Excerpt: “If one person imitates what a monkey does, and the other person does not imitate, the monkey prefers to spend more time in front of the person that imitated them,” said Dr. Annika Paukner at the National Institutes of Health offices in Poolesville, Maryland.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/science/08/13/monkeys.imitations/index.html

Excerpt:
Sub-Saharan Africa has been hit harder by AIDS and HIV than any other region of the world, according to the United Nations and World Health Organization. There has been fierce debate between those who advocate the use of condoms to help stop the spread of the epidemic and those who oppose it.

*********************

I’m sure the blogosphere is on fire with this one right now. I have a friend who is Catholic and I asked her about this. She said it’s only for conservative Catholics. I said, “But the Pope is in Africa where millions of people have AIDS, and he’s telling them not to use condoms.” She replies, “Cannot. If people do not use condoms they will die. So they must.”

I’m not really “Anti-Pope”, I just don’t understand it. The only response I can hear is someone saying “Well, people should just not have premarital sex and all the STD’s and AIDS would be wiped out.” I suppose that might be true. But it’s not going to happen. So is the real response that lies between the lines really this: “Evil people must die. AIDS is from God to destroy people that have premarital sex.” I know for a fact there are people that think this. They have posted that on some of my religion discussion forums.

To me this is all an example of where religion is stuck in following certain rules set by it’s theology, and the outcome is ridiculous.

In Thailand not too many years ago a large portion of the population had AIDS, like one percent of the entire population. They did a major public awareness campaign to promote condom use and in just a few years cut those statistics dramatically.

A friend who lives in Bangkok told me that Bill Gates sponsored a prize for the country that could make the biggest change in it’s AIDS statistics. And Thailand won.

In just the last few years China has begun to sell condoms at convenience stores. Before this the condoms were only available at adult stores and “naughty” places. The idea was that no “good person” would ever use a condom. It was only to be used by someone who was sick. So if you use a condom, it means you are sick. Don’t use them, and you are healthy. There was not really an understanding of AIDS and how it was transmitted. It was thought of more like a game of chance, a random choosing of Buddha or the Gods. Do you see how this kind of thinking is so dangerous?

Fast forward to today and China has condoms available at most convenience stores and grocery stores. I don’t know statistics on the effect of this, but I would safely assume it is cutting a large dent into AIDS transmissions.

So, tell people not to have premarital sex. But they do. If they do, they can use condoms and cut down AIDS transmission. But you have a Pope telling people not to use them. So they have sex without condoms, get AIDS and die. What is the sense of that?

When I lived in America the AIDS phenomenon was a fairly distant thing. I do know some people that have died of AIDS, but admittedly most of them were gay. So we can still hide under the false banner that it’s a “gay” disease.

But I’m in China now. Closer to those third world countries where I read the news about what’s going on over here and how public perception is adding to the spread of the disease. It comes down to education and the social consciousness of different cultures as to how they act in response to AIDS.

And the pope is telling them to not use condoms. Score one for the army of God.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer printed it’s last newspaper on March 17, 2009. It will now only be available online as an internet newspaper.

Excerpt: The paper published its final print edition Tuesday (March 17, 2009) as the P-I makes a transformation into an online-only news outlet. A skeleton crew of 20 to 25 staffers will remain at the new Seattle PI.com while more than 140 staffers will lose their jobs.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/03/16/pi.closes/index.html

Reference: http://www.packtpub.com/award

Excerpt on Joomla:

Finishing in second place and receiving $3,000 was Joomla!, the youngest of the three finalists and a previous winner of the Overall Award. Judges were impressed with Joomlaâ€s ease of installation and ability to get a website up-and-running in a short space of time. Particular praise was reserved for its sizeable and enthusiastic community, which has allowed the project to grow so quickly in such a short space of time.

“11,000 To Lose Casino Jobs in Macau” – front page featured news at CNN.com today. They are referring specifically to the Sands Venetian.

Well now, not the best news for us working at the Venetian in Macau – but insiders have known it was coming. The dream to make Macau the Vegas of Asia does not come without an element of risk. Granted, Macau IS currently the largest gambling destination in the world, having already surpassed Las Vegas. But a 12 billion or so development project (just to START) by the Sands is monstrous.

There are things I can say and things I can’t say. But about the mood of us over here working at the Venetian? Some are a little nervous wondering what the future brings, and others see ourselves as pioneers like the old Wild West. Not everyone made it in those wagon trains…

Me? I’m of the pioneer mindset. I follow paths to see where they lead. Sometimes it’s fun to do that, sometimes it’s not. But I can’t live without knowing which it is – so I’m in.

I believe in the vision of Adelson – and I think he will stop at nothing to see it through. And I believe in the vision of Cirque Du Soleil. I don’t mind bumps in the road – it tells me I’m still above ground…

CNN Article:
http://edition.cnn.com/2008/BUSINESS/11/13/macaus.sands.ap/index.html

EXCERPT:

The Macau sites, which have cost $1.16 billion so far, are part of the company’s $13 billion master plan in Cotai. Sands is trying to arrange between $1.5 billion and $2 billion in financing to continue building in Macau, but Weaver said it’s not clear how long that will take or when construction might resume, though he’s confident it will.

“We’ve got $1.2 billion sunk in to the ground, we’re not going to walk away from it,” he said. “I think there’s no possibility that it’s never going to start again.”

Weaver wouldn’t rule out further layoffs in Macau.

“We can’t promise that there won’t be people that ultimately are laid off,” he said. “But at this point no decision has been made.”