changes

Congratulations to Russ, who is starting at a new job, as is his wife Ana. Many are in the move these days, Tis' the season, it seems :-)

the US and Canada

A Salon article:

A top Canadian official calls Bush a "moron" -- and her countrymen cheer. Why the US's northern neighbors think the president is a chimp?

the myths of web services

From News.com: The five myths of web services.

war and the meaning of life

A Salon review on the book "What is a force that gives us meaning." A good analysis. For some time, the main organizing principle of society (implicit or explicit) was war. We thought we had gone beyond that, but it's clearly not the case. Humanity has advanced mainly because of war rather than peace, in fact every single technological advance in the past 50 years can be traced back to a wartime invention or development. We seem to be ready to continue along this path for some time...