "Because of 9-11 and Katrina, there is a real bond about this ship. There is a huge commonality of spirit of the people in New York and the Gulf Coast, a commitment to pull together when things get difficult."

While the partly completed vessel escaped "significant wind damage" at the shipyard, many of its workers have continued on the job despite losing homes and possessions to the category 5 storm last Aug. 29.

USS New York, scheduled to go into Navy service in 2008, will carry a crew of 360 sailors and 700 combat-equipped Marines for various missions, including special operations against terrorist threats. Marines will be delivered ashore by a combination of helicopters and surface assault craft.

'Where'd I Leave Those Damn Keys?'
German authorities are changing 150 locks at a nuclear power plant after its owner said that keys to a security area were lost, Reuters reported on Monday. Despite intensive searches and questioning, plant operator EnBW said it had not been able to recover 12 keys for its Philippsburg plant after discovering they were lost last month.

"This has never happened anywhere in Germany before," the ministry spokesman said. "The keys have simply disappeared."

'Hello? Can You Hear Me Now? Hi, I'd Like to Patent Something Totally New.'
Just when you thought patenting could get no worse, RealTechNews on Wednesday points out that even the lowly string-and-tin-can phone was patented. Had the patent not expired, just how much would your former seven-year-old self owe these patent holders?

United States Patent 4,195,707
Kupperman , et al. April 1, 1980
Communicating Device
A device for communicating in which a hollow frustum extending outwardly from a flat base has tabs at the ends thereof for holding a relatively rigid diaphragm having spaced apart apertures therein. A pair of these devices are interconnected by a cord or string, whereby conversation or sound projected into one of the devices is reproduced at the other device. Two devices are molded as a single integral unit and merchandised as an in-pack item with children's breakfast cereals.

(via InfoCellar)

Yet Wives Said Nothing.
A school text book that compares politicians unfavorably to donkeys is to have the offending chapter removed, following complaints from aggrieved politicians, BBC News reported on Tuesday. In annual exams, 14-year-old students were tested on their knowledge of the book and were asked if the skin of the donkey is, like that of the Indian leaders, too thick.

The offending chapter also gives donkeys a higher rating than wives. You see, "the wife keeps nagging" while "the donkey does not complain." The text book reads of the wife: "When she gets angry she starts a non-cooperation movement and threatens to go back to her parents, but the donkey never gets upset and serves its master faithfully."

Complaints about the book in the western Indian state of Rajasthan have only now surfaced, even though it has been in use for a year. The chapter was written by the late Hindi author Gopal Prasad Vyas, who was noted for his satirical writing.

That Deadhead Looks a Bit Flushed.
Police say late Grateful Dead leader Jerry Garcia's commode was stolen recently from a driveway along with three other toilets and a bidet. Garcia's salmon-colored toilet was the subject of a legal battle before it was moved finally to Sonoma to await shipment to a Canadian casino.

It's unclear if the toilet was swiped by a wayward Deadhead or a bathroom-remodeling thief. Police have no suspects or leads.

'Where'd I Leave That Damn Microphone?'
Lectrosonics brings to market the tiniest microphone in the world, "with a cool name to boot," reports MobileMag.

The eXtra-Super-Damn-Tiny, or XSDT, has an almost-microscopic 1x1mm frame. The self-contained microphone runs on AA batteries.

Despite the itty-bittyness in size, the XSDT can outperform standard-sized microphones: Lectrosonics claims the microphone's transient response is unmatched and unparalleled by any other microphone in the industry; the unit's frequency response is 5Hz to120kHz; and the eXtra-Super-Damn-Tiny has a dynamic range of 120dB. Its SPL tops at 168dB, while self-noise is at 48dB (A-weighted).

Lectrosonics' microphone has a 250mW RF transmitter based on its Digital Hybrid Wireless innovation.

(via Gizmodo)

Newsweek's 7 Most Endangered Wonders of the World

Luxor, Egypt
Threatened not only by the ravages of tourism and theft, but by the Nile itself, construction of the Aswan Dam 40 years ago has caused salt to build up in the newly fertile soil around the temples, eroding their ancient foundations and filling many tombs with water.

Babylon, Iraq
Since the ruins were uncovered at the turn of the 20th century, artifacts have been removed, damaged and contaminated. More recently, U. S. troops built trenches and crushed ancient roads. Iraq lacks the resources to restore the site, reports a recent British Museum report.

Coral Triangle, Indonesia
The ecosystem of one of the most diverse collections of marine life in the world faces a growing threat from overfishing and destructive fishing, in which explosives or poisons are used to kill the fish.

Machu Picchu, Peru
The breathtaking and well-preserved mountain ruins — Peru's most popular tourist attraction — draw half a million visitors annually. Located in a geological fault zone and thus already in a precarious position, constant foot traffic has made matters worse, wearing down and destabilizing the ancient stone foundations. Then there are the landslides.

Maldives
The nation of 12,000 islands is sinking. Seriously.

Venice, Italy
Again, sinking. And it has been almost since it was settled in 452.

Great Wall, China
Nearly two thirds of the 6,352km wall has been destroyed by erosion, crass commercialism and unchecked development. Yeah, the Olympics should help (Note: sarcasm).

NYC Emergency! Call Kevin Bacon! Call John Lithgow!
A New York state judge on Monday dismissed a lawsuit that sought to force the city to allow private, social dancing in restaurants, clubs and bars. The judge said dancing is not constitutionally protected expression and the city has a right to regulate circumstances under which eating and drinking places can let patrons dance.

Meanwhile, in Brooklyn, Saturday-night hotshot Tony Manero is still a Scientologist.

(Kids gotta dance!)

U.S. President Boozes Up. (No, Another U.S. President…)
A month after the American colonists issued their Declaration of Independence, Gen. George Washington not only made plans to defend New York against a British attack — he also put in his order for wine, brandy and various liqueurs.

Washington's booze order is recorded in a military memo owned by the trade group the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. Dated Aug. 7, 1776, the memo bears the name of Gen. Thomas Mifflin, quartermaster general for the future president's forces.

Usually unavailable to the public, the document was shown at a reception recently at the National Press Club and at a whiskey trade show in Chicago.

U.S. history is fun.

(via AP)

'Burglars? Here? When? Huh? Nah, I Was Napping…On the Bar, Yeah.'
Burglars who were busy robbing a safe in a pub served free beers to a drunk until he passed out. The pair were robbing an Austrian pub at night when drunk 47-year-old Hermann Bendt stumbled in, sat at the bar and asked for a beer.

The thieves served him three pints "on the house" and kept Bendt company before he passed out across the bar.

The burglars then cleaned out the safe and made off with all of the pub's valuables, including expensive stereo equipment.

When Bendt awoke to the police, his description of the two men was as follows: "one big bloke and one smaller one."

(via Independent Online)

Smiling, Happy Trees-Filled Video Games
For those people who are sick and tired of video games filled with fighting and street racing, blood and carnage, death and zombies, here comes a game for you.

Bob Ross Inc. announced last month that it has filed a letter of intent to license to Joseph Hatcher's AGFRAG Entertainment Group to develop exclusively worldwide video/computer games based on the "creative, unique and easy-to-learn painting techniques and TV show properties" of Bob Ross — he of the late Caucasian afro and smiling, happy trees.

Currently untitled, the Bob Ross video game is planned to be developed for PC, the Nintendo DS handheld and Nintendo's next-gen system coming later this year, codenamed Revolution.

A release date has not been announced.

PSA: Drugs Are Bad, Pt. I
Doctors from London University have revealed details of what they believe is the largest amount of ecstasy ever consumed by a single person, reports the UK's The Guardian. The doctors' published case report estimates that a British man — known as Mr. A — took around 40,000 pills of MDMA, the active ingredient in ecstasy, over nine years.

The heaviest previous lifetime intake on record is 2,000 pills.

The now-37-year-old man started taking ecstasy at 21 but stopped taking the drug seven years ago. Now he still suffers from severe physical and mental health side effects, including extreme memory problems, paranoia, hallucinations and depression. He also suffers from painful muscle rigidity around his neck and jaw, which often prevents him from opening his mouth. The doctors believe many of these symptoms may be permanent.

This is why we love the foreign press. This is news.

PSA: Drugs Are Bad (But Not As Bad As Booze), Pt. II
GovPro recently proffered the following news bit (Item 2):

Researcher Jean-Louis Martin of the Universite Claude Bernard in Lyon, France, for a British Medical Journal article in December, found that consuming marijuana doubled motorists' likelihood of a fatal auto collision. Thereafter, alarming news headlines about the report ran rampant.

Less prominently noted in the article and consequently in news reports, however, was that drivers impaired by alcohol were six times more likely than unimpaired drivers to have a fatal collision, thus suggesting that the generally illegal drug — cannabis — is only one-third as dangerous for drivers as the legal drug — alcohol.

'Biggest and Best Study Ever' Shrugged Off Upon Results
After three years, $2.4 million, and 1.7 million prayers, the biggest and best study ever was supposed to show that the prayers of faraway strangers help patients recover after heart surgery.

Oops.

In fact, patients who knowingly received prayers developed more post-surgery complications than did patients who unknowingly received prayers; and patients who were prayed for did no better than patients who weren't prayed for. Actually, patients who received prayers without their knowledge ended up with more major complications than did patients who received no prayers at all.

Now the study's authors and many media outlets are straining to shrug off the results. The study "cannot address a large number of religious questions, such as whether God exists, whether God answers intercessory prayers, or whether prayers from one religious group work in the same way as prayers from other groups," the authors remit.

(via Slate)


Cheers.