The real stinger for Brazil is not that they screwed up in front of the whole world, it's that they paid $14 billion for the honor of screwing up in front of their own fans. Maybe they should have let someone else get that particular honor ...

A lot of computer people have long suspected that anti-virus software was essentially a kind of elaborate scam, not just the pop-up window viruses that promise you 'virus protection' after they've infected your computer, but the kind of anti-virus programs that they sell in reputable stores. Even when they work, they're essentially attempts to fix ( Read more... )

In other news that you might have missed, what with Gaddafi getting killed, Turkey getting hit by an earthquake, Kenya invading Somalia, and everything else that's happened this month, Michel Martelly, current president of the battered nation of Haiti, is considering rebuilding Haiti's militaryHaiti hasn't had a military since their last military ( Read more... )

News Summary Time:

I've been avoiding the Middle East like the plague ever since it became impossible to get anything concrete out of it, but there's a bunch of other things (some outdated since it took me so long to write this) that have been running around the headlines. So here they are:

( But First, Here's Johnny With the News )

Questions that most Americans should know the answers to, but probably don't (those of you who don't live in the area can safely plead ignorance):

• So, today's Cinco de Mayo which, to be honest, isn't that big a deal in Mexico. You should know, of course, that this is not Mexican Independence Day, which happens later in the year. It is, however, ( Read more... )

Microsoft may be a monster when it comes to shady business practices, but I think Google is the first of the big American software companies to be blamed for creating an incident that could be considered an act of war. Granted, it was most probably an accident, but getting Nicaragua to invade Costa Rica has to put them pretty high up on the ( Read more... )

Some good news from the morning round-up. Several web sites, including BBC, are reporting that, damage to the port aside, a freighter ship has finally managed to dock at Port-au-Prince. It's unclear how fast they can unload her cargo of bananas, but if they can get her up to the dock they can find enough hands to unload her one container at a ( Read more... )

Earlier I linked to a David Brooks column in the NYTimes of Jan 15, 2010 as a direct part of this post. However, it's been pointed out to me that even though we start at the same point, his final conclusions are sufficiently objectionable that attempting to relate the two arguments causes confusion. To that end, I have removed the reference, ( Read more... )

A quick rundown of what I've dug out of the news on Haiti:

( From Good to Depressing )

The situation in Honduras is increasingly confusing, and most of us have better things to do then spend time learning about it, like mowing the lawn, or sanding bricks, or shoveling gravel, or basically anything. So, just for your convenience, I have written down a timeline of how the whole mess started, so that you don't have to sort through all ( Read more... )