It seems that Gavin Menzies is not the only person who claims that the Chinese discovered the Americas before Columbus.Paul Chiasson, a Toronto architect and amateur archeologist, claims that some ruins at Cape Breton are indeed due to Chinese navigators who circumnavigated around Africa and came to Cape Breton and settled there. He claims that Mi'kmaq natives were culturally influenced by those alleged Chinese navigators too.

A new study shows that tea is mostly beneficial to the health.Tea cuts down the chances for heart attacks, has flouride in it and hence good for teeth, and has antioxidants in it as well, which although not conclusively cancer-preventing, has other benefits.Tea is also a source of fluid. The myth that tea causes dehydration, because of its caffeine content, has been debunked.All this is good news to me, since tea is my main source of fluid. The only downsides are the caffeine content of tea, which is less than coffee, and its prevention of iron absorption if taken around meal times.

On a flight from Malaga, Spain to  Manchester, England, passengers were concerned about two "Asian or Middle Eastern looking men acting suspiciously".On the instigation of the passengers, the flight attendants were alerted, who in turn alerted the crew, who got the airport security to remove  the men from the flight.The actions was described as "mutiny" by some news media. The suspicious behavior turned to be that the Asian men were in their twenties and talking Arabic, and wearing leather jackets although the weather was hot. They were questioned for several hours, and found to be harmless, and caught a flight back later in the day. 

If you suffer from information overload in the Drupal Universe, take a look at Drupal Digest.This is a human edited RSS feed for the Drupal mailing lists. The best posts are added in there, so you only need to point your RSS reader to the feed and you are up to date on what is happening. Volunteers are needed for the themes, consulting, translations and infrastructure lists. Thanks to Moshe Weitzman for this site. Also uses the new comment RSS module.

Liquid explosives have been known for more than 150 years.

The first was Nitroglycerin or TNT, easily manufactured by concentrated Nitric acid and glycerine. Since it is very unstable, dynamite was invented as a means to stabilize TNT. Note that nitroglycerin is used for heart patients, specially angina pectoris.

Of the organic peroxides groups, acetone peroxide, known as TATP (Triacetone triperoxide) is a powerful explosive. In theory it can be made from peroxide (more concentrated forms than what is sold in pharmacies), and nail polish remover (acetone). Although manufactured from liquids, TATP is a white crystalline powder, and not a liquid. It is suspected to have been used in the July 7, 2005 London bombings.

If you want to buy a new digital camera, it is best to check the reviews from more than one web site first.Here are sites that do these reviews on a regular basis.

• Digitial Photography Review. Founded by a Phil Askey, professional photographer. The site has in depth reviews of digital cameras and other products related to digital photography. Its main focus is the high end pro and pro-sumer cameras. Recently, the site hired other reviewers and started to look at mid and low end cameras as well.
• Steve's Digicams.
• DC Views.
• Imaging Resource.
• DC Resource.

Another example of winning the lottery.

INTERNATIONAL LOTTERY PROMOTIONPRIZE AWARD DEPT.HAARLERBERGWEG 161101 CH AMSTERDAMREF: CMWN321501/55 BATCH: 32/852042/ILPPA/CMWNIPDear Sir/Madam,We are pleased to inform you of the result of the Lottery Winners International programs held on the 12th August 2006.Your e-mail address attached to ticket number 2154892-09 with serial number 8542189-92drew lucky numbers 92-21-21-99-3 which consequently won in the 1st category, you have therefore been approved for a lump sum pay out of US$ 500,000.00(Five Hundred Thousand United States Dollars)CONGRATULATIONS!!!Due to mix up of some numbers and names, we ask that you keep your winning information confidential until your claims has been processed and your money Remitted to you. This is part of our security protocol to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some participants.All participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from over 20,000 company and 30,000,000 individual email addresses and names from all over the world. This promotional program takes place every year.This lottery was promoted and sponsored by eminent personalities like Mr. Bill Gates and the sultan of Brunei, we hope with part of your winning you will take part in our next year USD50 million International Promotion lottery. To file for your claim, please contact our fiducially Agent:Dr. Desmond P. Williams (PercyDWilliams@netscape.net)Operations Director,TEL: 0031-6135-04625FAX: 0031-84753-9200email: CiscoGlobalNet@netscape.netRemember all winning must be claimed not later than 10th Sept 2006.after this date all unclaimed funds will be included in the next stake. Please note in order to avoid unnecessary delays and complications endeavor to quote your reference and batch numbers inall first correspondence. Furthermore, should there be any change of address doinform our agent as soon as possible. We hope with part of your winning you will take partin our next year 30 million dollars international lottery.Congratulations!!!Once more from our members of staff, we thank you for being part of our promotional program.Note: anybody under the age of 18 is automatically disqualified.Sincerely yours,Winfrey Howard,SecretaryNB: We are very sorry for the delay!!!

The term "Islamic fascism" or "Islamofascism" has been in use for some time, specially by right wing talk shows and Islamophobic web sites.

Now, it has gained currency in the jargon of the Bush administration. President G. W. Bush used it several times in speeches recently, including the recent trans-Atlantic bomb plot.

The term is ambiguous and imprecise, since historically, fascism was confined to secular governments, and not non-official religious groups. It also maligns Islam and Muslims in general by associating fascism with Islam.

Here is another one that showed up on the Drupal development list. I guess we don't have to any fund raising for servers anymore, and Dries can retire early ...

David Farber writes an article detailing some of the possible chemicals involved in the recent trans-Atlantic bomb plot. He then comes to the same conclusions I made on where this might lead.My version would be:2001: Nail clippers banned.2002: Passengers made to take of shoes.2006: Nail polish, liquids, laptops, cell phones and carry on luggage forbidden on flights.