Emptying my burgeoning browsers tabs with some links others may found interesting: Bear Bid Was 'Fair' at $2 and $10 (WSJ.com) Peter Bernstein on the transformation of financial markets (Frontline)... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 4:31 pm
Nokia has managed to create one of its own convincing counter-culture characters, all in the name of promoting the N82. Enter Stavros, the (presumably Greek) genius of what he has termed position art... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 1:12 pm
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Dell Inc , the world's No. 2 maker of personal computers, said on Tuesday it had tied up with Indian retailer Infinity Retail to sell its laptops and desktops through... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:42 pm
Amy Bennett writes "This past weekend we discussed an increasing level of attacks online, targeting Tibetan-based NGOs. Now the BBC is reporting that the Save Darfur Coalition has called in the FBI on what appears to be a similar matter. Allyn Brooks-LaSure, a spokesman with the group, doesn't know who is behind the attacks, but he said the IP addresses of the computers that had hacked his organization were from China. Save Darfur has been trying to get China, one of Sudan's largest trading partners, to pressure Sudan's government into stopping the mass killings in Darfur's ongoing civil war. 'Someone in Beijing is trying to send us a message,' Brooks-LaSure said. Probably the same message they're sending by continuing to shut down video sites covering the Tibetan unrest."
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Online movie rental company Netflix Inc has surveyed its subscribers to gauge their interest in streaming movies to their televisions using Microsoft Corp's Xbox... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:25 pm
Seattle based Redfin, a service that you use in lieu of a buyers broker or agent when buying a house. We explained their model in detail when they launched in mid 2006. A year later the company was interviewed... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:07 pm
Pickens writes "They called it leviathan, behemoth, Big Bertha. At 12 feet wide, rising 7 feet above the cement floor and weighing an estimated 65 tons, the Columbia cyclotron, the particle accelerator built in the late 1930s by Columbia physicist John Dunning, played a crucial role in the dawn of the nuclear era. Dunning's experiments verified fission, established many of its properties, and, most significantly, demonstrated that the rare isotope Uranium 235, and not the more common U-238, was the more fissionable form of the element. 'In a week or two, they will dismantle it, and they will sell it for scrap,' says George Hamawy, Columbia University's director of radiation safety. 'This is the last chance to see it,' Hamawy added as students held a wake and contractors arrived to remove the cyclotron. 'We're going to make two-thousand-pound sections,' said one contractor before taking the cyclotron's measurements. 'We'll start slicing on Monday.'"
Jason Schultz pointed me to this cool blog widget this morning. It's called the ECO-SAFE merit badge. But I call it my blog printing widget. From it, you can email this page, email a pdf of this page,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:01 pm
Avi sez, "Here's a cool project that maps the world according to the attention each country gets from major western mainstream media outlets- interesting that Israel with a population of 7.2 million usually... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:29 am
Avi sez, "Here's a cool project that maps the world according to the attention each country gets from major western mainstream media outlets- interesting that Israel with a population of 7.2 million usually ends up getting more media attention than India with a population of 1.12 billion."
(Shown here: the New York Times's heatmap)
Link
(Thanks, Avi!)
I get a furious giggle out of this Sinistar-meets-Dick-and-Jane graphic. Anyone know where it comes from? Post to the comments! (Thanks, Spingo!) Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:25 am
Joe sez, "Tom Spurgeon on the excellent Comics Reporter posted sad news over the holiday weekend - Belgian publisher Raymond Leblanc passed away at the age of 92. For those who don't know, Raymond, a former Resistance member during the Nazi occupation, set up the famous Tintin magazine after the war, bringing in Herge, then labouring under a blacklist for collaboration during the occupation. He pushed Lombard into one of the top European comics albums publishers and worked with a roll call of the great and good of the medium. Fair to say the comics scene would have been far, far poorer without him and some of the characters generations of us have grown up reading might never have made it if not for his guidance and energy."
A civil servant turned member of the French Resistance in World War II, the Longlier native partnered with two friends to create a small publishing company on Rue du Lombard in Brussels. Their big coup came in 1945 when they convinced Herge to bring his Tintin into the fold of a weekly publication devoted to kids to share the feature's name. The cartoonist, already a success with a dozen albums to his credit but battered personally and professionally by the limited publishing opportunities during the war in a way that would drive criticism his way for the remainder of his days, accepted their offer. He recruited three friends -- Paul Cuvelier, Edgard P. Jacobs, Jacques Laudy -- to help him form the core of the magazine. They and their successors would take aim at the successful Spirou and forge a successful legacy for themselves at the same time.
Joe sez, "Tom Spurgeon on the excellent Comics Reporter posted sad news over the holiday weekend - Belgian publisher Raymond Leblanc passed away at the age of 92. For those who don't know, Raymond, a former... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:20 am
Loss sez, "Night Shade Books has just made Jon Armstrong's novel GREY available as a free download (as they did with Richard Kadrey's BUTCHER BIRD last month). This stunning 'high-fashion dystopia' has been nominated for the John W. Campbell Memorial Award, and is one of the best books I read last year. If you haven't yet checked out GREY, you should."
Nora and I finished our fried whale and plum sandwiches, our cream coffees, and the cocoa and coca pastries, and sat in a comfortable silence as landscapes of buildings and millions of well-wishers whirred past the windows at six hundred kilometers per hour. Halfway on our train-date, after the conductor blew the massive, buzzing horn, and the waitresses in their black-and-yellow-striped honeybee uniforms, complete with dangerously sharp-looking stingers, cleared the dishes, Nora closed her right eye and gazed at me with her left; I, in turn, did the same, and it was like we were the perfect couple.
This was our fourth and last date before our marriage, and while the whole thing had been arranged between our parents to complete the merger of our families’ companies, I could not have imagined or wished for someone as wonderful as she. Standing just an inch below my six foot three, with shiny black hair, a light walnut complexion, and obsidian eyes, her features were wide and open like an innocent doll, but she was also intelligent and witty. Most impressive of all was that she, like myself, loved the fashion magazine Pure H. We quoted from it, dressed and struck poses like the models, and felt that we were just like the beautiful and tragic people of our dreams.
Loss sez, "Night Shade Books has just made Jon Armstrong's novel GREY available as a free download (as they did with Richard Kadrey's BUTCHER BIRD last month). This stunning 'high-fashion dystopia' has... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:17 am
Kim sez, Pandit Surinder Sharma, a famous Indian tantrick (magician) was on a televised panel discussion when he claimed he could kill any man with black magic in under three minutes. Fellow panelist,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:12 am
Pandit Surinder Sharma, a famous Indian tantrick (magician) was on a televised panel discussion when he claimed he could kill any man with black magic in under three minutes. Fellow panelist, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged the tantrick to kill him right then and there. Hilarity ensued as Sharma chanted the death mantra, and, when that failed, waved a knife and sprinkled water on him, as Edamarku laughed the entire time.
After two hours of this, the show's anchor pronounced the attempt a failure. The tantrick said he must be under the protection of a very powerful god, to which Edmarku replied "I am an atheist". The tantrick claimed nobody could stand up to his extra-special death spell, but that could only be performed at night. The TV station promptly arranged another trial at night, with predictable results.
Here's a piece of crafty crypto history: a downloadable, printable papercraft Enigma machine, embodying the notorious Nazi cipher broken by Alan Turing and co. during WWII. You can also buy reasonably priced bulk-printed versions on heavy card-stock.
Link
(via Schneier)
Here's a piece of crafty crypto history: a downloadable, printable papercraft Enigma machine, embodying the notorious Nazi cipher broken by Alan Turing and co. during WWII. You can also buy reasonably... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNBlogTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:11 am
Rose sez, "Folks in Brooklyn have started a CCC-style hacker collective, NYC Resistor, which meets regularly to share knowledge, hack on projects together, and build community.
Group members are offering classes to the public -- the first class list includes basic electronics, soldering, video-making, and Game Boy programming.
NYC-area BoingBoing readers are welcome!"
Link
(Thanks, Rose!)
The Aetheric Dynamo from steampunk sculptor Dan Cohen is a notional ghost-catching apparatus of great loveliness:
The primary purpose of this machine is the attraction and capture of a lower Aetheric Shell, otherwise known colloquially as a ‘ghost’ or ‘spirit. The secondary function is the transformation of the Shell into remote aetheric antennae, and the transduction of aetheromagnetic energy into electromagnetic current.
By Joyce Smith, The Kansas City Star, Mo. Mar. 25--Businesses are constantly morphing, so it's important to always be listening and be ready to change, advises innovation consultant Sue Mosby. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
INX Inc., (NASDAQ:INXI) announced today that it has been recognized as an Advanced Technology Provider of Cisco's TelePresence meeting solution. INX announced today that it has been recognized by Cisco Systems as a Cisco TelePresence Advanced Technology Provider. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
LOS ANGELES, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Comparison Corporation; http://www.comparison.travel/, operator of popular online web properties today announced the launch of Comparison.travel; a tool that enables users to search the top 20 travel web sites such as Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, Priceline, Kayak, HotWire, SideStep, Hotels.com and other major travel websites at the same time with one click without having to search each website individually. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
LOS ANGELES, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Triple threat Brandon Kane, announces new deal with the increasingly popular independent label, Jean Rah Fya Records. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
By Mike Snider Musical heavyweights such as 50 Cent and R.E.M. can't get by with just a MySpace page and a website any more. They need a virtual fan connection. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
WHAT: Khurram P. Sheikh, chief product and development officer for Powerwave Technologies, Inc. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/reports/c86515) has announced the addition of 4Q07 Ethernet Switch Market Analysis to their offering. This report examines the Ethernet switch market for 4Q07. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Jabber, Inc. (http://www.jabber.com) today announced that it was selected as the runner-up for the Graham Bell Award for Best Communication Solution in the 2007 SPIFFY Awards by the Service Provider Innovation Forum (SPiF) of the Telecom Council of Silicon Valley. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
Net Optics has been chosen to provide a new level of network traffic visibility at Interop conferences in Las Vegas, New York, and Japan this year. The company is the global leader in passive monitoring access devices for use with all industry-leading security and network management tools. Source: RedOrbit News - Technology | 25 Mar 2008 | 11:00 am
David sez, "This sweded version of Jurassic Park is truly excellent, from the hammy impressions of characters to the parcel tape velociraptor costumes."
Link
(Thanks, David!)
Here's a short video mapping in time-lapse the spread of Wal*Mart stores in America, from a few lonely dots in the sixties to a rising torrent that ends with an America blanketed by the blight.
Link
knorthern knight writes "The Canadian family-run ISP Teksavvy (which is popular among Canadian P2P users precisely because it does not throttle P2P) has started noticing that Bell Canada is throttling traffic before it reaches wholesale partners. According to Teksavvy CEO Rocky Gaudrault, Bell has implemented 'load balancing' to 'manage bandwidth demand' during peak congestion times — but apparently didn't feel the need to inform partner ISPs or customers. The result is a bevy of annoyed customers and carriers across the great white north."
Small splatters of molten lava have been ejected from Hawaii's Halemaumau Crater for the first time since 1982. Officials with the U.S. Geological Survey's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 9:36 am
LONGVIEW, Texas, March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- There's no question that advertising promotes a highly competitive, volatile environment. But given the recent spike in... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:35 am
BELLEVUE, Wash., March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- Today Bocada Inc., the pioneer and leading provider of data protection reporting and analysis solutions, announced general... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:32 am
BONITA SPRINGS, Fla., March 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Source Interlink Companies, Inc. (Nasdaq: SORC), one of the largest publishers of magazines and online content... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:30 am
PASO ROBLES, Calif., March 25 /PRNewswire/ -- IQMS, a leader in the design and development of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software, has become a corporate sponsor... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:30 am
RONKONKOMA and BROOKLYN, N.Y., March 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- FirstNano, a division of CVD Equipment Corporation (CVD) (Nasdaq: CVV) and The City University of New... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:30 am
CARY, N.C., March 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Beginning this month, consumers in four cities -- Chicago, Denver, Minneapolis and Orlando -- will have no problem finding... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:30 am
ATLANTA, March 25 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- myPhotopipe.com, Inc. (Pink Sheets: MPPC.PK), a web-based online provider of digital photo processing and related services,... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:30 am
Japanese stocks rose sharply Tuesday on easing credit market fears and as a recovery of the dollar against the yen from last week's 12 1/2-year lows encouraged investors to buy exporters. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:07 am
Two foreign crewmen were taken to Edinburgh Royal Infirmary yesterday after a chemical spill on a ship moored at the Cemex plant at Leith Docks. Fire crews and a chemical team cleared the spill. (c) 2008 Daily Record; Glasgow (UK). Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anonymous Screen printers reportedly have a new screen-printable hard coating that will stretch and not fracture during thermoforrning of plastic parts. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Naitove, Matthew H BELOW Impact modifiers and processing aids for PLA comprise Arkema's new Biostrength family of additives for biopolymers. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
WASHINGTON - U.S. health officials have identified a contaminant in batches of the blood thinner heparin associated with 19 deaths and are trying to determine how the chemical got into the drug. The lots of heparin, whose key ingredient was imported from China, were recalled Feb. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Darryl Enriquez, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel Mar. 25--Hungry bluegills and patches of thin ice -- both are out there for anglers who are stepping gingerly to squeeze in a few extra days of "hard water" fishing prior to the coming of the spring thaw, a state fisheries expert said Monday. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Anne Jungen, La Crosse Tribune, Wis. Mar. 25--Charges are expected to be filed today against a La Crosse teenager accused of stealing eight firearms Thursday from a South Side home. Ronald Wright, 17, of 1747 Rose St., Apt. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Lauren McSherry Lucerne Valley was named after the acres of alfalfa farmed by the city's founders. Now, under an application to develop 21 square miles of the valley, rows of glossy solar panels could redefine the area. The Cannon Power Corp. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
When a deadly disease wipes out most of the world's population, scientists create a hi-tech walled city. However, the sealed environment isn't without its problems, and political murder and corruption prompt an acrobatic rebel agent to seek revenge onthose in charge. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
By Emily Killian, The Shelby Star, N.C. Mar. 25--SHELBY -- Last year was simply too dry. Crops that held so much promise in spring withered in the heat and dry air of summer and fall. Source: RedOrbit News - Science | 25 Mar 2008 | 8:00 am
simoniker writes "In a new weblog post on Dobbs Code Talk, Intel's James Reinders discusses the growth of concurrency in programming, suggesting that '...programming for multi-core is catching the imagination of programmers more in Japan, China, Russia, and India than in Europe and the United States.' He also comments: 'We see a significantly HIGHER interest in jumping on a parallelism from programmers with under 15 years experience, verses programmers with more than 15 years.' Any anecdotal evidence for or against from this community?"
'Autism Every Day,' 'Autism: The Musical' and 'Her Name is Sabine' all work to raise public awareness. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 7:00 am
A new study says that black carbon pollution contributes more to global warming than previously thought. ... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 7:00 am
An anonymous reader sends the story of the rediscovery of an original painting of Ada Byron at about age 4, the girl who was to become Countess Lovelace and the world's first computer programmer. A US Army sergeant in Tajikistan caught wind of an eBay auction of a 180-year-old painting of Ada Byron, with provenance; he notified a programmer buddy in Texas, who won the auction.
A number of open source companies have recently attracted investments and merger interest. In fact, more and more open source creators are striking it rich. There are some success stories out there, in spite of dire financial news. Here's the first of nine trends we see driving business in 2008.
A film about Star Wars fans, made by Star Wars fans, Fanboy's plot centers on a group of wannabe Jedis who travel cross-country and break into Skywalker Ranch. It's billed as a comedic road flick, but you'll need an encyclopedic knowledge of George Lucas' movie franchise to get the jokes.
Part of the back-story of Fanboys involves a fan with cancer. But a new version of the film has no mention of that shadow — the impetus for the cross-country journey is just an impatience to see the film and a chance for the friends to bond. Why the changes?
kamikasee writes "I recently found out that I'm going to be moved from an office to a cubicle. The cubicle area is not very secure, and I'm worried about things wandering off. My boss has offered to buy some equipment to help me secure things, but so far I haven't found anything that fits my requirements. Google and Amazon searches are overwhelmed by lockable key cabinets and larger pieces of furniture. Here are some of the requirements: The main issue with traditional solutions (e.g. locking things in a drawer) is convenience. I use a laptop with a second LCD monitor. There's also an external keyboard and mouse and a USB hard drive. I leave my laptop on at night so I can remote-desktop into it, so I'm not really happy about putting it in a drawer (no ventilation), plus I don't like the idea of having to 'unharness' everything every time I want to put it away. I don't trust cable locks. Besides, cable locks won't help me secure my the USB drive and other electronics that might wander off. The solution I imagine is a lockable, ventilated metal box that would sit under the monitor and house most of the electronics. If it was big enough, I could stick my laptop into it at night (while leaving it running) and feel confident that it would still be there in the morning. I'd be open to other types of solutions. Surely someone else must have dealt with this problem."
Sun Microsystems is trying to do for computing what all the kings horses and men failed to do for Humpty Dumpty. For decades, the semiconductor industry has broken silicon wafers into smaller chips to... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 3:36 am
If beauty is in the eye of the beholder, then try to be beheld by a feminist. A new study finds that women who describe themselves as feminists are more forgiving than other women when assessing the attractiveness... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 2:36 am
bsk_cw writes "Although many Windows users intend to hold onto their copies of XP until it is pried from their cold, dead fingers, Microsoft fully intends to phase out the OS in favor of Vista. If you're unwilling to move to one of the alternatives, and really don't like Vista, the least you can do is be aware of what's in store. David DeJean offers a rundown on Microsoft's timeline for Windows XP, why the company does things that way, and what you can do about it."
Before Google gets too excited about open wireless access, it should look a little more closely at what did in AOL. The analogy is hardly perfect, but the new rules, promoted by Google, that will force... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 1:35 am
A security lapse made it possible for unwelcome strangers to peruse personal photos posted on Facebook Inc.'s popular online hangout, circumventing a recent upgrade to the Web site's privacy controls. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:42 am
WASHINGTON The Justice Department gave approval on Monday to the merger of two rival radio networks, XM and Sirius, a marriage that would create a de facto monopoly in satellite services now used by more... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNPaperTech | 25 Mar 2008 | 12:36 am
eWeekPete writes "Ringside Networks tomorrow will formally launch as a company and also launch what it calls the first open-source social application server that seamlessly integrates Facebook applications with any Web site. The Ringside Social Application Server includes a Social Application Engine that enables Web site developers to quickly build, customize, and deploy their own social applications as well as the included set of standard social applications such as user profiles, friends, groups, comments, ratings, favorites, and events. Ringside also delivers support for federated social graphs for integrating Ringside-based social graphs with other social networks, such as Facebook. In addition, the product features an extensible API and tag library to enable developers to extend Facebook's API and markup language, as well to as define their own application-specific APIs and tags to handle custom behavior and improve Web site integration." Matt Asay had an advance look at Ringside a few days back.
BUL2294 notes a CNN article reporting that the Mars Rovers program at NASA is facing budget cuts of $4 million for this year and $8 million for fiscal 2009. This will mean job cuts; and in all likelihood Spirit will be put in "hibernation mode," to be reactivated when or if future funding becomes available."
esocid writes to share that University of Maryland physicists have demonstrated that the material of the future may be graphene rather than silicon. Electricity conduction through graphene is about 100 times greater than that of silicon and could offer many improvements to things like computer chips and biochemical sensors. "Graphene, a single-atom-thick sheet of graphite, is a new material which combines aspects of semiconductors and metals. [...] A team of researchers led by physics professor Michael S. Fuhrer of the university's Center for Nanophysics and Advanced Materials, and the Maryland NanoCenter said the findings are the first measurement of the effect of thermal vibrations on the conduction of electrons in graphene, and show that thermal vibrations have an extraordinarily small effect on the electrons in graphene."
UC Berkeley engineers are testing a new approach to face recognition that, they say, provides 90-95 percent accuracy even when part of the face is obscured.
Tobacco companies have spent millions tweaking the tobacco plant trying to make a less harmful butt, but a former FDA official argues the best cigarette for the public's health would take all the high out of smoking.
Garth Freeman, the CEO of Australian company Buzz Broadband, described his company's experience with WiMax as a "disaster," and ultimately a "miserable failure."
A civil servant turned member of the French Resistance in World War II, the Longlier native partnered with two friends to create a small publishing company on Rue du Lombard in Brussels. Their big coup came in 1945 when they convinced Herge to bring his Tintin into the fold of a weekly publication devoted to kids to share the feature's name. The cartoonist, already a success with a dozen albums to his credit but battered personally and professionally by the limited publishing opportunities during the war in a way that would drive criticism his way for the remainder of his days, accepted their offer. He recruited three friends -- Paul Cuvelier, Edgard P. Jacobs, Jacques Laudy -- to help him form the core of the magazine. They and their successors would take aim at the successful Spirou and forge a successful legacy for themselves at the same time.
Nora and I finished our fried whale and plum sandwiches, our cream coffees, and the cocoa and coca pastries, and sat in a comfortable silence as landscapes of buildings and millions of well-wishers whirred past the windows at six hundred kilometers per hour. Halfway on our train-date, after the conductor blew the massive, buzzing horn, and the waitresses in their black-and-yellow-striped honeybee uniforms, complete with dangerously sharp-looking stingers, cleared the dishes, Nora closed her right eye and gazed at me with her left; I, in turn, did the same, and it was like we were the perfect couple.
Pandit Surinder Sharma, a famous Indian tantrick (magician) was on a televised panel discussion when he claimed he could kill any man with black magic in under three minutes. Fellow panelist, Sanal Edamaruku, the president of Rationalist International, challenged the tantrick to kill him right then and there. Hilarity ensued as Sharma chanted the death mantra, and, when that failed, waved a knife and sprinkled water on him, as Edamarku laughed the entire time.
