They may not be on top of La Liga, but Real Madrid are still number one at producing revenue. The Spanish giants head the list of the world’s richest football clubs according to the Football Money League report published by Deloitte consultants. Real might not want to rest on their laurels too long now that Barcelona have jumped into second place. Barca have doubled their revenue since 2002/03. Don’t we wish we could all say the same!

The rest of the list includes many familiar names, including Manchester United who had a stranglehold on the top spot every year until 2004/05. For those scoring at home, the top 20 includes 8 teams from England, 4 from Italy, 3 from Germany, 2 from Spain and 1 each from Scotland, France and Portugal.


Top 20 richest football clubs in 2005/06

1 Real Madrid 292.2 million euros
2 Barcelona 259.1
3 Juventus 251.2
4 Manchester United 242.6
5 AC Milan 238.7
6 Chelsea 221.0
7 Inter Milan 206.6
8 Bayern Munich 204.7
9 Arsenal 192.4
10 Liverpool 176.0
11 Olympique Lyon 127.7
12 AS Roma 127.0
13 Newcastle United 124.3
14 Schalke 04 122.9
15 Tottenham Hotspur 107.2
16 Hamburg SV 101.8
17 Manchester City 89.4
18 Rangers 88.5
19 West Ham United 86.9
20 Benfica 85.1

Kryptonite, which robbed Superman of his powers, is no longer the stuff of comic books and films.

A mineral found by geologists in Serbia shares virtually the same chemical composition as the fictional kryptonite from outer space, used by the superhero's nemesis Lex Luther to weaken him in the film "Superman Returns".

"We will have to be careful with it -- we wouldn't want to deprive Earth of its most famous superhero!," said Dr Chris Stanley, a mineralogist at London's Natural History Museum.

Stanley, who revealed the identity of the mysterious new mineral, discovered the match after searching the Internet for its chemical formula - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide.

"I was amazed to discover that same scientific name written on a case of rock containing kryptonite stolen by Lex Luther from a museum in the film Superman Returns," he said.

The substance has been confirmed as a new mineral after tests by scientists at the Natural History Museum in London and the National Research Council in Canada.

But instead of the large green crystals in Superman comics, the real thing is a white, powdery substance which contains no fluorine and is non-radioactive.

The mineral, to be named Jadarite, will go on show at the London's Natural History Museum at certain times of the day on Wednesday, April 25, and Sunday, May 13.

Laika. The first dog in space. Laika was aboard the Soviet satellite Sputnik 2 in 1957.

Lassie. Any of a line of popular collies in movies and in television series. The first Lassie starred in the 1942 movie 'Lassie Come Home'.

Le Diable. A notorious French dog that smuggled lace and other costly items across the French border under a false skin dyed various colors by its owners to baffle the customs guards.

Rin Tin Tin. A German shepherd who ranked as one of the all-time famous canine movie stars. "Rinty" was in 19 movies before its death in 1932.

Saur, or Suening. A dog that was "king" of Norway for three years during the 11th century AD. The Norwegian king, angry that his subjects once deposed him, put Saur on the throne and demanded that it be treated regally.

Soter. One of 50 watchdogs of ancient Greece that alone survived attack by invaders and ran to the gates of Corinth to warn the citizens.

Myth: Cats always land on their feet.
Fact: While cats instinctively fall feet first and may survive falls from high places, they also may receive broken bones in the process. Some kind of screening on balconies and windows can help protect pets from disastrous falls.

Myth: Cats should drink milk everyday.
Fact: Most cats like milk, but do not need it if properly nourished. Also, many will get diarrhea if they drink too much milk. If it is given at all, the amount should be small and infrequent.

Myth: Cats that are spayed or neutered automatically gain weight.
Fact: Like people, cats gain weight from eating too much, not exercising enough or both. In many cases, spaying or neutering is done at an age when the animal's metabolism already has slowed, and its need for food has decreased. If the cat continues to eat the same amount, it may gain weight. Cat owners can help their cats stay fit by providing exercise and not over-feeding.

Myth: Cats cannot get rabies.
Fact: Actually, most warm-blooded mammals, including cats, bats, skunks and ferrets, can carry rabies. Like dogs, cats should be vaccinated regularly according to local laws.

Myth: Indoor cats cannot get diseases.
Fact: Cats still are exposed to organisms that are carried through the air or brought in on a cat owner's shoes or clothing. Even the most housebound cat ventures outdoors at some time and can be exposed to diseases and worms through contact with other animals feces.

Myth: Tapeworms come from bad food.
Fact: Pets become infected with tape worms from swallowing fleas, which carry the parasite. Also, cats can get tapeworms from eating infected mice or other exposed animals.

Myth: Putting garlic on a pet's food will get rid of worms.
Fact: Garlic may make the animal's food taste better but has no effect on worms. The most effective way to treat worms is by medication prescribed by a veterinarian.

Myth: Pregnant women should not own cats.
Fact: Some cats can be infected with a disease called toxoplasmosis, which occasionally can be spread to humans through cat litter boxes and cause serious problems in unborn babies. However, these problems can be controlled, if the expectant mother avoids contact with the litter box and assigns daily cleaning to a friend or other family member.

Myth: A cat's sense of balance is in its whiskers.
Fact: Cats use their whiskers as "feelers" but not to maintain their balance.

Myth: Animals heal themselves by licking their wounds.
Fact: Such licking actually can slow the healing process and further damage the wound.

It’s time to get to know your hair better…Here are the top 10 scientific facts about hair myths.

1.  Cutting your hair makes it stronger or grow faster.

Bull winkle. Its hair, not a lawn. Exactly where this myth started is unknown, but is probably related to the observation of men’s facial hair. There are different kinds of hair on your face and head. Hair on your head and facial hair have different properties. Cutting your hair will only make it shorter and hairs grows almost exactly half an inch per month, no matter what you do or take.

2.  Split ends can be repaired.

Sorry Charlie, not true. Split ends cannot be repaired and should be cut off immediately or they will split yet higher and do yet more damage.

3.  Brushing your hair is good for it.

To the contrary, brushing your hair is very bad for your hair and the leading contributor to split ends and hair breakage. By all means groom your hair, but once it is in place, STOP.


4.  Tight hats cause baldness.

This one probably started in the military where young men entering the service were required to wear hats and soon showed signs of going bald, or at least of hair thinning. This is due to coincidental timing. The age that young men enter the military is also the same age that male pattern hair loss begins. This is due to dihydrotestosterone, not hats. Hats do cause hair breakage and to a lessor degree to split ends.

5.  Hair can turn gray or white over night.

What utter nonsense. This one was born in literature. What part of “fiction” did they not understand? Hair receives its color genetically and can only turn gray or white over very long periods of time. Actually the hair doesn’t turn white in as much as the hair loses color, but not over night, or even a wild weekend.

6.  Pluck one gray hair and two grow back.

Folks, if this were true I would be pulling my hair out by the fist full. I need more hair and can always color the gray hair.

7.  Baldness is inherited from the mothers side of the family.

More Hair Voodoo. Male and female pattern hair loss can be inherited from either side of the family and may or may not skip many generations. Male pattern hair loss usually begins at age 18 to 20 and female patter hair loss between ages 45 and 55.

8. Dandruff is caused by dry scalp.

Dandruff and dry scalp are two entirely different things. A good shampoo and conditioner will take care of the dry scalp, which is ‘flaking’. Dandruff shampoos are entirely unnecessary and inadvisable for dry scalp.

Dandruff is a serious health issue and requires medical attention and prescribed medication. The ‘flakes’ are actually oily, not dry. Very few people have actual dandruff and you would know it if you did.

9.  Dandruff is contagious.

No. You already have the micro organism that causes dandruff, yours just aren’t as active. On the other hand, there are plenty of nasty things you can get from someone else’s comb or brush, so be careful.

10.  Cutting your hair during a full moon makes it grow in healthier, fuller, faster or longer.

1. Eric Schmidt, Larry Page, and Sergey Brin – Executives, Google

GoogleboysWhen your stock price can top $500 a share, you’re collectively worth $33 billion in cash, and you run the most trafficked search engine on the Internet, you can afford to do, well, pretty much whatever you want. Sergey Brin and Larry Page’s little project from Stanford has grown into the Web’s most talked-about powerhouse, and one of the few names on this list to have morphed into a verb. Schmidt left Novell to join the board of directors at Google in 2001 and soon became the company’s CEO. Having conquered the online advertising world, Google seems to be gearing up for an acquisition spree, its headline-grabbing purchase of YouTube marking a big step toward complete domination of the Web.

2. Steve Jobs – CEO, Apple

No doubt you’re sick of the media bonanza surrounding the every move of Apple’s CEO, but when one man’s appeal for DRM-free music reverberates around the world, it’s hard to ignore the power he wields. Jobs popularized legal music downloads and legal TV and movie downloads. And though the iPhone won’t be released for five months, its demonstration at
MacWorld Expo suggested that this product might finally popularize Internet browsing on a mobile device.

3. Bram Cohen – Cofounder, BitTorrent

P2P systems like KaZaA and eDonkey are so last year. The future is all about BitTorrent, the brainchild of math wizard and programming wunderkind Bram Cohen. BitTorrent, developed in 2001, has gained in popularity as a way to download large files (like movies) by sharing the burden across hardware and bandwidth. The technology’s adeptness at handling large files got Cohen in trouble with the Motion Picture Association of America, which ordered BitTorrent to remove copyrighted content from its network. But that setback hasn’t slowed it down. Reportedly, more than a third of all Web traffic now comes from BitTorrent clients. BitTorrent and the entertainment heavyweights have since joined forces. The newly released BitTorrent Entertainment Network launched recently with thousands of industry-approved movies, television shows, games, and songs for sale and rental.

4. Mike Morhaime – President, Blizzard Entertainment

In the world of online gaming, there is World of Warcraft and there is everything else. With 8 million players worldwide, Blizzard earns about $1.5 billion a year on WoW. And each player is breathlessly beholden to Mike Morhaime for the chance–if it ever comes–to obtain that Blade of Eternal Justice. As with Second Life (see #17), entire real-world businesses are based around the game. Unlike Second Life, though, these businesses–which exploit the WoW economy and gameplay–are not entirely welcome.

5. Jimmy Wales – Founder of Wikipedia

Many onliners treat Internet encyclopedia Wikipedia as their first and last stop in researching a topic; and its user generated content has become so reliable that Nature magazine declared it “close to [Encyclopaedia] Britannica” in accuracy. The site has been cited as a source of information in more than 100 U.S. court decisions since 2004. But its popularity has also made Wikipedia a target for spammers–so much so that Wikipedia temporarily blocked the entire country of Qatar from making edits. To thwart spammers, Wales decided to slap “nofollow” tags on external links, telling search engines to ignore the links in order to avoid artificially inflating the search engine ranking of the link targets. This strategy ensures that Wikipedia’s prominence in search results will continue to grow. But Wikipedia may just be the beginning for Wales. He recently launched his own search engine, WikiSeek, which searches only sites mentioned in Wikipedia.

6. John Doerr – Venture capitalist, Kleiner, Perkins, Caulfield & Byers

A former salesman for Intel, John Doerr has been the king of Silicon Valley venture capital for 27 years, investing in tech businesses ranging from Sun Microsystems to Amazon.com to Google. Jeff Bezos (see #24) once described Doerr as “the center of gravity in the Internet.” He has also put his money behind his politics, backing controversial state ballot initiatives in California involving alternative energy and stem-cell research.

7. Craig Newmark – Founder, Craigslist

His Web site has no ads, charges absurdly low fees to a small fraction of its visitors, has a “.org” domain, and employs 23 people. Yet despite its humble appearance, Craigslist racked up 14.1 million page views last December and was the 52nd most viewed site last December according to comScore Media Metrix. Newmark’s Craigslist has become an addiction for many, who impulsively refresh the listings of free stuff, “rants & raves,” and personal ads while shirking their day jobs. Most importantly, it has almost singlehandedly demolished the offline classified advertising business. (In the San Francisco Bay Area alone, one study found, the site drains up to $65 million annually from local newspapers’ help-wanted ads.) Take that, old media!

8. Peter Levinsohn – President, Fox Interactive Media

Fox Interactive Media, owned by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corporation, is one of the Web’s most powerful entities, controlling 13 sites that range from uber-popular MySpace.com to controversial FoxNews.com. A complement to News Corp’s array of traditional film and television properties, this Internet-focused division ranked among the top 10 visited properties in the world in December 2006, according to comScore World Metrix. And there will probably be more to come, as Fox Interactive still has $2 billion in acquisition money to play around with, according to TechCrunch (see #30).

9. Marissa Mayer  – Vice President for search products & user experience, Google

Google’s product czar oversees the search giant’s increasingly diversified list of Web services and tools, such as Google Maps, Google Desktop, and Google Base–an eBay-esque e-commerce service. The first lady of Google joined the company as its first female engineer in 1999 (she was approximately employee #20) and worked on developing Google’s now-familiar minimalist look. But don’t accuse her of all work and no play; according to Google’s Web site, she organizes employee movie nights.

10. Chad Hurley and Steve Chen –  Founders, YouTube

Despite Google’s acquisition of the company, YouTube founders Chad Hurley (CEO) and Steve Chen (CTO) look like they’ll be shaking things up for some time to come. The Internet video kingpin announced plans to pay users for videos, and it has signed several big-media content partnerships (with MTV, NBC, Warner Music, and others). Fellow co-founder Jawed Karim left the company to pursue a master’s in computer science at Stanford University.

11. Kevin J. MartinChairman – Federal Communications Commission

He may look innocent and unassuming, but Martin is arguably the most powerful bureaucrat on the Web. He took over the reins of the FCC in 2005, and to date he has encountered minimal controversy and none of the scandals that predecessor Michael Powell suffered. But that doesn’t mean he couldn’t cut off your Internet connection like that if he really wanted to.

12. Brad Templeton  – Chairman of the board, Electronic Frontier Foundation

If you’ve ever found yourself on the wrong side of an electronic copyright or privacy scuffle, you know that Brad Templeton and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are your friends. They’ve defended file-sharers sued by the Recording Industry Association of America and filed complaints against America Online for disclosing subscriber search terms; currently they’re fighting to unmuzzle bloggers who published leaked documents related to Eli Lilly’s alleged misrepresentation of side effects of the drug Zyprexa. Templeton’s passion about copyright and free speech is not surprising. The Web publishing veteran got his start back in 1989 when he founded ClariNet, a company that published what Templeton calls “the Net’s first newspaper.”

13. Henry Chon – CEO, Cyworld

Don’t call Cyworld a Korean MySpace; MySpace is an American Cyworld. In
South Korea, an estimated 25 percent of the population (and 90 percent of people in their teens and twenties) have Cyworld accounts, where individuals design miniature animated avatars to represent them in its unique online space. In 2006 CEO Henry Chon brought Cyworld to U.S. shores. Though Cyworld hasn’t yet achieved comparable success here, MySpace shouldn’t rest easy if Chon’s track record is any indication of future competition.

14. Shana Fisher  – Senior vice president for strategy and M&A, IAC/InterActiveCorp

IAC/InterActiveCorp chairman and CEO Barry Diller loves his online enterprises. After a buying binge, IAC now owns Ask.com, Citysearch, Expedia, Match.com, Ticketmaster, and a host of other service-oriented Web businesses. But who tells Diller where to plunk down the cash? That would be his mergers and acquisitions advisor, senior VP Shana Fisher, who determines exactly where and when IAC should invest. Her control over IAC’s purse strings makes her arguably the most powerful woman on the Internet.

15. Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis  – Founders, Skype and KaZaA

It seems like Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis just can’t stop themselves. First they built the popular (though malware-addled) peer-to-peer file-sharing network KaZaA; then they followed that endeavor up by building the amazingly popular VoIP software Skype. After selling Skype to eBay (see #28) for $2.6 billion, the duo has gone back to the drawing board to produce Joost (formerly “The Venice Project”), a P2P video distribution service that is currently in private beta form. Will Zennstrom and Friis pull off a trifecta of killer apps? After being forced to settle an RIAA lawsuit over KaZaA for more than $100 million, they are negotiating directly with content providers as they prepare for Joost’s official launch.

16. Matt Mullenweg – Developer, WordPress blogging site and software

Matt Mullenweg can barely buy a drink, but this 22-year-old open-source enthusiast developed WordPress, the open-source publishing software favored by blogging diehards around the world. In 2004, WordPress became well-enough known that Web publishing powerhouse CNet hired Mullenweg to work on it and other projects. Mullenweg quit in 2005, however, to work full-time on WordPress, which today is more like a content-management system, with various templates, widgets, and plug-ins, and Askismet antispam protection (we reviewed the service in January 2007.)

17. Philip Rosedale – CEO, Linden Lab

Philip Rosedale took the MMORPG (massively multiplayer online role-playing game) concept and spun it into the Web’s most talked-about virtual destination: Second Life. But don’t call it just a game. For more and more “residents,” Second Life has become a first life, where they can do everything in the virtual world from getting married to launching businesses that function exclusively within the site’s confines. Many real-world businesses have opened Second Life branches, too. In fact, Second Life has become so popular that the inevitable backlash has begun: Nick Denton’s Valleywag (see #45) has compared the game’s economy to a pyramid scheme

18. Jon Lech Johansen – Creator, DeCSS decryption program

Better known as DVD-Jon, Jon Lech Johansen is the Norwegian hacker who broke the encryption system used on DVD movies, thereby allowing them to be copied. He released the DeCSS decryption program in 2002 and was promptly prosecuted in his homeland. Eventually acquitted, Johansen went on to crack Apple’s iTunes DRM (repeatedly) while working as a software developer in the United States. Beaten to the punch in cracking high-definition DVD formats by the still-anonymous muslix64, who created “backup” programs for HD DVD late last year and for Blu-ray Disc in January, Johansen nonetheless remains the renegade that big media fears most.

19. Jerry Yang, David Filo, and Terry Semel – Executives, Yahoo

Google’s product innovations and its blockbuster purchase of YouTube for $1.65 billion may have pushed Yahoo out of the limelight, but the Web giant led by founders Yang and Filo and CEO Terry Semel are fighting back. In the past two years, Yahoo has acquired online photo-sharing site Flickr and social bookmarking site Del.icio.us. It also continues to launch new properties such as Yahoo Food and Yahoo Pipes (for creating custom data feeds). Yahoo’s recent switch to the Panama advertising platform represents another attempt to recapture ad revenue from Google. (Full disclosure: The author of this story writes a blog hosted at tech.yahoo.com.)

20. Jack Ma – COO, Alibaba.com

Want to do business in China without springing for a plane ticket to Shanghai? Alibaba.com is your best bet. Founded by Jack Ma in 1999, this massively successful business-to-business e-marketplace is the best place online to meet people and trade proposals and product offers. (Ma has been quoted as saying that the firm got its bizarre start when he was kidnapped in Malibu and released on the condition he help his captor start a business in China.) In 2005, Yahoo (see #19) made a multibillion-dollar investment in Alibaba, which now runs Yahoo China. The venture recently became mired in scandal, when it provided information that led to the imprisonment of a Chinese journalist accused of leaking state secrets.

21. Brewster Kahle – Director, Internet Archive

Since 1996, the nonprofit Internet Archive has been collecting terabytes of data–old books, movies, music, and radio shows. Meanwhile, another feature, called the Wayback Machine, has been quietly taking snapshots of Web history to memorialize where we browsed. Take a look at the Internet Archive’s old snapshots of your favorite Web sites and you may be shocked at how different they used to be. Kahle cofounded the Internet Archive with the goal of “preserving our digital heritage,” but don’t let the humble curatorial pose fool you: Kahle has also challenged changes to U.S. copyright law in Kahle vs. Gonzales, a high-profile First Amendment legal case.

22. Ray Ozzie – Chief software architect, Microsoft

In 2006, when Bill Gates abdicated the position of chief software architect at Microsoft after 30 hands-on years, observers applauded his choice of successor: software visionary Ray Ozzie. The creator of Lotus Notes and Groove collaboration software is now charged with ensuring Microsoft’s technological relevance in an age in which the Web threatens to replace the traditional desktop OS. A pioneer in computer-based collaboration, Ozzie seems well equipped to do the job. One piece of unsolicited advice, Ray: You might consider updating your blog as a first step.

23. Markos Moulitsas Zuniga – Blogger, Daily Kos

The left’s most high-profile voice on the Web, Markos “Kos” Moulitsas, is a political powerhouse without equal online. His blog draws comments from liberals ranging from Nancy Pelosi (news, bio, voting record) to Jimmy Carter, and Moulitsas even launched a conference (broadcast in part on C-Span) for like-minded political activists. Kos’s endorsements haven’t always triumphed, but his backing of Ned Lamont was influential in opponent Joe Lieberman’s loss of the Democratic Senate primary in Connecticut last year, though Lieberman eventually won the general election as an independent. Kos has not indicated any desire to run for office himself as yet.

24. Jeff Bezos – CEO, Amazon

He may have launched Amazon.com with the goal of developing it into a big online bookstore, but Bezos proved that shlepping books and CDs across the country was just a first act. The next round: adding toys, T-shirts, and power tools. And now, for scene three, Bezos has thrown himself into Web services. What does it mean? Just the start of a new framework for developing Web sites, including “utility computing” services that let you buy server time at a rate of 10 cents an hour. While we wait to find out how his newfangled grid computing strategies pan out, don’t forget that Bezos will sell you a Barbie Fashion Fever Grow ‘N Style Styling Head for 50 percent off.

25. Robert Scoble – Vice president of media development, PodTech.net

You know a grassroots movement is a success when big business wants to join in. And for once, big business–namely Microsoft–did it right. This was largely due to Robert Scoble. At the time a Microsoft employee, he blogged about the company and revealed a human–and sometimes egg-covered–side of the Redmond empire. The glimpse into Microsoft’s inner workings, cool technologies, and smart people shattered (or at least dented) the Microsoft stereotype. Microsoft blogs have subsequently become an integral part of the company’s communication with users. In 2006 Scoble left Microsoft for PodTech.net, where his video podcast Scoble Show features interviews with geeks. Recent guests include PC World’s editor in chief Harry McCracken, who stopped in to debate the eternal question: Mac or PC? Scoble has also interviewed 2008 presidential candidate John Edwards, whose outspoken bloggers got him into hot water.

26. John Battelle – Entrepreneur and chairman, Federated Media Publishing

Entrepreneur and journalist John Battelle has had a ringside seat for the unfolding of Webs 1.0, 2.0 (he cohosts the Web 2.0 Summit conference with Tim O’Reilly–see #36), and (in its preliminary stages) 3.0. In addition, he founded what some would call the Vanity Fair and the People Magazine of the Internet era: Wired Magazine and The Industry Standard. His most recent venture, Federated Media Publishing, represents the A-list of online content. Its slate of more than 50 sites includes 43 Folders, Ars Technica, BoingBoing, and TechCrunch. Battelle’s 2005 book The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture and his blog Searchblog are required reading for anyone who wants to understand the constantly evolving landscape of the tech industry.

27. Lawrence Lessig – CEO, Creative Commons

Acknowledging his kinglike status in the field, Wired once called him the “Elvis of Cyberlaw”–and the name stuck. Lawrence Lessig is a professor at Stanford University Law School and founder and chair of Creative Commons (CC), a nonprofit initiative that promotes a free but nonrevocable licensing system for online works. Designed to enable copyright holders to share content and yet still control it, a CC license spells out whether the holder wants to require attribution, restrict commercial use, or allow derivative works under specified circumstances. Musical acts such as DangerMouse and David Byrne have made songs available under the CC’s Sampling Plus license for noncommercial sharing and commercial sampling, while restricting advertising uses of it. A wealth of Creative Commons-licensed media is stored in searchable form at the Creative Commons Search page.

28. Meg Whitman – CEO, eBay

If there’s an industry that eBay doesn’t touch, we haven’t found it yet. Whether trying to score a PlayStation 3 on opening week or laboring to complete your set of Thundercats action figures, you have probably visited the venerable king of all auctions. But Meg Whitman, whose tenure as CEO of eBay is now approaching nine years (an era by dot-com standards), has more on her mind than just vintage GI Joe dolls and state quarters. She’s also boss of the Web’s largest online payment system, PayPal, and proud new owner of the most popular VoIP system, Skype (see #15).

29. Ron Wyden (news, bio, voting record)U.S. Senator, Oregon

Oregon’s senior U.S. Senator, a Democrat, has long ranked as one of Capitol Hill most influential voices on technology issues. During his tenure, Wyden has authored or co-authored the Science and Technology Emergency Mobilization Act, the Cyber Security Research and Development Act, and the controversial CAN-SPAM Act. (Hey, they can’t all be winners.) More recently, Wyden has introduced a bill called the Internet Nondiscrimination Act, which would prevent telecom companies from charging more for delivering content faster.

30. Michael Arrington – Blogger/publisher, TechCrunch

An entrepreneur and former attorney who cofounded Canada’s answer to Netflix (Zip.ca), Michael Arrington turned his attention in 2005 to blogging about Web startups. Almost overnight he became a sensation, eliciting the kind of fawning attention from dot-com wannabes that is normally reserved for the likes of men with surnames like Gates and Jobs. With TechCrunch properties now sprawling across six domains, the often-irascible Arrington is indisputably the most powerful technology blogger working today.

31. Bruce Schneier – Cryptographer

Whether his focus is the Transportation Security Administration’s latest boneheaded security procedures or the question of how secure a 12-character password really is, Bruce Schneier offers the most lucid (and most profoundly influential) musings on computer security you’re likely to find online or off. Schneier’s recent writings on security problems associated with the war on terrorism–abroad, at home, and online–are required reading.

32. Kevin Rose – Founder, Digg

Everyone who has a story on the Web wants Kevin Rose’s users to “digg it.” The former TechTV host (and colleague of Leo Laporte–see #47) founded Digg.com in 2004, bringing the power of social networking to the news. Digg’s algorithm lets users submit their favorite news stories and vote them up (or down). Digg’s expansion beyond technology news to mainstream news categories in June 2006 prompted BusinessWeek to slap a goofy-looking picture of Rose on its cover along with an eyebrow-raising valuation estimate of $60 million. Whether Rose is a multimillionaire or not, his site has plenty of clout on the Internet.

33. David FarberFounder, Interesting-People.org

Since the early 1990s, David Farber has been running the Interesting-People mailing list. It started as a small e-mail list for friends and colleagues (the interesting people) and turned into the mother lode of online mailing lists. Interesting-People takes on topics from 9/11 to the
Digital Millennium Copyright Act to Net neutrality and is rife with highly opinionated commentary from some very influential people. Farber is currently a professor of computer science and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. His past positions include a stint as chief technologist for the Federal Communications Commission.

34. John Hinderaker, Scott Johnson, and Paul MirengoffAuthors, PowerLine

Political candidates can no longer afford to ignore political blogs, and PowerLine is among the most influential political blogs out there. This neoconservative triumvirate–three lawyers who met while attending Dartmouth College–gained their street cred during “RatherGate,” when they assembled compelling arguments that the Killian documents, which Dan Rather used in a 60 Minutes newscast on George W. Bush’s National Guard service, were fake. Initially, Rather and CBS News poo-pooed the PowerLine bloggers; but in the end, CBS admitted the forgery and Rather resigned.

35. Vinton G. Cerf – Chairman, ICANN Board of Directors, and vice president and chief Internet evangelist, Google

Owing to his role in developing the TCP/IP protocols on which the Net depends, Vinton G. Cerf is one of the founding fathers of the Internet. Much of his work on the protocols occurred during the 1970s and early 1980s while he was employed by DARPA, the
Department of Defense’s Advanced Research Projects Agency. (In honor of their work, Cerf and partner Robert Kahn received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 2005.) Currently, Cerf chairs ICANN (the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers), and in 2005 he became Google’s vice president and chief Internet evangelist. He has been a strong advocate of Net neutrality, notably in an appearance before the Senate Judiciary Committee. He is also working with NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory on an Interplanetary Internet for more-robust space communication systems.

36. Tim O’Reilly – Founder and CEO, O’Reilly Media

O’Reilly coined the phrase “Web 2.0,” and he continues to cohost (with John Battelle–see #26) the industry’s must-attend Web 2.0 Summit conference. The Harvard-educated publisher laid his foundation in computer manuals. (Many a computer enthusiast would immediately recognize the intricate black-and-white line drawings of animals that grace the covers of O’Reilly books.) But his company has grown to incorporate the new media–blogs, podcasts, and online news–he espouses.

37. Drew Curtis – Founder, Fark.com

Lewd, crude, and traffic-generating, Fark.com invites its community of ad hoc commentators to participate in an ongoing brutal but frequently witty dissection of current news stories that sometimes turns into news itself. When the site recently greenlighted a news item under the descriptive headline “Anna Nicole Smith’s condition downgraded to dead,” Reuters and other international news outlets reported the crack. The enterprise is still primarily run by one guy: founder and smart-ass Drew Curtis. In January 2007, he launched FarkTV on the SuperDeluxe comedy video site. He is also scheduled to release a book titled It’s Not News, It’s Fark: How Mass Media Tries to Pass Off Crap as News in May 2007. (Yeah, but your media watchdog wants crap!)

38. Gabe Rivera – Creator, Techmeme

Gabe Rivera has created a powerful content-analysis algorithm that scans traditional news media and blogs, identifies the important stories, and organizes them into easy-to-read clusters. His goal: to find the next big news story so that you don’t have to. That’s why influential bloggers, decision makers, and news junkies find his site Techmeme a must-read. Whereas Digg (see #32) ranks stories by vote, and Slashdot (see #44) does so by editorial opinion, the technology underlying Techmeme–and sister sites WeSmirch, Memeorandum, and Ballbug–may prove to be the most powerful way to harness the blogosphere’s investigative power.

39. Dave Winer – Blogger and author of RSS 2.0

If you are wasting hours a day perusing podcasts, then you have Dave Winer to thank or blame (depending on your point of view). He was one of the inventors of podcasting–and one of the first bloggers. Winer started his Scripting News blog, which is still well read, back in 1997. He also co-authored the SOAP protocol, an instrumental element in operating-system-independent Web services. Nevertheless, his work on RSS–the technology behind Web content feeds–is what really earned him his fame. That, plus his ability to persuade the New York Times to use RSS and his work in amending it to support media files (giving birth to the podcast), makes him the father of modern-day content distribution.

40. Mike Schroepfer – Vice president of engineering, Mozilla

In the ongoing browser war, Mike Schroepfer is a five-star general who leads a massive but decentralized open-source army of staff and volunteer engineers. Its mission: to improve what is right now the best Web browser on the planet, Firefox. The open-source nature of Firefox permits a faster development cycle for incorporating new features and security fixes. The proof of its success is Internet Explorer 7’s adoption of FireFox features such as tabbed browsing. See our recent comparative review, “Radically New IE 7 or Updated Mozilla Firefox 2–Which Browser Is Better?”

41. Perez Hilton – Hollywood blogger

Love him or hate him, this controversial blogger (real name: Mario Lavandeira) has changed the face of celebrity journalism. Hilton’s hugely popular Web site offers around-the-clock access to celebrity gossip and photos, but that’s not the only reason that he’s on our list. Hilton is involved in a legal battle with photo agency X17, which has accused him of using its copyrighted photos without permission. Hilton claims that posting the photos on his site is legal, amounting simply to fair use of newsworthy images. The $7.6 million federal lawsuit could have lasting effects on how bloggers everywhere use digital photos online.

42. Paul Graham, Trevor Blackwell, Robert Morris, and Jessica Livingston – Founders, Y Combinator

Rather than sinking a whole lot of money into a handful of companies that may (or may not) turn into the next big Google, venture capital firms like Y Combinator dole out smaller sums to potential mini-Googles. Y Combinator commits to two rounds of funding and dispenses less than $20,000 (expense money, really) to coders so they can work, work, work on a prototype to parlay into more funding. In exchange, Y Combinator asks for 2 to 10 percent of the company’s stock. Startups that these guys have funded include Reddit (acquired by CondeNast), Kiko, and Weebly. The names sound funny, sure, but do you remember the first time you heard the name YouTube?

43. Mikko H. Hypponen – Director of antivirus research, F-Secure

F-Secure’s security news blog, written by director of antivirus research Mikko H. Hypponen, is one of the Internet’s go-to places for learning about the latest security threats. Too bad Sony BMG didn’t think so. When directly approached by F-Secure, Sony BMG ignored Hypponen’s warnings about a rootkit hidden within the antipiracy software used in certain SonyBMG audio CDs. Though F-Secure didn’t initially go public with the news, Windows expert Mark Russinovich detailed the rootkit discovery process on his blog. The resulting embarrassment (and a third-party lawsuit over the rootkit) might encourage Sony to take Hypponen more seriously next time.

44. Rob Malda – Founder, Slashdot.org

In 1997, Rob Malda (aka CmdrTaco) created Slashdot, the original blog with prioritized news content discussed in posts by snarky (and often highly technical) readers. In fact, the original news story often serves as a mere jumping off point for the site’s meaty comments and discussions (fodder for links to more news stories). Even if you prefer Digg (see #32), Techmeme (see #38), Technorati, or some other news aggregation blog, don’t forget that it all started with Slashdot. Authors and editors still consider it a badge of honor when their news story is “slashdotted,” though increased competition from other sites has stolen a bit of Slashdot’s thunder.

45. Nick Denton – Founder, Gawker Media

Nick Denton’s blog empire is so influential and so blogged about that you probably visit at least one of his 15 properties every day through one route or another. With titles that include New York City page six alternative Gawker, Washington, D.C., gossip rag Wonkette, L.A. equivalent Defamer, and tech news site Gizmodo, Denton’s empire is unquestionably the most successful independent blogging venture on the Web right now, holding considerable sway over industries from automobiles to Hollywood to high tech.
Important People #46 through #50

46. Sir Tim Berners-Lee – Director, World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)

What do you do after you invent the World Wide Web and give it away for free? Start a consortium that works on making it better This British scientist designed the first Web browser, editor, and language protocol (HTTP) while employed as a scientist at
CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research), and he founded the W3C in 1994. He has recently spoken in favor of Net neutrality. And like the old financial firm E.F. Hutton, when Berners-Lee talks, people listen.

47. Leo Laporte – Creator, This Week in Tech (TWiT) podcast

For at least the past 15 years, the man behind Leoville has created, hosted, and written radio and television shows, most notably the former TechTV show Screen Savers. His personality-driven style demonstrated to the world that tech media could be fun. His most recent venture is the TWiT.tv podcast network, a listener-funded enterprise that has gathered some of the old TechTV crew and put them to work creating more than a dozen podcasts, including the eponymous “This Week in Tech.”

48. Mohammed and Omar Fadhil – Blogging voice of Iraq

Countless bloggers are filled to the bloviating point with opinions about the Iraq War. But the brothers Fadhil, who blog at Iraq the Model bring a perspective that few others can match–because they’re Iraqis, based in Baghdad. Whatever your political leanings, you’ll find it impossible to read the Fadhil’s posts without acquiring a deeper understanding of the war, its implications, and its after-effects. There’s no better example anywhere of how citizen journalism is changing the world.

49. Jesse James Garrett – President, Adaptive Path

Garrett, the president of San Francisco Web design boutique Adaptive Path, didn’t invent Ajax, the assemblage of technologies and programming techniques that gives Web-based applications such as Zoho’s productivity apps and Google Maps desktop software-like interactivity and speed. But Ajax didn’t really take off until Garrett identified and named it in an influential essay–and he remains one the most eloquent advocates for the innovative, effective techniques used in many of the best Web 2.0 sites and services.

50. Tila Tequila – MySpace Personality

If you’re friends with singer/model/actress Tila Tequila (nee Nguyen), you’re hardly alone. Some 1.6 million MySpace users identify themselves similarly. Tequila proved that these MySpace friendships can generate power, fame, and wealth. In fact, she redefined the word “friend” to encompass an individual you’ve never met. Despite what you may think of Ms. Tequila’s talents, she could certainly teach a course in the new Web economy, having channeled her online popularity into A-list (well, C-list) fame. She has posed for Stuff magazine, she has a part in an Adam Sandler film currently in production, and her MySpace page currently boasts more than 56 million page views and 1,734,374 comments.

Just twenty seconds worth of fuel remained when Apollo 11's lunar module landed on the moon.

Ten tons of space dust falls on the Earth every day.

If you attempted to count to stars in a galaxy at a rate of one every second it would take around 3,000 years to count them all.

Ernest Vincent Wright wrote a novel with over 50,000 words, none of which containing the letter "e."

There are 333 toilet paper squares on a toilet paper roll.

The Eiffel Tower has 2,500,000 rivets in it.

The Eiffel Tower has 1792 steps.

It takes about 20 seconds for a red blood cell to circle the whole body.

Every year, the Moon moves a further 3.82cm from the Earth.

Every minute in the U.S. six people turn 17.

There are more than 1,00 chemicals in a cup of coffee.

Blue and white are the most common school colors.

On average, a 4-year-old child asks 437 questions a day.

The tip of a 2cm long hour-hand on a wristwatch travels at 0.00000275 mph

There is about 200 times more gold in the worlds oceans, than has been mined in our entire history.

Human hair and fingernails continue to grow after death.

Termites eat wood twice as fast when listening to heavy metal music.

The cockroach has a high resistance to radiation and is the creature most likely to survive a nuclear war.

When you sneeze, all bodily functions stop ... even your heart!

Only 7% of the population are lefties.

The toothbrush was invented in 1498.

The average housefly lives for one month.

40,000 Americans are injured by toilets each year.

A coat hanger is 44 inches long when straightened.

Your feet are bigger in the afternoon than the rest of the day.

Most of us have eaten a spider in our sleep.

The REAL reason ostriches stick their head in the sand is to search for water.

Michael Jackson owns the rights to the South Carolina State anthem.

In most television commercials advertising milk, a mixture of white paint and a little thinner is used in place of the milk.

Prince Charles and Prince William NEVER travel on the same airplane just in case there is a crash.

The first Harley Davidson motorcycle built in 1903 used a tomato can for a carburetor.

Most hospitals make money by selling the umbilical cords cut from women who give birth.They are reused in vein transplant surgery.

If coloring weren't added to Coca-Cola, it would be green

Rubber bands last longer when refrigerated.

Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.

A shark is the only fish that can blink with both eyes.

There are more chickens than people in the world.

Two-thirds of the world's eggplant is grown in New Jersey.

On a Canadian two dollar bill, the flag flying over theParliament
building is an American flag.

All of the clocks in the movie "Pulp Fiction" are stuck on 4:20.

No word in the English language rhymes with month, orange,
silver, or purple.

"Dreamt" is the only English word that ends in the letters "mt".

All 50 states are listed across the to! p of the Lincoln Memorial
on the back of the $5 bill.

Almonds are a member of the peach family.

Winston Churchill was born in a ladies' room during a dance.

cat has 32 muscles in each ear.

An ostrich's eye is bigger than its brain.

Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

In most advertisements, the time displayed on a watch is 10:10.

A goldfish has a memory span of three seconds.

A dime has 118 ridges around the edge.

It's impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

The giant squid has the largest eyes in the world.

In England, the Speaker of the House is not allowed to speak.

The microwave was invented after a researcher walked by a radar tube and a chocolate bar melted in his pocket.

The average person falls asleep in seven minutes.

There are 336 dimples on a regulation golf ball.

"Stewardesses" is the longest word that is typed with only the left hand.

1. Sued Michael Jordan, because he looks like him.

Allen Heckard sued Michael Jordan and Phil Knight on July 2006. Heckard claims he has suffered emotional trauma because he looks like Michael Jordan. Heckard has filed his look-alike case at the Washington County Court in Oregon and with a $832 million dollar head. Allen Heckard believes his life has been rough since people continually think he is Michael Jordan. Heckard says when he plays basketball, people are constantly telling him he plays like Michael Jordan and this has been difficult for him. Heckard is only six feet tall, so obviously those who assume he is Michael Jordan have little regard for height. Heckard even wears Air Jordan shoes, he says that they’re the most comfortable.

2. Sued after getting stuck on the house he was robbing.

In October 1998, A Terrence Dickson of Bristol Pennsylvania was exiting a house he finished robbing by way of the garage. He was not able to get the garage door to go up, because the automatic door opener was malfunctioning. He couldn’t re- enter the house because the door connecting the house and garage locked when he pulled it shut. The family was on vacation, so Mr. Dickson found himself locked in the garage for eight days. He subsisted on a case of Pepsi he found, and a large bag of dry dog food. This upset Mr. Dickson, so he sued the homeowner’s insurance claiming the situation caused him undue mental anguish. The jury agreed to the tune of half a million dollars and change.

3. Sued the school for being called “GAY”.

A small-town teenager who was bullied for years by classmates because they believed he was gay was awarded $440,000 in a settlement. The settlement ended a longrunning battle between the Tonganoxie School District and 18-year-old Dylan Theno, who sued in May 2004 claiming he was harassed with homophobic slurs from seventh grade until he quit school his junior year. Theno, who testified that he isn’t gay, recently earned his GED and attends a vocational technical school in Kansas City.

4. Sued after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler.

In January 2000, Kathleen Robertson of Austin Texas was awarded $780,000.00 by a jury of her peers after breaking her ankle tripping over a toddler who was running amuck inside a furniture store. The owners of the store were understandably surprised at the verdict, considering the misbehaving tyke was Ms. Robertson’s son.

5. Sued a after being bitten for a beagle he provoked.

In October 1999, Jerry Williams of Little Rock Arkansas was awarded $14,500.00 and medical expenses after being bitten on the buttocks by his next door neighbor’s beagle. The beagle was on a chain in it’s owner’s fenced-in yard, as was Mr. Williams. The jury felt the dog may have been provoked by Mr. Williams who, at the time, was shooting it repeatedly with a pellet gun.

6. Sued a restaurant after she slipped on a spilled drink.

In May 2000, a Philadelphia restaurant was ordered to pay Amber Carson of Lancaster, Pennsylvania $113,500.00 after she slipped on a spilled soft drink and broke her coccyx. The beverage was on the floor because Ms. Carson threw it at her boyfriend 30 seconds earlier during an argument.

7. Sued a nightclub after she fell while sneaking out.

In December 1997, Kara Walton of Claymont, Delaware successfully sued the owner of a night club in a neighboring city when she fell from the bathroom window to the floor and knocked out her two front teeth. This occurred while Ms. Walton was trying to sneak through the window in the ladies room to avoid paying the $3.50 cover charge. She was awarded $12,000.00 and dental expenses.

8. Sued Winnebago after crashing it.

In November 2000 Mr. Grazinski purchased a brand new 32 foot Winnebago motor home. On his first trip home, having joined the freeway, he set the cruise control at 70 mph and calmly left the drivers seat to go into the back and make himself a cup of coffee. Not surprisingly the Winnie left the freeway, crashed and overturned. Mr. Grazinski sued Winnebago for not advising him in the handbook that he couldn’t actually do this. He was awarded $1,750,000 plus a new Winnie. (Winnebago actually changed their handbooks on the back of this court case, just in case there are any other complete morons buying their vehicles.)

9. Sued amusement park for not warning him to be careful of thunderstorms.

Shawn Perkins of Laurel, Ind. Perkins was hit by lightning in the parking lot Paramount’s Kings Island amusement park in Mason, Ohio. A classic “act of God”, right? No, says Perkins’ lawyer. “That would be a lot of people’s knee-jerk reaction in these types of situations.” The lawyer has filed suit against the amusement park asking unspecified damages, arguing the park should have “warned” people not to be outside during a thunderstorm.

10. Sued against fast-good giants for being fat.

Caesar Barber, 56, of New York City. Barber, who is 5-foot-10 and 270 pounds, says he is obese, diabetic, and suffers from heart disease because fast food restaurants forced him to eat their fatty food four to five times per week. He filed suit against McDonald’s, Burger King, Wendy’s and KFC, who “profited enormously” and asked for unspecified damages because the eateries didn’t warn him that junk food isn’t good for him. The judge threw the case out twice, and barred it from being filed a third time. Is that the end of such McCases? No way: lawyers will just find another plaintiff and start over, legal scholars say.

11. Sued his old school for being kicked off the school’s baseball team.

Cole Bartiromo, 18, of Mission Viejo, Calif. After making over $1 million in the stock market, the feds made Bartiromo pay it all back: he gained his profits, they said, using fraud. Bartiromo played baseball at school, but after his fraud case broke he was no longer allowed to participate in extracurricular sports. Bartiromo clearly learned a lot while sitting in federal court: he wrote and filed his own lawsuit against his high school, reasoning that he had planned on a pro baseball career but, because he was kicked off the school’s team, pro scouts wouldn’t be able to discover him. His suit demands the school reimburse him for the great salary he would have made in the majors, which he figures is $50 million.

12. Pedo priest sued his victim for warning others about him.

Priest David Hanser, 70. Hanser was one of the first Catholic priests to be caught up in the sex abuse scandal. In 1990, he settled a suit filed by one of his victims for $65,000. In the settlement, Hanser agreed not to work with children anymore, but the victim learned that Hanser was ignoring that part of the agreement. The victim appealed to the church, asking it to stop Hanser from working near children, but the church would not intervene. “It’s up to the church to decide where he works,” argued the priest’s lawyer. When the outraged victim went to the press to warn the public that a pedo priest was near children, Hanser sued him for the same $65,000 because he violated his own part of the deal — to keep the settlement secret. The message is clear: shut up about outrageous abuse, or we’ll sue you for catching us.

13. Sued the neighbor he was trying to steal from.

In June 1998, a 19 year old Carl Truman of Los Angeles won $74,000.00 and medical expenses when his neighbor ran his hand over with a Honda Accord. Mr. Truman apparently didn’t notice someone was at the wheel of the car whose hubcap he was trying to steal.

14. Moved to a storage unit, then sued the storage yard.

Wanda Hudson, 44, of Mobile, Ala. After Hudson lost her home to foreclosure, she moved her belongings to a storage unit. She says she was inside her unit one night “looking for some papers” when the storage yard manager found the door to her unit ajar — and locked it. She denies that she was sleeping inside, but incredibly did not call for help or bang on the door to be let out! She was not found for 63 days and barely survived; the formerly “plump” 150-pound woman lived on food she just happened to have in the unit, and was a mere 83 pounds when she was found. She sued the storage yard for $10 million claiming negligence. Even though the jury was not allowed to learn that Hudson had previously diagnosed mental problems, it found Hudson was nearly 100 percent responsible for her own predicament — but still awarded her $100,000.

15. Sued his dog-sitter after the dog escaped.

Doug Baker, 45, of Portland, Ore. Baker says God “steered” him to a stray dog. He admits “People thought I was crazy” to spend $4,000 in vet bills to bring the injured mutt back to health, but hey, it was God’s dog! But $4,000 was nothing: he couldn’t even take his girlfriend out to dinner without getting a dog-sitter to watch him. When the skittish dog escaped the sitter, Baker didn’t just put an ad in the paper, he bought display ads so he could include a photo. His business collapsed since he devoted full time to the search for the dog. He didn’t propose to his girlfriend because he wanted the dog to deliver the ring to her. He hired four “animal psychics” to give him clues to the animal’s whereabouts, and hired a witch to cast spells. He even spread his own urine around to “mark his territory” to try to lure the dog home! And, he said, he cried every day. Two months in to the search, he went looking for the dog where it got lost — and quickly found it. His first task: he put a collar on the mutt. (He hadn’t done that before for a dog that was so “valuable”?!) After finding the dog, he sued the dog sitter, demanding $20,000 for the cost of his search, $30,000 for the income he lost by letting his business collapse, $10,000 for “the temporary loss of the special value” of the dog, and $100,000 in “emotional damages” — $160,000 total. God has not been named as a defendant.

16. Policeman confused a Taser with a gun, killed a suspect, then sued Taser.

The City of Madera, Calif. Madera police officer Marcy Noriega had the suspect from a minor disturbance handcuffed in the back of her patrol car. When the suspect started to kick at the car’s windows, Officer Noriega decided to subdue him with her Taser. Incredibly, instead of pulling her stun gun from her belt, she pulled her service sidearm and shot the man in the chest, killing him instantly. The city, however, says the killing is not the officer’s fault; it argues that “any reasonable police officer” could “mistakenly draw and fire a handgun instead of the Taser device” and has filed suit against Taser, arguing the company should pay for any award from the wrongful death lawsuit the man’s family has filed. What a slur against every professionally trained police officer who knows the difference between a real gun and a stun gun! And what a cowardly attempt to escape responsibility for the actions of its own under-trained officer.

17. Sued the school over 10-day suspension.

Kids across America are warned to stay away from “nose candy” in anti-drug campaigns. But a Kanawha County student is fighting his suspension for pretending to put actual candy up his nose. According to a lawsuit filed in Kanawha Circuit Court on December 2006, a student-athlete at Sissonville High School was given Smarties candy as a reward for good academic performance. In front of his teacher and fellow classmates, the student pretended to put one of the small candy discs up his nose.

18. Sued him for having the same name.

The Tribune Co. of Chicago, Ill. The newspaper chain owns several newspapers, as well as the Chicago Cubs baseball team. One of its newspaper carriers was Mark Guthrie, 43, of Connecticut. One of its ball players was Mark Guthrie, 38, of Illinois. The company’s payroll department mixed the two up, putting the ballplayer’s paycheck into the paper carrier’s bank account. The carrier allowed them to take back 90 percent of the improperly paid salary, and said they could have the rest after they gave him a full accounting to ensure he not only got his own pay, but wouldn’t have any tax problems for being paid $300,000(!) extra. The Tribune Co., rather than provide that reasonable assurance, instead sued him for the rest of the money.

19. Sued Consumer Reports magazine after bad review.

“High Tech” retailer Sharper Image sells a lot of its “Ionic Breeze” air filters. As part of a comparative review of many air filters, Consumer Reports magazine found the “Ionic” unit was the worst performer. SI complained, saying it didn’t do a “fair” test. CU asked what sort of test should be done, but SI never replied — until it sued CU. A federal judge ruled the suit not only had no merit, but was actually an illegal attempt to squelch public discussion. SI was ordered to pay CU $400,000 to cover its legal defense costs.

20. Sued GM because of roof standards after accident.

Edith Morgan, mother of Kansas City Chiefs football star Derrick Thomas, who died after being thrown from his SUV in a crash while speeding in a snowstorm. Morgan said Thomas’s neck was broken because the SUV’s roof collapsed a few inches — not from rolling down the highway because he wasn’t wearing a seatbelt — and sued General Motors. Her lawyer begged jurors to award more than $100 million in damages, perhaps more — he “did not want to put an upper limit on it.” GM pointed out that Thomas’s oversize SUV was exempt from federal roof crush standards, yet it met them anyway. The jury sent a message: of that $100 million, it awarded Morgan …nothing.

21. Sued Radio Shack for misspelling her town.

Tanisha Torres of Wyndanch, N.Y. The woman sued Radio Shack for misspelling her town as “Crimedanch” on her cell phone bill. She didn’t even ask them to change it; she just sued. “I’m not a criminal,” she whined. “My son plays on the high school football team.” Yeah, that makes sense. The name “Crimedanch” is a common joke; police in the area confirm it’s a high-crime area. Still, Torres claimed she suffered “outrage” and “embarrassment” at having to see that spelling on her private phone bill. The suit seeks unspecified damages.

22. Sued Mazda because it failed to provide instructions about the seatbelt.

Mary Ubaudi of Madison County, Ill. Ubaudi was a passenger in a car that got into a wreck. She put most of the blame on the deepest pocket available: Mazda Motors, who made the car she was riding in. Ubaudi demands “in excess of $150,000″ from the automaker, claiming it “failed to provide instructions regarding the safe and proper use of a seatbelt.” One hopes Mazda’s attorneys make her swear in court that she has never before worn a seatbelt, has never flown on an airliner, and that she’s too stupid to figure out how to fasten a seatbelt.

23. Sued Blain and Copperfield to demand they reveal their secrets to him.

Christopher Roller of Burnsville, Minn. Roller is mystified by professional magicians, so he sued David Blaine and David Copperfield to demand they reveal their secrets to him — or else pay him 10 percent of their lifelong earnings, which he figures amounts to $50 million for Copperfield and $2 million for Blaine. The basis for his suit: Roller claims that the magicians defy the laws of physics, and thus must be using “godly powers” — and since Roller is god (according to him), they’re “somehow” stealing that power from him.

24. Sued neighbors after being scared of them walking on her front porch.

Wanita “Renea” Young of Durango, Colo. Two neighborhood teens baked cookies for their neighbors as an anonymous gesture of good will, but Young got scared when she heard them on her front porch. They apologized, in writing, but Young sued them anyway for causing her distress, demanding $3,000. When she won(!!) $900, she crowed about it in the newspaper and on national TV. Now, she’s shocked (shocked!) that everyone in town hates her for her spite, and is afraid she may have to move. But hey: she won.

25. Sued the bank for loss of sleep over fee.

Barnard Lorence of Stuart, Fla. Lorence managed to overdraw his own bank account. When the bank charged him a service fee for the overdraft, he filed suit over his “stress and pain” and loss of sleep over the fee. A few hundred thousand bucks, he says, will only amount to a “slap on the wrist”, whereas the $2 million he’s suing for is more like being “paddled”.

26. Sued a store for “allowing” wild birds to fly around in the air.

Rhonda Nichols. She says a wild bird “attacked” her outside a home improvement store in Fairview Heights, Ill., causing head injuries. That’s right: outside the store. Yet Nichols still held the Lowe’s store responsible for “allowing” wild birds to fly around free in the air. She never reported the incident to the store, but still sued for “at least” $100,000 in damages. In January 2006, the case was thrown out of court.

27. Sued the phone company after having complications with the doctor.

Michelle Knepper of Vancouver, Wash. Knepper picked a doctor out of the phone book to do her liposuction, and went ahead with the procedure even though the doctor was only a dermatologist, not a plastic surgeon. After having complications, she complained she never would have chosen that doctor had she known he wasn’t Board Certified in the procedure. (She relied on the phonebook listing over asking the doctor, or looking for a certificate on his wall?!) So she sued …the phone company! She won $1.2 million plus $375,000 for her husband for “loss of spousal services and companionship.”

28. Sued the rescue workers who saved her.

Barbara Connors of Medfield, Mass. Connors was riding in a car driven by her 70-year-old(!) son-in-law when they crashed into the Connecticut River, and Connors sank with the car. Rescue divers arrived within minutes and got her out alive, but Connors suffered brain damage from her near-drowning. Sue the driver? Sure, we guess that’s reasonable. But she also sued the brave rescue workers who risked their lives to save hers.

29. Sued Home Depot after a prankster smeared glue on the toilet seat.

Bob Dougherty. A prankster smeared glue on the toilet seat at the Home Depot store in Louisville, Colo., causing Dougherty to stick to it when he sat down. “This is not Home Depot’s fault,” he proclaimed, yet the store graciously offered him $2,000 anyway. Dougherty complained the offer is “insulting” and filed suit demanding $3 million.

30. Sued hospital for having to see the doctors rushing to help their mother.

Sisters Janice Bird, Dayle Bird Edgmon and Kim Bird Moran sued their mother’s doctors and a hospital after Janice accompanied her mother, Nita Bird, to a minor medical procedure. When something went wrong, Janice and Dayle witnessed doctors rushing their mother to emergency surgery. Rather than malpractice, their legal fight centered on the “negligent infliction of emotional distress” — not for causing distress to their mother, but for causing distress to them for having to see the doctors rushing to help their mother. The case was fought all the way to the California Supreme Court, which finally ruled against the women. Which is a good thing, since if they had prevailed doctors and hospitals would have had no choice but to keep you from being anywhere near your family members during medical procedures just in case something goes wrong. In their greed, the Bird sisters risked everyone’s right to have family members with them in emergencies.

Seriously, AT&T, stop playing with our emotions like this. Either you have the N75 available for sale or you don't -- but please, none of this wishy washy "we'll put it up for a little while, then remember that we still don't have any to sell and pull it from the site" business. For a phone this hotly anticipated by the Nokia, Symbian, smartphone, and 3G faithful, you'd like to think that the largest GSM carrier in the United States would run a significantly tighter ship in bringing this one to market, rather than give us a few hours of perceived availability followed by an ominous "Temporarily out of stock" warning in place of the "Add to cart" button.. Bah, who are we kidding? Anyone taking bets on when these things will actually be widely available?

Whether you are a smoker or not, these facts serve as an additional knowledge for you. Then, if you are a smoker, think twice before you pick up a cigarette.


1. Urea, a chemical compound that is a major component in urine, is used to add “flavor” to cigarettes.

2. The United States is the only major cigarette market in the world in which the percentage of women smoking cigarettes (22%) comes close to the number of men who smoke (35%). Europe has a slightly larger gap (46% of men smoke, 26% of women smoke), while most other regions have few women smokers. The stats: Africa (29% of men smoke, 4% of women smoke); Southeast Asia (44% of men, 4% of women), Western Pacific (60% of men, 8% of women).

3. The U.S. states with the highest percentage of smokers are Kentucky (28.7%), Indiana (27.3%), and Tennessee (26.8%), while the states with the fewest are Utah (11.5%), California (15.2%), and Connecticut (16.5%).

4. The nicotine content in several major brands is reportedly on the rise. Harvard University and the Massachusetts Health Department revealed that between 1997 and 2005, the amount of nicotine in Camel, Newport and Doral cigarettes may have increased by as much as 11 percent.

5. Men who smoke are more likely to experience erectile dysfunction. Smoke 10 or fewer cigarettes a day and your risk of dysfunciton is 16% greater than non-smokers; 11 - 20 cigarettes a day has been linked to a 36% rise in erectile problems; and men who smoked more than 20 cigarettes a day have a 60% greater chance of dysfunction.

6. In 1970, President Nixon signed the law that placed warning labels on cigarettes and banned television advertisements for cigarettes. The last date that cigarette ads would have been permitted on TV was extended a day, from December 31, 1970 to January 1, 1971 to allow the television networks one last cash windfall from cigarette advertising in New Year’s Day football games.

7. Cigarettes are the single most-traded item on the planet, with approximately 1 trillion being sold from country to country each year. At a global take of more than $400 billion, it’s one of the world’s most largest industries.

8. U.S. cigarette manufacturers now make more money selling cigarettes to countries around the globe than they do selling to Americans.

9. Just 4 cigarette brands — including the popluar American brands Marlboro, Kool and Kent — own roughly 70% of the global cigarette market.

10. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 25% of cigarettes sold around the world are smuggled.

If you're running a pre-release version of Windows Vista, you might want to upgrade by May 31st. Anyone running Vista Beta 2 RC1 or RC2 will begin to receive warnings in a few weeks telling you that your operating system installation is about to expire.

If you don't upgrade, you could wind up losing data stored on your computer. Here's what happens if you decide to ignore the warnings:

   * You'll be able to logon for 2 hours in order to retrieve your data, but after 2 hours your computer will automatically reboot without giving you the opportunity to save your work.
   * Come August 28th, even these 2 hour logon sessions will be disabled

If you've been participating in the preview you don't get a discount on a Windows Vista purchase, but you are eligible for an upgrade disc instead of a full installation disc.

A List Apart wants some information from you for a new survey they have released online.

Statistics have never been compiled for the Web Design profession, including designers, developers, project managers, writers and editors. This survey is aiming at tracking such questions as who we are, where we live, job titles, skills, education, and background.

By filling out the 37 question survey online, A List Apart will not only increase the knowledge about the industry, but each participant will be entered into a random draw to win a ticket to An Event Apart, an Apple 30GB video iPod, a jump drive, or a t-shirt.

The contest and survey remains open until May 22nd 2007, and data will be presented on A List Apart.

Go figure that little search engine company founded in a garage was just voted to be the most powerful brand in the Brandz Top 100 list. Some of the defining factors to get onto the list include innovation, leadership and of course finance. Google, no doubt, is currently off the scales in all categories.

The Most Powerful Brands list ranks General Electric and Microsoft behind Google, which was valued at $66.4Billion U.S.; Yahoo hit 42 on the list.

Other companies that made it onto the Brandz Top 100 list are Coca-Cola, Marlboro, Wal-Mart, and IBM.

Some may question Blu-ray's future but not Sony. So much so that their Sony Digital Audio Disc Corp group is investing $75.8 million into their Terre Haute, IN manufacturing plant. Sony DADC has plans to retool this plant for Blu-ray disc production. Who knew that this format war was so healthy for the American worker but this plant employs 1,223 jobs and this expansion must be good for some type of pay increase. Sony must feel good about Blu-ray's future if they were going to drop that type of cash into the format - good thing Blu-ray has some dedicated fanboys.

The Blu-ray vs HD DVD format war reaches another milestone, with sales of Blu-ray Discs reaching more than one million sold since the format launched less than a year ago. According to Home Media Research, Blu-ray locked up 70% of high-definition movies sales in the first quarter of 2007 (832,530 to 359,300), and account for seven of the top ten best-selling high-def movies. Even on those few titles available in both formats, like The Departed, consumers are buying more Blu-ray than HD DVD versions. HD DVD owners and fans can still point to sales of their format of choice reaching number one at Amazon recently -- as well as early release dates like The Matrix and exclusives like Smokin' Aces -- but with Blu-ray-only Disney releasing big titles like Cars and both Pirates movies in the coming months, the Blu-ray Disc Association won't be stopping the press releases anytime soon.

A group of researchers led by the University of Tokyo has broken Internet speed records — twice in two days. Operators of the high-speed Internet2 network announced Tuesday that the researchers on Dec. 30 sent data at 7.67 gigabits per second, using standard communications protocols.

The next day, using modified protocols, the team broke the record again by sending data over the same 20,000-mile path at 9.08 Gbps.

That likely represents the current network's final record because rules require a 10 percent improvement for recognition, a percentage that would bring the next record right at the Internet2's current theoretical limit of 10 Gbps.

However, the Internet2 consortium is planning to build a new network with a capacity of 100 Gbps. With the 10-fold increase, a high-quality version of the movie "The Matrix" could be sent in a few seconds rather than half a minute over the current Internet2 and two days over a typical home broadband line.

Researchers used the newer Internet addressing system, called IPv6, to break the records in December. Data started in Tokyo and went to Chicago, Amsterdam and Seattle before returning to Tokyo. The previous high of 6.96 Gbps was set in November 2005.

Speed records under the older addressing system, IPv4, are in a separate category and stand at 8.8 Gbps, set in February 2006.

The Internet2 is run by a consortium of more than 200 U.S. university. It is currently working to merge with another ultrahigh-speed, next-generation network, National LambdaRail.

The announcement of the new record was made at the Internet2 consortium's spring meeting, which ends Wednesday in Arlington, Va.

OCZ may have recently laid claim to the title of some of the world's fastest RAM, but Samsung seems to have found room to do a little boasting of its own, trotting out its first 4GB DDR2 DIMM based on WSP (or wafer-level-processed stacked package) technology. According to the company, that process not only makes the module smaller, but faster and more energy efficient as well. Not so clear, unfortunately, is what effect the seemingly cure-all technology will have on pricing or availability, with no word on either from Samsung as of yet.

Just when Hitachi had us all believing that it was planning on reaching new heights in the plasma market thanks to a ginormous PDP set and a thirsty overseas crowd, now we're seeing the fallback plan. Of course, we can't really suggest that Hitachi's latest lawsuit on LG's (surprise, surprise) plasma displays have anything to do with the firm's dreary numbers, but it has nevertheless filed a lawsuit in the ill famed "district court in Texas" (read: patent troll heaven) saying that "the South Korean company infringed its plasma display-related patents." The suit seeks the obligatory "monetary compensation for damages," but more interesting is the tidbit that requests a "permanent injunction prohibiting LG's plasma display panel product sales in the United States." According to a Hitachi spokesperson, the two outfits had "been in talks regarding the appropriate licenses for these seven patents," but apparently, neither side is backing down anytime soon.

Left handed people live slightly shorter lives than right handed people.

Armadillos are able to contract leprosy.

Ten years ago, only 500 people in China could ski. This year, an estimated 5,000,000 Chinese will visit ski resorts.

The ant, when intoxicated, will always fall over to its right side.

The original name of Bank of America was Bank of Italy.

Toxic house plants poison more children than household chemicals.

Topless saleswomen are legal in Liverpool, England, but only in tropical fish stores.

In Bahrain, a male gynecologist can only examine a woman's private parts through a mirror.

If the entire population of earth was reduced to exactly 100 people,50% of the world's currency would be held by 6 people.

In comic strips, the person on the left always speaks first.

Tomatos were once referred to as "love apples." This is because their was a superstition that people would fall in love by eating them.