Ezra Levant defends his cartoons after the joke called the Alberta "Human Rights" Commission interrogates him: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AzVJTHIvqw8

TOKYO--Investors cheered an impending end to a format war for next-generation DVDs on Monday, pushing up shares of both Toshiba, on the verge of abandoning its HD DVD discs, and Sony, the leader of the rival Blu-ray camp.

Toshiba shares jumped 5.1 percent as analysts praised its decision to cut its losses, while Sony, whose technology is set to become the industry standard for the next generation of high-definition home movie DVDs, rose 2.7 percent.

"It doesn't make sense for Toshiba to continue putting effort into this," said Koichi Ogawa, a chief portfolio manager at Daiwa SB Investments. "It needs to cut its losses and focus its resources on promising businesses."

A source at Toshiba told Reuters on Saturday that the electronics conglomerate was planning to give up on the HD DVD format after losing the support of key retailers and several movie studios including Warner Bros.

Toshiba, which led a consortium promoting HD DVD, would suffer losses of hundreds of millions of dollars to scrap production of its equipment and other steps to withdraw from the business, Japanese public broadcaster NHK reported.

But analysts gave high marks to Toshiba's seemingly quick decision to pull the plug on HD DVD because of the heavy costs involved in promoting the format.

Nikko Citigroup raised its rating on Toshiba to "buy/high risk" from "hold/high risk." JP Morgan maintained its "overweight" rating while predicting the elimination of sales promotion costs would add $280 million to Toshiba's operating profit in the next business year from April.

http://www.news.com/Investors-cheer-as-Toshiba-nears-HD-DVD-surrender/2100-1041_3-6230980.html?tag=n

Civilised albanians http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZNBS7UctO1s

http://edition.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/02/17/usdabeef.recall.ap/index.html

>LOS ANGELES, California (AP) -- The U.S. Department of Agriculture on Sunday ordered the recall of 143 million pounds of frozen beef from a Southern California slaughterhouse that is being investigated for mistreating cattle.

>Officials said it was the largest beef recall in the United States, surpassing a 1999 ban of 35 million pounds of ready-to-eat meats.

>The amount of beef -- 143 million pounds -- is roughly enough for two hamburgers for each man, woman and child in the United States.

>The federal agency said the recall will affect beef products dating to February 1, 2006, that came from Chino-based Westland/Hallmark Meat Co., which supplies meat to the federal school lunch program and to some major fast-food chains. List of products in the recall

>Secretary of Agriculture Ed Schafer said his department has evidence that Westland did not routinely contact its veterinarian when cattle became non-ambulatory after passing inspection, violating health regulations.

A SYDNEY woman will stand trial on charges of murdering her Scientologist father and teenage sister.

http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,23233369-5005961,00.html

>February 16, 2008 -- Barack Obama's primary-night results were strikingly underrecorded in several districts around the city - in some cases leaving him with zero votes when, in fact, he had pulled in hundreds, the Board of Elections said yesterday.

>Unofficial primary results gave Obama no votes in nearly 80 districts, including Harlem's 94th and other historically black areas - but many of those initial tallies proved to be wildly off the mark, the board said.

>In some districts getting a recount, the senator from Illinois is even closer to defeating Hillary Clinton.

>Initial results in the 94th, for example, showed a 141-0 sweep for Hillary Clinton, but the recount changed the tally to 261-136.

>As yet, none of the results have been certified, but a ballot-by-ballot canvassing of all voting machines has begun, a board spokesperson said. Many of the mistakes were chalked up to human error -- and some Clinton tallies were wrong as well. In several congressional districts she was shown as having received zero votes when in fact she got hundreds, Boe said.

>Brooklyn City Councilman Charles Barron called the understated figures "outrageous."

>"I think this is an all-out effort to stop a campaign that is about to make history and render America's first black president," he said. "We need some kind of independent or federal agency to investigate this."icate that she may not even come out the winner - Obama currently has 116 votes to her 118.

What do you think? I doubt Clinton would do something so amateurish.

Anybody know what happened in Siberia?
Nothing in the news...
http://englishrussia.com/?p=1777
pic related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2zO5d-XZWA

Rocky planets, possibly with conditions suitable for life, may be more common than previously thought in our galaxy, a study has found.

New evidence suggests more than half the Sun-like stars in the Milky Way could have similar planetary systems.

There may also be hundreds of undiscovered worlds in outer parts of our Solar System, astronomers believe.

Future studies of such worlds will radically alter our understanding of how planets are formed, they say.

New findings about planets were presented at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Boston.

Michael Meyer, an astronomer from the University of Arizona, said he believes Earth-like planets are probably very common around Sun-like stars.

"Our observations suggest that between 20% and 60% of Sun-like stars have evidence for the formation of rocky planets not unlike the processes we think led to planet Earth," he said.

"That is very exciting."

Fuck the Irish.