News and other tidbits that Chad Cloman finds interesting enough to share
The path to complete female domination of the world has officially been opened. Scientists are attempting to create human sperm from a woman’s bone marrow, which they’ve already done with mice.
With men being obsolete, I wonder when the takeover will occur? Maybe they’ll just kill us all in our sleep.
Link: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/…
(via Slashdot)
Here at the Chad’s News network command center, the champagne is flowing and celebration is in the air. LucasFilm has announced that an animated Star Wars feature film, Star Wars: The Clone Wars, will be released in North American theaters on Friday, August 15, 2008. The theatrical release will be followed by a related television series on the Cartoon Network and TNT. Long live Star Wars! More Star Wars!
Astute Chad’s News readers have heard about the US government’s economic stimulus plan. The linked article has the facts. Essentially, the law creates a one-time tax cut for the 2008 tax year (the cut is in the form of a tax credit). The credit will be estimated, based on your 2007 tax return, and will be distributed this May. Then, when you file your 2008 return, you’ll have to determine the actual credit amount. There is also a rebate calculator to determine how much you’ll receive—looks like mine will be $600.
Link: http://www.consumerismcommentary.com/…
(via The Consumerist)
Here at the Chad’s News network command center, we spent the weekend installing a fresh copy of Windows, and re-installing and re-configuring all the applications that go with it. So today’s entry requires no thought or explanation—it’s just a neat picture of a dragonfly drenched with dew.
Here’s a tip on how to mess with telemarketers or debt collectors: use ZabaSearch to look up the caller’s phone number and address, then threaten to turn the tables. I looked myself up—they had the correct address but a very old phone number.
ZabaSearch appears to be a pretty good people-search tool, given that it’s free. Their goal, of course, is to get you to pay money to get more than just the basic information.
Link: http://consumerist.com/…
A computer shop in New Hampshire had this sign in its window: “We remove Vista. We install XP.” Service pack 1 for Windows Vista will be released in March, so hopefully it will improve things.
Link: http://blog.seattlepi.nwsource.com/…
(via Engadget)
A recent post containing a significant error (“No More Seller Feedback on eBay”) was published to the Chad’s News RSS feed before I could correct it. The post has been updated, and I recommend you read it here.
eBay has announced a new policy where it will no longer let sellers leave negative or neutral feedback. They’re doing this because they believe that buyers who get bad feedback tend to stop using eBay. (Isn’t that the point?) Although I will say that as a buyer, I have been hesitant to leave neutral feedback in the fear that the seller would retaliate by leaving me negative feedback.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
The AA12 is a fully automatic, low recoil shotgun designed for military use, particularly urban warfare. The video goes to great lengths to show just how destructive it is, but then they add shells containing winged grenades and other types of explosives—with a range of nearly 200 yards. It would almost be worth going back into the military if I could use one of these.
Link: http://www.youtube.com/…
(via Neatorama)
In celebration of last night’s big game, here are three of my favorite Superbowl ads:
And here’s my top pick for this year, the Budweiser “Rocky” spot.
This tip from Kim Komando tells how to easily log in to a password-protected Windows computer. Just goes to show the importance of physical security.
Link: http://komando.com/…
According to this BBC article, we can expect to see more 3D movies in the future. Apparently the technology has come quite a ways since Jaws 3-D. I’ve also heard rumors that George Lucas will be re-releasing the Star Wars movies in 3D.
Link: http://news.bbc.co.uk/…
