BBC NEWS | Health | Smoker poll reveals roll-ups myth
Dr Yumiko Mochizuki-Kobayashi, director of the WHO tobacco free initiative, said: “Tobacco can kill in any guise and that is why all products containing tobacco need to be regulated immediately in all forms.”
This is really interesting because I really was under the impression that it was the smoking of the tobacco, not the tobacco itself that kills you.
FT.com / World / UK – First audio-only novel tells new story for authors
Now we have a “First audio only novel.” How is that different from what cavemen did around a fire?
Journalists these days… anything for a press release I guess.
Alton man throws children off 15th floor of Miami Beach hotel
A cancer doctor from Godfrey celebrating his wedding anniversary threw his two young sons off the 15th-story balcony of a South Beach hotel Saturday before jumping to his death, police say.
Dr. Edward Van Dyk, a radiation oncologist at Alton Memorial Hospital, and his two sons were found dead on the overhang below the hotel balcony, on one of the city’s busiest drives.
Spencer, 4, and Carl, 8, were in their pajamas.
Miami Beach police are investigating the deaths as a murder-suicide.
Van Dyk’s wife, Qinuo, called police at 8:37 a.m. Saturday. She told them that she had seen her husband jump off the balcony and that when she looked over, she saw her sons’ bodies there as well.
Horrible crime, but read the story and look for what substance is being used to justify the headline. The police aren’t talking, the only person who is talking is the widow who aparantly saw her husband jump.
The wife doesn’t seem to have an alibi but the fact that she tells the police that they had been having “marital problems” seems to provide a perfect motive for the husband to throw himself and his kids out of his hotel window.
Could it be that the reason for thier marital problems was that she was having an affair with the butler?
Why is it that these types of crimes are simply brushed off as someone flipping their lid? Where’s Miss Marple when you need her?
This is pretty interesting, BBC is using Digg to advertise their article and provide extra content.
1. Write article
2. Create podcast
3. Digg your article and put the link to the podcast in the digg comment
4. Require your readers to digg the article to get to the podcast
5. Get the article slashdotted
And who was saying that BBC is lagging behind technology?
Some funny stuff, pity he doesn’t have an rss feed with enclosures 
Favorite quote: “Torture? Don’t worry, if you have nothing to hide then there’ll be no reason to attach electrodes to your genetilia”
I’m checking my email this morning and I see the invoice for my Backpackit subscription! Nothing was charged! Somebody signed up through my affilitate link and that paid for a month of my premium usage!
This means that if I can get a signup every month, then I won’t have to pay for my premium membership. If you signup under me, and then you convince someone to sign up every month then you won’t have to pay either! Using this logic we can take down the evil thing that is Backpackit without any cost to ourselves (not like these signups cost them anything).
Anyway, I’m jazzed, even though I’ll be the first to say that Backpackit isn’t as awesome as it’s made out to be, it’s still working for me and I’m psyched about getting my first affiliate sale!
Somehow, between all the anti pasta and PHP revelry in Italy, OSS Blog managed to get an interview with Tobias Schlitt. The interview covers PHP, Open Source, Ajax and surrounding technologies.
I don’t think I need to say this, but I LOVE Free Software. Companies like eZsystems, MySQL, RedHat and many more, show there is business model which can be both profitable and open.
In the interview with OSSBlog Toby states:
I think, that all software should be open nowadays. That sounds a bit radical at a first glance, but I have some valid reasons: Most software today does not invent any really new technique or concept. Software development mostly consists of taking parts from other software, putting those together and code a little bit around it. This concept aligns very well with the concept of open source. Another reason is, that the software market is changing (maybe because of open source or maybe the other way around). It is not the software itself, where the money comes from, but the services provided for it. The last reason is my personal geekness. I love to learn from other peoples code and I love to just change the code, when I need a different feature or fix a bug.
While I agree with the general concept, I disagree that totally free software is right for every business model.
Case in Point: As part of my code portfolio, I have a quantitative statistics engine which I developed for a client. This is a fairly specific peice of software designed for fund managers most of whom have around $100 million of assets under their management. The software package is written in PHP and is being used in over 30 client sites. It is also the core of a service which will be launching in the near future.
The entire package is written by me (although if I would have discovered PEAR::Math_Finance) I would have certainly used and contributed to that package. After the basic financial calculation class, I implement several hundred algorithms to create the core of the package. Some of the algorithms are freely available online, others needed a lot of offline (often maddening) research. Needless to say the implementation was a fair amount of work, and the intellectual property value of the final product is substantial.
My question is, why should I push for opening up the source? What financial gains would the company that invested in the development get? What benefit would it be to the open source community?
I can understand that if this were a conventional software application distributed using the GPL. I would then have legal means to ensure that the GPL is maintained, or I could use a dual licensing model to license the technology for commercial application. But none of these benefits come through in this case?
Should I just blindly push for the open sourcing of this library? Or is the non-distributed nature of web services where the GPL breaks down?
Due to the abismal failure of Finland during previous Eurovision song contests, those clever Fins enlisted the help of the Klingons, who crashed the contest and brought the Eurovision song contest to Finland.
Seriously, this was one of the best Eurovisions in YEARS. I really enjoyed it. The quality of the music was better than usual, and the entertainment value of many of the acts was excellent. The only thing that really annoyed me was Maria Menounos and the continual screwups which seemed to worsen as then night progressed. I liked the new voting system, it made the show a lot shorter
Everyone is on about the political nature of the voting. I think that is just insane. Former Soviet republics voted for Russia, not because they missed their former overlords, but because the song was in a language they understood, and more than likely it had been playing on the radio non-stop for the past few months. Same with the former Yugoslavian countries giving each other 12 points, it’s not political it’s just that the people in those countries were familiar with the music/artists and voted for them.
The reason why England, France, and Germany did so bad is because they sucked, not because they people didn’t like them. I did feel bad for the French, they sent an amature singer/hairdresser and she totally tanked. Wasn’t eurovision an amature contest at one point?
If this Eurovision song contest said anything, it’s that people are fed up with the boring “commercially viable” music that is being fed to them on TV/Radio/Commercials. If it was up to me I would have voted for Lithuania, but I’m not entirely displeased with the final outcome.
In a Santa Claus world decorations appear
For Chrismas in April, the saviour is here
With mass produced love and peace everywhere
Ten dollars a pair.
It’s the spirit of giving through selling and buying
It’s the spirit of dying
–
From American Waltz, by Biff Rose, artist, musician, philosopher. Get his CD here.
Some FUNKY Metal. While obviously not for everyone, these guys have a pretty awesome sound.
Found these guys through Accident Hash Summer Time Speed Trap 2.
Penthouse Interview With L. Ron Hubbard Jr.
Son of the founder of Scientology interview with Penthouse.
“Scientology and all the other cults are one-dimensional, and we live in a three-dimensional world. Cults are as dangerous as drugs. They commit the highest crime: the rape of the soul.”
Unfortunately, he breaks Godwin’s law about a third of the way through (no, I didn’t read the whole thing after reading the first few paragraphs, I knew it was coming so searched for “hitler”).
Pretty amusing interview…
We created this multi-lingual version of the Star-Spangled Banner to raise awareness of Senate Resolution 458 and House Resolution 793, which state that English is the only language in which our National Anthem should be sung or recited. This resolution was unanimously passed by the Senate and is currently before the House Judiciary Committee.
We find the proposed resolutions inconsistent with a fundamental American right, free speech. It can also be seen as depreciating the rich and diverse cultural heritage of immigrants, the ancestors of many Americans, who founded, developed, and defended this nation. The resolutions fail to recognize that one of the country’s greatest strengths is the diversity of the populace.
While waiting for Kewney the cab driver was asked something and he said Kewney or indicated he was there for Kewney not fully understanding the question. He was rushed into the office and given a badge that said Kewney. He obviously thought this meant he was there to get Kewney and this badge was somehow part of the system. When they needed Kewney on the set someone saw him with the Kewney badge and said, “Kewney?” He said yes thinking he was being asked if he was there for Kewney. Next thing you know he is on the air. Fabulous.
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