Giant Hot Pink Slugs on Australian mountain
 

[URL]http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-flourescent-pink-slugs-140528983.html;_ylt=AkfALzjlV5M1kW62GLEmjZWsFWFH;_ylu=X3oDMTUwZTI5cTJkBGNjb2RlA2N0LmMEbWl0A0FydGljbGUgTW9zdCBQb3B1bGFyBHBrZwMwNDAwY2UzNi1hN2YwLTM4ZDgtOTRhMC03Zjg5NGY0ODAyNzUEcG9zAzEEc2VjA01lZGlhQkxpc3RNaXhlZE1vc3RQb3B1bGFyQ0FUZW1wBHZlcgMwZTkwZTAxMi1jOTZkLTExZTItYWZmZi0zZjRhOTM3MzU4ZDI-;_ylg=X3oDMTJwb3VzaTM4BGludGwDdXMEbGFuZwNlbi11cwRwc3RhaWQDZDMxNWZjZjgtNmM0ZC0zMTExLTg4NGQtY2I5YWFiNzIwMDY0BHBzdGNhdANoZWFsdGgEcHQDc3RvcnlwYWdl;_ylv=3[/URL]

You Californicators undoubtedly know of banana slugs. These appear to be even more startling, as well as huge. I saw a banana slug on my last trip to the Golden State. At first, I thought it was some kind of plastic litter.

EDIT: SHEEIT! These Yahoo stories sure have some huge links!

[QUOTE=kladner;342077]You Californicators undoubtedly know of banana slugs. These appear to be even more startling, as well as huge. I saw a banana slug on my last trip to the Golden State. At first, I thought it was some kind of plastic litter.[/quote]
They undoubtedly had some nice things to say about you, too. :)

[quote]EDIT: SHEEIT! These Yahoo stories sure have some huge links![/QUOTE]

A whopping 420 extra chars following the URL ... Looks like your link above appended your entire life history, encoded, Kieran.

[You know you can chop the fat and just give us the [url=http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-flourescent-pink-slugs-140528983.html]non-spammified URL[/url] ending with ...html, right?]

[QUOTE=kladner;342077]EDIT: SHEEIT! These Yahoo stories sure have some huge links![/QUOTE]Often the first obvious URL in a provided link is enough. In this case: [url]http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/giant-flourescent-pink-slugs-140528983.html[/url]

Ross and I posted the "simplified URL" at the same time, but I think my title-prettified version looks nicer. :)

Thanks to all. I had not realized the nature of all that crap.

EDIT: (after looking at the link more closely) [U]Many thanks[/U] for the enlightenment! I won't let stuff like that get by again.

[QUOTE=kladner;342085]Thanks to all. I had not realized the nature of all that crap.

EDIT: (after looking at the link more closely) [U]Many thanks[/U] for the enlightenment! I won't let stuff like that get by again.[/QUOTE]It's like having a piece of toilet paper stuck on your shoe because it drags along things you might not want. Here is a casual BASE64 decode of that junk. I am not doing it right because I have never looked into this stuff:[QUOTE]codect.cmitArticle Most Popularpkg0400ce36-a7f0-38d8-94a0-7f894f480275pos1secMediaBListMixedMostPopularCATempver0e90e012-c96d-11e2-afff-3f4a93735812pousi38intluslangen-uspstaidd315fcf8-6c4d-3111-884d-cb9aab720064pstcathealthptstorypage[/QUOTE]

[QUOTE=only_human;342090]It's like having a piece of toilet paper stuck on your shoe because it drags along things you might not want. Here is a casual BASE64 decode of that junk. I am not doing it right because I have never looked into this stuff:[/QUOTE]

Point taken, and again, Thanks! Considering the number of anti-crap things I run*, I should have been aware before this.
[INDENT]* Firefox plugins: No Script, Ad Block Plus, Ghostery
General security software: Norton Internet Security, Malwarebytes Antimalware Pro, Windows Defender
And intermittent runs of Spybot S&D, miscellaneous rootkit detectors, Norton Bootable Recovery, and others*
[/INDENT]

I am no expert in this area, but I suspect these "enhanced links" are ways of getting most or all the functionality of cookies, but in a way that circumvents browser no-cookie settings by the user. Ross, thoughts?

The long tail gives Yahoo! (in this case) information about the path you took to get to the article (and who-knows-what-else). Probably a mutual information-sharing agreement between Yahoo! and the site you came from (which may be a Yahoo! subsidiary anyway).

I'll have to browse the Firefox extensions again to see whether there's one that can prune that stuff.

[QUOTE=ewmayer;342149]I am no expert in this area, but I suspect these "enhanced links" are ways of getting most or all the functionality of cookies, but in a way that circumvents browser no-cookie settings by the user. Ross, thoughts?[/QUOTE]Sounds right (not particular versed on this myself). I often notice browser and crude localization (country/language) information appended.
edit: I paused a moment to wonder why they would put browser information in it, but think that they may be passing it along to code that does not have access, or cannot rely, on the browser provided information. That would be the same with cookies too, so that supports your supposition about ensuring equivalent functionality to what may have been user disabled.

[URL="http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/new-forensic-technique-for-estimating-time-of-death-by-checking-internal-clock-of-the-human-brain-8614624.html"]New forensic technique for estimating time of death by checking internal clock of the human brain[/URL]

[URL="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/cells-as-living-calculators-0515.html"]Cells as living calculators[/URL]

[URL="http://www.livescience.com/32069-3d-print-your-own-invisibility-cloak-at-home.html"]3D Print Your Own Invisibility Cloak at Home[/URL]

[URL="http://www.mentalfloss.com/article/50684/it-possible-think-without-language"]Is It Possible To Think Without Language?[/URL]

[URL="http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/156393-cold-fusion-reactor-independently-verified-has-10000-times-the-energy-density-of-gas"]Cold fusion reactor independently verified, has 10,000 times the energy density of gas[/URL]

[URL="http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2013/making-quantum-encryption-practical-0520.html"]Making quantum encryption practical[/URL]