Links for the Week

I've been finding out a lot of random things lately; isn't that what the internet is for? As usual, I can't help but share some of them with you. Some fall in the "interesting and nice to know" category; some are a little stranger than that.

Youth football is not the most dangerous thing in the world. Yes, that word "not" is in there on purpose. As one of the MDs interviewed in the article says "The thing is, the little kids simply don't move that fast. And they're made of rubber." Anything that makes this mama feel better - we'll go with that, okay?

On the "much stranger" side of things: did you know that Mormons wear special, blessed underwear? Really, how there can be so many of them when this is what they look like under their clothes? If you know the answer to that question, please don't share. This was more than enough for me.

And then the scary side: Britain is going farther down the road to totalitarianism by trying to take away four overweight children from their overweight parents. George Orwell, call your office. Really, read the whole article: it's beyond disturbing. For three years a social worker been present at the family's mealtimes, taking notes on what they consume. That hasn't had the desired result, so the children are to be taken away and given up for adoption, with no parent contact allowed. I don't like seeing fat kids any more than the next person, but this is such an obvious violation of both the parents' and the children's human rights, it's ridiculous. Who will they come for next, I wonder?

I've actually caught Drudge in a mistake! Well, not a mistake per se, but one of his links this past weekend read: NEW PILL TO 'STOP STROKES'... and linked to this story from the UK. But ... the same drug has been approved for the same use in the same group of patients for close to a year in the US... so, news? No, not so much.

In general I never write about the industry in which I work, but this is an interesting story, and not one that I've seen in the US press. Cisco is being sued for allegedly helping the Chinese government develop a system to crack down on dissidents who use the internet to express their views. The claim, filed by Human Rights Law Foundation, alleges that there is evidence, in part in the form of a 2002 Cisco proposal, that "reveals how [Cisco's] products can address China's goals of “maintaining stability”, “stop the network-related crimes” and “combat 'Falun Gong' evil religion and other hostiles”." Oy.

Five links seem more than enough for a four-day work week. Cheers.