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Gotta love old media -- threatened by a changing economic landscape, they do what the threatened usually do -- they lash out first . This is starting to happen as Google News leaves beta and hits prime time. Google News provides an aggregating service, where they scan world of online media and provide a few lines of content to give a potential reader a sampling of what the article may entail. Then, they send content to the publisher. Sounds like a library to me. Sounds like a good deal for the newspapers too. They get more traffic to their site. This is no different than other aggregators -- or aggregating software that leverages RSS feeds. What these old media types are really pissed about is the fact that Google is making money. Of course they're making money! They've become the distributor! Old media however doesn't get left out, like they would have you believe. They get increased traffic. Google should let those who wish to opt out, opt out. It should be

Researchers from the University of Saskatchewan have found that high doses of a synthetic cannabinoid , HU210, increased neurogenesis in the hippocampus of rats by about 40%. Nerve cells are constantly being produced in the hippocampus, a region of the brain associated with learning, memory, anxiety and depression. Recreational drugs, such as alcohol, nicotine and cocaine suppresses growth of new nerve cells -- but apparently, HU210 doesn't. The effect is reportedly akin to the way Prozac works. Before you decide to toke up however, you should know that HU210 is synthetic, and other studies have shown no neurogenesis from using 100% natural ganja. Go figure. There is no justice in this world! See more in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, published in Oct. 2005: Cannabinoids promote embryonic and adult hippocampus neurogenesis and produce anxiolytic- and antidepressant-like effects [PDF]

Bill Robinson has written a great opinion piece in the Huffington Post in response to Ohio State Republican Ron Hood's proposed law banning homosexuals from adopting children. In opposition to Hood's proposal, Ohio State Senator Robert Hagan has introduced his own proposal that would bar Republicans from adopting. Hagan sites research that shows that children raised by Republicans are more at risk for developing "emotional problems, social stigmas, inflated egos, and alarming lack of tolerance for others they deem different than themselves and an air of overconfidence to mask their insecurities." It's a hilarious read ... until you realize that while we're all laughing, Ohio will be enacting a law based on hatred for someone's sexual orientation.

Check out Michael Wolf's China Suite -- photography from his travels in China. Wolf is a freelance photojournalist based out of Hong Kong, doing a lot of work in China. His work is featured predominantly in Stern magazine. Of his photography online, especially profound, is the series titled Architecture of Density, which explores housing development in Hong Kong. So many people, so little space. Makes me wonder where we're heading.

Left, "before" image, from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey. Right, "after" image, from Swift's Ultraviolet/Optical Telescope. The pinpoint of light in the centre is the GRB, which outshines the entire host galaxy. Click image for the high resolution image [8.7MB tiff]. NASA's Swift telescope has detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB), a usual harbinger of a supernova, very close to our galaxy, in the constellation Aries. The GRB was detected on Feb. 18th, at 440 million light-years away, lasting 33-minutes -- quite the departure for GRBs, which are usually detected billions of light-years away, and lasting only seconds at most. Speculation is that the GRB may be a result of a very massive star collapsing into a black hole, then exploding. NASA animation showing the collapsing star scenario that is the leading contender to explain gamma-ray bursts.

The MPAA is making a major push to bring pirating sites down. They've launched an assault against P2P sites, across the spectrum -- bittorrent, edonkey and newsgroups. In the lawsuits filed, the MPAA is going after indexing sites -- sites that catalogue the files available on the different P2P networks. This is an escalation, and one has to wonder if the MPAA will succeed. Indexing sites serve the same function as search engines. They don't host the content -- they just make it easier to find the content. Even Google can be used to search for torrents if the filetype flag is used in a search . This latest move is just another example of the MPAA's bullying tactic. The tactic has hardly worked in the past, and only serves to demonstrate the MPAA's ignorance of the technology it's fighting. Wake up people! There's billions to be made if you just get on the bandwagon and exploit the technology.

Even though conflict continues in Sudan, the shaky peace between the Islamist north and the Christian/Animist south has created fertile ground for women wishing to dust off the years of oppression under sharia. For the first time, six women's soccer teams are playing in a competition that they are hoping to grow to form a national competitive team. Islamic laws restrict women from participating in sports -- and even when they pushed those boundaries, the had to be covered from head to foot. Yet, with determination and perseverance, the women have risked it all to play. If only they can now get support from the country's football association. This is yet another example of why Africa needs to be saved. Despite all the conflicts; the pandemics; the scourges that are attempting to rout life from the continent, life and human spirit flourishes. For these girls, and others like them, there is hope. We just need to help that hope.

Iraq was a target of the Bush Administration since September 11, 2001, after the terrorist attacks in the US. New information, obtained by blogger, Thad Anderson , via the US freedom of information act, reveals that defence secretary Rumsfeld ordered a sweep for information linking the terrorists with Iraq -- and specifically, was looking for targets to strike within Iraq. As the Guardian reports, Iraq has always been a target of the Bush Administration -- 9/11 simply provided the opportunity.

The latest Wired Magazine features a cover article on digital animation's taking of Hollywood, as exemplified by the latest Philip K. Dick 's story to be adapted to the big screen: A Scanner Darkly . The movie utilizes an effect called rotoscoping , which employs software to digitally trace live-action footage. The results are stunning, and well suited to the story it tells.

The Meaning of Tingo by Adam Jacot de Boinod is a book of words -- and also a book of the world. de Boinod developed an obsession for foreign languages, and has compiled a book on the linguistic quirks and differences of languages from around the world. The book, like its content, sounds like it would make an odd addition to most collections. Some examples of what you'll find in the book: Kummerspeck -- A German term for the weight people gain from emotion-related overeating. Neko-neko -- The Indonesian word for someone with a novel idea that actually makes the situation worse. Olfrygt -- How the Danish describe the nagging fear of being unable to find a beer while out of town. Iktsuarpok -- The Inuit way of describing the act of repeatedly going outside to check if someone is coming. Dozvonit'sya -- The Russian expression for ringing a doorbell or calling a phone number over and over until you get an answer. Fucha -- Polish for using company resources for personal r

Theoretical physicist Hans Albrecht Bethe passed away last year, at the age of 98. In his career, he won the 1967 Nobel Prize in Physics for his work on the theory of stellar nucleosynthesis; and was the head of the Theoretical Division of the Los Alamos Laboratory during WWII, playing a key role in developing the nuclear bombs of the Trinity test and "Fat Man" weapon. He later went on to campaign against nuclear testing and the arms race. In 1999, he delivered three lectures on quantum theory to his neighbours at the Kendal of Ithaca retirement community. The lectures are available online with accompanying slides.

If I had stayed in school, maybe I would understand this fully -- what I do understand however, is that quantum mechanics is really, really weird. Researchers at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have managed to combine quantum computation with quantum interrogation to produce a result from an algorithm, without ever running the algorithm. The researchers demonstrated what is known as counterfactual computation -- inferring information about an answer -- by exploiting the nature of quantum interrogation using a photon based quantum computer. What this result point to is the potential infer answers from an algorithm without ever executing the algorithm. [ Thanks for passing this along, Naj! ]

Design Observer -- a blog about design and culture. Some interesting stuff! The Rising Stock of Black Directors -- 84% of the top 200 S&P companies have black directors on their boards -- and more companies actively seek black directors (and other ethnic minorities) because of the unique perspective the bring. I wonder what other ceilings the hunt for profits will break? Tesco: California Dreaming? -- retail continues to evolve, and the limits of the big boxes have probably been reached. Where's the next growth? Think small ... The Office Chart That Really Counts -- ever wondered about the informal interactions of employees at work? What would happen if an organization could really map the relationships formed from informal interactions? A wealth of social information would result -- which if used properly, could result in some really innovative ideas being realized. For more, see: Knowing What We Know [PDF] -- Supporting Knowledge Creation and Sharing in Social

Just found this site. The Global Free Press is a "community supported, progressive audio, video & image archive." [Found via The Huffington Post's Contagious Festival , via Amal's World View .]

Source: Superdickery.com The above is a real panel from an early comicbook. It's amazing how time changes the interpretation and makes it hilarious!

"Extraordinary rendition" -- what exactly does the term mean? I just came across the term in reference to Maher Arar , a Canadian of Syrian descent, who had the horrible luck to be greeted with the practice when he landed on US soil, coming back from a family vacation in Tunisia. He was accused by American officials of being a terrorist with affiliation to al-Qaeda. He was interrogated, then shackled and flown to Syria, where he spent 3-years being tortured in prison. The crime? " Extraordinary rendition " -- a practice that is illegal, and it nothing more than state sponsored torture and murder. Yet it is a practice that continues, and is legally accepted in the United States. Must we become evil to fight evil? From Wikipedia : Extraordinary rendition refers to an American extra-judicial procedure, widely believed to be illegal, of sending criminal suspects, generally suspected terrorists or supporters of terrorist organisations, to countries other than t

Creationists are going to university now -- to take science, and are failing since they're arguing that Darwin got it wrong. Freshly brainwashed by religion, these students show up to British classes already knowing the scientific fact , that God created the world and people, as explained in the Bible and Qur'an. It's disturbing that students studying biology -- medicine -- don't believe evolution is real, because passages from the Bible and Qur'an tells them it God created everything. There is no scientific evidence for it [Darwin's Origin of Species]. It's only a theory. Man is the wonder of God's creation. -- Muslim Medical Student. This worrying trend has got the UK's Royal Society up in arms. They've decided not to sit back, but to confront the situation first-hand. Geneticist Steve Jones will be delivering a lecture on creationism and evolution at their next meeting -- and he's challenging proponents of creationism to debate the

Check out the ultimate MS Paint creation -- done by Stanley William Moore II. Quite impressive.

Here's an interesting read for budding theoretical physicists and others who don't get a headache when they find the words, relativity, causality, and gravitation , in long run-on sentences. Einstein's theory of general relativity doesn't support faster than light travel, but accounts for gravitational effects happening faster than light by viewing gravity as a geometric phenomena due to curvature of space-time. In this article, the author supposes that gravity is not just a geometric effect. Like the other forces, it would be mediated by radiation -- radiation that would travel faster than the speed of light -- greater than or equal to 2x10 10 c actually.

A Sotheby's For Inventors -- Ocean Tomo is looking to take advantage of your patents. The firm wants to be the auction house for patents. Many businesses with a wealth of dusty (and not so dusty) patents are going to Ocean Tomo looking for a sale. For once, market demand is driving the value of patents. Is Verizon a Network Hog? -- what's with the network-nazis lately? Verizon wants to prioritize traffic running over its network, giving itself 80% of the capacity for its own traffic -- everybody else, gets to fight over the remaining 20%. WTF?! Why The Economy Is a Lot Stronger Than You Think -- BusinessWeek's cover article declares that we're worrying too much about the economy. The traditional measures of an industrial economy doesn't necessarily apply in a knowledge-based economy. While that may shed a warm glow on economic thinking, it could also mean that today's (and tomorrow's) economy could be a lot more volatile than we may be comfortabl

Paul Graham writes a great article about the role of PR Firms in the MSM . PR Firms feed the MSM information -- and what the MSM does with it? Just publishes it. Why? MSM is lazy. Bloggers on the other hand -- we don't want to be mouthpieces for anybody, and that is the challenge facing PR Firms. Just how do they crack that rather fickle group?

Time, time -- Some say a man ain’t happy, truly -- Until a man truly dies What world are we living in, when a politician can put a price tag on the life of someone? Yaqoob Qureshi , Indian minister of Minority Welfare in the state of Uttar Pradesh, has offered £6m to anyone who beheads one of the Danish cartoonists that drew the images of the prophet Muhammad. He also said that the killer would receive his weight in gold. I have to wonder how Muhammad feels about hits being ordered on his behalf. I also have to wonder if Qureshi has the money to fund such an offing -- and more importantly, is the Indian government going to do anything about him? Let's not forget that India wishes to obtain a permanent seat on the UN Security Council. Time, time -- But if a night falls and a bomb falls -- Will anybody see the dawn Qureshi of course was probably just trying to up the ante on Imam Mohammed Yousaf Qureshi , who offered $25,000, a car and promised that a local jewellers would co

Blogger is still clobbering posts.

... but the dangerous combination of the stupid and religious, does -- and they've managed to claim more lives in the name of their absent gods than the gods themselves have. I'm now firmly on the opinion that true-believers are the ones placed here on Earth to bring about the Apocalypse. I will now pick on the Islamic fanatics -- because, really, they're so easy to pick on. According to news reports , Iran is heading rapidly towards a confrontation with the rest of the world. At a conference in Tehran, titled, “Analysis of ways to act against the offensive of Global Blasphemy" -- an event to mark the anniversary of the Ayatollah Khomeini 's call for the murder of Salman Rushdie -- Mohammad-Ali Samadi, spokesman for the Headquarters to Commemorate the Martyrs of the Global Islamic Movement , an Iranian government-orchestrated campaign to recruit suicide bombers, said that more that 52,000 “volunteers for martyrdom -seeking operations” have been registered by h

The Silicon Valley Sleuth reports on a demonstration by McAfee's SVP, George Kurtz, at the RSA conference, on how much "goodies" are available online -- made easier to find by Google. The stupidest things that people leave lying around on their sites are passwords. johnny.ihackstuff.com for instance, posts some of these stupid finds. With a link from johnny.ihackstuff.com to a Google search for instance, I found a server.log file that gave me the following two incredibly stupid lines: 07-08-05 18:06:13,WARNING,Info,SERVER, admin account info: username: admin password: ie47ed 07-08-05 18:06:13,WARNING,Info,SERVER, superadmin account info: username: superadmin password: by63bs Can security really be that lax? [This was orginally posted 2/17/2006, then Blogger deleted it.] [It was then reposted on 2/18/2006, then Blogger deleted it.]

Boise Weekly is running an article on Dwight Scarbrough's encounter with officers from the US Homeland Security. Scarbrough, a federal employee, and veteran, was harassed by the officers because his vehicle is plastered by anti-war stickers and signs. What's the big deal? It seems very clear to me protesting the war in the US is not something that sits well with the government and law enforcement. What is happening to America the free? Especially disturbing is how the officers in question became very hard to track down after they visited Scarbrough at his workplace and harassed him. The Boise Weekly reporter had the most difficult time finding people who would first acknowledge that the incident occurred -- then, to comment on it. Scarbrough was accused of being in violation of some law that makes it illegal to have signage on a vehicle parked on federal property. Meanwhile however, there are other laws that specifically allow political statements to be made -- including the

Will this post disappear? Will Test 1 disappear?

Blogger has been giving problems of the last couple of days. Posts have been disappearing, and nothing new is making it on. Images have not been appearing. Here's hoping that this works!

NASA researchers, using the VLA radio telescope has discovered an astronomical shocker -- a solar system, some 500-light-years away, with two flat disks rotating rotating in opposite directions around a young star. Planets haven't formed from the disks as yet -- and probably won't for millions of years -- but when they do, the astronomers expect they will be orbiting their star in opposite directions. This is a first in solar system astronomy.

Researchers from the UK and Japan have successfully linked the Physarum polycephalum slime to a six-legged robot. Physarum polycephalum shies away from light, preferring moist, dark and humid places -- and that preference was used to direct the robot away from light sources. In the experiment, the slime was remotely linked to the robot. Light sensors on the robot relayed signals via a computer to the slime mounted on a circuit board. The circuit board detected the movement of the slime, trying to get away from the light, and relayed the slime's responses back to the robot -- which used the directive to move away from the light source. Researchers expect that they will be able to have the slime on board the robot, and will then have to conquer the problem of feeding the slime. Once accomplished, autonomous slimeborgs will proliferate and take over the world! (Bwah-ha-ha-ha!) Related: The researchers' findings -- Robot Control: From Silicon Circuitry to Cells .

ars technica is reporting on the new offensive by the RIAA and pals to offend, misuse and with much prejudice, abuse , their customers. In a response to the US government's review of the effectiveness of the DMCA, the RIAA dunces have decided to go even more hardline than previous. They are now claiming that making backup copies and ripping CDs for MP3 players does not constitute fair use. Why? Cause you can buy another copy of the content silly!

The UK Telegraph has two opinion pieces that are a good read, concerning the latest incursion of Muslim society into our western-democractized-free-liberal-world. Specifically: Nigel Farndale writes a piece that suggests that "sometimes a liberal democracy needs to show a little intolerance ." He is of course referring to our need to show some courage in the face of the waves of "cartoon protests" happening around the world. This is not a time for us to show tolerance -- to show fear. The Muslim world has the right to be offended. No one argues that. That most of who are offended have no clue why they're offended, is another story. What they do with their anger however is very much a concern. They show no tolerance for our values. Their belief is absolute and leaves no room for ours. That level of intolerance should not be accepted. Nonie Darwish also writes of a culture of hate that is fostered from childhood in the Muslim world -- hate for the We

"Ever wondered what an atomic blast looks like before it obliterates everything around it? Before the smoke, the mushroom cloud, the devastation, it's really quite amazing to see the first few fractions of an atomic bomb upon detonation ." Photography by Harold Edgerton .

David Wong over at the Pointless Waste of Time has a great top 10 list -- Sci-Fi movies that never existed. Read his article for the details, but what made his top 10 are as follows, in reverse order: The "Real" Alien 3 -- the one where the aliens actually came to Earth. Think Alien (first movie) being crossed with Blade Runner . The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy -- no, not that one. The one that would be more like Shaun of the Dead . Star Wars Episode VII -- trying very hard to forget the last lame trilogy. Star Wars Episode VIII Star Wars Episode IX Doom -- that didn't suck. Starcraft -- yes, turn the strategy game into a kickass movie. Snow Crash -- an adaptation of Neal Stephenson's novel. The Matrix Prequel -- the story of the machine war, when the humans lost. The Matrix Sequel -- just one movie! Check out the article -- it's an entertaining read for genre fans.

Larry's buying spree continues -- and this time, the one-stop software shop is looking to rival IBM as the benefactor of the open-source movement. (Yeah, I know, it's got a far ways to go -- but don't tell Larry or his ambition that.) Oracle is apparently in deep talks with JBoss, Zend (PHP) and Sleepycat Software . A successful acquisition of those firms would put Oracle in the position to shift its revenue model from licensing to subscriptions. Since open source software is free, Oracle would sell maintenance, support and consulting. Oracle already had a deep and wide customer base, so they're setting themselves up to capitalize on that base. In effect, Larry is continuing on his master plan to be the one-stop software shop for businesses.

See what your browser reveals about you as you surf the internet: Project IP .

I recently saw Doom , starring the Rock. It's a movie trying to capitalize on the video game. I guess id wanted to make some more money off the franchise, and Hollywood, lacking any good ideas slapped something together. Put a big name action star, with lots of guns, monsters, special effects and Mars, and the result would be something called Total Recall -- I mean, Doom ! While Total Recall had a story, Doom was totally lacking one. It's about a bunch of tough guys, testosterone seeping from their pores, sent to investigate what went wrong on a Martian colony. Apparently genetic engineering gone awry is the problem. The results: zombies (and innocent bystanders) getting shot. It's no different from the video game. Which is the problem -- as it's no fun watching someone else play the game. If you lower your expectations, this is a passable action flick.

Yes, sometimes I am curious as to why people get to my site. This morning though, I got this one that just made me lmao! Someone from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, went to Blogger Search and searched from " fuck my ass ." (I removed the originating IP to protect the sinner.) When you search for those terms on Blogger Search, a page on my site is ranked number 2. Unfortunately, I don't think they found what they were looking for . Too funny! And then again, not too funny. Poor person would probably be flogged or killed if they got caught.

The US Patent Office is in need of a serious lobotomy. There was the JPEG patent claim that resulted in millions being paid out to Forgent. The latest claim comes from AT&T, covering core MPEG-4 technology . And in the last few weeks, RIM has been battling with NTP over patents that cover -- ridiculously -- where email is temporarily stored when a BlackBerry is outside coverage area. Thankfully, RIM seems to have developed a workaround that should allow it to continue doing business, while giving NTP the finger. I have no love for patent speculating companies. They do nothing but sit like vultures waiting to deploy their army of hungry lawyers. The problem has gotten so bad in recent years, that now some of the silliest processes, concepts and technologies are being patented by large corporations. While some of those companies may be trying to curtail future patent suits by locking up generally understood concepts, the practice could prove potentially harmful for industry

Google wants your email! They will configure, host and sell advertisements against your email! The plan is simple. Got a domain? They will provide Gmail for it. A limited beta is now running. Check it out. Soon, Google will take over the world. Join them! Google is inevitable!

Rick Hackett of McMaster's DeGroote School of Business has recently published a study , suggesting that middle managers may be useful for more than just landfill after all. Hackett proclaims that middle managers serve a purpose in work life, by standing between the executive leadership and the workers that toil day-in and day-out to actually generate the company's profits. Middle managers represent the organization to the employees. They are the ones with the day-to-day interaction with staff -- and they play the pivotal role of translating and transmitting the warbles emanating from senior management. Middle managers are the ones that have a much more profound impact on employees. They're the ones that can inspire or suck the life out of staff; the can ensure success of daily tasks; provide career opportunities; encourage, etc. Middle managers are the ones who build trust and engender loyalty in an organization. They are essential to organizations -- and care must

This one's got crop circles beat! It is as seen from space, via Google Maps. Click here to see the Google Map.

Here's a little tale of how a 24-year-old appointee of the Bush Administration, with no qualifications whatsoever, was able to censor and impose his ideology on science being communicated by NASA. It's scary when the truth becomes a political commodity that is manipulated to suit the needs to the latest party in government. Have they forgotten that they are only administrators -- and not a ruling class?

Just what is up with Google these days? They've now irked the Electronic Frontier Foundation , which is warning users to be careful how they use a new "feature" of Google's Desktop software. The new functionality allows users to have Google's Desktop Search index their computer and upload the content to Google's severs. Why? It allows users to search for content across computers. Interesting idea -- but suddenly, the contents of your home PC is at Google, making Google the one-stop place for hackers or law enforcement agents to obtain information about you. Just like the latest brouhaha over the US Justice Department issuing a subpoena to obtain information from the search giants -- a subpoena could be issued to obtain your personal information, where today it would require a warrant to get into your home PC. Google has suddenly become a device for Big Brother.

The Sandmonkey has published on his blog an interesting find. Back in October of 2005, during Ramadan no less, the Egyptian newspaper Al Fagr published the offending Danish cartoons. He remembered the cartoons and dug up the old newspaper. The publication in Al Fagr followed the publication in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Postenseptember , yet didn't receive the violent response that the newspapers in the rest of Europe received at their show of solidarity. What gives? And does anyone know the definition of the word "hypocrisy?"

An 18-year-old Iranian girl, who fought off three attackers intent on kidnapping and raping her (she was 17 at the time) and her niece (16 at the time), was sentenced to death by hanging . She was so condemned by an Islamic court after one of her attackers later died in hospital. This travesty of justice of course does not provoke a lot of uproar in Muslims around the globe. There are no embassies being attacked; no death threats; no anger like what we've seen in the past couple of weeks. If the sentence is upheld in higher courts, 18-year-old Nazanin was will be murdered by her country in the name of Allah and the Prophet Mohammed. That is okay -- I just can't understand how it is. Meanwhile, at the United Nations, Louise Arbour 's silence on this topic speaks volumes. At the US State Department, Kurtis Cooper 's silence screams American condoning of the continued murder of children and women. And the rest of you kowtowing wusses out there: where the fuck are y

What went wrong in the Arab world? The Economist has an article dating back to 2002 on the United Nations Development Programme's Arab Human Development Report 2002 , authored by Arab researchers, that takes a critical and honest look at the region -- its strengths and failings. UNDP has been publishing the Human Development Index (HDI) for a number of years now -- but this was the first attempt to focus directly at a region. Subsequent reports have been published in 2003, 2004, with the 2005 report soon to be released. The HDI traditionally looked at life expectancy, education and income -- on which the Arab countries traditionally don't score very well. For this regional focus however, the authors came up with the Alternative Human Development Index (AHDI), which added the measures of: use of the Internet; carbon-dioxide emissions; and, record on freedom. It excluded income from the measures. On the AHDI scale, the Arab world fared even worse. The good news from the

The Mayor of New Orleans, disappointed with George Bush's execution of his pledge to spend billions to rebuild New Orleans, has said that he may seek assistance from foreign countries to rebuild his city. There have been a lot of foreign dignitaries flowing through the city to view the devastation -- the latest being from the French government. New Orleans was founded by France back in 1718, and the French Transport Minister has said that France does want to help. Now, I know the situation isn't funny, but I couldn't help but get a chuckle at that.

Andrew Carol has built Babbage's Difference Engine , capable of calculating 2nd or 3rd order polynomials up to 4 degrees of precision -- out of LEGO. He doesn't say why. Just because I suppose.

This is a start . Somebody (or bodies) seems to be making an attempt at being sensible. Unfortunately, it's anonymous. So who knows who it really is.

Hindus consider it sacrilegious to eat meat from cows, so when a Danish supermarket ran a sale on beef and veal last fall, Hindus everywhere reacted with outrage. India recalled its ambassador to Copenhagen, and Danish flags were burned in Calcutta, Bombay, and Delhi. A Hindu mob in Sri Lanka severely beat two employees of a Danish-owned firm, and demonstrators in Nepal chanted: ''War on Denmark! Death to Denmark!"In many places, shops selling Dansk china or Lego toys were attacked by rioters, and two Danish embassies were firebombed. Read more in the Boston Globe . And have some backbone you wusses! Stop kowtowing to intolerance, hate and fascism. Every single time the world tries to appease a fascist minority, the price is paid in blood of innocents.

Whether you're logged into Google or not, the search company keeps track of every search you make. Your IP address is recorded. This information remains in the hands of Google and their search engine brethren such as Yahoo! and MSN. This information can be subpoenaed by a court. What does your searches reveal about you? You'd be quite surprised. Without even aggregating your searches to determine patterns, just your plain searches could potentially cost you. ZDNet did a survey of Google, Yahoo!, MSN and AOL -- and what they found was startling to say the least. Of the four heavy weights, Google was the least open about what it does, and the least conciliatory with respect to recognizing privacy issues. On the other hand, the recent US Justice Department subpoena for search data from the four garnered cooperation from Yahoo!, MSN and AOL. Google was the lone standout in refusing to hand over any search data to the government.

Budweiser Whassup!!! campaign certainly made the most of phrase. One of the weirdest -- and funny -- spawn from the campaign, features Osama bin Laden, Momar Khadafi, Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush. Four very dangerous men to be playing fun with. But maybe they like Bud.

I've never seen the Super Bowl; or the Super Bowl show; or care the least about it. Apparently it gets a lot of people excited however. For those who care then, it may be of interest to note that the commercials to be aired during the show have been scrutinized by CBS' censors, and a few haven't made it. Those deemed in bad taste are available online however -- so even if you were planning on missing the show -- or would have missed it -- you can still see some commercials . Surprisingly, a QuietAgent.com commercial was banned because it made fun of George Bush. Go figure.

Seems like the world has gone crazy about Mohammed. Even in my little corner of the world, it seems people are just falling over themselves going ape-shit over the once-holy prophet. In Toronto, some "Muslim" stores now bear signs saying, "We no longer carry any product from Denmark," on empty shelves. Word on the street has it that some Muslims, even more confused than the radicals, are even avoiding danishes -- reducing the risks of finding one of Saddam's lost WMD in their crib. It seems once quiet Muslims -- quick to point out that they are not radicals -- have suddenly found their religion. Mehmet Solmaz, owner of Tahsin Market on Danforth Avenue is quoted in the Toronto Star as saying, "I am not a fanatic and the issue here is not money. It's about the respect of one's beliefs." This kind of thinking is even getting backing from some of the most credible and expert organizations on the Islamic faith -- like the US State Department, wh

Found on the web. LMAO!

It's that time of the year at work, and naturally, I continue to be behind -- on performance reviews that is. Last year I came up with the model above to help my team understand a horizontal career progression. We're all familiar with climbing the ladder to get to the top -- but how do you achieve progression in an environment where there is no upward mobility? Folks with technical specialities for example don't have far to go -- especially if they don't want to move into management positions or take on the responsibilities for a team. This model is just something I came up with. I'm sure there are others other there built by academia or consulting groups. I didn't have the chance to go looking for one -- I was struggling to explain to my staff how they can progress horizontally, keep having new experiences, learn new skills and grow themselves. This works for me. It may work for you too. If you want the detailed explanation of the model, contact me.

Click the play button for some liberal-leftie-commie propaganda. It makes for a scary fortune cookie. (Oh, and if you're a graphic artist wannabe, you may appreciate the delivery of the message.)

Cox & Forkum has a post about the recent uproar in the Arab world over the portrayal of the prophet Mohammed in editorial cartoons. Apparently, the Danes have offended the Arab world in their continued portrayal of Mohammed in the press. So offended are some Arabs, that in protest, they've boycotted Danish products and attacked Danish interests. I'm of two minds over the whole controversy. Muslims should be offered some respect for their religion -- just like every other religious group. But on the other hand, how constipated do you have to be to be offended by the image of your prophet. Yeah, I hear the crap about Islam forbidding the portrayal of Mohammed -- but Islam forbids a whole lot of other things that leaves its believers stranded in time; backwards; unable to integrate into modern, world society. Islam has lost all respect in the rest of the world, and in the minds of sane, liberal thinking Muslims. Hardline Muslims pervert Islam in their interpretation,

Ever wonder how a savant thinks? The UK's Guardian has an article from early last year that tells the tale of Daniel Tammet , who became a savant after coming out of an epileptic attack at the age of three. Since then, Tammet, now in his mid-20s, has been really good at math. Numbers are his friends. Unlike most other savants however, Tammet can describe what is happening in his head as he effortlessly plays with numbers in very complex ways. Scientists are studying Tammet just for this reason. He can articulate what's going on. Savants usually occur as a result of some sort of brain damage. One hemisphere of the brain is damaged and the other compensates for it -- or something like that. Autistic savants for instance may have the right hemisphere of the brain compensating for damage to the left. The left hemisphere however is the side that governs language and comprehension. This is where Tammet differs from the norm. He is not only good with numbers, but he also

HappyNews.com -- now why didn't I think of this? Here's a site that's all about reporting, or putting a positive spin, on the news. It's all real, and just like other online news service, provides a pretty easy-to-navigate site to get to all the happy news you can stomach. PEZ MP3 -- how's this for a great idea?! Cross a pez dispenser with an mp3! Hmm ... okay, I don't get it, but maybe you will. Photobooth.net -- this blog aims to be "the most comprehensive photobooth resource on the internet." I can't figure out why. redit: what's new online -- this is a neat site. It's "a source for what's new and popular online" -- learning your likes and dislikes, and allowing you to vote on links or submit your own. One can actually get lost at this site. Fallen Fruit -- this site advocates city planners and dwellers to plan/demand that fruit trees be planted instead of shrubs or other trees in cities. It's not an in