From My Personal Blog! Pharisaicalness? Hubris, Conceit and Vanity

I volunteer - for my own selfish gain – helping those with the impediment of bad-luck seems to allow me to feel more fortunate, it lends me a proper perspective of how I’m travelling through life.

The small community house where I help out has a pretty diverse group of souls floating in and out. From the elderly trying to stay in-touch to the homeless trying to stay warm, the mean seems to be human contact.

On Thursdays – I help setup blogs for folk who feel the need – one of my regulars kicked into a rather personal conversation, normally I’d abruptly curtail such talk, however with my current intrigue of pharisaicalness, I allowed the conversation a little space.

Apparently – according to Jo – I’m not bad looking, interesting as opposed to good looking. The line that most stunned me was: “compared to most of the men around here, your good looking.” Jo is a 65 year old homeless woman, who surely has more on her plate than what I look like? :: Read the full article »»»»

Saga: Apple vs Samsung, A Galaxy of Litigation

We missed out on the Cretaceous Period, got our start in the Devonian Period,  woke up to ourselves in the Pliocene and have been running straight toward the Litigious Period. As megaliths and behemoths battle it out over who owns what patent, and which gadget belongs to who, the consumer is likely to be the victim in what looks to be a long and fierce battle. There seems to be the distinct possibility that more products will be blocked from sale. Samsung says its mammoth tit-for-tat patent battle with Apple could have been avoided if the latter wasn’t so trigger happy. This latest round sees the Korean behemoth attempt to ban sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S in Australia. In the Federal Court in Sydney this week, it was decided that the patent infringement case would go to an early full hearing in March 2012,  in return Samsung agreed to pause its attempt to temporarily ban the iPhone 4S between now and then. In an amusing turnaround – Apple has consistently argued it wants litigation NOW, and has repeatedly stated it wants this hearing to go ahead immediately – In this latest case, Apple has argued that it could not be ready for such an early final hearing. In what seemed like a replay of arguments in the Samsung vs Apple Galaxy Tab case, Apple, which wanted to ban the Samsung tablet from sale due to patent infringement, was seeking an early final hearing, while Samsung was arguing it could not be ready in time. This time the shoe was on the other foot M★C READ MORE

Saga: Apple vs Samsung, A Galaxy of Litigation

We missed out on the Cretaceous Period, got our start in the Devonian Period,  woke up to ourselves in the Pliocene and have been running straight toward the Litigious Period. As megaliths and behemoths battle it out over who owns what patent, and which gadget belongs to who, the consumer is likely to be the victim in what looks to be a long and fierce battle. There seems to be the distinct possibility that more products will be blocked from sale. Samsung says its mammoth tit-for-tat patent battle with Apple could have been avoided if the latter wasn’t so trigger happy. This latest round sees the Korean behemoth attempt to ban sales of Apple’s iPhone 4S in Australia. In the Federal Court in Sydney this week, it was decided that the patent infringement case would go to an early full hearing in March 2012,  in return Samsung agreed to pause its attempt to temporarily ban the iPhone 4S between now and then. In an amusing turnaround – Apple has consistently argued it wants litigation NOW, and has repeatedly stated it wants this hearing to go ahead immediately – In this latest case, Apple has argued that it could not be ready for such an early final hearing. In what seemed like a replay of arguments in the Samsung vs Apple Galaxy Tab case, Apple, which wanted to ban the Samsung tablet from sale due to patent infringement, was seeking an early final hearing, while Samsung was arguing it could not be ready in time. This time the shoe was on the other foot M★C READ MORE

Extra Brain Cells May Explain Autism

A new study suggests that Autism starts in the womb, researchers have found a remarkable 67 per cent increase in the total number of brain cells in the prefrontal cortex of new born babies with ASD. Children with autism appear to have too many cells in a key area of the brain needed for communication and emotional development, say US researchers. Their findings help explain why young children with autism often develop brains that are larger or heavier than normal. Dr Eric Courchesne says the finding of excess brain cells in the prefrontal cortex explains brain overgrowth in autism, and hints at why brain function in this area is disrupted. Courchesne, of the University of California San Diego Autism Center of Excellence, and colleagues, have also found dozens of genes that may raise the risk of autism. But genetic causes only explain 10  to 20 per cent of cases, and recent studies have pointed to environmental factors, possibly in the womb, as a potential trigger. The team found excess brain cells in each child with autism they studied, says Courchesne. And the brains of the autistic children also weighed more than those of typically developing children of the same age. M★C READ MORE

Assange Loses Appeal Against Swedish Extradition

After a lengthy court battle, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about sexual assault allegations.

Two judges at the High Court in London rejected the 40-year-old Australian’s arguments that his extradition would be unlawful.

They ruled the Swedish arrest warrant stands and Mr Assange should face questioning over the allegations made by two former volunteers of his WikiLeaks organisation.

Assange showed no emotion as the result was read out and outside court he said the European arrest warrant under which he has been held was too restrictive. Assange’s  lawyers are expected to apply to the UK Supreme Court for leave to appeal.

They have 14 days to do so, but they will need to prove there is a wider issue of public importance at stake. Assange’s Swedish Lawyer Bjorn Hurtig said the ruling “was not entirely unexpected” but a lawyer for the women making the allegations criticized the court for having taken four months to reach its verdict Read the full article »»»»

Girl Shortage Creates Bachelor Nations

As the global population hits seven billion, experts are warning that skewed gender ratios could fuel the emergence of volatile “bachelor nations” driven by an aggressive competition for brides. The precise consequences of what French population expert Christophe Guilmoto calls the “alarming demographic masculinisation” of countries such as India and China as the result of sex-selective abortion remain unclear. But many demographers believe the resulting shortage of adult women over the next 50 years will have as deep and pervasive an impact as climate change. The statistics behind the warnings are grimly compelling. Nature provides an unbending biological standard for the sex ratio at birth of 104-106 males to every 100 females. Any significant divergence from that narrow range can only be explained by abnormal factors. In India and Vietnam the figure is around 112 boys for every 100 girls. In China it is almost 120 to 100 and in some places, higher than 130. The trend is spreading to regions like the South Caucasus, where Azerbaijan, Georgia and Armenia all post birth ratios of more than 115 to 100, and further west to Albania and Kosovo. Global awareness of the problem was raised back in 1990 with an article by the Nobel prize-winning Indian economist Amartya Sen that carried the now famous title: More Than 100 Million Women Are Missing M★C READ MORE