Kaki King gives music to the world.

Kaki King, the first female on Rolling Stone's "guitar god" list, rocks out to a full live set at TED2008, including her breakout single, "Playing with Pink Noise." Jaw-dropping virtuosity meets a guitar technique that truly stands out.

English our second language

Jay Walker explains why two billion people around the world are trying to learn English. He shares photos and spine-tingling audio of Chinese students rehearsing English -- "the world's second language" -- by the thousands.

This is a TED video clip.

Debunking myths

Skeptic Society founder Michael Shermer dedicates his life to debunking myths, superstitions and urban legends, and also explaining why we believe them. Along with publishing Skeptic Magazine.

This is a TED video clip.

Chicken-a-la-carte

This is a powerful video image organized by the writer-director on a situation that started with ordering the ubiquitous fried chicken.

Click here: Chicken-a-la-carte

Web and Semantics

The stunning speed that the web internet is now approaching the speed of light.

Developers are moving from syntax recognition to semantics, the meaning dimension of the words. In the future computers will be taught to read through the words and create meaning.

The implication of this is that search engines are more adept in searching articles you want to read. This has also implications on other areas of development like travel, sports, lifestyles and other aspects of human activities.

Wonderful Nature

The relationship of bees and petals, enter velcro.

You may want to know: Air pilot get fatigue

Air pilot fatigue.

Plane pilots can get tired feeling like "drinking too much when one loses sleep".

Electric cars

Automakers are gearing up in producing their mini electric cars. With this move the good news for electric cars is just a moment notice.

I am hoping that electric cars will prove to be a success and will be accessible to common people.

Slapping women is OK - Judge

Saudi judge: It's OK to slap spendthrift wives

By Mohammed Jamjoom
CNN

(CNN) -- Husbands are allowed to slap their wives if they spend lavishly, a Saudi judge said recently during a seminar on domestic violence, Saudi media reported Sunday.

It is OK to slap Saudi women who spend too much, a judge has told an audience.

Arab News, a Saudi English-language daily newspaper based in Riyadh, reported that Judge Hamad Al-Razine said that "if a person gives SR 1,200 [$320] to his wife and she spends 900 riyals [$240] to purchase an abaya [the black cover that women in Saudi Arabia must wear] from a brand shop and if her husband slaps her on the face as a reaction to her action, she deserves that punishment."

Women in the audience immediately and loudly protested Al-Razine's statement, and were shocked to learn the remarks came from a judge, the newspaper reported.

Arab News reported that Al-Razine made his remark as he was attempting to explain why incidents of domestic violence had increased in Saudi Arabia. He said that women and men shared responsibility, but added that "nobody puts even a fraction of blame" on women, the newspaper said.

Al-Razine "also pointed out that women's indecent behavior and use of offensive words against their husbands were some of the reasons for domestic violence in the country," it added.

Domestic violence, which used to be a taboo subject in the conservative kingdom, has become a hot topic in recent years. Groups like the National Family Safety Program have campaigned to educate the public about the problem and help prevent domestic abuse.

Saudi women's rights activist Wajeha Al-Huwaider told CNN that Saudi women routinely face such attitudes.

"This is how men in Saudi Arabia see women," she said in a telephone interview from the Saudi city of Dahran. "It's not something they read in a book or learned from a friend. They've been raised to see women this way, that they're less than a person."

Al-Huwaider added that "I'm not surprised to see a judge or a religious man saying that - they've been raised in the same culture - a culture that tells them it's ok to raise your hand to a woman that this works."

Another Saudi judge, in the city of Onaiza, was the source of a separate recent controversy: he twice denied a request from the mother of an 8-year-old girl that the girl be granted a divorce from her 47-year-old husband.

Last month, after human-groups condemned the union, the girl was granted the divorce.

Pope tells the miss-use of religion

The Pope Benedictine XVI is on a visit to Jordan, Israel and the West Bank. According to one reporter, he is exceedingly careful in his speeches so an not to offend his host.

Hunger, Food, Obesity

As the tsunami financial crisis is wrecking havoc to millions, a new term came into place, "newly unemployed". In America Food Bank sees a rise of 30% in food provision as newly unemployed are making the lines.

Author also claims that the FDA food pyramid is also causing obesity in the land of the plenty.

Click on link.

Link between Education and Health

Studies have shown that those with low educational attainment would have higher health risks than those with better education.



Click link for full article.

Education, France, Protests!

France is reeling from its 14 weeks strikes in their universities.

Click on the link.

Rethinking Boxing

Howie Severino shared this link at Facebook.

It's about the pain in boxing. Matthew Syed wrote an incisive critique on the pain, on the image of Hatton's girlfriend.

True we were not the one on the canvass, it was Hatton.

The money will flow for both fighters and their associates and the media.

But where has civilization been going when we see these things? Can we separate the enjoyment of those Romans when this group called Christians as they find themselves standing on the dreadful sands of the coliseum? Are we different?

After the fight, are we better humans? Was it able to lift the human condition?

Rethinking China

Is China a rich or poor country?

To some it is a mix of First, Second and Third world.

To official pronouncements it is still a developing country.

Click on link.