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Google Barge
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google's mystery barge is floating toward its new home in California's delta after being ordered to leave San Francisco.
The barge departed from Treasure Island early Thursday to comply with a Jan. 31 regulatory order concluding that Google Inc. didn't have the proper permits to build the four-story vessel there.
Google says the odd-looking vessel consisting of steel shipping containers will be anchored in Stockton, a city located about 80 miles east of San Francisco on the Sacramento-San Joaquin River delta.
The Port of Stockton falls outside the jurisdiction of the agency that forced the barge to leave Treasure Island.
Google says the barge will serve as an interactive technology center once it's done. There has been speculation that it might be used as an aquatic store or party boat.
Subway Fall-Blind Luck
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Authorities in Los Angeles say it's "miraculous" that a blind man escaped uninjured after falling onto the tracks at a subway station as a train was arriving.
The driver of the Los Angeles Metro Red Line train hit the brakes when the man fell from the platform Thursday, but the train didn't stop until the second car had passed over the 47-year-old.
Metro spokesman Paul Gonzales says the man "lay flat as the train passed over him" and was untouched as a result. Gonzales says it's "a miraculous occurrence."
A spokeswoman for the Los Angeles Fire Department says the man had no obvious injuries, but he was taken to a hospital as a precaution.
Bacon App
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Want to wake up to the sound of bacon sizzling on the stove with its aroma drawing you out of bed?
There's an app for that.
Oscar Mayer says it has created a bacon-scented app for the iPhone, developed by the Madison-based company's Institute for the Advancement of Bacon.
The company says that to emit a small puff reminiscent of bacon, the user needs an external device that plugs into the headphone jack. The app itself produces the sound of bacon sizzling in a pan.
Oscar Mayer says the aroma-producing device won't be sold in stores and that quantities are limited. The company is giving away 4,700 devices beginning Thursday.
Oscar Mayer is part of Kraft Foods Group Inc., based in Glenview, Ill.
Subway-Cellphone Photos
BOSTON (AP) — Massachusetts lawmakers have approved legislation to crack down on those who secretly take photographs of "the sexual or other intimate parts" of women or children in public.
Thursday's vote came a day after the state's highest court ruled that a man who took cellphone photos up the skirts of female passengers riding the Boston subway didn't violate state law.
The legislation says anyone who tries to photograph another person's sexual or intimate parts without that person's consent would face a maximum penalty of more than two years in jail and a $5,000 fine. The penalty would jump to five years in prison or a $10,000 fine if the victim is under 18.
Distributing such photos of a child is punishable by a $10,000 fine or 10 years in prison.
Historic Cruise Ship-Macaulay
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Best-selling author David Macaulay is in Philadelphia to promote efforts to save the historic ocean liner SS United States.
Macaulay, who crossed the Atlantic on the ship with his family as British immigrants in 1957, is writing a book about the ship and was giving a lecture Thursday at the Free Library of Philadelphia.
Macaulay, whose books include "The Way Things Work," also planned to attend the opening of a SS United States exhibition at the city's Independence Seaport Museum.
The nearly 1,000-foot, steam-powered ship, launched in 1952, still holds the record for the fastest trans-Atlantic voyage. It carried 1 million passengers across the ocean, including four U.S. presidents, before it was retired in 1969.
The deteriorating ship has been docked in the Delaware River in South Philadelphia since 1996.
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