Freecycle

I have often agonized about throwing stuff away into landfills (old computer monitors, old phones, a TV and VCR which does not work perfectly well but would cost more to repair than to buy a new one, and many other things). I used the "For Free" section of Craigslist.com recently to get rid of some things I did not have a need for but which no one would buy.

The Freecycle (TM) network provides another way for people to give away things that they no longer need for free.
And its not just in the US - including UK , Australia , Canada , Germany, and many other countries around the world. I learned about this after watching a video, that was uploaded on current.tv, about a Freecycle event organized in Brooklyn.

Freecycle™: Changing the World One Gift at a Time

Give stuff away-- keep good stuff out of landfills!

Also, use the FreecycleFinder page to look for stuff people may be looking to give away. Also check out these del.icio.us posts tagged Freecycle.

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Reference: My compilation post with various links on Global Warming and the Environment.

Ravages of Time

For our aging brain cells...(I for one am finding I am forgetting things I would have never forgotten in the past)...

How to remember stuff or not: part I, II, and III. (via Mefi)

Ramanujan Prize

The Ramanujan Prize is for Young Mathematicians from Developing Countries. The Prize, named after the famed Indian genius and mathematical whiz, Srinivasa Ramanujan, is awarded annually to a researcher under 45 years of age and from a developing country and is funded by the Niels Henrik Abel Memorial Fund

The 2006 winner was Ramdorai Sujatha of TIFR, while Marcelo Viana of Brazil won the inaugural award in 2005.

Free Kareem

February 15, 2007 is Free Kareem Day in cities around the world. There will be peaceful rallies to support both Kareem and the right to freedom of expression.

22-year-old Egyptian blogger Abdul Kareem Nabeel Suleiman (better known by his Internet pseudonym, Kareem Amer), was arrested for expressing his secular views on his personal blog. His trial has been postponed to Thursday, February 22, 2007, and he is expected to be sentenced up to ELEVEN YEARS OF PRISON.

For more on his story, see FreeKareem.org

Weekly Review

I quite enjoy reading Harpers.org's often tongue-in-cheek Weekly Review column.

The following are gleaned from this weeks review:

William Donohue railed against "incendiary," "inflammatory," and "scurrilous" bloggers...[CNN]

Congressman Gary Ackerman insisted that it would take little more than a "platoon of lesbians" to chase the U.S. military out of Baghdad [Thinkprogress via Nerve.com]

"farcical, saucy, and somewhat tragic, man-breasts" were deemed ideal "fodder" for the British tabloid media :) [Times online]

Donatella Versace told Hillary Clinton to stop wearing pants.[Reuters]

In Washington state, proponents of same-sex marriage pursued legislation that would annul all connubial unions still barren after three years [Washington News]

Keith Urban, the country singer sued Keith Urban, a painter, after the latter Urban registered the Internet domain name keithurban.com "with the intent of producing confusion."[Playfuls.com ]

U.S . Representative Joe Baca denied calling a congressional colleague a "whore" [ Raw Story]

In Texas, elementary school children were increasingly becoming addicted to "chees", a potentially lethal combination of heroin and Tylenol PM. "Any child anywhere can afford a hit of cheese," said a detective. "It's just horrific." [ABC News]

French interior minister Nicolas Sarkozy publicly advocated "an excess of caricatures" depicting prophet Muhammad. [Reuters]

Zimbabwe outlawed inflation [NY Times]

A British Muslim high school was under criticism for using textbooks that depicted Jews as apes and Christians as pigs, and predicted that all non-believers would be condemned to hellfire.[This London]

Remote-controlled "zombie computers" attacked three of the world's largest Internet servers [Boing Boing]

Arthur Sulzberger, publisher of the New York Times, said he wasn't sure if the paper would still be printed in 5 years, "And you know what?" Sulzberger added. "I don't care." [Haaretz]

Random Links - 1

Hmmm...
a) If Elle McPherson says she can't get a date and has been celibate for two years, what chances do mere mortals like us have! In unrelated news today, scientists reported findings that early social experiences influence romantic relationships.
b) Well... you could be a 'hero' and enjoy quite a life - fathering "at least 100,000 daughters and countless sons". RIP, Galtee Merci, the '' stud bull who died earlier this week. Not sure being a stud was all its purported to be.. but atleast he didn't risk suffering from dementia, huh? :)

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The ridiculous
a) Our President APJ Abdul Kalam wants a solution to end terrorism, so he decides to ask us on Yahoo! Answers
b) Does Pink Floyd's Roger Waters really like the color pink?
c) Teens convicted of producing and possessing child pornography for taking pictures of themselves.
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Technology
a) dlog is a new document visualization system that attempts to show writing not as a static document but a progression of frames over time. - via Mefi
b) Is quantum computing finally here?
c) Clash of the Comets...

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Health (all via Scienceblog.com)
a) Loneliness Associated with Increased Risk of Alzheimer’s'Missing Link' in Process Leading to Alzheimer's Disease
b) Omega-3 fatty acids may slow down early Alzheimer'sCurry may help body clear itself of Alzheimer's plaques

These guys are no scientists...they just wanted to go to the adult book store & study people getting aroused ;)
c1) Sexual stereotypes influence behavior in adult bookstores
c2) Men, women get turned on equally fast

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Sociology
Men will be apes will be men will be...

Biological anthropologists speculated that male chimps living in communal "free love" simian societies attempt to control the sexuality of their female partners by beating them [Science Now]

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Uber-Cool Stuff (all via Metafilter)
a) Detailed images of a complete miniature city
b) Detailed minitature dollhouses
c) Incredible Oragami
d ) Christmas Island sits just northwest of Australia, and is the perfect place to go if you're trying to get over a fear of being surrounded by small animals. Every November/December about 120 million Red Crabs make their annual migration to the ocean to mate and spawn. The masses of crabs cover some routes so densely that they can be seen from the air. - (via Mefi)

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US Politics
a) The Psychology of Security. An essay by Bruce Schneier on the difference between the feeling of security and the reality of security. [Via MindHacks.]
b) What the US could buy for $145 billion - the 2007 Iraq war budget (Apparently, with the latest war Budget, the Iraq war costs have topped Vietnam)

Sidhu-ism

Speaking about the elections in Punjab, Navjot Singh Sidhu, in an interview with CNN-IBN, says...

The sun is going to pierce through these clouds. There is going to be a new day coming in for Punjab. A new sun will shine in the state - the sun of Prakash Singh Badal. Prakash means light - there is going to be a new light in Punjab. The current rule of tyranny, which has spread fear in Punjab, which has looted Punjab, which has sold the interest of Punjab, where the interest of the poor has been ignored by the state government is going to come to an end. These elections will be the victory of good over evil.

Prakash means light but Badal means clouds. So.... could be that the future looks cloudy and bleak, no?

And someone please explain to me what Sidhu means by this...

When trouble comes, Navjot Singh Sidhu discovers his strength. My advise to the Chief Minister is, make hay while things are going haywire and they are going haywire all the way down to the wire.

I cannot believe people are quite taken by such verbal diarrhoea; though as this blogger suggests such 'idiomatic stroke-play makes politics his natural playing ground.' But it is amazing that unlikely as it may seem to a logical mind, this kind of nonsense has lead to his immense popularity on the Indian political scene, with celebrations marking the stay-order by the Supreme Court, reversing the recent conviction for a murder he committed in 1988 in a fit of what can be deemed road-rage.