The Observer, April 6, 2007
Volume XXXIX, Issue 23
World and Nation
Boy finds watch buried in North Pole
COPENHAGEN, Denmark — A wristwatch buried in the ice at the North Pole three years ago was found by a boy more than 1800 miles away after it floated ashore on the Faeroe Islands.
Niels Jakup Mortensen, 11, spotted a black box near his home on Suduroy, the Faeroes' southernmost island, his mother Anna Jacobsen said. Inside, she said, was a watch that had been buried at the North Pole by Joergen Amundsen, a descendant of Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen.
Jacobsen said the watch discovered by her son earlier this month was still working, and was accompanied by a letter from Joergen Amundsen. "It was so unbelievable," she said. "It had been buried in the North Pole."
Hjalmar Hatun, an oceanographer with the Faeroese Fisheries Laboratory, said the watch likely drifted south with one of the chunks of ice that frequently break away at the North Pole and are carried off by ocean currents.
The Faeroes, an 18-island Danish territory, are located halfway between Scotland and Iceland.
Hatun said the ice breaking off is not related to global warming, as the phenomenon was first observed more than 100 years ago. "So in that sense, the fact that objects from the North Pole can drift south is old news," he said.
Thailand blocks YouTube access
BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) — The Thai government blocked access to the popular YouTube video website Wednesday saying a short film it features insults the country's beloved monarch.
Sitthichai Pokai-Udom said YouTube was blocked Wednesday morning after its owner Google turned down his request to remove the contentious Web page, which features a 44-second clip showing graffitti-like elements painted over a slideshow of photographs of 79-year-old King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
One part of the clip juxtaposes pictures of feet over the king's image–a major cultural taboo for Thais since feet are considered extremely dirty and offensive. The soundtrack is the Thai national anthem.
"It's a serious case of lese majeste," said Pokai-Udom, using the official name of charges for offending the monarch. "We asked Google to remove it some days ago, but they refused to."
According to Pokai-Udom, thousands of people had called the government to complain about the YouTube video.
If YouTube removed the clip, access to the website would be unblocked, he said.
Thai authorities take insults to the king extremely seriously. A Swiss man was sentenced to 10 years in jail last week in the northern Thai city of Chiang Mai on lese majeste charges after he defaced posters of the king during a drinking binge.
"People who create these [websites] are abusing their rights and clearly don't mean well for the country," Pokai-Udom said. "We have closed many and will continue to."
Critics have accused the current government of blocking websites criticizing the September coup that overthrew then-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
However, Sitthichai said the government is only targeting sites deemed insulting to the monarchy, as well as pornographic sites.
Coyote makes sandwich run; stops at Chicago Quiznos
CHICAGO (AP) — For one day, at least, the roadrunner was safe. It seems the coyote was hankering for another kind of fast food.
Employees and customers at a downtown Chicago Quiznos sandwich shop were stunned to see a coyote walk through the propped-open front door Tuesday afternoon and lie down in a cooler stocked with fruit juice and soda.
"It wasn't aggressive at all," restaurant manager Bina Patel told the Chicago Tribune. "It was just looking around."
Employees and customers calmly cleared out of the restaurant, though some took the time to finish their sandwiches and snap some cell-phone photos, the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Animal control officers took the passive coyote away after about 40 minutes, after a curious crowd had gathered outside.
"This one definitely I will definitely remember forever. A coyote in downtown Chicago," Quiznos employee Rick Torres told WLS-TV.
The city captures 10 to 15 coyotes every year, especially in the spring when they are most active, said Anne Kent, director of Chicago Animal Care and Control. Veterinarians will examine the coyote and, if he is not injured, release him into the wild.
Google searches for missing snake in office
NEW YORK — This was one search that you couldn't just Google.
An employee's python went missing over the weekend in Google's sprawling Manhattan office, sending search teams on an all-out snake hunt. The searchers scoured the complex for the 3-foot-long snake and finally found the serpent, known as Kaiser, on Monday night.
"A snake was lost; it was not an April Fool's joke. It was found last night," Google spokeswoman Ellen West said Tuesday. "The snake has left the building."
She declined to reveal specifics about where in the office Kaiser was discovered. But a contributor to Google's official blog wrote that the staff was told the snake was found "relaxing behind a cabinet."
And although West wouldn't say how the snake made it to the office, she confirmed it belonged to a "Googler" and said the pet was now at its owner's home.
The Google blog contributor, software engineer Dan Bentley, wrote that while some employees laughed about the situation, others stood away from walls and corners and the bathrooms were less crowded.
The fact that someone brought a snake into the building is not completely surprising, given Google's laid-back culture.
Dubbed the "Googleplex," the Manhattan office of the Mountain View, Calif.-based company offers a relaxed workspace, built around a team concept that has people sharing offices and cubicles connected in groups. It also offers free food, massage therapy, yoga classes, and ski trips, according to Google's jobs website.
Company officials did not comment on a report that the search for the snake even included a missing snake flier. The website Valleywag, a technology gossip website based in Silicon Valley, posted a photo of the flier, complete with a photo of the reptile.
The flier described the snake as "non-venomous" and "not dangerous," and responsive to the name "Kaiser," according to the website.
