News

By Janet Fyfe-Yeomans and Amanda Grant

SYDNEY, Australia —
He is an unlikely revolutionary, but this Christmas, Santa is a rebel with a claus.

He is having the last laugh on political correctness — and it's a great big fat belly laugh.

Santas across Sydney, Australia, are rebelling against attempts to ban their traditional greeting of "ho, ho, ho" in favor of "ha, ha, ha."

Recruitment firm Westaff — which supplies hundreds of Santas across the country — has told its trainees that the "ho ho ho" phrase could frighten children and could even be derogatory to women.

August 27, 2007 — When the space shuttle Discovery launches the STS-120 crew in October, the force will be with them.

Stowed on-board the orbiter, in addition to a new module for the international space station, will be the original prop lightsaber used by actor Mark Hamill as Luke Skywalker in the 1983 movie "Star Wars, Episode VI: Return of the Jedi". The laser-like weapon is being flown to the orbiting outpost and back in honor of the 30th anniversary of the George Lucas-created franchise.

A 15-year-old girl has become the first Canadian to have an artificial heart removed after her own heart healed itself.

Melissa Mills arrived at Edmonton's Stollery Children's Hospital last year after a sudden illness made her critically ill and a candidate for a heart transplant.

Doctors at the hospital implanted the Berlin Heart, a portable mechanical device that keeps blood pumping in an ailing heart, so she could survive until a transplant became available.

By Matthew Philips
Newsweek

By Nick Bryant
BBC News, Sydney

The humble office laser printer can damage lungs in much the same way as smoke particles from cigarettes, a team of Australian scientists has found.

An investigation of a range of printer models showed that almost a third emit potentially dangerous levels of toner into the air.

The Queensland University of Technology scientists have called on ministers to regulate these kinds of emissions.

They say some printers should come with a health warning.

The researchers carried out tests on more than 60 machines.

Seagate plans to cease manufacturing IDE hard drives by the end of the year and will focus exclusively on SATA-based products. Seagate is the first major hard drive manufacturer to announce such plans, though others will likely follow suit as SATA continues to sap PATA's market share. According to a report published at Australian-based ITNews last January, SATA now accounts for 66.7 percent of desktop hard drive sales, 44 percent of laptop sales, and an unspecified (but increasing) amount of enterprise storage connectivity.

By Peter Galli

REDMOND, Wash.— Microsoft Windows will run more PCs than there are cars in the world by the end of Microsoft's fiscal year 2008, said Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer July 26 at the company's analyst day here.

Published: 2007-07-18

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A person who took pictures of what appears to be every page of the latest -- and final -- Harry Potter book may have left a number of clues behind for investigators, including the serial number of their digital camera.

By Benjamin Lanka | The Journal Gazette

Five months before it officially opens its doors, the $27 million Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana is already making an impression.

City, state and federal officials were given a tour of the 132,000-square-foot academy Thursday, almost a year after its construction started.

Mayor Graham Richard and Public Safety Academy of Northeast Indiana Director Brent Johnson today were joined by first responders, area educators and government officials to view the progress being made at the Public Safety Academy at Southtown Centre.

The first-of-its-kind facility is on schedule to open in November. The $27 million academy will provide police, fire, emergency medical services, and homeland security training and education for professionals and students from Northeast Indiana and across the Midwest.