| More than lives taken by NIU shooting
But last year I remarked to myself that the commons looked no different from my long-ago college days there. Everything seemed the same. That changed forever Thursday. Everything changed forever Thursday at Northern Illinois University. The slaughter occurred just off the busy commons - named for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. - at Cole Hall. I can't begin to count the number of lectures I had there. Most of the time, my sleep-deprived eyes fought to stay open as I rued the boredom of classes. In the aftermath of Thursday, such quietude at Cole Hall sounds so sweet, so wonderful - and, now in our minds, so perpetually elusive. I can't claim to be what most people would call a good alumnus. I don't get up to NIU much, and I no longer go to Homecoming. Certainly, I'm not the type of heavy hitter whom a university would seek to help fund big, new academic buildings.
Rumor Control
UPDATE] One clue may have surfaced this morning, when Microsoft Casual chief Chris Early hinted that a major announcement related to "asynchronous play" between Windows and Xbox Live and Microsoft-backed mobile devices would be made during Schappert's keynote speech. [UPDATE 2] On February 20, Schappert unveiled a massive new Community Gaming program at GDC which will let indepedent developers create and upload their own games onto Xbox Live. .
the undercover economist
In the late 1870s, a magician named Buatier de Kolta was mesmerizing audiences in Paris with the trick of producing big bunches of paper flowers from an empty roll of paper. Nobody knew how the trick was achieved, until a stray gust of wind blew one of the flowers onto the floor in front of the stage. A magician in the audience seized it and ran out, and de Kolta's trick was soon being performed by many of his rivals. The story is told by Jacob Loshin, a recent graduate from Yale Law school, in a working paper on how magicians protect their tricks. Such outright thefts would be hard to imagine today, because magicians have developed a professional code of conduct to defend their most valuable property: their ideas. The research bears—albeit obliquely—on an issue that is only going to become more important: intellectual property in a world where more and more of the wealth that is created takes the form of ideas rather than objects.
JR East to test electricity generation by train riders
I thought JR was long over this waste of money years ago. If I remember correctly it was for a competition on eco and a little girl drew up this contraption to make human guinea pigs. It used to be something like 1 million people can make a light bulb light up for a few minutes so I guess it is getting a little more efficient. One could imagine the entire station rigged up, but after people start tripping and falling over the unstable and hard to maintenance floor the cost of medical bills will exceed any profit made. .
Friday Legends — Rodney Cress
China Grove Junior High track coach Harry Bame stared at his stopwatch one spring afternoon in 1963. The watch was still functioning, but his brain couldn't process what his eyes were telling him. Ninth-grader Rodney Cress had just run 100 yards in 10-flat, something Bame had never witnessed in a junior high track meet. The world's fastest human, Bullet Bob Hayes, lowered the mark for the 100 to 9.1 seconds in 1963, but here was a ninth-grader from Rowan Mills with zero track training, with no clue how to get out of the blocks, running 10-flat. "I'd always run or rode a bicycle everywhere I went, and I guess all that pumping my legs made me fast," Cress said. "I always was faster than the other kids, but I had no idea how fast I was until the day Coach timed me.
City seeks $39 million G.O. bond issue, sales tax extension for major ...
How-ever, he said city officials are not giving him any definite answers.City officials have said they know they will remove 20 structures along West Randolph and James, from Johnson to Van Buren, but until the design is completed, they do not know exactly how many.Durheim said there are seven people working in his store."I really don't want to leave here, that's for sure. I have no idea what a fair price would be. I think about the time I've been here," he said.Stan Willoughby, a Randolph resident, says 10 feet will be taken from his yard, moving speeding traffic closer to his front door. He also said it will create problems for residents backing onto Randolph. Willoughby said the proposed bond issues represent a 16 percent tax increase. However, Willoughby said the issue goes deeper than taxes."Taxes are not really the big issue, but the quality of life on Randolph is," he said.Ward 5 Commissioner Daron Rudy said Randolph, while it always has been slated for widening, was chosen after exhaustive study of Enid streets."We looked at streets at least three months.
Spurs Mailbag: Jeff McDonald has a feeling Brent Barry could be back.
We'll admit, from a pure playing-time perspective, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Some of the other teams on his list of suitors – Houston, Dallas, Phoenix and Boston – could probably use him more. With the rise of Ime Udoka in the rotation, the Spurs are having enough trouble making room for all the wing players they've got. In the Spurs' most recent victory, a 98-89 trumping of New Orleans on Saturday, Michael Finley – an erstwhile starter – managed to get on the floor for just 10 minutes, 45 seconds. How many minutes can coach Gregg Popovich carve for Barry, who is still at least 10 days away from being able to play again after his second stint on the injured list? The Rockets, Mavericks and Suns could find use for him as soon as he's healthy enough.
Beijingers unmoved by spitting clampdown ahead of Olympics
Although there is now a wide consensus that spitting is ""uncivilized"" behavior, as pre-Olympics manners campaigns term it, spitting is still pretty much a trademark sight and sound across the country.
As bicycle attendant Guo Guiyou stands guard outside a busy Beijing railway station, he suddenly makes a loud coarse noise as he opens his mouth and propels a gobbet of spit on to the pavement.
""It's good to spit, it's good for your health,"" said the 40-year-old man unapologetically as he rubs his shoe over the foul puddle he has just created.
Even though the government has stepped up punishment for spitting, a possible fine of 50 yuan (seven dollars) does not deter Guo.
""That's okay -- most of the time, they don't see you,"" he said.
Pizza of the Week: Pizzeria Picco
Bruce Hill wasn't interested in pizza until he took over the Larkspur space next to his restaurant. He decided it would make a perfect pizza place, and became obsessed with finding the best. His research culminated in what I think is one of Bay Area's top wood-fired, thin-crust pizzas. Because of the location and the constant parade of bike riders, all the pies are named after bicycles. The stylish interior is dominated by the wood oven and wine on the back wall that's available for retail sale. Whatever you do, don't pass up the soft-serve ice cream for dessert: It's drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with sea salt. Style: Neapolitan. Size: About 13 inches ($9.75-$14.50). Oven: Wood-fired oven that fires the pizza at 850-900 degrees for less than 2 minutes.
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