+ Spam via VoIP called SPIT is on it’s way. VoIP, or voice over internet protocol, is slowly creeping into the telephony market, and with it will eventually come spam. In case you haven’t heard of VoIP yet, it utilizes broadband internet to communicate to phones on the conventional telephone system. It’s going to take over. Eventually the celular network will be VoIP. Everything will be networked for complete connectivity. - too exciting, I can barely breathe - And so an interesting new market for geeks to get into will be VoIP security. And if you have any $$$, I’d hedge a good chunk of my cash in VoIP technology. Perhaps investing in Qovia, mentioned in the article, ” a company that sells enterprise tools for VoIP monitoring and management, recently applied for a patent on technology to broadcast messages via VoIP — and another one for a method of blocking such broadcasts.”

+ Yikes. I think if I was an American, I’d be very afraid. - what’s the Democratic position on p2p networks and file sharing? The Republican position is obviuos. You are a criminal if you share music and videos with your friends.

+ Drew this on the beach a few weeks ago. Click it for a bigger version.

Science Blog - Study identifies possible stem cells in pancreas

University of Toronto researchers have identified individual cells in the adult mouse pancreas capable of generating insulin-producing beta cells.

Their research, published Aug. 22 in the online edition of Nature Biotechnology, offers hope for the millions of diabetics worldwide who take insulin injections to compensate for defective pancreatic islets. Healthy islets, made up largely of beta cells, release insulin to help regulate the body’s blood sugar levels.

…

”The existing dogma regarding how development occurs states that fairly early in development, there is a distinction made between a group of cells destined to make the brain and another group destined to make the pancreas,” he says. ”The idea that a single cell within the pancreas could make both beta cells and neurons is intriguing.”

+ It won’t be long before everyone knows that the famous art work the Scream by Edvard Munch has been stolen from an Oslo art museum. I’m just posting this because I liked the first zoom of one of the thieves, sent by Kirstie. I think it’s kinda creepy looking and eerie. I zoomed in on the second thief, and I think it’s also kinda creepy-eerie. -should I zoom in on the waiting get-away car?

+ Alien weeds are taking control of our parks and wild lands. Imported plants like purple loosestrife, Japanese knotweed, Lamium, thorny Himalayan blackberry bushes and English ivy, all have no natural enemies here, and thrive in our environment. Volunteers are making efforts to beat them back, but there is so much of the stuff that careful targeting of species and area is all that can be done. [Vancouver Courier]

+ Found this twisting of numbers on del.icio.us.

+ A bear liked Raineer beer enough to drink 36 of them and pass out. - it didn’t like Busch. - who does? - think homonym…
[via: David. Who recently married Stephanie, and I have yet to say anything about how it was one of the nicest wedddings I've been to, held outdoors in the Capilano Suspension bridge gardens on a spectacular day. Click David's name for pics, some of which I took.]

+ David also recently sent an email with 27 Bush bumper stickers, some funnier than this.

update: he also found the t-shirts.

Some animals are born socialites, it seems. Just a few genial dolphins keep dolphin societies together, and if they disappear, the social cohesion of the pod collapses.

- They must have extrapolated that from human society and worked out their argument backwards. [NewScientist]

+ Much of the cement used to build the “security fence” between Israel and Palestine is being supplied by a Palestinian company. According to Aljazeera:

The Egyptian cement affair began nearly a year ago when Egypt offered to sell the Palestinian Authority 420,000 tonnes of high-quality cement at symbolic prices ($12-15 a tonne) to prop up the Palestinian economy, badly battered by sustained Israeli invasions over the past four years.

The cement was meant for rebuilding Palestinian homes. The cement was to be used to rebuild Palestinian homes and buildings destroyed by the Israeli occupation army, particularly in the Gaza Strip where entire neighbourhoods in Rafah in the south were bulldozed recently.

However, instead of dealing honourably with the goodwill gesture, a number of corrupt and well-connected businessmen, most likely in coordination with influential figures within the PA, were obtained a licence to import the cement from the PA Economy Ministry, headed by Mahir al-Masri.

The cement, which included several large consignments, was trucked through two border crossings between Sinai and the Gaza Strip. However, instead of going to the Gaza Strip, the cement ended up in the Israeli town of Ashkelon.

+ I was inspired to do my quarterly site make-over by Bienvenido Cruz’s site Copper.com. His site is quite refined and more techie looking than I would want giantkicks to look. None the less, seeing all that red reminded me of a header gif I made for giantkicks from a detail of a painting by Niko Stumpo. - I posted an image of her painting in January 2004. oops. Niko is a guy!