I thought I’d mention this Wired News article while I was on the subject of the Everglades. As if things aren’t bad enough down there with pesticide run-off, drought and species extinction, we now have pet boa constrictors roaming around and tussling with the alligators. Guess who’s behind this latest mess? Yup, you guessed it, it’s people. Forget invasive species, we’re the number one threat to both ourselves, and the planet.
I-95 is to be closed for days in Florida
A wildfire which has been burning since April 21 has now managed to close down I-95 for several days down in Florida, in the Daytona Beach area, from Port Orange to Edgewater. According to the FL Division of Forestry, 84 fires were still burning throughout the state on more than 36,800 acres. The fires are to be blamed for several deaths and multiple car accidents as well.
I lived in South Florida from many years. Could it be that the effects of over-development are starting to make themselves felt? The draining and covering up of large portions of the Everglades has been blamed for recent droughts, and as we know, droughts are at the root of wildfires.
Quote for today
Walt Disney – “Laughter is America’s most important export.”
We’d do well to remember this nowadays. I wonder what our most important export is today. Can we put our finger on it, and if we can, is it something we’d be proud of?
The story of Comeacross and Doublecross
I did a search for ComeAcross on Google today, and stumbled upon an old folktale printed in Bagdad in the early years of the 20th century. It’s recorded on the website of Allan D. Corre of the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee, where it’s part of a collection of popular Arabic literature of the Jews. Read it, it’s nice, and the moral is good. I’m glad to see Comeacross behaved wisely even before it became an informative website! 😀
➡ Updated 2/17/08: ComeAcross was the name of my site from May 2006 to December 2007.
Two spyware companies slapped down by the FTC
The FTC is to be praised for its efforts in shutting down spyware companies. In its latest coup, two of them, Spybot.net and Odysseus Marketing, were fined and closed, and their owners are now responsible for payment of the fines. The FTC wants to put a permanent halt to their services, and to make them cough up all the money they made: over $4 million. I hope they shake them for every penny!
Raoul Pop 