The Values of Bio-data

Spitting is not socially accepted in most circles... unless of course you are from some small town like Tuba City, AZ or Eau Claire, MI. Thankfully the dank holes in American have saved this bit of culture from dying out... and in fact, have turned it into a sport that ranks above golf but below eating competitions. If you can spit over 56 feet, 7 1/2 inches... then you could have been the champion... you would also be some odd freak of nature. But if you could spit over 93 feet, 6 1/2 inches... then you would hold a Guinness World Record. Seems its going international as well!

In International News

With a stroke of a pen, the United Arab Emirates put Iraq back in the "friend" column. Billions of dollars of debt have been forgiven and the UAE will be restoring its full diplomatic mission in Baghdad. So it looks like at least one neighbor has accepted its Shiite-led government and have some faith it is ever improving security. The UEA president, Sheik Khalifa bin Zayed Al Nahyan, hopes canceling the $7 billion debt would "lighten the economic burden facing Iraqis and he urged the country to unite behind al-Maliki's government." Iraq currently gives 5% of its oil revenue towards the $70+ billion it owes in foreign debt. Perhaps now we can worry about our own national debt which is at $9.5 Trillion!

How much would it take for you to use a public toilet regularly? In southern India, residents are earning close to a dollar a month by using public urinals. The idea behind the bribe is to promote hygiene and keep shit off the streets... literally! One local said, "In fact, many of us started using toilets for urination only after the ecosan (ecological sanitation) toilets were constructed in the area." Meanwhile, the urine is being collected and tested for its efficacy as a crop fertilizer... cause heck, why not see if this can be a real business!

Your Government At Work

Since 9/11 the government has been fingerprinting insurgents, detainees, and others in Afghanistan, Iraq, and the Horn of Africa... surprise surprise... many tend to have criminal arrest records in the United States! Naysayers raise privacy concerns... I say that you loose that once you have a criminal record. A task force on Defense Biometrics says, "Large-scale identity systems "can raise serious privacy concerns" BUT "The ability to cross reference and draw new, previously unimagined, inferences, is a boon for the government." What is security worth... heck... it's not YOUR privacy at stake, unless of course you are a criminal.