Eve Sex Tape

It seems that every famous girl has a sex tape these days. This time around Eve, 26, is the lucky winner of a new kind of cult status, the kind that comes from thousands of internet voyeurs watching your dirty deeds for their play-on-demand pleasure.

The New York Daily News reports that the R&B singer is mortified by the footage of her and then-boyfriend, Bad Boy Entertainment producer Stevie J., having fun with a sex toy. The clip, dated Nov. 20, 1999, was made when Eve was 21 and lasts only 30 seconds, but in this case, size doesn't matter. The video is purportedly as explicit as Paris Hilton's infamous video.

Eve's spokeswoman told the paper that the 'personal tape' was made 'years ago with her boyfriend of over two years. The fact that a private moment is being made public is a violation, and we would hope that people would respect her privacy as they would their own. Legal action has been taken to have it removed immediately.'

The star of Barbershop and UPN's Eve was once a stripper and has had previous difficulties with nude photos being circulated, but friends say this is another matter all together. 'She's devastated by this,' a friend told The New York Daily News. 'She's hired a private investigator. She can't figure out how this got out. [Stevie J.] says he has nothing to do with it and is also horrified because he has kids.'"


Eve Sex Tape

Corruptors and Corruptees

This just goes to show that corruption is not only in developing countries. It is also in developed countries. Because in a corruption situation, you have the corrupter and the corruptee. Now we are just looking at corruptees who have to be looked after by the developing countries, but what about the corrupters? The multi-nationals that are corrupting poor people in developing countries. Developed countries are not so clean themselves. Both the developed countries and developing countries have to stem out the corruptees as well as the corrupters.

Pimp My Roomba

"The Roomba is about to become far more customizable in the home, while teams of 'swarming' robots train for the field.
Burlington, Mass.-based iRobot will release a new version of its robotic vacuum cleaner, called the Roomba Scheduler, that comes with a handheld and lets users program vacuuming times and create two virtual walls. The virtual walls prevent the Roomba from going beyond a certain point, sort of like an electric dog fence. The vacuum itself comes with improved software, but is otherwise identical to the Roomba Discovery SE currently on sale.
The Roomba Scheduler will sell for $330. At the same time, iRobot will sell the scheduler, two virtual walls and a software update for $60 to current Roomba owners who want to upgrade their machines. The Scheduler will come out on iRobot's site in August and will hit the shelves of Sears, Best Buy, Kohl�s and a few other stores in September. " More details from source.......

FX Player- The Ultimate Trading Challenge

I remember the days when Day Trading on financial markets was very popular. Internet companies led the pack of fast growing companies. I played the game and unfortunately lost my shirt, literally.

I want to take my chances in the murky world of stock markets again. I have signed up for an Online Trading Game.

As my confidence grows, I'll start putting my money where mouth is.

Old Friends and Familiar Strangers

Okay, all of you eager-beaver high school students out there, all of you honor roll types with political aspirations who want to 'make a difference' by running for SGA president, consider this: If you are successful, you will never be able to leave high school behind. Ever.
Of course, all of us carry some high school around: the memory of a particularly embarrassing incident, or an inspiring one. Or maybe we occasionally employ those years as a metaphor when we encounter some ridiculous bit of office intrigue or petty gamesmanship: This is so high school. Read the rest here....

Countdown: Richard Whitely

God bless Richard Whiteley. This is indeed the the final Countdown for an understated and unique British quiz master. We shall honour his memory.

New old craze - Scooby Doo

There is a new craze sweeping the playgrounds of schools at the moment. Scooby doo's, which for those of you who don't know are lengths of coloured string which you twist into keyrings etc. I can remember this being a craze in the early 80's.

Coldplay lift Glastonbury spirit

this is the reason I think music is powerful.

Flag-Burning Amendment

Muslims burn the American flag when protesting. For people who do not appreciate the the symbolism in a national flag it is hard to fathom what the fuss is all about.

When Americans supposedly desecrate the Koran, moslems protest by burning more American flags. What is more holly the Koran or the the Stars and stripes? Learn more about stars and stripes and make your own conclusion.

Manufacturing Uncertainty

"David Michaels writes today in the LA Times about 'The Washington Monthly.' As he says, the Bush administration's war against science isn't so much an effort to argue that scientific research is wrong, so much as it's an effort to toss up enough mud that no one is sure what's really going on:

Manufacturing uncertainty is a business in itself. You too can launch a pretty good campaign. All you need is the money with which to hire one of the main players in the "product-defense industry," many of whose stalwarts first honed their craft defending cigarette smoke. These firms will hire the scientists, throw the mud, crank up the fog machine.

A classic case is beryllium, a lightweight metal useful in nuclear weapons. For many years it has been clear that workers exposed to beryllium levels below the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard can develop chronic beryllium disease.

When OSHA tried to lower the standard, the industry hired Exponent, a leading product-defense firm to focus on all the things we don't understand, calling for more research before OSHA could act. Meanwhile, workers are still exposed at the old, unsafe level, and are still getting sick.

"

The Wimpish Media

The silence of African leaders over Zimbabwe's violent eviction of slum dwellers is Culpable. The trouble with Africans is that the fear government, why the silence. This form of complicity is an organised form of human rights abuse at the highest level.

Let's get the facts, what is going on? I do not believe everything the western media potrays about Africa. The western media is just as bad in the way they are exploiting a small southern African country to achieve the big propaganda picture.

Africans normally have a huge distrust for westerners, I'm personally not surprised by the silence. Yet, I think, African leaders can seize this moment to prove their weight.

Let's not exploit the poor just to prove a point to the western media. The west is not addressing the war in Congo, In Congo, 1,000 die per day: Why isn't it a media story? . The are more people deing in congo than Zimbabwe. Where are you media guys bigwigs? Where is the BBC, CNN, FoxNews, et al. Shame on the lot of you! Silent on Congo and loud on Zimbabwe.

G8 Summit: Noose or Bracelet

Gordon Brown has a new idea about how to "make poverty history" in time for the G-8 summit in Scotland. With Washington so far refusing to double its aid to Africa by 2015, the British Chancellor is appealing to the "richer oil-producing states" of the Middle East to fill the funding gap. "Oil wealth urged to save Africa," reads the headline in London's Observer.

Here is a better idea: Instead of Saudi Arabia's oil wealth being used to "save Africa," how about if Africa's oil wealth was used to save Africa--along with its gas, diamond, gold, platinum, chromium, ferroalloy and coal wealth?

With all this noblesse oblige focused on saving Africa from its misery, it seems like a good time to remember someone else who tried to make poverty history: Ken Saro-Wiwa, who was killed ten years ago this November by the Nigerian government, along with eight other Ogoni activists, sentenced to death by hanging. Their crime was daring to insist that Nigeria was not poor at all but rich, and that it was political decisions made in the interests of Western multinational corporations that kept its people in desperate poverty. Saro-Wiwa gave his life to the idea that the vast oil wealth of the Niger Delta must leave behind more than polluted rivers, charred farmland, rancid air and crumbling schools. He asked not for charity, pity or "relief" but for justice.

More.....

The Story of the PING Program

"Yes, it's true! I'm the author of ping for UNIX. Ping is a little thousand-line hack that I wrote in an evening which practically everyone seems to know about. :-)
I named it after the sound that a sonar makes, inspired by the whole principle of echo-location. In college I'd done a lot of modeling of sonar and radar systems, so the 'Cyberspace' analogy seemed very apt. It's exactly the same paradigm applied to a new problem domain: ping uses timed IP/ICMP ECHO_REQUEST and ECHO_REPLY packets to probe the 'distance' to the target machine. "
More from source...

The Onion 2056

Very amusing issue of The Onion .. peers into the future .. Welcome to 2056...

50 Coolest Websites 2005

This year's finalists are a mix of newcomers, new discoveries and veterans that have learned some new tricks"

2006 Digital Music Survey

The 2006 Digital Music Survey shows that More music consumers are using legal downloads.

Fear of prosecution, Internet viruses, and inferior quality were cited as the main deterrents against illegal downloading, the report said. Nearly two-thirds of music consumers said immediate availability was the key reason for buying tracks online.

Still here, so sorry

"People are in such denial about how serious HIV is. Unfortunately, the best prevention is seeing people die."
-Michael Weinstein, president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation "

Andrew Sullivan responds Still here, so sorry.

I’m sorry. It has taken me a long time to say this, but it’s time: I’m sorry.

It’s been almost 12 years since I became infected with HIV, and I haven’t died yet. I haven’t even had the decency to get sick. I am a walking, talking advertisement for why HIV seems not such a big deal to the younger generation—and indeed, many in my own age bracket. I know this is a terrible thing, and I promise in the future to do better. As gay activist Michelangelo Signorile recently told The New York Times, “If everyone in your group is beautiful, taking steroids, barebacking, and HIV-positive, having the virus doesn’t seem like such a bad thing.”

ScentHighlights

The csmonitor.comexplains how the Web changes your reading habits.

Living with Aids

A new film by Sierra Leone film maker Sorious Samura focuses on the relationship between the spread of HIV, promiscuity and unsafe sex in Zambia.

The film sounds very frightening with sexually active children as  young as 6  years old and HIV+ men having unprotected sex on a regular basis.  Samura himself says he started having sex at aged 7.

Joshua leant forward, raising his voice over the blaring music: 'Myself, when I finish drinking I just go for any girl and have sex with her. I do flesh to flesh. There is no reason of using a condom once I am HIV. I'm dying.'...........'So you'd prefer to take more people with you?' he shouted. 'Don't you have a conscience? Can't you think you're destroying the world? You are sinking Africa.'

Samura's film is bound to be controversial as it raises issues around lifestyle, where it is 'normal' to be  promiscuous, polygamy and gender inequalities.  The film also highlights the relationship between environment, poverty and HIV/AIDs.

The majority of poor people tend to live in single rooms and it is very difficult to have privacy........'We [would] see elder members of the family when they were having sex. I grew up in that setting.'

He also challenges African leaders for failing to act on the HIV epidemic and for being in denial.

The documentary is to be shown on Channel 4 on the 27th June (UK).

Source: Black Looks: Living with Aids

Climate Change

Tim Lambert asks; are WSJ editors clueless or dishonest? Is this Wall Street Journal editorial clueless or dishonest? Read RealClimate’s detailed rebuttal.

Update: David Appell calls it “intellectually dishonest“. Sounds about right.

The Downing Street Memo

So why is this memo so important. Well...you can read it here, but the gist is that President Bush fabricated evidence so that he could declare war on Iraq.....

Prophets of Decline

Oriana Fallaci faces jail. In her mid-70s, stricken with a cancer. one of the most renowned journalists of the modern era has been indicted by a judge in her native Italy under provisions of the Italian Penal Code which proscribe the "vilipendio," or "vilification," of "any religion admitted by the state."

As for the vilipendio against Islam, she refuses to attend the trial in Bergamo, set for June 2006. OpinionJournal reports:

"The impending Fall of the West, as she sees it, now torments Ms. Fallaci. And as much as that Fall, what torments her is the blithe way in which the West is marching toward its precipice of choice. 'Look at the school system of the West today. Students do not know history! They don't, for Christ's sake. They don't know who Churchill was! In Italy, they don't even know who Cavour was!'--a reference to Count Camillo Benso di Cavour, the conservative father, with the radical Garibaldi, of Modern Italy. Ms. Fallaci, rarely reverent, pauses here to reflect on the man, and on the question of where all the conservatives have gone in Europe. 'In the beginning, I was dismayed, and I asked, how is it possible that we do not have Cavour . . . just one Cavour, uno? He was a revolutionary, and yes, he was not of the left. Italy needs a Cavour--Europe needs a Cavour.' Ms. Fallaci describes herself, too, as 'a revolutionary'--'because I do what conservatives in Europe don't do, which is that I don't accept to be treated like a delinquent.' She professes to 'cry, sometimes, because I'm not 20 years younger, and I'm not healthy. But if I were, I would even sacrifice my writing to enter politics somehow.'
Here she pauses to light a slim black cigarillo, and then to take a sip of champagne. Its chill makes her grimace, but fortified, she returns to vehement speech, more clearly evocative of Oswald Spengler than at any time in our interview. 'You cannot survive if you do not know the past. We know why all the other civilizations have collapsed--from an excess of welfare, of richness, and from lack of morality, of spirituality.' (She uses 'welfare' here in the sense of well-being, so she is talking, really, of decadence.) 'The moment you give up your principles, and your values . . . the moment you laugh at those principles, and those values, you are dead, your culture is dead, your civilization is dead. Period." The force with which she utters the word "dead" here is startling.

Check out Odeo

Well here it is!

You asked for it. You requested preview access to Odeo, our new
podcasting creation and now it's time to show you what we've got!

In case you forgot, Odeo is the place to browse, listen, upload,
download, sync to your iPod (or any Mp3 player).

Here's a link to check it out:

Holla back,
The Odeo'ers

Blogs are Not Forums, Message Boards, Newsgroups, Listservs, or USENET

There is a misconception that the blog is just another format for discussion like the mailing list, discussion forums, message boards, newsgroups, or USENET. This is not true. None of these messaging tools have achieved much success with crossover, which is to say, none of these tools jumped from the Internet to broadcast news, newspapers, and politics, for example. Blogs have.
Blogs are not about conversation or commentary; blogs are about the effortless transmission and conveyance of information.
Blogs are viral by nature. Learn more...

Bluetooth alleged to be source of UK crime wave

We'd like to think that the great Bluesnarfing panic is behind us, but it looks like it�s re-emerged in another guise. Instead of stealing data, as Bluesnarfers do, these Bluethieves grab your gear. According to the South Manchester Reporter, crooks in south Manchester are targeting parked cars that contain high-end laptops or cellphones, which they find by carrying a Bluetooth phone as they stroll past the cars. More from source.

Office pranks on the increase

According to this Office pranks on the increase:

"Chances are you're in an office at the moment working away, but did you know at this very moment you're colleagues are plotting against you, waiting for you to go on that business trip or on holiday. "

Chinese seek resources, profits in Africa

USATODAY.com reports about the 21st-century scramble for Africa.

Google's new mission

Is Google developing an online-payment system to rival PayPal's? Certainly seems that way.  "People familiar with the matter" leaked the news to The Wall Street Journal late Friday, offering few details beyond the most obvious.  And in the pages of today's New York Times, an online retailer claims to have been been approached by the search giant to take part in just such an effort. Lending heft to both reports is the new business Google filed to incorporate, not two months ago -- Google Payment Corporation.  With a full 99 percent of its revenues tied to online advertising, Google is a company in obvious need of diversification. Offering an innovative way for people to transact money online would be an easy way for it to achieve that. Certainly it could potentially be integrated into Google's core advertising program and, beyond that, be extended to target the broader online merchant opportunity. Micropayments anyone?

Source: SV.COM

Tard

If you have spent much time on the net, then surely you have run across the word 'tard' prior to this. Originally typed as 'tard, it was short for retard, but has now come to mean a stupid person, a clueless person, an annoying person... just about anything you want it to mean, as long as it is said in a derogatory manner. Many times a modifier will be stuck on the front end, a common result being f**ktard, a REALLY stupid AND annoying person. Or organization.

LIFE BEHIND BARS IN GUANTANAMO BAY

with Br Martin Mubanga (Former Guantanamo Bay Detainee)

Date: Sunday 19th June 2005
Time: 11.00 am - 1.00 pm
Venue: Froud Centre, 1 Toronto Avenue, Manor Park, London, E12 5JF

Martin Mubanga was arrested in Zambia in 2002 and held at Guantanamo
Bay for nearly 3 years before being released without charge earlier
this year. The former detainee from London will talk about what he
saw and heard, including the abuse and torture of prisoners, threats
of sexual assault, and the desecration of the Qur'an.

Dr Adnan Siddiqui will give a presentation on the Cage Prisoners
campaign, highlighting the despicable condition of the hundreds
of prisoners still languishing in the Guantanamo concentration
camp and practical ways of helping them. This will be followed
by an appeal by Hhugs (Helping Households Under Great Stress),
a charity set up in 2004 to provide support to families who have
had their loved ones detained in UK prisons, such as Belmarsh
and Woodhill, since the introduction of new laws since 9/11.

Come and learn first hand about what has happened, and is still
happening, in Guantanamo Bay. Please don't bother coming if you
are a cynic who thinks they've heard it all before or believes
it is a waste of time highlighting the plight of our brothers
because they deserve it. All welcome to attend.

* Nearest Rail: Manor Park
* Bus Routes: 25, 86, 147
* Travel Directions

For more information please contact:
Tel: 07092 032 136
E-mail: info@islamiccircles.org

Source: Dawah786

40 Million Credit Card Numbers Hacked

The WaPo reports that More than 40 million credit card numbers belonging to U.S. consumers were accessed by a computer hacker and are at risk of being used for fraud, MasterCard International Inc. said yesterday.

A security breach of customer information at CardSystems Solutions Inc., a credit card transaction company, could expose to fraud up to 40 million cardholders of multiple brands, MasterCard International Inc. said Friday. The credit card giant said its security division detected multiple instances of fraud that tracked back to CardSystems Solutions Inc., which processes credit card and other payments for banks and merchants.

Visa spokeswoman said CardSystems did not comply with Visa's security rules when the breach occurred, though she would not elaborate on what went wrong.

The breach is the latest in a spate of such announcements from a variety of organizations, including banks and companies that buy and sell personal data, universities and government agencies. In some cases information was lost, in others stolen.

An entire industry has mushroomed during the past decade because of the ability of companies to gather and make sense of public records, criminal histories and other electronic details. What are they doing with it?

Dan Clements, chief executive of CardCops.com Inc., a privacy protection organization, said financial institutions lack any incentive to take more responsibility for breaches of sensitive personal data.

Not only do credit card companies and banks that issue cards bear no losses for fraudulent purchases, but banks charge merchants for reversing unauthorized charges.

"It's a revenue stream for them," Clements said

Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech Reloaded

"There's a fourth story about me that I decided to omit from this talk. It has to do with the many people in my life whom I've cheated, abused and otherwise screwed on my rise to fame and riches. You may be wondering, How can a guy who comes across as so thoughtful and caring in a speech like this be such a jerk in person?  ... Well, there's a very simple reason: I've always put money and power ahead of people."

"So when a worshipping blogger posts a product rumor I don't like, I sue him. When a book gets written I don't appreciate, I have it banned from stores. And why do I do this? Because a fawning media and corrupt power structure let me get away with it. Because when I stand up here and spout revisionist treacle about fonts and calligraphy and my role in being first with the Macintosh, people like you believe it. And it gets reported and reprinted without challenge."

"So when I look in the mirror each morning and think about whether it's my last day on earth, I also say to myself, "Just in case it isn't, I better make sure I take care of No. 1." And I guess the lesson to you as you make your way through life is, Don't cross me, or I'll crush you. And nobody will be around to stick up for you while I do it. They'll all be too busy applauding my bogus life lessons while thinking, "What a guy!""

-- Seattle Times Columnist Paul Andrews re-writes Steve Jobs' Stanford commencement speech

Ketchup email leaves UK lawyer red-faced

An email between a highly paid lawyer and a secretary over a tomato ketchup stain has become the talk of legal circles in London, leaving the sender distinctly red-faced.

The emails quickly appeared on the Internet and in the press.

"Dear Jenny," the lawyer wrote, "I went to the dry-cleaners at lunch and they said it would cost four pounds to remove the ketchup stains. If you could let me have the cash today that would be much appreciated."

Secretary Jenny Amner replied: "With reference to the email, I must apologise for not getting back to you straight away but due to my mother's sudden illness, death and funeral I have had more pressing issues than your four pounds.

"Obviously your financial need as a senior associate is greater than mine as a mere secretary."

Reuters.co.uk:

Brains Study Brains

Scientists know less about the human brain than any other part of the body, but recent studies suggest answers to some tough questions:"

Is Bigger Better?
How Many Variables Can Humans Process?

Discover Magazine has a detailed look

The End of Europe

As  Europe's identity crisis deepens, for the first time, the central premise on which the entire European Union has run since the 1957 Treaty of Rome has been placed in question. WHY, after decades of progress, has the European Union suddenly come to a halt?

The waPo reckons The End of Europe is nigh:

"Europe as we know it is slowly going out of business. Since French and Dutch voters rejected the proposed constitution of the European Union, we've heard countless theories as to why: the unreality of trying to forge 25 E.U. countries into a United States of Europe; fear of ceding excessive power to Brussels, the E.U. capital; and an irrational backlash against globalization. Whatever their truth, these theories miss a larger reality: Unless Europe reverses two trends -- low birthrates and meager economic growth -- it faces a bleak future of rising domestic discontent and falling global power. Actually, that future has already arrived."

What does this mean to us? A divided Europe will scramble for africa, again! The  "New Imperialism" is being driven by low birthrates and meager economic growth, as the WaPo says.

 

Colonialism , then, was caused by different factors. One was strategic, when it was essential for a trading nation, such as Britain, to guard its trade routes. Another was national prestige, to build a nation at a time when expanding population, growing cities and class differences seemed to be dividing the Western European societies.

A new 'scramble for Africa' is taking place among the world's big powers, who are tapping into the continent for its oil and diamonds. Tony Blair is pushing hard for African debt relief agreements in the run-up to the G8 summit in Scotland in July. But while sub-Saharan Africa is the object of the west's charitable concern, billions of pounds' worth of natural resources are being removed. Source-Revealed: the new scramble for Africa.

Oh Baby!

Nice and funny 

MIT Weblog Survey

Are you a weblog author? Take the MIT Weblog Survey and tell what being a weblogger is all about.

Who can stop the rise and rise of China?

The Telegraph online says, "The communists, of course".

The Power Of Us

Business Week story -- "The Power Of Us" -- explores the surge in mass collaboration and how it's changing the way we work and play.

"The nearly 1 billion people online worldwide -- along with their shared knowledge, social contacts, online reputations, computing power, and more -- are rapidly becoming a collective force of unprecedented power. For the first time in human history, mass cooperation across time and space is suddenly economical."

The implications for online media and entertainment are close to mindblowing; it helps to remember that not everyone wants to be a chef.

EFF: Legal Guide for Bloggers

EFF has released a long, comprehensive, accessible guide to the law and blogging, aimed at bloggers who are worried about protecting their sources' anonymity, about libel, about copyright and trademark infringement claims, and all the other legal risks that bloggers may face.

Bouncebackability

One of the new words added to the Oxford English Dictionary is bouncebackability.

the ability to recover after a setback, especially in sport.

The word was first used by Iain Dowie, the Crystal Palace manager, after his team had equalised against Arsenal.

I think it is a fine addition to the English language, albeit that Dowie embedded it in a sentence that bore only a passing resemblance to English - "Crystal Palace have shown great bouncebackability against their opponents to really be back in this game," he said.

But most of all must be the recent Liverpool performance in the Champions League final - mother of all bouncebackability.

Thriller

Michael jackson has been acquitted. Wow!

The scary thriller will make sense now.

13 Reasons Why We live In a Crazy World

"The world does not make sense, nothing makes sense anymore. While I was trying to make sense of the sudden rush of kindness from the G8, I stumbled on the following notable quotes;

'I am sure that there must be sound economic reasons - and purpose - for these snapshots of the world we live in. The list is longer than just these dozen (+1)facts, and I am still trying to figure out a rationale why these happen.

The World Bank praised the privatization of public health in Zambia: 'It is a model for the rest of Africa. There are no more waiting lines at hospitals.' The Zambian Post daily completes the idea: 'There are no more waiting lines at hospitals because now people die at home.'


The annual market value of the world's water supplies is estimated at about US 1 trillion dollars. In the year 2000, for example, 12 countries received IMF loans - negotiated under the new Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility - on the condition that they privatize their water services. Eight of these were in sub-Saharan Africa.

I hope that one day I - and you - will be able to understand these, and make sense out of these kind of things happening around us. Till then, we will continue to live in this topsy-turvy world.

Read the rest at Alternative Perspectived

So what's the fuss?"

Forgive our debts, as we also forgive our debtors

The euphoria surrounding the G8's decision to cancel third world debt is so calpable. On one hand it is a welcome initiative on the other one cannot help but ask, "what's the catch?"laurent_atl says;

the G8 is nothing but a colonial administration in disguise.

The British Medical System

I'm one of the fortunate people who have not ever been hospitalised in Britain. Besides getting stitched after a deep cut while trying to impress friends with my cookery or straining a limb while playing sport, the only time I go to a hospital is when i'm visitingl friends. This article about What DAVID ASMAN
learned from his wife's month in the British medical system is interesting.

Some of my friends work in the medical field in the Uk and I know they are hardworking kind people who go beyond the call of duty to help others. It is this kindness that makes me wonder wether the UK government does not appreciate what a good thing they've got.

Google Guide Quick Reference

For all those who live and swear by Google this cheat sheet is very useful.

Pimp My Web

The web has become very glamorous. I have not done any serious Web development lately mainly because I have become a blogging addict. I have recently been try to keep up with the developer world. Since I have been playing away, I learnt that a new kid on block, Ajax is taking the web developer world by storm. This is not the household bleach cleanser in this case. It is an abbreviation for Asynchronous Javascript Technology and XML.

Ajax has moved from an obscure and rarely used technology to the hottest thing since sliced bread. In case you have not heard of Ajax, Curt Hibbs narrates the history of Ajax in 60 seconds or less:

In the beginning, there was the World Wide Web. Compared with desktop applications, web applications were slow and clunky. People liked web applications anyway because they were conveniently available from anywhere, on any computer that had a browser. Then Microsoft created XMLHttpRequest in Internet Explorer 5, which let browser-side JavaScript communicate with the web server in the background without requiring the browser to display a new web page. That made it possible to develop more fluid and responsive web applications. Mozilla soon implemented XMLHttpRequest in its browsers, as did Apple (in the Safari browser) and Opera.

XMLHttpRequest must have been one of the Web's best kept secrets. Since its debut in 1998, few sites have used it at all, and most developers, if they even knew about it, never used it. Google started to change that when it released a series of high-profile web applications with sleek new UIs powered by XMLHttpRequest. The most visually impressive of these is Google Maps, which gives you the illusion of being able to drag around an infinitely sizable map in its little map window.

While Google's prominent use of XMLHttpRequest dramatically demonstrated that vastly improved UIs for web apps were possible, it was Jesse James Garrett's February 18 essay that finally gave this technique a usable name: Ajax (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML). That was the tipping point. Without knowing it, we as an industry had been waiting for this, and the new Ajax name spread like wildfire. I have never seen such rapid and near universal adoption of a new technology moniker!

Ajax on Rails has useful information on how to pimp your web.

At Jackson trial, talk is cheap

Michael Jackson's "official" and "unofficial" spokesmen have been told to shut up because talk is cheap.

Reflections On African Development

Reflections On African Development:
"Certainly, political independence is not in itself sufficient to create the necessary conditions for economic and social development. This is not to say that political freedom is not in itself important. The argument here is that while political liberties are necessary, they are not a sufficient condition for economic growth and development. In order for citizens to engage in productive activities and generate the wealth that they need to meet their needs and deal effectively with poverty, they must be provided with institutions that (1) guarantee economic freedom; (2) adequately constrain state custodians (i.e., civil servants and politicians) and prevent them from engaging in opportunistic behaviors (e.g., rent seeking and corruption); and (3) enhance peaceful coexistence of population groups (i.e., minimize destructive ethnic mobilization). For one thing, unless such state constraining institutions exist, civil servants and politicians will develop and implement perverse economic policies in an effort to generate extra- legal income for themselves. In the process, they will stunt indigenous entrepreneurship and discourage wealth creation. Self- rule, then, only provides a people with the wherewithal to establish and sustain institutions and policies that enhance economic growth and development. It is important that Africans design, by themselves, through democratic processes, institutions that are locally-focused, reflect their individual specificities, customs and traditions, aspirations, relationship with the environment, and expectations for the future."

Live 8

Pop stars will be performing at the forthcoming LIVE 8 concerts around the world. According to the organisers, the richest countries will be provoked into examining their collective conscious inorder to rescue the children dying in Africa. The rich countries' trade policies are unfair and have perpetuated the misery the is so common in Africa, so we are told.

 

Allow me to be cynical here, I think the pop stars are being rescued by the starving Africans. If it was not for the misery that Africans are supposedly experiencing, no one in their right mind would buy music from these faded, aging and grumpy musicians.

 

Take for instance the line up at these gigs, the performers are mostly Anglo-Saxon. The kind white tribe storms on a musical stage to rescue poor Africans, yet again. How poetic!

 

Live 8 is not a solution, I think it is patronising to Africans.

Africa is the new black

I sat through the G8 finance ministers press conference on BBC News today. It appears that Africa is the new black. Africa is very fashionable among politicians, musicians and even ordinary people. The welcoming news is that Africa is getting attention, the bad news is; at what cost?

The headlines are really exciting, but if there is somethg I have learnt about dealing with western world trends and fads it is that this has the hallmarks of another of those money flows in and money flows out quicker than you can brink. Remember,  THE 1997-98 ASIAN FINANCIAL CRISIS. I bet you there is a lot more to this than meets the eye. Nonetheless, if people's lives are saved the getsure is all the more worthwhile.

I hope we are not trading family heirlooms and our freedom in exchange for crumbs falling off the old master's table. This could just be a case of 'phantom' aid money.

There is a strong suspicion that the G8 have woken up to China's growing economic threat. According to seasoned conspiracy theorists;
" the spate of accidents in Chinese-owned businesses we have seen to date are an attempt to rally public sentiments against the Chinese in an attempt to justify government wretching control of mines and other protperties out of chinese hands and into the hands of other people. This is all part of the new scramble for Africa."

China is busy in Africa while G8 are busy elsewhere ,  The G8 need huge amounts of raw materials to sustain their appetite for global power. Africa happens to be about the only place they can obtain such materials at next to nothing.  Also, there is a Pension crisis in the western world. Could this be another form of plundering our country just to shore up the financial markets' diminishing returns?

Consider this, the EU constitution is almost DEAD, ( Straw to sound death knell for EU treaty). The United Europe may not happen, if at all. It is now one for himself.  The European countries are beginning to scramble for Africa again, including the pop stars, Live 8.

Quote
Zambia doesnt even need debt cancellation.They are only engaging in debt cancellation to prevent accusations that the policies they forced GRZ and many african countries to adopt have miserably failed. If african countries stopped borrowing money and became self sufficient europeans would have no place to get cheap raw materials...and their economies would go in a tailspin.These debt maneouvres are just another ploy to continue controlling african economies.

I hope my cyncism will be proved wrong.

Microsoft, The Digital Dictator

MSN Spaces is a waste of time and effort, serious bloggers have known that since it was launched. Blogging is about innovation, creativity and freedom of speech. All this has been ignored by by Microsoft. The MSN space censorship is not only ridiculous and unforgivable, it also measures by double standards. The whole blog thing seems pointless if you cant express your self in the way you want to (within reason of course) but msn will do what they like just to fit the bill, it really does suck. In the latest feat of hypocrisy Microsoft bans 'democracy' for China web users:

"MSN on Friday declined to comment directly on the ban on sensitive words, but its China joint venture said users of MSN Spaces were required to accept the service's code of conduct. 'MSN abides by the laws and regulations of each country in which it operates,' the joint venture said. The MSN Spaces code of conduct forbids the posting of content that 'violates any local and national laws'."

Hello! MSN is a/was a tech leader in enabling technology, what happened? Microsoft Prefers money to free speech. This follows on the hills of a recent report from CNET News.com:

Beijing announced in March that every China-based Web site now had to register and provide complete information on its organizers by June 30 or face being declared illegal, the Paris-based media-advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RWB) said in a statement released on Tuesday. "The plan is all the more worrying as the government has also revealed that it has a new system for monitoring sites in real time and spotting those that fail to comply," the group said. "This decision will enable those in power to control online news and information much more effectively." About three-quarters of domestic Web sites had complied with the registration orders, said RWB, citing official Chinese figures.

Microsoft, The Digital Dictator, is aiding and abetting oppression.

Zambians Abroad Get Short Shrift

How many Zambians are familiar with the darkside of being a professional abroad. You are constantly passed over for promotion, petty complaints are labelled against, your opinions or recommendations are ignored and your are first to be made redundant or even fired for unproven allegations.... and on and on..

I have been at the recieving end of a lengthy and expensive legal investigation that led to nowhere. I know of friends who have been denied promotion and are paid less for the work the do. This form of exploitation and abuse is very common in the UK and US.

Should we simply keep quite and be grateful for the little kind gestures given to us or should we demand our rightful place as intelligent hardworking people who contribute to the greater good of communities we live in?

I came across this post that said Inland Empires most racist college: San Bernardino Valley College:

"Dr. Chipasha Luchembe was fired over the color of his skin.
Dr. Luchembe was the only Black in the history department at that time. He was also the only one in the department with a Phd. "

I do not fully know the background to this issue, my interest was aroused because it involves a zambian.

To my ex-employers, yes you know who you are, I'll say this. Sod off!

Ibuprofen linked to heart risk

A report in the British Medical Journal has linked ibuprofen, a common anti-inflammatory drug, with heart attacks.

Doctors are warning people not to panic over research that shows common painkillers can increase the risk of having a heart attack.


The results of a study published in the British Medical Journal indicate that ibuprofen could raise the chances of an attack by 24 per cent. For other drugs the risk was as much as 55 per cent.

But medical experts say the research on non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs), regularly used daily by arthritis patients, should be treated with caution.

Apple Switches to Intel Chips

I am not Apple mac user, though, I have used one on occasions. At one time I nearly bought a Powerbook. I joined the Apple Developer Program several years ago, but have not yet coded anything. For some reason I can't quite remember, I became an Internet Developer. I guess it was my fascination with Search Engines and how they were poised to dominate the World Wide Web.

This brings me to the reason for this post. Following Steve Jobs' recent announcement of plans to move the Mac to Intel chips, developers of software for the Mac are getting their first chance to see how much work will be involved in updating their programs. More stories on this topic.

White Christian Party

Republicans are the White Christian party. According to Howard Dean:

Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean, unapologetic in the face of recent criticism that he has been too tough on his political opposition, said in San Francisco this week that Republicans are 'a pretty monolithic party. They all behave the same. They all look the same. It's pretty much a white Christian party.'
'The Republicans are not very friendly to different kinds of people,' Dean said Monday, responding to a question about diversity during a forum with minority leaders and journalists. 'We're more welcoming to different folks, because that's the type of people we are. But that's not enough. We do have to deliver on things: jobs and housing and business opportunities.'

WinMX - The best way to share your media

Beauty is only skin-deep, as WinMX proves. This P2P client helps you to share, find, and download files from WinMX or other OpenNap protocol networks. The awkward interface is littered with buttons, but it enables even a novice to share files on P2P networks by scanning your drives for media files. You can easily find files by keywords, bitrate, and connection. You can even join chat channels. To save money, the application displays the time you've spent online and limits incoming/outgoing traffic. As a spyware-free and fully functional file-sharing client, WinMX wins fans among beginners and P2P veterans.

WinMX - Version 3.53 Available Now

Culture in the Age of Blogging

Terry Teachout on the Arts in New York City laments the collapsing faith in a common culture:

"The simplest description of this change is also the starkest one: the common culture of widely shared values and knowledge that once helped to unite Americans of all creeds, colors, and classes no longer exists. In its place, we now have a "balkanized" group of subcultures whose members pursue their separate, unshared interests in an unprecedented variety of ways.

GameCenter

Video game website GameSpot has launched fo its GameCenter 'all-in-one gaming service', which combines dedicated game servers, anti-cheat measures, built-in voice over IP, and multiple community tools for a number of third-party PC online-compatible games.

The services include supported PC multiplayer games such as America's Army: Special Forces, Battlefield 1942, Battlefield Vietnam, Counter-Strike Source, Far Cry, Unreal Tournament 2004, and Nascar Racing, among others.

Competitors for this new GameSpot property, which is tied in to the rest of the site's editorial content, include IGN Entertainment's GameSpy Arcade service, UK-headquartered clan site Jolt, as well as a host of smaller community sites.

CNET Networks, which owns GameSpot, formerly used the GameCenter name for its own video game editorial site in the late 1990s, before closing it in favor of the ZDNet-acquired GameSpot in early 2001.

Nerds make better lovers

Ready for a real relationship? Ditch the pretty boys and grab yourself a geek.

For a modern girl who is far from ditzy, the geek could be the mate who brings security and a load of eclectic interests to the relationship. Even the once-naughty Aguilera managed to find a guy who defines devotion and doesn't compete to be the sexiest one in the relationship. Clearly, it's what a girl wants.

Source:New York Daily News

Train Chicken

CHILDREN are using mobile phone cameras to film themselves playing “chicken” on railway lines in front of high-speed trains, police said yesterday.

Children as young as 10 stand on the tracks as the trains approach and leap clear at the last moment. Their friends record the stunt using the latest mobile phone technology.

The craze, called train chicken inspired by a video clip on the internet, has already killed one teenage girl in the United States.

Play chicken is slang meaning- to play dangerous games in order to discover who is the bravest:

They would play chicken by driving head-on at each other until one of them lost their nerve and swerved out of the way.

Here is the video clip behind this deadly craze.

And the Winner is...

Why people would chose blogging over message boards. Lee LeFever at Common Craft hosts a mock battle between the two.

Dating an Apple Developer

10 things you need to know when dating a developer
Emily Hambidge offers useful advice for developer girlfriends.

Scandal of 'phantom' aid money

ActionAid has issued a report suggesting that 61 percent of aid flows are 'phantom' --not actually helping to relieve poverty in the developing World. The charity includes in its 'phantom' calculation debt relief (it labels this an 'accounting exercise'), money paid to overseas consultants and tied aid.

The report accused rich countries of 'political grandstanding' and highlighted the ways in which they were disguising how real aid flows were even lower than they appeared to be.
'Failure to target aid at the poorest countries, runaway spending on overpriced technical assistance from international consultants, tying aid to purchases from donor countries' own firms, cumbersome and ill-coordinated planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting requirements, excessive administrative costs, late and partial disbursements, double counting of debt relief, and aid spending on immigration services all deflate the value of aid,' the charity said.

What is even outrageous is that when all the money is spent on misguided projects, the blame falls on the countries receiving aid. Mismanagement, corruption are just a few labels tagged on poor countries.

Have the donor countries ever wondered wether the have a whole army of so called experts on a feeding frenzy that only leaves crumbs for the very people they purport to be assisting?

Nolle Prosequi

The President of Zambia, Levy Mwanawasa's attack on the diplomats is a clear attempt to divert attention from the problem at hand. The president is standing by the former permanent secretary in the Ministry of Health, Kashiwa Bulaya's Nolle Prosequi:

"An entry made on the record, by which the prosecutor or plaintiff declares that he will proceed no further"

Umm, this smels like a coverup, a corrupt mess.

Web Sites, Blogs Can Boost Your Career

"Blogs are also being touted as a strategy for career enhancement. The idea is for professionals to start blogs that focus on topics of interest to people in their fields. The goal is to position yourself as an expert in the field - at least among people who read blogs."
Source:Yahoo! News

The American Taliban

Quotes from the The American Taliban, read them and weep.

Google Takes Top Media Spot

"With a current stock market capitalization of more than $80 billion, Google is now worth more than any other media company in the world. That includes Time Warner, created five years ago when AOL purchased Time Warner for $106 billion in a much-hyped combination of old and new media.
But Time Warner's share price has deteriorated since the dot.com bubble burst -- its market capitalization on Tuesday stood at $78.1 billion -- and investors view Google as the hot internet and media company these days."

Sourec: Reuters.com

Pitt says media focus is 'misguided'

"Brad Pitt is taking on poverty and AIDS in Africa - and the tabloids. Pitt talks to Diane Sawyer about the humanitarian crisis in Africa.

'I can't get out of the press. These people can't get in the press. So let's redirect the attention a little bit,' he tells Sawyer.
'We have the potential to end poverty (in Africa) in our time. ... Man - I mean, what is more exciting than that? The potential's there. We gotta go for it.'

The bloggers have all the best news

I have been wondering when the UK bloggers will produce something similar to How the Blogs Torpedoed Dan Rather in the US.

The Guardian Unlimited Online says:

"One of the most persuasive theories for this contrast is the far more rambunctious nature of the British national and regional press compared to the mostly regional, generally staid, US titles. So, the argument goes, American bloggers are fulfilling a need for a heated national conversation among competing viewpoints, whereas we can arouse much the same feelings of empathy or revulsion by reading Richard Littlejohn or Polly Toynbee."

The Uk lags behind the US in many areas, a breakthrough Rathergate moment is inevitable sooner or later.

Video: 4th25

Watch the Video by "Members of the rap group-who serve with Task Force 112-express things that soldiers usually keep bottled up in their album 'Live From Iraq.' Warning: Contains graphic language and violent images."

self-replicating rapid prototyper

Dr. Adrian Bowyer,a senior lecturer in mechanical engineering at the University of Bath in the UK, has designed The machine that can copy anything.

To encourage that development, the design of the RepRap will be made available online and free to use, in the same way as open source software such as the Linux operating system or Mozilla's Firefox browser.

"The most interesting part of this is that we're going to give it away," said Bowyer.

"If these machines take off, it will give individual people the chance to do this themselves, and we are talking about making a lot of our consumer goods. The effect this has on industry and society could be dramatic."

The Fugees

Radio nights here I come- again. I'm quite excited that The Fugees are talking reuniting again

Wyclef Jean, Lauryn Hill and Pras -- are plotting to invade our musical sensitivities. All I can say is "what took you so long? All I remember is that Lauryn Hill looked like Medusa.

Scramble For Africa - Part 2

China is busy in Africa while Europe/US is busy elsewhere , like Iraq. The have failed to crack Iraq, Africa is an easy option.

 

We are back to the cold war era when African countries were simply strategic interests in the the global supremacy war.

 

The super powers need huge amounts of raw materials to sustain their appetite for global power. Africa happens to be about the only place they can obtain such materials at next to nothing cost.

 

Consider this, the EU constitution is DEAD, (Straw to sound death knell for EU treaty). The United Europe may not happen, if at all. It is now one for himself.

 

The European countries are beginning to scramble for Africa, even the pop stars, Live 8, are cashing in on  Africa.

 

Look out, the imperialists are coming back!

Blair gives up on his EU dream

I found this article on Tony Blair giving up ....

Mr Blair, who will seek to shift the focus of his administration on to poverty in the Third World this week during talks with President Bush, has told his closest allies: "Africa is worth fighting for. Europe, in its present form, is not."

Now , we hear that Bush is not behind him on his African dream.

Poor Tony, there is nothing worse than not be wanted.

Notorious BIG's Slaying Theory Debunked

"Psycho Mike", the informant who claimed Notorious BIG was killed after Suge Knight and corrupt police officers orchestrated the murder, has admitted his evidence was "all hearsay".

The Theory of Evolution: Just a Theory?

Historian Prof. William D. Rubinstein shares his doubts about the theory of evolution. He raises questions about evolution to which he seeks answers. "

The 100 Best Products of 2005

The 100 Best Products of 2005 according to PCWorld.com.

Sensational British Media

There is something about the UK media that makes me feel like puking. Whenever there is an unfortunate or tragedy among Africans or black people, all sense of proportion goes out of the window.

Take for instance The BBC's claim

"Hundreds of central African children living in the UK may have suffered abuse or even been killed after being accused of witchcraft, charities say. "

When child abuse occurs among white people it is called a rare and isolated incident. For us who live in the Uk and witness the level of child abuse in this country just wonder wether the media prefers to see only what the choose.

Just google "paedophiles" and you'll get the picture of crisis of immense proportion.

I know a lot of African families and I have not seen any abuse on the level claimed by BBC News, at least not among the people I know.

Children should be protected at all cost no matter their race, colour or creed. And the Media should play a role by highlighting activities that put children at risk. Picking and choosing what is more newsworthy is cowardly and shameless exploitation of vulnerable people.

The Secret to a Good Marriage? Delusion

I think we are deluded when we get married. Divorce is so common nowadays that it is not surprising to see couples call it a day. People who manage to stay married obviosly have something unique that keeps them together.For instance, how did the World's longest-married couple clock up 80 years.

Robin Hanson offered a perceptive comment on marriage and divorce (paraphrased).

We tend to remember slights and frustrations more than favors and kindnesses. So inevitably in a marriage the weight of negative remembrances of thing past comes to exceed that of the positive. Divorce is the result.

The secret to a good marriage, therefore is selective forgetfulness. Coincidentally some psychologists have recently come to the same conclusion. The couples who stay together are the delusional ones - the ones who look at their past with rose-colored glasses. strations more than favors and kindnesses.  So inevitably in a marriage the weight of negative remembrances of thing past comes to exceed that of the positive.  Divorce is the result.

The secret to a good marriage, therefore is selective forgetfulness.  Coincidentally some psychologists have recently come to the same conclusion.  The couples who stay together are the delusional ones - the ones who look at their past with rose-colored glasses.

CEO of the Geek Factory was misquoted

Statement regarding article written by the Atlanta Journal Constitution reporter re: Hiring practices based on email domain names:

The CEO of the Geek Factory was misquoted in a recent article regarding hiring practices based on email domain names. The full quote read: "I would never hire someone with an address like "hotbabe43@aol.com" or "Iamgoodinbed69@hotmail.com."

The Geek Factory has no problem with resumes coming from aol.com, and has hired many employees with an aol.com address. From a professionalism standpoint, however, we would hire someone with a "firstname.lastname@aol.com" address over someone with a "HotStud71@aol.com" address every time. It's simply our choice to hire employees who know enough not to email potential employers from a non-professional email address.

The Geek Factory apologizes for the error, and would like to assure any readers of that article that we're happy to receive all resumes, whether they end in aol.com or not."

Email Profiling

l'll never hire someone with an AOL.com address. It screams that you're at a very basic stage." -- Peter Shankman, founder of New York City marketing firm Geek Factory, confesses to e-mail profiling

ebusiness Marketing

Selling online requires a lot mathematic skills.
If you want to be a marketing manager in the Internet world, consider getting a PhD in mathematics.

That's because advertising on the Internet involves millions of keywords, billions of Web pages, and millions of irrational and ephemeral surfing patterns conducted by millions of people.

Translation: Online advertising isn't just about a clever campaign, it's about mathematical computations.

I have been marketing ebusiness websites and the advertising cost is always getting higher.

Mark Felt

Such was the mystery behind Deep Throat that years after Watergate the identity of the secret source who gave Bob Woodward, of The Washington Post, information that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon was not known.

Vanity Fair's revelation that former FBI official W. Mark Felt was journalist Bob Woodward's famed anonymous source on the Watergate scandal. Woodward's subsequent confirmation filled in 'the last act, the last unknown fact' about the events that led to the downfall of President Richard Nixon.

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries

Ten Most Harmful Books of the 19th and 20th Centuries? ....list of books close-minded people should avoid.

Fact about Jumpers

The The New Yorker describes the fatal grandeur of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Sinful Bloggers

The article Bless Me, Blog, for I've Sinned shows how online confessions have turned into art form.

And it is the fakeness, the artifice and the performance that make this confessional worth peeking at. The secret sharers here aren't mindless flashers but practiced strippers. They don't want to get rid of their secrets. They love them. They arrange them. They tend them. They turn them into fetishes.

Blogging Becomes A Corporate Job

WSJ.com says: "In its short lifespan, blogging has largely been a freewheeling exercise in online self-expression. Now it is also becoming a corporate job"

Touch base

I have a habit of regularly contacting people I know. I'm not a salesman, nor do I wish to turn into one. I usually contact friends through email, SMS, phone, this blog or the worst habit of turning up at the door step without notice if I do not get a timely response.

Half the time I have no idea nor reason why I'm doing it, rather it is just the nagging urge to touch base.

To all my friends who do not wish to be spammed, stalked, hounded, harrased or bothered, please, send me your blog url.

A Cheater and a Liar

Have a Laugh with the Funny Golf Joke Called A Cheater and a Liar