Distinguished author and ex-nun Karen Armstrong has written a good article in the Guardian titled: "We cannot afford to maintain these ancient prejudices on Islam" in response to Pope Benedict XVI's speech where he quoted a medieval text disparaging Islam and prophet Muhammad.Here are some selected quotes:

The public inquiry into Maher Arar's case is finally out.

Maher Arar is a Canadian Syrian engineer. After spending a vacation in Tunisia (where his wife is from), he was travelling from Tunisia to Zurich to New York to Canada on Sept 26, 2002. On his stop in New York he was detained by US authorities and taken to Syria, via Jordan. There he was interrogated and tortured for more than a year, and then freed with no charges.

An inquiry was held to investigate the role of Canadian authorities, in his being detained by the Americans and being sent to Syria.

Salma is distinct in the family for her curly hair.If I was to take on a kunya it may well be أبو الشعثاء Abu Al-Sha3tha2 ("Father of the girl with the curly hair"). Here is a picture of her: 

Here is another variant of the lottery winning scam. This time they say it is in South Africa, and call it Euro Afro American lottery.

Euro Afro American Lottery promotionSouth AfricanFrom the desk of: Mrs Sandra Nzamawebsite:www.euro-afro.blogspot.comDear Sir\MadamCONGRATULATIONS FOR YOUR WINNING:We happily announce to you the draw of South African 2010 World cup Bid lottery Award International programs held in Zurich, Switzerland. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: B9665 75604546 199 with ! Serial number 97560 drew the winning:60/84/27/17/36, which subsequently won you the lottery award in the 2nd category. Your name have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$2,000.000.00(Two million United States Dollars) in cash credited to file KPC/9030108308/03 .This is from a total cash prize of US $ 8,000,000.00 (Eight million United States dollars) shared among the first 4 lucky winners in this category world-wide. website:www.euro-afro.blogspot.comPlease note that your lucky winning number falls within our lottery booklet representative office in South Africa as indicate in the play coupon. In view of this, your US $2,000.000 ( Two Million United States Dollars ) would be released to through the assistance of our agent in South Africa immediately he commence the process to facilitate the release of your funds as soon as you contacted him.All participants were selected randomly from World Wide Web site through computer draw system and extracted from over 100,000,00 companies and individual emails address.The lottery programe took place to promote South Africa's 2010 world cup award. For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information confidential till your claims are processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize. This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements.Please you are advised to file for your claim immediately through our agent MR JAMES ZUMA immediately you received this message because you stand a risk of loosing the prize if you fail to claim within a month from the day you received this notification.His e-mail address is : jameszuma22@hotmail.co.ukTel:+27-76-249-2792Fax:27-86-513-3875Yours sincerely,Mrs Sandra Nzama(Zonal cordinator)pls use this E-mail:jameszuma22@hotmail.co.ukwebsite:http://www.euro-afro.blogspot.com

Their web site is on blogspot.com, which means it is just a blog.

This is yet another scam attempt:Note the spelling mistakes, boiler plate text (nothing specific about the item). I also included the inserted scam advisory by craigslist. 

From: austin ford <shopay1@dbzmail.com> To: meDate: Sep 16, 2006 7:03 PMSubject: [title of item]** CRAIGSLIST ADVISORY --- AVOID SCAMS BY DEALING LOCALLY** Avoid: wiring money, cross-border deals, work-at-home** Beware: cashier checks, money orders, escrow, shipping** More Info: http://www.craigslist.org/about/scams.htmlDear Seller

Ubuntu is a very popular Linux distribution. There are many variants, including Kubuntu (Ubuntu with a KDE desktop), Edubuntu (education oriented Ubuntu), ...etc.Now there is a new edition: Christian Ubuntu. No, it is not a joke. It is real. It includes the Bible, as well as web parental control software. Here is the announcement on the Ubuntu Forums.Of course, something like that would always invoke jokes, such as this blog called Ubuntu Christian Edition Facts. It clearly says that it is a joke.

Security expert Bruce Schneier writes a section on "What the terrorists want" in his latest Crypt-Gram newsletter for September 15, 2006.He specifically points to the misuse of terrorism by politicians and media to promote fear, and to further political agendas and careers, as well as to increase TV viewership. Here are the terrorism related sections in this edition of the newsletter.

• What the Terrorists Want
• Details on the British Terrorist Arrest
• More Than 10 Ways to Avoid the Next 9/11
• Fifth Anniversary of September 11, 2001

Bruce was the one who coined the term : "security theater".

I got this email from a scammer, in response to a classified ad for a car. You can see that his questions are more sophisticated than the others:However, the signs of scamming is there, such as "the item", and signing "Donald" while his name in the email is "greg mcdonald".

From: greg mcdonald <gregmcautos@yahoo.com>Subject: [title of car ad from craigslist]HELLO, MAY I KNOW IF THE ITEM YOU ADVERTISED ON THE NETIS STILL AVAILABLE FOR SALE, MY CUSTOMER IS INTERESTED INBUYING IT , HE IS PRICING IT $950 ,LET ME KNOW IF ITS STILL FORSALE, WITH THE BOTTOM PRICE .ASAP.WHEN WAS IT DRIVEN LAST?ARE YOU FIRST OWNER?Donald 

The NetworkWorld community web site has converted from Movable Type to Drupal.Their feedback page uses the feedback module, and their sitemap page uses the sitemenu module, both of which I have written. Thanks to Bert Boerland for posting about this, and yes, there is no excuse for a large site disabling clean URLs.

Timothy Olufemi Akanni was a Nigerian electoral official, being the director of Finance and Supplies from 1996 to 2005. He was also a Pentecostal church pastor. He died in a plane crash in 22 October 2006. He was eulogised as a selfless and patriotic Nigerian.

What was to be revealed later was that Akanni had another secret wife, and has amassed $55 million dollars illegally.

The matter was discovered when his two widows started squabbling about the spoils.

A corrupt official, or hypocrite pastor is nothing new.

What is amazing is that this looks like a plot from a typical email fraud from Nigeria. Imagine reading this: