Hodgepodge

Fighting terrorism. Fulbright grants have been withdrawn from Palestinian students in Gaza because Israel is stopping them from leaving. When asked about it at an Israeli parliamentary hearing Wednesday, an Israeli Defense Ministry official recalled that the cabinet had declared Gaza "hostile territory" and decided that the safety of Israeli soldiers and civilians should be risked only for humanitarian concerns. Higher education, he said, was not a humanitarian concern.

Size matters. A federal appeals court in Washington has ruled, properly, that American currency discriminates against the blind because the bills are too hard to tell apart. This was a ruling of a lawsuit filed by the American Council of the Blind.  This is all instigated by the fact that all US paper currency different denominations come in the same size making it hard to differentiate.

Gays in Jebal Amman. An interesting post I recently read at www.black-iris.com. The stark contrast in everything in Jordan is just amazing.

Origins. It is believed that the first mention of the word nerd is found in Dr. Seuss’s “If I ran the Zoo”. 

Speaking of nerds. Google is expected to generate $ 20 billion in advertising revenue alone. Google is also developing Android, mobile software system, which is expected to directly compete with Apple's iphone. Apple should brace itself for a serious run for its money.

Speaking of nerds 2. Windows 7 is the successor of Windows Vista. By the way I lost track of all Microsoft Windows OS launches. I remember there was one launch years back that included a lot of dinosaurs and it looked like a movie trailer for Jurassic Park.

Flattery. Someone recently complimented me by noting that I think like a man. Given that I think that I am a woman, I am not sure I like that.

Nepal is a republic. The 239-year-old Hindu monarchy is abolished.