Eideard

A man has committed suicide by jumping from the world’s tallest skyscraper in Dubai, according to its owner.

The man, in his 20s, fell from the 147th floor of the 2,717ft Burj Khalifa, landing on a deck on the 108th floor, local media reported…

It would be the first known suicide from the 160-storey landmark, which opened in January 2010…

Reports on the websites of the Gulf News and 7 Days newspapers said the man had jumped after a dispute with his employer. Police statements showed that a holiday he had requested was turned down…

The Burj Khalifa was designed by Chicago-based architects Skidmore, Owings & Merrill.

It is the tallest freestanding structure in the world.

I wonder if the record holds – since he didn’t make it all the way to ground level?

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Politicians, Bollywood figures and other mourners paid homage to Indian holy man Sathya Sai Baba Monday amid fears of a fight over his $9 billion trust legacy.

The spiritual leader’s body lay in an air-conditioned glass casket with gold plating in the main meditation hall of his Prasanthi Nilayam ashram to let the expected hundreds of thousands of followers pay their last respects, officials said.

Sai Baba, 84, died Sunday of multiple organ failure in a hospital near the south Indian ashram…

Giant screens placed near the ashram gates projected images of his body, evoking cheers and tears among the people waiting to get inside, The Indian Express reported.

Sai Baba was known for conjuring jewelry, food and vibhuti, or sacred ash, out of the air, which devotees saw as proof of his powers and skeptics called sleight of hand.

His gentle demeanor, Afro-style hair and embrace of many belief systems beyond his eclectic blend of Hindu and Muslim beliefs attracted an estimated 6 million active and 33 million passive followers, including former presidents, generals, film-industry luminaries and sports stars. His Sathya Sai Organization, which seeks to help people recognize the divinity within them, maintains more than 1,200 Sathya Sai Baba Centers in 130 countries worldwide…

Sai Baba left no trust heir, raising fears of a custodial “succession war” over who would now manage the $9 billion.

He left enough money behind to fund a small country. Who knows where it will go, now?

Not the perp – but, just as dumb

A Cheyenne man who doused himself with white latex paint in hopes of avoiding a police Taser was hit with the stun gun anyway.

The Taser chase happened…when Cheyenne police went to Brian Mattert’s house on a domestic violence call. The Wyoming Tribune Eagle reports that when police arrived, Mattert thought they’d use a Taser on him, so he hastily covered himself in paint and told officers that if they shot him with the stun gun, he’d die.

Officers told him the paint wouldn’t affect the Taser’s capability.

Mattert scuffled with officers and was hit with a Taser twice before officers handcuffed him.

He faces several criminal charges. Police say the officers’ uniforms had to be cleaned.

Har!

What? Did he think he would explode?

Google moved its China Internet search service to Hong Kong in a bid to resolve its dispute with Beijing over censored search results while keeping a foot in the world’s largest Internet market.

But comments on Xinhua, the official Chinese news agency, suggested that Google’s attempt to strike a balance may not go over well with Beijing. Xinhua quoted a government official as saying Google has “violated its written promise” and is “totally wrong” by stopping censorship of its Chinese language search results.

Google said on Monday it intends to continue research and development work in China, as well as maintain a sales staff, even as it effectively stopped serving search results from its mainland Chinese site Google.cn and redirected traffic to an unfiltered search site in Hong Kong.

For the average mainland Chinese Web surfer, the change is unlikely to make much difference unless they can get around government-imposed firewalls that block searches for sensitive topics like the Dalai Lama…

“This is not the end of the saga, this is just the end of the chapter,” said Colin Gillis, analyst at BGC Financial. “You sort of make China look like the bad guy and you think you’re going to be selling Google phones? Good luck, we’ll see how that goes…”

“The Chinese government has been crystal clear throughout our discussions that self-censorship is a non-negotiable legal requirement,” Google said in a post on its official Web blog on Monday.

The White House also said it was disappointed an agreement could not be reached between Google and China to allow the company to keep running Chinese search services…

Google said its decision to re-route traffic to an uncensored Hong Kong site in simplified Chinese that is specifically designed for users in mainland China is “entirely legal.”

You get the feeling everyone wishes the relationship could continue; but…

And I should note as a disclaimer I’m a shareholder in Baidu. Worth enough to buy Dim Sum for the whole family.

Microsoft has been accused of infringing patents owned by another company, i4i. The legal dispute centres around the way Microsoft Word handles certain kinds of documents.

i4i, based in Toronto, Canada, claimed that Microsoft “willingly violated” a patent granted in 1998 concerning methods for reading XML, a kind of programming language. XML allows users to customise the format of word-processing documents, enabling them to be read by various word-processing programs. Microsoft Word’s ability to read and write XML documents is a crucial feature of the popular software.

Judge Leonard Davis, of the US District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, ruled that Microsoft had infringed i4i’s patent, and ordered the software giant to pay $290 million in damages. This included $40 million for the wilful infringement of the patent, $37 million in pre-judgement interest, and a further $21,102 per day until a final judgement is reached.

He also granted an injunction banning Microsoft from selling Microsoft Word in the United States, or importing the software in to the country. The ruling covers all Microsoft Word products that can open XML files or DOCX and DOCM documents. Microsoft has been given 60 days to comply with the injunction.

Microsoft said it would appeal against the verdict. “We are disappointed by the court’s ruling,” said Kevin Kutz, a spokesman for the software giant. “We believe the evidence clearly demonstrated that we do not infringe and that the i4i patent is invalid.”

Bad enough most technology patent and copyright law is a crock of extinct dromedary dung. This sort of predictable decision from the Eastern District of Texas calls to question all the rants about “activist judges” that replaces masturbation among religious Republicans.

Please, someone convince technology gremlins to go back to trying to develop worthwhile products – and let the judges return to golf and fishing.

I could have posted pics of Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin
and Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue, but this water hog was cuter.

Governors of Georgia, Alabama and Florida had 19 years to reach to an agreement over how to share the water from Lake Lanier.

Now a federal judge has given Congress three years to work out the dispute….

The governors of Florida and Alabama said they’re willing to return to negotiations, but Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue seemed to sound a different note.

“I will use this opportunity not only to appeal the judge’s decision but, most importantly, to urge Congress to address the realities of modern reservoir usage,” Perdue said. “The judge’s ruling allows a three-year window for either congressional action or an agreement by the states, and we will work diligently with Georgia’s delegation and members of Congress to re-establish the proper use of federal reservoirs throughout the country.”

In his ruling Friday, U.S. District Judge Paul Magnuson said it was illegal for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which operates Lake Lanier, to draw water from the lake to meet Atlanta’s needs. The Corps has been making such withdrawals for decades….

The court said Lanier was not intended to be Atlanta’s water supply, and the Corps may not use it that way unless Congress authorizes it to do so.

If Congress fails to pass a water-sharing bill in three years, Magnuson said he would order Atlanta’s withdrawals cut to 1970s levels, a measure that the judge acknowledged would be draconian.

Given the arrogance of the state of Georgia and the city of Atlanta on this and similar issues, my sympathy is limited. Whenever the subject of overdevelopment and poor planning is raised, noses are raised high in the air as if citizens are little school children incapable of comprehending adult issues. Now a federal judge has ruled that Atlanta has essentially been stealing water all of these years. Good for him. Maybe the governor and the mayor of Atlanta will negotiate more like grown-ups now.

An unholy row is threatening one of the most sacred places in Christianity – the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem.

The centuries-old site, where many Christians believe Jesus was crucified, is visited by hundreds of thousands of pilgrims and tourists every year.

A recent survey says that part of the complex, a rooftop monastery, is in urgent need of repair, but work is being held up by a long-running dispute between two Christian sects who claim ownership of the site.

Various Christian denominations – Greek Orthodox, Armenians, Catholics, among others – have always jealously defended and protected their own particular parts of the site.

Disputes are not uncommon, particularly over who has the authority to carry out repairs.

For example, a wooden ladder has remained on a ledge just above the main entrance since the 19th Century – because no-one can agree who has the right to take it down.

As someone who generally chuckles at the superstitious premises used to validate all religions, I find this an especially droll example of ideologies professing to lead in “brotherly love” – and unable to sort out something as simple as fixing the roof.

Religion wastes more energy conjuring up silliness than accepted market leaders like politics or war.