jamotto

quote:Warms your tongue nicely with the spices.That's what that is supposed to be. Man that is weak spices. quote:This from the same company that tries to fight off research that proved their foods were extremely unhealthy by saying that they didnt just sell greasy heart-killing hamburgers but also healthy salads. what a joke.

If they have rights to NFL don't that just mean they only have rights to the team's names? Don't they have to get rights from the player's union to be able to use specific names of players? or is this a lump sum deal now? anyways, you will be able to edit the names of the "fictitious" teams to that of real teams.

bummer, I really like driver 1 for the PC. Looking forward to driver 3. Wonder who is going to take over now?

Link quote:By JULIE E. BISBEE, Associated Press Writer MUSTANG, Okla. - Voters incensed over a superintendent's decision to remove a Nativity scene from an elementary school Christmas program took out their anger at the ballot box, helping to defeat bond measures worth nearly $11 million. Tuesday's rejection of the two measures ÔÇö one of which would have paid for construction of an elementary school ÔÇö marked the first time in more than a decade that voters in this bedroom community west of Oklahoma City denied additional funds for their school district. The day before the election, dozens of parents at a school board meeting expressed outrage at Superintendent Karl Springer's decision to end the school's tradition of closing the Christmas play with a manger scene. Both of the bond issues in Mustang received about 55 percent support, but 60 percent was needed for approval. "You've got to tell them you're not going to sit by and let them take away your rights," said Tim Pope, a former Republican legislator and leader of the campaign against the bond issues. Concerned over the issue of separation of church and state, Springer had sought advice from the school board attorney, who recommended that the Nativity scene be removed. The children still got to sing "Silent Night," but Springer took out the manger scene. "Probably in my life I've never had to make a decision as difficult as this," said Springer, who added that he thinks his choice hurt support for the bond measures. "But I had two strong legal opinions that said something we had planned could be illegal. I wanted to make sure we protected our community from some kind of lawsuit." About 100 people protested outside the auditorium where the play was performed Thursday night. The protesters staged their own live Nativity scene. Some carried signs reading, "No Christ. No Christmas. Know Christ. Know Christmas." Some parents were angry that Santa Claus, a Christmas tree and symbols of Hanukkah and Kwanzaa were left in the production. "If you're going to cut one symbol, then cut them all," said Shelly Marino, the parent of a third-grader at the elementary school. "Santa Claus was in the play and a Christmas tree was displayed, but that's not a Christian symbol." Tuesday's votes came at a time that Christian conservatives across the country, energized by the re-election of President Bush, have been working to increase the Christian aspects of Christmas. Some have criticized or boycotted retailers and other businesses they say are giving up "Merry Christmas" wishes in favor of "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings." On Wednesday, four families filed a federal lawsuit accusing a school district north of Dallas of banning Christmas and religious expression from their children's classrooms. The lawsuit claims the Plano, Texas, district barred students from distributing pens and pencils bearing Christian messages. A district attorney denied the claims and said school officials recently decided to allow the distribution of all materials ÔÇö religious or otherwise ÔÇö at Friday's annual holiday parties.

Wazzal

Link quote:By Timothy Gardner NEW YORK (Reuters) - Turkey leftovers will take on a whole new use after a Minnesota company finishes construction of a power plant fired by the birds' droppings. It may not be the total answer to relieving the United States' addiction to foreign oil, but the plant will burn 90 percent turkey dung and create clean power for 55,000 homes. Three poultry litter plants have already been built in England, but the Benson, Minnesota-based facility will be the first large-scale plant of its type in the U.S. and the largest in the world, according to operator Fibrominn, a subsidiary of power plant builder Homeland Renewable Energy, LLC of Boston. Turkey dung is prized over pig excrement and cow chips. "Poultry litter is drier material, so it burns better, and there's a lot of it," said Charles Grecco, of HH Media, LLC, an investment bank that helped arrange $202 million in financing for the plant. The 55-megawatt plant will burn 700,000 tons of dung a year and produce fertilizer as a by-product, a process that will keep phosphorus and nitrates found in the raw litter from seeping into water supplies, said Grecco. No extra amounts of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide would be emitted than would be naturally emitted as the dung decomposes, said Grecco. Utility Xcel has agreed to purchase the turkey power, said company spokesman Ed Legge. Under 1994 Minnesota state legislation, Xcel is required to buy a small amount of power made from biomass in exchange for clearance to store spent nuclear fuel outside its Red Wing nuclear plant in Minnesota. Fibrowatt, LLC, a Philadelphia-based developer, which is mostly owned by Homeland Renewable Energy, is pursing other plants in poultry-growing U.S. states.huh, turkey power who would have thought.

Link quote:CHICAGO (AFP) - A prestigious US hospital, home to the nation's top-rated cardiac centre, is showing McDonald's Corp. the door in the best interests of its patients, and as evidence of its corporate bona fides. Officials from the Cleveland Clinic met with representatives from the world's largest fast-food chain Thursday to discuss the Clinic's decision to shutter a McDonald's outlet on its Ohio hospital campus. The meeting was cordial, but inconclusive. Both sides "will continue the conversation" the clinic said in a statement. Cleveland Clinic chief executive officer Toby Cosgrove, an internationally renowned heart surgeon, decided to banish fries and burgers from the hospital's food court in order to demonstrate the hospital's commitment to a heart-healthy diet, a hospital spokeswoman said. "Our food options have to be consistent with what we tell patients," explained Angela Calman. "We can't be telling patients to modify their diets while providing fat and high sodium foods." Calman said the hospital felt an obligation to provide patients and visitors to the hospital -- many of whom come from lower-income inner-city neighbourhoods -- with healthy food options at an affordable price. "We can't continue sending out the wrong signal, especially for those patients suffering from diabetes or obesity." The McDonald's outlet is one of a half dozen different food stalls in the hospital's food court or cafeteria serving about 12,000 customers a week -- patients, visitors and hospital staff included. Pizza Hut shuttered its hospital outlet in October at the request of hospital management, but McDonald's Corp. which has a 20-year lease, has proved less amenable, and appears to be prepared to stand its ground. "If you take a look at some of the other vendors and the vending machines, our food stacks up great, and, in many cases , better than some of those other offerings," said Lisa Howard, a spokeswoman for the Oak Brook, Illinois, chain. "We offer different sizes for different people." Calman said the hospital "didn't anticipate a fight," and is hoping for "some kind of resolution." But she indicated that the clinic is also looking at its legal options, if talks with the chain fail. She denied that the hospital was nannying its public, and noted that true burger and fries fans could get their fix at any of the several McDonald's restaurants that lie within a two-mile radius of the hospital. As for the chain's new healthier menu, she had this to say. "We applaud their healthier options, but adding salads is not enough, the rest of their menu contains too much fat and sodium."

Link quote:By JOHN PAIN, Associated Press Writer MIAMI - A device that automatically detects early symptoms of congestive heart failure has been implanted in patients in the United States this month for the first time. The device is designed to allow patients to get treatment earlier and stay healthier. When fluid levels around the heart get too high, they can interfere with a normal heartbeat and cause death. The InSync Sentry device monitors the amount of fluid in the chest. If there is a buildup, doctors can prescribe medication to reduce it. One of the devices was implanted in a patient at the University of Southern California last Friday. A second one was implanted Monday in 70-year-old Antonio Comandari at Miami's Jackson Memorial Hospital. The device, built by Medtronic Inc. of Fridley, Minn., is about the size of a cigarette lighter and transmits radio signals that can yield a computer readout on the heart. It costs about $30,000, lasts five to seven years and should be available for widespread use by February, said Comandari's physician, Dr. Alberto Interian, chief cardiologist at Jackson Memorial. It was approved by the Food and Drug Administration last month after clinical trials conducted overseas. About 400,000 Americans are candidates to receive the device, Interian said. "More and more we're seeing patients who are living with severe congestive heart failure, where four or five years ago they'd be dead. Devices like this are improving the quality of life," he said. Dr. Ann Bolger, a cardiologist with the American Heart Association, said the device could be helpful in catching problems quickly and helping people avoid hospitalization. "The new part of this is basically implanting a remote sensor in the patient's body," Bolger said. "That is the very exciting part of this." The device also works as a defibrillator to jump-start hearts and make them beat in a normal rhythm. Comandari has had three heart attacks and thought the fourth was coming last week when he felt dizzy and collapsed in bed. On Dec. 9, he was admitted with congestive heart failure. "I'm happy because I was chosen to get a new life," he said.

Fannie Mae Top Executives May Be Ousted quote:By MARCY GORDON, AP Business Writer WASHINGTON - A review by the Securities and Exchange Commission has found that Fannie Mae violated accounting rules, amplifying the prospect of an earnings restatement and a possible ouster of top executives at the embattled mortgage giant. Fannie Mae shares fell $1.54, or 2 percent, to $69.15 in trading midday trading Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange. SEC Chief Accountant Donald Nicolaisen disclosed the findings of the agency's review late Wednesday and said he had told the government-sponsored company to restate its earnings. Nicolaisen, in a statement, said Fannie Mae's accounting for 2001 through mid-2004 "did not comply in material respects" with accounting rules for derivatives, financial instruments used to hedge against interest-rate swings, and for some transactions related to loans. Fannie Mae, the biggest financer of home mortgages in the country, said last month that if the SEC found that it had improperly accounted for derivatives, it would show an estimated net loss of $9 billion. A restatement could involve at least that much in overreported earnings, depending on the movement of interest rates, analysts said Thursday. In light of developments, "I do think it's highly likely that both Tim Howard and Frank Raines", the company's chief financial officer and chairman, respectively, will be forced to leave their positions, said Edwin Groshans of investment banking firm Fox-Pitt, Kelton. Otherwise, he said, "They're just going to be a lightning rod." Raines and Howard defended the company's accounting in sworn testimony at a congressional hearing in October and rejected allegations by the Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight of accounting improprieties and management misdeeds going back to the late 1990s. Raines said at the hearing that if the SEC found accounting violations, he would be held accountable by the company's board and shareholders and would himself take responsibility. The SEC and the Justice Department, in a separate criminal probe, have been investigating the accounting of Washington-based Fannie Mae, the second-largest financial institution in the country behind Citigroup. Warren Rudman, the attorney and former senator who is acting as independent counsel to a special committee of Fannie Mae's board, declined to comment Thursday on possible next moves. "We continue with our internal investigation," he said by telephone, describing the inquiry as "intensive and very broad-based." Fannie Mae spokesman Chuck Greener, in a statement issued Wednesday night, said "We appreciate the comprehensive and expeditious review of these accounting issues." "We will take the steps necessary to comply fully with the SEC's determination," he said. "Fannie Mae is committed to operating in a safe and sound manner." Nicolaisen said the SEC took the unusual step of making public the findings of the staff review before the SEC had completed its investigation because Fannie Mae had asked the agency for its opinion. "I have advised Fannie Mae that ... to provide investors with appropriate information, Fannie Mae should restate its financial statements," Nicolaisen said. In September, the OFHEO regulators cited Fannie Mae for serious accounting problems and accused the company of earnings manipulation. The regulators had ordered Fannie Mae to complete massive recalculations, and the delay fueled speculation as to whether the company would restate earnings. Fannie Mae last month missed an SEC deadline for filing its third-quarter financial results after its independent auditor KPMG refused to sign off on the report. The company also acknowledged that some of its accounting practices don't comply with generally accepted accounting principles. Rep. Michael Oxley (news, bio, voting record), R-Ohio, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee and a longtime critic of Fannie Mae, said Wednesday that the SEC findings reaffirm the conclusions of the OFHEO regulators "and underscore the need for Congress to closely examine these issues." "I am deeply disturbed that investors, the markets and Congress were misled by deceptive practices at Fannie Mae," Oxley said. Fannie Mae and its smaller sibling Freddie Mac pump money into the home mortgage market by buying and guaranteeing repayment of billions of dollars of home loans each year from banks and other lenders, then bundling them into securities that are resold to investors. Their stock and debt are held by investors around the world.

Where's the punch cards?

Link quote:PITTSBURGH - Dude, youÔÇÖve got to read this. A linguist from the University of Pittsburgh has published a scholarly paper deconstructing and deciphering the word ÔÇ£dude,ÔÇØ contending it is much more than a catchall for lazy, inarticulate surfers, skaters, slackers and teenagers. An admitted dude-user during his college years, Scott Kiesling said the four-letter word has many uses: in greetings (ÔÇ£WhatÔÇÖs up, dude?ÔÇØ); as an exclamation (ÔÇ£Whoa, Dude!ÔÇØ); commiseration (ÔÇ£Dude, IÔÇÖm so sorry.ÔÇØ); to one-up someone (ÔÇ£ThatÔÇÖs so lame, dude.ÔÇØ); as well as agreement, surprise and disgust (ÔÇ£Dude.ÔÇØ). Kiesling says in the fall edition of American Speech that the word derives its power from something he calls cool solidarity ÔÇö an effortless kinship thatÔÇÖs not too intimate. Cool solidarity is especially important to young men who are under social pressure to be close with other young men, but not enough to be suspected as gay. In other words: Close, dude, but not that close. ÔÇ£ItÔÇÖs like man or buddy, there is often this male-male addressed term that says, ÔÇÖIÔÇÖm your friend but not much more than your friend,ÔÇØÔÇÖ said Kiesling, whose research focuses on language and masculinity. To decode the wordÔÇÖs meaning, Kiesling listened to conversations with fraternity members he taped in 1993. He also had undergraduate students in sociolinguistics classes in 2001 and 2002 write down the first 20 times they heard ÔÇ£dudeÔÇØ and who said it during a three-day period. He found the word taps into nonconformity and a new American image of leisurely success. Anecdotally, men were the predominant users of the word, but women sometimes call each other dudes. Less frequently, men will call women dudes and vice versa. But that comes with some rules, according to self-reporting from students in a 2002 language and gender class included in the paper. ÔÇ£Men report that they use dude with women with whom they are close friends, but not with women with whom they are intimate,ÔÇØ according to the study. His students also reported that they were least likely to use the word with parents, bosses and professors. Historically, dude originally meant ÔÇ£old ragsÔÇØ ÔÇö a ÔÇ£dudesmanÔÇØ was a scarecrow. In the late 1800s, a ÔÇ£dudeÔÇØ was akin to a ÔÇ£dandy,ÔÇØ a meticulously dressed man, especially out West. It became ÔÇ£coolÔÇØ in the 1930s and 1940s, according to Kiesling. Dude began its rise in the teenage lexicon with the 1981 movie ÔÇ£Fast Times at Ridgemont High.ÔÇØ ÔÇ£DudeÔÇØ also shows no signs of disappearing as more and more of our culture becomes youth-centered, said Mary Bucholtz, an associate professor of linguistics at the University of California, Santa Barbara. ÔÇ£I have seen middle-aged men using ÔÇÖdudeÔÇÖ with each other,ÔÇØ she said.Dude, like, whatever

quote:They gave me a list of video cards and then every on in that list had vertex shader 1.0-2.0 does not tell me exactly what version number so i'll ask anyone hereI think that chip has a version 1.1 vertex shader.

Link quote:By YURI KAGEYAMA, AP Business Writer TOKYO - A battery developed by Matsushita Electric Industrial that delivers 1.5 times the power of a regular alkaline battery is going on sale in the United States and Europe in April 2005. The Oxyride battery, which went on sale in Japan in April, also lasts longer than regular batteries, allowing users to take about twice as many pictures on a digital camera, according to the Japanese manufacturer of the Panasonic brand. Tadaharu Taguchi, a Matsushita director, said the battery marks "a major milestone in the battery industry." Oxyride batteries maintain higher voltage and output longer because the material inside that produces electricity is more concentrated. Oxyride uses oxy nickel hydroxide, an advanced battery substance, and finer grain graphite and manganese dioxide, allowing them to be packed more closely inside the cell. Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. Ltd. also developed a way of blending the powder to stuff more into the battery. A production innovation also pours more electrolyte, a key ingredient that leads to longer battery life, into the cell, Matsushita said. In a recent demonstration of the battery's power, Matsushita showed a Oxyride-powered coffin-like electric car that crawled along the ground for several feet with a woman aboard lying flat on her back. Reporters were also shown audio players powered by a regular battery vs. Oxyride. The one with Oxyride delivered a stronger, deeper bass, and Matsushita officials said some music experts express a preference for Oxyride. The growing popularity of digital cameras, portable music players, handheld video game machines and other gadgets, is boosting demand for powerful batteries, Taguchi told reporters at a Tokyo Panasonic showroom. AA and AAA Oxyride batteries cost about 10 percent more than regular batteries. In the United States, they will sell for about $3.99 for a pack of four, although prices will vary, Matsushita officials said. Matsushita, based in Osaka, central Japan, is hoping to sell 100 million Oxyride batteries in the year through March 2005. Oxyride batteries already comprise about a third of Panasonic AA battery sales, or 7 percent of the overall AA battery market in Japan. Even achieving 1 percent market share is considered significant for products like batteries.This is probably the biggest advancement of battery tech. in decades.

Link quote:With food stores running low, the two astronauts living aboard the International Space Station are cutting back their meal intake and awaiting a critical cargo delivery expected to arrive on Dec. 25. ISS Expedition 10 commander Leroy Chiao and flight engineer Salizhan Sharipov are scaling down their daily caloric intake by up to 10 percent, but will meet their daily nutritional requirements and should not experience any discomfort, NASA space station officials said today. Current food supplies will hit critical just as the resupply ship is due, with water supplies lasting through Jan. 18, they added. "We knew our situation was tight and we continue to monitor those consumables closely," said William Gerstenmaier, NASA (news - web sites) ISS program manager, during a briefing with reporters. "This crew has not been eating excessively in any shape or form." Chiao and Sharipov arrived at the station aboard their Soyuz capsule on Oct. 16 and have spent nearly two months onboard the orbital platform. A Russian-built cargo spacecraft, Progress 16, was originally slated to haul fresh food, water and other supplies to the station last month, but delayed until late December. The supply ship is now set to launch from Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on Dec. 23 and dock with the ISS two days later. "This 16 Progress is very critical, no doubt about that, but not any more critical than the last Progress or when we launched the last Soyuz," Gerstenmaier said. "We kind of launched into this situation with the idea of what we were going to do, and we have teams tracking this all the time." The Expedition 10 crew has entered a 45-day period known as a skip cycle by ISS managers, who have begun drawing up plans to evacuate the space station should the Progress 16 resupply flight fail or suffer delay. The space station will only have 7-14 days of food remaining when Progress 16 is expected to arrive, during which time they would have to return home if the 107-day supply of food doesn't arrive. "We have to be ready," Gerstenmaier said of evacuating the crew, adding that ISS controllers were similarly prepared during Expedition 10's recent Soyuz relocation maneuver should they're spacecraft fail to dock properly with the station. "We were fully prepared to return the crew then too." Counting calories and pounds On the average, ISS astronauts consume about 3,000 calories during any given day in space. Under the current plan, Chiao and Sharipov will scale down to about 2,700 calories at most. "It is well within the optimal and nutritional guidelines that they follow," explained Sean Roden, Expedition 10 flight surgeon, during the briefing. Space station meals come in individual packages that cannot be separated into smaller portions and saved for later, Roden said. But the crew can manage their meals by cutting out a whole package depending on their appetite, he added. Space station managers said they would not swap out 12 pounds (5.4 kilograms) of new science experiments and equipment to fly aboard Progress 16 for additional food, though the spacecraft will already carry seven extra food containers, according to a Florida Today report. "We're not just staying on-station to stay on-station in survival mode," Gerstenmaier said. "We want them to have food and water and science to do." If the Expedition 10 crew does have to evacuate the ISS, the facility would be configured much like it is during a two-person spacewalk or Soyuz relocation. Chiao and Sharipov would power down computers, set flight controls to be handled by the ground and close the hatches behind them as they boarded their Soyuz spacecraft and returned to Earth, said Expedition 10 flight director Annette Hasbrook, adding that the astronauts may clean out filters more than usual should the station be left uncrewed for an extended time. The shuttle advantage Much of the station's supply stem from a lack of ISS-bound space shuttle flights, which have more room for cargo than Russia's Soyuz spacecraft. NASA's space shuttle fleet has been grounded since the Feb. 1, 2003, when the shuttle Columbia broke up during reentry killing its seven-astronaut crew. "The shuttle gives you a lot more degrees of freedom and a lot more variability with cargo," Gerstenmaier said, adding that ISS controllers have learned how to stretch their capabilities to operate the station without frequent shuttle flights. "We're really ready for when the shuttle comes, or if the shuttle doesn't come." The next space shuttle flight, STS-114 Discovery, is currently expected to launch in May 2005. "It's been a tremendous balancing act," Gerstenmaier said. "But it's not much different than what's going to have to be done for the exploration era where you'll be much farther from home.

ColdFire Windows and Linux versions available. Source code included with the Linux version.

Link quote:LONDON (Reuters) - A lone whale, with a voice unlike any other, has been wandering the Pacific for the past 12 years, American marine biologists said Wednesday. Using signals recorded by the US navy to track submarines, they traced the movement of whales in the Northern Pacific and found that a lone whale singing at a frequency of around 52 hertz has cruised the ocean since 1992. Its calls, despite being clearly those of a baleen, do not match those of any known species of whale, which usually call at frequencies of between 15 and 20 hertz. The mammal does not follow the migration patterns of any other species either, according to team leader Mary Anne Daher. The calls of the whale, which roams the ocean every autumn and winter, have deepened slightly as a result of aging, but are still recognizable. The study by scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts, appears in the New Scientist magazine.A new whale? or just a Baleen that is tone deaf

Link quote:By Deborah Zabarenko WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Planet-building is dusty work, and now two space telescopes have captured images of cosmic construction materials: disks of dust circling stars about the same size as our sun. Pictures released on Thursday from NASA (news - web sites)'s Hubble and Spitzer telescopes give the clearest look yet at the early and late phases of the planetary construction process. Most astronomers believe planets are created from the disks of dust and gas that form around young stars, and the younger the star, the bigger the dusty disk. Big gas giant planets like Jupiter form first, then smaller rocky so-called terrestrial planets form later when the orbiting rocks collide and stick together. The Hubble Space Telescope managed to see a very young sun-like star -- a mere 50 million to 250 million years old -- with a big ring of potentially planet-forming dust around it. This is old enough to form a gas planet, but probably too young to have produced an Earth-like rocky planet, scientists said in a telephone news briefing. "Basically, it shows one of the possible pasts of our own solar system," Hubble astronomer David Ardila said. Observations from the Spitzer Space Telescope indicate six middle-aged sun-like stars with much thinner dust disks around them. At about 4 billion years old, these six are almost as old as the sun. Astronomers already knew these stars harbored planets, because they had been detected earlier by watching the characteristic wobble that the unseen planets' gravity produces in the stars they circle. Spitzer was looking for dust disks around these stars, which in this case would be remnants of planetary construction. In planetary systems of this age, these disks would be as much as 100 times thinner than those around a younger star, and therefore much harder to spot. But Spitzer's infrared detectors managed to find them by looking for unexpected warmth. "In the case of six of these stars, we found that the amount of heat they're emitting is considerably in excess by factors of two to a factor of 15 times more heat than is expected from the surface of the star itself," Spitzer scientist Charles Beichman said at the briefing. "These are really the first planet-bearing stars around which we've found disks of material analogous to our own Kuiper Belt," Beichman said. The Kuiper Belt is a ring of icy space rocks and rubble outside the orbit of Neptune. More information and images are available online at http://hubblesite.org/news/2004/33..

heh, my best is 14.6 bps w/ maniac mode. it is just not the same has having a bubblewrap in your hands. mmm, I see they have several cheaters now

SPACE COMBAT 1.40 from the people who made X-Plane

NVIDIA GeForce 6800GT Vs. ATI RADEON X800 Pro Comparison ASUS Extreme AX600XT vs. MSI PCX 5750: Budget PCI-Express ATi Radeon X700 XT - ATi's Answer To The GeForce 6600

Link quote:BEIJING (Reuters) - Nine out of 10 Chinese calling into a suicide-prevention hotline in the capital Beijing are getting the busy tone, a newspaper said on Monday, adding that nationwide four people were killing themselves every minute. So far, more than 110,000 people had dialed in to the Beijing Suicide Research and Prevention Center hotline since it was set up in Beijing last year, the China Daily said. It quoted an expert as saying poverty, unemployment, bereavement, breakdowns in relationships or legal and work-related problems were all causes. But a lack of funds meant that not everyone who needed the hotline was getting through, said Michael Phillips, executive director of the suicide prevention center. "Nine of every 10 persons only hear a busy tone," he told the newspaper. "It's very dangerous because they may be at high risk of committing suicide." Stress in urban China has increased with 20 years of economic reforms, increased competition, job losses, breakup of the traditional family unit in the cities and the dismantlement of cradle-to-grave welfare benefits.

Link quote:By David Zucchino Times Staff Writer NEWARK, Del. ÔÇö Like a mutant blob in a bad horror movie, an oil slick first thought to be relatively small has grown bigger and more menacing over the past week, oozing its way down both banks of the Delaware River. When the Greek tanker Athos I began leaking heavy Venezuelan crude into the river the night of Nov. 26, it appeared to be a manageable spill confined to a riverside terminal ÔÇö just 30,000 gallons, according to estimates. But authorities now warn that it could be as much as 473,500 gallons, a gooey mess that has spread to 70 miles of shoreline across three states. Investigators are trying to determine whether a gash and a puncture in the ship's hull were caused by an 11-ton, 13-foot-wide propeller that fell off a dredge owned by the Army Corps of Engineers in April and was left on the river bottom. The muck has killed birds, fish and turtles. It has shut down a nuclear plant and threatened a dozen freshwater streams and tributaries. It has slid past a pristine nature reserve and spread to within three miles of drinking water intakes for Philadelphia and southern New Jersey. And it was still oozing Friday, leaving a 4-foot-high black smear along the stone seawall that keeps the Delaware from flooding Ft. Mifflin, a historic Revolutionary War battlement. Stiff sea winds spread a sharp chemical odor across the freshwater tidal marshes that straddle Interstate 95. The spill is not exactly the Exxon Valdez, which dumped nearly 11 million gallons in Alaska in 1989, but it could be the worst on the Delaware, surpassing the 300,000 gallons spilled by a tanker in 1989. And it has surprised and shaken a region where most people are only vaguely aware of the massive refineries that dot the uninhabited, low marshlands just south of Philadelphia. Tankers deliver a million barrels of crude each day to the refineries that produce 70% of the gasoline sold in the Northeast, according to the local maritime exchange. More than a thousand workers were along the river Friday, putting down 94,000 feet of boom, absorbent floating barriers used to contain the slick. Despite all efforts, the environmental and economic damages probably will be in the millions, authorities said. The Delaware Bay is home to thousands of migratory shorebirds and the world's largest population of horseshoe crabs. "No matter how good the cleanup is, the damage is irreparable. This is a real catastrophe," said Maya van Rossum, a lawyer and environmentalist who calls herself the "Delaware Riverkeeper." For the last week, Van Rossum has stomped along creek beds and marshlands, taking photographs and documenting the effects of the spill. The oil has spread from Pennsylvania and New Jersey past here in Newark, where on Friday staffers and volunteers at Tri-State Bird Rescue & Research Inc. were using diluted dishwashing liquid to dissolve oil from the feathers of ducks, Canada geese and seagulls ÔÇö and from the shell of a single painted turtle. A pair of rare bald eagles smeared with oil had been spotted but not recovered by rescuers, van Rossum said. "The oil burns their skin and eyes and destroys their feather structure ÔÇö it's nasty stuff," Chris Motoyoshi, the rescue center's executive director, said as workers struggled to get a feeding solution down the throat of an uncooperative gull. Shipping restrictions have been imposed on the Philadelphia port, the East Coast's leading destination for cocoa beans from Ivory Coast and for South American fruit ÔÇö particularly grapes from Chile and bananas from Costa Rica. Ships were waiting Friday to be washed clean of oil before heading out to sea, with the delays costing tens of thousands of dollars a day. Pleasure boats, some of them coated with oil, have been banned from the river. Hunting and fishing have been restricted along the Delaware's shoreline. Along the riverbank Friday, workers stacked plastic bags filled with oil-smeared junk and debris skimmed from the river. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which has placed oil snares on the river, said Friday that the spill ranges from "very light sheening to heavy oiling" along the 70-mile slick. The 750-foot Athos I was carrying 14 million gallons of oil when it began leaking at an oil company dock. Authorities first said only 30,000 gallons had seeped out, but four days later the U.S. Coast Guard (news - web sites) announced that 473,500 gallons were missing from the tanker. Divers found a 6-foot gash and a 2-foot puncture in the hull. Officials now are trying to determine how much of the oil was trapped inside the ship's ballast and how much has leaked into the river. The Athos I is a single-hulled tanker. Federal laws passed after the Exxon Valdez spill required single-hulled ships in the U.S. to be gradually replaced with double-hulled by 2015. The tanker's operator, Tsakos Shipping and Trading of Athens, has said insurance would cover cleanup costs. Federal law limits owners' liability based on a ship's tonnage. In the case of the Athos I, the liability would be about $45 million. After touring the riverbank this week, U.S. Sens. Jon Corzine and Frank R. Lautenberg, both New Jersey Democrats, said they would introduce a bill next week to abolish such liability caps for single-hulled ships. The most obvious damage from the Delaware spill is environmental. At the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge near Philadelphia International Airport, the closing of the mouth of Darby Creek within hours of the spill prevented oil from reaching the low-lying refuge. Even so, birds that had been soaked with oil in the river were still flying and landing in the refuge Friday. Workers separated birds that could be saved from those that were dying, sending the survivors south to the Tri-State Bird Rescue facility. There, workers had set up an assembly line of five metal 10-gallon tubs filled with 103-degree water and diluted dish soap. Birds were moved from tub to tub after an initial examination by a veterinarian. In each tub, workers used sponges, cotton swabs and squirt bottles to wash off the oil. The birds were given fluids to prevent dehydration and, in some cases, Pepto-Bismol to relieve gastro-intestinal distress caused by ingesting or breathing oil. Oil destroys birds' delicate feather structure and waterproofing, the Tri-State Bird Rescue's Motoyoshi said. Some birds have died of hypothermia, she said, and others have died after sinking and drowning under the weight of the oil. Since the spill, 86 birds have been brought to the center, including Canada geese, mallards, cormorants, herons, coots and seagulls. Of those, Motoyoshi said, 69 are still alive. The center is continuing to receive about 20 oil-coated birds a day.

quote:Originally posted by LostInSpace: You know something, after reading the tech report of the AMD64 3000+, I think I might just go for that one myself.This processor seems to have the most bang for the buck at the moment and if you need more I have read it overclocks well

quote:Who say they aren't already bugging us ? As a praying mantis? Stranger things have happened.

I think a simple "HI" would suffice.