A resolution is to be introduced Thursday asking Google at its annual board meeting to create a board of directors-level Committee on Human Rights. Continuing human rights violations in China - and the role of U.S. technology firms in those abuses are the driving force behind the resolution. Amnesty International is not happy. Is Google worried about profits and keeping competitors out. http://newsblaze.com/story/20080506170333nnnn.nb/google.html

After a few years of restricted budgets, technology in education finally gets the attention of governments and educators. Apple, Adobe join College Board, to Support International Conference and Expo TechEd Events, a division of The Community College Foundation, predicts a benchmark year for TechEd 2007, the 12th Annual Technology in Education Conference and Tech Exposition

In the December 8 issue of the journal Nature, the researchers present a detailed analysis of the dog genome and describe how the data potentially could improve the health of people and dogs. Tasha, the boxer whose DNA was sequenced posed for a photo!

Happy birthday to the NASA/European Space Agency solar and heliospheric observatory spacecraft. The project celebrates its 10th anniversary December 2. The Solar Spacecraft revolutionized scientists ideas about the solar interior and atmosphere and the acceleration of the solar wind. The observatory originally was designed for a two-year mission, but its scientific insights have proven so valuable that NASA has consistently granted it extensions, the most recent of which allows the spacecraft to cover a complete 11-year solar cycle.

GLORIAD, a cooperative international project reached a milestone in its effort to create a high-speed computing network around the Northern Hemisphere, celebrating connectivity with Korea.

Two new 10gbps sections now link Korea to North America and Korea to China. Korea Joins International Computing Infrastructure

This project enables many other grid projects, fostering international collaboration. The interesting thing is that it includes China and this says something different to what we hear from public/political Chinese pronouncements.

China has concerns over growing civil unrest - and particularly technology's role in fostering protests and strikes.
Last week's update to Internet regulations issued in 2000 is vague, but human rights activists and scholars on China say the new rules define online news services more broadly. New Bans Show China's Concerns About Tech
The problem for China is that is has been able to keep a lid on dissent, but it is becoming increasingly more difficult to do. I don't think it will be long bofore they open up or face revolution.

Litigation against drug companies is very popular right now and some of it is warranted. Some of it is not. Some people are just too stupid to take drugs because they ignore instructions. They they find a lawyer and litigate. This trend is causing pharmaceutical companies to be overly cautious and this is holding back research. A new book, "The Cutter Incident" writes about how to keep innovation and research going.

Control Break International had a 92.7-percent growth rate from 2003 to 2004. Probably thanks to Microsoft. They are the third largest privately held security tools/systems vendor in the world. Control Break build scalable data-security solutions.

With U.S. mobile phone users already spending hundreds of millions a year on ringtones, wireless carriers and the music industry are banking on taking music lovers to the next step: using the phone as a portable music player. They're taking advantage of the fact that mobile handsets and the data networks that feed them are becoming more sophisticated. Wireless Banking on Portable Music Makes spending money easy!

From Brooklyn's Pratt Institute to the University of Colorado, at least 50 schools around the country now offer courses in video game study, development or design, according to industry groups. More colleges offering game theory courses. Jason Della Rocca, executive director of the International Game Developers Association, said the high number of schools adding programs in the past few years shows how the game industry is maturing.

Ever since Apple Computer Inc. jumped into the music player business with the original iPod in 2001, the rest of the consumer electronics industry has been playing catch-up. So far, nobody has come close in terms of coolness or sales. That's unlikely to change anytime soon. Apple, refusing to stand still, has released its trimmest full-featured iPod yet. The iPod Nano plays music, displays photos, is cleverly designed and is VERY small.

Its good to see people searching for things that really matter. Online Women Search for Ashlee Simpson's Hairstyle More Than Any Other Celebrity 'Do Women searched for pictures of Ashlee Simpson's hairstyle in August more than any other celebrity's, according to statistics from BeautyRiot.com (www.beautyriot.com). The music star recently switched back to a sunny blonde hair color from her eye-catching chocolate brown shade. Her seemingly daily hair color changes in the last days of August likely drove up Web searches on her hairstyle.

Nobody likes spam, except spammers, because it makes them money. Unfortunately, legislators who think they are doing a service to their constituents just make things more complex for those who abide by the law.

See: Email broadcasters unknowingly break the law

They are trying to make it uneconomical for the spammers and scammers, but their band-aid methods always cause problems for legitimate businesses. Many spammers keep up with the law and either comply quickly or ignore the law altogether.

38 of the 410 projects selected for the Summer of Code project are related to and mentored by the ASF.

The winning projects haven't been published yet, but the list of possible projects looks interesting.
Some were bug fixes, some look like major rewrites. There were also some major enhancements and some completely new.

I hope they annonce them on Monday.

The Summer of Code for students begins.

This is my story on the announcement.

A number of universities have been in the news recently, touting their new business programs for college students and graduates.

The non-credit, four-week programs are essentially cram courses for non-business college majors.

It appears that many students and recent grads have found having knowledge of business, and the business world, helps in getting a job.

Echo Boomer Teenagers Save Thousands Over The College Clueless