4 minute history of Saudi Arabia
This is the intro to the Peter Berg movie The Kingdom which is a great summary of Saudi history.
I got this video from this site here which I think I picked up from BoingBoing a while back. It’s worth watching.
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Real Life Spider-man
I don’t know where I’ve been all these years to have not heard about a real-life, rebellious, epileptic, and most interestingly, French Spider-man that suffers from permanent vertigo. After having checked over Yahoo’s Week in Photos, I came across the picture and caption you see above detailed in this article. Upon further investigation, this urban arachnid does this thing all the time and not only has an official site but he’s got a wiki, too. Well there go my dreams of becoming the world’s first non-mutant Spider-man. Shucks. Then again, if you’re a traditionalist that’s into the old-school Spider-man, kick back and relax while listening to this website.
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Powdered Alcohol
Dutch students over at Helicon Vocational Institute have invented a powdered alcoholic drink mix for a final school project. Since it’s in powdered form, it circumvents prohibitive tax and age-limit laws and therefore can be lawfully sold to minors. These Dutch students are quite the entrepreneurs, I guess. In case you’re curious, this powered mix is most likely an anhydrous mix with a touch of lime. Yummy! I found this article through the oddly enough blog through Reuters.com. Read this article for more specific information.
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Chinese green policy
One of the first articles to run on duenos.net was this story about officials in Fumin, China who went about greening the countryside by spray-painting a bare rock cliff with green paint. At the time the news was so recent that there were no pictures to be found, but here I was combing the Treehugger pages and I found one. I just thought I’d post it in the interest of all things funny (in a sad, destructive kind of way).
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¿Quieres Música Latina?
I recently returned a mi casa de México and was introduced to a bunch of songs that I wanted to listen to. Unfortunately, the local P2P network for Lime Wire doesn’t work all that well if nobody nearby is sharing these songs on their computer. So if you’re cravin’ for latino (or other international) music, try either E-mule or Ares. Both programs are fairly straightforward and completely gringo if downloaded on English speaking soil. ¿No te gusta música latina? Try the Spanish reggae song Mis Ojos Lloran Por Ti by Big Boys. It may start out slow, but it’s popular for a reason.
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Piracy is down (the real kind)
As opposed to the bullish media-downloading market, naval piracy is way down compared to normal. In the last quarter, there were only 41 incidents of pirate activity compared to last year’s 61. The numbers itself are not that interesting but the way in which the international community analyzes and manages piracy is really cool. The pirate-control group is the International Maritime Bureau part of International Chamber of Commerce. View the IMB’s latest piracy report here.
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Russians plan Bering Tunnel
Russian engineering seems to be thinking pretty highly of itself these days. First it was the floating power plant and now this, a 64 mile tunnel connecting Asia and North America across the International Date Line. The tunnel could revolutionize international trade, lowering the price of freight, passenger, and fiber-optic traffic between the world’s largest producer countries in east Asia and the largest consumer base, the United States.
The plan calls for two separate lengths of tunnel to meet halfway on the Diomede Islands pictured above. Of course this isn’t the first time a Bering Tunnel has been proposed. Before World War I, Czar Nicholas II had the idea to connect the two land masses and the TKM-World Link tunnel has been on the table for over 5 years. Still, there are a lot of hurdles to jump before this idea becomes reality. In the meantime we should all consider how great it would be to take a train through Arctic waters in the world’s most active volcanic/earthquake zone.
The Times article that reported the most recent moves towards tunneling. The picture is from Wikipedia.
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Watching from the skies
Caracas law enforcement officials, hoping to lower their world’s worst crime rates, have bought 3 mini-airships equipped with cameras to look down on the city. The 50-ft long (15 m) vessels will be operated by remote control from a brand-new zeppelin command center in downtown Caracas, the capital of Venezuela. Apparently to further to deter crime, the floating camera platforms will be painted with phrases like “We watch over you for your security” in red letters. Big Brother references aside (it’s just too easy) maybe this will actually help the city to overcome its horrendous public safety records. The murder rates were so high that the government apparently stopped publishing the records last year.
More about the zeppelins at the BBC. The picture is Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.
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Microsoft to offer Windows cheaply to developing nations
Despite Microsoft’s criticisms of the 100 dollar PC that was being developed for denizens of developing nations, the megacorporation will begin to produce a special version of Windows to be sold for as low as three dollars.
This version, known as the Student Innovation Suite, contains the bare bones features of Windows XP, Microsoft Office, math tools, and other basics. This version will be targeted towards middle and low income families as determined by the World Bank by 2008. Read more about it here.
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Ontario bans incandescent bulbs
They won’t be completely eliminated until 2012, but the legislation promises to save Ontarians six million megawatt hours per year, enough power to run 600,000 homes. It looks like the future will be full of CFLs, and no, I don’t mean the Canadian Football League.
More about the move (and a good look at the alternatives to incandescent bulbs) at treehugger and a more detailed/boring piece at Canada Newswire.
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Home-cooked Indian meals delivered
Kevin Kelly over at the Street Use blog recently posted an article about Dabbawalas, literally ‘those who transport lunch-boxes’ containing home-cooked meals to the workers in India’s factories and offices.
Upon further looking into it, this is an amazingly intricate operation, consisting of 5,000 delivery boys transporting over 175,000-boxes in the three hour lunch period. MyDabbaWala.com has some information on the practice, including the beginnings of using technology to reform the century-old system.
Of course, if you’re a tech industry employee in Silicon Valley with a hankering for some good home-made Indian lunches, look no further than Annadaata.com, the American (and far pricier) adaptation of the dabbawala.
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The Most Sinful Way to Celebrate a Saint
If you’re interested in the biggest party in Mexico, if not the western hemisphere, go to Aguascalientes, Aguascalientes (city, state) for the Fair of San Marcos.
Before you go, be sure to rest up because there’s almost too much to do: bullfighting, cock fighting, casino, concerts, and 10+ two-story warehouse-sized bars packed with beer, booze, and babes. Starting in mid-April and lasting three to four weeks, this party is the largest attraction Latin America. In a hard to believe four day feat, all of the bars, restaurants, and numerous stages are assembled in extravagant temporary structures – complete with marble walls, fountains, elaborate signs, and sculptures. An average night, weekend or otherwise, has more than 35,000 partiers that don’t quit until 5-7 am. For more touristy information on how to get there, where to stay, and what more to expect, visit here.
The picture is from the official site, feriadesanmarcos.com. Since the webpage contains only pictures with links, even a good website translator is ineffective.
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Zero Tolerance = No Fun
If you’re in the mood to get really angry or even to poke fun at the tough stance schools are taking nowadays, check out these examples of zero tolerance gone wrong. Check out this story where a Japanese student was given a box cutter and a paper so he could write an apology letter in blood for falling asleep class. Don’t worry though, the teacher was only suspended for few days and you can bet that kid never slept in class ever again. Yikes!
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Lend Money Online To Third World Entrepreneurs
Nicholas Kristof, the talented New York Times opinion writer, continues to impress me with his ingenuity, resourcefulness, and compassion. Last week he wrote about a new way to help combat third world poverty: online lending to recipients in third world nations looking to start or grow their businesses.
Kiva.org provides pictures and detailed information about the lender and his/her business so that you can ultimately make the decision of who and what you want to support. Truly, this is an amazing and innovative service, and it appears to be actively fostering growth in needy areas.
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Open-source Europe
The next time the French parliament opens its doors, they will be serving Linux. According to this Business Week article , 1,154 computers will be switching to Ubuntu Linux from Windows XP, including all of the MPs staff and personal PCs. France has had a long history of embracing open-source software like Open Office and Firefox, but this will be the first mass switch of operating systems.
In similar news, this Free Republic article reports the Shadow chancellor George Osbourne’s statement that Britain should support more open-source software in order to save the people 600 million pounds/year. That article features some other good examples of governments going open-source.
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