Wednesday, September 13, 2006

El Nino, Muslim El Rape-O, and other stuff

Five items for Wednesday...

5. El Nino has returned, according to NOAA. Here in Southern California it usually means more rain and big surf. Reuters.

4. Radical Muslims have blocked the reform of Pakistan's notorious "Hudood Ordinance", which, essentially, turns the tables on female rape victims. In the words of the BBC: "The Hudood Ordinance criminalises all sex outside marriage, so if a rape victim fails to present four male witnesses to the crime she herself could face punishment and prosecuted for adultery."

Mukhtar Mai is the most famous victim of Islamic law in Pakistan.

BBC links here, here, and here.

Islamic courts in Pakistan also sentence women to rape for a variety of infractions.

3. The computer hard drive turned 50 today. IBM invented RAMAC, a 5MB drive, in 1956. RAMAC purchasers would have spent $350,000, in 2006 dollars, and the 5MB capacity would hold a single MP3 song. My 500GB external drive, which I recently purchased for less than $400, would hold around 4,000 entire albums. PC World.

2. Air America Radio filed for bankruptcy, or did they? Air America is, of course, the left's answer to Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Michael Savage. Except there was one major difference: Al Franken and his ghoulish fellow hosts are as dry as burnt toast. Politics aside, I found Franken to lack charisma and any of what's required to make a good radio show. Although I don't particularly care for Rush, he is a great entertainer.

Think Progress has the story. It pains me to link to them, just as I'd hesitate to link to a blog run by a 5-year-old. Alas, here it is.

1. A USA Today story says tech startups are en vogue again in Silicon Valley. Venture capital investment is up 75% since 2003.

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