Driver's Guide To The Universe

By Jesse Washington

Near the end of the hit film Avatar, the villain snarls at the hero, "How does it feel to betray your own race?" Both men are white - although the hero is inhabiting a blue-skinned, 2.74 metre-tall, long-tailed alien.

Strange as it may seem for a film that pits greedy, immoral humans against noble denizens of a faraway moon, Avatar is being criticised by a small but vocal group of people who allege it contains racist themes - the white hero once again saving the primitive natives.
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"Maybe if he had a black hero in there, that point would have been even stronger," Bogle said. - Sapa-AP

Published on the web by Tonight on January 18, 2010.


Actually, the properly PC way would be if the hero was a Han Chinese. They are after all the biggest ethnic group.
This kind of nonsense makes me sick. Then again, those idiots probably wouldn't know a metaphor if it hit them on the head.

By Mike Howard

Article Here

Before I unveil my list of the most overrated exercise and diet trends, I feel a disclaimer or two is in order:

   1. I'm in favor of anything that helps people become healthy or fit. The word "overrated" needs to be taken into context and is certainly open to interpretation.
   2. Just because I deem something to be overrated does not mean I don't think it has merit. I may feel something is "overrated" simply due to the amount of hype it gets or to the degree that its proponents revere it.

With those 2 things in mind, let's get going.

   1. Balls, BOSU's, balance boards, Oh my!: ( Read more... )

A commercial satellite collided with a Russian satellite over Siberia yesterday, yielding a cloud of fragments, according to a NASA scientist tracking space debris. The collision between the commercial satellite, belonging to the American communications firm Iridium, and the Russian satellite, believed to be defunct based on its advanced age, was the first of its kind,
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Article from the Scientific American.


We need to send some Metro cops to space, preferably the whole force.

This is an old report from the "Onion" about McDonalds, referenced by someone on Digg.  It is about 12 years old by now, but still funny as it laughs at the idea of obsessive cult fan and the lack of usefulness of some of the aspects of modern consumerist culture.

There is also an old issue of some expensive NCDs (negotiable certificates of deposits) using teleportation. It starts of with a mysterious disappearance of approximately 8 million South African Rand en-route from the headquarters of one bank to another in Johannesburg. The distance between the two banks? About 10 minutes walking at a leisurely pace. These same NCDs were put to the branch in the Western Cape Province to be cashed out on the same day they went AWOL in Johannesburg, bear in mind we are talking more then 1000km difference between the physical places and back in 2000, when this started not very frequent air trips between the Johannesburg and Cape Town. Of course, everyone has signed off to the fact that they were in Johannesburg and the businessman who has asked for the NCDs to be redeemed has proof of purchase for the these papers. Add to that a grisly death, a persistent heir still trying to redeem the money, a bypass of the Reserve Bank's exchange rules regulations and numerous court dates. I reckon the people who specialise in being Private Investigators in financial matters will have a ball. Who needs a smoky office and people shooting at you?

I did not know that this year is an International Astronomy Year 2009 for South Africa. It seems there is also a solar eclipse on the cards this coming Monday. My neighbour bought a telescope so this will be an opportunity to view a solar eclipse with proper equipment.

There is also the tragic news of the murders of infants and one of the minders in the small town near Brussels in Belgium. I had spent about two, not the nicest months in Belgium and despite my feelings towards certain people there, it is a law-abiding place where such violence, especially towards infants (youngest was 6 months old) is doubly unexpected.

CNN.com offers the first page story about 25 years of Macs. I wonder how much Steve Jobs paid for that little promotion? It took a little scrolling to see this article. It is about reversing the policy that "prohibits U.S. money from funding international family-planning clinics that promote abortion or provide counselling or referrals about abortion services." [CNN.com, "Obama reverses abortion-funding policy", accessed 25.01.09]. This policy has been implemented each time an uneducated, pardon the expression 'hick' like presidents Reagan and Bush reverse it. I applaud the common sense shown by the Obama administration, this is one of those issues that should not be politicised. I believe most women, myself included do not appreciate a mainly male body of politicians deciding about their bodies.

BBC offers a cheerful combination of reporting about violence in the world and more impacts of the global financial crisis. it is interspersed with a cheerful article about a pilot who had managed to land his plane on water after both its engines were crippled by birds . I have done some quick Googling, it is exceptionally difficult and has only been a few times before, where like in this case, everyone had survived.

Also, forlyonza , an academic article about how MUDs were started. It is a bit old, but still interesting to know how.

Back to studying, thank goodness, it is an open-book exam.

A BOFFIN too busy to find real love has INVENTED his idea of the perfect woman – a female ROBOT.

Inventor Le Trung, 33, created Aiko, said to be “in her 20s” with a stunning 32, 23, 33 figure, shiny hair and delicate features.

She even remembers his favourite drink and does simple cleaning and household tasks.

Fem-bot" Aiko, who has cost £14,000 to build so far, is a whizz at maths and even does Le’s accounts.

Le, a scientific genius from Brampton in Ontario, Canada, said he never had time to find a real partner so he designed one using the latest technology.

He said he did not build Aiko as a sexual partner, but said she could be tweaked to become one.

Odd pair ... Le with his robot girlfriend
( Happy Couple )


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The story is sourced from the SUN.

 Man killed wife in Facebook row

A man has been jailed for life for stabbing his wife to death over a posting she made on the social networking site Facebook.

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Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7676285.stm

Published: 2008/10/17 14:36:44 GMT

© BBC MMVIII

Internet war games fanatic Matthew Pyke was stabbed to death by a fellow player who flew from Germany to murder him after an online dispute, police believe.

Police confirmed a man, believed to be 21, had been arrested near Frankfurt in Germany following the death of student Mr Pyke, who was killed in his flat in Nottingham.

 

( Read more... )
Source here

Tourists just get dumber

London - "When do you turn off the mist?" "Is this where Ozzy and Sharon actually live?" "Where are all the hobbits?" The bizarre questions asked by visitors to British tourist spots were revealed on Monday.

An unidentified visitor to Osborne House, Queen Victoria's retreat on the Isle of Wight, was presumably disappointed when told that former Black Sabbath frontman Ozzy Osbourne and his celebrity wife were not at home.


A misty day at Dover Castle in southeastern England prompted the hopeful: "What time do you switch the mist off?" while one visitor to Whitby Abbey wondered: "Why did they build so many ruined castles and abbeys in England?" - AFP

Source here.

This amused me greatly:

"Two men were arrested on Thursday and six are on the run after police caught them taking turns in carrying a stolen double bed through East London, police said.

Superintendent Mtati Tana said the group stole the display bed outside a shop in Fleet Street.

"The men were stopped by police for questioning and six immediately ran away, leaving behind the two carrying the bed. It was later discovered that the bed was stolen," said Tana.

The two are expected to appear on Friday before the East London magistrate's court on a charge of theft. - Sapa "

Source: IOL

This was even funnier:

"Canberra - A dry-cleaning shop owner in Papua New Guinea has found a unique way of encouraging thieves to clean up their behaviour: giving them a steam cleaning.

Police in the northeast coastal town of Lae said a 20-year-old man suffered burns and scalding to his abdomen, chest and back after the owner turned a steam cleaner on him after he was caught stealing pants worth 14 kina (about R44; $5,50).

"The owner has done this to many people already," police spokesperson Nema Mondiai told Australian Associated Press on Wednesday.

Police seemed unconcerned about the radical punishment and released the thief after being assured he had learned his lesson. "

The rest of the story can be found here.

SAA boss needs a new sangoma to help in fuel crisis
May 18, 2008

By Edwin Naidu

Khaya Ngqula, the SAA chief executive, must change sangomas. When economists warned the price of oil was rising and forecast to break the $100 (R763) a barrel barrier, the airline budgeted for oil at $65 a barrel.

No surprises to hear on Wednesday that soaring oil prices, which peaked this week at $125 a barrel, cost SAA R950 million. Someone at SAA got it hopelessly wrong but there was some good news. Ngqula says the airline's fuel levy on ticket fares had enabled SAA to make up for the extra it paid for oil. So, passengers paid for someone's blunder.

As head it is not for Ngqula to simply explain away such a substantial loss, blaming factors beyond SAA's control, when he ought to be tackling the inept in-house forecasters who obviously struggle with budgeting. But he will not.

If the track record of much-ado-about-nothing Alec Erwin, who, as minister of public enterprises has political responsibility for the airline, is anything to go by, Ngqula must be preparing a hefty bonus for his officials who cannot budget for a crisis.

Article from Business Report here.