From yet another case of life imitating humor, there is this article on how Caucho's Quercas PHP implementation in Java was used to run Drupal.Another post by Dave Herron on Resin's PHP support, and using Drupal as a test for that. What is scary is that this is indeed a case of life imitating humor.

After an extremely mild second half of December, and first half of January, cold weather finally arrived.The January cold snap has set in, causing outdoor hockey rinks to fill up with people exercising with their sticks.Temperatures as low as -21C have been recorded during the last week.An elderly woman of 91 years went out of the retirement home she lived in at 5 am, in -22C temperature, and was found frozen to death 200 metres by a passer by at 9 am.A

Over the last 8 months or so, there has been a noticeable rise in spam that touts certain penny stocks.

The scheme works like this:

After the worldwide scare of bird flu, Egypt saw several cases. Not surprising since Egypt is on one of the main migratory routes for birds from Europe and Asia south to Africa. The flu is caused by a strain of avian influenza virus called H5N1. Governments have been stockpiling Tamiflu, an oral medication for flu, in anticipation of a worldwide pandemic.

Collingwood's Blue Mountain Resort, a popular destination for winter sports such as skiing and snowboarding, had a notice on its web site that they are closed, but expect to reopen by January 10th.

Moreover, they had to lay off 1,300 seasonal workers, since there is no snow on the ground, and hence winter sports cannot be performed.

Although often a brutal dictator, Saddam Hussein's execution was remarkable in many ways.

The mobile phone video of Saddam's execution was taped by one of the attendees, who is a high ranking official.

First, there is his calmness, and composure, and even courage. He was not afraid to die. He refused the blind fold too.

When a group of onlookers mocked him, his reply was "هية هاي المرجلة" meaning "Is this manliness?"

Although it is January, it feels more like September in Southern Ontario.

There is not one speck of snow on the ground. Temperature is occasionally in the double digits (e.g. 10C yesterday, and 8C today), and it is raining instead of snowing. The local newspapers have pictures of kids playing soccer in the park, instead of skating on an outdoor rink, or skiing down a run. Other pictures show a man with a lawn mower cutting the grass!

A quick look at Google Zeitgeist 2006 tells volumes about how people use the internet, and what is important to the general populace.First off, the two most search for words are "myspace" and "bebo". Both are social networking sites. The curious part is that people search for them rather than just tack on .com and type that in the URL.This is not a case of simply typing "myspace" or "bebo" by itself in the browser's URL, because most people still use Microsoft Internet Explorer, and it does not default to a Google search.

What does a 2nd century B.C. Carthaginian general and a 13th century Spanish Muslim commander have in common? Separated by 1,500 years, there are more in common than would meet the eye.

Bogeymen and Monsters

In every culture, there are imaginary monsters or bogeymen that parents use to scare children. For example, in rural Egypt children are told not to play near water canals, otherwise El Nadaha (النداهة "The caller, The Siren") would lure them and drown them.

Although many of them are the stuff of legends, some of them have real historic roots.

Two examples from history, and their similarities are discussed below.

While beavers are common in Southern Ontario conservation areas, two recent incidents caused controversy because they are right in urban areas. Beavers on the University of Waterloo campus has gnawed several trees, posing a danger to those who use the trails. The University then paid a trapper to drown the beavers. Four of them were killed that way. There was a public outcry, from the students, as well as Waterloo residents. This caused the university to revise its policy and start a task force headed by the dean of Environmental Studies. Even that task force is being debated.