(msn.com) A 16-year-old from Florida who traveled to Iraq on his own without telling his parents has left the country and is on his way home, the U.S. Embassy’s consul general said Friday.

Read Full Story: U.S. teen leaves Iraq for home - Conflict in Iraq - MSNBC.com

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(chicagotribune.com) 2006 has been postponed. But not for long. A leap second will be inserted in the world’s clocks just before midnight — Greenwich mean time — on New Year’s Eve, the U.S. Naval Observatory reported Friday.

Read Full Story: Chicago Tribune | 2006 Will Be Delayed by a ‘Leap Second’

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(cnsnews.com) Claims by a top Senate Democrat that the Clinton administration’s warrantless surveillance of suspected spies and terrorists was different from what the Bush administration has employed are being contradicted by a former Justice Department official who served under President Bill Clinton.

Read Full Story: Former Clinton Official Contradicts Leahy on Spying — 12/23/2005

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(cnet.com) You can get lots of gadgets–laptops, mice, even a $30 flash drive–that lock with the swipe of your fingerprint. Fingerprint scanners are no longer only for spies; they use them at the gates of Disney World to keep you from sneaking in. But don’t assume that these tools are foolproof. Biometric-enabled devices may spare you from memorizing yet another password, but they can be cracked like any other security method. Case in point: engineers at Clarkson University have fooled fingerprint scanners with phony fingers made of Play-Doh.

Read Full Story: Play-Doh can fake your fingerprint - Alpha - Blog.CNET.com - CNET.com

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A couple of weeks ago, I got an email forwared to me with a video attached of a house’s Christmas lights set to music. I was fun to watch, but I was sure there was some special video editing involved. A friend sent me another video of the same house, different music. I had to do a search and see it it was true.

It was true. The guy is Carson Williams an electrical engineer from Mason, Ohio.

Urban Legends Reference Pages: Photo Gallery (The Light Before Christmas)

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VATICAN CITY, NOV. 30, 2005 (Zenit.org).- Benedict XVI is offering the faithful a plenary indulgence on the solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, Dec. 8, the 40th anniversary of the close of the Second Vatican Council. decree published in Latin on Tuesday, signed by Cardinal James Stafford and Conventual Franciscan Father John Girotti, penitentiary major and regent, respectively, of the Apostolic Penitentiary. the Pope renders public homage to Mary Immaculate in Rome’s Piazza di Spagna, he “has the heartfelt desire that the entire Church should join him, so that all the faithful, united in the name of the common Mother, become ever stronger in the faith, adhere with greater devotion to Christ, and love their brothers with more fervent charity.” as Vatican Council II very wisely taught — arise works of mercy toward the needy, observance of justice, and the defense of and search for peace,” adds the decree. reason, the decree continues, the Holy Father “has kindly granted the gift of plenary indulgence which may be obtained under the usual conditions (sacramental confession, Eucharistic Communion and prayer in keeping with the intentions of the Supreme Pontiff), with the soul completely removed from attachment to any form of sin, on the forthcoming solemnity of the Immaculate Conception, by the faithful if they participate in a sacred function in honor of the Virgin, or at least offer open testimony of Marian devotion before an image of Mary Immaculate exposed for public veneration, adding the recitation of the Our Father and of the Creed, and some invocation to the Virgin.” document concludes by recalling that faithful who “through illness or other just cause” are unable to participate in a public ceremony or to venerate an image of the Virgin, “may obtain a plenary indulgence in their own homes, or wherever they may be, if, with the soul completely removed from any form of sin, and with the intention of observing the aforesaid conditions as soon as possible, they unite themselves in spirit and in desire to the Supreme Pontiff’s intentions in prayer to Mary Immaculate, and recite the Our Father and the Creed.” closing Vatican II, dedicated great praise to the Blessed Virgin who, as Mother of Christ, is Mother of God and spiritual Mother of all mankind.

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(zdnet.com) Does it take the worst sort of disaster to provide a city with a glimmer of modern technology? New Orleans will become the first city to operate municipally owned Wi-Fi today, with a system deployed in the French Quarter. Launched with donated equipment, the network will meet a number of crucial public safety needs.

Read Full Story: New Orleans is up and running with muni Wi-Fi | ZDNet Government Blog | ZDNet.com

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