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De Belgische ondernemersunie praat maandag met banken over schadevergoeding voor een enorme pinpasstoring zaterdag, de dag voor Sinterklaas.

Door de storing duurden de betalingen zeer lang of mislukten ze. Veel klanten verlieten de winkels, omdat ze niet anders konden betalen. Winkelende mensen lieten volle winkelkarretjes achter, beveiligers moesten caissi�res beschermen tegen boze klanten.

De ondernemers schatten dat ze 20 procent minder inkomsten kregen. De Belgische bankorganisatie die de pinbetalingen verzorgt, Banksys, spreekt van een technische storing. Van overbelasting zou geen sprake zijn geweest.

U.S. Army soldiers conduct a raid against insurgents in the northern Iraqi city of Mosul in this picture released on December 5, 2004. Guerrillas shot dead 17 Iraqis working for U.S. forces north of Baghdad on Sunday and killed six other people, including three Iraqi National Guard members, taking the toll from three days of violence to more than 70. (U.S. Army/Reuters)

In this photograph released by the US Army smoke and steam rise from a mass of vehicles destroyed by a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device which detonated on the Damascus Interchange near a checkpoint to Baghdads International Zone Saturday Dec. 4, 2004. No multinational forces were injured or injured in the blast but six Iraqi policemen were killed and 10, officials said. (AP Photo/U.S. Army, Sgt. John Queen)

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The US Marine Corps expressed regret about what is being called a traffic accident that killed a Romanian rock star, but gave no details on the incident involving a marine embassy guard possibly driving under the influence of alcohol.

“The only thing I can tell is that we are aware of it,” Marine Corps spokesman Captain Dan McSweeney told AFP. “I did hear about the incident. It’s an unfortunate incident.”

The comment followed media reports that a heavy sport-utility vehicle driven by a US marine, who heads the embassy security detail in Bucharest, smashed early Saturday into a taxi cab carrying 50-year-old Romanian rock musician and producer Teo Peter.

Peter is reported to have died at the scene while a 28-year-old Romanian taxi driver sustained serious injuries.

The marine at the wheel of the Ford Expedition belonging to the US Embassy was identified in these reports as Robert Christopher.

He refused to allow Romanian authorities to take a blood test, and the embassy immediately spirited him out of the country to one of the US military bases in Europe, according to the reports.

Countdown until some US reporter wonders “why do the Romanians hate our Freedom so much?” starting now…

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French police on Sunday ended their practice of hiding plastic explosives in air passengers’ luggage to train bomb-sniffing dogs after one such bag got lost, possibly ending up on a flight out of Paris’ Charles de Gaulle airport.

The luggage that police used Friday for the exercise has not turned up yet. Three flights that arrived in Los Angeles and New York were searched, but the luggage in question was not found.

No passenger has contacted French authorities to report discovering a bag with nearly 5 ounces of explosives tucked into his or her suitcase.

Really, how difficult is it to read the label on the suitcase before you stick explosives in them?

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Over the July 4 weekend last summer, at cookouts up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest, guests arrived with packages of Al Fresco chicken sausage for their hosts to throw on the grill. At a family gathering in Kingsley, Mich. At a small barbecue in Sag Harbor, N.Y. At a 60-guest picnic in Philadelphia.

We know that this happened, and we even know how various party guests reacted to their first exposure to Al Fresco, because the Great Sausage Fanout of 2004 did not happen by chance. The sausage-bearers were not official representatives of Al Fresco, showing up in uniforms to hand out samples. They were invited guests, friends or relatives of whoever organized the get-togethers, but they were also — unknown to most all the other attendees — ”agents,” and they filed reports. ”People could not believe they weren’t pork!” one agent related. ”I told everyone that they were low in fat and so much better than pork sausages.” Another wrote, ”I handed out discount coupons to several people and made sure they knew which grocery stores carried them.” Another noted that ”my dad will most likely buy the garlic” flavor, before closing, ”I’ll keep you posted.”

These reports went back to the company that Al Fresco’s owner, Kayem Foods, had hired to execute a ”word of mouth” marketing campaign. And while the Fourth of July weekend was busy, it was only a couple of days in an effort that went on for three months and involved not just a handful of agents but 2,000 of them. The agents were sent coupons for free sausage and a set of instructions for the best ways to talk the stuff up, but they did not confine themselves to those ideas, or to obvious events like barbecues.

Note to the people who meet me regularly: if you ever do something like this on an event I’m at, I’ll never speak to you again.

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The number of Europeans with broadband has exploded over the past 12 months, with the web eating into TV viewing habits, research suggests.

Just over 54 million people are hooked up to the net via broadband, up from 34 million a year ago, according to market analysts Nielsen/NetRatings.

The total number of people online in Europe has broken the 100 million mark.

The popularity of the net has meant that many are turning away from TV, say analysts Jupiter Research.

It found that a quarter of web users said they spent less time watching TV in favour of the net

Le P�re No�l d’un point de vue scientifique

Il y a approximativement 2 milliards d’enfants (moins de 18 ans) sur Terre.

Comme le P�re No�l ne visite pas les enfants Musulmans, Hindous, Juifs ou Bouddhistes (sauf peut-�tre au Japon), ceci r�duit la charge de travail pour la nuit de No�l a 15% du total, soit 378 millions denfants. En comptant une moyenne de 3,5 enfants par foyer, cela fait 108 millions de maisons, en pr�sumant que chacune comprend au moins un enfant sage.

Le P�re No�l dispose d’environ 31 heures de labeur dans la nuit de No�l, gr�ce aux diff�rents fuseaux horaires et � la rotation de la Terre, supposant quil voyage d’Est en Ouest, ce qui parait d’ailleurs logique. Nous obtenons 967,7 visites par seconde.

Cela signifie que, pour chaque foyer Chr�tien contenant au moins 1 enfant sage, le P�re No�l dispose d’environ 1 milli�me de seconde pour parquer le tra�neau, sauter en dehors, d�gringoler dans la chemin�e, remplir les chaussettes, distribuer le reste des pr�sents au pied du sapin, d�guster les quelques friandises laiss�es a son intention, regrimper dans la chemin�e, enfourcher le tra�neau et passer � la maison suivante.

En supposant que chacun de ces 108 millions d’arr�ts sont distribu�s uniform�ment � la surface de la Terre (hypoth�se que nous savons fausse, bien sur, mais que nous accepterons en premi�re approximation), nous devrons compter sur environ 1,4 km par trajet. Ceci signifie un voyage total de plus de 150 millions de km, sans compter les d�tours pour ravitailler ou faire pipi.

Le tra�neau du P�re No�l se d�place donc a 1 170 km/seconde (3 000 fois la vitesse du son !). A titre de comparaison, le v�hicule le plus rapide fabriqu� par l’homme, la sonde spatiale Ulysse, se tra�ne � 49 km/s et un renne moyen peut courir au mieux de sa forme � 27 km/h.

La charge utile du tra�neau constitue �galement un �l�ment int�ressant. En supposant que chaque enfant ne re�oit rien de plus qu’une bo�te de Lego moyenne (1 kg), le tra�neau supporte plus de 500 000 tonnes, sans compter le poids du P�re No�l lui-m�me.

Sur Terre, un renne conventionnel ne peut tirer plus de 150 kg. M�me en supposant que le fameux “renne volant” serait 10 fois plus performant, le boulot du P�re No�l ne pourrait jamais s’accomplir avec 8 ou 9 bestiaux. Il lui en faudrait 360 000. Ce qui alourdit la charge utile, abstraction faite du poids du tra�neau, de 54 000 tonnes suppl�mentaires, correspondant � 7 fois le poids du Prince Albert (le bateau, hein, pas le monarque).

600 000 tonnes voyageant a 1 170 km/s cr�ent une �norme r�sistance a l’air. Celle-ci ferait chauffer les rennes, au m�me titre qu’un engin spatial rentrant dans l’atmosph�re terrestre.

Les 2 rennes en t�te de convoi absorberaient chacun une �nergie calorifique de 14,3 milliards de joules par seconde. En bref, ils flamberaient quasi instantan�ment, exposant dangereusement les 2 rennes suivants. La meute enti�re de rennes serait compl�tement vaporis�e en 4,26 milli�mes de secondes, soit juste le temps pour le P�re No�l d’atteindre la cinqui�me maison de sa tourn�e.

Pas de quoi s’en faire de toute fa�on, puisque le P�re No�l, en passant de mani�re fulgurante de 0 � 1 170 km/s en 1 milli�me de seconde, serait sujet a des acc�l�rations allant jusqu’a 17 500 G. Un P�re No�l de 125 kg (ce qui semble bien mince) se retrouverait donc plaqu� au fond du tra�neau par une force de 2 157 tonnes, �crabouillant instantan�ment ses os et ses organes, le r�duisant � un petit tas de chair rose et tremblotante.

C’est pourquoi, si le P�re No�l a exist�, il est mort maintenant.