bob

I knew I shouldn't have built my house there. I am currently on fire. - Mark

"Breasts came under the spotlight a year ago, as Senators Barnaby Joyce and Guy Barnett commenced a campaign against publicly available porn. Rounding up magazines from corner shops and filling stations, Senator Joyce claimed that publications featuring small-breasted women were encouraging paedophilia. The result of this campaign is now visible in the decisions being made by the Australian Classification Board, which is beginning to apply RC (refused classification) categories to such material, as opposed to the previous X-rating. According to Fiona Patten, Convenor of the Australian Sex Party: "We are starting to see depictions of women in their late 20s being banned because they have an A cup size." - bob

Has anybody ever been to an Australian Sex Party? What are they like? - Gabe

I'm sure a lot of people feel this way about Obama right now. :P - April Buchheit

"In its last several releases, everyone's favorite Open Source browser has become an unstable mess of add-ons, plugins, and other hacks that chew up memory like a fat kid with a chocolate-dipped corn dog. In fact, just last week, SecurityFocus released news of a devastating exploit in Firefox 3.5.5 that they blame squarely on its unstable architecture...Against the Hayes Law, Firefox appears to have jumped the shark sometime after the Firefox 2.0 in 2006. The next major release, Firefox 3.0 in 2008, introduced many issues users today complain about: bloat, sloth, instability, and insatiable hunger for memory. Firefox user complaints increased in tandem, all syncing up with the jump in developers. Ergo Firefox's problem: too many cocks in the kitchen....The core of this problem looms: the number of developers, as seen in the chart above, will only continue to skyrocket for Firefox 3.6 and beyond. By the time Firefox 4.0 is released, sometime in December 2010, the number of developers will be nearly 4,000, almost a full magnitude greater than the optimal 445 or so in 2006. Clearly, Firefox is about to capsize." - bob

okay, I use firefox. what is better? - amelia arapoff

Yeah, it's an incredibly beautiful place. - Amit Patel

For sure, Lake Louise. - jeff hammond

"In ancient times, dog meat was considered a medicinal tonic. Today, it is commonly available throughout the country, but particularly in the north where dog stew is popular for its supposed warming qualities. In recent years, however, such traditions are increasingly criticised by an affluent, pet-loving, urban middle class. Online petitions against dog and cat consumption have attracted tens of thousands of signatures. Videos showing the maltreatment of farmed dogs have spurred protests at markets where the animals are bought and sold. But the drafters of the new proposal want far more drastic measures, which would oblige law enforcement authorities to close down thousands of dog restaurants and butchers which supply the meat. According to the draft, illegal sale or consumption of pets would incur a maximum penalty of 15 days in prison for individuals or a 500,000 yuan fine for businesses." - bob

I think stealing someones pet to eat it is wrong. Eating dog or cat, that is not a pet. I don't know? - amelia arapoff

""I don't like it when the science people talk about things no one can even understand," said Rich Parker, an Ohio resident. "It's like, just quit your yapping and dip the chain saw into the liquid nitrogen already."" - bob

Wow, so good. How can people say theonion isn't real? - Paul Buchheit

This reminds me alot of death valley. - Greg Grothaus

click for animated gif - bob

"The mix-ups happened because officers failed to spot his car was parked as another vehicle triggered the camera by breaking the 30mph speed limit...Mr Buck received his most recent apology on Monday after he asked to see photographic evidence that his Vauxhall Zafira was doing 37mph along Watnall Road on December 13. " - bob

yet more reasons speed cameras need to be pulled. - Big Joe Silenced

"Standing at nearly 43 inches tall from paw to shoulder and weighing a staggering 245lbs could this be the world's new tallest dog? Pictured here in the parks of Tuscon, Arizona, George, a four-year-old blue great dane, looks more like a miniature horse than a dog." - bob

Whoa! - AJ Batac

"Three tacos cost a Fairbanks man $100 in fines, one day in jail and one year probation. Warren E. Strickland, 31, of Fairbanks, pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct Tuesday for throwing a double-decker taco at a manager of the Taco Bell restaurant on University Avenue. Strickland said he was upset during the Jan. 14 incident because a taco contained spit after he had been through the drive-thru twice to correct his order. According to a criminal complaint filed in court, he went into the restaurant and threw the taco at manager Carol Dzimtrowicz, who said it hit her in the face and that she was scared of Strickland. Another employee reported that Strickland threatened to knock him out." - bob

"I moved to Moscow with my family last year and was startled to see so many stray dogs. Watching them over time, I realised that, despite some variation in colour – some were black, others yellowish white or russet – they all shared a certain look. They were medium-sized with thick fur, wedge-shaped heads and almond eyes. Their tails were long and their ears erect. They also acted differently. Every so often, you would see one waiting on a metro platform. When the train pulled up, the dog would step in, scramble up to lie on a seat or sit on the floor if the carriage was crowded, and then exit a few stops later. ...Neuronov says there are some 500 strays that live in the metro stations, especially during the colder months, but only about 20 have learned how to ride the trains. This happened gradually, first as a way to broaden their territory. Later, it became a way of life. “Why should they go by foot if they can move around by public transport?” he asks. “They orient themselves in a number of ways,” Neuronov adds. “They figure out where they are by smell, by recognising the name of the station from the recorded announcer’s voice and by time intervals. If, for example, you come every Monday and feed a dog, that dog will know when it’s Monday and the hour to expect you, based on their sense of time intervals from their ­biological clocks.”...The dogs divide into four types, he says, which are determined by their character, how they forage for food, their level of socialisation to people and the ecological niche they inhabit." - bob

Read it yesterday. Nice article. - Ashish

"Mr Chambers was eventually released on bail until February 11 pending further enquiries. His Twitter post was deleted and his laptop, iPhone and home computer confiscated. He also been banned from Robin Hood airport for life and suspended from his job while an internal investigation is launched. 'My first thought on seeing the police was that perhaps a member of my family had been in an accident,' he said. "Then they said I was being arrested under the Terrorism Act and produced a piece of paper. 'It was a print-out of my Twitter page. That was when it dawned on me." - bob

In an era where the enemy is putting bombs in underpants, the fact that this is what happens when we joke about it is most unfortunate - Roberto Bonini

Looks like Thailand.. any idea where it was taken? - Chris Myles

Looks very similar to the view from the top of Bich Dong Temple in Tam Coc near Hanoi, Vietnam: http://chiuki.smugmug.com/Vacatio... - Chiu-Ki Chan

Sure does.. the difference might be monsoon vs dry season. I love the Karst topography (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki...). - Chris Myles

for paul - bob

Aww.... - April Buchheit

any guesses where this is? - bob

Pandora? :) - Tudor Bosman

I built that on the third day. True dat. - Mark

I used to live near a place called 'Balls Falls', no joke. Looked just like this, except in every regard. - Will Higgins™

Been there at the falls. Flew over. Got the t-shirt. - Roberto Bonini

love this pic.. - Jaap Willem

http://oopslist.com/ - bob

are the windows all covered in ice? - ubu

"As hundreds of thousands of migrant Yemeni workers in Saudi Arabia and neighbouring Gulf countries were expelled in retaliation, many of them settled in Sanaa. A small capital city in an impoverished country, already ill equipped to serve its citizens, it cracked under the pressure. Streets teemed with the unemployed, particularly young men, many of whom succumbed to the Wahabi brand of Islam that the exiled workers had picked up in Saudi Arabia and brought back. At the co-ed Sanaa University, female students began to complain about harassment from repatriated Yemenis who blamed women's education for the fast-rising unemployment. I don't recall seeing a single beggar in Sanaa during the early 1980s. Now, they stood at virtually every street corner. That medieval but safe city was now gritty – and still medieval. I paid a visit to my family in the spring of 1992, my first in almost six years, and was shocked to see how just a few years changed us both so dramatically. There was a defeatist quality to their lives, while mine had hopes of a better future. My sisters seemed especially dispirited. Four of them worked for a living, but although their jobs gave them some economic independence, their lives remained limited. Beyond their commute to work, they rarely ventured anywhere other than grocery or clothing stores...Under his watch, Yemen has gone from a poor country to the most destitute in the Arab world. He fortified his stronghold on the country's larger cities in the north (Sanaa, Taiz, Houdeida), but lost control of the vast tribal terrains outside them. The result is a political culture where the cities are riddled with government red tape, while everywhere else is virtually lawless. " - bob

"One photograph from April, 2006, particularly infuriates me. My family's penchant for group photos never wavers, but this time my eldest brother voices his concern about my sisters being photographed in their “indoor” clothes. “What if the men who work at the photo-developing shop get to see your sisters in short sleeves or without a head scarf?” he asks, as if it's something I should have thought about myself. This is the same brother who is standing behind me in that 1975 picture I love so much. My sisters immediately see his point. I'm stunned. We reach a compromise. I can pose with my sisters and mother if they wear the hijab , or at least long sleeves and skirts. I fake a smile as my heart breaks. The last thing I want is an argument on my last night in Sanaa. " - bob

Sounds familiar: "Collectively they have become television addicts. Satellite TV, featuring hundreds of channels from the Arab world and beyond, has taken over from reading and socializing as the main form of entertainment. Why? Because among the many channels you can watch are the more Islamist ones (Hezbollah's Manar TV, for example) that promote a rigid version of the faith. By the time I visited Sanaa again in 2006, anti-Western and pro-Islamist sympathies intruded on virtually every conversation with friends, neighbours and family. The presence of al-Qaeda is never spoken of as positive, but it's not challenged or condemned either. The real danger is the tacit acceptance – an acceptance that has been building slowly for more than two decades and has claimed even progressive families like mine." - Paul Buchheit

"Pure water normally freezes at 273.15 K (0 °C or 32 °F) but it can also be "supercooled" at standard pressure down to its crystal homogeneous nucleation at almost 231 K (−42 °C).[1] If cooled at a rate on the order of 10^6 K/s, the crystal nucleation can be avoided and water becomes a glass. Its glass transition temperature is much colder and harder to determine, but studies estimate it at about 165 K (−108 °C).[2] Glassy water can be heated up to approximately 150 K (−123 °C)" - bob