Google's web search and the food web

The food web is re-engineered based on Google's ranking algorithms.

License to Slob

The new fashion trend for men: a slightly enlarged belly. Evidently exercise is out and it's cool to let go a little bit around the mid region. My favorite quote: "I sort of think the six-pack abs obsession got so prissy it stopped being masculine."

French Cowboys and Cowgirls

Add 2 parts French, 1 part American cowboy culture, a splash of Harley Davidson (that's right), shake for 2 minutes and you get the Festival de country music de Mirande, an American country festival in the small town of Mirande, France. How exactly, the Harley's got thrown in I don't know, but I would go.

Don't mix morphine and Wallabies

Well, not unless you want to crack open a cold one, relax, and have fun watching them hop in circles until they fall over. About half of the world's supply of legally grown poppies are grown in Tasmania. Wallabies there have been going into the fields and eating the poppies. They get high on the opium then go in circles, creating crop circles, until they crash. Deer and sheep have been known to take part in the sacred ritual as well.

Udate to "Twittering Iran's election" below

The New York Times has just published online a more extensive piece on the role of social networking, such as Twitter, in the aftermath of Iran's election. Nice, I beat the New York Times to a story.

Tweeting Iran's election

I have been following persiankiwi on Twitter and have been impressed with the real time updates as news about the activity in Iran. There is little other media coming out of the country. As the AP claims, the tweets are probably a little biased because access to the internet and/or cell phones are limited mainly to the more well to do and liberal. Nevertheless, persiankiwi has been providing many real time updates on action in the streets of Tehran right as it is happening. persiankiwi lost touch with several comrades today and at the end of the day was hiding from militia while waiting for a doctor to show up in order to take care of another friend who got on the wrong end of a baton. The pictures and video coming through Twitter links is raw and really shows the mahem.

The Origin of One Species

A new hotspot for the beginning of the human race has been identified through DNA testing: the border region of Angola and Namibia. This seems to be a little further south in Africa than previous theories suggest.

Greek Bronze

A find like this is very rare--even more so when it is bronze. A Greek fisherman netted an ancient statue from the waters around Kos and Kalymnos. Most Greek bronzes were melted at some point to re-mold into weaponry. This 2nd century BCE piece joins only a handful of recovered original Greek bronze statues.

Mansinthe

A sleepy Swiss village with lovely farm houses, and . . . Marilyn Manson: yes, the two can coexist. Although Mr. Manson has never been to the town of Kallnach in Switzerland, he is tied to it because of his love for fine absinthe. In an arrangement between the brewer's distributor and Mr. Manson, a brewer in Kallnach now produces Mansinthe. I might have to try some of this, if I can afford it. It came out in 2006 selling for $65 for 24 ounces. I am guessing that it is pricier now.

Work, work, work. Hello, boys . . .

All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy. Some of the latest news chooses to focus on the extremely popular rally held in the honor of the coming inauguration--that hasn't happened yet. The AP is reporting that Obama's popularity around the world is already starting fall. But really, is that a surprise?

"The idealism has diminished," said Samuel Solvit, who heads an Obama support network in France. "Everyone was dreaming a little. Now people are more realistic."

Well, that is expected with all the hype that was behind his election. I have to wonder, though, if the popularity is not going too far already. The AP writer worries about: "a deepening global recession, new hostilities in the Middle East, complications in closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, Iran, North Korea, Afghanistan." And yes, most of it is worry, but with all this going on, the soon to be president is focusing on, "performers including Bono, Beyonce and James Taylor." And we cannot forget that Stevie Wonder and Shakira were there. Sometimes it seems that there needs to be all work and no play--who cares about being a dull boy.

Sex sells, and dresses too

I just came across a couple articles that I thought should be passed around. Viagra pills are becoming all the rage in Afghanistan, and now women may register their dresses online before parties in order to avoid that horribly embarrassing moment of wearing the same dress as someone else. And some people wonder what good technology is.