That Guy in Turkmenistan Died

BBC

The president-for-life, crazy dictator of Turkmenistan died suddenly of an apparent heart attack. No one knows what this means for the country as there is no successors to take his place.

And the Top Cash Crop is...

Reuters

Marijuana is believed to be the most valuable crop in America, worth about $35 billion annually. Corn ranks second at $23.3 billion.

Gitmo Detainees Freed Elsewhere

Common Dreams

Four-fifths of Gitmo detainees that have been transferred to other countries have been released according to the AP, sometimes within hours of arrival. Only a handful have faced trials with only two convictions, both of which were overturned on appeal.

I'm Not the Only One

Austin Chronicle

Apparently I'm not the only one who noticed that "Eragon" is exactly the same as "Star Wars" only with dragons.

A New Game for Christmas!

Orisinal

I love Orisinal games. There's a new one up finally and I'm really enjoying it. You should too.

Come See My Fire-Resistant Christmas Goat

BBC

Every year since 1966, the Swedish city of Gävle has erected a giant goat made of straw for Christmas. Traditionally, it was goats and not Santa Claus that brought gifts to children in Sweden. In the past 40 years, the goat has survived to Christmas less than half the time. Last year, the goat was destroyed within a few hours of being completed, so they covered the goat in fire-resistant chemicals used on airplanes. Although that won't stop all vandals. According to Wikipedia, in 1976, "Local hillbillies ran the goat over with a car". You should read the wiki article, the time line pretty entertaining.

Wikipedia

More Change, Wrong Country

BBC

The US government is once again trying to relaunch one dollar coins. Maybe instead of doing the same thing over again they should mint more of the one dollar coins they already have so that they become as ubiquitous as one dollar bills and not some novelty that no one uses.

Or maybe it's a brilliant ploy to get people to save more by getting people to "collect" them.

WEF

In other news, the WEF has released it's ranking of nations according to gender equality. The top four are all Nordic nations with Denmark falling behind the rest at a lowly eighth.

Fox News Comedy

Hollywood Report

Fox News is planning to create its own right-leaning satire news show to counter the Daily Show. This just begs the questions, does satirical news have anyplace on a 24-hour news channel, why does Fox News feel the need to counter a show on Comedy Central, has Fox News finally conceded that it is not fair and balance, and since is just countering to an existing show considered "cutting edge"?

As I've heard someone quip before, isn't amazing how Fox News is always railing against the kind of immorality that takes place on regular Fox?

In a World without Change

BBC

Argentina minted too few coins and is now facing a severe coin shortage. Stores are now demanding exact change or giving cheap objects as change. It's quite an interesting situation, and would seem to be one that could be easily fixed. So why isn't Argentina minting more coins?

Building Them Faster and Stronger

Top 500

Top 500 is a ranking of the 500 fastest supercomputers that is updated ever six months. Since last year, I've been keeping track of how much faster the computers on the list are getting. Of course it would take too long to look at all the computers. What I do is find the average speed of the top 10 and bottom 10 and compare it to the previous year.

Up until this year, both were averaging speed increases of 40% every six months, however, the June '06 list showed poor performance, with the top 10 increasing their speed by only 8%, the worst performance since the list started in '93. November's list shows improvement, but it's still below the average, with the top 10 increasing by 18% and the bottom top increasing by 35%.

Part of the reason for the low growth, at least in the top 10, is that it is usually driven by the speed of the top computer, but the current top computer, Blue Gene, was completed in November '05. I've heard mention that a computer to overtake Blue Gene is being built, but I think it was several years away from completion.

Because of the growth slowdown, my prediction for when the top 10 average exceeds 1 petaflop has been moved from June to November 2010. By 2012, the bottom 10 computers should be faster than the current top 10.

Also, apparently a 2GHz computer can calculate more than one GFLOPS, which would make my laptop comparable to the top 100 supercomputers of June '93.

Say No to Cluster Bombs

New Scientist

Swedish delegates are going to propose banning cluster bombs at arms talks in Geneva. Apparently 98% of cluster bomb casualties have been civilians. Sounds like a good reason to ban them.

This is Fantastic!

My survey data produced an equilibrium! That's all.

A Rated R Fantasy Movie?

Pan's Labyrinth

So I was looking through the movie trailers at Apple as usual and I cam across this Spanish film. The whole trailer set-up makes it out to be almost like a children's fantasy movie, but the rating for it is R. Must be one odd movie.

Oddly enough, it's not the only such movie to fall into this category.

Tideland

At least this trailer makes it a bit more obvious Tideland isn't for kids.

Gay Animals!

BBC

The Oslo Natural History Museum has an exhibit up about gay animals. I was at that museum and I don't believe there was anything nearly this interesting there at the time. If you're ever in Oslo, you should go and tell me how it was.

Comics Must be Had

xkcd

So apparently everyone I've talked to has already heard of this comic, but I'm posting here because I think it's funny, dammit.

Ig Nobel Prizes

Improbable Research

While I wait for the Nobel committee to announce the winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics, I thought I'd share with you the winners of the Ig Nobel Prizes. These prizes go to the strangest and seemingly useless research science has to offer. It's quite an entertaining list.

Your Band Will Suck

Something Awful

Basically the only thing I still read on the SA front page is Dr. David Thorpe's "Your Band Sucks". What I usually read is the hate mail he receives for his bad reviews. It seems that there is a surprising number of people who don't realize he's a gimmick whose job is to write bad reviews.

Anyway, his latest post is an aptitude test to determine whether or not you should start a band. Most likely, the answer is no.

Weightless Surgery

BBC

The whole idea confounds me. What they did was set up an operation in one of those planes they use to get people used to weightlessness. However, weightlessness only lasts 20 seconds. So they had to stop after 20 seconds and wait for the whole thing to start again. I understand why they did it, to get a rough idea of what it would be like to perform surgery in space, but I don't get the last part of the article about applications here on Earth.

Du Har Inte Röstat Piratpartiet

Dagens Nyheter

The non-socialist alliance narrowly defeated the socialists in the Swedish election. The Democratic Socialist Party had their worst showing in over 80 years, although they are still the single largest party. Also, the Pirate Party did not receive the required 4% of the vote to get into the Rikstag. In fact, despite evidence of strong showings for new parties and weak poll results for various minor parties, the make-up of the Rikstag remains largely unchanged.

How to Be a Bad Celibate

QuizLaw

A rather intriguing story of a nun, a machete, attempted arson, and an amorous priest.

Electoral Shake Up

New Standard

It appears that California is very close to changing up how the electoral college works. The state senate recently passed a bill to have electoral college votes go towards the candidate that won the national popular vote, not just the state popular vote. So for once in a long while, California's votes will go to a republican candidate, even if that's not what state residents want.

The problem I foresee is that it creates no incentive to vote. California can get away with this because its population is large enough that it can sway the national popular vote, but using the 2004 vote as precedent, Bush's margin of victory was greater than the number of voters in 38 states. If any one of these states implemented this same plan, it wouldn't matter at all if no one voted, the state electoral votes would just go along with the national vote. Even in 2000 with its relatively small margin, that margin was still greater than the voting population in 11 states.

Radio is Back!

WDCE

I'm back at Richmond and that means I'm back on WDCE. They don't have the schedule up yet on the website, but I can tell you the important show times as currently planned:

Tuesday 3pm-5pm - Darrell playing whatever is in the studio
Wednesday 1pm-3pm - Mai-Anh playing crazy "world" music
Thursday 1pm-3pm - Joseph playing Americana
Saturday 1pm-3pm - Mai-Anh and Robert playing "soundtracks"

Name the Next Generation

NameVoyager

Someone as obsessed as me over name statistics, but more computer literate made this lovely little graph that shows the popularity of names over time. What I found entertaining to do was to see which letters were popular for starting names. There are some interesting patterns. Starting a name with "U" has never been popular apparently.

One Wild Party

BBC

The center-right party of France is campaigning by giving out free condoms with the party logo. I'd love to see the fallout of a party in the US trying to do this.

Germans Going Extinct

BBC

German birth rates continue to decline despite already being the lowest in the world. Statisticians also found an increase in the mortality rate thanks to the aging population. If the decline in population continues at this rate, Germany will be devoid of people by 2076.

Abounding in Cuteness

Cute Overload

Want to see some cute pictures? Go here.

Eugenics Is Still Kicking

Project Prevention

Having covered a lot of Swedish History, the topic of sterilization came up often, as it was a side affect of Swedish modernization that continued until the 1970's. Of course, I recently read about some Native American women in the US being sterilized in the 1970's, so Sweden wasn't alone.

Eugenics wasn't about just eliminating certain races, but reducing the number of unfavorable elements within society. Sweden justified this by having "voluntary" sterilization, although in practice this wasn't completely true.

In anycase, this site is about encouraging sterilization of drug addicts (specifically crack). Much like it was in Sweden, these efforts target women. Now, this of course isn't a government agency, so the sterilizations are completely voluntary. However, there is another fun twist, they pay these people to be sterilized. Nothing like giving drug addicts cash. The first 100 "clients" of this year received $500! I have no idea how much crack that would buy, probably a lot. They even set goals, they want to put 2006 drug addicts on long-term or permanent birth control by the end of this year. There's something a bit unsettling about that.

A 21st Century Betamax vs. VHS

BBC

Toshiba and Sony recently released two rival DVD formats, HD DVD and Blu-Ray respectively. Given that both formats require different players, but still offer basically the same content, it is difficult seeing them co-existing very long, much like in the case of Betamax and VHS.

There is a bit of an irony to the article as it's about making sure that Toshiba and Sony don't take part in monopolistic practices, when failure to license out Betamax technology was one of the factors in the technology's downfall. I doubt this is a mistake that Sony (creator of Betamax) wants to repeat. So I think the European Commission can relax, as I doubt either company will act monopolistically, and if one of them does, their technology won't be around much longer anyway.

Good News from Vanuatu

BBC

Some group has made a Happy Planet Index that ranks Vanuatu as the happiest nation. I'm a bit skeptical of their method of making the index, but nice to see Vanuatu ranked so highly.

BBC

Slovenia will become the first new EU member state to join the Euro on January 1, 2007. Despite their desperate attempts, Estonia will not be able to join for another year.

Dunedin?

Dunedin...

My friend Kate is doing a semester in New Zealand. Apparently it's cold there, being winter in the southern hemisphere and all.

Is This Still Going On?

BBC
The flag burning amendment comes up and fails once again, this time by only one vote. Given the likelihood that the Republicans will lose a few seats this election, I'm hoping we can put the matter behind us.

BBC
In European news, some German guy wants to start an airline for smokers. I don't really expect this to be a terribly sucessful venture. Who is really willing to pay premium prices just so they can smoke on a plane or to be on a plane where everyone is smoking?

We Paid for Slave Labor!

Mercury News

The US State Department confirmed in a recent report on human trafficking that contractors hired by the Department of Defense in Iraq were involved in human trafficking in order to procur workers for menial task. Despite such a strong critique of current policies in Iraq, the report makes no comment on human rights abuses in India, Mexico, Russia, and China, even though all of these nations are known to have major issues with human trafficking.

Movie Madness

Criticker

Found this thanks to Heather. Basically, you rank the movies you've seen and you can compare your ranking to others to get an idea of what movies you might like. I'm "mucow" on the site if you'd like to see my ranking.

So What Just Happened?

Discovery Channel

Somehow, scientist have made light travel faster than light. By shooting a laser beam at an optical fiber it produced a clone light wave on the other side which then split, sending another wave to cancel out the initial wave while the new wave continued on. At least, that's how I understood it.

In Europe

Summer Adventures in Prague

My friends Kimberly and Lizzy are currently in Prague doing whatever it is people do in Prague. Sounds like their trip has been very interesting so far.

BBC

Montenegro has narrowly voted in favor of independence. Currently, the Pro-Serbian groups are calling for a recount. Given the history of the Balkan region, it seems likely that it will become its own country. Kosovo probably isn't far behind.

Horrible Premise Yet...

Apple

So I was watching movie previews on Apple and came across "District B13". The storyline is ridiculous. In a scant four years in the future, all the ghettos in Paris will be walled in to control crime. Somehow, a gang in one of these ghettos gets ahold of a nuclear bomb. Despite all this, the movie looks pretty awesome.

Chat Logs II

I like collecting my AIM conversations and as such I've been using DeadAIM to log all the chats I've had since NCSSM. I found that the amount of harddisk space the logs take up was a good judge of how often I chat with people. I made a post a little over a year ago of the top six people I chatted with and decided to see who I've chatted the most with in the past year. Since I'm on a new computer, the ranking only reflects the past year.

Robert remains number one on the list, while Celeste has taken second place from Helen. Albert, Kimberly, and Raya have been replaced by Joseph, Kate, and Carl, respectively. Whereas last year my top six took up 1/3 of my AIM chats, this year they are 42%. The single largest conversation was with Helen after having not talked to her for over a month, which surpassed my previous record conversation with Raya by 5 KB. Also, a new fact, Joseph holds the record for the highest number of individual conversations at 80.

Minimum Wage Stuff

Daily Kos

Hillary Clinton has proposed a new minimum wage bill. It includes the same, stepped raise that was in last year's bill, but this time it includes an interesting attachment. After the initial raise, minimum wage would be tied to Congressional salaries. Meaning if Congressional salaries raise by 5%, minimum wage would rise 5%. I think this is brilliant, but it won't pass.

Google Trends

Google

Google is testing a new service that shows search trends since 2004. You can even compare searches by separating words with a comma. Some of the results are interesting, such as for Waynesville, which had a nice spike last summer.

The Elusive God-Shaped Hole

Times Online

One of the tenents of evangalical Christianity is that everyone is seeking some sort of spiritual fulfillment. From my own experience, many of my atheist friends seem to be perfectly content being atheist and it appears the Church of England is noticing the same thing. Interviews with young people, where they tried to subtly steer the conversation towards religion, showed that considerations of spirtual meanings and messages were ignored. People aren't so much deciding they no longer believe as they are just not thinking about it. There there is no conscious thought to it, there is no searching for spiritual fulfillment. When it's so easy to be content, it's much easier to forget about the intangible.

Bagels!

Freakonomics

A retired economist decides to go into the bagel delivery business. He uses the honor system in receiving payment. His findings are rather interesting in regards to people's behavior as to when they do and do not pay.

School of Male Studies

graftonjjh

Joseph doesn't update very often, so I figured it's worth mentioning when he does. It just hit me that he's going to be my roommate next year. It's going to be an interesting senior year.

Lighting the World

Nature

Scientists have created commerically-viable organic LEDs which can illuminate a room. These OLEDs are far more efficient than incandescent bulbs and cheaper to produce than fluorescent lights. Current LEDs have the problem that, other than their limited light producing capabilities, the blue dye in them degrades relatively quickly, causing the light to turn yellow. The new dye being use lasts around 10,000 hours. Compare that to the lifespans of incandescent bulbs, 1,000 hours, and fluorescent lights, 20,000 hours. Actually, I'm rather surprised by the huge disparity in lifespan between incandescents and fluorescents. I never thought it was that much.

An Indepth Look into Imbreeding

One thing that I have found interesting about the Swedish Royal Family is that the Royal House of Bernadotte is actually French. This left me wondering, just how Swedish is the Swedish Royal Family. Using Wikipedia to find lineage going back 10 generations and some rough guesses, I've determined that King Carl XVI is only 0.1% Swedish.

The break down is this:

Swedish	0.1%
Danish	0.1%
Russian	0.2%
French	4.9%
German	94.7%

I was expecting French to be much more prevalent given the history of Sweden, but apparently the fact that Germany didn't unify until the 19th Century left a rather large pool of noble families to marry into. It appears that between 17th and 19th Century Germany's largest export was spouses. Turns out Catherine the Great was a German princess, I had no idea. The Russian blood in the Swedish Royal Family came from Catherine's husband, Peter III. Intriguingly, he's also the source of the Swedish blood in the Swedish Royal Family. He was also deranged.

However, I think the greatest part of this little study was the prevalence of imbreeding. In King Carl's family tree, Queen Victoria (House of Hannover, go figure) shows up twice, Francis Frederick Duke of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld 4 times, Ferdinand Albert II Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg three times, and King George I of Britain (he was German) shows up an astonishing 6 times. King Carl is lucky to have that 4.9% French blood which mostly comes from non-royal, less imbreed families, although some random French lady does show up twice (wife of a German).

Also, King Carl is related to the two previous Swedish Royal Families, one being of German origin, the other through Peter III of Russia mentioned earlier.

Sweden Sues Ryanair!

BBC

The PM of Sweden is suing Ryanair over an unflattering advertisement using his image, reportably without permission. What I find interesting is that the lawsuit is for less than $10,000. Compared to lawsuits in the US, that's tiny.

School of the Americas

The Nation

Here's something I haven't heard about in awhile, the School of the Americas, a program in which Latin America countries send troops to the US for training. There have been a lot of human rights abuses connected to it, so up until the Iraqi War, it was a major target of Human Rights Activists. This article continues with my previous mention of the US's waning authority over Latin America as three countries, Argentina, Uruguay, and Venezuela, have decided to no longer send troops there.

Japanese Game

Music Brothers

Crazy little Japanese flash game. It's pretty easy to figure out. Just remember to hit the space bar for the little blue circles. I managed to get to level 9 once, but I generally lose at the last bar on level 6.

Health Care to the Masses

Boston Globe

It appears that the state of Massachusetts is set to become the first state with full health care coverage. It's not exactly universal care as the cost is only subsidized and only provided for those who can't afford private insurance, but it's a step in that direction.

Leftward March

BBC

An interesting article on the recent leftward turn of many Latin American governments the United States' waning authority. I kind of wish the article went more into why this was happening. Why has the US lost authority? Why are so many countries electing left-wing governments in such a short span of time?

Fermented Herring Banned From Flights

BBC

British Airways and Air France have banned surströmming, a Swedish dish, on their flights for fear they may explode. I figured the smell would be enough.

Tom is Abroad

Sir Thomas Abroad

Roommate extraordinaire, Tom, has started his own blog detailing his adventures in Germany. He's a better writer than me, so you should read it.

The Name Game

So some of you might have seen the result of my vanity search below where I discovered a disturbing number of people with my name. I decided to find out theoretically just how many people with my name are out there using census data. But why stop there? So I made a table of various people I know to see how they rank. I had to leave off people who have hyphenated names, who go by shortened names that I don't know the original spelling, or whose last names I don't remember. Some names didn't appear on the census list, so I made a high estimate.

Name	People with Name
Stephen S	16,211
Stephanie J	9,668
Robert C	7,503
John F	2,928
Joseph H	1,006
Liz W	643
Heather C	553
Eric B	536
Tom N	371
Morgan B	334
Jared C	316
Lauren W	225
Helen C	198
Lizzy G	168
Rachel R	159
Carl S	<120
Jay F	102
Matt H	98
Darrell F	94
Chris W	62
Jenny C	<28
George K	<28
Celeste F	22
Nick H	16
Eric L	<16
Pat V	<12
Albert R	<9.4
Kate C	9.3
Kimberly B	6.9
Meredith H	3.9
Yvonne P	3.8
Kristen G	<3.3
Jenna I	1.8
Luke M	<1.2
Hadley R	<0.36
Lindis C	<0.12
Raya S	<0.03

I'm kind of wondering about the names at the bottom of the list. Does this mean that there's only a 3% chance that Raya exists?

Movie Time

The Promise

This movie looks really cool.

Who Has My Money?

Where's George?

Interesting site where you can enter a dollar bill's information and find out where it has been or to track where it ends up. I just entered 16 of the bills I have with me, unfortunately it might be a few months before they leave my possession.

Polymers to Replace Silicon

BBC

Chemists have invented a highly conductive polymer that could replace silicon in a number of electronic devices and allow for the creation of items that silicon is too rigged to be used for, such as electronic paper. The polymer can also be produced easily and cheaply. It still won't be able to replace silicon in supercomputers or other high-end technologies.

Strange Immigration Policies

Boston Globe

The Netherlands are requiring residence permit applicants to watch a film depicting Dutch liberal values. The film includes images of gay men kissing and topless women. This is to discourage Muslims from immigrating.

So Many People With My Name

So someone got me looking at this site for looking up for information on people, so I decided to do a search for myself or other people named Darrell Francis, but I'll take credit for everything they've done.

Listed in IMDB as being in the movie "The Mini". I played Manager Stan.
Got a hole in one at a golf course in Kansas.
Member of the North Dakota chapter of the APWA.
Pool manager of the second largest pool in California.
"Landscaper" at the University of Miami.
Dentist in Milwaukee.
City Superintendent of Almira, Washington.
Bass player in Louisana.
Attend the Choir Academy of Harlem.
Pallbearer in Missouri.
Humanist in Trinidad & Tabago?
Realtor in Ohio.
Went deer hitting in Wyoming.
Ordered Hentai (okay I didn't do this).
Very good at Pro Evolution Soccer for PS2.
Stole an Xbox.
Guide at Tejon Ranch.
Arrested for selling drugs.
Married in 1948 at a Catholic Church in Iowa.

Creepiest result, an article quoting a man named Darrell Francis who has a son named Jeremiah written by a lady with the last name Pinkney. For those that don't know, Jeremiah Pinkney Francis was my great great grandfather.

Now if that wasn't strange enough, here's a map detailing where every Darrell Francis I can find lives.

One (Maybe Two) of My Friends Got Arrested!

Times Dispatch

My friend Jacob (not the Jacob interviewed in the article) joined a protest tour called Soulforce Equality Ride. They are going to 18 universities that ban enrollment of homosexual students. At their first stop, Liberty University, they got arrested for trespassing. One of my other friends, Haven, is also in the group, but I don't know if she was arrested.

Close to Home

Blue NC

A blogger from North Carolina is accusing Elizabeth Dole of sending NRSC fundraising letters disguised as legal documents to coerce people into donating to the Republican Party. The letter states that the enclosed survey must be returned, however, all options for returning it request money. Hopefully most people will realize what it is and ignore it, but as the blogger states, it may be intimidating to the elderly.

Hotter Than Norway

Live Science

Scientist working with the Z-machine have produced plasma with a temperature exceeding 2 billion Kelvin. The best part, they have idea how they're doing it.

For those curious, this is the Z-Machine

You're Not Alone

Animals Have Problems Too

No news recently that I found intriguing enough to post. So I leave you with this rather cute site.

This Isn't Good

BBC

A form of bird flu has been found in some wild ducks in Sweden.

Religious Drug Use

CNN

The Supreme Court has ruled that a hallucinogenic tea used in a church in New Mexico can be legally used despite one of the ingredients being a controlled substance. This could certainly have interesting ramifications for other religions that use drugs in their services.

No New Nations

BBC

Although 60% supported independence, the referendum required a 2/3 majority in order to pass. So Tokelau remains part of New Zealand.

New Nation on the Horizon

BBC

Tokelau, a grouping of three atolls under the adminstration of New Zealand, is voting on independence today. Results will be known later this week. If it becomes independent, it will be the 3rd smallest nation by size and 2nd by population.

French Literature to Blame for Low Birth Rates

Media Matters

In a brilliant show of his overwhelming intellect, Pat Robertson pinpointed the exact cause of the declining European population. It has nothing to do with economic factors that make it prohibitively costly to have multiple children. The reason is 20th Century French Literature.

A Multitude of New Species

Conservation International

I like making posts about new animal discoveries. Well, an expedition into the Foja Mountains of Western New Guinea turned up dozens of new species. Most were frogs, but they did find several species of butterflies, a bird, and a plant. They also found the location of Berlepsch’s Six-Wired Bird of Paradise, a bird only know from some specimens collected in the 19th Century.

Strange Search Results

Site Meter

Unless you perchance scrolled to the bottom of this page, you probably haven't noticed the link to Site Meter which I use to keep track of visitors. Now it kind of works like a visit counter, but it also keeps track of other things, such as the OS the person is using, how they found my site, where they're from, etc. I haven't had Site Meter very long, but some of the results are entertaining.

Referrals for The Mu Cow Blog:
MSN - I'm the first through fourth result when Searching for Mu Cow on MSN.
MSN - Only eighth when searching for "Cow Blog".
MSN - The fourth result for Cow and Cat Art.
MSN - Someone went through six pages of results for Nope.95 to find the Mu Cow.
Yahoo - I'm the top result when searching for Mu Cow on Yahoo.
Yahoo UK - But only second in British.

Referrals for Lost Carolinian:
MSN - Sixth result for Carolinian Trees.
MSN - Fifth for Domkyrkan (I'm entertained that the third result is a porn site).
MSN - Eighth for Inside Helsinki Cathedral.
MSN - Fourth for Luck of the Irish 2.
MSN - Third and fourth for Tallest Waterfall in Sweden.
MSN - Third for Yehwah, apparently I misspelled it, it's supposed to be Yahweh.
Blog Search - First through third for Mu Cow Club. Oddly, the Mu Cow Blog does not appear in this search because I've apparently never used the word "club" on it.
Google - I was on page six of results for Pepsi Cappuccino, but apparently I've moved.

I find it interesting that MSN has lead more people to my sites than Google, despite the number of users. However, doing a search for Mu Cow on Google, I couldn't even find my blog, despite it being the first result just last year.

The Fat Virus

Science Blog

Some scientist believe there be a virus behind the recent growth in obesity. Certainly, unhealthy eating habits have been a major factor, but they hold that diet habits have not changed enough to explain this fully. The Nobel Prize in Medicine recently went to a physician who discovered that ulcers can be caused by a viral infection. So it isn't so far-fetched to believe that something like this could be caused by virus. Of course, I dread the day when people avoid trying to lose weigh because "they can't help it, it's a virus."

The New Inhabitable Greenland

BBC

The icecap that has long hinder Danish colonization of Greenland is melting away. Soon, Denmark will be exert its authority as the 13th largest country in the world. Soon Greenlandic and Danish will raise out of obscurity and join the ranks of other world languages. A vast wealth of unused land like this has not been seen since the American frontier days. Invest now and take advantage of 44,000 km of pristine unspoilt beachfront property.

US Supports Iranian anti-Gay Initiatvie

Human Rights Watch

For unexplained reasons, the US has supported an UN initiative to block two gay rights groups from receiving consultative status in an NGO council without a hearing. This initiative was proposed by Iran (where homosexuality is a capital crime) and supported by Cameroon, China, Cuba, Pakistan, Russian, Senegal, Sudan, and Zimbabwe. If we can't bring ourselves to be a greater supporter of human rights than these nations, we don't have much hope.

World Leader Watch

BBC

Sometimes someone comes to power in some random country, and everyone wonders what will he or she do. This happened in the Ukraine two years, and the answer was a disappointing, not much. Now there is a new leader in Bolivia, Evo Morales, that everyone is wondering about. There were some good articles about him in a recent Economist, unfortunately, none of them are available on the website.

Anyway, his history and campaigning method (he was and supports coca farmers) put him in the same category of Anti-American Leftist as Chavez and Castro. However, he is showing himself to be a more agreeable person than either, with few of the autocratic tendencies, but only time will tell.

Most of Bolivia's trade (legal and illegal) is with Europe, so it's unlikely he will bother with the same Anti-American rhetoric as Bolivia has little to do with the US in the first place.

I'm a Tool!

Poolitics

Maybe it's bad to gamble, I don't know, but I figure I should give it a shot. I liked some of the questions on the site, it's very challenging. They also give you $1.20 for filling out a survey to start you off.

Skype

While I'm advertising one site, I figure I should advertise this one too. I use Skype mostly to make cheap phone calls, but it can also be used as an IM client and to make free phone calls to those that also have Skype. Get Skype and maybe I'll call you more often.

Utah, Not Just for Mormons

Deviant Art

Celeste has returned from her trip to Utah and has some nice pictures to share.

More Radical Change in the Camera Market

BBC

I recently posted about Nikon cutting production of film cameras. Now Konica Minolta has announced that it is cutting camera production, film and digital, all together. They say the market has become too competitive, but I fail to see how this is hurting them as Minoltas are still seen as being among the best-quality cameras. The camera I have is a Minolta and it's great.

Good News Day

BBC
In a bizarre form of protest against whaling, an environmentalist group has left a 56 foot fin whale that had beached itself in front of the Japanese Embassy in Germany. No mention of how that got it there.

BBC
William Shatner auctioned off his kidney stones for charity. They went for $25,000.

BBC
A touching story of a snake befriending a hamster. This story will not end well. The snake will eventually get hungry and eat the hamster.

Dangerous Ideas Galore

Edge

The Edge Foundation asked its members to answer the question, "what is your most dangerous idea?" It got 119 responses, most of which I found very interesting. I haven't read them all yet, but here are direct links to ones that I found to be particularily interesting:

Technology can untie the U.S.
Runaway consumerism explains the Fermi Paradox
Let's all stop beating Basil's car
A political system based on empathy

My own dangerous idea, turning knowledge into energy!

More Wives for Chechen Men

BBC

Because of the ongoing conflict in Chechnya there is a shortage of men. The Prime Minister has suggested that polygamy should be allowed.

Cameras and Doomsday

BBC

Nikon has announced it will focus more on developing digital cameras, and cutting production of film cameras. Celeste likes Nikon and recently got a digital one, so I thought she'd find this interesting.

BBC

Norway is constructing a seed bank on an ice-covered island in the far north.

Pirate Politics

The Local

A group of software pirates have decided to form their own political party to abolish intellectual property. They have to get four percent of the vote to get any seats, so they'll have to do pretty well considering that most major parties have a hard time even getting ten.

Robert in India

Global Cities - Bombay

My friend Robert is currently gallivanting around Mumbai, which I think is Bombay. Anyway, he is one of the contributors to this blog if your interested in learning more about India.