New revelations about the plane crash that killed President Juvénal Habyarimana and sparked the Rwandan genocide.

If you are into saving animals and a Super Mario Bros. fan (not sure how many fall into that particular statistic), then play PETA's New Super Chick Sisters here.

Et tu, Harry Reid? Of course, Clinton said this...

The word 'Allah' gets into an intellectual property dispute over Christians using the same in Malaysia... I also found out that the Koran mentions the name Jesus 25 times... Meanwhile, the name Jesus itself seems to be a form of the ancient Hebrew name 'Joshua'...

Pushing for the art and science of software development and programming toward a Zen like level or, why it is increasingly necessary that many young Americans start to realize that being labelled the so called 'nerd' is actually cool (this will be our only way to compete in the future global marketplace of ideas). Zed Shaw on The Master, The Expert, The Programmer.

An online app looking at Netflix queues examining Netflix rental patterns, neighborhood by neighborhood, in a dozen cities.

In days of declining appetite for increasing capital budgets at most companies this story from HBR strikes a chord: How oerational innovation can transform business. A pointer for some state governments (read: NY and CA)...

India's advertisement laced villages. A photo essay by Vijay Raju showing how large multi nationals and (smaller local outfits) are plastering rural roads, homes and space with garish ads in their quest to bridge the 'last mile'.

There is a good chance Geithner will be asked to resign and will act as a 'fall guy' after the 2010 mid term elections. Remember in 2004 the Bush administration needed someone and they found a good candidate in Rumsfeld. In Geithner's case, the cozy collusion recently highlighted in the AIG case borders on the obscene.

France plans to impose a Google Tax.

Video using custom software called Graffiti Analysis designed for graffiti writers... More here...

The Importance of Acoustics in Food Storage.

Mapping “the sea of time and space” in J.G. Ballard’s Pacific fictions.

Our changing information diet. Details on Dunbar's number here. (via.)

Guardians of the Art World by Andy Freeberg - a picture gallery.

Best undergrad college degrees by salary.

"If life arises readily in Earth-like conditions, as many astrobiologists contend, then it may well have formed many times on Earth itself, which raises the question whether one or more shadow biospheres have existed in the past or still exist today." Signatures of a Shadow Biosphere - a paper.

From a story about snipers... "Crane shot her. He felt no kick from the rifle. He barely heard the shot. In his scope he saw a little white hole where the bullet went through the window, and he watched the woman’s head explode. She was dead in an instant, and without spasms."

Goldman Sachs seems to be taking heat. About time!!

Even after news that thousands of children were raped and abused in Catholic schools in Ireland, the Irish managed to pass a law making blasphemy an offence. Meanwhile Iran, not wanting to be left behind took this one step further, they are executing five on the ludicrous charge of 'warring against god'. Christian evangelicals in America are moving forward in a more cautious manner.

Coral growth, algal blooms and liquid crystal matrix genomes - Olivia Judson profiles Dinoflagellates.

I have never seen David Brooks write a movie review but this one of the Avatar is on the mark - especially in detailing the White Messiah complex. This line "it’s just escapism, obviously, but benevolent romanticism can be just as condescending as the malevolent kind" resonates.

The technology behind the Google book scanning effort.

Finally, someone has the balls... Goldman Sachs criticized for allocating $16.7 billion to pay employees for the first nine months of 2009 after receiving government bailout money was sued by a shareholder who claims it is a “waste” of assets.

If the 'underwear bomber' was radicalized in Britain, why is that country not on the terror watch list? We know for a fact that a third of Muslim students think killing in the name of religion is justified and 40 per cent support sharia law in Britain...

There is a feeling among much of the Western press that if any Asian country sings out of tune (an example would be not agreeing to a global climate deal) then reflexively call the country intransigent, stubborn and other colorful adjectives. It is India's turn now. Little is said about the 100 odd years that the West have had free rein to pollute globally...

If Shakespeare would have written The Big Lebowski. (via).

Victoria's Secret, Lutheran missionaries offering seafarers a ride and the changing maritime scene around New York City in this wonderful tale of sailors on port call.

Lawyers advise to clients on Facebook/Twitter/other_social media contemplating divorce: Change passwords, stop posting on social networking sites, acquire a new e-mail address, and secure or make copies of whatever is posted about them online.

As indicated here previously, it is now clear that Australian racist attitudes towards Indians will need to change. In the interim, India seems to have issued a travel advisory...

Our lives on the road just got worse!! Automakers and high-tech companies have found a new place to put sophisticated Internet-connected computers: the front seat. CES highlights here.

What have scientists learnt about fitness? An easy way to calculate VO2max - the maximum consumption of oxygen achieved during a session of exercise. The higher the better. Time how long it takes you to walk a mile as quickly as possible, then measure your heart rate. Plug time, heart rate, age, gender & weight into website.

Young volunteers from Gaza with video cameras manage to document everyday life amidst a blockade imposed by both Israel and Egypt to isolate the Hamas government... (via).

A large scale mandala titled 'E. Pluribus Unum' from artist Chris Jordan. (Page will load slowly, but worth it).

Jon Stewart surveys Fox News latest attempt at Christian proselytism... In addition to the their preachy 'My God is better than yours' rhetoric, Fox also manages to throw some dirt at Hindus...

Why we like trains. Someday, my wife and I will travel the same way (plus one does not have to go through any pesky full body scans).

Daily life in Yemen - 9 photographs... and the Baker Street Underground station in London.

Thoughts on giving advice and receiving advice. My favorites were: "Passion" and "Voice" are two of the most frequent and most vague pieces of advice and When you give advice, it's easy to fan the embers but hard to strike a new fire. (via).

25 vegan recipes here. (via).

"More than three decades ago, Mary Daly wrote, “If God is male, then male is God.” She was right then, and she is right now. Religions that will not recognize the full equality of women simply substitute maleness for divinity". RIP.

A Chinese saying once warned that “researching atomic bombs will never earn as much as selling tea eggs”. Now they are realizing the fruits of basic science and research and luring their science talent back home. As does India too... Of course, bureaucracy haunts.

Life of a Taxi driver in Rio (first person account) and life lessons from an autowallah in Mysore, India.

Subverting 'I wanna be your dog'...

How something as subtle as the typography on restaurant menus can make or break a decision to order...

Insect sex watch: How do insects mate with the right person if everyone looks exactly the same? ... The solution, according to a new study, is to find a partner who can sing in perfect harmony with you.

Men can rest easy: 'The G-spot doesn't appear to exist', say researchers (from one of the biggest study involving about 1800 women)...

Are other CEO's actually taking note of this? Continental CEO says 'Don't Pay Me Unless We're Profitable'...

Will profiling make a difference in airport security? Viewpoints...

Skype can now be integrated with your living room TV set. Will this be the year of the Internet-connected high-definition televisions?

'Letting fatties roam the site is a direct threat to our business model' has all the makings of becoming the next hit meme. Poster sellers, T-shirt printers and other like vultures take note...

With the targeted killing of young Indians becoming an almost monthly occurrence in Australia, is it time to call Australia and by extension Australians racist? See here, here, here and here.

Yet another Navajo story of exploitation. No wonder Hollywood comes out with films like Avatar and District 9 - the collective guilt needs some channel...

Keeping America's edge in the age of the BRICs and useless Reganomics - an essay by Jim Manzi in the National Affairs. Very readable.

"Americans have no fear of being overheard. Civic life in Britain is predicated on the idea that everyone just about conceals his loathing of everyone else. To open your mouth is to risk offending someone. So we mutter and mumble as if surrounded by informers or, more exactly, as if they are living in our heads." - Reflections from across the 'pond'.

Bloggers and others are tripping over themselves to declare 2000-2010 the 'lost decade'. C'mon, we knew that the moment Mr. Bush got re-elected for a second term!!

Fervid rants from three evangelical preachers whose mission included “mobilizing the body of Christ to minister grace and truth to a world impacted by homosexuality” seems to be responsible for the recent push by Uganda to create a bill to impose the death sentence for homosexual behavior.

The positive outcome from the 2004 tsunami that devastated parts of India: All new homes built in the state of Tamil Nadu "would be titled in the name of women. The men grumbled, but the officials told them they had no choice. Men drank and gambled, they said; women were more reliable."

Is it “fair” that executives at big companies should make 275 times (today’s approximate ratio) what their average employees make? What’s a Bailed-Out Banker Really Worth?

Training ageing brains...

The Israelification of United States air travel is slowly upon us (HuffPo reports today that citizens of certain countries will receive a “full body pat-down and physical inspection of property”). The day will not be too far off when TSA agents are trained face readers...

Shane Bang’s Super Mario theme freestyle pen-tapping remix.

Interview with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (from Ohio and the House’s longest-serving woman) on the vested interests in our broken financial system and how the bailout made things worse.

'One of the great mysteries of the human mindis the fact that reading is a relatively recent invention, dating to some 5,000 to 10,000 years ago. Our brains didn’t evolve to read'. A review of the book Reading in the Brain: The Science and Evolution of a Human Invention by Stanislas Dehaene.

Clusterfuck has the usual thought provoking downers in this column titled Forecast 2010...

Musings of a VC in NYC talks about his areas of interest in (technology) for 2010.

Yet another date for the end of the world: May 21, 2011 (from a Biblical scholar who has developed a mathematical system to interpret prophecies hidden within the Bible). Of course, some of these scholars also believe that the earth is only 6000 years old...

Musical tips for 2010 - From the decline of festivals to the rise of the Gaga clones, what can we expect to hear over the next 12 months?

Living in the memory: A celebration of the great writers who died in the past decade...

Shareholder value destruction following the Tiger Woods scandal - a paper from the Department of Economics, University of California, Davis, CA. No, I am not kidding... (via).

With the United States spending all of our energies over the next 10 years warding off the next terrorist threat, this Times review of the book seems uncanny: 'When China Rules the World: The end of the western world and the birth of a new global order'...

Slow, free range, idle parents can increase IQ and happiness. (via).

A little bit of mystical math could help with that hangover - or so I thought...

On some of the issues behind IBMs recent announcement that they have managed to achieve a software simulation that matched a cat's brainpower...

On preppers gearing up for catastrophe...

It is 2010 and the most relevant thing for the Jan 1st morning would be collected wisdom on how to get over a hangover. Hopefully we would not see too much of this stuff this year.