Over the last several months, a small group of web developers and designers have been hard at work perfecting a method to insert rich typography into web pages without sacrificing accessibility, search engine friendliness, or markup semantics. The method, dubbed sIFR (or Scalable Inman Flash Replacement), is the result of many hundreds of hours of designing, scripting, testing, and debugging by Mike Davidson (umm, that's me) and Mark Wubben. Through this extensive work, we, along with a invaluable stable of beta testers, supporters, and educators like Stephanie Sullivan and Danilo Celic of Community MX, have completely rebuilt a DOM replacement method originally conceived by Shaun Inman into a typography solution for the masses. It is this technology which provides the nice looking custom type headlines you see on sites like this one, Nike, ABCNews, Aston Martin, and others. We've released sIFR to the world as open source, under the CC-GNU LGPL license, so anyone can use it free of charge.

Mike Davidson -- sIFR 2.0: Rich Accessible Typography for the Masses

The Bank of Asia is a very famous building in Bangkok. It was made way back in 1985, and it's robotic appearance is just a symbol of the modernization of banking. It also has the ability to transform into a mega-robot.

Man I wish I had see this when I was there.

UniqueDaily.com - The Many Unusual Looking Buildings On Earth

No joke.

Bandaids that look like a fresh strip of bacon.

LOL

"Free Toy Inside"

Truly random stuff: Bacon bandages

MIDLAND, Texas (AP) -- A published report says "Baby Jessica," whose dramatic rescue from an abandoned Texas well was televised across the country 18 years ago, has gotten married.

CNN.com - 'Baby Jessica,' now 19, reportedly marries - Jan 30, 2006

An Australian couple who picked up an odd-looking fatty lump from a quiet beach are in line for a cash windfall.
Leon Wright and his wife took home a 14.75kg lump of ambergris, found in the innards of sperm whales and used in perfumes after it has been vomited up.
Sought after because of its rarity, ambergris can float on the ocean for years before washing ashore.
Worth up to $20 a gram, Mr Wright's find on a South Australian beach could net his family US$295,000 (�165,300

BBC NEWS | World | Asia-Pacific | Whale 'vomit' sparks cash bonanza

believe that there is no God. I'm beyond atheism. Atheism is not believing in God. Not believing in God is easy -- you can't prove a negative, so there's no work to do. You can't prove that there isn't an elephant inside the trunk of my car. You sure? How about now? Maybe he was just hiding before. Check again. Did I mention that my personal heartfelt definition of the word "elephant" includes mystery, order, goodness, love and a spare tire?

So, anyone with a love for truth outside of herself has to start with no belief in God and then look for evidence of God. She needs to search for some objective evidence of a supernatural power. All the people I write e-mails to often are still stuck at this searching stage. The atheism part is easy.

But, this "This I Believe" thing seems to demand something more personal, some leap of faith that helps one see life's big picture, some rules to live by. So, I'm saying, "This I believe: I believe there is no God."

Having taken that step, it informs every moment of my life. I'm not greedy. I have love, blue skies, rainbows and Hallmark cards, and that has to be enough. It has to be enough, but it's everything in the world and everything in the world is plenty for me. It seems just rude to beg the invisible for more. Just the love of my family that raised me and the family I'm raising now is enough that I don't need heaven. I won the huge genetic lottery and I get joy every day.

Believing there's no God means I can't really be forgiven except by kindness and faulty memories. That's good; it makes me want to be more thoughtful. I have to try to treat people right the first time around.

Believing there's no God stops me from being solipsistic. I can read ideas from all different people from all different cultures. Without God, we can agree on reality, and I can keep learning where I'm wrong. We can all keep adjusting, so we can really communicate. I don't travel in circles where people say, "I have faith, I believe this in my heart and nothing you can say or do can shake my faith." That's just a long-winded religious way to say, "shut up," or another two words that the FCC likes less. But all obscenity is less insulting than, "How I was brought up and my imaginary friend means more to me than anything you can ever say or do." So, believing there is no God lets me be proven wrong and that's always fun. It means I'm learning something.

Believing there is no God means the suffering I've seen in my family, and indeed all the suffering in the world, isn't caused by an omniscient, omnipresent, omnipotent force that isn't bothered to help or is just testing us, but rather something we all may be able to help others with in the future. No God means the possibility of less suffering in the future.

Believing there is no God gives me more room for belief in family, people, love, truth, beauty, sex, Jell-O and all the other things I can prove and that make this life the best life I will ever have.

There Is No God By Penn Jillette

Pentagon expands domestic surveillance.

And Bruce Schneier weighs in as well.

Oh, this is baaaad, bad, bad, people... wake up... wake up....

Pentagon Expands Domestic Surveillance

(CBS) The latest in Christmas trees by be the start of a new craze — or it may just drive Santa crazy.

A Chicago man has come up an item that could turn the holiday on its head: pre-lit fake firs that are upside-down, resting on what is usually the point at the top.

CBS News | A Topsy-Turvy Christmas | November 9, 2005 11:00:06

Multiple restaurant managers fell for social engineering over the telephone, forcing employees to strip.

Crazy.

Newsflash! People Are Stupid!

Opinion: Sony says it will discontinue distribution of its DRM software, which could pose a "rootkit" security threat to users. But does that include the OS X version?Sony is reportedly pulling its digital rights management "rootkit" from the market. But it isn't reporting everything. "The Sony copy-protection software does not install itself on Macintosh computers or ordinary CD and DVD players," Reuters reported today. There's just one problem with that statement: it happens to be flat-out wrong. While the XCP version of copy protection is for Windows, there is another Mac-only version of copy protection installed by Sony/BMG CDs.To establish this point, one simply has to refer to a poster on the popular Macintosh site MacInTouch. The poster notes that Imogen Heap's new CD, "Speak for Yourself," on RCA Victor (a BMG subsidiary), has an extra partition for "enhanced" content. Along with Windows files, there is a Mac file present called "Start.app."When run, a EULA is first displayed (which does inform the user that software is going to be installed without saying exactly what that software will do).

I did not know this.

Sony's DRM Rootkit Comes in Mac Flavor, Too