Fast Blog

Just a few quick notes now-

A Saudi scholar explains why Islam is incompatible with democracy-

[S]overeignty is reserved for Allah alone, replacing shari’a with democratic elections is considered “an appeal to the devil and destruction of Allah’s rule,” democracy considers all people equal, “knowledgeable and the ignorant and Muslim and “infidel” alike, which is deemed anathema. Further, according to the speech, jihad is the solution, justified in its course because it means to defend Islam, “which the enemies are aiming to remove from the hearts of the Muslims and from their lives.”

Iranians attack the British embassey in Iran over the UK's support for the UN Security Council to get involved in its nuclear program. The riot "coincided with a vote by lawmakers to speed discussion of a bill that would force the government to scale back its cooperation with the U.N. atomic watchdog". So when it looks like they may have to face inspections of their totally peaceful and non-violent nuclear program, the Iranians decide not to comply. Odd coincidence, isn't it?

MIT is working on a program to develop a $100 laptop to enable children from less developed nations have access to more modern learning capablilites. The specs for the machine are impressive-

The proposed $100 machine will be a Linux-based, full-color, full-screen laptop that will use innovative power (including wind-up) and will be able to do most everything except store huge amounts of data. These rugged laptops will be WiFi- and cell phone-enabled, and have USB ports galore. Its current specifications are: 500MHz, 1GB, 1 Megapixel.

The One Laptop per Child program will be made possible through the use of a cheap LCD display and a system trimmed of all bloat. The free Linux software will probably help with that too. Seemslike a great idea- sound en masse to education ministries, the laptops will be handed out like textbooks to pupils. Seems to me that they could also be mass produced for the Western world too- lots of kids here don't have PCs at home to work on.

Yet more evidence that the US needs to tackle the problem of its unsecure borders. The FedEx Bandit, responsible for a string of over 40 armed bank robberies was picked up trying to cross onto the US from Mexico. The Iranian national had originally entered the US on a student visa in 1978. Looks like he was singled out by border guards because he was sweating and looking nervous. In other words, almost pure chance.