With two and a half wars and a government showdown in the news, its good to see that Forbes is tackling the important issues, like which fictional character has the most imaginary wealth? Scrooge McDuck tops the list followed closely by sparkly vampire Carlisle Cullen. "Net worth estimates are based on an analysis of the fictional character's source material, and where possible, valued against known real-world commodity and share price movements," Forbes said. One wonders how many episodes of Duck Tales an economist has to watch to accurately estimate the contents of the money bin.

arcticstoat writes "A few net-speak acronyms such as LOL and OMG were entered to the Oxford English Dictionary last month, but could we ever see l33t-speak (complete with numbers) or ROFLcopters in the OED? In this interview with OED principal editor Graeme Diamond, he reveals the selection criteria for new words and discusses the potential for words such as 'l33t' to get into the dictionary. 'L33t is obviously a respelling and a contraction [of elite],' says Diamond, 'so it would be a separate entry, and yes it is familiar to me, so I think it's something we would consider for inclusion.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Research (Pdf) shows that the descendants of people who in 1858 had 'rich' surnames such as Mandeville, Percy and Darcy, indicating they were descended from the French nobility, are still substantially wealthier in 2011 than those with traditionally 'poor' or artisanal surnames."

welcher writes "An elderly Georgian woman was scavenging for copper with a spade when she accidentally sliced through an underground cable and cut off internet services to nearly all of neighboring Armenia. The fibre-optic cable near Tiblisi, Georgia, supplies about 90% of Armenia's internet so the woman's unwitting sabotage had catastrophic consequences. Web users in the nation of 3.2 million people were left twiddling their thumbs for up to five hours. Large parts of Georgia and some areas of Azerbaijan were also affected. Dubbed 'the spade-hacker' by local media, the woman is being investigated on suspicion of damaging property. She faces up to three years in prison if charged and convicted."

sciencehabit writes "A US vector biologist appears to have accidentally written virological history simply by having sex with his wife after returning from a field trip to Senegal. A study just released in Emerging Infectious Diseases suggests that the researcher, Brian Foy of Colorado State University, passed to his wife the Zika virus, an obscure pathogen that causes joint pains and extreme fatigue. If so, it would be the first documented case of sexual transmission of an insect-borne disease. The curious case also solves a viral mystery that's been going on for years."

The global demand for maple syrup has grown to such an extent that Canadian producers have started to stockpile it in order to meet demand while still maintaining price stability. Just outside of Quebec City the two stockpiles, officially called the International Strategic Reserve, contain almost 8 million kilograms of syrup.

A Brooklyn woman known only as "Juror No. 799" upset a federal judge so much with her racist remarks that he put her on indefinite jury duty. When asked to name three people she admired least the woman answered, "African-Americans, Hispanics and Haitians." When asked why she answered the question that way, she told Federal Judge Nicholas Garaufis, "You always hear about them in the news doing something." Then just for good measure she claimed that "All cops are lazy." Assistant U.S. Attorney Taryn Merkl requested that the woman be disqualified, but Garaufis was not amused saying, "She's coming back [today], Thursday and Friday - and until the future, when I am ready to dismiss her." I look forward to the sitcom based on the case.

Nude House, a Buckinghamshire computer software and naturist company, is looking for coders who aren't afraid to let a few Cheetos fall where no Cheetos have fallen before. The company would like to become the first all nude tech business. From the article: "Company spokesman Chris Taylor told The Register: 'As far as I am aware this is not only the first UK office job for naturists in web-coding or web-selling, but is also the first worldwide facility for naturists to earn substantial sums of money from work that incidentally provides them with the capability to work entirely without clothes.'"

If you happen to be in London on April 19th you have a chance to own a piece of history. A Marconi type–702 television set, which was built using England's then secret radar research, is going up for auction at Bonhams Mechanical Music and Scientific Instruments sale. Built in 1936, the set is believed to be the oldest working television in Britain. From the article: "The machine was bought for almost £100 three weeks after television transmissions began. But Mr GB Davis of Dulwich, south–east London would have only been able to able to watch it for a few hours. The nearby Crystal Palace and its transmitter burned down three days after Mr Davis bought the Marconi type–702 set on November 26. The area could not receive pictures again until 1946."

Google85 writes "He's back. In his first post-politics project, Arnold Schwarzenegger launched a TV cartoon series for kids called The Governator. Schwarzenegger told a press conference at the MipTV conference in Cannes today that the show will spawn comic books, digital content and ultimately a 3D movie. The star also said he is planning a return to the big screen in non-animated form. 'I will also be in front of the camera, and I'm looking at many different scripts,' he said. 'We have somewhat held off with that because we really wanted to pay full attention to The Governator.'"

A new study by Reading University and the Institute of Biological, Environmental and Rural Sciences shows that altering livestock diets could reduce their greenhouse gas emissions by at least 20%. From the article: "Agriculture accounts for around nine per cent of all British greenhouse gas emissions. Most of this comes from sheep, cows and goats. Farming accounts for 41 per cent of Britain's overall methane emissions, which are harmful to the environment. A trial showed that high-sugar grasses could reduce an animal's methane emissions by 20 per cent for every kg of weight gain and naked oats could reduce methane emissions from sheep by 33 percent."

An anonymous reader writes "A Chicago computer teacher at Overton Elementary School is accused of showing poor judgment for posting photos of student Ukailya Loftonon on her Facebook page, leading to the child being mocked for her hairdo on picture day. Lucinda Williams says her daughter saw a picture of a model wearing Jolly Ranchers at the end of her braids (the candies were attached with elastic bands) in a hair salon magazine and begged her mother to give her the hairstyle." I hope the people of Walmart never find out about People of Walmart. The justice system will grind to a halt.

hackingbear writes "Scientists from China Agricultural University have produced 17 healthy cloned cattle expressing recombinant human lysozyme using somatic cell nuclear transfer. Lysozyme, a bactericidal protein that protects human infants from microbial infections, is highly expressed in human milk but is found in only trace amounts in cow milk. The cloned cows produce milk with similar nutritional benefits as human milk, and the scientists hope their results will lead to new techniques that could be further refined for production of active human lysozyme on a large scale."

Hugh Pickens writes "The Telegraph reports that the Roman Catholic Church has warned that the internet has fueled a surge in Satanism that has led to a sharp rise in the demand for exorcists. 'The internet makes it much easier than in the past to find information about Satanism. In just a few minutes you can contact Satanist groups and research occultism,' says Carlo Climati, a member of the Regina Apostolorum Pontifical University in Rome who specializes in the dangers posed to young people by Satanism. Organizers of a six-day conference that has brought together more than 60 Catholic clergy as well as doctors, psychologists, psychiatrists, teachers and youth workers, co-sponsored by the Vatican Congregation for Divine Worship and the Sacraments and the Congregation for Clergy, say the rise of Satanism has been dangerously underestimated in recent years."

1sockchuck writes "Today is World Backup Day, an occasion to back up your personal data and financial information and check your restores. For those needing motivation — a group that apparently includes 15 percent of data centers — the Slashdot archives bear witness to date disasters at providers small (Ma.gnolia) and large (Microsoft). The World Backup Day initiative grew out of a thread at Reddit, and invites online backup services to observe the occasion by offering discounts."

An anonymous reader writes "An 'expert' from the Slingshot Channel has constructed what might be one of the most ridiculous yet awesome slingshots known to man. He has altered a machete and built a huge rig to fire it off with an obscene amount of force. Dangerous as all get out, but totally awesome!" There's a Slingshot Channel?

mdsolar writes "Coster-Mullen taught himself how to build an A-bomb. 'The secret of the atomic bomb,' he says, 'is how easy they are to make.' His findings are available in a book he continuously updates and publishes himself called Atom Bombs: The Top Secret Inside Story of Little Boy and Fat Man, which has received rave reviews from the National Resource Defense Council: 'Nothing else in the Manhattan Project literature comes close to his exacting breakdown of the bomb's parts.'"

An anonymous reader writes "Creepy, a package described as a 'geolocation information aggregator,' is turning heads in privacy circles, but should people be worried? Yiannis Kakavas explains why he developed his scary stalking application. Creepy is a software package for Linux or Windows — with a Mac OS X port in the works — that aims to gather public information on a targeted individual via social networking services in order to pinpoint their location. It's remarkably efficient at its job, even in its current early form, and certainly lives up to its name when you see it in use for the first time."

Three inmates and two others are accused of trying to smuggle drugs in a coloring book into a New Jersey correctional facility. The drugs were dissolved in paint and pasted onto the pages. From the article: "Two of the pages were scrawled with crayon and said 'To Daddy,' in an attempt to dupe guards into thinking a child drew them. 'In my 38 years of law enforcement, I've never seen anything like this,' Cape May County Sheriff Gary Schaffer told the Press of Atlantic City Monday."

Before his speech Monday night, President Obama had to contend with a more daunting obstacle than enforcing the Libyan no-fly zone, and that was Dancing with the Stars. It turns out the White House had to negotiate a time with ABC that did not interfere with the broadcast of the second highest-rated show on television. From the article: "A White House spokesman, Joshua Earnest, sent a statement by e-mail: 'The White House routinely works with the networks, as a group, in circumstances like these to find a time that’s respectful of both the networks and their audience – while ensuring that the president has the platform he needs to deliver an important message to the American people.'”