Two MDC officials arrested over arms cache

The suppression of the opposition continues apace in Zimbabwe:
Two senior Zimbabwean opposition officials have been
arrested after police said they had found an arms cache in the eastern
city of Mutare.
The Movement for Democratic Change identified them as MP Giles Mutsekwa and regional treasurer Brian James..
Security Minister Didymus Mutasa has warned that those planning violence would be physically "eliminated".

Because it worked so well on the farms

it looks like Zimbabwe is set to nationalize the mines. From Business Day (via allafrica.com):
According to media reports in Zimbabwe and local sources, Zimbabwean Minister of Mines Amos Midzi told the Zimbabwe Chamber of Mines last week that the cabinet had approved draft proposals to require mining companies to surrender 51% of their assets to the government and/or indigenous groups, depending on the commodity. The government would pay only for 26% and the remainder would be a "free carry".

Integratron2

Integratron2
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

The Integratron, Langley, Southern California. An old UFO contactee gathering spot.

Joshua Tree park - coyote

Joshua Tree park - coyote
Originally uploaded by Alhazred.

Sunburned Mick photographing a coyote - Joshua Tree park.

Gospel of Judas to be published

The Gospel of Judas, originally stolen from Egypt, is now to be published by National Geographic. It's story, as summarized in this Christian Science Monitor article, is quite fascinating.
When the Gospel of Judas first surfaced in Geneva in 1983, scholars wondered if the mysterious text could trigger a reappraisal of history's most infamous traitor.
They never found out, however, because they couldn't afford the $3 million price tag on this second-century gnostic tale. Instead, the fragile pages vanished into private hands and set off on a 23-year, intercontinental journey through fist-pounding negotiations and even periods, reportedly, stuffed inside a Greek beauty's purse.

And I thought Portland was bad...

Foreignpolicy.com has an exceedingly interesting paper on the gender imbalance in Asia, aptly titled The Geopolitics of Sexual Frustration. The larger number of men than women on that continent is having unforeseen consequences, of which extreme nationalism may be one. One scenario that they posit:
A Beijing power struggle between cautious old technocrats and aggressive young nationalists may be decided by mobs of rootless young men, demanding uniforms, rifles, and a chance to liberate Taiwan. More likely, the organized crime networks that traffic in women will shift their deliveries toward Asia and build a brothel culture large enough to satisfy millions of sexually frustrated young men.
One aspect of the article that goes against accepted wisdom: it is not the poor that choose boys over girls.
It would be reassuring to assume that China’s economic growth will itself solve the problem, as prosperity removes the traditional economic incentives for poor peasants to have sons who can work the land rather than daughters who might require costly dowries. But the numbers don’t support that theory. Indeed, the steepest imbalance between male and female infants is found in more prosperous regions, such as Hainan Island. And census data from India suggest that slum-dwellers and the very poor tend to raise a higher proportion of female children than more prosperous families.
Interesting times.

Things for which we don't need to constantly refresh our RSS feeds - 43Folders

Merlin Mann is known for his fun and inciteful posts on his various sites. This is an extract from a 43Folders post.

A few things I’ve learned I don’t need to know about the second they happen:

a new comment has been added to a 43 Folders post
a friend of mine has posted a new photo to Flickr
a very long message from a mailing list I never read has been delivered to my inbox
someone on LiveJournal is still disappointed with their (joblove liferoommatehairlunchother)
Technorati reports a new post somewhere in the world tagged “web 2.0″
the temperature in San Francisco has dropped one degree Farenheit
my FedEx package is still in Memphis

And, yet these are all things that I used to monitor manually via my RSS reader. Refresh all. Refresh all. Refresh all. Refresh all. Refresh all. Madness.