Fast Food Revealed: Real vs. Ads

See what these popular menu items really look like

By Olivia Putnal

from WomansDay.com

You know how fast-food menu items always look amazingly juicy and delicious in advertising and marketing materials? WD was curious to see exactly what these food-styled concoctions actually look like fresh from the fast food, er, kitchen. We hit the city, dealing with long lines and mediocre service to snap some photos of a few franchises’ signature items. All photos were taken while we were still in the store, food fresh out of the bag (and off the assembly line). See what we found below, as we compare actual results with what the company advertises—the good, the bad and the ugly.

Burger King Whopper

This burger is described on BK.com as containing “1/4 pound of flame-broiled beef, ripe tomatoes, crisp lettuce, creamy mayo, ketchup, crunchy pickles and onions on a toasted sesame seed bun.” After sitting down with 50 other Burger King customers, we found it was more like a cold sesame bun filled with a thin layer of beef, three tablespoons of mayonnaise and warm lettuce with an over-ripe tomato. Although the advertisement shows layers of onions and pickles, our version contained one small pickle and two skinny slices of onion.

McDonald’s Small French Fries

We can’t muster up much negativity about these favored all-American fries. McDonald’s fried potato strips have always been at the top of the fast-food chain for their perfect flavor and texture. Hot and fresh right out of the fryer, our order was shoved into what we wish was a little bit bigger package, but, just as we suspected, when we opened the bag we uncovered exactly what is described on McDonalds.com—“golden, long, thin and perfectly salted fries that are crisp on the outside, tender inside with a great potato taste.”

Taco Bell Crunchwrap Supreme

The outside of the ever-so-popular Crunchwrap Supreme is pretty comparable to the ad; however, the inside is an entirely different story. Though it’s described on TacoBell.com as including “seasoned beef, warm nacho cheese sauce, a crunchy tostada shell, reduced fat sour cream, lettuce and tomatoes,” we hardly found any lettuce and tomato on the Crunchwrap we ordered, and when it was cut open, the contents oozed out—nothing like the perfectly layered neatness in the image.

Pizza Hut Tuscani Lasagna

As one of Pizza Hut’s new Tuscani Pastas, the lasagna is something they are really trying to beef up. Pitched on PizzaHut.com as “layers of lasagna noodles and real ricotta, Parmesan and Romano cheeses smothered in Italian-seasoned meat sauce and freshly oven-baked with a layer of melted cheese,” the new menu choice looked more like a lasagna pizza. We finally located the noodles, the minimal sauce and ricotta in the center below the thick layer of cheese, but the fresh basil garnish in the ad picture was nowhere to be found.

Wendy’s Crispy Chicken Sandwich

If we used the advertisement image as guidance, the Crispy Chicken sandwich from Wendy’s would have a piece of chicken breast large enough to hang over the “premium bun” and crisp green lettuce. What we got on our tray was a cold white-bread bun filled with a piece of chicken that fits nicely inside (because it is much smaller), one piece of lettuce and lots of mayonnaise (of course).

KFC Potato Wedges

Another selection pretty true to its advertisement is KFC’s Potato Wedges, which, according to KFC.com, has no trans fat and is flavored with “savory herbs and spices.” Even though we can’t tell that from the outside, we must say the picture is a nice representation of what these wedges really do look like. Made with real potatoes and special seasonings, this side dish needs no extra salt and pepper. However, it does weigh in at a whopping 260 calories per small order and contains 740 milligrams of sodium.

Quiznos Primo Meatball

After lifting up the top half of the somewhat “golden brown” sesame bread and digging under the layers of mozzarella cheese, we found three small meatballs nestled in the “zesty marinara sauce.” In reality, what appears in the picture to be a gigantic meatball creation is just a regular meatball sub that doesn’t have enough sauce on it and is overpriced—the smallest sandwich will cost you $7 a pop.

Dunkin’ Donuts Egg White Veggie Flatbread Sandwich

This DDSmart menu item looks quite slim and trim, neatly sliced and stuffed with veggies—Dunkin’ Donuts seems to have the perfect tactic for promoting it. Described on DunkinDonuts.com as having “fluffy egg whites, peppers, onions and mushrooms,” in actuality, the sandwich has a premade egg white patty with a few veggies tucked in it. Pitched as “easy to hold and eat with minimal mess,” when we attempted to pick up the fast food breakfast sandwich, the cheese spilled out the side. Although the presentation is far from what they led us to believe, the taste is pretty flavorful.

KFC Kentucky Grilled Chicken Box

Even Oprah supported this more wholesome option from the otherwise extremely unhealthy Kentucky Fried Chicken chain. Because of all the hype, the KFC Kentucky Grilled Chicken Box just had to make our list, but we were disappointed at what we found after seeing the tempting advertising image. We braved the hoards of people in line at the 3-in-1 chain restaurant, and found the chicken was shriveled and small, the potatoes seemed to be more like gravy with a drop of potatoes, and the biscuit was—well, a biscuit. Most disappointing was the chicken; unlike in the photo, both pieces were extremely dry.

Burger King Crown-Shaped Chicken Tenders

Much to our surprise, as you can see, these small chicken masterpieces actually do look almost identical to what Burger King shows in the advertisement (and are surely fit for a king). “Have it your way” by choosing four, five or eight tenders and dressing them with BBQ, honey mustard or sweet-and-sour sauce. We opted for four tenders with no sauce, since the fried, 180-calorie menu item is already quite high in fat for something that hardly fills you up. Overall, in an attempt to stand out among fast food chicken nuggets, Burger King has made fun-shaped little rascals that kids will love.

McDonald’s Big Mac

After setting this sucker down on the tray and examining its contents, we must say it’s nothing that’s going to cure your “Big Mac attack.” It appears in marketing campaigns and advertisements that the Big Mac is a double-decker sandwich packed with two layers of veggies, special sauce and beef patties. The sandwich we got came with one piece of American cheese and one layer of veggies along with the two beef patties, three parts of a sesame bun and two coatings of “special sauce” that looked more like plain old mayonnaise.

Subway The Feast

The Feast is the ultimate menu item for this sandwich chain—containing five types of meat and your choice of cheese and bread. According to Subway.com, “It’s the kind of concrete slippers that hunger fears the most”—whatever that means. We aren’t entirely sure that what looks like a fresh and healthy option in ads and billboards fully meets those expectations. After requesting “the works” as our condiments, we unwrapped it to discover, instead of the neatly stacked meats and fresh veggies, a sandwich soaked in mayonnaise and mustard, containing almost no lettuce—and when picked up, all of the contents slipped right through the bread and onto the paper.

Taco Bell Nachos

This 99¢ menu option is an easy and quick on-the-go option—that is, if you don’t have to wait for 15 minutes until your order number is called, like we did. The small side of nachos comes complete with about 20 chips and a side of nacho cheese. We have to say, the snack looks pretty similar to the original image, with hot and crispy tortilla chips and creamy nacho cheese, but perhaps the order is a bit smaller than the overflowing image shows.

Wendy’s Broccoli and Cheese Potato

To avoid all of the fried meals and other greasy temptations, many consumers opt for Wendy’s Broccoli and Cheese Potato, which contains only 2.5 grams of fat and 340 calories. What seems to be a plump baked potato with fresh broccoli florets and cheese in the marketing materials actually looks more like frozen broccoli bits atop a microwaved potato with melted cheese. While it is definitely healthier than most menu options, don’t be alarmed by what it looks like when you open the container.

'Moon Rock' in Dutch Museum Is Just Petrified Wood

Conspiracy theorists rejoice: Prized 'moon rock' in Dutch national museum is a fake

By TOBY STERLING

The Associated Press

AMSTERDAM

It's not green cheese, but it might as well be.

The Dutch national museum said Thursday that one of its prized possessions, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon by U.S. astronauts, is just a piece of petrified wood.

Rijksmuseum spokeswoman Xandra van Gelder, who oversaw the investigation that proved the piece was a fake, said the museum will keep it anyway as a curiosity.

"It's a good story, with some questions that are still unanswered," she said. "We can laugh about it."

The museum acquired the rock after the death of former Prime Minister Willem Drees in 1988. Drees received it as a private gift on Oct. 9, 1969 from then-U.S. ambassador J. William Middendorf during a visit by the three Apollo 11 astronauts, part of their "Giant Leap" goodwill tour after the first moon landing.

Middendorf, who lives in Rhode Island, told Dutch broadcaster NOS news that he had gotten it from the U.S. State Department, but couldn't recall the exact details.

In this photo released by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009, a rock supposedly...

In this photo released by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam on Thursday, Aug. 27, 2009, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon, and a note from the then-U.S. ambassador is seen. The Dutch national museum says one of its prized possessions, a rock supposedly brought back from the moon by U.S. astronauts, is just a piece of petrified wood. The museum acquired the rock after the death of a former prime minister, who received it in 1969 from the then-U.S. ambassador during a visit by the Apollo 11 astronauts. (AP Photo/Rijksmuseum)

"I do remember that (Drees) was very interested in the little piece of stone," the NOS quoted Middendorf as saying. "But that it's not real, I don't know anything about that."

He could not immediately be reached for comment Thursday.

The U.S. Embassy in the Hague said it was investigating the matter.

The museum had vetted the moon rock with a phone call to NASA, Van Gelder said.

She said the space agency told the museum then that it was possible the Netherlands had received a rock: NASA gave moon rocks to more than 100 countries in the early 1970s, but those were from later missions.

"Apparently no one thought to doubt it, since it came from the prime minister's collection," Van Gelder said.

The rock is not usually on display; the museum is primarily known for its paintings and other works of fine art by masters such as Rembrandt.

A jagged fist-size stone with reddish tints, it was mounted and placed above a plaque that said, "With the compliments of the Ambassador of the United States of America ... to commemorate the visit to The Netherlands of the Apollo-11 astronauts." The plaque does not specify that the rock came from the moon's surface

It was given at the opening of an exhibition on space exploration.

It was on show in 2006 and a space expert informed the museum it was unlikely NASA would have given away any moon rocks three months after Apollo returned to Earth.

Researchers from Amsterdam's Free University said they could see at a glance the rock was probably not from the moon. They followed the initial appraisal up with extensive testing.

"It's a nondescript, pretty-much-worthless stone," Geologist Frank Beunk concluded in an article published by the museum.

He said the rock, which the museum at one point insured for more than half a million dollars, was worth no more than euro50 ($70).

Van Gelder said one important unanswered question is why Drees was given the stone. He was 83 years old in 1969 and had been out of office for 11 years. On the other hand, he was the country's elder statesman, the prime minister who helped the Netherlands rebuild after World War II.

Middendorf was treasurer of the Republic National Committee from 1965 until 1969, when President Richard Nixon dispatched him to the Netherlands.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

Copyright © 2009 ABC News Internet Ventures

Japan robotics experts unveil sci-fi wheelchair

Enlarge

The design allows users to slide more easily on and off the vehicle, lessening reliance on care-givers to lift them. Photo: AFP

Robotics and medical experts in Japan on Wednesday unveiled the prototype of a new hi-tech electric wheelchair that resembles a scooter and promises greater mobility.

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Users ride astride the four-wheeled Rodem -- rather than sitting in it, as in a conventional wheelchair -- steer it with a joystick and hold onto motorbike-style handles while the knees and chest rest on cushions.

The design allows users to slide more easily on and off the vehicle, lessening reliance on care-givers to lift them, the inventors said.

"I believe this is a whole new idea for a wheelchair," said Makoto Hashizume, head of the Veda International Robot Research and Development Centre and a medical professor of Kyushu University.

Enlarge

An "injured" model demonstrates the medical universal vehicle, "Rodem" during its press preview in Tokyo. Robotics and medical experts in Japan on Wednesday unveiled the prototype of a new hi-tech electric wheelchair that resembles a scooter and promises greater mobility.

"With this vehicle, users can move around more freely and more actively without much help from other people."

It is the first invention unveiled by the Veda centre, which opened in May in southwestern Munakata city and is a joint project of Japanese robot maker Tmsuk Co. and researchers from 10 universities and institutes.

The robotics and medical specialists, including from Germany and Italy, aim to invent robots for use in health and nursing, an area where high-tech Japan, with its fast-greying population, is seen as a world leader.

The inventors said they had no immediate plans to commercialise the new vehicle, which would first have to meet government safety standards, but said they were open to offers from private companies in Japan and overseas.

Tmsuk president Yoichi Takamoto said the Rodem may also be used by people who are not disabled to simply ride and enjoy.

Takamoto said the Rodem was too simple to be called a robot, but added that it may evolve into one.

"We can add more robot-like functions in future," he said. "For example, we could add a new function so it comes to your bedside when you call."

(c) 2009 AFP

Pot Brownies are Having a Cinematic Moment

Written by Kyle Buchanan

Is “old people eating pot brownies” the new “old people saying swear words”? It is, if this summer’s movies have anything to say about it! Whether it’s the biggest action blockbuster or the smallest video-on-demand indie, there’s nothing more “now” than menopausal movie moms getting baked off of baked goods. Grab a bowl of Doritos and consider the evidence!

The trend was kicked off in high style by Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which was so subplot-stuffed, it might as well have bore the pledge “Deleted scenes already included.” Among those diversions was a fairly pointless sequence that focused not on robots or Megan Fox’s ass but instead on the mother of our hero, Judy Witwicky (played by Julie White), as she proceeded to lose her shit after accidentally eating some pot brownies. This was scripted and went on for several minutes!

Before Transformers, if you’d been lucky enough to snag a particularly perverse projectionist, you might have sat through the trailer for this week’s Taking Woodstock and had yourself a veritable mom-and-pot-brownies double feature. In that teaser’s climactic moment, the previously uptight mother of our hero (this one, played by Imelda Staunton) accidentally dug into the marijuana-laced brownies and got so high that wild, rain-soaked dancing with her family (pictured above) was an inevitability. In fact, if she’d just tugged her blouse down to expose her matronly breasts, I think we would have had a sequence from every True Blood episode this season.

Three is a trend, however, and so we would be nowhere if Bobcat Goldthwait’s World’s Greatest Dad hadn’t come along. In the dark comedy, Robin Williams bonds with his elderly neighbor (Mitzi McCall) over zombie movies, yet only gains entry into her apartment if he promises to bring over pot brownies. For some reason, though, these tainted goodies do not turn the neighbor into a lusty cougar, nor provoke her to practice her booty pop as loud rap music blasts from a nearby car. What gives, Bobcat? You’ve harshed my buzz.

Tagged: taking woodstock, transformers: revenge of the fallen, worlds greatest dad

How To Make Any Food Ever

recipepuppy.com — Want to impress your date with any dish? There's a website for that.: How To Make Any Food Ever

Breaking The Industry Rules. Radiohead, NIN, …Korn?

In Industry News, by DeadCanDance

Everyone is trying to find the best way to release music and with digital distribution leveling the playing field, has Korn figured it out?

We all know the industry is in disarray and a lot of musicians are forging their own paths leaving old standards in the dust. Radiohead offered a “pay what you like” model. Nine Inch Nails gave away their material through bit torrent, while offering various specialized versions at a cost. Eventually there will be a foundation or some sort of base for how to release music in this digital age, but until then it’s like the wild west days. The new frontier and everyone has a shot at putting together the right combination of what will ultimately be the best way to deliver and produce music (hopefully it’s not the record labels that figure it out).

Earlier today I read that Korn would be releasing 4 digital EP’s throughout the year and would be available to users who pay a monthly subscription on their site. My first reaction is amazement. I really didn’t expect to see a band like Korn try and come up with it’s own model. I start doing some research and find out that the material on these EP’s are unreleased tracks and a demo version of a new song which appear on their “real” release.

That’s all I needed to see to know that this is more of a fan club then anything else. Yes they are giving away 4 digital EP’s but it’s not your main release. You still have a major label to push your main album. I can’t say that I’ve ever thought about it before, but unless you are willing to put your best stuff on the line with none of the traditional hand rails to guide you through the process, then it’s not breaking any new ground. I will say in Korn’s defense that they aren’t pushing it like they are the next NIN’s or anything like that but when you read the headline it certainly looks like they are trying something different.

So what if this was their main release? What if they really did separate the main record into 4 EP’s spread out a 12 month span. Well at $6.95 a month, the fans would be paying a much higher price if they stayed in the entire year but if the band could offer more value then it does become a bit more interesting. I love the idea of continuity but I really think you would have to offer a version that could be purchased or given away in combination. However if you did that then it becomes a fan club again. Would users be willing to pay more (like a subscription) but also receive more stuff like tickets, merchandise, etc but without any other alternative to get the album? Legal alternative that is! Yeah that could be a problem.

Obviously the plan needs work but someone will eventually figure it out. Until then, I consider myself very lucky to be living in a time of such uncharted territory and with the opportunity to see it unfold and even contribute myself as a musician.

The World's 5 Fastest Trains You Can Ride RIght Now

On Aug. 24, the applications for rail stimulus were due—and now the states that applied are waiting on the Federal Railroad Administration's picks for approved projects. While the $13 billion in stimulus will not make the U.S. a train-commuting country overnight, and may, in fact, make some states unhappy (in July, 40 states preapplied, seeking $102 billion in aid for high-speed rail projects, nearly 10 times what is actually being doled out by the federal government), it is a start for high-speed rail. Here, we take a look at the five fastest trains in the world—inspirations in design and technology for the future of high speed in the U.S.

By Allie Haake

Trains are en vogue again in the United States. State governments are lining up for federal stimulus money to fix existing routes and develop high-speed passenger rail lines; by Aug. 24, the last day to submit most applications, 40 states had requested a piece of the $13 billion for new rail projects. The Federal Railroad Administration will award grants to the approved applications beginning in late September or early October. California wants to be the American trailblazer for renewed rail travel, and, last week, submitted 42 applications, worth $1.1 billion. And the state wants more than just additional trains—it wants them to go faster. "We're the only major industrial nation on earth that doesn't have [a high-speed rail network]," Tony Daniels, the California High-Speed Rail Authority's program director, tells PM. "Now is the time for us to step up to the plate, to belong to the world that has high-speed trains." Until this country transitions to more Acela-style trains (maxing out at 150 mph), the next step—to truly high-speed rail travel—can only be found elsewhere in the world. Here, we outline the five fastest trains—inspiring design and technology for rail's future in the U.S.

Shanghai Maglev

The Specs
Location /// China; shuttles between the Longyang Road Station in the Pudong district of Shanghai to the Shanghai Pudong International Airport Longest Run /// 19 miles	Top Speed During Commercial Transit /// 268 mph Top Speed Recorded /// 311 mph
The Tech
The Shanghai airport-to-suburb maglev is the first and fastest commercial high-speed maglev in the world. Unlike standard wheel-to-rail trains, maglev trains are repelled 1 mm to 10 mm away from the track by a magnetized coil within the track, called a guideway. Maglev trains gain high speeds quickly and lack troublesome moving parts, such as wheels, transmissions, brakes and axles. Skeptics of the system argue that the magnetically charged train is costly to build and has no guarantee to work well over long distances.

Alta Velocidad Espanola (AVE)

The Specs
Location /// Spain; connects four major cities: Madrid, Seville, Malaga and Barcelona Longest Run /// 410 miles	Top Speed During Commercial Transit /// 210 mph Top Speed Recorded /// 227 mph
The Tech
Now spreading across much of the country, the AVE links several major cities in Spain with high-speed rail. The first commercial line of the AVE system started service in 1992, built to accommodate travel during that year's Expo World Fair. Now, the same line traverses the 293 miles between Madrid and Seville at speeds up to 186 mph, cutting almost one hour off the previous commute time. Branching out north and south from Madrid, the AVE uses standard 1435-mm-gauge tracks instead of the 1668-mm rail gauge that Spain used almost exclusively prior to the AVE. The system also runs on the more mainstream 25-kilovolt AC, as opposed to the domestic 3-kilovolt DC. By designing the railway to run on the same gauge lines and voltage as most of Europe and the United States, among other countries, Spain has indicated its intent to connect with railways from other countries. One of several projects in the works to expand the AVE to other countries is construction on a 28-mile line under the Pyrenees mountain range connecting Figueras, Spain, to Perpignan, France, standing as the second privately financed international rail link in the world (after the Channel Tunnel).

Beijing-Tianjin Intercity Railway

The Specs
Location /// China; Beijing to Tianjin Longest Run /// 71 miles	Top Speed During Commercial Transit /// 217 mph Top Speed Recorded /// 245 mph
The Tech
Beginning service in 2008, the line connecting Beijing and Tianjin is one of the world's fastest conventional trains. The intercity line, topping out at 217 mph, runs elevated on viaduct for 62 miles and makes stops at Beijing, Yizhuang, Wuqing and Tianjin. The train features a ballastless track system, with its rails supported on a continuous slab of concrete, making the base for the track stronger and requiring less maintenance than traditional track. The high-speed rail has changed the Beijing-to-Tianjin commute from 70 minutes to 30 minutes and, in its first year, the line has transported 18.7 million passengers.

Train a Grande Vitesse (TGV)

The Specs
Location /// France; train branches out from the main hub of Paris to more than 200 cities in France, including Avignon, Dijon, Lyon and Nice. Longest Run /// 538 miles	Top Speed During Commercial Transit /// 217 mph Top Speed Recorded /// 356 mph
The Tech
This line first connected Paris to Lyon in 1981, and since then, the TGV system has expanded rapidly, connecting the capital city to many cities across France and in adjacent countries. Holding the record as the fastest scheduled rail journey at an average speed of 174 mph, the TGV Paris-to-Marseille run is completed in 3 hours. Each train, running on a dual-voltage system, allows for the use of the mainstream 25-kilovolt AC and also the domestic 1.5-kilovolt DC system. The high-power capabilities have prepared the system to act as a primary force in connecting countries within Europe. And, to alert operators to the possibility of any unsafe levels of electrical interference during the operation of the high-speed trains, France has outfitted the TGV with interference-current-monitoring units.

Nozomi Shinkansen

The Specs
Location /// Japan; the Tokaido-Sanyo Shankansen line from Tokyo to Hakata Longest Run /// 664 miles	Top Speed During Commercial Transit /// 186 mph Top Speed Recorded /// NA*
The Tech
The fastest line of the Shinkansen system, the Nozomi train travels the 320-mile distance from Tokyo to Osaka in less than 2.5 hours. This speed has increased significantly since the bullet train was first inaugurated in Japan in 1964, when this distance took a little over3 hours. The Nozomi cars are equipped with lightweight technology: a tilting system that uses lightweight air springs to lift one side of the car during a curve in the track. Advanced construction and materials—strong and unbreakable polycarbonate windows with reduced window-to-body edge and a scratch-resistant coating—add significant speed and durability to the cars.

*Both the German InterCityExpress (ICE) and the Nozomi Shinkansen, reach normal running speeds of 186 mph, but, in trial runs, the Nozomi's network wins. The ICE has reached speeds of 229 mph. While the top speed recorded for the Nozomi Shankansen, the fastest line on the network, was not available, trains on the same network have topped speeds of 275 mph.

Missing Girl Gave Birth To 2 Kids In Captivity

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (CBS) ―

Click to enlarge

1 of 1

An age progression photo shows what Jaycee Lee Dugard shows what the 29-year-old woman might look like today.

Authorities say an alleged kidnapper fathered two children with the woman who emerged 18 years after being snatched from a bus stop.

The new details came as authorities provided more information about the saga Jaycee Lee Dugard, who vanished when she was 11 years old and turned up at a police station in Northern California this week.

El Dorado County Undersheriff Fred Kollar says the woman spent most of her time in sheds, tents and outbuildings to isolate her from the world. Police say her captor was Phillip Garrido. He is being held for investigation of kidnapping, rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration.

The children, both girls are eleven and 15, meaning Dugard would have given birth to the first when she was just 14 years old.

The suspects are a husband and wife, CBS station KOVR-TV reported. They have been identified as 58-year-old Phillip Craig Garrido and 54-year-old Nancy Garrido. The two were being held on one million dollars bail each.

According to an officer at the Contra Costa County jail, Phillip Garrido has five pending charges: kidnapping, rape, lewd behavior, sexual penetration and conspiracy, while Nancy Garrido has two pending charges, kidnapping and conspiracy.

Phillip Garrido is also being held for investigation of rape by force, lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and sexual penetration, said Jimmie Lee, a spokesman for the Contra Costa Sheriff's Department.

Phillip Garrido has a conviction for rape by force or fear, according to the Megan's Law database.

The kidnapped woman was in good health when she came into a San Francisco Bay area police station and said she was Jaycee Lee Dugard, a blond, ponytailed girl when she was abducted as she headed to a school bus stop 18 years ago outside her South Lake Tahoe home, said sheriff's Lt. Les Lovell of the El Dorado Sheriff's Department.

It was not immediately clear when she had surfaced.

"We're 99 percent sure it's her," he said. He said DNA tests were being conducted.

Lovell said Concord police did an investigation after the woman surfaced, and he received a call Wednesday from investigators who had tentatively identified her as Dugard.

Her family has been contacted and they are in the process of arranging a meeting, said Lovell, who was a detective assigned to help investigate the kidnapping in 1991. "We are very confident at this point in time that it is her."

Lee said the suspects were being held in the Contra Costa County Jail in Martinez.

A house in the city of Antioch was cordoned off with police tape as it was being searched by FBI agents and the El Dorado County Sheriff's Department.

Neighbor Helen Boyer, 78, described the Garridos as nice and friendly and said they cared for Phillip Garrido's elderly mother.

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

Dugard's stepfather, Carl Probyn, said the news of the case was like winning the lottery.

"To have this happen where we get her back alive, and where she remembers things from the past, and to have people in custody is a triple win," he told the Sacramento Bee.

Witnesses reported that a vehicle with two people drove up to Dugard and abducted her while her stepfather was watching on June 10, 1991.

In media reports at the time, the girl's stepfather said he heard Jaycee scream then jumped on a bicycle and frantically pedaled after the car in a failed effort to follow it up a hill. He then turned around and screamed at neighbors to call 911.

The case attracted national attention and was featured on TV's "America's Most Wanted," which broadcast a composite drawing of a suspect seen in the car.

Probyn said his wife, Terry, had spoken with Dugard by phone on Wednesday. He said the mother and their 19-year-old daughter were flying from their Southern California home to meet with Dugard in Northern California.

Investigators first visited with his wife about three weeks ago, he said.

Probyn said he endured years of suspicion from FBI agents who believed he may have been involved in the abduction. He eventually lost hope that he would ever see his stepdaughter alive.

"Then you pray that you get her body back so there is an ending," Probyn said.

Lovell said investigators have been working the case consistently since she was abducted and new leads had surfaced over time.

"You bet it's a surprise. This is not the normal resolution to a kidnapping," he said.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

Rare Photographs of Now Extinct Beasts

Written By: Karl Fabricius - who has written 164 posts on Environmental Graffiti.

Last Thylacine yawning: Note the unusual extent to which it was able to open its jaws
Photo: Photographer unknown

From panthers and pandas to rhinos and tigers, dwindling animal numbers speak of the need to step up conservation efforts – if it’s not already too late. As a kind of wake-up call, we decided to take a look at seven extinct megafauna species captured on camera. With modern photography having only been invented in the 1820s, these snapshots are visible testament to just how recently the creatures shown were wiped out – and a jarring reminder of the precarious situation for many species still left on the planet.

1. The Tarpan

Tarpan at the Moscow Zoo, published 1884
Photo: Scherer

The last Tarpan died on a Ukrainian game preserve at Askania Nova in 1876. A prehistoric type of wild horse that once roamed from Southern France and Spain eastwards to central Russia, the Tarpan died out in the wild in the late 1800s. Reasons for its extinction include the destruction of its forest and steppe habitat to make room for people; hunting by farmers averse to their crops being eaten and mares stolen; and absorption into a growing domestic horse population. There have been various attempts to recreate the Tarpan through re-breeding, resulting in horses that do at least resemble their extinct forebears.

2. The Quagga

Quagga at London’s Regent’s Park Zoo, 1870
Photo: F. York

Another extinct equine beast – this time a subspecies of zebra – the last wild Quagga was probably shot in the late 1870s, while the last specimen in captivity died in 1883 at Artis Magistra Zoo in Amsterdam. Once abundant in southern Africa, the Quagga fell victim to ruthless hunting for its meat and hide, and because it was seen by settlers as a competitor to livestock like sheep. It was the coat of the Quagga that distinguished it best, with only the front part of its body showing the zebra’s vivid striped markings. As with the Tarpan, projects to breed back the Quagga have produced favourable results, visually at least.

3. The Javan Tiger

Live Javan Tiger, taken in 1938 at Ujung Kulon
Photo: A. Hoogerwerf

The Javan Tiger was a subspecies of tiger found only on the Indonesian island of Java, until it died out as recently as the 1980s. In the early 19th century, the Javan Tiger was common all over the island, but rapid human population increase led to the destruction of its forest habitat. The Javan Tiger was also mercilessly hunted, so that by the 1950s it is thought fewer than 25 remained in the wild. Following in the tracks of the Bali Tiger, which was wiped out in the 1930s, the fate of the Javan Tiger speaks for the precarious position of the tiger species as a whole. Sightings of the subspecies persist but hopes for its survival are fading.

4. The Caspian Tiger

A captive Caspian Tiger in Berlin Zoo, 1899
Photo: Photographer unknown

Another tiger to vanish in the last century was the Caspian Tiger, the last confirmed reports of which date back to before the 1950s. Recent research suggests the Caspian Tiger was largely identical to the Siberian Tiger, but even if not a distinct subspecies, it yet had its own range and habitat. Found in the sparse forest and river basin corridors of Central and Western Asian, this big cat succumbed to intense hunting by the Russian army, who were told to exterminate it during a huge land reclamation programme in the early 1900s. Farmers followed, clearing forestland, and the loss of the Caspian Tiger’s primary prey, the boar, spelled its demise.

5. The Syrian Wild Ass

Syrian Wild Ass in London Zoo, 1872
Photo: Frederick York

The last member of this species died at Schönbrunn Zoo, Vienna in 1928. Formerly occupying the mountains, deserts and steppes between Palestine and Iraq, the Syrian Wild Ass disappeared from the Syrian desert during the 18th century, not helped by war between Palestine and Syria. It was eradicated in Northern Arabia during the 19th century, and then became most seriously threatened with World War I, when its remaining habitat was overrun with fighting forces. The rest is history. This smallest of all recent members of the horse family stood just over 3 feet high at the shoulder and was generally light in colour.

6. The Bubal Hartebeest

Female Bubal Hartebeest that lived in London Zoo from 1883 until 1897
Photo: Lewis Medland

The Bubal Hartebeest was a species of antelope that became extinct in 1923, when a captive female died in Jardin des Plantes in Paris. It was once found over much of North Africa, at least as far east as Egypt, where it was a mythological and sacrificial beast. However, by the 1900s its range was limited to Algeria and the Moroccan High Atlas mountains. Hunting throughout the 19th century drastically reduced the Bubal Hartebeest’s numbers, sealing its fate. A fawn-coloured animal that stood almost 4 feet at the shoulder, the Bubal Hartebeest was characterised by lyre-shaped horns that almost touched at the base. A beautiful beast, sadly missed.

7. The Thylacine

Thylacinus in Washington D.C. National Zoo, c. 1906
Photo: E.J. Keller

It was 1936 when the last Thylacine took its final breath in Hobart Zoo, Tasmania. Or so we think. Extremely rare if not extinct on the Australian mainland by the time of European colonisation, the Thylacine survived on the island of Tasmania alongside close cousins like the Tasmanian Devil. There, this distinctive, large-jawed beast found itself with a price on its head, as settlers blamed it for attacks on their sheep. The Thylacine was hunted to extinction by bounty hunters and farmers, though other factors such as disease, the introduction of wild dogs, and human encroachment into its habitat may have also played a part in the tragedy.

Tasmanian Tiger (Thylacine) photographed in a cage with a chicken
Photo: Henry Burrell

Although commonly known as the Tasmanian Tiger or Tasmanian Wolf, the Thylacine was neither feline nor canine: while striped like a tiger and sharing various features with large dogs, this marsupial carnivore was wholly unrelated – and with the pouch to prove it. A favourite in cryptozoological circles, there have been numerous sightings of the Thylacine since 1936 – which continue to this day – though none have yet been confirmed. It will be a rare coup for Mother Nature if another Thylacine is ever discovered; otherwise its most vivid memory will sadly survive in little more than photographic form – another dead hero of the natural world.

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Snow Leopard review

http://www.engadget.com

by Joshua Topolsky

Snow Leopard. Even the name seems to underpromise -- it's the first "big cat" OS X codename to reference the previous version of the OS, and the list of big-ticket new features is seemingly pretty short for a version-number jump. Maybe that's why Apple's priced the 10.6 upgrade disc at just $29 -- appearances and expectations matter, and there's simply not enough glitz on this kitty to warrant the usual $129.

But underneath the customary OS X fit and finish there's a lot of new plumbing at work here. The entire OS is now 64-bit, meaning apps can address massive amounts of RAM and other tasks go much faster. The Finder has been entirely re-written in Cocoa, which Mac fans have been clamoring for since 10.0. There's a new version of QuickTime, which affects media playback on almost every level of the system. And on top of all that, there's now Exchange support in Mail, iCal, and Address Book, making OS X finally play nice with corporate networks out of the box.

So you won't notice much new when you first restart into 10.6 -- apart from some minor visual tweaks here and there there's just not that much that stands out. But in a way that means the pressure's on even more: Apple took the unusual and somewhat daring step of slowing feature creep in a major OS to focus on speed, reliability, and stability, and if Snow Leopard doesn't deliver on those fronts, it's not worth $30... it's not worth anything. So did Apple pull it off? Read on to find out!

Installation

Interestingly enough, installation is one of the few parts of Snow Leopard that's dramatically different than previous versions of OS X. Unlike Microsoft's subtle nudges towards clean reinstallation of Windows 7, Apple's quite proud of the new 10.6 installer, which upgrades in place, quarantines incompatible apps and plugins in an "Incompatible Software" folder, and boots you right back up with little to no user effort. Seriously, you just stick in the disc, open the installer, enter your password and go -- that's it. You don't even have to reboot off the DVD. Of course, that made us a little uneasy, since we've always chosen Archive and Install to get a fresh OS, but you can't have cold feet here -- that option's been removed. We've been told it's now the default action behind the scenes, but the bottom line is that you have to trust the installer more than ever before -- and while we didn't have any major problems, it would be nice if we could force a new install of the OS without having to wipe a disk.

Installation itself took about 45 minutes on most of the machines we tried, although we did run into some snags once things were complete. We didn't have any problems with the more pristine MacBook Pros in our fleet, but one of our production machines is a cranky older iMac that's been in constant use for over two years without a system rebuild, and when it restarted the desktop pictures were all set to the defaults, the System Preferences app wouldn't launch from the Apple Menu, our MobileMe sync states were a little confused and Spotlight began reindexing all the external drives. Fixing these problems didn't take much, but if your machine is already acting up don't expect everything to go perfectly.

Other installation notes: We were promised 6GB of storage savings with 10.6, and Apple more than delivered -- we got anywhere from 10GB to a whopping 20GB back after installation. Rosetta is no longer installed by default, so if you're still rocking some legacy non-Universal apps you'll want to make sure and install it. Printer driver installation is much smarter, installing drivers only for those printers you've used in the past and printers that appear on your local network. We have no idea why Apple continues to insist on installing language translations by default, but they're much smaller now at 250MB.

Overall, installing Snow Leopard is just like installing any other major OS update: it works great, except when it doesn't. The process itself is fine (in fact, Apple has even built in some safeguards to let you pick up an install if your computer dies or is shut off half way through), but it's the little kinks you have to work out afterwards that can be tricky. If you haven't loaded up your system with hacks and tweaks chances are you'll be fine -- and if you're living on the edge, well, you're probably used to doing some extra work around upgrade time.

UI enhancements

Dock Expose

Previous OS X releases have brought major UI features like Expose and Dashboard with them, but there's nothing that major in Snow Leopard, although the various tweaks to the system are certainly appreciated. The biggest new feature is Dock Expose, which, as you'd expect, simply links Expose to the Dock. Holding down on an app's icon triggers Expose for that application's windows, and if you drag a file onto an app, you can then select which window you want to drop it into. It's definitely nice, but it's not earth-shattering. Here's a little video of it in action:

Stacks

We've never been huge users of the Stacks feature, but it's been tweaked and is much more usable in 10.6 -- as long as you're using grid view, which is now scrollable and offers the ability to drill down into folders just like a Finder window. All the other views are essentially the same -- and for whatever reason, dragging a file onto a stack icon doesn't open the stack, but instead opens a Finder window. While we're on the subject of folders in the dock, explain this nonsensical operation to us: command-clicking a stack icon doesn't open the folder (as you might expect), but instead pops open the enclosing folder. This counter-intuitive (and frankly frustrating) glitch has been around since Tiger -- and we have no idea why. Here's some video:

Finder file previews

We'll get to the big Finder changes shortly -- the Cocoa rewrite definitely improved things -- but the big UI tweak here is live file previews. That means you can watch a video, flip through a document, and generally peek at things without having to open an app or even hit the space bar for Quick Look. It's quite handy -- but again, not earth-shattering.

And... that's really it, as far as UI changes go. There's some other minor stuff, like better PDF text selection in Preview, new glass-look menus for the Dock, and alphabetical / per-app window organization choices in regular Expose when you press command-1 or command-2, but overall it's all extremely iterative and incremental -- welcome, to be sure, but not major. The new Finder, on the other hand, is both major and more than welcome.

Notable app changes

Finder

It's hard to explain how dramatically improved the Finder is now, because there's nothing externally different beyond those file previews and an icon-size slider in icon view. Suffice to say that the Cocoa rewrite has simply made things better: opening folders with thousands of items is instantaneous and scrolling is just as fast; network connections are snappier; and everything hums about with essentially zero lag. Sure, all the old Finder quibbles like inconsistent windows states and those damned .DS_Store files are still there, but trust us -- speed cures all ills. At least until we dump another couple thousand files into the system and slow things down again.

QuickTime X

Like the Finder -- and, really, all things with Snow Leopard -- QuickTime X is a set of major changes wrapped in seemingly-minor interface tweaks. Although the big change for users is the "dark" interface with a title bar and controller strip that disappear during playback, underneath QuickTime has been entirely rewritten with hooks into modern OS X components like Core Video, Core Animation, and Core Audio. That doesn't mean much if you're just playing back an MP3 or a single video, but remember that QuickTime is more than an app -- it's the entire media layer for OS X, so the Snow Leopard rebuild will have big consequences down the line.

That said, there are some notable changes with QuickTime Player: there's a new screen recording tool (we made all the videos in this post with it), you can record right off your built-in iSight, and there's a new iPhone 3GS-like "Trim" tool to cut your videos fast.

That glossy title might come at a steep price for some of us -- at least at first glance. QuickTime Player X has certainly added some welcome new options for most, but for QuickTime 7 Pro users, things get a little confusing. If you've already got Pro on your system and do a straight install, you'll end up with the standard new QuickTime -- which means a lot of what you're used to will be missing. Hell, there isn't even a preferences dialog -- so say goodbye to presenting movies on a different monitor, or choosing a default full screen setting. The changes also means that you can't do quick'n'dirty edits by copy-and-pasting anymore (a favorite of Engadget editors), and export options have been reduced to presets for iPhone, iPod, Apple TV, MobileMe, and YouTube.

On top of that, some QuickTime-dependent apps seem like they need a rewrite to work correctly -- we couldn't get our Turbo.264 HD stick to function, and other QuickTime programs we tried seemed similarly stressed. Oh, and those screen recordings? They're encoded with some combination of H.264 and AAC audio that didn't play nice with Viddler out of the box -- and YouTube's uploader refused to load under Snow Leopard (we had a number of server errors), so we ended up uploading all these screencasts from a Windows machine. That may not be the case for all, but it was for us.

This won't be too much of an issue for users who are sticking with the basic QuickTime functionality, but for those of us who've become accustomed to Pro, it may be a little shock. Interestingly, Apple let us know that you can actually re-install QuickTime 7 Pro from the Snow Leopard disc (and from your Utilities folder, oddly), but if you hop right into a standard upgrade, it's amazingly easy to miss (we did on multiple systems).

Safari 4

If you're thinking of upgrading to Snow Leopard on day one, chances are you're already running Safari 4, since it's been available since June. The big changes in 10.6 are (obviously) 64-bit support, which here translates into much faster Javascript performance, and a new browser plugin architecture that runs individual plugins as separate instances. That means if a plugin like Flash crashes it won't take the whole app down with it, but sadly, we weren't able to test it -- for maybe the first time ever, we couldn't crash a browser. Hopefully our good luck rubs off on you.

Exchange

By any measure, the most important new networking feature of Snow Leopard is built-in support for Microsoft Exchange in Mail, Address Book, and iCal. Since we're not heavy Exchange users, we won't go in-depth here -- our man Micheal Gartenberg has got you covered there -- but in our quick tests we found setup to be simple and the integration to be flawless. It's hard not to look at how well Snow Leopard integrates with Exchange and see exactly why Microsoft decided to kill Entourage and bring a proper version of Outlook to the Mac, but that's not happening for a long while -- until then, we think OS X users who need Exchange will be pretty happy.

Compatibility

Here's where it gets a little rough. Although Snow Leopard is ostensibly just a polish and repair job on Leopard, there've been enough changes under the hood so that plenty of things are likely to break -- or at least not play nice. As with the installation, if you're running a stock or close-to-stock system, you probably won't run into any problems, but if you've got a setup as tweaked as most of those in the Engadget labs, you're going to run into some issues.

The biggest compatibility-breaker is the demise of InputManager plugins in 64-bit apps, which means things like Unsanity's Application Enhancer framework and Safari plugins like 1Password and Glims are now broken (or at least not really playing nice). InputManager plugins have had a long and sordid history, with many claiming that they're unstable hacks built on what's essentially a security hole, but now that they're gone the only thing to worry about is how to replace all the utilities and applications that depend on them -- 1Password's developers are already beta-testing a 10.6-compatible update, but we have no idea how something like Chax will soldier on. If you've got a critical workflow that depends on an InputManager plugin -- and although that's always been a bad idea, we're sure some of you do -- then we'd advise holding off on the 10.6 upgrade until you work something out, since we saw some random freak-outs (like the one pictured) when we forced Safari into 32-bit mode to run 1Password.

We also noticed problems with old standbys like Growl, GrabUp and Skitch -- really clutch go-to applications that seemed to buckle under the 64-bit noise. Although we could start them in 32-bit mode, nothing seemed to work exactly right, and we're pretty sure we spotted Growl making off with a ton of free memory when we weren't looking. We also had trouble getting our Sprint Novatel U727 3G stick working, although our Verizon card was fine. Again, we're sure all of this is going to be updated, but if you're like us, the bugginess will prove maddening at times -- enough to make us consider waiting out the upgrade on some of our other machines.

There were some other head scratchers we saw on various systems, too. On a 17-inch unibody we were putting through the paces, the WiFi inexplicably has gone out and we have yet to get it working again. On a 15-inch, older generation MacBook Pro (3,1), Spotlight will only fetch search results in the dropdown -- results in a Finder window come up empty. More annoyingly, on two other, newer models we were testing with, Safari crashes out when booting into 32-bit mode -- meaning even Apple's workaround doesn't seem to... er, work.

That's the bad news, though. The good news is that almost all of our regular, non-plugin, non-third-party-framework, non-hack apps worked just fine. Office, Photoshop CS3 and CS4, Tweetie, Firefox 3.5, Ableton, Fluid -- you name it, it ran without a problem. Like we said, if you're running things close to stock you're going to be fine, but we tend to kit out our rigs with a ton of little hacks to really speed up our workflow, and that's the stuff that's broken in Snow Leopard. It's up to you to decide where on that line you fall before you commit to the upgrade.

Overall speed and stability

Compatibility with our various hackeriffic plugins aside, we found Snow Leopard to be just as stable and free from major hang-ups as Leopard. That cranky iMac we installed it on seemed to perk up a little, and while we don't think anything will ever make Firefox feel perfectly stable, we certainly didn't experience as many beachballs or other hangups while running 10.6. So yes, subjectively things seem fast and reliable, and the new Finder makes day-to-day usage seem positively zippy -- and the objective benchmarks tend to back that up.

As measured by XBench, Snow Leopard affects every Mac a little differently, but the basic outcome is the same: raw CPU performance goes up slightly, while the graphics numbers go down -- OpenGl performance in particular takes a big hit. We're not sure if this is due to our version of XBench not playing nicely with Snow Leopard or something else entirely, but we didn't notice any slowdowns while we actually worked -- or played a little casual CoD4. We're not deep into the benchmark scene, so we'd wait for some hardcore marks to hit before you race into fanboy battle with these numbers -- for now, just know that Snow Leopard certainly "feels" a little snappier than Leopard.

Wrap-up

Here's the thing about Snow Leopard, the single inescapable fact that hung over our heads as we ran our tests and took our screenshots and made our graphs: it's $30. $30! If you're a Leopard user you have virtually no reason to skip over 10.6, unless you've somehow built a mission-critical production workflow around an InputManager hack (in which case, well, have fun with 10.5 for the rest of your life). Sure, maybe wait a few weeks for things like Growl and MenuMeters to be updated, and if your livelihood depends on QuickTime you might want to hold off, but for everyone else the sheer amount of little tweaks and added functionality in 10.6 more than justifies skipping that last round of drinks at the bar -- hell, we're guessing Exchange support alone has made the sale for a lot of people. If you're still on Tiger, well, you'll have to decide whether or not you want to drop $130 on what's essentially a spit-shined Leopard, but if you do decide to spend the cash you'll find that the experience of using a Mac has changed dramatically for the better since you last upgraded.

Update: In the original version of the review we noted that QuickTime 7 Pro wasn't available for Snow Leopard. In fact, the software is available as a separate install on the disc itself and via the QuickTime 7 app in the Utilities folder.

10 Natural Wonders of the World a @LIFE Photo Gallery

life.com — Before the 7 man made wonders of the world happened, Nature created many of her own. An amazing collection of natural world wonders photographed from the Life magazines archives. Presenting: The 10 Natural Wonders of the World...