Datasets:

davidpig

/

lnl-agnews

like 0

Weak Version of Most Powerful Explosions Found (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - Gamma-ray bursts are the most powerful events in the universe, temporary outshining several galaxies and likely signaling the birth of a black hole.

Simultaneous Tropical Storms a Rarity (AP). AP - The prospect that a tropical storm and a hurricane #151; or possibly two hurricanes #151; could strike Florida on the same day is something meteorologists say they have never seen.

NASA's Genesis Spacecraft Adjusts Course (AP). AP - NASA's Genesis spacecraft successfully adjusted its course this week as it heads back toward Earth with a sample of solar wind particles, the space agency said Wednesday.

Scientists Probe Pacific for Dead Zone (AP). AP - His hand on a toggle switch and his eyes on a computer screen, Oregon State University graduate student Anthony Kirincich uses an array of scientific instruments to probe the vibrant waters of the Pacific. He is searching for the absence of life.

Life on Mars Likely, Scientist Claims (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - DENVER, COLORADO -- Those twin robots hard at work on Mars have transmitted teasing views that reinforce the prospect that microbial life may exist on the red planet.

India Rethinks Plan to Send Man to Moon (AP). AP - India is rethinking its plan to send a man to the moon by 2015, as the mission would cost a lot of money and yield very little in return, the national space agency said Thursday.

Natural Sunblock: Sun Dims in Strange Ways (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - When Venus crossed the Sun June 8, showing up as a clear black dot to the delight of millions of skywatchers around the world, astronomers noted something less obvious: The amount of sunlight reaching Earth dipped by 0.1 percent for a few hours.

Website Lets Users Scout the Red Planet from Home (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - For those who want to explore Mars but cant wait for a spacecraft to take them there, NASA scientists have reformulated a website that lets the general public search data and images from previous missions.

Appeal Rejected in Trout Restoration Plan (AP). AP - The U.S. Forest Service on Wednesday rejected environmentalists' appeal of a plan to poison a stream south of Lake Tahoe to aid what wildlife officials call "the rarest trout in America."

Explore the Many Colors of Stars (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - One of the pleasures of \ stargazing is noticing and enjoying the various colors that stars display in \ dark skies. These hues offer direct visual evidence of how stellar temperatures \ vary.

Britain Grants Human Cloning License (AP). AP - Britain granted its first license for human cloning Wednesday, joining South Korea on the leading edge of stem cell research, which is restricted by the Bush administration and which many scientists believe may lead to new treatments for a range of diseases.

The Next Great Space Race: SpaceShipOne and Wild Fire to Go For the Gold (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - A piloted rocket ship race to claim a #36;10 million Ansari X Prize purse for privately financed flight to the edge of space is heating up.

Growth, Mortality of T. Rex Gets Clearer (AP). AP - Here's a dinosaur finding that parents can appreciate: The teenage Tyrannosaurus rex typically went through an explosive growth spurt, gaining nearly 5 pounds a day.

Space Science Pioneer Van Allen Questions Human Spaceflight (SPACE.com). SPACE.com - A leading space scientist has called to question the validity of human spaceflight, suggesting that sending astronauts outward from Earth is outdated, too costly, and the science returned is trivial.

China Begins Manned Space Flight Countdown (AP). AP - Chinese astronauts are in the final stages of preparing for a manned space mission that will orbit the globe 14 times before returning to Earth, a state-run newspaper reported Thursday.

Japanese Lunar Probe Facing Delays (AP). AP - A lunar orbiter that Japan had planned to launch this year could face further delays, possibly until next year or later, because of a funding shortfall and problems developing the probe's information-gathering capabilities, Japan's space agency said Wednesday.

Pollutants From Asia Appear on East Coast (AP). AP - Scientists looking into air quality and climate change have found pollutants from as far as Asia over New England and the Atlantic.

Vietnam's Citadel Vulnerable to Weather (AP). AP - Experts from Europe and Asia surveyed 1,400-year-old relics of an ancient citadel in Hanoi Tuesday and said they were concerned the priceless antiquities were at risk from exposure to the elements.

U.S. Barred From Weakening Dolphin Rules (AP). AP - In a victory for environmentalists, a federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Bush administration cannot change the standards commercial fisheries must meet before the tuna they catch can carry the "dolphin-safe" label.

Canadian Robot a Candidate to Save Hubble (AP). AP - NASA said Tuesday it is moving ahead with plans to send a robot to the rescue of the aging Hubble Space Telescope.

Cave Explorers Discover Pit in Croatia (AP). AP - Cave explorers discovered a pit inside a mountain range in central Croatia believed to have the world's deepest subterranean vertical drop, at nearly 1,700 feet, a scientific institute reported Monday.

Aquarium Reviews Death of Dolphin (AP). AP - The chief scientist at the National Aquarium in Baltimore has launched a review of the dolphin breeding program after the death of a 4-month-old dolphin.

Wash. State Team's Private Rocket Explodes (AP). AP - A team taking a low-budget stab at the #36;10 million Ansari X Prize for private manned spaceflight suffered a setback Sunday, when their rocket malfunctioned and exploded after shooting less than 1,000 feet in the air.

Nevada Ponders Superfund Status for Mine (AP). AP - Pressured by a ranking senator from Nevada and the Environmental Protection Agency, Gov. Kenny Guinn says he might reconsider his opposition to a federal Superfund cleanup declaration for a huge abandoned mine contaminated with toxic waste and uranium.

Indictments Using DNA on Rise Nationally (AP). AP - Authorities once had no choice but to drop rape cases if they weren't able to catch a suspect before the statute of limitations expired. But prosecutors across the country increasingly are buying themselves time, keeping cold cases alive by indicting unidentified rapists using their DNA profiles.

Southeast Coast Sees Fewer Turtle Nests (AP). AP - About half the usual number of loggerhead turtles have nested between North Carolina and Florida this season, and scientists have no explanation for the drop.

Company Said to Be Ready to Clone Pets (AP). AP - A company that unveiled the world's first cloned cat nearly three years ago now says it is ready to start filling orders for cloned pets, a newspaper reported Thursday.

Deep-Sea Vessel Puts Ocean Floor in Reach (AP). AP - A new deep-sea research vessel will be able to carry people to 99 percent of the ocean floor, diving deeper than the famed Alvin that pioneered the study of seafloor vents, plate tectonics and deep ocean creatures over the past 40 years.

New Method May Predict Quakes Weeks Ahead (AP). AP - Swedish geologists may have found a way to predict earthquakes weeks before they happen by monitoring the amount of metals like zinc and copper in subsoil water near earthquake sites, scientists said Wednesday.

Marine Expedition Finds New Species (AP). AP - Norwegian scientists who explored the deep waters of the Atlantic Ocean said Thursday their findings #151; including what appear to be new species of fish and squid #151; could be used to protect marine ecosystems worldwide.

Annual Study Finds Rise in Beach Closures (AP). AP - The number of days that beaches closed or posted warnings because of pollution rose sharply in 2003 due to more rainfall, increased monitoring and tougher standards, an environmental group said on Thursday.

Pacific May Be Seeing New El Nino (AP). AP - Warming water temperatures in the central equatorial Pacific last month may indicate the start of a new El Nino.

Cassini Spacecraft Sees Saturn Lightning (AP). AP - The Cassini spacecraft's mission to Saturn has revealed a new radiation belt around the ringed planet and found that lightning in its atmosphere is occurring in different patterns than it did when NASA's Voyagers flew by in the early 1980s, scientists said.

Experts Downplay Texas Shark Attacks (AP). AP - Three shark attacks off the Texas coast in the past two months are unusual but don't mean there are more sharks than normal along the beach or that they are getting bolder, marine biologists and other experts say.

Study Says Birds Feed Other Birds' Young (AP). AP - It's a lesson many little humans could learn from baby birds: Sometimes, being nice to other youngsters pays off. Brown-headed cowbirds, like several other bird species, leave their eggs in the nests of other birds, who then feed and raise the cowbird chicks.

Canadian Team Joins Rocket Launch Contest (AP). AP - The #36;10 million competition to send a private manned rocket into space started looking more like a race Thursday, when a Canadian team announced plans to launch its rocket three days after an American group intends to begin qualifying for the Ansari X prize.

Universities to Build Largest Telescope (AP). AP - The University of Texas and Texas A amp;M University are planning to construct what they call the world's largest telescope with the help of a Houston businessman's #36;1.25 million gift.

Mauritanian Capital Battles Locust Swarm (AP). AP - Residents burned tires and trash in the streets Thursday trying to drive off swarms of locusts descending on the region in what a U.N. agency called the worst sub-Saharan invasion in more than a decade.

Customers of Telco Companies Face Privacy Breach. A security advisory posted on Bugtraq demonstrates how hackers can compromise customers of T-mobile wireless and Verizon (landline) voicemail boxes. The advisory talks about the use of Caller-ID spoofing the customers number, allowing a bypass of the PIN code since the voicemail thinks that the customer is calling to check their own voicemail. According to Secure Science Corporation, there has been no response from the vendors. Comments have been posted that T-Mobile has optional PIN code protection off by default. Better turn it on.

Mozilla To Add Support For XForms, World Yawns. It's ironic that Microsoft could help further cement its dominance in the browser market by joining its largest rival in an effort to support web standards. nbsp;At the same time, that act would go a long way towards improving the web in general for developers and users alike.

Junk faxes to be legalized as quot;opt-out? quot;. The Register ran a story on August 6th called 'Phone spam misery looms stateside.' It seems that there's legislative nastiness underway in Washington, DC to essentially gut the existing junk fax law, and replace it with a marketer's wet dream.

Biased Against Whom?. Liberal bias versus right-wing conspiracy is a wonderful distraction. There is evidence enough on both sides. How can opposite claims be true? Confront a physicist with evidence supporting contradictory hypotheses and she will go looking for a more basic cause. Let's try that.

Insecurity: (Or Why Americans Aren't Feeling The Recovery). The New Republic's website is currently carrying an interesting piece which tries to explain the anomaly that although the US economy is growing, a lot of its citizens are still feeling worse off. The article explains the results of a 40 year panel study which has shown that although mean incomes have increased, income variability has increased massively, causing many Americans to feel less well off, despite the growing economy.

RuntimeProperties... Reflection from System Properties. \\Java developers often load system properties to customize the runtime behavior\of their applications.\\For example a develoepr could define a 'max_connections' system property to\define the maximum number of TCP connections that their application server can\support. While nice, this prevents all other applications from using this\variable name.\\The first reaction to this would be to namespace your variable names. Instead\of using max_connections you would now use\'my.application.Server.MAX_CONNECTIONS' as your property name. This works of\course but now you have to load this property on startup.\\public static int MAX_CONNECTIONS = Integer.parseInt( System.getProperty(\"my.application.Se ...\\

Thank You IBM!. \\I just wanted to say thanks to IBM for Open Sourcing Cloudscape .\\You guys really have your act together. Keep up the good work!\\

LinuxWorld, IDs, and Privacy. \\Today Jonathan Moore and I headed over to LinuxWorld after lunch to see what\kind of cool hardware and Linux hacks they had on the expo floor.\\Only \$15 to get in the door so I figure why not.\\I'm a bit of a privacy freak. When you're trading some security for liberty\there are situations where it *might* be worth it. In situations of extreme\violence having the police by your side might be a good idea. \\I think we can all agree that trading liberty for *nothing* isn't worth it.\This country was *founded* on liberty after the British were abusing their\colonial powers. Every true American should cherish their liberty and think\long and hard about just turning them over for no reason.\ ...\\

My Blog as a Time Machine. \\I'm starting to realize that my blog is a bit of a time machine. For example I\can create a blog entry to warn myself about something that WILL happen in the\future. \\My current NTP blog entry is a good example. I wrote this for myself as\much as for the people who read my blog (or find me via Google).\\I know for sure that NTP on Debian is going to bite me sometime in the future\and I'm going to forget WHY. Then I'm going to (of course) go to Google or my\aggregator and search for NTP and then find my blog post. \\I've done this about a dozen times now and its saved me a TON of time!\\

NTP in Debian. \\The Network Time Daemon (NTP Daemon) implementation within Debian leaves a\lot to be desired.\\First off they don't include it with a working config. You have to create your\own /etc/ntpd.conf. To make matters worse the configuration doesn't accept DNS\names so you have to manually enter IPs. Fun. I can understand that they might\not want to provide ONE configuration and overwhelm one or two NTP servers but\they can provide a dynamic config that balances load among all available\servers. There is of course the public serves list but you have to Google\for it.\\All you really need to do here is enter a list of servers:\\server time.nist.gov\\server 192.43.244.18\

Pretty Log4J. \\I've been a big fan of Log4J for a while now but haven't migrated any code\over for one central reason. The following line of code:\\ final static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger( "some.name" );\\... is amazingly ugly and difficult to work with.\\Most people use Log4J with a logger based on the classname:\\So we would probably see:\\ static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger( "org.apache.commons.feedparser.locate.FeedLocator" );\\Which is amazingly verbose. A lot of developers shorten this to:\\ static Logger logger = Logger.getLogger( FeedLocator.class );\\But this still leaves us with cut and paste errors.\\What if we could just reduce it to:\\ static Logger logger = Logger.g ...\\

Saudis: Bin Laden associate surrenders. \\"(CNN) -- A longtime associate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden surrendered to\Saudi Arabian officials Tuesday, a Saudi Interior Ministry official said."\\"But it is unclear what role, if any, Khaled al-Harbi may have had in any terror\attacks because no public charges have been filed against him."\\"The Saudi government -- in a statement released by its embassy in Washington --\called al-Harbi's surrender "the latest direct result" of its limited, one-month\offer of leniency to terror suspects."\\This is great! I hope this really starts to pay off. Creative solutions to\terrorism that don't involve violence. \\How refreshing! \\Are you paying attention Bush administration?\\

Mozilla Exceptions (mexception). \\For some reason I never released this code.\\I developed it while working on NewsMonster and just forgot I think\\It's an extension for Mozilla that allows you to see all runtime exceptions\(with full stack traces) that are unhandled by Mozilla. \\Just install it and if your code generates an unhandled exception it will show\up in the logs and on the console.\\Very handy for doing any hardcore Mozilla development.\\

Ron Regan Jr is My Kinda Guy. \\"Now that the country is awash in Reagan nostalgia, some observers are predicting\that you will enter politics. Would you like to be president of the United\States?"\\"I would be unelectable. I'm an atheist. As we all know, that is something\people won't accept."\\"What would you do if Senator Kerry asked you to be his vice president?"\\"I would question his sanity."\\"Do you ever go to church?"\\"No. I visit my wife's sangha."\\"So you sometimes practice Buddhism?"\\"I don't claim anything. But my sympathies would be in that direction. I admire\the fact that the central core of Buddhist teaching involves mindfulness and\loving kindness and compassion."\\So lets get this straight. He's an a ...\\

Al Qaeda member surrenders. \\"RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (CNN) -- One of Saudi Arabia's most wanted militants has\turned himself into the authorities, the first senior suspect to surrender under\a one-month government amnesty announced last week."\\"Othman Al-Omari, number 19 on Saudi Arabia's most wanted list of 26, accepted\King Fahd's offer of amnesty, which was made last week, according to Saudi\sources Monday."\\"Al-Omari, who turned himself in on Sunday night, was a business partner of\Shaban Al Shihri -- the first al Qaeda member to accept the offer when he turned\himself in Friday."\\When I first saw this I was really upset. I thought that it would certainly\lead to more violence if they just let terrorists off the ...\\

Mission Accomplished!. \\"BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Members of Iraq's interim government took an oath of\office Monday just hours after the United States returned the nation's\sovereignty, two days ahead of schedule."\\"Led by Iraq's interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, each member of the new\government placed a hand on the Koran and promised to serve with sincerity and\impartiality. Iraqi flags lined the wall behind them."\\Iraq! Now with 100 less Coalition Provisional Authority! Act now and get a\free Weapon of Mass Destruction (offer only available in Syria, Jordan, Saudi\Arabia, Pakistan, Syria and Iran).\\Also check out our new Puppet Government! Keeps the kids occupied for hours!\\

Java3D - Half Right. \\SUN has announced that Java3D will be released in a different manner than any\other SUN project in existence.\\"We announce the availability of the source code for the Java 3D API on\java.net. We are involving developers in the evolution of the Java 3D API.\Come join the Java 3D projects on java.net, and download the source code for\the core Java 3D API, vecmath, the Java 3D core utilities, and the Java 3D\program examples."\\The key thing here is that they have provided the core utils under a BSD license\and even have the CVS available .\\Good job SUN! You're headed in the right direction!\\Here's the only problem:\\"We are releasing the source code for the j3d-core and vecmath projects u ...\\

Reverse Psychology. \\I really hope SUN doesn't Open Source Java at JavaOne this year. It would be a\terrible decision and seriously hurt the tech industry. Also, it would hurt SUN\and I'm sure their responsible enough to realize this.\\(Lets hope that works!)\\

Kerry's Disgusting Ad. \\A few days ago Kerry sent around this ad:\\"Yesterday, the Bush-Cheney campaign, losing any last sense of decency, placed\a disgusting ad called "The Faces of John Kerry's Democratic Party" as the\main feature on its website. Bizarrely, and without explanation, the ad places\Adolf Hitler among those faces."\\"The Bush-Cheney campaign must pull this ad off of its website. The use of\Adolf Hitler by any campaign, politician or party is simply wrong."\\Which of course is a mistake. I went and downloaded the video (which is just\stupid btw. Not a masterpiece by any means.) and there are shots of Hitler in\there, but only from the MoveOn contest from a few months back.\\Here's the problem. The ...\\

What would Baby Jesus Think?. \\"On Tuesday, Cheney, serving in his role as president of the Senate, appeared in\the chamber for a photo session. A chance meeting with Sen. Patrick J. Leahy\(Vt.), the ranking Democrat on the Judiciary Committee, became an argument about\Cheney's ties to Halliburton Co., an international energy services corporation,\and President Bush's judicial nominees. The exchange ended when Cheney offered\some crass advice.\\'Fuck yourself,' said the man who is a heartbeat from the presidency."\\Wonder what the moral majority has to say about this?\\It isn't profanity! Its a freedom praise!\\

Americans and Freedom. \\"When we Americans first began, our biggest danger was clearly in view: we knew\from the bitter experience with King George III that the most serious threat to\democracy is usually the accumulation of too much power in the hands of an\Executive, whether he be a King or a president. Our ingrained American distrust\of concentrated power has very little to do with the character or persona of the\individual who wields that power. It is the power itself that must be\constrained, checked, dispersed and carefully balanced, in order to ensure the\survival of freedom. In addition, our founders taught us that public fear is the\most dangerous enemy of democracy because under the right circumstances it ...\\

Why Windows isn't Unix. \\"I first heard about this from one of the developers of the hit game SimCity, who\told me that there was a critical bug in his application: it used memory right\after freeing it, a major no-no that happened to work OK on DOS but would not\work under Windows where memory that is freed is likely to be snatched up by\another running application right away. The testers on the Windows team were\going through various popular applications, testing them to make sure they\worked OK, but SimCity kept crashing. They reported this to the Windows\developers, who disassembled SimCity, stepped through it in a debugger, found\the bug, and added special code that checked if SimCity was running, and if it\did ...\\

Microsoft, IE and Bloat. \\Zawodny threads off of Scoble on the IE issue:\\"I have to say, when I first read that I nearly fell off my chair laughing. I was\thinking "how stupid ARE these IE guys?!?!?!" But we all know that Microsoft is\full of smart people who care about what they're doing. So something really\doesn't compute here."\\"Last time I checked, IE wasn't even close to feature parity with Mozilla's\browsers. No popup blocking, no tabbed browsing, etc."\\"Does the IE team really not know what their product is missing?"\\Perhaps. It's highly likely that they just don't know.\\The bigger issue here is that Microsoft products can't fail and they can't\succeed. Microsoft has 40-50 billion in the bank. There ...\\

DRM is doubleplus good for business, Congress advised. The Budget Office and the case of the disappearing public interest

HP: The Adaptive Enterprise that can't adapt. <strong>Opinion</strong> SAP hardly to blame

Buffy the Censor Slayer. <strong>Letters</strong> Readers drive stake through parents' group

Ashlee Vance: the readers have spoken. <strong>Poll results</strong> Bright news for resident <em>Reg</em> ladyboy

<em>El Reg</em> pledges to name BSA antipiracy weasel. <strong>Competition</strong> Get those suggestions in

Wireless net to get speed boost. Wireless computer networks could soon be running 10 times faster than they do now.

Watchdog rules over broadband . The UK's ad watchdog rules over which net connections can be described as full speed broadband.

GameBoy mini-games win prize. A set of GameBoy micro-games is named as the most innovative game of the year at a festival in Scotland.

Microsoft takes down SP2 sharers. Microsoft is stopping people getting hold of a key security update via net-based file- sharing systems.

Britons embrace digital lifestyle. People in the UK are spending more time and money going digital, says communications watchdog Ofcom.

PlayStation potential to learning. The PlayStation games console could be developed into a learning tool for children, says a Northumberland head teacher.

'Invisible' technology for Olympics. Getting the technology in place for Athens 2004 is an Olympic task in itself.

Satellite boosts Olympic security. An enhanced satellite location system aims to help Olympic security guards react more quickly to emergencies.

3D holograms to crack forgeries. A 3D hologram technique could transform how experts spot forged signatures and other handwritten documents.

Video games 'good for children'. Computer games can promote problem-solving and team-building in children, say games industry experts.

Fake goods tempting young adults. Young people are increasingly happy to buy pirated goods or illegal download content from the net, a survey shows.

Catwoman far from perfect. The Catwoman game is a major disappointment that feels like a pointless tie-in with the film.

'Madden,' 'ESPN' Football Score in Different Ways. PROVIDENCE, R.I. (Reuters) - Was absenteeism a little high on Tuesday among the guys at the office? EA Sports would like to think it was because "Madden NFL 2005" came out that day, and some fans of the football simulation are rabid enough to take a sick day to play it.

AOL to Sell Cheap PCs to Minorities and Seniors. NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online on Thursday said it plans to sell a low-priced PC targeting low-income and minority households who agree to sign up for a year of dialup Internet service.

Microsoft to Introduce Cheaper Version of Windows. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> said it will begin selling a stripped-down, low-cost version of its Windows XP operating system in the emerging markets of Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in order to spread the use of computing and develop technology markets.

Companies Approve New High-Capacity Disc Format. LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A group of consumer electronics makers said on Wednesday they approved the format for a new generation of discs that can store five times the data of DVDs at the same cost -- enough to put a full season of "The Sopranos" on one disc.

Missing June Deals Slow to Return for Software Cos.. NEW YORK (Reuters) - The mystery of what went wrong for the software industry in late June when sales stalled at more than 20 brand-name companies is not even close to being solved although the third quarter is nearly halfway over.

Microsoft Upgrades Software for Digital Pictures. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp. <MSFT.O> released on Tuesday the latest version of its software for editing and organizing digital photographs and images to tap into widespread demand for digital cameras and photography.

Google to Pay Yahoo to Settle Patent Dispute. SEATTLE (Reuters) - Google Inc. <GOOG.O> on Monday again boosted the number of shares it plans to sell in its initial public offering, saying it will issue 2.7 million shares to Yahoo Inc. <YHOO.O> to settle a lawsuit over technology used to display ads.

'SP2' a Must With XP Use. Service Pack 2, "SP2" for short, aims to stop viruses, worms, browser hijackings and worse by including security features that people have to add and adjust on their own. <FONT face="verdana,MS Sans Serif,arial,helvetica" size="-2"\ color="#666666"><B>-Rob Pegoraro</b></font>

Putting Your Own Stamp On All Your Parcels. Fido the Stamp is here. Well, he could be -- all it takes is for one dog owner to snap a digital photo of his beloved pooch, submit it to the Stamps.com Web site and order personalized postage. <FONT face="verdana,MS Sans Serif,arial,helvetica" size="-2"\ color="#666666"><B>-Leslie Walker</b></font>

Internet Challenges Face-to-Face Mingling. At Bungalow Billiards in Chantilly on Wednesday, about a dozen single parents from Northern Virginia gathered at happy hour to mingle, eat and drink. All were divorced or widowed members of the Fairfax chapter of Parents Without Partners.

Forecast: Plenty of Activity On the Weather Blog Front. If it's possible to love something just because it could visit torrents upon the Washington region, fling hail from the skies and swell streams into rivers, then Jason Samenow is smitten.

Google Starts Auction. Company launched the biggest electronic auction of stock in Wall Street history Friday but warned that it could face legal liability from a Playboy magazine interview in which some aspects of the Internet search engine's performance were overstated. <FONT face="verdana,MS Sans Serif,arial,helvetica" size="-2"\ color="#666666"><B>-The Washington Post</b></font>

Bids Placed Despite Mixed News. Umesh Patel, a 36-year old software engineer from California, debated until the last minute.

Antitrust Lawyer Takes Helm at FTC. As Deborah P. Majoras takes over the Federal Trade Commission on Monday, she's expected to build on the broad agenda set by her predecessor, Timothy J. Muris.

GAO Calls Stryker Too Heavy for Transport. The Army's new medium-weight armored vehicle, the Stryker, weighs so much that it curtails the range of C-130 military cargo aircraft that carry it and under certain conditions make it impossible for the planes to take off, a new report for Congress found.

BioVeris Settles 2 Lawsuits Against Chief Executive's Son. BioVeris Corp. announced yesterday that it settled two lawsuits against Jacob N. Wohlstadter, its chief executive's son, whom the company had accused of spending millions of dollars on cars and real estate to sabotage a joint venture he ran so he could purchase it for a bargain price.

Google: Now Playboy's Latest Bunny. Investors in the company that's trying to come off as cute as a bunny could find themselves holding a fistful of vipers if the founders of Google Inc. continue to do things like show up in Playboy magazine around the same time their company is going public. <FONT face="verdana,MS Sans Serif,arial,helvetica" size="-2"\ color="#666666"><B>-washingtonpost.com</B></FONT>

EBay Buys Stake in Craigslist. Internet auctioneer eBay Inc. said Friday it acquired a 25 percent stake in craigslist, an online community of classified ads and forums. <FONT face="verdana,MS Sans Serif,arial,helvetica" size="-2"\ color="#666666"><B>-Associated Press</B></FONT>

Blog Interrupted. The instant message blinked on the computer at Jessica Cutler's desk in the Russell Senate Office Building. "Oh my God, you're famous."

Hungry world 'must eat less meat'. People will need to eat more vegetables and less meat because of dwindling water supplies, scientists say.

Hopes soar for solo record plane. Richard Branson says the Virgin Global Flyer is looking good for its solo trip around the world without refuelling.

Arctic team reaches destination. A team of British explorers, who are retracing the steps of a Victorian pioneer, have reached Thom Bay.