Recipe Site puts Glaze on Eyeballs

There are a lot of recipe sites on the Interweb, but I haven’t yet found one that advertises over 200,000 recipes. Food Down Under is such a site, and it delivers. This site is, uh, comprehensive. It also has a neat feature that changes the recipe ingredient measures/portions based on the yield you want. I’ll leave it to you to explore, but I will point you to one recipe for an Iranian lamb and rice dish to get you started.

Find a Drupal module - easier…

Scrolling through the long list of contributed Drupal modules used to be a selling point that spoke to the dynamism and scope of the Drupal community. Then it just got tedious. Now it is much less so as the long-promised categorization system in online.

http://drupal.org/project/Modules/category

Imagine that! Using a taxonomy to categorize things.

Squeezing Every Last Drop from the Blogosphere

The blogging thing is becoming more than just a thing now - it is an integral part of any communications strategy, particularly for groups who want to maximise their impact in free or low cost of entry channels.

The two smartest people I know in regards to how to do this are Rob Cottingham and Alexandra Samuel. Rob just sent me sent me this:

I wanted to drop you a quick line to let you know about a blogging workshop Alex and I will be holding in May at Hollyhock.

As you know, we’re both pretty compulsive blogging evangelists, and we’ve been struck by the need for training opportunities that focus less on the technical side and more on the strategic, communications and writing aspects of blogging. So Social Signal is creating just such an opportunity ourselves, and we’re hoping you’ll consider passing the word on to your readers.

It’s a four-day intensive workshop at the Hollyhock Centre on Cortes Island. We’ll focus on blogging as a key element of an integrated communications strategy, and work with participants to help them create an authentic, distinctive online voice for themselves or their organizations.

Hollyhock itself is stunning, with accommodations ranging from comfortable tent sites to private oceanside rooms. And the food is nothing short of spectacular. Tuition is just $395 (accommodation and meals are extra). You can get more information at http://www.socialsignal.com/hollyhock .

Here’s a PDF Flyer for the event. Hollyhock is a beautiful place, and Rob and Alex will teach you a lot. Check it out!

Ten Years to Avert Climate Cascade

A top NASA Climatologist, who has been previously gagged by Bush, tells us we have ten years left to reign in climate change before the tipping point and uncontrollable cascading systems changes push us over the edge into an unknown and very different world.

The one thing that is certain about this new world is the billion or so people who live on coastlines will have to move move back. Way back.

So those of you thinking about buying land, think about higher altitudes…maybe you’ll be able to pass down waterfront when you shuffle off this mortal coil.

The Ongoing Liberation of Iraq

Who needs a civil war to deplete Iraqi civilians? The US military continues to do a bang-up job. In fact, civilian casualty rates have risen each year in the three years following the “end of major combat operations.” Here’s the minimum count according to media reports analyzed by Iraq Body Count. And remember, these are civilians, not soldiers or insurgents or whatever other classification of combatant you care to use. These are farmers, businesspeople, families, children (like my daughter, pictured below). These are innocent people trying to live lives of common goals and normal routines. These people are just as innocent and undeserving of a violent death as every person on every floor of the WTC in New York on September 11th, 2001.

* 6,331 from 1st May 2003 to the first anniversary of the invasion, 19th March 2004 (324 days: Year 1)
* 11,312 from 20th March 2004 to 19th March 2005 (365 days: Year 2)
* 12,617 from 20th March 2005 to 1st March 2006 (346 days: Year 3).
- iraqbodycount.net

These numbers are low. Very low. They represent only reported deaths of civilians, not actual full counts, which are impossible to do in bombed out cities. How do Iraqi civilians get killed? They get bombs dropped on them by US planes. They get bombs driven into them by insurgents. The get shot for failing to stop. They get kidnapped and killed for being “traitors”. Many other ways as well. They are being killed because the situation created there by the US-led invasion has destabilized the country and made it horribly unsafe for life. In this case, they get killed by being in the wrong place at the wrong time when a gang of vengeful murderers come looking for payback.

Ali, 76, whose left leg was amputated years ago because of diabetes, died after being shot in the stomach and chest. His wife, Khamisa, 66, was shot in the back. Ali’s son, Jahid, 43, was hit in the head and chest. Son Walid, 37, was burned to death after a grenade was thrown into his room, and a third son, 28-year-old Rashid, died after he was shot in the head and chest, Rsayef and Hamza said.

Also among the dead were son Walid’s wife, Asma, 32, who was shot in the head, and their son Abdullah, 4, who was shot in the chest, Rsayef and Hamza said.

Walid’s 8-year-old daughter, Iman, and his 6-year-old son, Abdul-Rahman, were wounded and U.S. troops took them to Baghdad for treatment. The only person who escaped unharmed was Walid’s 5-month-old daughter, Asia. The three children now live with their maternal grandparents, Rsayef and Hamza said.

Rsayef said those killed in the second house were his brother Younis, 43, who was shot in the stomach and chest, the brother’s wife Aida, 40, who was shot in the neck and chest while still in bed where she was recuperating from bladder surgery. Their 8-year-old son Mohammed bled to death after being shot in the right arm, Rsayef said.

Also killed were Younis’s daughters, Nour, 14, who was shot in the head; Seba, 10, who was hit in the chest; Zeinab, 5, shot in the chest and stomach; and Aisha, 3, who was shot in the chest. Hoda Yassin, a visiting relative, was also killed, Rsayef and Hamza said.

The only survivor from Younis’s family was his 15-year-old daughter Safa, who pretended she was dead. She is living with her grandparents, Rsayef said.

The troops then shot and killed four brothers who were walking in the street, Rsayef and Hamza said, identifying them as the sons of Ayed Ahmed — Marwan, Qahtan, Jamal and Chaseb.

U.S. troops also shot dead five men who were in a car near the scene, Hamza and Rsayef said. They identified the five as Khaled Ayad al-Zawi and his brother Wajdi as well as Mohammed Battal Mahmoud, Akram Hamid Flayeh and Ahmad Fanni Mosleh.

So, yes. The Liberation of Iraq is ongoing. People like you and me are being liberated from life every day.

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