Slashdot

An anonymous reader writes "Ever wondered how much the internet physically weighs? 498,438,559,990kg, according to CNET. To reach this figure, they added together public data on the weight of every computer, server and connecting cable. To this they added 6,075,000kg of iPhones, and over 6,800,000kg of Blackberries. Finally, they added the weight of 287,524 viruses and 85 billion+ webpages."

nk497 writes "London tech workers have stripped off to create their very own naked calendar for charity. Created by TechCrunch Europe contributing editor Milo Yiannopoulous, London Nude Tech 2010 isn't half as frightening as you'd think. It features photos (a few included at the link) of female and male tech entrepreneurs — one with strategically placed Mac — for every month of the year. It's raising funds for Take Heart India, so pick up your copy — it's for charity, right?"Click here to check out a few pics from the calender.

Since 1954, the US Postal Service, with the help volunteers from the small Alaskan town of North Pole, have responded to thousands of letters addressed to Santa each year. All that has come to an end. It was discovered last Christmas that one of the volunteers opening children's letters was a registered sex offender. The scare was enough for the Postal Service to drop the program. North Pole Mayor Doug Isaacson said, "It's Grinchlike that the Postal Service never informed all the little elves before the fact." I can see how it would be confusing for a child to get a letter back with all the things Santa wants for Christmas.

Peruvian officials have arrested four people for allegedly killing at least 60 people to sell their fat and other tissues to Italian co-conspirators for cosmetic use in Europe. The indictment says the fat harvesters went after farmers and indigenous people in remote areas, tricking them by offering jobs. The arrests have revived the Andean legend of white foreigners called "Pishtacos." The Pishtacos were said to suck the fat out of people traveling on lonely roads at night, making fine soaps, lubricants, healing salves and beauty creams out of the tissue. We call them cosmetic surgeons.

An anonymous reader writes "The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has taken pity on it's loverlorn engineers and is now offering to help find dates for them. From the article: 'Jim McDermott, chief human capital officer of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, thinks he's found a foolproof way to convince young engineers to come to his agency: Find them dates. "There are incentives, and then there are incentives," McDermott told a crowd of human resources officials at the HCMF Conference in Arlington, Va., earlier today. "When we’re hiring, we say, 'Is there a significant other in the picture'; If there’s no significant other, I tell them, 'We can help.''"

Sherri and Tom Milley may be the coolest parents in the world, at least in the eyes of their children. The Milley's were tired of having to help their children with hours of homework each night so they negotiated the "Milleys' Differentiated Homework Plan" with the school. The plan, which ensures their youngest two children will never have to do homework again, was signed by the children, parents and teachers. "It was a constant homework battle every night," Sherri told Canada's Globe and Mail newspaper. "It's hard to get a weeping child to take in math problems. They are tired. They shouldn't be working a second shift."

d'Armond Speers has a doctorate in computational linguistics but that wasn't enough for him. He is now pursuing the coveted "World's Worst Dad" title. To this end he has decided to treat his child like a verengan Ha'DIbaH and speak only Klingon around the child for the first 3 years of his life. "I was interested in the question of whether my son, going through his first language acquisition process, would acquire it like any human language," Speers told the Minnesota Daily. "He was definitely starting to learn it."

Congressman Emanuel Cleaver (D-MO), who grew up with the rest of his 149 member family living in a shoe box in the middle of the road, would like everyone to stop complaining next Wednesday. He's co-sponsored House Concurrent Resolution 155, which designates the day before Thanksgiving as "Complaint Free Wednesday." He states, "From time to time, we all experience anxiety, frustration, stress, and regret. And often, we respond to these feelings with a criticism or a complaint. Regrettably, complaining keeps people stuck on current problems, inhibiting them from thinking constructively to find solutions. Research has also shown that complaining can be harmful to one’s emotional and physical health; relationships; and can limit professional career success."

MikeChino writes "Working in partnership with the US Army Corp of Engineers, Berry Plastics has rolled out a new breed of bomb-proof wallpaper. Dubbed the X-Flex Blast Protection System, the wallpaper is so effective that a single layer can keep a wrecking ball from smashing through a brick wall, and a double layer can stop blunt objects (i.e. a flying 2×4) from knocking down drywall. According to its designers, covering an entire room takes less than an hour."

PETA found a way to make sure nobody would ever eat pork again. The organization asked permission to bring a pretend pig farm with real pigs, and 3,500 buckets filled with pig urine and waste to the US Capitol plaza. The plan would have worked too, if it hadn't been for those darn Capitol Police, and the fact that pigs are so delicious.

Robert James is suing Butler County sheriff’s deputy Daron Rhoads, wildlife officer James Tunnell, and a third, unknown officer, alleging that they redecorated his house while they searched it. Unlike most home redecoration projects, the officers seem to focus on his girlfriend’s sex toys, which they turned on and left in plain sight “for James to see that they had found them." James says they also did the same with some porno tapes, unlocked all of his weapons and ammunition, leaving them strewn in insecure locations around the house. And worst of all, they “placed a hat, Christmas lights and goggles on deer antlers that were affixed to James’ wall.”

17-year-old Kevin Anderson has spent 200 hours cleaning up a park in Allentown, New Jersey in pursuit of his Eagle Scout badge. His blatant disregard for the brotherhood and collective bargaining power of the local Service Employees International Union however has not gone unnoticed. Union president Nick Balzano told the City Council that the union is considering filing a grievance against the city for allowing the scout to clear a 1,000' path at the park. "We'll be looking into the Cub Scout or Boy Scout who did the trails," Balzano said.

circletimessquare writes "Nathan Myhrvold, former CTO of Microsoft, is self-publishing a cook book with scientific underpinnings. The man who presided over the original iterations of Windows has built a laboratory kitchen, hired 5 chefs, and plays with misplaced lab equipment: using an autoclave as a pressure cooker, using a 100-ton hydraulic press to make beef jerky, and using an ultrasonic welder for... he's not sure yet. The article includes a video on how to cryosear and cryorender duck. 'It's basically like a software project,' Dr. Myhrvold said. 'It's very much like a review we would do at Microsoft.' Is it possible to BSoD food?"

A French hotel is offering a unique opportunity for pathological hamster lovers everywhere. For 99 euros a day a guest can stay in the "Hamster Villa," where they can eat hamster grain, run inside a giant wheel, and sleep in a pile of hay. "The hamster in the world of children is that little cuddly animal. Often, the adults who come here have wanted or did have hamsters when they were small," said owner Yann Falquerho, who was dressed as a hamster.

Anyone eating kabobs in Moscow might want to stop right now. Police have arrested a group of homeless cannibals who have been selling bits of people to a kabob shop. "After carrying out the crime, the corpse was divided up: part was eaten and part was also sold to a kiosk selling kebabs and pies," said a statement from the Prosecutor-General's main investigative unit for the Perm region.

54-year-old Lawrence Demaio didn't think a ticket he received from a trooper was fair so he did what any reasonable person would. He called the New York State Trooper's mom. Demaio told the woman that her son "was involved in a serious car crash and was at Mercy Hospital." He hung up on her after she started asking questions. An investigation revealed that the calls came from Lawrence and phone records showed that he even called her old number first.

coondoggie writes "A Tang soufflé perhaps? Yum. A new book out this week will tell you everything you wanted to know about cooking and eating in space. The Astronaut's Cookbook: Tales, Recipes, and More — penned by NASA veterans Charles Bourland and Gregory Vogt — offers up a number of recipes as well a history of space feasting just in time for Thanksgiving, if you are so inclined. The book includes a number of interesting space food facts: Soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov was the first human to consume food in space."

destinyland writes "A science writer discovered it's possible to finance your cryogenic preservation using life insurance — and then leave a huge death benefit to your future thawed self. From the article, 'Most in the middle class, if they seriously want it, can afford it now. So by taking the right steps, you can look forward to waking up one bright future morning from cryopreservation the proud owner of a bank account brimming with money!' There's one important caveat: some insist that money 'will have no meaning in a future dominated by advanced molecular manufacturing or other engines of mega-abundance.'"

oatworm writes "From ForeignPolicy.com, 'Six years after a civil war that killed 250,000 and displaced hundreds of thousands more, justice is at the top of Liberia's list of needs. But in this small West African country of 3.5 million, the problem isn't a lack of courtrooms or trained lawyers. Liberia is wanting for the actual laws themselves. The country's legal code doesn't exist in print except for a few mismatched volumes here and there, sequestered in incomplete sets in libraries in the capital, Monrovia. And right now, as far as legal advocates can tell, even Liberia's national parliament doesn't have a full copy of the law. Why not? Because the few volumes that do exist have been quietly copyrighted — and subsequently held ransom — by the man in charge of Liberia's legal reform. Across the country, lawyers, courtrooms, and even the government are operating blindly; it's impossible to be certain if they are following a legal code they don't have.'"

Noishe writes "A man involved in a motorcycle accident in the UK has been given an alternative to the dreaded colostomy bag. He now carries around a remote control to activate his "bionic bottom" made out of muscles taken from above his knee. The muscles were wrapped around his sphincter and then attached to electrodes that are controlled by a remote control he now carries in his pocket."