Google knows what Ascii Art stands for in Geek Mode

Google seems to know everything otherwise we can’t understand how the company enters geek mode when you get to search for ASCII art on it. Amazingly cool, just next to the search box there’s a colorful ASCII representation of Google’s logo. And we don’t even care that it looks like “Coogle”, for some particular reason this rather not impressive little thing has managed to actually get us.

Our take is that Google uses the “did you mean” feature in a funny way, so right now we’re on a hunt for other keywords that would have similar results. Sweet!

6.9-magnitude quake rocks Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia — A strong 6.9-magnitude quake struck off Indonesia's Sulawesi island Friday but there were no immediate reports of damage or casualties, the country's geophysics agency said.

The epicentre of the quake, which struck at 9:51 am (0051 GMT), was located 234 kilometres (145 miles) southeast of Bau Bau island in southeast Sulawesi province.

It was measured at a depth of 670 kilometres.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre said the quake was located too deep to generate a tsunami in the Indian Ocean, but tremors were felt on islands as far away as Timor.

Dozens of employees at a two-storey television building in the East Timorese capital Dili rushed outside in panic, an AFP correspondent witnessed.

"I just arrived in my office when I suddenly felt the shaking. It's quite strong. Friends screamed to tell people to go outside the building," said a man who worked in the building.

The US Geological Survey measured the quake at 6.8-magnitude.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific "Ring of Fire," where the meeting of continental plates causes high volcanic and seismic activity.

Phillip Garrido, a religious fanatic with a dark secret neighbours never guessed

The 58-year-old lived quietly with his wife, Nancy, and what neighbours believed to be their children in an unremarkable house in Walnut Avenue in Antioch, California.

To some of those around him he was a friendly but eccentric man, with a love of opera, and strong – if unusual – religious views.

But reportedly nicknamed him "creepy Phil".

They did not know he was a convicted sex offender and rapist on lifetime federal parole.

Neighbours were vague about basic facts such as how many children he had, and even his parole officer who visited him inside the compound never guessed at the existence of a network of tents and sheds concealed behind shrubs in which Jaycee Lee Dugard spent the last 18 years, alongside her two children.

Residents remembered hearing him bursting into passages of opera from inside his house, according to reports.

He occasionally handed them hand made religious tracts and, when asked about the children, said that he traditional ideas about bringing them up.

Even those nearest to the family glimpsed the girls, whom he said were home schooled, rarely if ever.

With bars on his windows visible from the outside, he said that he forbade them to watch television or venture out.

But to most they were just kind, helpful neighbours.

"If I needed something, they would be the first I would call on," said Helen Boyer, 78.

"They were real good neighbours, real nice people."

But it was during one such apparent act of kindness that Haydee Perry, 35, who lives next door, was surprised to see him with a young girl who told her that Garrido was her father and that she had older sisters.

"She stayed close to him at all times, ' Miss Perry was quoted as saying.

"It wasn't normal behaviour. She had a blank stare on her face. Now it seems like a cry out for help."

To clients of his printing business Garrido's claims about having an unusual gift about being able to to control sound with his mind had become a familiar theme.

He toured their offices and businesses demonstrating his "gift" with the help of a sound generator device and even appears to have persuaded several of them to sign declarations confirming that they too had heard the "unearthly" voices.

Tim Allen, president of East County Glass and Window in Pittsburgh, who bought business cards and letterhead from him, said: "In the last couple years he started getting into this strange religious stuff. We kind of felt sorry for him."

He added: "He rambled. It made no sense .... We never thought anything bad about the guy. He was just kind of nutty."

N1H1 Vaccine tests - A mother's story

The idea of testing a vaccine on children makes many parents squeamish. But for Amanda Strudwick, it was a chance for the Atlanta mother and nurse to protect her children and the nation from H1N1.

“There are children in school getting sick already,” Strudwick said. “If my children are vaccinated,  it means hopefully that they won’t pass it along to somebody else who may have a lower immune system.”

Strudwick;s daughters Nina, 7, and Hannah, 9, are among 100 children participating in an H1N1 vaccine study being conducted at Emory University and Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta. 

Fire approaching LA suburbs - LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE

LA CANADA FLINTRIDGE, Calif. — Residents of about 500 homes have been urged to evacuate in La Canada Flintridge, where a fast-moving wildfire has crested a ridge and is burning downhill towards neighborhoods.

Forest Service fire spokeswoman Diane Cahir said residents were told around 10:30 p.m. Thursday night, as the flames made their way slowly down from the San Gabriel Mountains.

Cahir says residents have been told to get their cars packed and be ready to go.

The fire kicked up late Thursday afternoon as the blaze blackened at least 500 acres of heavy brush.

Three other fires are burning in Southern California, including one that destroyed structures in the ritzy seaside city of Rancho Palos Verdes.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wildfires erupted up and down California Thursday as a late summer siege of heat and low humidity levels made conditions ripe for conflagrations.

Structures could be seen burning in the wealthy communities on the Palos Verdes Peninsula south of Los Angeles, while suburbs on the foothills to the north of the city were threatened by a slumbering fire that suddenly roared to life in the evening hours.

Dozens of homes were evacuated in Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles County fire Inspector Steve Zermeno said. TV news footage showed structures on fire and at least one entirely engulfed in flames. Fire officials could not confirm if any structures or homes had been damaged or destroyed.

In Monterey County, in the central coastal region of the state, 100 homes were evacuated about four miles from the community of Soledad. The fire had consumed more than 2,000 acres of steep grasslands, or more than 3 square miles, since it was reported Thursday afternoon, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection Capt. James Dellamonica said.The blaze was zero percent contained.

The other major battles in Southern California were in the San Gabriel Mountains as firefighters struggled to keep flames from topping ridges and surging into a wider area of the sprawling Angeles National Forest northeast of downtown Los Angeles, where the temperature hit 99 degrees before noon.

The largest of two fires, which spread lung-burning haze over much of metropolitan Los Angeles, was 45 percent contained after burning across 1,850 acres, or nearly 3 square miles, said Capt. Jim Wilkins of the U.S. Forest Service.

Nearly 1,000 firefighters aided by bulldozers and a fleet of water- and fire retardant-dropping aircraft were concentrating on the fire's northeastern edge.

Wilkins said the area is so steep that "it's almost to the point where you need ropes" for firefighters to reach it.

The heat and very low humidity — which saps moisture from vegetation — were not helping.

"When you have all of those factors in alignment, it just burns explosively," Wilkins said.

On Wednesday, about 70 people were ordered evacuated from a trailer park and private campground along a fork of the San Gabriel River, Wilkins said.

The fire, believed caused by human action began Tuesday near a dam and reservoir in San Gabriel Canyon, a half-dozen miles above the city of Azusa.

A second fire about 20 miles to the west surged in the dry conditions Thursday north of the foothill suburb of La Canada Flintridge and sent another massive plume of smoke above Los Angeles.

The fire grew from 30 to 500 acres and containment was reduced from 20 to just 5 percent, Forest Service spokesman Robert Brady said. Evacuations were being considered, but had not been ordered as of Thursday evening, Forest Service spokesman Bruce Quintelier said.

Another fire, in the San Bernardino National Forest in Riverside County, had blackened 600 acres by Thursday evening and prompted authorities to issue a voluntary evacuation of 12 homes in the area near Hemet, said Anabele Cornejo of the San Bernardino National Forest Fire Information. She said about five people had left and that the fire was 5 percent contained.

Weather plagued fire crews as temperatures in some areas rose toward triple digits and humidity levels headed downward. For a second day, the National Weather Service issued a red flag warning of extreme fire conditions for many of California's central and southern mountain ranges.