Technology Slice Blog

Burglars Snort Man's Ashes - Burglars snorted the cremated remains of a man and two dogs in the mistaken belief that they had stolen illegal drugs, Florida sheriff's deputies said on Wednesday. The ashes were taken from a woman's home in the central Florida town of Silver Springs Shores on December 15. The thieves took an urn containing the ashes of her father and another container with the ashes of her two Great Danes, along with electronic equipment and jewellery, the Marion County Sheriff's Office said. Investigators learned what happened to the ashes after they arrested five teens in connection with another burglary attempt at a nearby home last week. "The suspects mistook the ashes for either cocaine or heroin. It was soon discovered that the suspects snorted some of the ashes believing they were snorting cocaine," the sheriff's report said. Once they realized their error, the suspects discussed returning the remaining ashes but threw them in...

Chechnya Couples Must Prove HIV Negative to Wed - The spiritual leaders of Muslim Chechnya have ordered that all couples who plan to marry prove they are HIV-negative, sparking outrage from activists and residents who say it violates Russian law. A decade after Moscow drove separatists from power in the second of two wars, Chechnya rests on a shaky peace. Spiritual leaders are gaining influence and power in the region, leading analysts to say Chechnya is evolving towards autonomy once again. "Any potential bride or groom is obliged to receive a medical certificate proving they are HIV-negative," the Chechen mufti's press service said in a statement this week. An imam can only approve of a marriage once the HIV-negative certificate is obtained. "Only an official representative from the republic's clergymen has that right," the statement added. Russia's crippling heroin crisis means it is facing an explosive HIV/AIDS epidemic -- the United Nations...

Living Social 500,000 Amazon Gift Certificates - Close to a million people will tell you it's hard to pass up a good sale. Within a matter of about eight hours, over 800,000 people signed up for group buying site Living Social's half price deal for Amazon.com today. The deal offered is a $20 voucher to Amazon for $10. The 24-hour time limit is ticking away, but if you haven't snapped the gift card up yet, you've still got about 16 hours left. According to Business Insider, Living Social could be close to grossing $4 million from the deal. That comes down to a net revenue of $2 million that the Groupon competitor will split with Amazon. Living Social 500,000 Amazon Gift Certificates Living Social has likely seen a flurry of today's activity driven its way via social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter. There's an incentive to share the deal with others, too. If three of your Facebook friends sign up for the deal through the link you post to your p...

Alex Lambert Not Homeless - Former "American Idol" contestant Alex Lambert shocked fans when he confessed that he is homeless and has been sleeping on the streets, but his rep says the claims are simply not true. The claims began Monday night, when Lambert took to his Twitter page to make the shocking confession. "Ever since [starring in the Web reality series 'If I Can Dream'] ended I've been kinda homeless! Sleepin' on the street and behind buildings," he said. " I just want my fans to know that I'm not an 'American Idol' type person. I just want y'all to know the truth." The 20-year-old went on to add, "I have a choice to stay and pursue my career or go back to Texas and not do music! I'm usually a strong person, but I can't take it anymore." But while a spokesperson for 19 Entertainment, an "Idol" production company that manages many of the contestants, said Lambert did Tweet the mess...

Suspicious Package Spokane - A backpack found along the route of the Martin Luther King Jr. march in Spokane contained a bomb "capable of inflicting multiple casualties," the FBI said Tuesday, describing the case as "domestic terrorism." The FBI said the Swiss Army-brand backpack was found about 9:25 a.m. PST on Monday on a bench at the northeast corner of North Washington Street and West Main Avenue in downtown Spokane. In an interview on msnbc cable's "The Rachel Maddow Show," Spokesman-Review reporter Thomas Clouse said confidential sources told him that the device was equipped with a remote control detonator and contained shrapnel. A bomb disposal unit was called in and neutralized the device with a robot. The FBI said in a statement on Tuesday that "the backpack contained a potentially deadly destructive device, likely capable of inflicting multiple casualties." The FBI has refused to discuss how the bomb was constructed. ...

Zsa Zsa Mansion on Sale $28 Million - Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband are selling their Los Angeles mansion for an asking price of $28 million, putting on the market a home once lived in by Elvis Presley, her spokesman said on Wednesday. The hillside house in the exclusive Los Angeles neighborhood of Bel Air was built for the late aviator and industrialist Howard Hughes, said John Blanchette, a publicist for Gabor. Presley lived in the house -- which has 26 rooms and a pool -- decades ago when he was acting in movies filmed in Los Angeles, Blanchette said. It is built into a hillside and overlooks the city. Zsa Zsa Mansion on Sale $28 Million Gabor, 93, the star of 1950s films "Moulin Rouge" and "Lili," had her leg amputated on Friday because of a gangrene infection after hip replacement surgery in July. She is recovering in a Los Angeles hospital where doctors have said they are "guardedly optimistic" about her prospects. "We only use two ...

Favorite Teams Return to Amazing Race - Cord and Jet McCoy are saddling up for another season of "The Amazing Race." The bull-riding brothers are among the 11 veteran teams competing on the 18th edition of CBS' around-the-world competition (premiering Feb. 20 at 8 p.m. EST), the network announced Wednesday. Other returning duos include goth dating couple Kent Kaliber and Vyxsin Fiala, and Harlem Globetrotters teammates Nathaniel "Big Easy" Lofton and Herbert "Flight Time" Lang. "We're not intimidated by anyone," Jet McCoy said before setting off in November. "That's the thing about this race, even in the season that we were on, we sized up the competition, but it wasn't the same people that were in the finals or that went out first. When it comes to this race, even though we've seen people on previous seasons, it's too hard to tell." Favorite Teams Return to Amazing Race

Incurable Bacteria Threatens Citrus Groves - Florida farmers say the biggest threat to their citrus crop isn't the recent cold weather. They're more worried about greening. The incurable disease has wiped out trees in the U.S., Brazil, Asia and Africa. It was first found in Florida in 2005. The bacteria that causes greening is spread by an insect. The disease leaves fruit sour and malformed and, eventually, kills the tree. And, in a cruel twist of fate, young trees seem most vulnerable, making it hard for farmers to replace those they've lost. Hundreds of researchers from more than a dozen countries converged on Orlando last week to talk about the disease. There was one hopeful announcement: Scientists recently assembled the genome sequences for two citrus varieties that may reveal why trees are susceptible to greening. Incurable Bacteria Threatens Citrus Groves

Quantum Computers a Step Closer - Scientists have moved a step closer to creating ultra-fast quantum computers by generating 10 billion bits of quantum entanglement in silicon for the first time. The achievement in silicon, the basis of the computer chip, has important implications for integration with existing technology, according to a team from Britain, Japan, Canada and Germany whose study was published in the journal Nature on Wednesday. "Creating 10 billion entangled pairs in silicon with high fidelity is an important step forward for us," said John Morton of Britain's Oxford University, who led the team. Quantum Computers a Step Closer "We now need to deal with the challenge of coupling these pairs together to build a scalable quantum computer in silicon." Scientists believe that super-fast quantum computers, based on quantum bits, or qubits, will be able to test many possible solutions to a problem at once. Conventional computers based on bi...

Bank Hapoalim Suspicious Package - Authorities temporarily evacuated the New York offices of Israel's Bank Hapoalim (POLI.TA) on Wednesday because of a suspicious package but soon determined there was no danger, police said. Police had dispatched the bomb squad to the midtown Manhattan office building after bank security was alarmed by the package, which had wires and batteries, but the investigation showed it was not an explosive device, police at the scene said. Hapoalim, Israel's second largest bank, has offices at Sixth Avenue at 46th Street, a busy district in New York City. Bank Hapoalim Suspicious Package

Most Popular Celebs and Twitter - Twitter has become so big, even the celebrities are having in on the action. It has become a popularity contest of sorts. Who has the most followers. Here are some of the most popular Twitter celebrities and follower numbers. - Britney Spears: 53290 - Al Gore: 38351 - Demi Moore: 11655 - William Shatner: 7599 - Soulja Boy: 5425 Most Popular Celebs and Twitter

Greg Abel New Contender Warren Buffett - Warren Buffett's still-unrevealed succession plan is a subject of obsessive speculation in the financial world, where it receives a level of scrutiny that's typically reserved for Oscar nominees and presidential candidates. The latest shortlist of contenders comes courtesy of Vanity Fair, which, in a recent profile of Buffett, homed in on four CEOs of Berkshire Hathaway companies: Ajit Jain, who heads Berkshire's reinsurance business; David Sokol of NetJets; Greg Abel of MidAmerican Energy Holdings; and Matthew Rose of Burlington Northern. Longtime Buffett watchers will recognize all of those names as successor candidates, except one. Abel, described by Vanity Fair only as "Sokol's number two," is a new addition to the field. Greg Abel New Contender Warren Buffett Abel got into the utility business in 1992, when he left Price Waterhouse to work for CalEnergy, an independent power producer run by Sokol. When CalEn...

Jennifer Love Hewitt to Direct Wait Till Helen Comes - Hollywood actress Jennifer Love Hewitt is all set to make her directorial debut with a ghost thriller titled ''Wait Till Helen Comes''. Hewitt, who stars in the CBS series ''The Ghost Whisperer'' and has directed some episodes of it, will now go behind the camera with a full-lenghth scary movie, reported Variety online. Based on a young adult novel of the same name by Mary Downing Hahn, the story centers on a trio of siblings that move to Maryland - into a house that turns out to be haunted. When the 12-year old narrator''s stepsister falls under the power of the ghost of a young girl that stalks the house, the narrator must save the sister and ease the pain of the ghost. Jennifer Love Hewitt to Direct Wait Till Helen Comes

Johnny Depp Lone Ranger - Gore Verbinski and Johnny Depp are back together again for the fifth time with The Lone Ranger so says Variety. Verbinski has signed on to direct Depp in the Western set up at Disney, with Depp set to play The Lone Ranger's trusted sidekick, Tonto. Justin Haythe (Revolutionary Road) did the current rewrite of the script, with Jerry Bruckheimer producing the film which reunites the director of the first three Pirates of the Caribbean movies - Curse of the Black Pearl, Dead Man's Chest, and At World's End - with his Pirates star. The two also worked together on the animated film Rango hitting theaters on March 4, 2011. Johnny Depp Lone Ranger

Beware Foreclosure Rescue Scams - Foreclosure scams are the worst type of scams. They feed on the desperation of home owners making a profit off of their misery. Beware of common scams that are making the rounds. If a deal sounds too good to be true, it usually is. Usually the crooks will offer to take over the deed and offer to pay you a lump sum when the house is sold. What they usually do is rent the place out for a while, collecting the money, only to later allow the bank to foreclose. Phony counseling agencies also exist. Basically they charge you fees without doing anything, or doing things you could do yourself. Do your research, don't sign anything without showing it to a lawyer and you'll keep yourself out of trouble. Beware Foreclosure Rescue Scams

Tips to Avoid Foreclosure - Foreclosures are both a heart breaking and ugly affair. No one wants to be in a situation where they are facing foreclosure. There are ways to avoid it happening to you. First off, know the specifics of your mortgage. Know what your rights are and what you are entitled to. You can do this by checking the copy of your loan documents the bank gave you when you first took out the mortgage. Prioritizing your spending will help you get your mortgage under control. Make up repayments by cutting down on non essential spending. Tips to Avoid Foreclosure You can also use your assets to avoid foreclosure. Selling a second car, or other items at home you no longer need can help the situation. Contacting your bank can also help. Some banks have hardship hotlines you can call to get some help. For instance you could switch your loan to interest only reducing your monthly repayments. Tips to Avoid Foreclosure

Lady Gaga Thierry Mugler Menswear Show - Gaga has been tapped as a "musical director" for Thierry Mugler fashion house and she will create an exclusive soundtrack for his men's wear show. "I'm the musical director for the Mugler fashion show. I'm remixing-previewing a record on 'Born This Way', tailored for the show and garments," aceshowbiz. posted Gaga's tweet on her Twitter account. The fashion week will take place from Jan 19 to Jan 23. The 24-year-old's "The Fame" and "Born This Way" is due for May 23 release in the US. She says it will be "a marriage of electronic music with major, epic dare." Lady Gaga Thierry Mugler Menswear Show