Been fired? You still could be a winner
Getting fired is rarely a happy event, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have a sense of humor about it.
That’s what Simply Hired, a 5-month-old employment-related Internet startup, counted on when it started an affiliated Web site devoted to the stories of workers who have received a pink slip for a silly, outrageous or embarrassing reason.
The Mountain View-based company is even offering a prize to the biggest “loser” — a Caribbean cruise that will include passengers famously fired by Donald Trump on his popular television show, “The Apprentice.”
The contest will be judged by a panel that includes Phil Kaplan, an irreverent entrepreneur who learned a thing or two about sad-sack stories while running a Web site about the foibles of failing Internet companies during the dot-com bust.
Scanning tech reveals mummy mysteries
Researchers have uncovered the mysteries surrounding a 2,000-year-old mummy without peeling back layers of bandages or even opening the gold-plated coffin.
Using a state-of-the-art CT scanner that rotated all the way around the tiny mummified girl, San Jose-based Silicon Graphics Inc. took 60,000 images and created 3-D models that allowed scientists to look at her resin-filled body cavities, her facial features, even her baby teeth.
Among their conclusions: The girl was between 4 and 6 years old and must have been breast-fed until shortly before her death.
Led by a team at Stanford University, researchers also discovered a painting of a sphinx on the mask covering her mummified face.
Court: School can block dating e-mails
The University of Texas didn’t violate the free-speech rights of an online dating service when it blocked thousands of unsolicited e-mails, a federal appeals court says.
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals also found that although White Buffalo Ventures LLC, which operates LonghornSingles.com, complied with the requirements of the federal anti-spam law, known as CAN-SPAM, the university can still set its own anti-spam policy.
White Buffalo had sued the university over 59,000 messages blocked by spam filters in 2003. The Austin-based service had legally obtained the addresses from UT but the university blocked the e-mail messages, saying White Buffalo was part of a larger spam problem that had crashed the computer system.