Interesting Reading Today...

Jamaica has an even higher murder rate than ours.  Gunmen have even ordered people to leave their homes and communities under penalty of death .  However, the Jamaican press can still find uplifting stories like this one:

JAMAICA GLEANER: Gangster turns student - Former bad boy tells IMF boss how far he has come
http://www.jamaica-gleaner.com/gleaner/20081211/lead/lead3.html

A friend sent this link that shows in all of ninety second how the world's five major religions were born and spread over the last five thousand years.  It's definitely not complete though as it doesn't seem to properly take diaspora into consideration:

The Geography of Faith and its Wars across History
http://www.mapsofwar.com/images/Religion.swf

I've chatted with a number of people on the causes of the current financial crisis in the United States, and the potential global fall out, with particular emphasis on what we might see here in Trinidad and Tobago.  It's a long discussion on multiple topics which intertwine readily and often.  However, one can get a visual of the root of the problem from one of the blogs that I read:

Mint.edu: A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis
http://blog.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisis/

Mint.edu also released today an analysis of the bailout proposed by the US Government, including how the bailout is being funded and how some financial experts think it should be funded:

A Visual Guide to the Financial Crisis: The Bailout
http://blog.mint.com/blog/finance-core/a-visual-guide-to-the-financial-crisisthe-bailout/

And finally, given her physical response to rudeness, I feel not just a little trepidation about this robot getting the ability to walk.  Aiko, as the robot is called, would be an early precursor to a fully functional, straight out of a sci-fi  novel android.  Indeed the technology exists in various spaces to make her "perfect"... but without Asimov's Three Laws programmed in, that could prove to be a problem:

Sun.co.uk: Inventor builds She-3PO Robot
http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/article2023392.ece