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This song randomly came on my MP3 player today -- three times. Coincidence? In any case, I can't get it out of my head, so I'm going to bed. (You can download the song here .) Shine -- Collective Soul Give me a word Give me a sign Show me where to look Tell what will I find (will I find) Lay me on the ground Fly me in the sky Show me where to look Tell me what will I find (will I find) Oh, heaven let your light shine down (x4) Love is in the water Love is in the air Show me where to go Tell me will love be there (love be there) Teach me how to speak Teach me how to share Teach me where to go Tell me will love be there (love be there) Oh, heaven let your light shine down (x4) I'm going to let it shine (x2) Heaven's little light gonna shine on me Yea yea heaven's little light gonna shine on me Its gonna shine, shine on me Its gonna shine, come on in shine

When the latest issue of Wired arrives, I usually look at the cover, then turn to the last page, where the magazine's Found: Artifacts from the future feature can be found. This month's ritual was no exception, and what I found was a little amusing, although I'm not sure many would find it so. The feature, by Joanna Pearlstein, depicts a snapshot of a bookshelf, with some books on it -- the covers or spines, are visible so you can read the titles, which are: The Joy of Interface Trendspotting for Fun and Profit -- Malcolm Gladwell The End of History: This Time for Sure -- Francis Fukuyama GTDism Reader: The Last Testament of the Prophet David Allen Coping with Post-Singularity Depression -- Ray Kurzweil , Jr. The Way to Program Poker: Training Your Celebrity Poker-Bot to Beat Other Celebrity Poker-Bots -- Jennifer Tilly The Homo Sapiens Superior Diet: Why Post Humans Don't Get Fat -- Greg Graffin Our Hive Mind, Ourself The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Cyborgs

Freedom House has released a report on how democracies form from formerly undemocratic regimes [PDF] around the world -- and their findings are surprising. While new democracies do form in a variety of ways, Freedom House found that the sustaining of those new democracies depends heavily on how the change was brought about -- and how quickly improvements in freedom are made after the previous regime has been toppled. The surprise in all of this is that successful change and sustaining depends a lot on way the change was brought about. In their studies, using data from the past 30-years on regime changes around the world, Freedom House found that success comes from nonviolence. Freedom House narrowed their study to 67 countries that were previously governed by closed, authoritarian or tyrannical governments -- of the 192 countries in the world. They found that of these countries that experienced a regime change, people power in the form of nonviolent civic resistance -- via boyco

Cox & Forkum has an excellent piece on Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born refugee in the Netherlands. Hirsi Ali skipped out of Somalia to escape from an arranged marriage and Islamic persecution. She made a life in the Netherlands, rising to become a prominent politician. Her new life however, was short lived, as she admitted to lying about her name and age on her asylum application. Now she's fighting to stay in the Netherlands. So she lied. Who wouldn't in those circumstances to gain haven? I would tell them whatever they wanted to hear. The truth behind the story, as Cox & Forkum points out, is that Hirsi Ali has become an embarrassment to the Netherlands. She's a vocal opponent of the treatment of women in Islamic societies. So much so, that to safeguard her life, the Dutch have taken on some risks. In this case, the Dutch would prefer that their words speak louder than their actions. While they're fully supportive of women across the world having

Saudi Arabia, that bastion of tolerance -- religious and otherwise -- has been out promoting their edited school texts for the past couple of years. Post 9/11, the Saudis have been accused by many, for building a culture of hate of others who do not follow the state sponsored Wahhabi doctrine of Islam -- let alone non-Muslims. Since a number of the 9/11 murderers, and their el capitaine , all hail from Saudi Arabia, some post 9/11 spin was needed in a hurry. So, Saudi Arabia went about rewriting their school textbooks, and have since had the traveling sales show spinning the virtues of tolerance imbued their enlightened texts. The Washington Post got their hands on some of the rewritten texts, and provides some excerpts on their site. As translated by the Washington Post, the virtuous are taught the following: A Muslim, even if he lives far away, is your brother in religion. Someone who opposes God, even if he is your brother by family tie, is your enemy in religion. As cited i

This morning, as I was driving my youngest to her volunteer session, Peter Gabriel's Biko came randomly through the MP3 player. My daughter had not heard of Biko before this mini-introduction. As I listened to the song, I couldn't help but feel a bit choked up. Stephen Biko (1946-1977), grew up in an apartheid South Africa. He became political while attending medical school -- his eyes opening to the injustices of South Africa's apartheid regime -- and like Mandela, the more famous anti-apartheid fighter, Biko also advocated a non-violent struggle, both men subscribing somewhat to the philosophy Gandhi, a South African of sorts. As Biko became more political, he attracted more attention from the apartheid regime, culminating in his person being banned in 1973. The ban allowed him to only speak to one person at a time, limited him on where he could speak and forbid him from being quoted or mentioned. Despite this ban, Biko's influence grew and in large part, was

Elephants Dream is a fantastic little tale, told in 3D CG animation from the Orange Project and the Blender Foundation. The details of the plot, characters, setting, etc., while interesting, is not as interesting as the project itself. Elephants Dream is an open source project developed by a small group of artists and animators from around the world. The project used open source software, and released their short film via BitTorrent, using a Creative Commons license. What's more cool than that? You can play the teaser trailer above or download the entire movie online.

Faternal twins, born of Kylie Hodgson, 19, and Remi Horder, 17, came out black and white -- mixed race . Both Hodgson and Horder came from mix parents, and it's speculated that a sperm containing genes coding for white skin colour fused with a similarly coded egg; while a sperm containing genes coding for black skin colour fused with a similarly coded egg. Chances of this happening is apparently a million to one ... or something like that. A couple of things I have to wonder about however ... what was with the sperm? Were they being racist? This is the new century. Interracial coupling is OK. Second: 19 and 17 years old? Kian and Remee are cute. Hopefully they will have a healthy environment to grow up in.

Google Trends has some interesting statistics on who's searching for sex around the world. Surprisingly, it's not the US ... or anyplace else you'd associate with having a liberal outlook to sex. I suppose you just can't deny the people. They want it. [This was found via reddit .]

As YouTube grows, it's gaining more and more attention -- how it's dealing with that attention has been interesting. Like the proverbial tree in the wind, YouTube is allowing itself to bend whichever way the wind blows -- what they fail to understand, is that bending will be their ultimate undoing. YouTube seems to cave to any pressure, except that of their users. They're sacrificing the goodwill of their users to address the moral, political or corporate will of those that complain to them. Case in point -- recently, there was an uproar over a South Park episode that featured some dispicable acts and Jesus Christ, but not Mohammed. They were trying to make some point I'm sure, but that's beside the point here. Fox News then covered the story, which I posted about here . Under pressure from Comedy Central however, the Fox News video that was posted on YouTube was removed because it was deemed inappropriate. Fox News didn't complain about their content b

Front page of yesterday's Metro daily was an alarming headline: Prepare for bird flu: experts . At a police services board conference this past weekend, the Toronto Police presented their preparation plans for the avian flu pandemic hitting Toronto. The Toronto Police predicts that many will die in the first 24-48 hours after the pandemic goes into full swing -- with the end result of 7,000 - 20,000 dying in Ontario. About 2.3 million people will need medical attention, and 18,000 to 65,000 will need to be hospitalized. The Toronto Police outlined plans to guard hospitals from the chaos that will hit the streets when people start seeking hospital attention in droves. They also suggest that people plan on being self-sufficient for at least 72-hours -- ie. stay indoors. Whether the avian flu will actually reach Toronto in such numbers is another story. Disasters do occur however, regardless of how much we may wish them not to happen. Down playing the risk is itself risky -- j

Where are all the ailments coming from? A day doesn't go by that a medical journal doesn't seem publish some new finding about a disease whose symptoms sound just like the aches and pains you've been feeling -- and surprisingly, they already have some new concoction, or an old one newly targeted, to help your worries. It's a wonder we're no all dead already, what with everything we should be suffering from. There are now cures for childhood. Remember when you were a kid? Were you the extra quiet shy one? Well, you were probably suffering from the social disease of shyness -- or social anxiety disorder -- or selective mutism. Not to worry, there are drugs to modify your behaviour, and make you normal. They go by the names such as Prozac, Paxil, Celexa, Zoloft or Luvox. Until these drugs were invented, who knew you weren't just shy, but had a disease? If you were the rambunctious kid, then you probably had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder , an

Anger: a strong feeling of displeasure or hostility according to the dictionary. For a long time, I didn't think that I was an angry person -- someone who got steamed up pretty easily. Some reflection however has allowed me to conclude that I do get easily riled. I've always thought that getting angry wasn't a bad thing -- after all, anger is just an emotion that we're equipped with. It has served us well, and has gotten us so far. I've always thought that what you do with anger could lead to regrets -- so while anger can lead to bad things, it isn't by itself, bad. It can lead to good things in fact. Many people get stirred into action to do the right thing after getting angry at an injustice for instance. So anger isn't bad ... right? Well, consider the following ... Anger tends to be a downward spiral. The more you practice getting angry, the better you will be at it, and the more you will like use it. Those around you will learn of your ange