• Sensible forms
• Typeface selection
• Z's not dead

Funny title? No, actually an interesting technique:

• AJAX vs. AHAH
• AHAH, Asychronous HTML and HTTP

• Php security blunders
• FACE Faruk's Animated CSS Enhancements
• Stylesheet sanity

A post an Simon Willison's web site:

Google base

I'm not particularly interested in Goole base itself, more in what Simon says about structuring data using attributes that allow to query it and make it interchangeable. I think that XFN and Microformats are products of the same general orientation. Seems to me that that's all the web is about, connecting people and data in the easiest possible way.

• Patriot Act defeat

I hope that not only american but also the rest of world civil liberties and rights are taken into consideration.

Wherever there is oil..:

West African oil deals

• Gifts of learning
• Book Aid International

A couple of search engine related links:

• 10 alternative SE
• google search tip

An article on Sitepoint about web fonts:

Anatomy of web fonts.

From 24 ways an article on Transitional vs. Strict Markup by Roger Johansson.

Andy Budd on Web Design and Development Trends for 2006.

Two years:

Happy Birthday XFN!

The Elements of Typographic Style Applied to the Web. A practical guide to web typography: webtypography.net

• U.S. delegation walks out of climate talks
• US isolated after climate talks walkout
• Climate change theory barks up wrong tree

An interesting initiative from the The Guardian, The Observer and Guardian Unlimited that joined forces with Climate Care to offset air travel pollution:

• Offset your air travel pollution
• Calculate the cost to offset a flight

A few useful links:

• Internet country codes
• 10 Places You Must Use Ajax
• 24 ways to impress your friends by Drew McLellan
• Top 10 custom JavaScript functions of all time

• Passionate Pinter
• Nobel acceptance speech full text

"I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory. If such a determination is not embodied in our political vision we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly lost to us - the dignity of man."

from Harold Pinter's Nobel acceptance speech

I cannot say anything more that he's not already said better then I could. It's so rare to hear those things said by someone that has the possibility to reach many people. Thanks.

Using Flash animations to illustrate physics is something I tried a while ago. I find it most interesting but, unfortunately, my knowledge of physics is limited.

Flash animations for physics

Ignoring everybody's questions Rice signs US-Romania bases deal showing once more very little respect. The most common excuse for this behaviour is that "intelligence services must be able to do their job" but what I think is that the simple fact that there is a need for intelligence service spying and plotting means that something is wrong. I'm not talking only about the USA but about all Nations. Every Country, all over the world, needs huge amounts of money to keep the security around its President running and avoid assassination. Does this sound like a sensible thing? Why it must be like that? Just because for five thousand years has never changed it doesn't mean it could not change. It's up to us all and if it's not...then we are a much less intelligent species then we give ourselves credit for.

I wanted a logo that conveyed the meaning of this web site and this is what I came up with:

The O becoming a broken circle with an arrow pointing out symbolizes the communication between people, an opening of the mind that brings change and that's why the color is different. The name itself (seven colors on a spinning wheel become white, white light passing through a prism splits into seven colors) stands for multiplicity that becomes unity, the capacity of different entities to coexist and actually learn from each other. The circles and arrows also symbolize the World Wide Web and its huge potential for connecting people and circulating ideas freely.

Internet glossary

"While by no means definitive, this glossary does have more than a hundred words, phrases, and jargon related to the the Internet as a whole, with a particular bent toward the Web and and the new-media industry"

• Britain's role in war on terror revealed
• Rice defends US terror policies
• The defining of torture

Talking about it doesn't help. I don't believe that anybody in the Bush administration is able to understand that when the end justifies the means everybody loses. They keep thinking that somehow they are different from the rest of the people in the world and, not being able to learn, persevere on a road that brings to nothing. I don't see much difference between "them" and their "enemies". I don't like either.

• CIA flights “landed in Germany”
• Rice rejects EU protests

Previous posts on the same argument:

• Secret jails?
• The CIA - Italy saga continues
• Rendition
• Round three
• James Bond vs. Austin Powers
• (Counter) terrorists?
• Territorial squabbles..

The “old” one:

• Vietnam War Intelligence
• Gulf of Tonkin - 11/30/2005

The new one:

• Rights Group Lists 26 “Ghost Detainees”

When East Timor obtained its independence from Portugal in 1975, Australia had an agreement with Indonesia. Now, East Timor is independent, so: E Timor, Australia strike oil deal.

Also, the only route available for nuclear submarines is a deep-sea trench off the East Timorese coast.

Strategic position and oil, a deadly combination.