floccinaucinihilipilificate

I wrote recently about the public hysteria over brown people -- those that look Middle Eastern or Asian, speak foreign and look like a Muslim. But what does a terrorist in America really look like? You may be surprised. Munawar over at Free Speech War does some work to discover who are the real terrorists in America. Check out his post and the links to learn more.

AmericanBlog is running a post the marketing of 9/11 remembrance. Apparently, there's a national campaign being rolled out to remind Americans that 9/11 happened. Why? Well, to remind Americans that the terrorists are still out there, and they're still being hunted by the only party that can do something about it -- the Republicans. As the bodybags fly home from the Middle East, Americans must remember to stay the course. As the Bush Administration edges closer to the draft, Americans must remember why it's all being done. As freedoms are trampled in the land of the free, Americans must trust that it's all being done for their benefit.

The UN Security Council is set to vote on 22,500 troop deployment in Darfur , despite the Sudan government's opposition. The government of Sudan has engaged rebel forces in renewed fighting that is killing and displacing civilians, and setting the stage for a humanitarian crisis. With the fight, aid groups have been unable to enter the region to bring much needed supplies. Of course, the Sudanese government has no interest in seeing UN peace keepers enter the region. The African Union forces that are there, continue to have their funding extended every few months, but are mostly ineffective at quelling the fighting. They want to be replaced by a UN force. With no one being able to keep the peace, and no observers in place, the Sudan military is basically enforcing the government's wish perpetuating genocide against the black population. This is about race, religion, oil and money. Let's hope a UN force can be deployed soon, as the situation there just gets worse eve

For the love of books, you don't want to miss the University of Toronto's book sales this fall. The different colleges sell donated books to raise funds for higher education. Woodsworth College -- Sept. 12th/10-9PM; 13th/10-7PM; 14th/10-7PM; 15th-10-7PM; 16th-10-5PM - I won't make this one Victoria College -- Sept. 28th/5-10PM; 29th/10-8PM; 30th/10-6PM; Oct. 1st/11-5PM; 2nd/10-8PM - possible University College -- Oct. 13th/12-8PM; 14th/10-6PM; 15th/12-8PM; 16th/12-8PM; 17th/12-6PM - possible Trinity College -- Oct. 20/6-10PM; 21st/10-8PM; 22nd/12-8PM; 23rd/10-8PM; 24th/10-8PM - possible St. Michael's College -- Oct. 24th/6-9:30PM; 25th/10-8PM; 26th/10-8PM; 27th/10-8PM; 28th/10-5PM - possible New College -- Oct. 12th/5-9PM; 13th/10-9PM; 14th/10-9PM; 15th/10-9PM; 16th/10-9PM

Coming up in September that you may be interested in ... that I'm interested in, but may not be able to make some of the showtimes ... Clerks II -- 7th/5:30PM/7PM - is a possibility A Scanner Darkly -- 15th/4PM - I'm out of town, so won't be there; 16th/9PM - is a possibility; 18th/9PM - is a possibility; 19th/9:30PM - I'm busy CIA Covert Operations: The War Against the Third World -- 15th/7PM - I'm out of town; 16th/4PM - slim chance since I'm coming back into town that afternoon 2006 CLIO Awards Reel -- 19th/7PM - I'm busy; 20th/7PM/9:30PM - possibility, although I may have a date for it Big Bucks, Big Pharma -- 21st/7PM - possible; 22nd/7PM - possible City of Lost Children -- 22nd/4:30PM - possible; 24th/9:30PM - I'm busy Army of Darkness -- 22nd/9:30PM - possible Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land -- 26th/7PM - I'm busy; 27th/7PM - possible

"My God, they love my beads!" -- Roger, Chinese Factory Owner In Mardi Gras: Made in China , David Redmon follows the bead trail -- from the libertine streets of New Orleans, where revellers bump-and-grind and strip, exhibiting the worst of western consumer and sexual excesses -- to the factory compound of China, where teenage girls work 14-16 hours per day under wretched conditions for $60/month to produce the beads proffered for a glimpse of flesh. The movie juxtaposes culture, economy and the lives of girls, in context of context of globalization. The result is a stark contrast that depicts dramatic realities of Chinese factory workers with western consumer excesses. Redmon travelled twice to China and New Orleans to make this documentary. He was allowed open access to the largest bead factory in China and its owner. The factory is powered mostly by the labour of teenage girls, who work for meager wages, under harsh conditions, to make money to send home -- and hopef

If you're a programming geek -- especially of the UNIX persuasion -- you'll love the War on Terror as interpreted in Bourne shell commands over at the Sun Ray Blog . It's funny.

Forget TV -- get them in the ring -- WWF style, baby! Iran's president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has challenged George Bush to a televised debate on international affairs , so both nations can air their grievances publicly and uncensored. But I say, instead of having to listen to two mad men yell at each other, it would be far more entertaining if we had them both to square off in the ring. It would make much better sense. We could bring Hulk Hogan in to referee so he can lecture them both on the benefits of vitamins. As preposterous as the suggestion is -- of the debate that is -- let's take it seriously for a minute. The White House has already dismissed such an endeavour -- not that it actually had a chance of happening. Ahmadinejad's suggestion is just testament to bizarre propaganda practices of the Iranian government. If it was to be taken seriously though, it still wouldn't happen, because it would be an acknowledgment by the US that Iran is a peer -- a nation

BusinessWeek's latest is a special issue on the state of competition -- in individuals, business and communities.  The highlights from the issue: People still like to compete.  Only now, instead of focusing on winning at just one thing, the new focus is balance.  Individuals not only want to win at a career or in personal life -- they want it all. Competition doesn't come necessarily at the expense of others.  While there are still those who will kill to get ahead, more and more, collaboration to succeed is viewed as a key to success. Individuals who are highly competitive not only compete against others, but against themselves.  Bettering their personal best is as much a motivator as beating the other gal in the game to get ahead.  These individuals have high self confidence and seem immune to failures -- not because they don't fail, but because they see failures as opportunities to learn for the next time.  These individuals are usually not as great as they think they

Tired of all the bad news in the media? Check out the Toronto Star's chronicle of Acts of Kindness in the city. These are reader submitted stories that puts the humanity back into people. All the stories share a few things in common: they come as a total surprise to the recipient or witness; are acts of selflessness; are perpetrated by total strangers; result in overwhelming happiness to both recipient/witness and the person performing the act of kindness. Surprisingly, none of the acts of kindness are a financial burden to the person performing them -- the only cost seem to have been personal time. Imagine if there were more acts like these ... imagine the world we would live in.

The Boston Globe is running a commentary by Robert Kuttner on the most insidious evil lurking and pulling the strings in the current American government. No, it's not Bush. The man is bad, yes, but he's nothing when compared to the little man under him: Dick Cheney. Cheney is the man pulling the strings, making the decisions and running the country. Unlike any other vice president, Cheney's grasp on power in Washington is almost total. Scary. Updated: August 29, 2006 Dick Cheney's Heart Pumps Bile -- read the rant over at Hanlon's Razor.

I'm not a tolerant person when it comes to intolerance -- especially when it comes wafting in on the malodor of organized religion. I've also grown accustomed to intolerance -- be it triggered by religion, race or perceived class -- and at times, my reaction to it can be, has been, muted. I haven't been desensitized to it, so much as I've come to realize that raising a voice of protest would either result in a shameful defense of excuses or worse, an angry retort by the offensive party. I realize ignoring it only makes me a part of the problem, so here I am, doing something -- even if it's only a post -- and hopefully a little change for the good will be the consequence. Yesterday, my wife and I attended a hindu ceremony at my grandmother's house. It was a blessing of sorts -- the usual prayers and offerings to our gods, wrapped in singing, ritual and food. Everything was going well, and as much as I have no patience for organized religion, I was there for

Raed Jarrar wears a shirt that says, we will not be silent -- in English and Arabic. That is apparently a problem if you decide to travel by air in the US. Jarrar was going through JFK, when security harassed him about his shirt. He eventually had to put on another shirt over his Arabic shirt. Other passengers had problems with the Arabic script on his shirt. Now people -- get a grip here -- do you really think the terrorists are that stupid as to wear a shirt with Arabic script on it? That's like wearing an English shirt that declares, I'm a terrorist .

You gotta wonder, just what was going through Senator George Allen's head when he made the insulting racial remark ... in case you're not aware, 20-year-old Shekar Ramanuja Sidarth , was working for Allen's opponent, trailing around the campaigning Allen, filming him. It's a common practice, and Allen has his own cameraman following his opponent, Webb, around. Things got interesting recently, when at a rally, Allen made the following comments in reference to Sidarth: This fellow here, over here with the yellow shirt, Macaca, or whatever his name is, he's with my opponent. He's following us around everywhere. And it's just great. We're going to places all over Virginia, and he's having it on film, and it's great to have you here, and you show it to your opponent because he's never been there and probably will never come so it's good for him to see what it's like out here in the real world. So welcome, let's give a welcome to M

It's making the rounds on the internet ... and all I can say is, Jesus Christ, these people are whacked! Has intelligence become such a rarity? How can an elected politician claim to serve the church when it's the people that elected them -- it's the people the represent. They were not placed in power to represent the church or god's will on Earth. Nobody knows god's will. Yet these morons profess to know god's will and will execute with the currency you gave them with your votes. I swear -- some days, some people are just begging for a good-ole-fashion-god-fearing-stoning. There's separation between church and state for a reason. It's what separates an autocracy from a democracy. Updated: August 27, 2006 For those who preach of the Christian America, you may do well to learn a little bit of history. Check out this post on Deism and America . More on Deism, see Wikipedia . Update: September 1, 2006 Neal over at autoDogmatic analysis and

The US Government's National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States final report -- the 9/11 report -- has been adapted to a graphic novel by Sid Jacobson and Ernie Colón. The GN is being released slowly via Slate -- but is also available for purchase via Amazon .

... and it's about damn time. It always seemed silly to me that the Catholic church had a scientific branch that meddled in the real world ... after all, the church is anything but in the real world. The world of funny hats and robes went away with the inquisition and the whole infallibility thing, back in the dark ages. Oh wait ... infallibility ... inquisition ... this is still only 2006 ... never mind. The Pope apparently was getting really pissed with the 73-year-old Father George Coyne, former director of the Vatican Observatory. Coyne has been a fervent supporter of the theory of evolution and an aristarch of intelligent design. Apparently there was only so many pot-shots the Pope was willing to let one of his minions take at god-sanctioned science -- so, acting like a vengeful demigod, he sacked Coyne and replaced him with a more suitable crony -- one that will no doubt obey. Which raises an interesting point. Coyne was appointed to his former position by the previo

I went to see the Descent movie tonight (Wednesday night) with the guys. With an 18A rating, I knew it was going to pack a punch. The movie concerns an adventurous trio of ladies, who apparently get together on a regular basis to tackle an outdoor challenge, their motto, love each day . On their last outing however, tragedy strikes and one, Sarah, loses her daughter and husband in a fatal car accident. A year later, the ladies, with three younger additions to the group, head off on a spelunking trip deep in the Appalachians. Sarah is trying to recover from her loss, and trip planner, Juno, is trying to bring the group back together and forget the past. Since this is a horror movie, you know something is going to be happening soon. The cinematography is superb, keeping you on the edge while holding off on the real terror for later. If you frequent the genre, you know to expect this. A good horror movie pumps up the tension early on, building you up and quickly revealing anothe

Pastelero has a really post on a really cool, new feature of Gmail. If you receive an MP3 via email, you can play it directly from the email without first downloading it. A little bit of hacking can further allow you to play any MP3 on the web via Google's Gmail MP3 player. Further, if you use Gmail as file storage, you can likewise exploit it to have your favourite MP3s accessible wherever you are via a browser. Of course, all of this requires you to have a Gmail account.

The irrational fear of Asians on planes continue. Since the recent UK suspected terrorists arrest, the US has required that UK planes bound for the US provide a flight manifest. Recently, a UK pilot , heading to the US as part of his job, was asked to get off a flight in the UK. Police questioned him, and asked if he knew why US authorities would want him off the plane. Let's face it folks, racial profiling is happening. It's wrong, but the irrational fear can be understood. Brown people with Muslim sounding names are suspect. Every single one of them, because of the actions of a few. It's surprising that moderate Muslims -- Muslim leaders -- are finding a voice to protest this treatment. Surprising, because when the irrational behaviour was being exhibited by Muslims -- say, over some cartoons (there are images of the prophet all over the Muslim world, so drop the argument already), or in support of terrorists -- moderate Muslims and Muslim leaders were suspicious

Dylan over at FishBowlNY explains why the MSM is failing into irrelevance with the TV screencaps above. Related: Watch how ABC News sanitized Spike Lee's documentary on Katrina's devastation of New Orleans.

Think Progress has a report on Bush admitting why Iraq was invaded during a news conference. BUSH: The terrorists attacked us and killed 3,000 of our citizens before we started the freedom agenda in the Middle East. QUESTION: What did Iraq have to do with it? BUSH: What did Iraq have to do with what? QUESTION: The attack on the World Trade Center. BUSH: Nothing. Except it's part of — and nobody has suggested in this administration that Saddam Hussein ordered the attack. Iraq was a — Iraq — the lesson of September 11th is take threats before they fully materialize, Ken. Nobody’s ever suggested that the attacks of September the 11th were ordered by Iraq.

As another day passes, I've lived a little longer, learned a little more and realized that the world is even a more bizarre place than I had thought the day before. Meet Neturei Karta , a group of Jews, living for the most part in Jerusalem, but having followers scattered around the world. They are completely against Zionism. The Neturei Karta believe themselves to be extremely religious. They believe that god originally drove the Jews out of Israel because of their sins, and only the coming of the Messiah will restore the Jews to their homeland. Any attempts by people to restore Israel is therefore an affront to god from their perspective. They believe this so strongly, that they support the PLO and Iran's position of anti-Zionism. Check out the Wikipedia reference to the group, and read the history. Religion and modern politics are so intertwined that this feels like a story someone made up.

Terrorists are not dumb. The general public is, however. The bad guys in real life are not like the bad guys in movies. You can't tell what they look like. Evil is cunning. Evil is smart. Terrorists planning to bring down airplanes will not board the airplanes and act suspicious. They won't mumble to themselves and act crazy. They will do their best to blend in. If they're Arabic, they will do their best not to look Arabic. They will dress in western clothing that is suited to a casual business person. They won't go out of their way to look like a thug. They will avoid arousing suspicion. The world we live in is now fearful of the Arabic terrorists portrayed in movies. Recently, the passengers aboard a British flight demanded two Asian men removed from the plane -- and refused to fly on the plane unless the men were taken off. Apparently, one woman was fearful of the two men, as she heard them speaking in what sounded like Arabic. The fear then spread.

Until 1994, there was no law banning prenatal screening for sex in India. Between 1979, when the use of ultrasound equipment was introduced in the country, to when the ban went into effect, it's estimated that 10 million female fetuses were aborted. Since the ban in 1994, an additional 5 million female fetuses were aborted. Sex selection is estimated to be a $100 million business in India -- even though it's illegal -- complete with sex selection clinics that travel to villages to help parents rid the population of females. According to the Christian Science Monitor , the practice is common among all religious groups -- but surprisingly, it is most common among educated women. Educated women have access to more technology and medical care, and also aspire to have smaller families. This is what happens when technology is misused in a place where socially and culturally, they're still in the dark ages. Femicide is being practiced in India.

Read John Aravoss' rant in response to George Bush's contention that the justice system simply "simply do not understand the nature of the world in which we live." Recently, the courts ruled that the NSA's surveillance without warrants was unconstitutional.

The problem with allowing people to leave the dark ages is that when they arrive in the new world, only some are prepared for enlightenment. Others prefer the dark ages. So my question is, why did you make the trip if you didn't want something different? Hina Saleem, 21-years-old, refused to marry her cousin from Pakistan in an arranged marriage, in her new country, Italy. She was dating an Italian man. The result? Her father, uncle and another man, slit her throat and buried her in the garden . The punishment should fit the crime. These animals should not be allowed to return to Pakistan. They should be executed in Italy.

The Institute for Humanist Studies quotes a study published in the Journal of Religion & Society that looks at religious belief and social well being. The study finds that surprisingly, secular societies have lower rates of violence and teenage pregnancies than societies where the belief in a deity is strong. Why? After all, most religions preach non-violence and sexual restraint. Not so surprisingly, it turns out that religion also fosters intolerance -- whether directly or indirectly. Those that believe in a particular god believe themselves to be the chosen ones -- and therefore have diminished respect for those that don't have their beliefs. That translates into a ethnocentrism which results in a weaker society. Similarly, faith encourages ignorance and stifles curiosity, leading to irresponsible sexual behaviour. People either don't know, don't want to know or their religion teaches to outright avoid contraceptives.

Was it real? Worse, is it real, and they just arrested the wrong people? Is this just a propaganda stunt? If so, should people be fearing their neighbours, friends and family? Read more in: What Does A Terrorist Preparing To Bomb 10 Airliners Do Beforehand? Buys Cakes

Read a reflection on what the war, now being labeled as the six Arab-Israeli war, has achieved for both sides by David Hirst of the Guardian . Hirst asserts that Hizbullah achieved significant political and perhaps even military gains at Israel's expense in the war. While I don't necessarily agree with everything Hirst claims, especially the degree of Israel's loss, I did find the piece well written in looking at the strategic consequence of the war.

The recent skirmish between the IDF and Hezbollah has again taught the world a lesson that too few seem willing to learn -- that wars should be employed as a last resort, when all other efforts to reach a compromise have failed. The world has changed so significantly over the last 100-years, that countries still favouring the colonial route to solving problems will only find themselves perpetually guarding against terror. The armies of the world are no longer suited to wage wars against a smaller force intent on exacting the greatest damage and cause chaos. As the fighting between the IDF and Hezbollah demonstrated, the smaller force isn't motivated to confront a well armed and efficient army. Why would they? They would lose. The smaller force is out for the greatest impact, and they target civilians, that no army can protect -- as armies negotiate and compromise as a last resort. As Mark Williams articulates in MIT's Technology Review , the small armed forces of the wor

Researchers at Georgia Institute of Technology have come up with a solution to help the visually impaired navigate a city by transforming a cityscape into sounds . Most of the solution resides in a wearable backpack, and includes a laptop computer, two GPS receivers, head and body compasses, a gyroscope tracker to measure head tilt, four small digital cameras and a bone phone audio device that transmits sound by vibrating against a user's skull, leaving their ears free to take in sounds from the city. In total, it all weighs in at three pounds. The system works by using the GPS device and cameras to place a user's location on a map. The user verbally tells the system their desired destination, and the system generates soft tones through the bone phones to navigate the user. While the system works fairly well for locations that have been mapped via GPS, it does have a little difficulty when the GPS signals fade -- such as between or in buildings. For those tricky spots, th

American obsession with the war on terror has simply got to stop. The Republicans are now counting on the fact that people will continue to be scared shitless, that they will vote to keep the party in power -- after all, the Republicans are the only ones that seem capable of doing something about terror . The more they continue however, the more it gets worse for Americans. Americans are the ones being hurt by this war -- not terrorists. Sure, there are homegrown terrorists that are inspired to try and blow things up -- but really, what inspired them? America made Osama. Their over the top retaliation of the 9/11 bombings have legitimized him, just as Israel's recent over the top reaction has legitimized Hezbollah . This war on terror justifies the curbs being placed on the freedoms of Americans; alienates moderate Muslims, the only ones capable of bringing an end to Islamic fanaticism; and distracts Americans from the real problems faced by their nation . Timothy McVeigh

Forget Iraq, GW ... after Afghanistan, Pakistan should have been the country to take the war on terror to. Other than Iraq's potential WMD, which it only waved around at its citizens and Iran, there was no reason for the law of the west to ride into town. Pakistan on the other hand, has been caring and feeding terrorists since the days when they were freedom fighters. They continue to do so today, but now with the aid of the US. When Bush declared "you’re either with us or against us" -- Pakistan responded with a third option: both .

Henry Porter has an exceptionally well written piece in the Guardian Unlimited , regarding the degradation of free speech in the United States. His article can be summarized by the following quote of John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt : There is a strong moral case for supporting Israel's existence, but that is not in jeopardy. Viewed objectively, its past and present conduct offers no moral basis for privileging it over the Palestinians. American foreign policy, especially as it pertains to Israel, is apparently not open for public debate. Debate is being closed at the very places where open dialogue should be champion: colleges and universities. Institutions of higher learning are slowly adopting a more conservative policy as pro-Israel, right-wing nut-jobs, silence debate as they accuse free thought as being un-American. Since when, in the land of the free, is it un-American to question and hold opinions?

Is it just me, or has the words " internet tubes " taken on a whole new life, ever since Ted Stevens idiotic lecture? Now I'm finding the words cropping up in industry writing. WTF?

On May 20, 2004, Jon Stewart gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of the College of William and Mary in Virginia. What advice did he have to offer to the graduating class? Some snippets below, but check out his address for his speech in its entirety. On receiving an honorary doctorate: But it has always been a dream of mine to receive a doctorate and to know that today, without putting in any effort, I will. It's incredibly gratifying. I'm sure my fellow doctoral graduates-who have spent so long toiling in academia, sinking into debt, sacrificing God knows how many years of what, in truth, is a piece of parchment that in truth has been so devalued by our instant gratification culture as to have been rendered meaningless-will join in congratulating me. On the real world: And the real world is not a restoration. If you see people in the real world making bricks out of straw and water, those people are not colonial re-enactors-they are poor. Help them. I do

Kenya's Great Rift Valley is considered to be the cradle of humankind because of the numerous fossil that have emerged from the region. In what is possibly a first, quite a number of the finds have not actually left the country, but remain in Kenya, under the management of the country's national museum. The museum however is coming under attack by the nation's Christian Pentecostal congregation for presenting the fossils in support of the theory of evolution. The fossils represent the most visible and possibly the strongest links, that humankind and primates share a common ancestor. The fundamentalist wackos of course find this to be a contradiction to their beliefs. When will the stupidity end? Related reading : God's Own Scientists -- Natural History magazine article.

Rinsters posted a little rant on her little gripe with Clorox take on this generation of women. Clearly someone in the Clorox marketing department wasn't thinking. In the Clorox ad, there are six generations of women, wearing bright white clothes -- obviously, they us Clorox. What Clorox tried to do however, was choose images that were representative of the roles of women from their generation. The images from the images from the past showed women redefining themselves and their roles. As the roles moved across generations, you see the progression women have made -- more equality, more freedom. What image does Clorox choose to represent women of the current generation? This is a case of marketing gone bad. Clorox obviously misread women of this generation. The image they chose to represent the current generation was a pregnant woman. After all the progress, Clorox sees women of the current generation in their traditional role of childbearer, mother ... what's wrong w

Juice Analytics has an excellent post demonstrating how you can spiffy up a boring Excel spreadsheet with some nifty graphics to illustrate your numbers. Excel's repeat function can be used to repeat a font graphic, using the following syntax: =REPT(text,number_of_times) This is really nifty. When used properly, you can convert a boring Excel spreadsheet into something that is much easier to gleam information from and looks a heck of lot more pretty ... as in the example below.

Stephen Battersby over at New Scientist SPACE has a nice little article on the weirdest of the weird in Cosmology. Clashing branes -- explains why our universe is a membrane floating in higher dimensional space, interacting with other universes via gravity. Evolving universes -- black holes create baby universes, and only those with the right conditions survive. Superfluid space-time -- postulates that space-time is actually a superfluid flowing with zero friction. Goldilocks universe -- is our universe special? Special in that out of an infinite number of possible universes, ours have the right properties to exist. Modified Newtonian dynamics -- reformulates gravity to make dark matter explain. Maybe we don't know everything about gravity after all. Cosmic ghost -- by adjusting Einstein's general theory of relativity, some strange substances pop into existence. Called the ghost condensate, it explains dark energy and dark matter. It's a small universe -- and it&#

Here's a story to make you think twice about not paying attention to the software license agreements you're signing. In an automated parking garage in Hoboken, New Jersey, the city uses software from Robotic Parking to control the robot that automatically park cars. In automated parking garages, space is optimized by doing away with ramps and walk-space, but having a robot control the parking of vehicles. The software controls what vehicles enter and leave the facility. Unfortunately for Hoboken, in a dispute with the software company, they had police escort Robotic Parking employees off the premises. The staff left -- unfortunately, because Hoboken they were licensing the Robotic Parking software on a month-to-month basis, when the staff left and the license wasn't renewed, the parking garage simply stopped working -- with the public's vehicles still in there, unable to leave.

The problem with taking what was written hundreds of years ago for religion literally, is that you would have to kill a good many people in order to observe the scriptures fundamentally. Even if you decide to observe some parts religiously (forgive the pun), how do you justify leaving the more horrific fire and brimstone bits out? That's the fundamental (forgive the pun) problem with religion -- people. Instead of reading the scriptures and interpreting them for our times, a lot of very stupid, and inevitably, loud people, decide that what was written many years ago should still apply today. For a humorous take on how things can really go bad fast if things were taken literally, check out this post: Religious Advice and Best Fan Letter .

Patrick Pittman's interview of Stephen Lewis is hosted on the Internet Archive. Stephen Lewis is the UN Special Envoy to Africa for HIV/AIDS, and is a man unlike his peers. Rather than enjoy the post by playing politics and furthering his own personal career, Lewis has made his position a platform from where he's single-handedly mustering focus on the plight of Africa. Single-handedly, because his peers in the world's political apparatus epitomize neglect. While Lewis rail against the inaction of the UN, G8 and World Bank, his peers specialize in maintaining the status quo of disregard.

In Israel's war on terror, and Hezbollah's war on Jews, two things are certain: 1) innocents are expendable pawns to be murdered, and, 2) truth is likewise an expendable commodity to be massacred by both sides. Not only is the war -- and let's face it, with that much killing, it's a war -- being fought with guns, rockets and bombs -- it's also being fought with propaganda. It's getting to point where both Israel and Hezbollah have embedded journalists to tell their side of the story. What we're seeing is manipulation of the truth emerging from the region -- propaganda. Propaganda designed to win the hearts and minds of you and me to take sides. Well you know what, both warring armies are monsters. Both are killing. I'm not naive to believe the murders are justified. It needs to stop. See the truth being abused: The Jawa Report

The Landover Baptist Church is reporting on a breakthrough finding that explains how Noah could have gathered specimen of animal life from across the planet in such a short period of time for the 40-day ride on the ark. Apparently, this mystery has been bothering creation scientists for quite some time. New evidence however reinforces a belief that good Christians have held. "Noah's sons rode giant flying dinosaurs to transport duck billed platypuses from Australia, and penguins and polar bears from the Antarctic, to name a few." The site provides the following quotes: Pastor Deacon Fred -- "Those must have been some mighty big flying dinosaurs. Imagine the look on Noah's face when his sons flew in for a landing with a pair of Hippos strapped to the back of one of them things! Glory to God!" Creation Scientist, Dr. Jonathan Edwards -- "The Lord is just amazing. Whenever Atheist scientists make a new find, they think it will hack away at our Chris

Here in North America, especially in the US, we continue to temper any criticism of Israel. The reason is simple. The Jews have suffered, and suffered. WWII saw a world sitting on the sidelines until it was too late -- sitting while the Jews were systematically being wiped out as a people. The world had no excuse. The tables have turned today, however. The Jewish state is powerful, well armed and have friends. Friends who are now sitting by as innocents are being killed in the hunt for the few. Fighting terror has become such a fashionable excuse to justify the murder of innocents. If we continue to let this happen, how different does it make us from the terrorists we seek to destroy? How different is Israel really from Lebanon or Palestine? When will the killing stop?

His birthday is celebrated on December 25th. At his birth, he was visited by shepherds and Magi, bearing gifts. He has a fondness for bread and wine. His mother was a virgin at his birth. He ritually comes back to life every spring, emerging from his tomb in a cave. He performed many miracles. Before returning to Heaven, he had a last supper with his twelve disciples. Surprisingly to many, he was born around 100 BC. Who is this dude? Meet Mithra/Mithras/Mehr of Persia -- the savior sun god of the Mithraism religion . Even more surprising to many will be that there is a Mitra sun god in the Indian Vedic religion -- which is over 3,500 years old -- and is today known as Hinduism. Despite the similarities in the stories, people have been killing each other because of the minor differences. Related : Mithra: The Pagan Christ Mighty Mithraic Madness Vedic Elements in the Ancient Iranian Religion of Zarathushtra [PDF]

The telecom industry has done little to promote the growth and vibrant economy of the internet. In fact, what they've done is tried desperately to control the internet, as it's the sure way to increase their short term profits. The need for control has led the industry to push for the death of net neutrality, claiming that only from its ashes would they have the incentive to innovate. Firstly, telecom industry hardly has a history of innovation . Most innovations that they exploit today comes from outside their industry. Secondly, history shows that monopolies are hardly the breeding ground for innovation. Innovation costs money and requires risk taking. If you're in complete control of a market, with a steady revenue flow, why would you spend a cent to innovate? You've a captive customer base. There's simply no incentive. With such evidence stacked up against the death of net neutrality, you would therefore expect the pols that have been well informed and

del.icio.us has a list of full length documentaries available online for free. Check it out! There is some really powerful stuff there.

Ha! Who would have thought? Eric Boehlert writes in Huffington Post's Eat The Press about Fox News' blatant one-sided far-right reporting. After the Israeli bombing of Qana, the right-wingers cast about for the evidence that Israelis didn't do it. Now that Israel has apologized for the bombing -- you'd think the right-wingers would give it a rest already. You'd be wrong if you thought so. The truth apparently is still being told, and if the right-wingers have their way, Israel will eventually not have bombed Qana. This is yet another example of why the media can no longer be trusted.

This is scary . The US has vetoed 70 UN resolutions. Those vetoes were cast when the will of the world was not in favour of the US position. This from the country that professes to be a democracy. Especially scary are the quotes from the various US representatives.

Jordan's King Hussein's website has an article written by King Hussein's grandfather, King Abdullah , in 1947 -- six months before the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. The article was written in response to victors of WWII carving Israel from lands belonging to the Arabs of Palestine. In the article, Abdullah stresses that the Arabs and Jews have had a long history of peaceful coexistence, and if there's any group that should carry the guilt for anti-Semitism, it's the Christian world. They have long persecuted the Jews -- case in point, the Nazis of Germany. Abdullah asks the question, how can the Jews claim a historic right to Palestine after the Arabs have been the majority there for nearly 1,300 uninterrupted years? I've personally always had a problem with creation of Israel after the second world war. Whatever motivated the Allies to support the creation of a Jewish state, carving it out of Palestine was wrong -- and a slap in the face to the Arabs who fought

On the way home today, I read a McKinsey interview with Klaus M. Leisinger, President of the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development. The foundation, created in 1979, is the non-profit arm of Swiss pharmaceutical giant, Novartis. It works with the UN and NGOs to tackle Third World health and poverty-related issues. The great work and enlightened leadership Novartis seems blessed with is a testament to what can be accomplished when businesses incorporate sustainability into their DNA. In the interview, Leisinger comments on the benefits to his parent company from his foundation's work: An awareness of alternative realities makes the company more competent socially. We provide an early-warning system on a number of social or political issues because we are in touch with shifting expectations about corporate responsibility and can help analyze what they mean. Leisinger gives an example of a poll that was done in Germany recently, where the question posed was, what if a

So, you want to be a slacker at work. Well, if your company uses Office 2003, you can surf the net from an Office 2003-looking window, via workFRIENDLY . Check out my site via the Office interface. Of course, if you happen to be like my company, still running Office '97, then it sucks to be you, cause this trick won't work.

Ha! Looks like the MSM is finally acknowledging that they don't have full control of all news reporting. The admission comes on the heels of the success of blogs and video sharing sites, such as YouTube. CNN has created CNN Exchange for instance, that will allow citizen-journalists to post their content on CNN. All content won't necessarily be used, but will be available for all to see. Others are also following suit. While CNN sees the value in the free content, they don't see enough to actually want to pay people for submitting. Oh well ... one step at a time I guess.

Vanity Fair has a play-by-play, from the NORAD recordings of 9/11 . As the first plane slammed into the World Trade Center, NORAD scrambles two jet fighters to New York. By the time they arrive, the second plane had already crashed into the World Trade Center. Due to budget cutbacks, NORAD only had four fighters available to cover about one quarter of the US. Read the transcript and listen to the recordings as confusion reigns at NORAD and the FAA. Surprisingly, there was probably little the fighters could have done had they arrived on time, as only the President could have authorized the fighters to shoot down the civilian aircrafts. What the recordings reveal is that the military was totally unprepared for hijackings that would end in crashes. Nobody anticipated this.

I contend that we are both atheists. I just believe in one fewer god than you do. When you understand why you dismiss all the other possible gods, you will understand why I dismiss yours. -- Stephen Roberts Check out more atheism quotes here , and burn in hell.

The current administration doesn't have a monopoly on lies during war -- lies designed to further war. This is well known, especially for those who have memories of the Vietnam war era. However, how about the lies of the second world war? John V. Denson has an informed post on The Hiroshima Myth, on LewRockwell.com . In his article, Denson asserts that the use of the atomic bomb on Hiroshima (and hence Nagasaki) did not cause the Japanese to surrender, because the Japanese had already expressed the wish to surrender. The lies after the horror of Hiroshima were told to justify the dropping of the bombs. The use of the atomic bomb was not supported by many, including high ranking military commanders such as General Eisenhower and Admiral Nimitz. So why was the bomb dropped? It wasn't for a military victory. It was political. Fat Man and Little Boy were responsible for nearly half a million deaths. Related : The Atomic Bomb and the End of World War II: A Collection of P

BusinessWeek's annual design awards have been ... well, awarded. And the winners are: Design Factories: (1) ZIBA, (2) Formation Design Group, (3) Antenna Design NY, (4) blueMap design, (5) Davison Design & Dev. Business/Schools: (1) Panasonic, (2) Samsung, (3) The Timberland Company, (4) Art Center College of Design, (5) BRP (Bombardier/Learjet) You can check out the full list of winners from the article. Surprisingly this year, IDEO didn't even make the list of design firms. And on the business side, Apple just fell off the list. Both IDEO and Apple remain high ranking when look at the last five years -- with IDEO being number one and Apple being number two, dropping behind Samsung, who is at the top of the business heap for the last five years.

BusinessWeek has a nice magazine within the magazine. The Inside Innovation first issue came on June 19th, complete with profiles of five champions of innovation : Marissa Mayer of Google, Ivy Ross of Old Navy, Claudia Kotchka of P&G, Sam Lucente of HP, and Amy Radin of Citigroup. It's a pretty good read. A little gem tucked away in the issue was: Gapminder -- data visualization and fun with statistics. And speaking of innovation, there was also an article on how Web 2.0 is seeping slowly into the business world. The use of wikis, social networking and blogging services are being leveraged by those savvy users with access to a browser. Try as you might, there's no stopping them.

Is the music industry finally waking up? It's only one song, only an experiment , and probably not enough to get excited over, but it's a sign that maybe the crusty old farts that run the industry are realizing that protectionism wins no friends -- and is certainly not profitable. Sony BMG is releasing Jessica Simpson's "A Public Affair" as an unprotected MP3 to consumers. That's right, no DRM. Yahoo has been pushing for this, stating that DRM is bad for everyone involved, expect perhaps Apple Computers, who loves to tie consumers to their iPod and iTunes music store with DRM. Only problem with this experiment is Jessica Simpson. Who wants free Jessica Simpson music?