Category Archives: Oddities

What I'm reading

Some of the articles that caught my eye on my day off:

Scholars and Rogues: No relief from heat on Iran in sight. Russ Wellen says that although there are hopeful signs for a diplomatic solution to conflict between the US and Iran, there is no excuse for relaxing one’s vigilance.

(London) Times: Why I put my money on the elephant over the dragon. Maria Misra says India may beat China in the economic stakes.

Project Syndicate: Better red than dead? Former IMF chief economist Kenneth Rogoff argues that support for capitalism will be severely tested in the near future as would-be egalitarian health systems face ever-rising costs.

Christian Science Monitor: How to make peace using the principles of war. P Surdas Mohit cites Sun Tzu while arguing the UN/AU force for Darfur can succeed if lessons are learned from peacekeeping failures in the past.

Alertnet: Africans warm to Sudan mission, but forget Somalia. Six countries have quickly promised troops for Darfur but Somalia is still waiting for the 8,000 AU peacekeepers who were supposed to arrive this year.

Newsweek: Facebook grows up. A look at how Mark Zuckerburg (provided he survives the lawsuit) is trying to build the business while keeping it cool.

BBC: Red Army virus to combat MRSA. A bacteria-eating virus used by the Soviet military could kick the superbug’s candy ass.

Craig Stoltz: Proposed: An end to bylines. Oh I know a lot of reporters who won’t be happy with that…

Mybloghasnoname: Beautiful people earn 12% more than Ugly Bettys. According to the Journal of Economic Psychology this is mainly because good-looking people are considered more helpful and co-operative. Hmm.

Glorious articles

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My post on the trip to Germany is taking longer than expected, largely because I’m sorting out a few photos to go with it. In the meantime, here’s more of what I’ve been reading over the last 24 hours, some of which has appeared in my del.icio.us feed.

BBC: Astronomers find a planet 70% larger than Jupiter. That would make it the biggest extra-solar world yet known.

CNet: Is a time machine possible? An Israeli professor is examining ways to curve space and time.

Ars Technica: Blogging to reach its peak in 2007. There are also 200 million ex-bloggers, apparently.

Scientific American: Guerilla wi-fi to put a billion more people online. A US firm plans to change the world.

That’s Ireland: Temptresses, winged frogs and Vatican demons. A deconstruction of the first issue of The Hibernian, a monthly magazine dedicated to “faith, family and country”.

International Herald Tribune: Wayward police officers must wear pink armbands of shame. If you’re a copper in Bangkok and you break the rules, you get to wear a Hello Kitty armband.

Slate: How “educational” baby videos stupefy kids. Children are better off watching things like American Idol, it seems.

Scholars and Rogues: Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality. Long-term charity is not the way out of poverty.

Curiosities

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Interesting stories I’ve read in the past few hours (Una does this style of post more regularly and far better than I):

LiveScience.com: Ancient Egyptian may have had the world’s first prosthetic toe. (With pic!)

San Francisco Chronicle: Hackers crack all models of electronic voting machine in California. More reasons the system will never get going in Ireland.

RawStory.com: Michael Moore served with a subpoena while backstage at the Jay Leno show.

Treehugger.com: Architect Shigeru Ban builds a bridge out of cardboard tubes. It’s in France and can hold the weight of 20 people at any given time.

Catholicgauze: The future of mapmaking. Points to two excellent articles on how customised dynamic maps are transforming cartography.

Associated Press: YouTube’s system to stop copyright-infringing videos.

Reuters: Dumbass shoplifter leaves address with the shop assistant.

Right royal kerfuffle

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Three female members of the Qatari royal family delayed a flight for four hours because they wouldn’t sit next to strangers.

From BBC:

The three wives of Sheikh Badr Bin Khalifa al-Thani refused take up their seats on board Flight 563 from Milan’s Linate airport to London Heathrow.

Police and Qatari diplomats became involved before the captain told Sheikh Badr’s entourage to leave the aircraft.

The Qatari royals eventually ended up getting an Alitalia flight to London.

The story doesn’t mention if there was a religious/cultural basis for the dispute, merely that the women refused to sit next to men they didn’t know. Can anybody add some detail to the story?