evolution

I have the StumbleUpon extension for Firefox. Sometimes I like to waste time by clicking the StumbleUpon button to take me to a random site.

Sometimes, I regret it. (Work-safe.)

Egyptian police shot 23 unarmed Sudanese immigrants:

CAIRO, Egypt Dec. 30 – Egyptian riot police rushed into a crowd of unarmed Sudanese migrants early this morning, killing at least 23 people, including small children, after the group refused to leave a public park it had occupied for three months hoping to pressure United Nations officials to relocate them.

The police tried for hours to persuade thousands of men, women and children to leave the small square, hosing them with water canon [sic], surrounding them with cordons of riot police, imploring the women and children to board buses, and repeatedly warning that they would be removed forcefully.

But the crowd was desperate, having moved with all their possessions, suitcases loaded with clothing and family photographs, jewelry and kitchen wares, into what amounted to a traffic island in a middle class neighborhood. They hoped the authorities would declare them refugees and send them abroad. They had fled war-torn Sudan, but the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees office in Cairo – across from where they camped out – told them that they were not eligible for refugee status or for relocation because it was safe for them to return home.

That’s worth paying our U.N. dues for.

UPDATE: Read an eyewitness account from an Egyptian citizen. [inherited from: protein wisdom.]

I don’t have much to say other than “Happy New Year.” Stay safe wherever you are; if you are drinking, get someone sober to drive you home.

Or to the house of that one chick you’ve been ogling. You know, whichever.

I hope to have my blogging mojo back soon.

Get your football and basketball games on Sirius satellite radio. Soon. KU’s is.

» is giada de laurentiis pregnant — I swear I was only with her a few times, and they were totally innocent.

Oh, and those occasions occured only in my dreams.

» naturist yoga blog — Is that what I think it is? UPDATE: Yup. (NSFW.)

» how money dose the average bahrainian makes — Per capita income is $19,200 as of 2004, according to the CIA. *

» jennifer aniston nuked — Unfortunately, no.

» west lafayette blogs — Let me tell you, when evolution was a West Lafayette, IN blog (August 2003-May 2004), it was one of the least known blogs in the universe. Arguably the most widely-known West Lafayette blogger is Paul Deignan, the subject of some ham-handed threats and attempts at intimidation. Deignan is, as I was, a Purdue university graduate student. It’s entirely possible we were there at the same time.

» administrators pay prince of peace olathe kansas — I’m sure Jesus is not a paid shill for the City of Olathe.

UPDATE: Deignan wrote to tell me that it’s possible we may have even taken some of the same classes. I of course was in the mathematics Ph.D. program there, and he’s in the mechanical engineering program.

“Activists” are threatening what was a fairly-tolerant democracy. A must-read on Slate.

I guess the Reuters employee who wrote this story is disqualified as a candidate to be the president of Harvard University: What men, women want on the Web (CNN/Reuters).

SAN FRANCISCO, California (Reuters) — Internet users share many common interests, but men are heavier consumers of news, stocks, sports and pornography, while more women look for health and religious guidance, a broad survey of U.S. Web usage has found.

The study by the Pew Internet & American Life Project to be released on Thursday finds men are slightly more intense users of the Web. Men log on more frequently and spend more time online. More men also have access to quick broadband connections than do women.

“Once you get past the commonalities, men tend to be attracted to online activities that are far more action-oriented, while women tend to value things involving relationships or human connections,” said Deborah Fallows, a research fellow at Pew and author of the report.

A larger number of men surf the Internet for pleasure, with 70 percent acknowledging they go online to pass time, compared with 63 percent of women. Men are more likely than women to listen to music, view Webcams and pay for digital content.

Surprised? Me either. It’s a simple fact that anyone with working sensory organs and an IQ over 64 knows to be common sense: Men and women, in general, process and react to information and outside stimuli differently. That’s the way it is; that’s the way it’s always been, and that’s the way it will probably always be.

Also:

Already, women are heavier users of e-mail, often going beyond the matter-of-fact responses of male correspondents to use e-mail to share stories, solve issues and reach out to a wider network of friends and family.

It seems broads can’t stop yapping, even on the Internet.

More: Ace of Spades.