Last Day to Save Yourself From Google's New "Privacy" Policy!

Gizmodo provides a helpful guide to clearing your web history before their new privacy policy goes into effect (March 1st).  The new policy affects data going forward as well as data they have collected in the past. Clearing your web history now and preventing collection of it in the future is a good way to limit the amount of information gathered about you by Google.

 Note: Once you have cleared your web history the history is paused - you don't need to do anything else to stop web history information from being collected. You actually have to unpause it to allow the data gathering. I have no intention of enabling it!

Nation-wide Strike in India

Millions of workers from trade unions and organizations in India participated in a nation wide strike in response to soaring prices of essential commodities, and the government's 'anti-labour' policy.  The strike took place peacefully with the exception of a few incidents of stones thrown at buses.

Video

Wild Parrots Spreading to San Francisco Suburbs

Much talking is the cause of danger. Silence is the means of avoiding misfortune. The talkative parrot is shut up in a cage. Other birds, without speech, fly freely about.
~Saskya Pandita

The wild parrots of San Francisco's Telegraph Hill are fleeing to the suburbs. 100 or so of the birds have been spotted in Brisbane, a small city 10 miles south of San Francisco. It is likely that the birds migrated in search of food. They have been seen feeding on juniper and hawthorn berries.



The playful birds can still be found around the northern edge of San Francisco, where they have become a tourist draw. Native to South America, the first wild parrot of San Francisco was likely an escapee from a pet importer.

Note: The parrot population in San Francisco is referred to as feral.

Something else I learned: The city of San Francisco passed an ordinance in 2007 prohibiting feeding the parrots.

Solar Tornadoes On the Surface of the Sun (Video)

Tornado-like eruptions of super-hot plasma were captured on video by NASA's Solar Dynamics Observatory, which is constantly recording high-definition videos of the sun. The video shows hot plasma spinning across the sun in early February.



Solar tornadoes are not the windy phenomenon that we know on Earth. They are driven by the magnetic fields of the sun.The plasma particles are being pulled by various magnetic forces causing them to swirl in a way that looks like a tornado.

The Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) is part of NASA's Living With a Star (LWS) Program. The program is designed to study and understand causes of solar variability and how it impacts the Earth. SDO launched on February 11, 2010, and is on a 5 year mission to study the energy of the sun and how it influences the weather in space. Every day SDO gathers a huge volume of data. The collected data is available for viewing by anyone who wants to see it. The SDO website has an up-to-date-picture of the sun on the home page.

Note: The SDO mission is very cool.

Something else I learned: A solar cycle is the period of time between the highest and lowest number of sunspots. he suns magnetic poles reverse approximately every 22 years with two eleven years periods in which the number of sunspots wax and wane. We are currently in Solar Cycle 24 which began in 2008.