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Dogs may be man’s best friend, but let’s not forget that the faithful fetching stick is a dog’s other best friend. So when 59-year-old Andrew Taylor noticed that there was a lack of good sticks at his local park, he decided to take matters into his own hands. The dad from Kaiapoi, New Zealand had been chopping off excess branches from some trees in his yard when he decided to make them into a “Stick Library” for all the local pups. After chopping up the branches into several dozen conveniently-sized pieces, he put them into a hand-crafted box emblazoned with...

My Wife, Judy, had been after me for several weeks to varnish the wooden seat on our toilet. Finally, I got around to doing it while Judy was out. After finishing, I left to take care of another matter before she returned. She came in and undressed to take a shower. Before getting in the shower, she sat on the toilet. As she tried to stand up, she realized that the not-quite-dry epoxy paint had glued her to the toilet seat. About that time, I got home and realized her predicament. We both pushed and pulled without any success whatsoever....

The topic, I believe, is called "focus". Windows XP Professional, two monitor setup which has worked without issue for over a year. Still works, with the following quirk: Suppose I am sending an email and I wish to attach pix which I am selecting from Windows Explorer (not Internet Explorer) on the left side and my email front end on the right side. The email front end is on top of any open windows on the right. When I click on the left screen, the right screen (apparently) reverts to whichever window it thinks is "most important"...but in any event,...

An exotic form of silicon that can be stuck together and then peeled apart has been developed by German researchers. The material, dubbed "silicon Velcro", could be used to manufacture microprocessors and devices that manipulate fluids on microscopic scales. Researchers at the Technical University of Ilmenau in Germany created the material from "black silicon". This is generated when normal silicon is hit with a powerful laser beam or bombarded with high-energy ions, producing a dense, microscopic array of needle-like structures on its surface. Light bounces around between the needles without escaping to give the material its black appearance. The German...

Sony's controversial DRM technology - which installs rootkit-style software when users play Sony BMG CDs on Windows PCs - can be defeated easily with nothing more than a piece of masking tape, security researchers have discovered. Sony BMG has endured a public-relations and legal nightmare after it emerged digital rights management (DRM) software installed on some of its music CDs (First4Internet XCP program) created a handy means for hackers to hide malware from anti-virus scanning programs....

Test shows sticky porridge used to cement ancient Chinese wall www.chinaview.cn 2005-02-27 20:56:07 XI'AN, Feb. 27 (Xinhuanet)-- The legend that ancient Chinese craftsmen used glutinous rice porridge in the mortar while building ramparts has been verified by archaeological research in northwest China's Shaanxi Province. In a recent maintenance to the ancient city wall of Xi'an, the provincial capital, workers discovered that the plaster remnants on the ancient bricks were quite hard to remove, said Qin Jianming,a researcher with the Xi'an Preservation and Restoration Center ofCultural Relics. A chemical test showed that the mortar reacted the same as glutinous rice to...

THE Government will today publish proposals for a 5c levy on every packet of chewing gum. The cash collected will go towards the massive cost of cleaning more than 500 million tonnes of the sticky gum now clinging to Irish streets. The detailed plan will be revealed by Environment Minister Martin Cullen in a 100-page report by consultants McIver Consulting, engaged by the Government to examine how to introduce the levies. The report will also outline plans for levies on polystyrene fast foot wrapping and ATM receipts, but will say these can be avoided by negotiation if the industries involved...