10 years ago this week Larry Gene Ashbrook walked into a Wednesday night youth rally and concert at Wedgewood Baptist Church in Fort Worth. Nobody really knows why he did it, but when it was over there were seven wounded and eight dead, including the gunman. 
Eight years after the terrorist attacks of September 11th, 2001, we remember and here, take a look back, and a look at the present. This year's remembrance is emphasizing volunteerism and service, honoring the private citizens that volunteered after the attacks and encouraging the observance of the anniversary to be a day of service. Construction at Ground Zero, the site of the former twin towers, is years behind because of construction delays, design disputes and litigation involving developers, state and local officials and insurance companies. At this point, One World Trade Center (formerly the Freedom Tower), the 120-story anchor building on the site, is scheduled for a 2013 completion. (38 photos total) CAUTION: SOME PICTURES ARE GRAPHICClick the image to see the full collection.
What was old is new again.IT experts at a firm in South Africa said it takes up to six hours to transfer four gigabytes of encrypted data between two of its offices which lie 50 miles apart.Click the picture to read the article.
Today staff at the financial services company will save valuable time by instead having the information transported by a homing pigeon named Winston.
Workers will attach a memory card containing the data to bird's leg and let nature take its course.
Experts believe the specially-trained 11-month-old pigeon will complete the flight in just 45 minutes - and at a fraction of the cost.
I am not a fan of Al Franken's politics or his comedy, but I am impressed with this.Senator Al Franken draws a map of all 50 states from memory during an appearance on Minnesota Public Radio's Midday at the Minnesota State Fair.
Reading a newspaper, I saw a picture of birds on the electric wires. I cut out the photo and decided to make a song, using the exact location of the birds as notes (no Photoshop edit). I knew it wasn’t the most original idea in the universe. I was just curious to hear what melody the birds were creating.
I sent the music to the photographer, Paulo Pinto, who I Googled on the internet. He told his editor, who told a reporter and the story ended up as an interview in the very same newspaper.
Birds on the Wires from Jarbas Agnelli on Vimeo.
On August 17th, near Sayanogorsk in south central Russia, a catastrophic accident took place in the turbine and transformer rooms of the hydroelectric plant of the Sayano-Shushenskaya dam. The exact cause is still under investigation, but what is known so far is that a tremendous amount of water from the Yenisei River flooded the turbine room, causing at least one transformer explosion and extensive damage to all ten turbines, destroying at least three of them. 74 workers are known to have lost their lives in the accident, while one remains missing. Additionally, 40 tons of transformer oil were spilled into the river, killing an estimated 400 tons of trout in two fisheries. Investigators plan to release findings in two months, as Prime Minister Vladimir Putin called for a nationwide infrastructure inspection. (32 photos total)Click the image to see the full collection.
An intriguing article. Click the picture to read it.
