Google has announced yesterday what could welcome become a new email, a program, API and most importantly: a new protocol - Google Wave.One of the things I like about it, is its seamless merging of email and IM into one convenient easy to use interface, with threads, multiple participants, private messages and image attachments. All this operated from any browser that supports HTML 5. Firefox, Chrome and Safari were shown (now love for IE?).

So, according to CDC we have a couple of hundred infected folks in US alone. But what is surprising is that none of them died! None! Oh, a 2-year old boy from Mexico, very tragic, but come on, little kids die from regular flu complications every year. Thousands of them!

Now what about Mexico? I tried to dig into those 20 or so deaths in Mexico from H1N1 epidemics. Unfortunately, the article in Wikipedia on this cites New York Times as a source! Can you imagine, what kind of information void there is if an article in a mass printed newspaper suddenly becomes a source in an "encyclopedia"?

Playing with numbers to manipulate people's opinions is, probably, as as old as numbers themselves (or even older). It is just now though, when it becomes a more and more significant problem. There are lost of reasons for that. To name a few:

science have earned enough credit for people to start listening
people have learned just enough to be able to react on hearing large percentage numbers
yet, most folks are not able to understand and interprete statistic properly
the amount of scum artists who understand all of the above has increased a lot

I think talking about the swine flu epidemic is a good thing for US. It tests the mechanism of quickly raising public awareness on any given topic, ability to run large scale operations, and willingness of the senate to agree on spending billions of dollars when the president asks for it.

According to the medical dictionary nearly 35% of people have miopia (nearsightedness) and even more are suffering from other forms of poor vision. Glasses have been around since 13th century and still, 8 centuries past we are treating them as a luxury. How come to get a pair of decent looking glasses one has to pay $100-$300 and add another hundred for a checkup and prescription? What are they after all? Made of frigging diamonds?

Engadget reports that a Mini Hydro Turbine concept could bring renewable energy production to your bathroom. So you shlomp a water-filter like gadget onto the pipe and get free electricity! Yippieee!

Another day another raving truth about how we mess up our environment. Bad people! This times it is a graphical water consumption breakdown for your typical day, going to the bathroom, making breakfast and so on. Turns out we can save over 2000 gallons a day per person by reducing our water consumption, that's right! Good people in Good Magazine! (look at their picture first then read on, otherwise - not funny)

In Dissecting humane treatment of farmed chickens: Part 1 we have elaborated on how it might be economically unfeasible to raise free range chickens. Now let us consider the following questions: Are organic chickens safer to eat than non-organic chickens? Or maybe more nutritious? Are these free-farmed chickens good for your health?

Back to the trial on the torrent sharing service in Sweden. It is a total mockery for any legal system. How can the prosecution be more ignorant and unprepared in the 21st century? Another day, another show of total lack of intelligence by the prosecution.

Four people appointed by Obama didn't pay their taxes, why shouldn't all americans follow suit? I absolutely agree with the author of this article !!! One difference though is that they can afford an expensive lawyer and you can't!

Recent news report that a deadly winter storm begins barrage in Northeast and already has killed more than 20 people. Why did this happen? Power line poles crashing on people is one reason. What if they built them underground? That way it is much more expensive, so it all boils down to money and simple economics.

Let me ask you one question: if your multimillion donation to an organization is purely charitable, why do you want it to be named after you? In recent news: IU Bloomington School of Law renamed in honor of largest-ever donor !!! Could it be a manifestation of one of the seven dealy sins: pride?

Screem bloody robbery! According a recent publication in New York Times SMS messages are an ingenious way to rip off phone consumers. See, these messages contain miniscule amounts of data in comparison to any phone call, so they should cost around $0.00001. Why are the prices so high then? The usual suspects are collusion by the biggest of telecom companies. Where are the healthy workings of capitalism now?

I hate big stinky dogs!!!
A couple of my friends have big dogs…. And they stink! The dogs I mean!
Not that my friends do not wash their dogs, they do; but freaking creatures just constantly release this stench, no matter what you do. And the bigger the dog the more it stinks!
I hate them, hate them.

I'm from Ukraine and I am tired of hearing people say "Oh, THE Ukraine!". What? Where did you go to school? the Ukraine? You never put an article in front of a single word country name. Period. You might be confused, because there are so many countries that start with a "U" and have a "the" in front. Like, "The United States" or "The United Kingdom". But it's not the letter "U" that is doing the trick! It is because they are compound names.