Hackers on Tuesday briefly overwhelmed at least three of the 13 computers that help manage global computer traffic. The attacks, which The Associated Press reported as "one of the most significant attacks against the Internet since 2002," lasted for 12 hours.

The attacks appeared to target UltraDNS, the company that operates servers managing traffic for Web sites ending in ".org" and some other suffixes; among the targeted "root" servers that manage global Internet traffic were ones operated by the Defense Department and the Internet's primary oversight body.

The motive for the attacks was unclear, but Duane Wessels, a researcher at the Cooperative Association for Internet Data Analysis at the San Diego Supercomputing Center, surmised, "Maybe to show off or just be disruptive; it doesn't seem to be extortion or anything like that."

Somewhere out there, a 14-year-old boy at a computer is laughing his butt off.

Baby's Been a Bad, Bad Polluter
Nine oil refineries in the U.S. account for only 15 percent of the nation's refining capacity — but also a third of total carcinogenic pollution emissions reported by the oil industry, according to a new report from the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). Major inconsistencies in the carcinogen emission data analyzed by EIP raise serious questions about the accuracy and completeness of oil industry reporting to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) about such pollution.

Entitled "Refined Hazard: Carcinogenic Air Pollution from America's Oil Refineries," the EIP report identifies the top 10 refinery sources of air emissions of carcinogens in 2004 as follows:

1) BP - Texas City, TX
2) Exxon Mobil -Baytown, TX
3) Flint Hills - Corpus Christi, TX.
4) La Gloria - Tyler, TX
5) Lyondell-Citgo - Houston, TX
6) Exxon Mobil - Baton Rouge, LA
7) Valero - Corpus Christi, TX
8) Sunoco - Philadelphia, PA
9) Chalmette - Chalmette, LA
10) Citgo - Lake Charles, LA

The EIP report uses data from the EPA Toxics Release Inventory to catalogue refinery air
emissions of certain pollutants that are known or believed to cause cancer.

While we're already on the topic of toxically polluting our own well-being…

Soak Days
Brits take 27 million days off sick each year because of booze, a survey revealed yesterday.

The worst offenders, a quarter of United Kingdom workers, miss an average of three and a half days a year because they are drunk or hungover, The Sun reports.

The average adult also soaks it up three out of seven days, with 13 percent guzzling most on weekdays.

1867 Nanomachine Now Reality
Researchers have now created a minuscule motor that could lead to the creation of microscopic nanomachines. Scottish physicist James Clerk Maxwell first imagined an atom-size device dubbed Maxwell's Demon in 1867. According to Reuters, scientists at the University of Edinburgh have made it a reality.

The new motor mechanism, which traps molecular-sized particles as they move, will enable scientists to do things that are much closer to what biological machines do. Said David Leigh, a professor of chemistry at the university:

It is a machine mechanism that is going to take molecular machines a step forward to the realization of the future world of nanotechnology. Things that seem like a Harry Potter film now are going to be a reality.

A Bit on the Bark-at-the-Moon Side of Mental
The 1,500-member Hualapai tribe, based in a remote part of Arizona, recently announced that the Skywalk — a giant, $30 million steel-and-glass walkway — will open to the public next month.

National Geographic reports:

The Skywalk will jut out 70 feet (21 meters) from the [Grand] canyon rim, allowing tourists to go for a stroll with nothing between their feet and the Colorado River — 4,000 feet (1,220 meters) below — except for four inches (10 centimeters) of glass.

Mark Johnson, of Las Vegas-based MRJ Architects, has been working on the Skywalk for about three years, beginning with a lengthy design phase. He and a team of tribal consultants, engineers and geologists moved through several design concepts before settling on a U-shaped walkway.

Some time before opening day in March, the behemoth engineering wonder will be rolled out at a rate of half an inch (1.3 centimeters) a minute on tracks while concrete weights anchor the back. When it's in place, the Skywalk will be anchored to giant poles drilled 40 feet (12 meters) into the canyon wall. Only 120 people will be allowed on the walkway at a time. Johnson says the rock wall, not the walkway's design, is the wild card that could determine the Skywalk's life span: at that height, the wall is made of 350-million-year-old limestone — porous material that is highly prone to erosion.

Hopefully, this project won't someday show up HERE.

Branson Launches $25m Climate Bid
Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson launched a new competition in London today, offering millions of pounds for the person who comes up with the best way of removing significant amounts of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

He, along with a panel of judges, is looking for a method that will remove at least one billion ton of carbon per year from the atmosphere.

The panel of judges overseeing the innovations for the prize are: James Hansen, the noted climate scientist and head of the NASA Institute for Space Studies; the inventor of Gaia theory, James Lovelock; U.K. environmentalist Sir Crispin Tickell; Australian mammalogist and palaeontologist Tim Flannery; and, of course, Al Gore.

Bad Gift Ideas for Valentine's Day
As Valentine's Day approaches, thoughts naturally turn to fancy flights of romance, candlelit meals at White Castle, sappy greeting cards, heart-shaped boxes of chocolate, teddies (that is, stuffed bears and lingerie), a diaper-wearing astronaut recently jailed in a love triangle plot and ill-advised gifts of wolf urine. Whaaa?!?!

The following is a selection from Amazon.com's bad gift ideas for Valentine's Day:

1) Mat Midwest Air Tech 317821A Barbed Wire;
2) Stainless Steel ANSI Flat Washer #1/4 Narrow .281" ID x .500" OD x .063" Thick (Pack of 100);
3) Fart Proudly: Writings of Benjamin Franklin You Never Read in School;
4) All About Scabs (My Body Science Series); and, of course
5) Wolf Urine Lure-32 oz and the Ninja Hand Claw.

Yeah, probably best to stick with the standard: roses. Maybe these roses…

The World's Tallest Roses
Delivered in a 78-inch box emblazoned "The World's Tallest Rose," the ultimate long-stemmed rose is up to 72 inches long and capped with a furled and individually wrapped crimson bud three inches high and almost as wide. Regular long-stemmed roses, by contrast, are about 28 inches long with a bud an inch and a half wide.

Of course, as with true love, the price of these "extreme roses" is not for the faint of heart: Organic Bouquet, a company that specializes in the larger-than-life roses, charges $250 per dozen, plus $60 for priority shipping. Upgrade to two dozen roses for $449.95.

A conventional bouquet will typically cost between $70 and $90 in advance of Valentine's Day next week, the peak period for cut-rose sales and prices. At this point, it looks like the e-flowerer site is sold out of these massive roses through March 2.

How Marbles are Made
I'm not gonna lie, I'm somewhat in awe of this:

(video topic via Fark)

Cheers.