Friday, September 02, 2005
The worst has happened in New Orleans and not everyone is surprised. For years, specialists warned that the city, built partly below sea level in an area of radically depleted wetlands, was a disaster waiting to happen. When it did, they said, we could only blame ourselves. That the Crescent City is where it is does not make sense in the first place. But the first European settlers, in 1718, made the same calculation that generations have made ever since - the site was right for commerce, and money. What has happened in recent decades has made matters worse. Not just in New Orleans but all along the Gulf Coast, human encroachment has accelerated without pause. This has meant taming natural water flows - including the gradual straightening of the Mississippi itself - and draining wetlands.
As the victims of Hurricane Katrina struggle to meet basic needs like food, water and shelter, Planned Parenthood has announced its contribution to the disaster relief: Free birth control and free Plan B kits -- also known as the "morning-after" pill, LifeNews.com reported. Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America said Planned Parenthood's latest effort is another example of just how much the abortion industry is out of touch with the needs of women and families. "The world sees people in the ravaged areas desperate for food, bedding and shelter," Wright said. "Planned Parenthood only sees a publicity opportunity to push its latest political football -- the morning-after pill."
By international standards New Zealand is still near the "work" extreme of the "work-life" scale; we work more than in any other developed country except Iceland. Those in paid work (full-time or part-time) in New Zealand work an average of 35 hours a week, including holidays, compared with the developed country average of 31 hours. Most European countries have four to six weeks of annual leave, compared to New Zealand's three - due to become four from April 2007 if Labour is re-elected. An online EEO Trust survey of 1200 fathers in 2003 found that 80 per cent would like to spend more time with their children.
Young New Zealanders are rapidly losing touch with the great outdoors due largely to lack of time by parents and over heightened concerns about safety. Outward Bound School Director – Anakiwa, Steve Hall, said as demand for Outward Bound courses continues to accelerate, the organisation had observed a decline in the number of young New Zealanders who have an understanding of and confidence in tackling the outdoors environment. “We’ve become increasingly aware over the years that young people no longer have the right clothing these days to tackle the elements because they don’t own it and don’t know what’s required. Years ago this rarely ever happened because people owned the right apparel and, if they didn’t, they simply borrowed it from a relative or friend.” Outward Bound has also noticed a general trend towards parents sending their children on Outward Bound courses as their ‘once in a lifetime’ outdoors experience.
In a follow-up to yesterday's Daily Briefing item about the importance of family structure in considering child poverty, Lindsay Mitchell points out that New Zealand's own Ministry of Social Development has done a study which clearly showed that family structure, when both families were "poor", had an effect. They compared families on a similar income level and discovered that those children whose income came from the market instead of govt transfers had better outcomes. Those with a market income often had two parents with a working father. The study is called "Children in Poor Families: Does the Source of Family Income Change the Picture?"
New Zealand needs to bring back mothers-in-law to help with the raising of families, Social Development Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday. The 52-year-old father of two grown-up stepsons lamented the huge number of families who did not know how to raise kids and did not have a mother-in-law or grandmother to turn to for advice. "Bring back mothers-in-law is what I say ... It reflects our concern that there are a lot of families - whether it is a health issue, an education issue or a parenting issue - who are struggling." [Maharey is at odds with himself here. If we are to have mothers-in-law, we have to have marriage. But the government has done everything it can to kill traditional marriage, and the Minister himself has said that marriage has "gone the way of red telephone boxes".]
Pope Benedict XVI has told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates. "Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society," he told about 15,000 people at his weekly audience in the Vatican. He said the decline in the number of births "deprives some nations of freshness and energy and of hopes for the future incarnate in children." The pope also spoke of "the security, the stability and the force of a numerous family." [Once upon a time, people mocked Catholics about the number of children they had. Now they may be the saviours of population decline. Except that Catholic countries of Europe have some of the lowest fertility rates!!! Help, I'm confused.]
Deborah Coddington points out that more forced school closures are in the pipeline after the election if Labour wins. In preparation, the Ministry of Education placed an ad in the Dominion Post last Saturday for a “Network Facilitator” for the Nelson region.
Canadians Bill Dalrymple, 56, and best friend Bryan Pinn, 65, have decided to take the plunge and try out the country's new same-sex marriage legislation with a twist -- they're straight men. "I think it's a hoot," Pinn said. The proposal came last Monday on the patio of a Toronto bar amid shock and laughter from their friends. But the two -- both of whom were previously married and both of whom are still looking for a good woman to love -- insist that after the humour subsided, a real issue lies at the heart of it all. "There are significant tax implications that we don't think the government has thought through," Pinn said.
Companies that hire workplace chaplains are finding that besides helping employees, they may help their bottom line, too. It's not that businesses are trying to take on a religious role. Corporate chaplains serve people of any or no faith, and the use of their services is voluntary. But business leaders increasingly recognize that employees who face crises often can't help bringing their personal difficulties to work, and job performance can suffer. Making provision to care for their workforce becomes a part of good business practice.
As the victims of Hurricane Katrina struggle to meet basic needs like food, water and shelter, Planned Parenthood has announced its contribution to the disaster relief: Free birth control and free Plan B kits -- also known as the "morning-after" pill, LifeNews.com reported. Wendy Wright of Concerned Women for America said Planned Parenthood's latest effort is another example of just how much the abortion industry is out of touch with the needs of women and families. "The world sees people in the ravaged areas desperate for food, bedding and shelter," Wright said. "Planned Parenthood only sees a publicity opportunity to push its latest political football -- the morning-after pill."
By international standards New Zealand is still near the "work" extreme of the "work-life" scale; we work more than in any other developed country except Iceland. Those in paid work (full-time or part-time) in New Zealand work an average of 35 hours a week, including holidays, compared with the developed country average of 31 hours. Most European countries have four to six weeks of annual leave, compared to New Zealand's three - due to become four from April 2007 if Labour is re-elected. An online EEO Trust survey of 1200 fathers in 2003 found that 80 per cent would like to spend more time with their children.
Young New Zealanders are rapidly losing touch with the great outdoors due largely to lack of time by parents and over heightened concerns about safety. Outward Bound School Director – Anakiwa, Steve Hall, said as demand for Outward Bound courses continues to accelerate, the organisation had observed a decline in the number of young New Zealanders who have an understanding of and confidence in tackling the outdoors environment. “We’ve become increasingly aware over the years that young people no longer have the right clothing these days to tackle the elements because they don’t own it and don’t know what’s required. Years ago this rarely ever happened because people owned the right apparel and, if they didn’t, they simply borrowed it from a relative or friend.” Outward Bound has also noticed a general trend towards parents sending their children on Outward Bound courses as their ‘once in a lifetime’ outdoors experience.
In a follow-up to yesterday's Daily Briefing item about the importance of family structure in considering child poverty, Lindsay Mitchell points out that New Zealand's own Ministry of Social Development has done a study which clearly showed that family structure, when both families were "poor", had an effect. They compared families on a similar income level and discovered that those children whose income came from the market instead of govt transfers had better outcomes. Those with a market income often had two parents with a working father. The study is called "Children in Poor Families: Does the Source of Family Income Change the Picture?"
New Zealand needs to bring back mothers-in-law to help with the raising of families, Social Development Minister Steve Maharey said yesterday. The 52-year-old father of two grown-up stepsons lamented the huge number of families who did not know how to raise kids and did not have a mother-in-law or grandmother to turn to for advice. "Bring back mothers-in-law is what I say ... It reflects our concern that there are a lot of families - whether it is a health issue, an education issue or a parenting issue - who are struggling." [Maharey is at odds with himself here. If we are to have mothers-in-law, we have to have marriage. But the government has done everything it can to kill traditional marriage, and the Minister himself has said that marriage has "gone the way of red telephone boxes".]
Pope Benedict XVI has told Catholics to have more babies "for the good of society," saying that some countries were being sapped of energy because of low birth rates. "Having children is a gift that brings life and well-being to society," he told about 15,000 people at his weekly audience in the Vatican. He said the decline in the number of births "deprives some nations of freshness and energy and of hopes for the future incarnate in children." The pope also spoke of "the security, the stability and the force of a numerous family." [Once upon a time, people mocked Catholics about the number of children they had. Now they may be the saviours of population decline. Except that Catholic countries of Europe have some of the lowest fertility rates!!! Help, I'm confused.]
Deborah Coddington points out that more forced school closures are in the pipeline after the election if Labour wins. In preparation, the Ministry of Education placed an ad in the Dominion Post last Saturday for a “Network Facilitator” for the Nelson region.
Canadians Bill Dalrymple, 56, and best friend Bryan Pinn, 65, have decided to take the plunge and try out the country's new same-sex marriage legislation with a twist -- they're straight men. "I think it's a hoot," Pinn said. The proposal came last Monday on the patio of a Toronto bar amid shock and laughter from their friends. But the two -- both of whom were previously married and both of whom are still looking for a good woman to love -- insist that after the humour subsided, a real issue lies at the heart of it all. "There are significant tax implications that we don't think the government has thought through," Pinn said.
Companies that hire workplace chaplains are finding that besides helping employees, they may help their bottom line, too. It's not that businesses are trying to take on a religious role. Corporate chaplains serve people of any or no faith, and the use of their services is voluntary. But business leaders increasingly recognize that employees who face crises often can't help bringing their personal difficulties to work, and job performance can suffer. Making provision to care for their workforce becomes a part of good business practice.
Thursday, September 01, 2005
A website that lets you see how each MP voted on conscience issues is available at http://votes.wotfun.com/ You can also compare a particular MP against others on various issues. You might be surprised to find that Peter Dunne voted against his party colleagues on many issues, and in fact looked a lot more like a Labour MP than the leader of a supposed family-friendly centrist party.
Many members of Parliament, according to inside sources, pay close attention to newspaper website polls canvassing public opinion on issues of the day, despite the fact that the respondents are a self-selected sample of those with internet access and a thirst for making their opinions known. One New Zealand daily conducts an online poll almost every day, while a national Sunday paper recently did a large reader polling exercise, partly online, on the influence of “morality” on voting intentions. The latest website off the blocks, www.politics.org.nz, has an additional twist: after voting on each statement according to a five-point “disagree/agree” scale, the participant is immediately shown the average of all votes cast so far and a histogram of the number of votes to date at each point on the scale. Voters are also free to change a vote on any question at any time. The theory behind allowing changes is that a voter who feels ill-informed on the issue and unsure about the way he or she voted will be likely to change their vote in the direction of the average, while a voter who feels well-informed will be more likely to stick with the way they voted the first time. Thus the technique supposedly gives more weight to the better-informed, or at least the more confident, voter.
Sometimes the newspaper reporting of the polls is most unhelpful. I had to phone the Sunday Star-Times press gallery office to get their latest figures straight. Three of the last four polls have straddled the National tax cut announcement. The post-announcement portions of the polls indicate that the public generally responded favourably to the tax cut policies. But has the election become a straight out bidding war? Well, yes. "Asked if the recent release of the party's tax policy caused them to vote National, 24 per cent said yes. However, it is possible some of these voters had already factored the tax cuts policy into account because National's total vote did not rise by this much." I despair that the public doesn't seem to be able to consider anything beyond the surface. The other major factor, which few have commented on, is that Winston Peters is looking less and less like kingmaker. John Armstrong has given us the best explanation of what's going on in that quarter.
The Law Commission wants the Government to act over "enormous inconsistency" in the granting of name suppression. The acting president of the commission, Dr Warren Young, said it had recommended changes to the Government which would mean everybody appearing in court was granted name suppression pre-trial.
Telephone users will finally own their numbers - and the price of making calls may drop as a result. The Commerce Commission yesterday ruled that phone companies must allow customers to keep their existing number when switching service providers. Observers say the ruling removes a key obstacle to competition, and provides incentives for big telcos and smaller providers alike to poach customers with better deals.
A Vancouver woman has gone to court to fight for a divorce after her husband's gay affair was not recognised by the judiciary as adultery. Shelley Pickering, 44, had been married nearly 17 years when she found out last year that her husband was having an affair with a man. Her spouse admitted to the fling in an affidavit, but a provincial Supreme Court judge refused to grant them an immediate divorce as Canada, despite allowing gay marriage, does not recognise homosexual relationships in adultery law. [A certain sector of society seems to want to have their cake and eat it.]
Something that those campaigning to end child poverty should consider. A new study led by Sutherland Institute Scholar and Head of the Department of Economics at Utah State University, Dr. Chris Fawson, shows that while income is an important factor for families, family structure is more important in the success of children.
Government success at persuading Afghan farmers to voluntarily refrain from poppy cultivation, farmers’ apprehension that the official ban on opium cultivation could be enforced by eradication, and relatively low farm-gate prices have led to a 21 percent decline in Afghan opium cultivation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today. But Afghanistan is still the largest supplier of opium to the world, accounting for 87 percent of the world supplies. In terms of opium cultivation, the country’s share in the global total dropped from 67 percent in 2004 to 63 percent in 2005.
New cell phones and ID chips help parents keep a virtual eye on their children anytime, anywhere. But is Big Mother good for society?
A new report on the "state of spyware" includes an in-depth review and analysis of the impact of spyware on home computer users. The results show that over 80% of all computers scanned are infected with spyware, averaging more than 27 pieces per machine. Alarmingly, spyware writers ahve begun to switch their focus from click-through revenue generated by pop-up ads to targeted attacks against bank accounts. One respondent said he discovered 2,500 pieces of spyware on his computer - it had effectively been completely taken over.
Did PowerPoint make the space shuttle crash? Could it doom another mission? Preposterous as this may sound, the ubiquitous Microsoft presentation software has twice been singled out for special criticism by task forces reviewing the space shuttle disaster. Ruth Marcus says the software may be as much of a mind-numbing menace to those who intend to remain earthbound as it is to astronauts. Edward Tufte, a specialist in the visual display of information, argues that the program encourages "faux-analytical" thinking that favors the slickly produced "sales pitch" over the sober exchange of information."The deeper problem with the PowerPointing of America -- the PowerPointing of the planet, actually -- is that the program tends to flatten the most complex, subtle, even beautiful, ideas into tedious, bullet-pointed bureaucratese."
Many members of Parliament, according to inside sources, pay close attention to newspaper website polls canvassing public opinion on issues of the day, despite the fact that the respondents are a self-selected sample of those with internet access and a thirst for making their opinions known. One New Zealand daily conducts an online poll almost every day, while a national Sunday paper recently did a large reader polling exercise, partly online, on the influence of “morality” on voting intentions. The latest website off the blocks, www.politics.org.nz, has an additional twist: after voting on each statement according to a five-point “disagree/agree” scale, the participant is immediately shown the average of all votes cast so far and a histogram of the number of votes to date at each point on the scale. Voters are also free to change a vote on any question at any time. The theory behind allowing changes is that a voter who feels ill-informed on the issue and unsure about the way he or she voted will be likely to change their vote in the direction of the average, while a voter who feels well-informed will be more likely to stick with the way they voted the first time. Thus the technique supposedly gives more weight to the better-informed, or at least the more confident, voter.
Sometimes the newspaper reporting of the polls is most unhelpful. I had to phone the Sunday Star-Times press gallery office to get their latest figures straight. Three of the last four polls have straddled the National tax cut announcement. The post-announcement portions of the polls indicate that the public generally responded favourably to the tax cut policies. But has the election become a straight out bidding war? Well, yes. "Asked if the recent release of the party's tax policy caused them to vote National, 24 per cent said yes. However, it is possible some of these voters had already factored the tax cuts policy into account because National's total vote did not rise by this much." I despair that the public doesn't seem to be able to consider anything beyond the surface. The other major factor, which few have commented on, is that Winston Peters is looking less and less like kingmaker. John Armstrong has given us the best explanation of what's going on in that quarter.
The Law Commission wants the Government to act over "enormous inconsistency" in the granting of name suppression. The acting president of the commission, Dr Warren Young, said it had recommended changes to the Government which would mean everybody appearing in court was granted name suppression pre-trial.
Telephone users will finally own their numbers - and the price of making calls may drop as a result. The Commerce Commission yesterday ruled that phone companies must allow customers to keep their existing number when switching service providers. Observers say the ruling removes a key obstacle to competition, and provides incentives for big telcos and smaller providers alike to poach customers with better deals.
A Vancouver woman has gone to court to fight for a divorce after her husband's gay affair was not recognised by the judiciary as adultery. Shelley Pickering, 44, had been married nearly 17 years when she found out last year that her husband was having an affair with a man. Her spouse admitted to the fling in an affidavit, but a provincial Supreme Court judge refused to grant them an immediate divorce as Canada, despite allowing gay marriage, does not recognise homosexual relationships in adultery law. [A certain sector of society seems to want to have their cake and eat it.]
Something that those campaigning to end child poverty should consider. A new study led by Sutherland Institute Scholar and Head of the Department of Economics at Utah State University, Dr. Chris Fawson, shows that while income is an important factor for families, family structure is more important in the success of children.
Government success at persuading Afghan farmers to voluntarily refrain from poppy cultivation, farmers’ apprehension that the official ban on opium cultivation could be enforced by eradication, and relatively low farm-gate prices have led to a 21 percent decline in Afghan opium cultivation, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) said today. But Afghanistan is still the largest supplier of opium to the world, accounting for 87 percent of the world supplies. In terms of opium cultivation, the country’s share in the global total dropped from 67 percent in 2004 to 63 percent in 2005.
New cell phones and ID chips help parents keep a virtual eye on their children anytime, anywhere. But is Big Mother good for society?
A new report on the "state of spyware" includes an in-depth review and analysis of the impact of spyware on home computer users. The results show that over 80% of all computers scanned are infected with spyware, averaging more than 27 pieces per machine. Alarmingly, spyware writers ahve begun to switch their focus from click-through revenue generated by pop-up ads to targeted attacks against bank accounts. One respondent said he discovered 2,500 pieces of spyware on his computer - it had effectively been completely taken over.
Did PowerPoint make the space shuttle crash? Could it doom another mission? Preposterous as this may sound, the ubiquitous Microsoft presentation software has twice been singled out for special criticism by task forces reviewing the space shuttle disaster. Ruth Marcus says the software may be as much of a mind-numbing menace to those who intend to remain earthbound as it is to astronauts. Edward Tufte, a specialist in the visual display of information, argues that the program encourages "faux-analytical" thinking that favors the slickly produced "sales pitch" over the sober exchange of information."The deeper problem with the PowerPointing of America -- the PowerPointing of the planet, actually -- is that the program tends to flatten the most complex, subtle, even beautiful, ideas into tedious, bullet-pointed bureaucratese."
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
The Australian government has told immigrants that people thinking of coming to Australia who did not like Australian values and preferred a society that practised sharia law should go elsewhere. A day after a Prime Ministerial summit with Muslim leaders, the Government stepped up its push to get "Australian values" — epitomised, it says, by the Anzac story of Simpson and his donkey — taught comprehensively to Muslim children. Education Minister Brendan Nelson said he would soon meet the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils to discuss programs to ensure those in Islamic schools and all other children fully understood Australian history and values. "We don't care where people come from; we don't mind what religion they've got or what their particular view of the world is. But if you want to be in Australia, if you want to raise your children in Australia, we fully expect those children to be taught and to accept Australian values and beliefs," he said. "We want them to understand our history and our culture, the extent to which we believe in mateship and giving another person a hand up and a fair go. And basically, if people don't want to be Australians and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well basically they can clear off."
The UK Home Secretary faces accusations that moves to expel radical preachers could backfire by turning extremists into martyrs and increasing prejudice against law-abiding Muslims. Charles Clarke set out a series of "unacceptable behaviours" yesterday that would be used to exclude foreign extremists from Britain and remove those already in the country.
After decades of promoting smaller families, South Korea - like several other affluent Asian countries facing plummeting birthrates - is desperately seeking ways to get people to have more babies. In South Korea, the decline has been so precipitous that it caught the government off guard. Medical treatments like vasectomies and tubal ligations were covered under the national health plan until last year, as part of policies devised to discourage more than two children. This year, the plan began covering reverse procedures for those two operations, as well as care for a couple's third or fourth child.
Telling underage kids not to have sex is surprisingly controversial. "Can we be good without God? The question seems somehow abstract, a topic for Atlantic Monthly cover stories and college seminars more than practical applications. So here's another question: Can we keep our pants on? Ironically, the group that often answers "yes" to the first question says "no" to the second. And some believe that not only can't we stay chaste, but we should not. 'An abstinence-until-marriage program is not only irresponsible,' U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said last year. 'It's really inhumane.' Many others agree " - virulently so.
Saying homo sapiens are a "plague species," the London Zoo has opened a new exhibit featuring eight humans frolicking around in nothing but mock fig leaves. The "Human Zoo" is intended to show the basic nature of human beings, reported Agence France-Presse. "We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem," a statement from London Zoo said.
The American home is getting bigger. And fatter. And, to some, uglier. Now, towns are fighting back. Chevy Chase, Md., an upscale suburb of Washington, recently announced a six-month moratorium on home construction to make time to examine how to deal with the proliferation of oversized single-family houses. Call them what you will -- starter castles, McMansions, monster homes -- these houses have become increasingly visible in metropolitan landscapes. Back in 1950, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the average new house clocked in at 963 square feet. By 1970, that figure had swollen to 1,500 square feet. Today's average: 2,400 square feet. One in five are more than 3,000 square feet. Oddly, as houses expanded, the number of household members shrank, from 3.1 people in 1971 to 2.6 people today.
You've heard of urban myths - how about eco-myths? Here's one that has gained great popularity: "Lord May, the President of Britain’s Royal Society, recently condensed Diamond’s theory of environmental suicide in this way: “In a lecture at the Royal Society last week, Jared Diamond drew attention to populations, such as those on Easter Island, who denied they were having a catastrophic impact on the environment and were eventually wiped out, a phenomenon he called ‘ecocide’”. While the theory of ecocide has become almost paradigmatic in environmental circles, a dark and gory secret hangs over the premise of Easter Island’s selfdestruction: an actual genocide terminated Rapa Nui’s indigenous populace and its culture. Diamond ignores, or neglects to address the true reasons behind Rapa Nui’s collapse. Other researchers have no doubt that its people, their culture and its environment were destroyed to all intents and purposes by European slave-traders, whalers and colonists – and not by themselves!
The controversy over whether Shakespeare wrote all those plays never seems to go away. A new book, "The Shakespeare Enigma" rehashes all the old ground, but this detailed review makes it plain that there is no substance to the claims.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab have developed voice-analyzing software that works with cell phones and can tell when users are disinterested, empathetic — even when they are attracted to the speaker. The revolutionary application was developed as part of project conducted by Anmol Madan, an MIT Master’s degree student, and was nicknamed the “Jerk-O-Meter,” for its ability to spot inattentiveness and to send a “don’t be a jerk,” message to the speaker. But it can also tell when things are going well. In a dating study, the software predicted with near 100 percent accuracy whether a couple would exchange phone numbers. Besides providing relationship-altering ammunition for the old “You never listen to me!” accusation, the program could be a powerful marketing tool giving companies data about which sales techniques work and which products generate interest.
The neo-Communist authorities of Macedonia have imprisoned the head of Macedonian church, in a move which has shocked global Orthodox leaders. "It has been 28 days since His Beatitude the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje Jovan (John) is imprisoned in the prison Idrizovo, near Skopje." The website of the ancient Christian Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM, ticks away the days of the imprisonment of its head, "the only confessor of the faith who, in modern Europe, has been convicted and put in prison because of his religious beliefs."
Web sites in China are being used heavily to target computer networks in the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies, successfully breaching hundreds of unclassified networks, according to several U.S. officials. Classified systems have not been compromised, the officials added. But U.S. authorities remain concerned because, as one official said, even seemingly innocuous information, when pulled together from various sources, can yield useful intelligence to an adversary. "The scope of this thing is surprisingly big," said one of four government officials who spoke separately about the incidents, which stretch back as far as two or three years.
If you want a glimpse of Hollywood's near future, you need only watch a single scene in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia on the split screen at the ground-floor showroom of Sony's New York headquarters. On the 70-inch TV, you see swarms of Arab camel-riders racing across the blazing desert. On the screen's left half, the Arabs are so blurred together that they can hardly be distinguished from the swirling sands. When they cross over to the screen's right half—presto!—they pop into such sharp focus that their facial features are recognizable. It's the same screen and the same Lawrence of Arabia. The difference is that the source for the left half of the screen is a conventional DVD, and the source for the right half is a Blu-Ray DVD, which, although identical in size and shape to the conventional DVD, holds at least five times as many color pixels, or picture elements. The left half of the screen is composed from approximately 87,000 color pixels—the maximum that a conventional DVD can hold—while the right half is composed from more than 490,000 color pixels. The 400,000 or so additional color pixels, by providing more details, nuance, and depth, create a high-definition picture.
The UK Home Secretary faces accusations that moves to expel radical preachers could backfire by turning extremists into martyrs and increasing prejudice against law-abiding Muslims. Charles Clarke set out a series of "unacceptable behaviours" yesterday that would be used to exclude foreign extremists from Britain and remove those already in the country.
After decades of promoting smaller families, South Korea - like several other affluent Asian countries facing plummeting birthrates - is desperately seeking ways to get people to have more babies. In South Korea, the decline has been so precipitous that it caught the government off guard. Medical treatments like vasectomies and tubal ligations were covered under the national health plan until last year, as part of policies devised to discourage more than two children. This year, the plan began covering reverse procedures for those two operations, as well as care for a couple's third or fourth child.
Telling underage kids not to have sex is surprisingly controversial. "Can we be good without God? The question seems somehow abstract, a topic for Atlantic Monthly cover stories and college seminars more than practical applications. So here's another question: Can we keep our pants on? Ironically, the group that often answers "yes" to the first question says "no" to the second. And some believe that not only can't we stay chaste, but we should not. 'An abstinence-until-marriage program is not only irresponsible,' U.S. Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., said last year. 'It's really inhumane.' Many others agree " - virulently so.
Saying homo sapiens are a "plague species," the London Zoo has opened a new exhibit featuring eight humans frolicking around in nothing but mock fig leaves. The "Human Zoo" is intended to show the basic nature of human beings, reported Agence France-Presse. "We have set up this exhibit to highlight the spread of man as a plague species and to communicate the importance of man's place in the planet's ecosystem," a statement from London Zoo said.
The American home is getting bigger. And fatter. And, to some, uglier. Now, towns are fighting back. Chevy Chase, Md., an upscale suburb of Washington, recently announced a six-month moratorium on home construction to make time to examine how to deal with the proliferation of oversized single-family houses. Call them what you will -- starter castles, McMansions, monster homes -- these houses have become increasingly visible in metropolitan landscapes. Back in 1950, according to the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB), the average new house clocked in at 963 square feet. By 1970, that figure had swollen to 1,500 square feet. Today's average: 2,400 square feet. One in five are more than 3,000 square feet. Oddly, as houses expanded, the number of household members shrank, from 3.1 people in 1971 to 2.6 people today.
You've heard of urban myths - how about eco-myths? Here's one that has gained great popularity: "Lord May, the President of Britain’s Royal Society, recently condensed Diamond’s theory of environmental suicide in this way: “In a lecture at the Royal Society last week, Jared Diamond drew attention to populations, such as those on Easter Island, who denied they were having a catastrophic impact on the environment and were eventually wiped out, a phenomenon he called ‘ecocide’”. While the theory of ecocide has become almost paradigmatic in environmental circles, a dark and gory secret hangs over the premise of Easter Island’s selfdestruction: an actual genocide terminated Rapa Nui’s indigenous populace and its culture. Diamond ignores, or neglects to address the true reasons behind Rapa Nui’s collapse. Other researchers have no doubt that its people, their culture and its environment were destroyed to all intents and purposes by European slave-traders, whalers and colonists – and not by themselves!
The controversy over whether Shakespeare wrote all those plays never seems to go away. A new book, "The Shakespeare Enigma" rehashes all the old ground, but this detailed review makes it plain that there is no substance to the claims.
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Media Lab have developed voice-analyzing software that works with cell phones and can tell when users are disinterested, empathetic — even when they are attracted to the speaker. The revolutionary application was developed as part of project conducted by Anmol Madan, an MIT Master’s degree student, and was nicknamed the “Jerk-O-Meter,” for its ability to spot inattentiveness and to send a “don’t be a jerk,” message to the speaker. But it can also tell when things are going well. In a dating study, the software predicted with near 100 percent accuracy whether a couple would exchange phone numbers. Besides providing relationship-altering ammunition for the old “You never listen to me!” accusation, the program could be a powerful marketing tool giving companies data about which sales techniques work and which products generate interest.
The neo-Communist authorities of Macedonia have imprisoned the head of Macedonian church, in a move which has shocked global Orthodox leaders. "It has been 28 days since His Beatitude the Archbishop of Ohrid and Metropolitan of Skopje Jovan (John) is imprisoned in the prison Idrizovo, near Skopje." The website of the ancient Christian Orthodox Ohrid Archbishopric in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, or FYROM, ticks away the days of the imprisonment of its head, "the only confessor of the faith who, in modern Europe, has been convicted and put in prison because of his religious beliefs."
Web sites in China are being used heavily to target computer networks in the Defense Department and other U.S. agencies, successfully breaching hundreds of unclassified networks, according to several U.S. officials. Classified systems have not been compromised, the officials added. But U.S. authorities remain concerned because, as one official said, even seemingly innocuous information, when pulled together from various sources, can yield useful intelligence to an adversary. "The scope of this thing is surprisingly big," said one of four government officials who spoke separately about the incidents, which stretch back as far as two or three years.
If you want a glimpse of Hollywood's near future, you need only watch a single scene in David Lean's Lawrence of Arabia on the split screen at the ground-floor showroom of Sony's New York headquarters. On the 70-inch TV, you see swarms of Arab camel-riders racing across the blazing desert. On the screen's left half, the Arabs are so blurred together that they can hardly be distinguished from the swirling sands. When they cross over to the screen's right half—presto!—they pop into such sharp focus that their facial features are recognizable. It's the same screen and the same Lawrence of Arabia. The difference is that the source for the left half of the screen is a conventional DVD, and the source for the right half is a Blu-Ray DVD, which, although identical in size and shape to the conventional DVD, holds at least five times as many color pixels, or picture elements. The left half of the screen is composed from approximately 87,000 color pixels—the maximum that a conventional DVD can hold—while the right half is composed from more than 490,000 color pixels. The 400,000 or so additional color pixels, by providing more details, nuance, and depth, create a high-definition picture.
