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Finding Terrestrial Worlds in the Dust October 13th, 2008 Computer simulations are showing us how to detect the signature of Earth-like planets — indeed, planets nearly as small as Mars — around other stars. That interesting news comes out of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, where a supercomputer named Thunderbird has been put to work studying dusty disks around stars similar to the Sun. Varying the size of the dust particles along with the mass and orbital distance of the planet, the team led by Christopher Stark (University of Maryland) ran 120 different simulations. “It isn’t widely appreciated that planetary...

Dinosaur that lived 85 million years ago was size of a bus, but breathed like a bird A huge carnivorous dinosaur that lived about 85 million years ago had a breathing system much like that of today's birds, a new analysis of fossils reveals, reinforcing the evolutionary link between dinos and modern birds.

US winemakers seek to reduce alcohol content By Tom Leonard, in New York Last Updated: 2:47am GMT 11/01/2008 Winemakers in California are attempting to reduce the alcohol level in their notoriously powerful reds and whites. Californian "monster" wines regularly contain 15% vol alcohol and some are as high as 17%, alarming some of their own producers despite the praise of critics. The winemakers have responded by picking grapes earlier and employing other tactics designed to produce the more "balanced", lower alcohol wines that are popular in Europe. They say the move has in part been prompted by demand from American...

I-Team: Expert trying to identify mysterious bird flying around S. Texas Web Posted: 11/16/2007 12:42 AM CST Joe Conger KENS 5 Eyewitness News More sightings of a huge flying creature, originally reported by KENS, have prompted an investigation to determine if it is a monster or myth. "Even though it was dark, the thing itself was black. The blackest I'd ever seen," said Frank Ramirez.

The Mozilla Foundation is thinking about creating a separate organization to take control of its Thunderbird e-mail application, allowing it to concentrate on development of the Firefox Web browser. In a blog posting Wednesday, Mitchell Baker, CEO of Mozilla Corp., a subsidiary of the Mozilla Foundation, called for a new structure to allow "the Thunderbird community to determine its own destiny" and asked the open-source community for input. Baker said Mozilla's Thunderbird effort "is dwarfed" by the energy it spends on the Firebox browser and the ecosystem around it. "Mozilla doesn't focus on Thunderbird as much as we do... on...

<p>A car stolen from Palo Alto 31 years ago is headed back to its rightful owner.</p> <p>The 1956 Ford T-Bird - just like the car the blond cruises in during the movie "American Graffiti" - was located in Southern California this week.</p>

What's New in Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 Thunderbird 1.5.0.10 provides stability and security enhancements that are part of our ongoing program to provide a safer email experience for our users. We recommend that all Thunderbird users upgrade to this latest version. Here's what's new in Thunderbird 1.5.0.10: * Improvements to product stability. * Several security fixes. The Rumbling Edge has a more detailed list of notable bug fixes. Release Date: March 1, 2007

Mozilla Corp. has released an update to its Firefox browser, fixing a number of security flaws in the product. The Firefox 2.0.0.2 release includes a fix for a bug disclosed by security researcher Michal Zalewsky last week. That flaw can be exploited by attackers to manipulate cookie information in the Firefox browser, making it probably the most important fix in the update, according to Window Snyder, Mozilla’s head of security strategy. "The potential to compromise a user’s account is almost as serious as compromising their machine," she said Friday via instant message. "Since the details of how to exploit the...

Firefox users have been urged to update their browser immediately after Mozilla, the organisation behind the popular browser, said it had fixed eight vulnerabilities in Firefox 2.0.Mozilla said five of the eight vulnerabilities were 'critical', meaning an attacker could exploit the weaknesses to run malicious code on the compromised machine. Seven vulnerability updates have been issued for the previous version of Firefox, version 1.5, of which five are rated as critical. Mozilla also urged users of its Thunderbird email application to download several security updates. The updated version was made available on Tuesday evening. It can be downloaded from Mozilla's...

A senior United Nations official who used his influence to steer contracts worth more than $50 million to a man who rewarded him with valuable real estate was arrested Wednesday, prosecutors said. Sanjaya Bahel, of Manhattan, was charged in an indictment unsealed in U.S. District Court...

Just an awe inspiring story! By Alex Quade CNN WICHITA, Kansas (CNN) -- Air Force Maj. Nicole Malachowski says she always has wanted to fly -- and fly fast. She got her private pilot's certificate before she got her driver's license, and she's been soaring ever since. When Congress changed the rules in the early 1990s, allowing women to fly combat missions, her future was sealed. Now at 31, Malachowski is the newest member of the Air Force's Thunderbird demonstration squadron -- the first woman on any U.S. military high performance jet team. "People talk about glass ceilings or breaking...

THESE ARE THE SENATORS WHO VOTED TO GIVE SOCIAL SECURITY BENEFITS TO ILLEGAL ALIENS REGARDLESS OF POLITICAL PARTY, THESE POLITICIANS NEED TO BE DEFEATED IN 2006, 2008 OR 2010, WHENEVER THEY NEXT COME UP FOR OFFICE. SEND THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW; THE ENTIRE POPULATION OF THE UNITED STATES NEEDS TO KNOW THIS INFORMATION -- THAT IS, UNLESS THEY DO NOT MIND SHARING THEIR SOCIAL SECURITY WITH FOREIGN WORKERS WHO NEVER PAID INTO IT AND AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE BEING LEFT OUT. Grouped by Home State Alabama: Alaska: Stevens (R-AK), Yea Arizona: McCain (R-AZ), Yea Arkansas: Lincoln (D-AR), Yea Pryor (D-AR),...

I am curious why none of the media covers the most important aspect of the Malvo shootings. If you look at Newspapers on the dates when the shootings are underway you discover something I find quite interesting. The shootings begin to dominate the news the day before the debate on the Iraq war starts and they catch them the day after the declaration of war??? If you ask most people "do you remember the debate about starting the second Iraq war", they will all answer "yes of course". But if you followup with the question "name one point in the...

I recently received a reply to a post that stated: "This should be beneath a "freeper". Sad." So I asked.. what is it that makes a FReeper? My reply (and I will admit was tasteless) was also questioning. It stirred controversy and was removed? Why Moderators? Can you not tell me? Did it not meet with your "FReeper" mentality? According to all posted guidelines it should be listed but no, you chose to delete it. Yes.. I'm the first one IBTZ, I'm sure you'll nick me for speaking up..

In this war freedom should come first not after! In New Hampshire the Motto is Live free or Die! I don't need Bush spying on law abiding americans and taking our freedoms. Anyone who surrenders a square inch of freedom to the government in the name of saftey is a traitor and should be treated like one! Let the Bush Fashists all drop dead! Filthy Commys! LET FREEDOM RING!

Fellow Americans, there comes a time every mans life when we must give up ourselves before we are worthy to recieve. There comes a time in this war on terror when in order to protect liberty, we have to give it up in the mean time for safty. That's right folks. Today, Americans have forsaken the creator for the creation and have decided that they would value our "civil liberties" than protecting western civilization and rich white people from the tender mercies of radical Islamic terrorists. Selfish liberals insist and whine that Bush has no right to spy on Americans...

Thunderbird 1.5 Released Scott MacGregor writes: "The final release of Mozilla Thunderbird 1.5 is now available for download from getthunderbird.com. Users of RC1 should see the update soon. If you are using RC2, then you already have 1.5 final.""Thunderbird 1.5 introduces several new features including a software update system, spell check as you type, built in phishing detector, auto save as draft, and support for deleting attachments from email messages. Message filtering has also been improved with new filter actions for replying and forwarding. Saved search folders can now search folders across multiple accounts." "More details can be found in...

Yaa, you repukes are not doing so well, huh? Imagine, you repukes control the presidency, both houses of Congress, and appointed 7 of the 9 Supreme Court justices. Yet the Supreme Court thre out sodomy laws in all 50 states and recognized the right of government to seize land for any reason. And you couldn't pass your Social Security changes could you? Sorry, that was your last shot. Come November, we're going to start seeing more Democratic faces in the House. It's the end for you guys. You guys are celebrating when Bush's numbers go *up* to 45%. Then Faux...

Bush’s giant Right Wing Noise Machine (RWNM) loves to preach about the Bush economic miracle. In fact, the RWNM’s current thinking is Bush doesn’t spend enough time talking about his economic triumphs. If only he did, then everyone would fall in line and believe in the great Bush economic miracle. There is one problem with this argument: it’s a lie. Any way you look at the Bush economy, it comes up short. Today, I want to compare Bush’s job creation record with other economic recoveries. As usual, Bush comes up way short. The national Bureau of Economic Research has identified...

Why does anybody support George w Bush as President? He is clearly the worst President I have ever seen -- a complete disaster. And before you say anything, I have been a registered Republican for 25 years.