Technology Slice Blog

South Dakota Hundreds of Dead Birds - The deaths of 200 starlings in Yankton, South Dakota this week is no mystery -- they died as the result of poison set out by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, an official said on Thursday. USDA wildlife biologist Ricky Woods explained that a large group of starlings was causing problems in a north Nebraska cattle feedlot, eating the feed and leaving waste on both the feed and equipment. So the USDA put out DRC 1339 poison for the birds, Woods said. "Lethal means are always a last resort," said Woods. "In this situation it's what we had to do." Woods said most of the birds died near the site of the feed lot, but about 200 were strong enough to fly about 10 miles north to Yankton, where they died, puzzling some local residents. He could not say how many birds died altogether. Woods said putting out poison for birds is not common, but sometimes is necessary. "It depends on the situation," he said. He said t...

Mother of Anorexic French Model Commits Suicide - The mother of an anorexic French model who died in November has committed suicide, reports say. Marie Caro killed herself this month because she felt "enormous guilt" for admitting her daughter Isabelle into a French hospital where she later died, her husband Christian told Swiss newspaper 20 Minutes, the Daily Mail reported. Isabelle Caro, 28, was admitted to Bichat Hospital in Paris for severe dehydration, but passed away on November 17. "[Marie] felt guilty for having put my daughter in the Bichat Hospital. My daughter did not want to go to that hospital," Mr Caro told 20 Minutes. Caro is famous for a 2007 anti-anorexia campaign in which she was photographed nude. At that time, she weighed 32 kilograms and was 1.65 metres tall. The photographs, taken by Italian photographer Oliviero Toscani, sparked debate in the fashion industry and were banned by Italy's advertising watchdog, while France's ...

Eric Schmdit Replaced as CEO at Google - Google Inc said co-founder Larry Page will take charge of day-to-day operations as chief executive officer starting April 4. Current CEO Eric Schmidt will assume the role of executive chairman. Google also reported revenue of $8.44 billion in the fourth quarter, compared with $6.67 billion in the year-ago period. Net revenue, excluding fees that Google paid to partner websites, was $6.37 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S, on average, were expecting net revenue of $6.06 billion. Eric Schmdit Replaced as CEO at Google

Home Sales Lowest Since 1997 - Sales of U.S. previously owned homes jumped more than forecast in December as buyers tried to lock in low mortgage rates before the economic recovery pushed borrowing up further. Purchases of existing houses, which are tabulated when a contract closes, increased 12 percent to a 5.28 million annual rate, the most since May and exceeding the highest estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, figures from the National Association of Realtors showed today in Washington. The median price dropped 1 percent from a year earlier, and the share of sales represented by foreclosures climbed. Buyers are returning to the housing market after a government tax credit expired in the middle of 2010, indicating the drop in prices and cheap lending rates are making homes more affordable. At the same time, unemployment in excess of 9 percent and record foreclosures are among concerns that have prompted Federal Reserve policy makers to follow through with a second...

Heavy Drinking Abnormal Heart Rhythm - Regular and heavy drinkers are putting themselves at risk for a common heart problem that may do long-term damage, according to a recently published review by Japanese scientists. People who frequently drink alcohol, and drink a lot of it, seem to be more prone to a problem called a heart-rhythm disturbance atrial fibrillation than those who abstain. The researchers, from the University of Tsukuba Institute of Clinical Medicine in Ibaraki, Japan, built on the already-established knowledge that a drinking binge can trigger the condition, dubbed AF for short. Heavy Drinking Abnormal Heart Rhythm What hadn't been clear was whether or not people's drinking habits may factor in to atrial fibrillation, which causes the upper chambers of the heart to contract erratically and wildly rather than at their normal pace and rhythm. The paper's authors analyzed 14 prior studies and saw that those who drank the most were more likely to dev...

Sacha Baron Cohen Saddam - Borat and Bruno actor Sacha Baron Cohen is to star in a comedy inspired by a book thought to be written by the former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein. The Dictator is a loose adaptation of the novel Zabibah and the King, which was a best-seller in Iraq in 2000. Paramount Pictures said the film would tell "the heroic story of a dictator who risked his life to ensure that democracy would never come to the country he so lovingly oppressed". It will be released on 11 May 2012. Alec Berg, Jeff Schaffer and David Mandel - writers on Seinfeld and Curb Your Enthusiasm - have been recruited to pen the script. The Dicator will be directed by Larry Charles, who worked with Baron Cohen on both the Bruno and Borat comedies. Although Zabibah and the King was written under the pseudonym "The Author", it is believed it was written by ghost-writers carefully supervised by Hussein. Sacha Baron Cohen Saddam

James Gandolfini Watches Real Housewives - "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" is one of the Bravo reality TV franchise's most dramatic installments and it appears they have one very famous fan - James Gandolfini... sort of. When asked at the Television Critics Association Winter 2011 Session for HBO's "Cinema Verite" about which reality TV shows the cast watches, the former "Sopranos" patriarch revealed he's seen the show. "I have seen 'Housewives of Atlanta,'" he admitted "That was extraordinary, it really was," he said with a raised eyebrow. But Kim Zolciak and the gang might not want to take that as a compliment, as the actor noted that reality TV these days has "turned to sh**." In "Cinema Verite," James plays Craig Gilbert, the television producer behind the real life groundbreaking '70s TV documentary, "An American Family," which is considered by many to be the first r...