This picture offers some insight into the phrase “behind every great man there’s a woman kicking his butt.” Ladies, would you do this for your man? Or would you sit back and laugh at his non-functioning tricycle?

Looking for the perfect beach getaway? A place where you can sit and relax, free from the daily stresses of life such as work, commuting, managing your finances and, mobile phones?

Palm Islands, a popular holiday destination in the Grenadines, has become the first place in the Caribbean to ban the use of mobile devices. Under the ban, the use of mobile phones, PDAs and laptop computers is prohibited within half a mile of Casarina Beach.

Rob Barrett, CEO of Elite Resort Islands — which owns Palm Islands — says “there is nothing worse than lying back in your double hammock, sipping on your strawberry daiquiri and hearing the Motorola jingle in the background.” He adds that guests should be on Caribbean time when vacationing at Palm Islands, which essentially boils down to switching off your mobile phone and listening to waves crashing on the beach.

My feeling is that if you have to worry about sitting on a beach surrounded by cell phones, you’re probably not far enough away from home and need a better vacation location. The best beach vacations I’ve ever taken have been to a place where my cell phone doesn’t have a chance of making a phone call. That’s how a real beach vacation should be, out in the middle of nowhere, unreachable to the outside world.

President Bush said yesterday to a national convention of the American Legion in Reno, Nevada that if Israel’s arch-foe Iran were to get nuclear weapons, the entire Middle East would be “under the shadow of a nuclear holocaust.”

Bush also repeated accusations that Iran was materializing instability in Iraq by supplying weapons and training fighters. It seems someone is really trying to build a case with the American public for a war with Iran.

My issue with President Bush’s remarks is that they are misleading and incredibly short-sighted.

First off, even if Iran were to get nuclear weapons, possessing does not equal usage. Of all the countries around the world with nuclear weapons, only one has actually used them (outside of a testing capacity): the United States. That means that Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France, India, Pakistan, North Korea, Israel and South Africa (before voluntarily disarming) have never used them on another country. So where does Bush’s inherent rationale that Iran would use them if they had them come from?

Secondly, and this ties in with my previous point, Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has not called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” as reported in U.S. media. Contrary to propaganda popular belief, that remark was never made. It should be noted that the Bush Administration has repeatedly used this remark — falsely — as a basis for many of their threats against Iran.

Finally, Bush’s remarks about an impending nuclear holocaust in the Middle East should Iran get nuclear weapons are far less from what a real-life scenario would entail. Granted, Bush is probably correct that if one nuclear weapon were to go off the region would be set ablaze with hellfire and radiation. However, it’s not likely to remain contained to that region. Bush and his cronies need to read up a little on the IR concept of mutually assured destruction (MAD), which is the best nuclear weapon deterrent. Under this MAD premise, one nation setting off nukes means retaliation from other nuke states leading to the destruction of everyone. Thus, were Iran to nuke Israel, Israel and the United States would surely nuke back. As a result of the United States nuking Iran, Russia or China would likely get involved, and the downward spiral goes ever deeper. The lesson from all this: Iran knows that nuking another country will only get itself destroyed, so it’s not going to do it.

It’s unfortunate that the government uses such deliberate manipulation of information to pursue its own secretive agendas (read: attacking Iran). It is extraordinarily unlikely that Iran would ever launch a first-strike nuclear weapon against Israel. Rather, the more plausible explanation is that Iran is seeking to acquire a nuclear weapon so that it can use MAD as a deterrent against countries seeking to nuke it.

Popular all-things-Apple site Mac Rumors is reporting that next week at Apple’s press event Steve Jobs will announce the availability of custom ringtones on the beloved iPhone.

Supposedly we iPhone users will be able to make ringtones out of any song we have purchased through iTunes. The lone exception here being tracks licensed through Universal, which is abstaining for what can only be an insufficient profit margin.

I certainly look forward to this day as lately I have been purchasing quite a bit of music and movies through iTunes as a result of frequent business traveling (it helps to pass the time on planes). And even though I can’t help but laugh out loud every time my “Sci-Fi” iPhone ringtone blares away, it will be very nice to have some of the new PVD album whenever someone gives me a ring.

To all my wino friends out there, however few you may be, brace yourself for some either great or horrible news, however you want to take it.

Scientists have now broken the complete genetic code for the plant which produces wine grapes. This, in effect, sets the stage for genetically-mutated wine to enhance flavor and improve resistance against disease.

Dozens of researchers in France analyzing the Pinot Noir variety of Vitis vinifera, the core species from which virtually all grape wine is made, found twice as many genes contributing to aroma than in other sequenced plants, suggesting that wine flavours could be traced to the genome level.

The researchers discovered that V. vinifera had families of genes that correlated directly with the aromatic features of wine. Additionally, they identified genetic source of resveratrol, the red wine anti-oxidant that has been linked with health benefits from anti-aging to anti-viral treatments.

Finally, researchers argue that evolving the grapes genetically is necessary to improve the quality of the grapes as well as their ability to resist pathogens.

The question I would like to pose to my faithful wine enthusiasts is simply: is genetically enhanced wine a good thing or a bad thing?

Three Israeli computer engineers have hacked Apple’s iPhone and made it usable on Israeli mobile carriers. What separates this instance from others that were in the news over the weekend is the fact that the Israelis were able to go so far as to give the iPhone a Hebrew interface.

The three Israeli hackers, Dubbi, Ofir and Eli, bought their iPhones abroad in the U.S. without the intention of hacking them. Ofir said he bought the iPhone with the mindset that it would be a nice gadget but never a usable phone in Israel.

Although it didn’t cost anything, the men say it did take a long time to crack the iPhone system. Additionally, while they are not sharing how they accomplished this feat, they are saying that the process was so simple that almost anyone could do it.

I tip my hat to these three Israeli hackers, because as far as I know there are the first to give the iPhone an interface other than English. They still are gonna have to live without visual voicemail, however.

Snapped this picture from the hotel in Los Angeles last week and have been meaning to post it. For those who don’t understand the post-worthiness of this, check out this Wikipedia article about the main subject of this picture.

This post is a direct response to Bart’s 5 reasons why I don’t use Reddit for social bookmarking.

“1. Reddit is UGLY”

Reddit is not ugly, it is clean, neat and usable. When you go to the Reddit home page you see 25 stories, the same number as on Digg, but in a much more concise and reader-friendly format. Further, the Reddit home page has (at the time of this writing) only one ad, whereas the Digg home page currently has two.

In terms of user interface, Reddit could be compared to Google and Digg to Yahoo. And we all know which one delivers better quality search results.

“2. Reddit is CONFUSING”

The fact that Reddit does not have story descriptions is a positive attribute. Most of the descriptions you see on Digg are either misleading to entice users to click, or just small snippets of the article. If the title isn’t enough to grab my attention, I probably don’t want to read the article anyway.

Next, Bart claims that Reddit doesn’t show the number of points for newly submitted stories. This is false. Reddit does show point totals if you click into the Reddit listing for that article where the comments are and select the “details” tab. While it does not show point totals on main pages for new stories, this is a good thing, because — and even Bart mentions — it gives the community a better chance to judge the story. However, he directly follows with “BUT thanks to that fact its users are always forced to swim in the cesspit of all submitted news.” Again this is false. While Digg makes it 6-year-old easy to browse through their categories and find content you enjoy, Reddit takes the same mentality but evolves it much further, as the Reddit system actually learns what type of content you’re interested in and filters the stories to your liking. From the Reddit Help page:

reddit is a source for what’s new and popular on the web — personalized for you. Your votes train a filter, so let reddit know what you liked and disliked, because you’ll begin to be recommended links filtered to your tastes.

“3. Reddit is so SLOW”

No one can deny that the user base of Reddit is significantly smaller than that of Digg, and consequently the number of stories submitted to Reddit is less than Digg. But the question I would pose is: so what? Digg is littered with spammers marketers who do not seek to add any value to the community, only to get traffic to their sites. The nature of the Reddit system makes it much more difficult to game the system.

This one is kind of misleading, because although Bart was referring to the rate of submission the title somewhat alludes to speed of site. So I just want to note that Reddit operates significantly quicker than Digg, as there is less clutter and advertising (1 image on Reddit and 17 on Digg at the time of this writing).

“4. Reddit is MESSED UP”

The complaint that the biggest interest group controls the front page is true… for unregistered users. This argument is null, because Digg does the same thing. Think of the Reddit home page as the Digg home page with the category set to “All.” If you want to browse topic-specific content on Digg you click on a category. If you want to see material you enjoy on Reddit, simply log in and the system will know what you want. Not to mention Reddit, like Digg, has a search feature.

“5. Reddit is BORING”

First off, boring is a relative word. Secondly I have covered this already, but for the sake of clarity I will repeat it again as it applies here. If you aren’t finding content you like on Reddit it’s because you’re a) not logged in, or b) not using the system. Reddit will learn what you like and present it to you.

To better sum up this point and this whole article in general, let’s compare Digg and Reddit in the context of something all men can understand: women. So without further ado, I am signing off this post with this original quote:

Digg is a one night stand that will bring you instant but short-lived gratification, whereas Reddit is a commitment that in the long run will bring happiness you never thought possible.

This one goes out to all of my iPhone-hating readers. A recent iPhone owners survey from ChangeWave Alliance conducted from July 18-25 revealed that 77% of iPhone owners said they were “Very Satisfied” with their iPhone. The survey reveals that another 15% said they were “Somewhat Satisfied” with their iPhone, making for a combined 92% Satisfaction Rating — which ChangeWave says is the best they’ve ever seen for a mobile phone.

For purposes of perspective, ChangeWave compared the results of this iPhone survey with past surveys for other cell phone manufacturers, and the results are staggering: Apple (77%), RIM (50%), Sanyo (48%), LG (41%), Nokia (39%), Samsung (37%), etc.

What iPhone owners liked most about the device was the “Integration of Phone, iPod and Internet Browser” (66%). The second most liked feature was the “Touch Screen Interface” (45%), followed by “Ease of Use” (22%).

The same amount of those who were very satisfied, 77%, also said they were “Very Likely” to recommend the iPhone to a colleague or friend. (Anyone who knows me knows I am horribly guilty of this )

Finally, more than one-in-five (22%) of non-iPhone owners surveyed said they will purchase an iPhone in the future for themselves or someone else, compared with 13% back in April.

Clearly the iPhone is more than satisfying the majority of customers who have purchased the device. Even though my first iPhone broke, I am still extremely satisfied with the device and haven’t used my T-Mobile Dash in quite some time. So to anyone out there considering getting an iPhone, I continue to highly recommend it, as do a large percentage of iPhone owners elsewhere.

A Russian region on the Volga River, roughly 550 miles east of Moscow, has announced that September 12th will be the Day of Conception and for the third straight year will give couples time off from work to engage in the act of baby-making.

The move is part of an effort to combat Russia’s birthrate crisis, as Russia covers 1/7th of the Earth’s surface but only sports 141.4 million citizens, making it one of the most sparsely populated countries. In fact, the population of Russia has been declining since the early 1990s.

Russian President Vladimir Putin announced last year cash incentives to families if they have more than one child. The program rewards women who give birth to a second child or subsequent children with certificates worth $10,000 USD.

Being a member of the machine that is the American economy — where every day off is a blessing — I envy the work schedules of most countries around the world. And while I’ve never really considered Russia on that list, this proposition certainly makes a case for it.

What do you say we, as members of the proletariat, push the American bourgeoisie for a day of copulation?