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Exploding Lake Provides Electricity for Rwanda->

Submitted by reillymj
reillymj writes "There are three known "exploding lakes" in the world, where volcanic gases build up near the lake bottom until they suddenly fizz over, suffocating people with huge amounts of carbon dioxide. But the lakes also hold methane and one of them, Rwanda's Lake Kivu, is being actively tapped as a source of natural gas to fuel a power plant on the lake's shores. The government hopes that within two years, the plant will be covering a third of the country's needs. By siphoning off the gas, engineers simultaneously defuse a ticking time bomb in the lake and provide power to local communities."
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Comment: Re:Customer information sharing (Score 5, Informative) 526

by Fizzog (#26374773) Attached to: Blu-ray Update Sent To User Via Credit Card Records

"they would have to get that info from the card issuer"

No, not really.

I worked for a telephone services company some years ago and developed their customer information system. We would only get one of two possible pieces of information from a transaction: the telephone number they called a 1-900 number from, or the Credit card number they used if they called a 1-800 number.

We wanted to get the customer information so we could send them related advertising.

There are vendors out there that will supply all available subscriber information for a telephone number, and others that will provide all available information given a Credit Card number.

Telephone numbers are not super reliable as they can be re-used, but for 5 cents we would (about 60% of the time) get a result which would give us the subscriber name and address. For 20 cents we would get about a 90% match. We sent all phone numbers to the 5 cent vendor and for those that didn't get a result we would send them to the 20 cent vendor.

Credit Card numbers are quite reliable and for 1 dollar we would get *all* of the information on the card holder. This included name, address, age, spouse's name and age, children's names and ages, your income, and various demographic information for your neighbourhood.

Given that big box stores likely get thousands of 'Card only' purchases a day I am sure they also have similar agreements with vendors, or contract with 3rd parties to do it for them.

Quickies

Sleep Disturbances associated with suicide

Submitted by brainvoid
brainvoid writes "In the first known report of its kind, a study published in the January 1st issue of the journal SLEEP finds that sleep disturbances are common among suicide attempters, and that nightmares are associated with suicidality.
The study, conducted by Nisse Sjöström, RN, and colleagues of Sahlgrenska University Hospital in Göteborg, Sweden, focused on 165 patients between the ages of 18-68, who were admitted to medical units or psychiatric wards at Sahlgrenska after a suicide attempt. It was discovered that 89 percent of subjects reported some kind of sleep disturbance. The most common complaint was difficulties initiating sleep (73 percent), followed by difficulties maintaining sleep (69 percent), nightmares (66 percent) and early morning awakening (58 percent). Nightmares were associated with a five-fold increase in risk for high suicidality.

http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/medicalnews.php?ne wsid=59937"
United States

Social Security for illegal aliens

Submitted by Anonymous Coward
An anonymous reader writes "The Washington Post is reporting that 'An agreement the Bush administration reached with Mexico on Social Security benefits would allow illegal aliens granted amnesty in the future to claim credit for the time they worked illegally.' If we decide to give illegal workers social security, why would we have to reach an agreement with Mexico? I imagine something was promised in return. Another piece to support the North American Union conspiracy theories. Time to start brushing up on my Spanish."
Biotech

Diet Pills

Submitted by Nitack
Nitack writes "Diet pill makers just got spanked by the Federal Trade Comission today. The FTC levied a $25 million fine for false advertising on four diet pill makers. Apparently psudo-science and testimonials are not considered scientific proof any more! FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras asserted that "They not only didn't have studies to support the claim, they actually had a study that went the other way." The fines are targeted against marketers of Xenadrine EFX, One A Day Weight Smart, CortiSlim and TrimSpa. Looks like Anna Nicole may be out of a job."

Your reasoning powers are good, and you are a fairly good planner.