Around 100 000 civilians have died in Iraq, as a result of the American-led invasion.

Nature magazine has lots of info about the new-found hominid bones - the Flores man.

More on the 'hobbit' hominids. It turns out the natives of the islands where the bones were found have tales of small, hairy men and women -- there's even a possibility that some surviving specimens exist. This would overturn dramatically our self perception of the ruling species on Earth, think of the consequences for ethics and religion for example.

Fossils were found of a new Homo species that coexisted with modern humans about 18000 years ago. They were 1m tall, and are being nicknamed 'the hobbits'.

One of my first posts in this weblog was about Wikipedia, the open-source collaborative online encyclopedia. It already has more than 1 000 000 entries. More about it.

A video of a cat in zero-g, actually on a plane following a parabolic flight path.

The winners and runners-up of the Wildlife Photographer of the Year 2004 competition.

A nice website about mosaics.

This woman is hacking the hardware and software of Aibo and similar robot dogs to implement pack behavior.

'Canto de Ossanha' tocada por Baden Powell me lembra o segundo movimento da 7a sinfonia de Beethoven.

An article giving a user's view of the new endeavour of Google, Desktop search. It basically indexes and searches your files using some of the same algorithms that Google uses, as fast as Google does, and seamlessly puts the two together whenever you do a search. For people with many files and extensive email correspondence, it will enable you to find stuff you'd never thought you'd see again.

A German TV channel is planning something similar to the Truman Show.

A small sample of cultured rat's brain cells has been interfaced with a computer, and 'programmed' to control a simulated fighter plane. Sounds like science fiction, but it's real.

The James Bond-like escape a Soviet spy did from a British prison, as reported by the Guardian in 1966.

O governo brasileiro tem um projeto de computador popular, que deve ser comercializado ate dezembro. Custara R$1000, e podera ser financiado por R$50,00 por mes. A ideia e' vender 5 milhoes de computadores a esses precos subsidiados, que incluem 20h/mes de acesso a internet.

A weird corporate blackmail plot in France, involving 2000 credit cards straped to road signs.

On the different forms of vote suppression or plain fraud during the U.S. presidential elections of 2000.

On the disenfranchisement of black voters in the U.S. .

A tourist trip to see the Chernobyl nuclear accident site.

The Guardian has asked its readers in the U.K. to write to undecided voters in the U.S., to try and influence their vote. Check out some of the feedback: some of it is hate mail!link

Ex-workers from Guantanamo Bay describe the types of torture they witnessed there.

When you buy diamonds, think about where they're coming from.

Um artigo descrevendo como os físicos estão diversificando suas atividades de pesquisa, e atacando problemas em biologia, sociologia, etc.

A look at the violence in Colombia.

On the balance of the latest invasion of Gaza by Israel: 100 Palestinians dead, among them 20 children under 16.

A list of 12 places and ecosystems on Earth which will suffer most immediately with global warming.

The whole world is sitting powerlessly watching the U.S. presidential election race, which should affect us all immensely. Unfortunately, only U.S. citizens get to vote. Well, the Guardian newspaper in the U.K. has assembled a little manual on how to influence American voters from abroad, by donating money to the campaign, writing personally to an unaffiliated voter in a swing state, or manifesting your ideas on talk-show radio programs.

Hands to arms, fellow world citizens!

On the true story of St. Bernard's dogs being used by avalanche rescue teams.

U.S. seizes webservers from independent media sites.

On the totalitarian dictatorship in Turkmenistan, with details of a cult of personality comparable to that of Mao Tse Tung and Kim Jong Il.

An interview with primatologist Jane Goodall.

The future dictionary of America, a politically-charged initiative that saw many writers (re-)define the meaning of expressions such as 'axis of evil', 'condoleesy', 'environment'. Check an extract.

Bush seems to have been wired during the second presidential campaign debate. A bulge was seen on his back (suggesting an electronic device), and recently, during D-day celebrations in France, a voice was captured by CNN saying exactly what the president would say a few moments later. Article in The Guardian.

Ariel Sharon's chief aide speaks out, saying the U.S. openly supports Israel and is against a Palestinian state:

"Effectively, this whole package called the Palestinian state, with all that it entails, has been removed indefinitely from our agenda. And all this with authority and permission. All with a presidential blessing and the ratification of both houses of Congress."

Gameshow arrests real criminals -- see quote below. The disquieting thing is that the TV channel involved wants to turn this into a real show.

"Hampshire police invited 150 people to the Great Big Giveaway Show in Portsmouth and offered them a chance to win big prizes.

However, the invitees were wanted for traffic and bail offences, non-payment of fines, common assault, criminal damage and drink-driving and the police used the pretext of the gameshow to entice them out of their homes.

The "guests" were frisked as they arrived and had their identities checked by a police officer dressed in a dinner suit."

Hand-drawn holograms, and related do-it-yourself optical stuff.

Stop Press! the IgNobel Prizes are out. By the way, today there'll be a couple of Nobel prize laureates here in my institute. And the prime minister.

A review of the first 25 years of the literary magazine Granta, one of my favourites.

Martin Amis writes about Diego Maradona.