Support guy: Thank you for choosing (company name). My name is Sam, how may I help you this evening?

Me: Well, when I go to work for the day, I put my computer on standby. For the past few weeks, when I come back home and log on and then access the Internet, my connection is fine for a few minutes, then it suddenly drops, even though it says it's still connected.

Support guy: And then what do you do?

Me: I restart the computer and modem, log back on, and then I'm fine.

Support guy: And the problem is ...?

For whatever reason, I found that amusing and started snickering. However, Sam ultimately turned out to be helpful. He's getting a new modem shipped out, so hopefully, that will solve that.

Pakistan's security forces have stormed the Red Mosque in Islamabad, leaving its chief cleric dead. Does this mean President Pervez Musharraf is going to change policies with respects to domestic militants, Afghanistan and Kashmir, or is ...   more »

From the BBC:

A new scientific study concludes that changes in the Sun's output cannot be causing modern-day climate change.

It shows that for the last 20 years, the Sun's output has declined, yet temperatures on Earth have risen.

It also shows that modern temperatures are not determined by the Sun's effect on cosmic rays, as has been claimed.

Writing in the Royal Society's journal Proceedings A, the researchers say cosmic rays may have affected climate in the past, but not the present.

"This should settle the debate," said Mike Lockwood from the UK's Rutherford-Appleton Laboratory, who carried out the new analysis together with Claus Froehlich from the World Radiation Center in Switzerland.