http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090626091129.htm

Experts: Big Tobacco Dead By 2047, Possibly Sooner

President Barack Obama’s signature on a bill this week to grant the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) regulatory authority over tobacco was historic, and represents a step in the march to eliminate tobacco use in this country by 2047, two national tobacco experts said on June 25.

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090625201818.htm

The Washington Post has won 47 Pulitzer Prizes (per Inside Facebook).

2147483647. You might recognize it as the maximum value of an integer in several programming languages, or the highest score you can get in a lot of video games, or a number that pops up when you get a database error message. Well, Twitter’s numbered tweets are fast approaching 2147483647, and, although I’m sure Twitter’s databases are properly configured, a site called Twitpocalypse is speculating that some Twitter apps won’t be prepared, causing them to stop working when they can’t access tweets beyond the magic number.

According to the site, the Twitpocalypse is scheduled for June 14th at 4:46 PM GMT

http://www.downloadsquad.com/2009/06/10/is-the-twitpocalypse-nigh/

2147483647 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The number 2,147,483,647 is also the maximum value for a 32-bit signed integer in computing. It is therefore the maximum value for variables declared as int in many programming languages running on popular CPUs, and the maximum possible score for many video games. The appearance of the number often reflects an error, overflow condition, or missing value.

The data type time_t, used on operating systems such as Unix, is a 32-bit signed integer counting the number of seconds since the start of the Unix epoch (midnight UTC of January 1, 1970). The latest time that can be represented this way is 03:14:07 UTC on Tuesday, 19 January 2038 (corresponding to 2,147,483,647 seconds since the start of the epoch), so that systems using a 32-bit time_t type are susceptible to the Year 2038 problem.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2147483647

ScienceDaily (May 19, 2009) — Scientists have found a 47-million-year-old human ancestor. Discovered in Messel Pit, Germany, the fossil, described as Darwinius masillae, is 20 times older than most fossils that explain human evolution.

Common Ancestor Of Humans, Modern Primates? ‘Extraordinary’ Fossil Is 47 Million Years Old

ABQJOURNAL OPINION/LETTERS: Substitute First Amendment in Revived Anti-Gun Arguments

Satire is hard. Christensen is a frequent contributor to Letters to the Editor. This is one of his longer works. I would read his blog.

However, I believe he just suggested that there is no difference between speaking and shooting. I’m glad we don’t hang out together. After all, saying what I think is no different than taking a shot at him. And, as a gunnut, he’s got a god-given right to shoot in self-defense. Don’t mention my name if you tell him about this. peace, mjh

An ABC News poll released this morning shows that a vast majority — 69 percent — of Americans approve of President Obama and 72 percent view him favorably, "the best job approval rating at this point in 20 years, [and] the broadest personal popularity since Ronald Reagan." Fifty percent now say the United States is headed in the right direction, up 31 points since the end of the Bush administration, when only 19 percent thought the country was on the right track. Other figures from the poll:

– "Fifty-eight percent approve of Obama’s work on the economy."

– "Obama leads the Republicans in Congress in trust to handle the economy by a garish 61-24 percent."

– "A remarkable 90 percent say Obama is ‘willing to listen to different points of view’; fewer than half said that about George W. Bush."

– Seventy-seven "percent call Obama a strong leader, nearly matching Bush’s best a few months after 9/11."

A majority supported Obama’s decision to release the torture memos, but only 49 percent support his blanket ban on torture. That said, a majority still favors holding investigations into the Bush administration’s use of torture.

http://thinkprogress.org/2009/04/26/obama-100-days-poll/

A professor with his nose deep in a library archive in London has stumbled upon 47 previously unknown letters from, to and about Benjamin Franklin. …

… he requested of the library staff a certain Volume 4478b …

Professor Finds Unknown Letters by, and to, Benjamin Franklin - washingtonpost.com

[hattip to FredRFred]

I started to explore Twitter by looking at the "tweets" I might actually follow. If you follow these links,  you see what tweets look like, albeit outside of the normal flow of Twitter.

• Name jfleck
• Web http://www.inksta…
• Bio New Mexico print journalist, desert water geek

168 Following
259 Followers

jfleck (jfleck) on Twitter

* Name Ed Bott * Location Santa Fe, NM * Web http://edbott.com… * Bio award-winning author, tech journalist, Windows geek 193 Following 976 Followers

• Name Ed Bott
• Location Santa Fe, NM
• Web http://edbott.com…
• Bio award-winning author, tech journalist, Windows geek

193 Following
976 Followers

Ed Bott (edbott) on Twitter

• Name Netflix
• Location Los Gatos, CA
• Web http://netflix.com
• Bio Official Netflix twitter channel.World’s largest online movie rental service.For customer service on twitter:Netflix Helps. We want to hear from you.

17 Following
4,651 Followers

Netflix (netflix) on Twitter

Twitter / KOB.com Albuquerque: #ABQ - City looking into a …

My impression of this is that if you enjoy listening to the conversations going on around you in a crowded restaurant, you will love Twitter. I prefer context and quiet. peace, mjh