Rental Goats Clear Brush Better, Beat Cosmonauts in Space Race | GOOD
Look at the picture, too.  I'd love to use goats for clearing brush, if I had any to clear. 

Israel: Photos show Iran link to arms - Mideast/N. Africa - msnbc.com
There are photos proving the arms shipped to Hezbollah came from Iran.  Big surprise.

Report: Blackwater OK’d plan to bribe Iraqis - Conflict in Iraq- msnbc.com
Remember when they killed some people randomly?  They tried to bribe their problems away. 

Is Saying Sorry Better than Prison? | GOOD

Instead of sending kids who commit assault, theft, or “motoring offences” to a prison, the government sends them to a meeting. There, the young troublemaker is asked to give an account of the offense, and the victim, who is usually present, is invited to ask questions and describe the effects of the crime. Then they decide, together, with the help of a professional coordinator, on a “plan” to make things right. This usually means doing unpaid restorative work and giving a face-to-face apology.

More than 5,500 meetings between victims and offenders have taken place in Northern Ireland since 2003…. Some 38% of 10 to 17 year olds participating in the scheme in Northern Ireland in 2006 re-offended within a year, compared to 71% of those given custodial terms. The percentage of those re-offending where restorative justice was used instead of a prosecution was 28%.

In a report, the PRT said many victims were found to prefer the experience of participating in a restorative justice meeting to attending court.

It's cheaper than jail, establishes justice, the criminals are less likely to re-offend (and they also have to see the effects of their crime), and victims like it better.  Is there a better system than this?  And if not, what are we using?


Gas Loss | GOOD
According to this, cars only use about 15% of the gas for moving the car and running systems like AC.  The rest is mostly wasted. 

‘Slow money’ gains momentum - Giving- msnbc.com
This sort of thing usually irks me, but investing money in your own community, and knowing who you've invested in, personally, and being able to walk in and check on them, and help them out if need be - that sounds like a pretty good thing to me. 

10-day China package from $888 - Deals- msnbc.com
This is a ridiculous deal.  Airfare and lodging is included. 

The Truth About 2012 Doomsday Hype | LiveScience
I'll bet they will say nothing particularly surprising to most of you.  Such as: the Mayans have no idea what you're scared of, and this whole thing is new to them.

Penn Museum - Penn Museum's Year 2012 Prediction
If you don't entirely trust Livescience (not a bad idea), here's an expert in ancient Mayan writing.

"The Maya made calculations spanning millions of years and the 5,200-year cycle that ends in 2012 is a rather short one. The date itself is mentioned only once in all the many thousands of Maya inscriptions, where it is used as an arbitrary anchor date for the matters under discussion and not associated with any particular prophesy. We know that the Maya believed in a world after 2012 since they mention events set well beyond this, with an inscription at Palenque, Mexico, describing one in the year 4772."

Imagine that.  Their calendar has arbitrary dates. 

The Year 1000 - Hachette Book Group
I would like to read this book.

As the Shadow of the Millennium Descended Across England and Christendom, it Seemed as if the World was About to End. Actually, it was Only the Beginning... Welcome to the Year 1000. This is What Life was Like. How clothes were fastened in a world without buttons, p.10 The rudiments of medieval brain surgery, p.124 The first millennium's Bill Gates, p.192 How dolphins forecasted weather, p.140 The recipe for a medieval form of Viagra, p.126 Body parts a married woman had to forfeit if she committed adultery, p.

Smart.fm
It's a site where you can learn a lot of different things, with built-in review sessions at intervals.  It has a lot of language stuff.  Want to learn Japanese?  There's plenty there.  Chinese has a fair showing, too.  Lots of others. 

Roadside Geology Series - Geology Underfoot - GEOLOGY.com
I remember my dad having the one for Arizona.  I liked that book, though I doubt I learned much from it.  heheh.

Hideous Rodent May Provide Cure For Cancer | Popular Science
Trust nothing from Popular Science.  If I told them I'd found a toothpaste that mostly prevents cavities, they'd lead their article with something like, "Keep Your Teeth Until 300?"
All the same, I didn't know naked mole rats were immune to cancer, or that they obeyed their queen.  I should probably look somewhere more reputable before I trust those "facts". 


How debit cards fleece consumers - MSN Money
They aren't treated the same as credit cards, because it's just your money, not theirs.  There are also plenty of fees.  Yay.

Banks punish perfect customers- Top Stocks - MSN Money
How surprising.  The rich oppress the poor so that they may become even richer.  This by no means is the worst of their examples, and if you're fortunate to be a good customer you're probably not that poor.  "Those filthy poor people barely deserve to have a bank account at all - they have so much trouble holding onto money, that we should do them a favor by taking as much of it as we can in fees and incomprehensible loans, an dputting it to a better use...on ourselves," would perhaps describe the attitude of the banks.  I am reminded of this:

They sell the righteous for silver,
and the needy for a pair of sandals.
They trample on the heads of the poor
as upon the dust of the ground
and deny justice to the oppressed. 
(Amos 2:6-7)
Do you think that God does not see, or that He will not judge? 

Does Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Have Jewish Roots? | Foreign Policy
I'm not sure that it matters, but it would be ironic.


Billions in aid never reached Pakistan army - Pakistan - msnbc.com
Apparently, of the 6.6 billion we gave Pakistan to fund its army (which was supposed to be fighting al-Qeada or whatever else), only $500 million actually went to it.  The rest was misused.  And the Pentagon and our government don't care.


Is Afghanistan the New Africa? | Foreign Policy
Is our money really improving things?


Finally, an interesting quote from the days when it was still cool to burn living widows on their dead husband's funeral pyres in India:

"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."
- General Napier

Dwarves found 'theme park' commune to escape bullying - Telegraph
Only in China. I guess in the old days they said "only in America", but we can't compete with this.

Farmer's daughter disarms terrorist and shoots him dead with AK47 - Telegraph
Terrorists break into her house, beat her father, and what does she do? She runs at them with an axe, hits one, takes his gun, shoots him, then shoots at the others (and hits one). All without ever having fired a shot before. Brave girl.

Think Again: Lawrence of Arabia | Foreign Policy

Afghanistan is a mess. Suicide bombs are still going off in Iraq. Is nation-building doomed to failure? It's time to consult the original insurgent, T.E. Lawrence.

Yup, he seemed to know what he was doing, maybe we should finally listen to him?

Mom ordered to stop baby-sitting friends’ kids - Parenting & Family
Because by watching her friends' kids as they wait for the bus, as far as the state of Michigan is concerned, she is running an illegal daycare.

Homeless sex offenders ordered out of woods - Crime & courts- msnbc.com
This seems like a pretty foreseeable consequence of prohibiting child molesters from living anywhere near anywhere children might possibly go. Not that I particularly like them, but God has made them in His image, too, and we are called to stand for justice. This isn't right.
Also, having a bunch of perverts living in the woods, somewhat supervised, just seems like a bad idea.

This girl sings songs in English/Hebrew, and she's pretty good. I assume she's a Hebrew Christian. I'd love to sing some of these songs, too, but no one here in Taiwan knows any Hebrew (including me), so it'd be a little weird.
Still, it's nice.

Cameron Todd Willingham, Texas, and the death penalty : The New Yorker

Did Texas execute an innocent man?

It's long, but well worth reading. It appears that Texas relied more on machismo, gut feelings, and the hokey-pokey instead of due process, science, and reliable investigators. So they killed an innocent man. After making him spend ~15 years in prison. After his children were killed in the fire. Which he was blamed for, along with wanting to murder them. And his wife left him while he was in prison.
Way to kick a man when he's down, Texas.
This is not good. If you ever have power over another man's life, be very sure you have the right to take it. We all answer to God in the end.

People of Walmart
On a less horrifying note, here's something I found from my sister. People of Walmart. If you are not an American, this is the sort of thing you can see in America. I don't care which picture it is, you can see this sort of thing almost anywhere, if you're lucky.
I love my country, and I try to love people the same way God does, but...sometimes it's harder. If they just look crazy, or are poor, or whatever, hey, I've done that, and that's nothing much. We are the same to God. It's the ones who are crazy with attitude that are harder to love. The arrogant ones. And yet I know God loves them, too. My Savior is far more amazing than I could ever hope.
Anyway, it's picture of people (and their things) at Walmart.

Pigeon beats Net firm in data transfer race

Bird with card strapped to leg triumphs in 50-mile South African showdown

I'd believe that.

U.S. student kills burglar with samurai sword
And it sounds like he knew how to use it, too - he took the guy's hand off in addition to slashing his neck.

Unguided, we really do go in circles, study finds

Just as pop­u­lar wis­dom holds, peo­ple try­ing to walk a straight course through un­fa­mil­iar ter­ri­to­ry end up walk­ing in cir­cles, ac­cord­ing to a new stu­dy.

That's too bad, huh?

Cities work much like brains, study finds
The bigger and more complex the city/brain, the more, and better, connections it needs. Pay attention, city of Atlanta! All of America, for that matter.

Masked speeder stymies Arizona police - Crime & courts- msnbc.com
Sounds like the typical guy trying, pathetically, to get out of paying fines for speeding. Except he points this out:

VonTesmar, who said he simply drives with the flow of traffic, said if DPS does have surveillance photos of him on the road, it proves he's not a danger to other drivers. If he was, DPS would have pulled him over, he said.

Also:

"They're out staking out a guy with a monkey mask?" he said. "They watched him break the law and didn't do anything about it? If they had pulled him over, they could have pulled the mask off. It just proves photo radar is not about safety, it's about money."

And cops wonder why people don't respect them. Or the speed limit. Or the government. If you know you're the one people see most often as representing the government, how do you think you should act?
Of course, Christians have a duty to obey, no matter how stupid the rules (unless they go against what God has commanded); but, even if you're not a Christian, as a citizen of the US, or wherever you find yourself, you should probably obey anyway.

Video: Brazil crime show host 'used murder to boost ratings' - Times Online
Exactly what it sounds like.


A man's home is his constitutional castle. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
This whole thing over Professor Gates is ridiculous.  He shouldn't be excused because of his race, he should be excused because the police had no right to be in his house or arrest him after he identified himself.  Where was probable cause?  Don't we have a Constitution?


Foreign Policy: Working in Hell for $11 a Day
Really interesting article and series of pictures about Indonesian sulpher miners.  Your job might be bad, but you don't have to walk into a volcano whose vapors melt your teeth, or lug twice your body weight in smoking hot rocks up and down a mountain for $11 a day.  But they're glad to have the work!  Really says something about Indonesia, huh?


The powerful and mysterious brain circuitry that makes us love Google, Twitter, and texting. - By Emily Yoffe - Slate Magazine
We love seeking.


The lost world: Doggerland
Not a terrible fantasy novel or alternative history thing.
Thousands of years ago, Britian was not an island, but was connected to France.  All the major rivers fed into one huge lake in the east, which got blocked by ice floes.  The water built up until it finally spilled over in the west, which is presently the English channel.  The whole lake spilled out through there and destroyed everything in its path.  People used to live there.


Yale University Press capitulates to religious extremists. - By Christopher Hitchens - Slate Magazine
Remember those cartoons about Mohammad?  Yale published a book about the controversy, but took the cartoons out for fear of offending Muslims and being responsible for causing bloodshed.  The author of this article rightly points out that the Muslims themselves are responsible if they start killing people for infantile reasons. 


Cops Use Old Brink's Truck to Shame Suspects - WSJ.com
Park a giant, ugly truck packed with surveillance devices near a problem house (drug activity, gang activity, whatever).  Suspects quiet down, behave, or move out pretty quickly.  It's legal because the street is government property!  This seems like a pretty good solution, if it continues to work.


Crayfish Poaching Has Fishermen Boiling, but Thieves Are Hard to Trap - WSJ.com
I had no idea anyone even wanted to poach crawfish.  That's a shame.  I like crawfish.  Finding those critters under rocks was one of my favorite things when I was little. 

Typhoons Trigger Slow Earthquakes
Because Taiwan gets hit so regularly and so hard, small earthquakes are triggered which prevent huge ones from building up. 

BBC NEWS | Science & Environment | Clever rooks repeat ancient fable
There's a worm floating in a glass of water.  It can't be reached.  So it puts stones in the glass until the water level is high enough.  Smart birds, huh?


Allway Sync: Free File Synchronization, Backup, Data Replication, PC Sync Software, Freeware, File Sync, Data Synchronization Software
This works really well.  I tried using Microsoft's Synctoy for a while, but it has some problems.  This is much more reliable.

This is, "In His Time", the Chinese version. The words are fine, but the singing is...very Chinese.