Google’s popular e-mail application Gmail is down Tuesday afternoon, in an outage affecting both free and paying users.

The outage began sometime around 1 p.m. Pacific time, and ended at approximately 2:25.

In a message posted at 12:53 p.m., the company wrote “GWe’re aware of a problem with Google Mail affecting a majority of users. The affected users are unable to access Google Mail. We will provide an update by September 1, 2009 1:53:00 PM UTC-7 detailing when we expect to resolve the problem. Please note that this resolution time is an estimate and may change.”

The outage came just as Google has launched a rare advertising campaign that attempts to persuade companies to ditch Microsoft applications such as Outlook and Word for Google’s hosted Apps for Your Domain, which includes Gmail as its centerpiece.

Wired

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In the Swiss village of Lauterbrunnen, the locals are worried.

Dozens of alpine cows appear to be committing suicide by throwing themselves off a cliff near the small village in the Alps.

In the space of just three days, 28 cows and bulls have mysteriously died after they plunged hundreds of feet to rocks below where they were killed instantly.

In each case, local mountain rescue services using a helicopter had to be called in to remove the bodies because of the danger to the local groundwater of pollution.

According to local reports, there had been violent thunderstorms in the area which may well have spooked the animals.

Daily Mail

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Obama’s “New” Pentagon Denies Flyover of ‘GOD and Country Rally’ for First Time in 42 Years Because of Its “Christian Nature!”

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