Did meteor lead to greatest extinction?
The world was not a great place to be 250 million years ago. That’s because some 90 percent of the planet’s marine life and 80 percent of life on land had gone extinct at the end of the Permian period. Exactly what caused the mass extinction is a matter of debate, with the two leading theories positing massive volcanism in Siberia or a collision with a meteor much like the one that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. New findings published online today by the journal Science bolster the impact hypothesis and argue that the resulting crater lies buried off the coast of northwest Australia.
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SurfParks LLC
Big pool: Produces up to six waves per minute with face height of 4-8 feet and ride length up to 100 yards. A computerized reef floor adjusts for a variety of wave shapes. Saltwater mimics flotation and smell of ocean environment.
Training pool: Produces waves with face height of 3-4 feet. Also has an adjustable reef bottom and saltwater.
Flowrider: A padded wave-form with a thin layer of water rushing over it that gives the sensation of riding a wave.
Ride length: 30 to 100 yards
Services: Locker rooms, demo boards and fins, group and private lessons, surf shop, restaurant, viewing areas, events stage.
Size: 80,000 square feet
Construction cost: $10 million
Entrance fee: $40 to $50 for a two-hour session that includes 15 to 20 waves.
Membership: Costs range from $625 for 500 waves to $2,000 for 2,000 waves annually
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US to ban up-skirt voyeur photos.
The US has moved a step closer towards imposing controls on camera phones.
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Not a Pretty Vid.
Video posted on an al Qaeda-linked Web site of the beheading of a U.S. civilian in Iraq has prompted outrage around the world.
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Heating Up
The average nighttime low temperature in Orange County increased by 7 degrees from 1949 to 2002 and will continue to rise, according to a new analysis by the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena.
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Google Unveils Redesigned Blogger.com!
Google Inc., the No. 1 Web search company that recently announced plans to go public through a Dutch auction, on Monday rolled out a new design of its Blogger service that enables users to self-publish Web content.
The latest version of the free product allows users to instantly publish their Weblogs, or personal journals called "blogs," from any e-mail-enabled device, including cellular phones and handheld devices. Other new features also enable Blogger users to invite comment from readers or to post personal profiles.
Mountain View, California-based Google acquired Blogger via its purchase of Pyra Labs in 2003. Google gets nearly all of its revenue from keyword ads generated by Web searches and the content on Web sites.
The company's $2.7 billion initial public offering is expected to be one of the hottest in years, with some analysts expecting the flotation to value the company at anywhere from $30 billion to $50 billion.
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Happy Mother's Day
The roots of Mother's Day go back to the ancient festivals dedicated to mother goddess. In the ancient Greek empire, Rhea, the wife of Cronus, and mother of Gods and Goddesses, was worshipped and honored at this time every year in a spring celebration. In Rome too, Cybele, a mother Goddess, was worshipped, as early as 250 BC. It was known as Hilaria, and it lasted for three days, called the Ides of March, that is from March 15 to March 18. In more recent times, during the 1600s, England observed "Mothering Sunday", or the "Mid-Lent-Sunday, on the fourth Sunday in Lent. It was quite identical to the modern-day celebrations.
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