...Drawing on a roll of paper...

Swivel is the "YouTube of Data". Graph your data and compare it to graphs of others. Surprisingly interesting for non-geeks, and well, geeks love this stuff don't they (errr... we)

"The number of page views your website generates. Or a stock price over time. Weather data. Commodity prices. The number of Bald Eagles in Washington state. Whatever. Uploaded data can be rated, commented and bookmared by other users, helping to sort the interesting (and accurate) wheat from the chaff. And graphs of data can be embedded into websites. So it is in fact a bit like a YouTube for Data.

But then the real fun begins. You and other users can then compare that data to other data sets to find possible correlation (or lack thereof). Compare gas prices to presidential approval ratings or UFO sightings to iPod sales. Track your page views against weather reports in Silicon Valley. See if something interesting occurs.

And better yet, Swivel will be automatically comparing your data to other data sets in the background, suggesting possible correlations to you that you may never have noticed."

Stem-cell bill passes Australian parliament

Australian Parliament has voted to overturn a ban on therapeutic cloning.
The bill would allow scientists to create embryos through therapeutic cloning and extract their stem cells for use in medical research.

...full story here

Dog Barks Reveal Universal Language

What do dog barks have in common with bird tweets and human baby cries? All appear to communicate basic emotions, such as fear, aggression and submission, in somewhat the same acoustic way, according to a new Applied Animal Behavior Science study that suggests a primitive communication system may unite virtually all mammals.

...full article here

essentials of expat life ~ Malaysian style...

orange & lemon juice, orange & peach juice, sweetened condensed milk for coffee.

I'm not sure if these juice mixes are available in Australia, I haven't seen them, but maybe I haven't been looking hard enough.

In 2 weeks i go back to Oz to pack up my room in preparation of moving over here for a while. Going back there is going to be good, but quite strange.

...It's going to be amazing to see everyone again. They're going to be disappointed though, I'm afraid I don't have too many amazing adventure stories to tell.

I might just have to make stuff up I think.
;)