Hikado

"The Greeks ground up dried rhubarb root and used it as a laxative," The Daily Telegraph says. "Knowing the British were also partial to rhubarb, the imperial Chinese commissioner Lin Zexu wrote a letter to Queen Victoria in 1839 threatening that unless Britain stopped sending opium to China, the Chinese would refuse to export powdered rhubarb, thereby killing her citizens by constipation. The Queen appears not to have had the letter translated. But [Lin] hadn't realized that rhubarb grows abundantly in Britain."

The Globe and Mail. "Social Studies" June 27, 2008.

"Buttons were originally nothing but ornamentation sewn onto clothing," Christa Poppelmann writes in 1,000 Common Delusions. "The first may be traced back to 2000 BC, and even in antiquity otherwise plain togas and tunics were ornamented with sewn-on buttons. It was only about 1300 AD that the idea arose of using the buttons as fasteners. The immediate result was a rise in particularly close-fitting fashions. During the Renaissance, a veritable 'button mania' broke out. Many pieces of clothing were inundated with hundreds and even thousands of buttons, and they all needed to be buttoned up."

Two recently published dictionaries are dedicated to deciphering the slang of Japanese teenagers, Reuters reports. Dubbed KY, the teen lingo is created by spelling out Japanese phrases using the English alphabet and then abbreviating these words to form acronyms. KY stands for kuuki yomenai, literally translated as "can't read the air," which means "not in tune." The phrase KY appeared in the mainstream media last year, when the cabinet formed by previous prime minister Shinzo Abe after an election loss was called the "KY cabinet" - not in tune with voters. Other KY slang:

HR: hitori ranchi, lunching alone.

PK: pantsu kuikomu, I have a wedgie.

JK: joshi kosei, female high-school students.

CZ: chakku zenkai, your fly is unzipped.

KW: kimochi warui, gross.

Since Facebook opened to the general public in 2006, anyone can become a part of Mark Zuckerberg's booming social network. But if users aren't satisfied to merely create a Facebook profile, Agriya Infoway, based in Chennai, India, offers another option: Create your own Facebook.

Agriya sells what it calls "Kootali," a $400 software package that lets developers replicate Facebook's design and features, complete with friend networks, photos and "mini-feeds"—even Facebook's font. Fifty copies of the software have been purchased in the last six months, says Agriya's chief technology officer, Aravind Kumar, though he says many hundreds more have been distributed on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.

Kumar isn't concerned about the legal implications of piggybacking on the Palo Alto, Calif.-based social network's success. "We haven't stolen any of Facebook's content or images, so we haven't done anything wrong," Kumar says. "We're just giving Facebook's look and feel to our customers."

Those customers, mostly unknown sites like Faceclub.com and Umicity.com, don't pose much of a competitive threat to Facebook. But, according to Forrester Research analyst Jeremiah Owyang, Agriya's cloning software represents a more general problem for Facebook: that any skilled developer can recreate the site's basic social networking functions. "Social networking features are a commodity," Owyang says.

In other words, Facebook's advantage is not in its proprietary software but in its massive user base. And in countries where Facebook has yet to penetrate the mainstream Web audience, that low competitive barrier may mean the site is no more likely than its copycats to attract users.

Some international sites that closely mimic Facebook's design and features are already enjoying Facebook-like success. Creators of the German look-a-like site StudiVerzeichnis—German for "Student Index"—have gathered around 6 million registered users. VKontakte, a Russian university-based networking site whose name translates to "In Contact," boasts that it's not only the most popular social networking site in the country, but with 4.5 million unique visitors a day and 13.3 million registered users, the most popular site in Russia.

The Chinese site Xiaonei, whose name means "In the School" in Mandarin, claims to have received around 15 million unique visitors in April. The site's parent company, Oak Pacific Interactive, received $430-million the same month in venture capital funding targeted at Xiaonei from the Japanese investment firm Softbank.

The copycats' explosive growth comes at a time when Facebook seems to be exploring its own international offshoots. Since January, the social network has invited volunteers to translate its pages into languages ranging from Italian to Mandarin and has launched Spanish, French and German options. Li Ka-Shing, one of Facebook's biggest investors, recently upped his stake in the company by more than $40 million, saying he saw synergies between Facebook and the telecom business of his conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa — a company that runs mobile networks in Asia, the Middle East and Africa.

But Facebook's clones may have already saturated some international markets. In China, for instance, where the Web audience numbers more than 220 million users by the count of research firm BDA China, Xiaonei has already registered more than 90 per cent of college students, according to Oak Pacific Interactive's chief operating officer, James Liu. He compares Facebook to Google, eBay and MySpace, all of which have tried to penetrate China's Web market and been trounced by local competitors.

"We've seen what happens to these multinational corporations that try to enter to China," he says. "Every one has failed miserably. We don't expect any exception in the case of Facebook."

Taking legal action against international doppelgangers isn't likely to help, says Gregory Rutchik, head of the Arts and Technology Law Group. Web design, he says, is a form of expression where even minor tweaks may be enough to avoid copyright infringement. Litigating country by country, he adds, would be a long, expensive and uncertain process.

Facebook may have another reason to avoid copyright lawsuits, points out John Dozier, an Internet-focused intellectual property lawyer. Flinging copyright complaints, he suggests, might work against Facebook if it finds itself on the receiving end of a copyright suit—a likely possibility on a site where users can post any content they choose.

"Facebook is being particularly careful," Dozier says. "They recognize the danger that overly aggressive copyright claims can backfire."

As for Facebook's mimics, they emphasize small differences they say set them apart. VKontakte's founder, Pavel Durov, argues that his site's shade of blue is slightly different from Facebook's, and that it offers better location-based searching. Xiaonei's James Liu points out that Xiaonei has fewer barriers separating networks of friends, and offered instant messaging even before Facebook added the feature in April.

But Wang Xing, who created Xiaonei in 2005, admits that the site's design was originally "borrowed" from Facebook. In fact, he's borrowed it twice: After selling Xiaonei to Oak Pacific Interactive in 2006 for an undisclosed sum, Wang essentially cloned his Facebook clone.

Hainei, Wang's second social networking project launched near the end of 2007, is aimed at adults rather than students, but its design is practically identical to Xiaonei's—and Facebook's. In six months, it's attracted more than 100,000 registered users, Wang says.

Asked if he feels any compunction about taking features wholesale from Facebook—twice—Wang points to Mark Zuckerberg's own copycat problems. Since 2004, the owners of rival site ConnectU have claimed that Zuckerberg stole intellectual property from their social network while working as a software developer for the site.

"ConnectU accuses Facebook of stealing their idea. Does that matter?" Wang asks. "No. We don't worry about that. It's not about the idea. It's about execution."

Jane Tuv contributed to this article.

Globe and Mail

This week marks the start of a cellphone service for New Zealanders who want to quit smoking; about one in five are trying. The Clinical Trials Research Unit at the University of Auckland has found that sending smokers regular, personalized text messages - containing advice on quitting, support or a distraction - more than doubled their chances of having stopped smoking when checked six weeks later.
Source: The New Zealand
Herald

SAWNEY BEANE was born in the county of East Lothian, about eight or nine miles eastward of the city of Edinburgh, some time in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, whilst King James I. governed only in Scotland. His parents worked at hedging and ditching for their livelihood, and brought up their son to the same occupation. He got his daily bread in his youth by these means, but being very much prone to idleness, and not caring for being confined to any honest employment, he left his father and mother, and ran away into the desert part of the country, taking with him a woman as viciously inclined as himself. These two took up their habitation in a rock by the seaside, on the shore of the county of Galloway, where they lived upwards of twenty five years without going into any city, town, or village.
In this time they had a great number of children and grandchildren, whom they brought up after their own manner, without any notions of humanity or civil society. They never kept any company but among themselves, and supported themselves wholly by robbing; being, moreover, so very cruel, that they never robbed anyone whom they did not murder.
By this bloody method, and their living so retiredly from the world, they continued such a long time undiscovered, there being nobody able to guess how the people were lost that went by the place where they lived. As soon as they had robbed and murdered any man, woman or child, they used to carry off the carcass to the den, where, cutting it into quarters, they would pickle the mangled limbs, and after- wards eat it; this being their only sustenance. And, not- withstanding, they were at last so numerous, they commonlyhad superfluity of this their abominable food; so that in the night time they frequently threw legs and arms of the un- happy wretches they had murdered into the sea, at a great distance from their bloody habitation. The limbs were often cast up by the tide in several parts of the country, to the astonishment and terror of all the beholders, and others who heard it. Persons who had gone about their lawful occasions fell so often into their hands that it caused a general outcry in the country round about, no man know- ing what was become of his friend or relation, if they were once seen by these merciless cannibals.
All the people in the adjacent parts were at last alarmed at such a common loss of their neighbours and acquaintance; for there was no travelling in safety near the den of these wretches. This occasioned the sending frequent spies into these parts, many of whom never returned again, and those who did, after the strictest search and inquiry, could not find how these melancholy matters happened. Several honest travellers were taken up on suspicion, and wrongfully hanged upon bare circumstances; several innocent inn- keepers were executed for no other reason than that persons who had been thus lost were known to have lain at their houses, which occasioned a suspicion of their being mur- dered by them and their bodies privately buried in obscure places to prevent a discovery. Thus an ill placed justice was executed with the greatest severity imaginable, in order to prevent these frequent atrocious deeds; so that not a few innkeepers, who lived on the Western Road of Scotland, left off their business, for fear of being made examples, and followed other employments. This on the other hand occasioned many great inconveniences to travellers, who were now in great distress for accommoda- tion for themselves and their horses when they were dis- posed to bait, or put up for lodging at night. In a word, the whole country was almost depopulated.
Still the King's subjects were missing as much as before; so that it was the admiration of the whole kingdom how such villainies could be carried on and the villains not befound out. A great many had been executed, and not one of them all made any confession at the gallows, but stood to it at the last that they were perfectly innocent of the crimes for which they suffered. When the magistrates found all was in vain, they left off these rigorous proceed- ings, and trusted wholly to Providence for the bringing to light the authors of these unparalleled barbarities, when it should seem proper to the Divine wisdom.
Sawney's family was at last grown very large, and every branch of it, as soon as able, assisted in perpetrating their wicked deeds, which they still followed with impunity. Sometimes they would attack four, five or six foot men together, but never more than two if they were on horse- back. They were, moreover, so careful that not one whom they set upon should escape, that an ambuscade was placed on every side to secure them, let them fly which way they would, provided it should ever so happen that one or more got away from the first assailants. How was it possible they should be detected, when not one that saw them ever saw anybody else afterwards? The place where they inhabited was quite solitary and lonesome; and when the tide came up, the water went for near two hundred yards into their subterraneous habitation, which reached almost a mile under- ground; so that when some who had been sent armed to search all the by-places about had passed by the mouth of their cave, they had never taken any notice of it, not supposing that anything human would reside in such a place of perpetual horror and darkness.
The number of the people these savages destroyed was never exactly known, but it was generally computed that in the twenty-five years they continued their butcheries they had washed their hands in eke blood of a thousand, at least, men, women and children. The manner how they were at last discovered was as follows.
A man and.his wife behind him on the same horse coming one evening home from a fair, and falling into the ambuscade of these merciless wretches, they fell upon them in a most furious manner. The man, to save himselfas well as he could, fought very bravely against them with sword and pistol, riding some of them down, by main force of his horse. In the conflict the poor woman fell from behind him, and was instantly murdered before her husband's face; for the female cannibals cut her throat and fell to sucking her blood with as great a gust as if it had been wine. This done, they ripped up her belly and pulled out all her entrails. Such a dreadful spectacle made the man make the more obstinate resistance, as expecting the same fate if he fell into their hands. It pleased Providence, while he was engaged, that twenty or thirty from the same fair came together in a body; upon which Sawney Beane and his bloodthirsty clan withdrew, and made the best of their way through a thick wood to their den.
This man, who was the first that had ever fallen in their way and came off alive, told the whole company what had happened, and showed them the horrid spectacle of his wife, whom the murderers had dragged to some distance, but had not time to carry her entirely off. They were all struck with stupefaction and amazement at what he related, took him with them to Glasgow, and told the affair to the provost of that city, who immediately sent to the King concerning it.
In about three or four days after, his Majesty himself in person, with a body of about four hundred men, set out for the place where this dismal tragedy was acted, in order to search all the rocks and thickets, that, if possible, they might apprehend this hellish cure, which had been so long pernicious to all the western parts of the kingdom.
The man who had been attacked was the guide, and care was taken to have a large number of bloodhounds with them, that no human means might be wanting towards their putting an entire end to these cruelties.
No sign of any habitation was to be found for a long time, and even when they came to the wretches' cave they took no notice of it, but were going to pursue their search along the seashore, the tide being then out. But some of the bloodhounds luckily entered this Cimmerian den, andinstantly set up a most hideous barking, howling and yelp- ing; so that the King, with his attendants, came back, and looked into it. They could not yet tell how to conceive that anything human could be concealed in a place where they saw nothing but darkness. Never the less, as the bloodhounds increased their noise, went farther in, and refused to come back again, they began to imagine there was some reason more than ordinary. Torches were now immediately sent for, and a great many men ventured in through the most intricate turnings and windings, till at last they arrived at that private recess from all the world which was the habitation of these monsters.
Now the whole body, or as many of them as could, went in, and were all so shocked at what they beheld that they were almost ready to sink into the earth. Legs, arms, thighs, hands and feet of men, women and children were hung up in rows, like dried beef. A great many limbs lay in pickle, and a great mass of money, both gold and silver, with watches, rings, swords, pistols, and a large quantity of clothes, both linen and woollen, and an infinite number of other things, which they had taken from those whom they had murdered, were thrown together in heaps, or hung up against the sides of the den.
Sawney's family at this time, besides him, consisted of his wife, eight sons, six daughters, eighteen grandsons, and fourteen granddaughters, who were all begotten in incest.
These were all seized and pinioned by his Majesty's order in the first place; then they took what human flesh they found and buried it in the sands; afterwards loading themselves with the spoils which they found, they returned to Edinburgh with their prisoners, all the country, as they passed along, flocking to see this cursed tribe. When they were come to their journey's end, the wretches were all committed to the Tolbooth, from whence they were the next day conducted under a strong guard to Leith, where they were all executed without any process, it being thought needless to try creatures who were even professed enemies to mankind.
The men had their hands and legs severered from their bodies; by which amputations they bled to death in some hours. The wife, daughters and grandchildren, having been made spectators of this just punishment inflicted on the men, were afterwards burnt to death in three several fires. They all in general died without the least signs of repentance; but continued cursing and venting the most dreadful imprecations to the very last gasp of life.

Source: University of Texas at Austin, Jamail Centre for Legal Research. Tralton Law Library: University of Texas School of Law. http://tarlton.law.utexas.edu/lpop/etext/newgate/beane.htm

"They're painful. So painful that pedestrians can't help staring at them," Minoru Matsutani writes in The Japan Times. "The heavily decorated vehicles called itasha have been experiencing a nationwide resurgence lately, reflecting Japan's animé craze. Combining the words itai (painful) and sha (vehicle), itasha are literally 'painful cars' with exteriors pimped out in tacky illustrations or stickers of female animation characters." They are popular with single men in their 20s and 30s. "We like animé characters and want to show off. It's as simple as that," said "Sabugoro," a 28-year-old from Kawasaki. But they use common sense. "We tell each other to stop the engines and follow the traffic rules. None of us parks illegally."

The Olympics in China is two months away. Seeing the games being hosted in Beijing it makes me proud to say I am Chinese. Despite the controversy over their style of governing, I personally believe had they denied China this opportunity it would have only force China into a deeper level of isolation.

Historically states such as Japan received support and assistance from countries like the United States to help them achieve greater openess. As a member of the United Nations and NATO, you'd expect to receive ecouragement and support from sister nations in this consortum. Hosting the Olympic Games will bring more openness to China. There are already signs of this occur as a result of the tragic Sichuan earthquake in China. The PRC's willingness to allow live media coverage of the natural disaster shows their willingness to embrace change and possibly democratic reforms in the fututre.

China has taken steps to strengthen their economy by investing in the construction of a $4.2 million dollar railway that opened in June 2006. A section of the rail line stops in Tibet. This transportation system will bring a large influx of traffic into the region thus bring prosperity to Tibet. Strengthing the state's economy is a cruical component of China's plan to have a greater degree of democracy in their country.

It saddens me to hear how Tibetan protesters are advocating against the PRC and their poor track recording involving torture and the lack of free speech when they themselves are also guilty of the same crime. During the Olympic Torch relay in Paris, Tibetan protestors violently attacked atheletes as they ran bearing a symbol of peace in their hands. On one hand, these protestors openly preach peace and non-violence, yet they are harming innocent people. The Olympic games is suppose to be a neutral event that is not political. These protestors need to learn not to make a non-political event into a political one. The purpose of the games is to foster sportsmanship by bring a diverse group of people together with one similar passion for sports.