Abandoned iguanas: it's not just unwanted cats and dogs, post-Christmas.  

..."male iguanas are highly sexed, aggressive lovers, which is one of the reasons that so many of them are dumped by their owners. They come into season four or five times a year, and each time it can last for a couple of weeks.

....The first couple of years are happy enough. Then, when they hit two, the hormones kick in. "The sexual activity of an iguana is greater than any other lizard," explains Gough, who deals with exotic animals in the London area and is heading off to pick up this morning's latest hapless, homeless iguana in Palmers Green. Stella Quayle, curator at Beaver Water World, agrees. "It's the first thing on their mind: 'Can I bonk it?'"

[Guardian Unlimited]
10:13:40 PM  #   your two cents []

I have a piece up on Wired.com today: Korean Housewives Want Speedy Net. In South Korea, about 70 percent of households have high-speed connections that many homemakers use to shop and invest, while Internet café denizens drive the market for online games. [Wired News]
9:55:26 PM  #   your two cents []

Global Crossing founder and chairman resigns. Gary Winnick claims to have completed final task he set for himself [InfoWorld: Top News]
9:53:35 PM  #   your two cents []

AT&T Wireless' $6 billion bet. The company now has two years to roll out NTT DoCoMo's new wireless network on a revised schedule, and $6.2 billion in AT&T Wireless stock says it will be on time. [CNET News.com]
9:52:30 PM  #   your two cents []

From BoingBoing:  A link to Michigan's Lake Superior State University's annual list of banned words, for 2003. They include homeland security, weapons of mass destruction, peel-and-eat shrimp, and material breach.
9:48:39 PM  #   your two cents []

Cars and carnage. Johannesburg dispatch: With more than 1,000 killed in traffic accidents over the holiday, Rory Carroll examines South Africa's appalling road safety record. [Guardian Unlimited] ...Having driven around the SA province of Kwazulu-Natal in Oct/Nov for 10 days, this caught my eye. My experience (and maybe this says a lot about how bad roads and drivers are in Ireland) is that drivers were incredibly polite and careful, though some vehicles were of an extraordinary state of decrepitude. But a thousand killed just during the holidays? Incredible.
9:20:58 PM  #   your two cents []

George Wallace. "Why does the Air Force need expensive new bombers? Have the people we've been bombing over the years been complaining?" [Quotes of the Day] ...Wow. Such an appalling quote and so sadly appropriate at the moment.
9:17:23 PM  #   your two cents []

Boeing, Hughes charged with space technology transfer to China. "If the charges are upheld by a federal administrative judge and top State Department officials, the companies could be fined up to $60 million and barred from selling "controlled technologies" to any foreign customer, a penalty that could seriously hurt Boeing's commercial satellite business." [spacetoday.net]
9:15:44 PM  #   your two cents []

A peaceful and happy new year from Ireland!
5:07:29 AM  #   your two cents []