As people get fatter, the planet gets slimmer

Just in general, this doesn't seem like a very good trend."scientists have discovered that our rotund planet Earth is a bit smaller than previously thought: a whole 0.1 inches (2.5 mm) smaller from surface to center on average."

Hockney Disagrees With Smoking Ban

"Artist David Hockney has hit out at the smoking ban, calling it an "infringement of democracy". The 69-year-old, who is originally from Bradford, said the needs of both smokers and non-smokers should be catered for in a democratic country. The ban on smoking in enclosed...

Food Footprints?

"AskPablo: Foodmiles foodmiles.jpgPerhaps spawned by the immense popularity of Michael Pollan's book The Omnivore's Dilemma or just the recent explosion of interest in both food safety and climate change, people are demanding locally grown. Such "locavores" are participating...

North shore businesses struggle to find workers

"North shore businesses struggle to find workers Posted by By Cindy Chang, St. Tammany bureau May 12, 2007 9:45PM Categories: Breaking News In the post-Katrina scramble to recruit workers and reopen as soon as possible, Times Grill was among the many businesses in St. Tammany...

Mexico City Legalizes Abortion

Lawmakers in Mexico City voted overwhelmingly to legalize abortion in the first trimester. The vote took place as riot police kept rival demonstration groups separate."Mexico City's legislative assembly has voted to legalise abortion in the city, the capital of the world's...

Microsoft Follows Apple on DRM-Free Downloads

UPDATE: The bloggadelic response to this has been predictably huge-- perhaps this will help MS in their quest for music-player market share after all-- their overly-DRM'ed Zune was so "secure" it could not even play Windows Media files, making it a pirates-only device!...

Universities to RIAA: We Won't Help You Sue Our Students (Some Will, for a Pr...

UPDATE:The University of Nebraska is taking the mercenary approach towards ratting out its students. Details of the University of Nebraska's billing process for RIAA investigations:"Unlike the University of Wisconsin, which refuses to rat out its students to the RIAA, the...

E-Trade offers $20 commission global trading platform

Trading stocks online outside of the US markets hasn't been possible -- until now. Or, well, for some E-Trade customers anyway."The pilot project, which begins with 1,000 E-Trade customers this week, allows them to buy, hold and sell stocks in Canada, France, Germany, Hong...

Hack-pocalypse for Proprietary DVD Formats

It was really only a matter of time, but I kind of thought it would take the hacker community a bit more of it."Arnezami, a hacker on the Doom9 forum, has published a crack for extracting the "processing key" from a high-def DVD player. This key can be used to gain access to...

Cosmic rays blamed for global warming

"Man-made climate change may be happening at a far slower rate than has been claimed, according to controversial new research. Scientists say that cosmic rays from outer space play a far greater role in changing the Earth's climate than global warming experts previously...