Don't you want to be part of the crowd?

The urban chaos that has plagued Paris for the last two weeks is now starting to spread to other French cities such as Toulouse and Rennes. The President is vowing to put a stop to the violence and re-establish order, as the 'burnt car count' went over 1,300 last night.

In the second such story I've heard in the past month, Bush is promising to end agricultural subsidies to US farmers in exchange for movement in trade negotiations.

How big is cocaine in London right now? Big enough that you can now find trace amounts of it in the Thames. Scientists extrapolate from these latest findings that as many as 150,000 lines of cocaine are being done in the city every day.

2400 and counting baby!

Well, I just checked, and I just went over the 2400 hit mark since I started this blog up. Now, I know that some blogs get this in an hour, but I'm still pretty happy about it.

Thanks to Mr./Ms. Maritime Life (who also has an Eastlink account, and apparently an old computer running Windows 98) for putting me over the top by searching Google for "Marni Halifax Roommate." Certainly not the most common way to get here, but hey, to each his own.

Cheap Energy for Everyone!

If this Guardian report is correct, a medic at Harvard University, Randall Mills, has discovered a brand new source of power - one that's clean, has exceptionally cheap inputs, and produces piles of energy. I wouldn't hold your breath yet though, since he's also claiming that his new discovery also disproves quantum mechanics, which puts him closer to quack territory. Cold fusion, anyone?

Paris riots, day 9. Last night an amazing 900 cars were set ablaze. Time weighs in with their explanation of the violence, which involves France's homogenization of citizenry and systemic unemployment problems.

Finally, an interesting public art project involving the projection of images from a subway train.

I'm sure if you're like me, the riots in France have been somewhat of a wtf? moment. I mean, we all know that relations between the French government and the Muslim population weren't exactly pristine, but a week of riots and car burning? Luckily, the Christian Science Monitor comes to the rescue with a background to the situation.

So you can make it go up and down, maybe even 'walk the dog.' The real question is whether you can do something like this with your yo-yo.

Firefox has now passed the 10% mark for global browser share.

Finally, in astronomy, scientists have found what they believe to be the first stars in the universe, formed only 200 million years after the big bang, or 14 billion years ago, give or take a couple. I already thought that this was a theory on the books, but another study cites evidence for the existence of a supermassive black hole in the centre of our galaxy by monitoring radio waves coming from that area. Finally, if you're interested in astronomy you should all download Celestia, because it's an excellent program both as a planetarium type application and one that actually lets you fly around in your own 'space-ship' in real time.

I'm still alive!

Hey, I know it's been forever and a day since I've posted, but I'm currently at the University of Edinburgh doing a MSc in Nationalism Studies, and, well, it's quite a bit of work.

However, I am committed to updating this from time to time. Needless to say, until I finish up this degree it won't quite have the length that it normally does, but I still do come across interesting things that I'd like to share.