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Congressman thinks Iraq should use America cell phones Here's another one too good to be true. A US Congressman thinks that after the war is over, we should only allow cdmaOne phones into Iraq (the US based standard, which is different from the rest of the world's). He's crafted a bill to that effect. Duh!

Use a Firewall, Go to Jail This is too hard to believe, and goes to show you that stupid people are alive and well. Six states in teh US are apparently considering legislation that would effectively make it illegal to use a firewall, or encrypt your internet communications. Why? Because it makes it hard for the government to find out what you're doing.

al-Jazeera offline Here's an interesting bit of news. al-Jazeera , the Qatar based Arabic-language news firm has been taken offline. Why? The amount of traffic the site was getting was too overwhelming. Few reasons why: 1) There were lots of people who figured getting the news from al-Jazeera was better than the antiseptic CNN, 2) the site simply didn't have the bandwidth CNN can afford, so we shouldn't expect the same service; 3) the pro-US hackers were just having a field day with the site. On the last point, this was what's been happening to al-Jazeera since they decided to air footage of the US soldiers captured by Iraqi forces. Apparently, there has been a back and forth between pro-war and anti-war hackers, taking over, defacing and rendering sites in both camps useless. Welcome to the new age of protest.

Iraq Body Count Here's a website to shake some reality into you. It keeps a running tally of Iraqi civilian casualities. These numbers are not verified, since there are no aid agencies operating within the warzone. However, it's scary. Want to see what's happening with US and British body count? check out CNN . No one keeps track of Iraq military casualties.

Wired: All Images Gallery Here's a nice feature of Wired Online - images, with associated taglines from Reuters. Visually stunning. Reminds me of National Geographic in many ways.

Wired 11.04 I've been buying Wired Magazine now for and find myself reading every issue from front to back, including the some of the ads. This issue celebrates Wired's 10th year as a publication and carries the tagline, " Recession. Iraq. Hard times in Silicon Valley. Hell of a time to be optimistic. Welcome to 1993, the year Wired was born. " Nice 10-year history is chronicled, as well as a look ahead to 2013 - what might 10-years from now bring. Read, and stay tuned. Some of the highlights from the magazine: The Bacteria Whisperer : so just how smart are bacteria anyway? Read, you might be surprised. They're talking to each other. More than that actually, they're communicating and deciding when to attack. Scary quote from the article: " we have given a 50-year course in antibiotic resistance to an enemy that reproduces every 20 minutes. " It's amazing we're still around. Starlight Express : a quick take on the concept of a s

500 Million Objects Digital Sky Survey Completed 2MASS (2-Micron-All-Sky-Survey) has been completed. The project took high resolution images of about 500 Million objects in the sky, digitally. The images are now available online. Enjoy!

Gambling on Saddam's Future Who would have thought? I didn't. Believe it or not, some people are taking more of an interest in Saddam's future than you might think. And I'm not talking about the nice folks at the Pentagon. People are actually placing bets on how long Saddam may actually stay in power at online gambling sites. There's money to be made (and lost) at this 'sport' - one site has wagers totalling $1.2MM. Just when you thought war couldn't get worse.

Science Resources Here's a wonderful collection of science & math resources for teachers and students. The collection ranges from elementary to high school material, covering a range of science and math topics. Are you a bored student? Not challenged enough? Or just challenged? ;-) Then check these out!

Daredevil - movie I went to see the Daredevil movie a few weeks ago with the guys. I wasn't too wowed by the trailer. I didn't like the suit, and I didn't like how they changed Bullseye and Elektra for the movie. This is a superhero movie, and they didn't have costumes. So I waited until there was nothing much else to see in the theatres and had to go see it. The movie wasn't too bad, but it wasn't great either. It's a rental. And I don't want to own it on DVD.

Bringing Down The House - movie I went to see this with my wife on March 16th. I wasn't expecting much. In fact, I went in knowing that I wouldn't be enjoying the movie. I was surprised however to find myself laughing out loud. This actually turned out to be a pretty funny movie. It's a date movie for sure - not something to go see with the guys.

The Arrogant Empire The US is about to go to war against Iraq. Deposing Saddam is a good thing. But the US has no justifiable reason to go to war. The world distrusts - and just about hates the US. They have big guns, so most of the world smile and fear to disagree. So how did the US get into this position? And why is Bush only making it worse? Read an honest, opinionated article from Newsweek magazine. Who knew that the American media still had balls?

Graphing of Derivatives Here are a few sites to help you learn how to graph derivatives: Practice Drawing Derivatives - this site is really neat, because you can draw online and check if your answer is correct immediately. Exercises - here are some paper based exercises that require you to make use of your graphing calculator. Exercises : more exercises that help you practise using your calculator. Calculus - this is an excellent calculus site, covering material for students being introduced to calculus. Lots on limits, derivatites and integration. Calculus Course - this is from a University Calculus course. But it's not daunting. Try it - it's actually pretty general. Online graphing tool - check this tool out. It graphs functions and their derivatives for you.

Baghdad Express As the inevitable slide towards war occurs, new stories surface to keep us occupied. Nothing much is happening yet, so the media fills the pages with stories like what might happen ( see Time magazine's take on how the war may be fought ) - like this article from MIT's Technology Review. Saddam was once, a long time ago, going to build a subway system for Baghdad - it got cancelled. So whatever happen to the tunnels? Could they still exist? Developed into underground storage facilities to hide his 'terror' wepons of 'mass destruction.' This is a creative article that will keep you sated until the war start. What the US will find after they take control of Iraq will probably be just dull, boring and sandy.

Stink Good ... Researchers of the University of Pennsylvania have come to the startling conclusion that men's sweat is good for women. The results of their recent study show that women who were exposed to the scent of men's perspiration became less tense and their moods brightened. Blood analysis also showed a rise in a reproductive hormone that typically surge just before ovulation. The study was done in a sterile environment, and the women did not know what they were smelling. Now, I wonder what women's sweat do to men?

Toronto InsideArt Expo Held March 13-16, at the Metro Convention Centre - this one is cheap. It's free. ;-) I wanna go. This show bills itself as 'Toronto's largest indoor Artshow.' Lots of local artists will be on display.

Toronto Comic Arts Festival Coming to Toronto March 29th. This one has Beguilding written all over it. When I used to buy comics, Beguilding used to be the place to be. I met Neil Gaiman there once - got him to sign my Sandman books. ;-) The festival will be held at the Trinity St. Paul Centre , and has a cheaper entrance fee. I'd like to go to this one if there is anyone willing to go with me (exhibition only). Hello? Hey ... where is everybody?

Toronto Trek Here's the site for Toronto Trek - coming to Toronto July 11-13, and costing way too much to get in (upwards of $58 for the weekend) - although they do offer a 2-hour visitor pass for $10. If you want the free way in, you can volunteer to help around the show - you'll get in for free, and may be able to see stuff. I've never been to a Trek convention - although they usually cover the entire SciFi genre. I'm not sure Toronto's will be big, or that special. For the really big shows, you have to go to Vegas or California. Every year they also hold a design contest to create the convention logo and badges. If you're the budding artsy type, this might be for you next year (they already have winners for this year).

St. Jacobs I went out with my wife shopping today at St. Jacobs. Quite a neat little village, that we get to around once a year. If you're looking for crafts and rare, one-of-a-kind gifts, this place is open year round. The best place to eat is the Stone Crock Restaurant (actually, we've never tried anything else) - I had the turkey stew today. Excellent!

Bedtime Story So my youngest wanted a bedtime story. So, after a few iterations, which she complained about me not knowing how to tell a bedtime story, I came up with the following: Once upon a time, there was an French old man, as happy and gay as only the French can be. He had many children, but no wife, and was happy. All the children spoke a different language, so it made life very difficult. When they wanted to go potty, they'd say so in their own language, but he wouldn't understand them, and confuse it for them being hungry. There was lots of tension in their bowels. So, one day, he came up with a brilliant idea - he bought them all flutes. Now, whenever they want to go potty, they play the flute and he understands them. Moral: music makes you happy. (Don't ask.)

Science of Networks Here is an article from MIT's Technology Review on the subject of networks. Not system networks, but networks of people, how the operate and their similarities with cellular networks. This might all sound like a social science thing, but it's also a hard science topic. The article interviews Duncan Watts, a prominant figure in the field, who uses the example of Google. Google's search engine uses the fact that the internet behaves like a human-network to rank its search results. Really interesting read.

Movie Pirates An articles from the Globe and Mail. Prices of DVD burners and DVD blanks are dropping. So how come movie pirating isn't on the rise? For one thing, value. Who wants to pirate a movie, when all you're going to get is only the movie? Most DVDs today come chock full of additional features that adds value to the discs. That, the dropping prices of DVDs and the difficulty you have to go through to copy DVD movies just makes it not worth the time. Goes to show you, if the music industry would stop whining and drop CDs to $5, maybe they'd stop losing sales.

Reality TV sinks lower I've never heard of this, but apparently there are websites out there where people can post their pictures for others to see and rate how 'hot' they are. Now, ABC has taken the concept and is pushing it as a prime time TV show. You know what folks? Your average TV viewer is a moron. The TV industry know that. Thank god smell-o-vision didn't work out, cause we'd have shows like 'My $#!^ don't stink!' on TV. Just think, in some alternate reality, there is such a reality show. Luckily, there is also some alternate reality where your average TV viewer is intelligent - OK, even I don't believe the last line.

Drawing Free Body Diagrams Quick Lessons with Practice : this is actually a great site for a lot of physics. I've posted it before for Physics help. Check this one out first. Another site : this site walks through a couple of examples. Procedue for Drawing FBDs : this site may be a bit more difficult to understand. Try it if the above two doesn't make you understand.