In the latest edition of Newsweek (April 3, 2006), there is a story titled “The New Wisdom of The Web” by Steven Levy and Brad Stone.  In this story, a number of new startups are discussed, and how they are changing the way the web impacts our lives.  New online services like MySpace (Rupert Murdoch paid $580 million last year for this), Flickr (Yahoo recently aquired this for $35 million), Dabble, del.icio.us (Yahoo owns this too now), among others were highlighted to explain how the web is becoming a more dynamic, or living, environment.  One of the points of the article explains that many have termed this new phenomena, Web 2.0 - however, suggests that a more appropriate name would be the Living Web.

Some outstanding claims made in this article include the figure paid for MySpace by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp, that recently MySpace signed up 270,000 new members in one day (a Monday), the more interesting fact that Flickr started as a Canadian company, AND had the first photosof the September 2004 Australian Embassy bombing in Jakarta; before any news wire.

Trailing this article is a listing of new innovations that are already (or soon-to-be) launched on the web.  These include Digg (a techie news site), Plum (a online collection/organization tool), and Jajah (a telephone service that uses landlines).  There are others, and I’d recommend reviewing the article.

My friend Damir sent this out today, and it is definately worthy of posting here (and everywhere else).

HOMOPHOBIC . . .
I am the boy who never finished high school, because I got called a fag everyday

I am the girl kicked out of her home because I confided in my mother that I am a lesbian.

I am the prostitute working the streets because nobody will hire a transsexual woman.

I am the sister who holds her gay brother tight through the painful, tear-filled nights.

We are the parents who buried our daughter long before her time.

I am the man who died alone in the hospital because they would not let my partner of twenty-seven years into the room.

I am the foster child who wakes up with nightmares of being taken away from the two fathers who are the only loving family I have ever had. I wish they could adopt me.

I am not one of the lucky ones. I killed myself just weeks before graduating high school. It was simply too much to bear.

We are the couple who had the realtor hang up on us when she found out we wanted to rent a one-bedroom for two men.

I am the person who never knows which bathroom I should use if I want to avoid getting the management called on me.

I am the mother who is not allowed to even visit the children I bore, nursed, and raised. The court says I am an unfit mother because I now live with another woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who found the support system grow suddenly cold and distant when they found out my abusive partner is also a woman.

I am the domestic-violence survivor who has no support system to turn to because I am male.

I am the father who has never hugged his son because I grew up afraid to show affection to other men.

I am the home-economics teacher who always wanted to teach gym until someone told me that only lesbians do that.

I am the woman who died when the EMTs stopped treating me as soon as they realized I was transsexual.

I am the person who feels guilty because I think I could be a much better person if I didn’t have to always deal with society hating me.

I am the man who stopped attending church, not because I don’t believe, but because they closed their doors to my kind.

I am the person who has to hide what this world needs most, love.

I am the person ashamed to tell my own friends I’m a lesbian, because they constantly make fun of them.

I am the boy tied to a fence, beaten to a bloody pulp and left to die because two straight men wanted to “teach me a lesson”

—If you believe that homophobia is wrong… Share this around.

—If you are ignorant… Continue to ignore this.

I just got an email from Chris outlining the latest moans and groans from the American (anti-)Family Association, and decided to browse around their site to see what other things they have been up to.  I found this page.  This page was presented as “proof” of the type of activities that occurs at the Gay Games (the issue relates to Kraft Foods sponsorship).  Of course, when you go there you will see some photos that have nothing to do with the athletic events and the bonds that are developed between athletes, instead you see a few pics of the party-goers (*sigh*). 

Of course, this is the equivalent of me saying that this is proof that all Christians hate gay people (a known fallacy).  I guess there may be some truth to this amongst the leadership of the AFA.

Was just reading about a new show, The Bedford Diaries, premiering on Wednesday evening on the “WB.”  The “controversy” over this show, is the censoring of a scene of two girls kissing (for about a second), and a second scene where a girl is unbuttoning her jeans.  Interestingly, the WB are making the entire show, including the censored scenes, available online.  Sadly, I think this is just a ploy to generate more interest in the show, which doesn’t say much for the show.

The Judson school district superintendent has pulled “The Handmaid’s Tale” by Margaret Atwood from the school’s in his system, as “a parent complained it was sexually explicit and offensive to Christians” (source).  The article goes on to say that, “In doing so, he overruled the recommendation of a committee of teachers, students and a parent. The committee is appealing the decision to the school board, which is scheduled to meet tonight.” 

I’ve not actually read the novel, although it is on my reading list (wishlist), but a blurb in the story says the novel “is a story of an environmentally blighted United States after a coup. Civil war rages as a fundamentalist Christian regime revokes all women’s rights and presses the few who remain fertile into sexual slavery.”  Sounds more like truth, rather than fiction.

Update: March 24, 2006 The school board overruled the superintendent at their meeting on Thursday night.