From the article: “Youssif happily pulls off his plastic face mask and pats his cheeks, which were once covered by horrific burns.

“No hurt,” the 5-year-old Iraqi boy says in English. “No hurt.”

He then shows off his right hand. It too had been marred by hardened scar tissue after he was attacked by masked men outside his central Baghdad home January 15, 2007. Now, his hand is smooth.”

If you don’t know the story of Youssif, he is the boy who, when he was just 4-years old, was dragged out of his Baghdad home by masked men, doused in fuel and set on fire. — It was a miracle that he survived, but he was so disfigured that eating became impossible and he was almost always in pain. — His story garnered so much attention, outrage and sympathy that the boy and his family were brought to the US so that Youssif could receive the medical care he needed to live a partially-normal life.

From the article: “A consortium of six international companies announced they have executed agreements to build a high–bandwidth subsea fiber optic cable linking the United States and Japan. The construction of the new Trans–Pacific infrastructure will cost an estimated US$300 million.

The new cable system — named Unity — will address broadband demand by providing much needed capacity to sustain the unprecedented growth in data and Internet traffic between Asia and the United States. Unity is expected to initially increase Trans–Pacific lit cable capacity by about 20 percent, with the potential to add up to 7.68 Terabits per second (Tbps) of bandwidth across the Pacific.”

One of our readers sent us the link to this article that looks at a survey that seems to show unrest in American faith communities. — As much as I appreciate that this reader took the time to send us the story, I’m not one of those who see in this story the doom and gloom of faith organizations in America.

More after the Jump »

The not-so-long awaited 2GB shuffle is now online at the Apple site for all you tiny iPod lovers. I happen to love my 1GB shuffle. It’s perfect for running when you’re on the treadmill or doing a 10k race. I still own a 1st and 2nd gen nano and used them for years until I got the shuffle as a gift. Originally, I never really thought about using a shuffle as I loved the ability to “see” and pick what song I was going to hear, but the idea of no armstraps and using the cute little clip that really does grasp tightly to my v-neck t-shirt while running outweighed that feature. Plus, it’s so tiny, it’s practically weightless. If fitting 500 songs on a tiny player seems like too much for you while on a run…go for the 1GB (about 240 songs) which is only $49.

Well, we knew it was happening with the introduction of the Air and all….but, well, we were expecting an upgrade with a bit more gusto! Nope, the aesthetics of the laptops are nothing like the AIR contrary to what so many believed (or rather…hoped). The exteriors are pretty much the same old, but the MBP’s get the larger trackpad with multi-touch, LED displays, and the 17” has the option of backlighting. The MB’s are less fortunate, with only slight upgrades in speed, memory, and storage.

I smell a new line of MacBook Air Pro’s(MBAP’s) later this year that have the power and functionality of the MBP’s and the styling of the Air. Anyone wanna wager? Read after the break for the new specs…

More after the Jump »

I though long and hard about posting this video — I didn’t want to drive any traffic to this sadistic display of indifference and familial neglect, but it’s important to bring attention to this story because it epitomizes the “get famous no matter what” mentality that seems to drive so much of Web 2.0.

This is another example of kids who will do anything to get video that they think will rocket them to stardom. We’ve seen it in the case of the two teenage girls who taunted their teacher in order to get him angry on video, or the kids who ridiculed and physically abused an old Catholic Priest in order to film him snapping with a hidden camera. In this case, a teenager and two of his friends taunt, mock and provoke a 11-year old boy.

***UPDATE 5:33am HST — It seems that the video has just been removed from the account of LethalPotato, the big brother responsible for the video, for violation of YouTube terms of use. I have linked to another copy of the video so you can see WHY it violated the terms of use. (Possible felony criminal activity?) ***

More after the Jump »

From the article:” Abengoa Solar, which has plants in Spain, northern Africa and other parts of the U.S., could begin construction as early as next year on the 280-megawatt plant in Gila Bend — a small, dusty town 50 miles southeast of Phoenix.

The company said Thursday it could be producing solar energy by 2011.”

This is awesome on so many levels. First, 280MW of solar goodness — that’s great news in any calculus. Secondly, somebody FINALLY found something useful to do with Arizona! 

From the article:“Pakistan has blocked access to the popular YouTube website because of content deemed offensive to Islam.

Its telecommunications authority ordered internet service providers to block the site until further notice.”

Honestly, I want to be shocked and incensed by this story, but the only real surprise that I have is that it took them this long to ban YouTube. I’m still waiting for the more hardcore Sharia countries (those who follow a strict code of Islamic Law) to shut down ALL communications technologies. — I mean, do you know how many websites there are that make fun of Muhammad and Islam? What about the ones that print parts of the Quran? You can’t have TV or phone service either because what if people were to see scandalous pictures of grown men without beards or women in various states of undress.

I do not mean this in any way as an attack on Islam — but on the mindset that ANY followers of a faith would believe that the best interests of their followers would be served through the wholesale denying of the free flow of information

From the article:“Real manatees, 1,200-pound mammals sometimes referred to as “sea cows,” are not considered the most agile of creatures and often get caught in boat propellers.

The Marlins want their Manatees to have the same dimensions, but to be decidedly more agile. Men will be judged on how well they dance a choreographed routine.”

AWESOME! — Perhaps my dream about being a professional dancer is not quite as dead as I thought.

From the article: “If the technology proves successful, subscribers with small dishes will connect to the Internet at speeds many times faster than what is now available over residential cable or DSL services.

The Associated Press said the satellite would offer speeds of up to 1.2 gigabytes per second.”

I like the fact that Japan is looking to develop new technologies to deliver ultra-fast network connectivity, but there are some fundamental problems with non-terrestrial (i.e. space-based) Internet service solutions. The biggest one is that perceived speed by the average Internet user is often not so much limited by bandwidth as it is by latency — When we speak of latency on a network, we are looking at the amount of time that it takes for a packet of information to be sent, received and acknowledged. Terrestrial-based ISPs, even on bad days, keep latency between 30-300ms. Cellular networks typically raise that latency to 100-800ms. It is not uncommon for satellite-based services to inject latency measured not in milliseconds, but in SECONDS. More after the Jump »

In Denmark, a little wind = a little power. A lot of wind = a lot of power. CRAZY wind = No Power.

I’ve been having an intermittent problem with Yahoo for the better part of a year. Every once it a while, mail sent from Outlook using the Yahoo SMTP service that comes with my paid Yahoo Plus subscription would take hours, and in a few cases DAYS to reach their destination. I thought that this was a problem with my setup and since the mails eventually got there, I didn’t feel like taking the time to be frustrated by Yahoo customer service.

Microsoft… are you SURE you want to buy this company?

From the video: Camping? Backpacking? Pressed for time? Techno-savvy but not kitchen-swift? Never fear, you can have pancakes in just a few minutes with Batter Blaster, organic pancake batter in a can. Yup, just like “cheese in a can”…you too can have pancake batter in a flick of a finger. All you need to do is squeeze the batter onto a hot griddle and in minutes…you’ve got breakfast. Hey, I’m all for it… as long as it tastes like the supermarket brand mixes. Hmmm….wonder when they’ll have “filet-mignon-in-a-can”??? Now…THAT…would be worth trying!

From the article: “Federal court jurors awarded $17,500 on Wednesday to a fire captain arrested by a Hazelwood police officer in a dispute over where a firetruck was parked during a 2003 car crash rescue…Capt. David Wilson won $7,500 in compensatory damages and $10,000 in punitive damages. Jurors, including a nun, said they went easy on the defendant, Officer Todd Greeves, because he has a family and they weren’t sure who would pay the bill. “

From the article: “The Protect America Act, a temporary but expansive warrantless spying bill passed by Congress last summer, will likely expire Saturday at midnight, a casualty of a battle between President Bush and House Democrats over amnesty for phone companies that aided his secret, warrantless spying program and how much of that program should be legalized. The House leadership announced there will be no more votes before the long President’s Day legislative break.”

At this point the vote is mainly symbolic because the wording of the original bill allows for the amnesty program to continue for a year even after the expiration of the wire-tapping provisions, but hopefully this is a sign that Congress is FINALLY willing to stop with their rubber-stamp mentality.