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Erick Schonfeld, TechCrunch: This week’s award for best marketing promotion related to the election goes to AirBed & Breakfast, the peer-to-peer pad crashing site for travelers. (You list how much per night you want for travelers to stay on your floor, and they book through the site). Today, I received a package from AirBed & Breakfast containing the two boxes of cereal pictured above: Obama O’s and Cap’n McCain’s. In addition to the physical boxes of cereal, there are two catchy jingles for each cereal, and a Webpage where you can vote for the cereal you prefer.
What does this have to do with AirBed & Breakfast? To promote the service, the startup is encouraging people across the country to put up get-out-the-vote volunteers for each campaign. Hosts can order a box of whichever cereal they prefer and serve it for breakfast. Except each box costs $39, and the company only made 500 of each. (If they make more, that could be their business model, at least for a month).
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RICHMOND, Virginia (AP) - Scientists have confirmed the second case of a "virgin birth" in a shark. A blacktip shark in the wild patrols the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean. A blacktip shark in the wild patrols the vast expanse of the Indian Ocean.
In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male.
The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Nebraska, zoo. "This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."
The scientists cautioned that the rare asexual births should not be viewed as a possible solution to declining global shark populations. The aquarium sharks that reproduced without mates each carried only one pup, while some species can produce litters of a dozen or more. read more
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In a study reported Friday in the Journal of Fish Biology, scientists said DNA testing proved that a pup carried by a female blacktip shark in a Virginia aquarium contained no genetic material from a male.
The first documented case of asexual reproduction, or parthenogenesis, among sharks involved a pup born to a hammerhead at an Omaha, Nebraska, zoo. "This first case was no fluke," Demian Chapman, a shark scientist and lead author of the second study, said in a statement. "It is quite possible that this is something female sharks of many species can do on occasion."
The scientists cautioned that the rare asexual births should not be viewed as a possible solution to declining global shark populations. The aquarium sharks that reproduced without mates each carried only one pup, while some species can produce litters of a dozen or more.">
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Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin abused her power as Alaska's governor in the firing of her public safety commissioner, but violated no laws, a report for the state Legislature concluded Friday.
Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan's refusal to fire Palin's ex-brother-in-law from the state police force was "likely a contributing factor" to Monegan's July dismissal, but Palin had the authority as governor to dismiss him, the report by former Anchorage prosecutor Stephen Branchflower states.
The bipartisan Legislative Council earlier Friday went into executive session to discuss the Branchflower report before its scheduled release.
Only a portion of the report is scheduled to be made public after the executive session, said state Sen. Kim Elton, the Legislative Council's chairman. A second part of the report contains "confidential" information and will be kept under wraps, said Elton, a Democrat who has been under fire from Palin's supporters. read more
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The bipartisan Legislative Council earlier Friday went into executive session to discuss the Branchflower report before its scheduled release.
Only a portion of the report is scheduled to be made public after the executive session, said state Sen. Kim Elton, the Legislative Council's chairman. A second part of the report contains "confidential" information and will be kept under wraps, said Elton, a Democrat who has been under fire from Palin's supporters.">
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Lauren Davis, i09: Alien zoo sex, vulgar language, and the horrors of war have earned this novel (which shall remain nameless) a place on many a banned books list. And it’s hardly alone. Even in just the last decade, parents have tried to remove their least favorite titles from school libraries, and works of science fiction have been among the casualties. So, grab a flashlight, hide under a sheet, and read (or re-read) science fiction’s most suppressed books of the 21st century. These books come from the American Library Association’s most frequently challenged books from 2000 to 2007:
 Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Position on the List: #45
Why it gets Challenged: Violence? Check. Blasphemy? Strong language? Magic Fingers? Check. Not only has Slaughterhouse Five been challenged in school districts, just last year law enforcement in Howell, Michigan was asked to review the book to determine if any of its contents were illegal. read more
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David Friend, Canoe.ca (TORONTO) - High banking standards have kept Canada's financial institutions afloat and out of the kind of trouble that has sunk many of their international peers, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty said last week. Flaherty, who met Friday in Washington with finance ministers from industrial countries to co-ordinate efforts to deal with the global economic crisis, said Canadian banks have been bolstered by strict government monitoring of their capital.
"We've had a couple of financial institutions in Canada that ran the risk of falling outside the capitalization requirements," he said during a news conference on Wednesday. "We required them... to maintain the appropriate capital requirements and raise capital as necessary, which was done months ago." read more
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Philly fans need no extra reason to boo-these are the fans that once booed Santa Claus and so rowdy their football stadium had a jail on-site-but Palin just figured she'd give it to them. Not sure if the deafening boos were to political leanings or to the fact that Palin thought jogging through Philly's Center City in a Rangers' jersey a few weeks ago would be a good idea. In addition to the DailyKos article on the puck drop, check out the link about the Philly faux pas:
Philadelphia Inquirer.
Just caught the ceremonial puck dropping by Sarah Palin this evening on MSG network (for those of you that don't know, the New York sports network) at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia at the Flyers home opener against the Rangers, she got one of the loudest booings I've ever heard! It was as if they were trying to play the fanfare music as loud as they could and the boos still drowned out the music! read more
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Philadelphia Inquirer.
Just caught the ceremonial puck dropping by Sarah Palin this evening on MSG network (for those of you that don't know, the New York sports network) at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia at the Flyers home opener against the Rangers, she got one of the loudest booings I've ever heard! It was as if they were trying to play the fanfare music as loud as they could and the boos still drowned out the music!">
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 Elizabeth Svoboda, Salon.com: Like most globe-trotting jaunts, Betchart Expeditions' Warming Island tour was designed to appeal to potential customers' desire to see new places: "Join us on this wonderful adventure of discovery!" But Warming Island isn't just new in the generic unfamiliar-territory sense. It actually is new — younger than Beanie Babies, Miley Cyrus and George W. Bush's presidency. Following decades of climbing temperatures in the Arctic, Warming Island calved off the east coast of Greenland three years ago, like an ice chunk crumbling from a melting snow pile.
Going to Warming Island is your best chance to see the effects of global warming up close and personal, says explorer Dennis Schmitt, who discovered the island on an ocean voyage in 2005. "Satellite images show that in 2002, this island wasn't there, and in the year 2005, it broke away," says Schmitt, who serves as a guide on board one of Betchart's vessels. "On this trip, you can sail right through the area and see what is left of the ice shelf. You can see a geological event that just happened." read more
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Going to Warming Island is your best chance to see the effects of global warming up close and personal, says explorer Dennis Schmitt, who discovered the island on an ocean voyage in 2005. "Satellite images show that in 2002, this island wasn't there, and in the year 2005, it broke away," says Schmitt, who serves as a guide on board one of Betchart's vessels. "On this trip, you can sail right through the area and see what is left of the ice shelf. You can see a geological event that just happened."">
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Pat Doyle, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Gayle Quinnell, 75, of Shakopee, approached McCain near the end of his hour long give and take with the crowd and told him she didn’t trust his opponent Barack Obama because “he’s an Arab.”
McCain said that wasn’t true, and again called Obama a decent man. After the town hall meeting ended, Quinnell elaborated on her position in talking to reporters.
“I don’t trust Barack Obama because he’s an Arab,” she said. “He’s a Muslim. I’m afraid if he ever got to be president what would happen to this country.”
Obama’s father was Muslim, but Obama is Christian. read more
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When Larry Levine helped prepare divorce papers for a client a few years ago, he got paid in mackerel. Once the case ended, he says, "I had a stack of macks."
Mr. Levine and his client were prisoners in California's Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex. Like other federal inmates around the country, they found a can of mackerel — the "mack" in prison lingo -- was the standard currency.
"It's the coin of the realm," says Mark Bailey, who paid Mr. Levine in fish. Mr. Bailey was serving a two-year tax-fraud sentence in connection with a chain of strip clubs he owned. Mr. Levine was serving a nine-year term for drug dealing. Mr. Levine says he used his macks to get his beard trimmed, his clothes pressed and his shoes shined by other prisoners. "A haircut is two macks," he says, as an expected tip for inmates who work in the prison barber shop. read more
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Mr. Levine and his client were prisoners in California's Lompoc Federal Correctional Complex. Like other federal inmates around the country, they found a can of mackerel — the "mack" in prison lingo -- was the standard currency.
"It's the coin of the realm," says Mark Bailey, who paid Mr. Levine in fish. Mr. Bailey was serving a two-year tax-fraud sentence in connection with a chain of strip clubs he owned. Mr. Levine was serving a nine-year term for drug dealing. Mr. Levine says he used his macks to get his beard trimmed, his clothes pressed and his shoes shined by other prisoners. "A haircut is two macks," he says, as an expected tip for inmates who work in the prison barber shop.">
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