Shane O'Neill writes "Ronald McDonald and the NBC Peacock may get more TV air time, but today's operating systems have cool logos, too. Google, Apple, Microsoft and the Linux crowd crafted mascots ranging from cute lizards to circles of life. In this slideshow, we look at the origins of the logos and look ahead to their future."

JamJam writes "Besides my beer gut, which I'm sure has some purpose, Wired is running a story on the 10 Worst Evolutionary Designs. Ranging from baby giraffes being dropped 5-foot during birth to Goliath bird-eating spiders that practically explode when they fall from trees."

musefrog writes "The BBC is reporting that the UK's Royal Opera House is to stage an opera created through social networking site Twitter. 'Members of the public have been invited to submit their 'tweets' online — messages of up to 140 characters — which will form the new libretto.The first scene of the as-yet-untitled work has already been completed and features a man who has been kidnapped by a group of birds. Excerpts will be performed at the Royal Opera House in September.' I'm personally looking forward to lots of idiotic net memes and inane emo ramblings being trilled out by aging sopranos."

Freshly Exhumed writes "Northwest Airlines, the major airline whose market branding is being phased out after it was acquired by Delta, charges that it has exclusive ownership of the common, geographically descriptive term northwest. The Minnesota-based airline is going after the operator of a small, Spokane Washington web site that provides tourist information for visitors to the Pacific Northwest. From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, '[the site's owner] said he has so far spent more than $4,000 in the past few months to defend his site, and he's looking at thousands more going forward as he faces battles in the U.S., U.K., and Australia.' Presumably the Government of Canada will be the next Northwest target victim, what with their use of the term to name some of their Territories since 1870. I don't suppose Northwest can sue the world's cartographers, geocachers, boy scouts, etc. can they?"

Norsefire writes "A Parrot named Strawberry performed better than many humans in an investment competition. The human competitors were able to select any stock they wanted while the Parrot randomly selected the stocks with its beak. Strawberry had a 13.7% return, the human average was a 4.6% loss. Only two humans outperformed Strawberry."

bruce_the_loon writes "They have blamed viruses. They have blamed neighbors. They have accused police of planting it. In rare cases, they have admitted downloading it. This is the first time someone has accused a cat of downloading child porn onto their computer. This seems like a defense almost too stupid to be made up."

Finland finally has something besides Linus to brag about. They have proved that they can grin and bare it longer than any other people. Timo Kaukonen proudly took the gold medal at the World Sauna Championships on Saturday. Timo sat in a 110 degrees Celsius (230 degrees Fahrenheit) sauna for 3 minutes 46 seconds, beating out his closest competitor by 2 seconds. 150 people from more than 20 countries competed in this years event. Many birch branches knew what it was to be roasted in the depths of the sauna that day, I can tell you!

Cuba has suffered through many shortages through the years but is now faced with the worst possible scenario. If the government doesn't get some kind of help, Cubans will run out of toilet paper and have no way of getting more until the end of the year. Cuba makes some of its own paper but lacks sufficient natural resources to meet its own demand. In addition to the lack of resources, the government has had to reduce imports by 20% because of the poor financial climate. It sounds like the Cubans are going to end up with quite a mess on their hands.

Things are so bad in Arizona that legislators are considering selling the House and Senate buildings where they've met and worked for more than 50 years. Dozens of other state properties may also be sold. The plan is to sell the properties and then lease them back over several years before assuming ownership again. "We've mortgaged the legislative halls," said an exasperated state Rep. Steve Yarbrough, a Chandler Republican. "That just tells you how extraordinary the times are. To me, it's something we're going to have to do no matter how much we find it undesirable." I bet they could get a great price on the Grand Canyon.

NeoBeans writes "According to this article in the New York Times about the recent 'improvements' in military strikes by the Pakistani military it is revealed that they have dropped Google Earth as part of their target planning for a more precise technology. From the article, '... the air force has shifted from using Google Earth to more sophisticated images from spy planes and other surveillance aircraft, and has increased its use of laser-guided bombs. And no, you can't really find Osama Bin Laden using Google Maps either."

The Narrative Fallacy writes "All 50 states in the US require the 50,000 people convicted of sexual offenses to sign a register so that their whereabouts can be tracked and monitored. The Telegraph reports that now users of the iPhone Offender Locator application can search for sex offenders living nearby a friend or colleague whose address is stored in their Apple iPhone address book, or they can type in a street address to generate a list of convicted sex offenders in the local area. 'Offender Locator gives everyone the ability to find out if registered sex offenders live in their area,' says the application developer, ThinAir Wireless, on its iTunes page. 'Knowledge equals safety. They know where you and your family are...now it's time to turn the tables so that you know where they live and can make better decisions about where to allow your kids to play.' Offender Locator uses the iPhone's built-in GPS to pinpoint the user's location, and then provide a map listing sex offenders in the local area. Tapping on one of the 'pins' dropped on to the map brings up a photograph of the offender, as well as their address, date of birth and list of convictions."

8-year-old Jeremiah Ramirez had just lost his father to cancer, so his mom took him to Disney World to raise his spirits and take his mind of the tragedy. While there he picked up a Pirates of the Caribbean toy gun and sword, and was hoping to bring them back to North Carolina, that's when the TSA stepped in. When he tried to go through security at Ft. Lauderdale-Hollywood Airport his toys were confiscated. "It's very upsetting because at one point I had told one of the employees, 'You know this is not a real weapon,' and he said 'Yes, I understand that, it doesn't matter,'" said mom Maria Edge. I may not be clear on all the reasons the terrorists hate us, but stuff like this is why I do.

Forget staying in the shallow end. Swimmers at the Dagenham Swimming Pool in Essex are now only allowed to swim across the width of the pool for safety concerns. Officials say they would have to hire another lifeguard if people were allowed to swim lengths, as it is more difficult to keep an eye on them and there is not enough funding to pay for one. I can't quite wrap my head around how swimming one direction instead of another makes it any easier to spot someone drowning, and neither can local resident Dean Bradford. He says, "This is just the nanny state gone mad and it's affecting my life and other people's lives. It's another obstacle for people trying to get fit and healthy."

suraj.sun writes "Verizon has asked a court to affirm its claim to be 'America's Most Reliable 3G Network.' From the article, 'Verizon Wireless, a joint venture of Verizon and Vodafone Group PLC, asked a US court for a judgment that its advertising claims to be "America's Most Reliable 3G Network" were truthful, which rival AT&T called "misleading" on Monday. In papers filed in US District Court in Manhattan, Verizon said assertions on July 1 by AT&T Mobility LLC, a unit of AT&T, that its advertising was false could not be supported. AT&T, which has its principal business in Atlanta, had filed the challenge with the National Advertising Division of the Council for Better Business Bureaus. Verizon Wireless said its claims of having "America's Most Reliable 3G Network" and "America's Best 3G Network" and "America's Most Reliable Wireless Network" are "truthful, accurate and substantiated" and do not violate the trademark law known as the Lanham Act. It said that AT&T's challenge "relies on the incorrect premise that speed is an essential element of the standard for measuring network reliability.'" I can only hope that at some future date a court will decide which light beer truly is the best tasting.

An anonymous reader writes "Employees at Hewlett-Packard in Palo Alto received a shock this morning as they checked their voicemail and found that each and every one of them had received a message from Captain James T. Kirk, AKA William 'The Shat' Shatner, upbraiding the company for abandoning their plans to remove toxins from its hardware. The organization behind this stunt was Greenpeace, who, to underline their point, scaled the building and painted 'Hazardous Products' on the roof with toxin-free paint."

BoxRec writes "Problems have arisen with the latest UK space launch to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing. According to a BBC report the 300 gram payload of cheese has disappeared from the radar screens somewhere over southern England. From the article, 'Dom Lane, of Shepton Mallet's West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers group, told BBC Wiltshire: "We've been tracking the trajectory and the current prediction is that it could land anywhere from here in Wiltshire to Hemel Hempstead. The GPS isn't coming through on the web so we might need listeners' help to find it because we're not sure where it is at the moment."'" Update: 07/30 03:53 GMT by Samzenpus :The space cheese has been found.

Slatterz writes "Reports about the number of germs contained on common office keyboards are a perennial favorite — according to some tests, the innocuous looking keyboard sitting in front of you might contain 400 times more germs than a toilet seat. It's a fact not lost on big name manufacturers, with Lenovo announcing in 2008 a desktop PC called the IdeaCentre K210, which had a special anti-microbial keyboard. All well and good, but why worry when you can just pop the entire keyboard in the dishwasher? The Silver Seal fully submersible keyboard is a 100% waterproof keyboard. The whole board can go into the dishwasher, with seals to protect the gold USB connector, and 'laser etched' keys guaranteed not to fade during the punishing cleaning cycle."

The kissing booth is the more popular choice at the fair, but he marshals on.

91-year-old Louise Brown is The Authors Guild's worst nightmare. Since 1946 she has read about a dozen books a week and has never paid for a single page. Now she is on the brink of checking out book number 25,000. Most impressive is the fact that Louise has never incurred a single late fee. Janice Goldie, of Dumfries and Galloway Libraries, said, "We are amazed at Mrs. Brown's achievements. When she first joined the library service she was allowed to borrow six books a week. This has now risen to 12 and she always takes her full quota. Although she has borrowed nearly 25,000 books, she has never once had to pay an overdue charge. The staff at Stranraer Library think she's a remarkable lady and look forward to her weekly visits. They would like to know if anyone can beat her reading record."

In an attempt to cut the costs of running its homeless shelters, New York City is buying one-way tickets for homeless families to leave the city. Since 2007, over 550 families have been sent to 24 states and five continents. Officials say that there are no limits on where a family can be sent, and all they need to participate in the program is a relative to agree to take them in. Arnold S. Cohen, the president and chief executive of the Partnership for the Homeless, an advocacy group in New York, says, "The city is engaged in cosmetics. What we're doing is passing the problem of homelessness to another city. We're taking people from a shelter bed here to the living room couch of another family. Essentially, this family is still homeless."