In perhaps the ultimate sign of symbolism for the state of the US economy, the iconic national debt clock in New York City has run out of digits, as the total now surpasses $10 trillion ($10,000,000,000,000).  From the Newsday article sent to us by daenarys:

"The Times Square-area ticker needs two additional digits to track a national debt 100 times larger than the current $10.2 trillion.

As a short-term fix the digital dollar sign on the billboard-style clock has been switched to a number one - the "1" in $10 trillion. The Durst Organization says it plans to update the sign next year.

The late Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst put the sign up in 1989 to call attention to the then-national debt of $2.7 trillion. The clock was turned off during the 1990's when the debt decreased."

Will the US ever get back to a point where the clock can start removing digits? 

The animal rights group PETA thinks enough is enough.  Instead of using cows for the milk that makes ice cream, the group is urging Ben & Jerry’s to use nursing moms for milk … really.  According to an article sent to us by blueeyedtawni :

“People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals is asking the ice cream maker to begin using breast milk in its products instead of cow's milk, saying it would reduce the suffering of cows and calves and give ice cream lovers a healthier product.

The idea got a cool reception Thursday from Ben & Jerry's officials, the company's customers and even La Leche League International, the world's oldest breast-feeding support organization, which promotes the practice — for babies, anyway …

…Ashley Byrne, a campaign coordinator for PETA, acknowledged the implausibility of substituting breast milk for cow's milk, but said it's no stranger than humans consuming the milk of another species.”

Implausible is right.  According to the article, it takes 1 and a half gallons of milk to make one gallon of ice cream.  The ethical treatment of animals is generally a good cause, but, proposing silly moves that obviously won’t happen just makes PETA look like it isn’t a serious organization.  

A lot of us probably wish we could get a second chance at high school, but a Wisconsin woman has taken it to the extreme, stealing her daughter’s identity so she could re-enter high school and pursue a spot on the cheerleading team.  According to the AP:

"Wendy Brown, of Green Bay, faces a felony identity theft charge after enrolling in Ashwaubenon High School as her 15-year-old daughter, who lives in Nevada with Brown's mother.

According to the complaint, Brown wanted to get her high school degree and become a cheerleader because she didn't have a childhood and wanted to regain a part of her life that she'd missed …

… If convicted, she could face up to six years in prison and a $10,000 fine."

Really, this story is pretty sad, but it does raise a fun question: if you could go back to high school (if you’re not still in it … legally!) what would you do differently?

Sports fans can be vicious.  Occasionally, so much so that referees have penalized the home team to try and get the fans under control.  But the University of Virginia is taking things a step further, banning all signs from its sporting venues.  

According to the story that jakerad  sent us, it all started last year when a student held up a sign suggesting the football team should fire its head coach.  At the time, the school’s policy was to prohibit signs containing “derogatory comments, profanity, impede another guest’s view of the field or cover any stadium signage.”

But now that policy has expanded to ban all signage from stadiums.  Of course, some think this is trampling on freedom of speech rights.  But the counter point, as argued in this article says that:

“The new policy banning all signs is also straightforward. As Josh Wheeler of the Thomas Jefferson Center for the Protection of Free Expression said, it’s actually friendlier to the First Amendment than the old policy, because it is “content neutral” — it does not discriminate against certain viewpoints.”

UVA is obviously free to do whatever it wants, but do you agree with the decision to ban all signs from sporting events?

For lack of much news to report, I figured I'd throw out a good philosophical question.  If you could find out the exact date and time of your death, would you want to know?  Once you knew, how would it change your behavior, one way or another?  Discuss!

Most of MindSay's members use either Microsoft Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox to browse the Web.  But this week Google has rolled out a Web browser of its own - Google Chrome - that offers a fairly different approach to surfing the Web, and it's getting a lot of good reviews, including one from yours truly (aostrow)

One of the more interesting features of Chrome is the way it prevents crashes.  Each tab works independently, so if something goes wrong, only that tab closes versus the entire browser crashing.  Chrome also makes much more efficient use of space, showing you more of Web pages without having to scroll.  The URL bar is also different than a traditional browser - you can type in either a Web address or a search term, which, will naturally search Google.  In my tests so far, all of this leads to a much faster browsing experience that also makes the Web much prettier.

As cosina pointed out, Google first announced the project through a comic they leaked to the media drawn up by famed illustrator Scott McCloud.

You can download the new browser here.  Have you tried it out yet?  Let us know what you think.

The video above features a voice you've almost undoubtedly heard in countless TV commercials and movie trailers.  And sadly, as zenagain reports, the man behind that voice - Don LaFontaine - has passed away:

"Don LaFontaine died today from a collapsed lung at Ceaders-Sinai Hospital in L.A., he was 68.

Known world wide for such famous catch phrases like "In a world..." and "A one man army" LaFontaine had done voice overs for over 5,000 films and 350,000 TV shows including The Godfather part 2, Kung Fu Panda, HEROS and The Simpsons.

He leaves behind his wife singer/actress Nina Whitaker and 3 children.

Rest in peace Mr. LaFontaine. Movie ad TV trailers will never sound quite the same."