Environmentalists were calling Greenpeace's campaign against Nestle a success two weeks ago when it agreed to drop its Indonesian palm oil producer Sinar Mas Group, which is responsible for the destruction of rain forests and orangutan habitats. But it seems success was claimed not only too early, but perhaps a bit inappropriately.

PBS's Tavis Smiley, a disciple of Cornel West and a powerful force for elevating public discourse, has done a tremendous service by framing his second episode of Tavis Smiley Reports around Martin Luther King Jr.'s most controversial speech.

It's that time of year again. Flowers are blooming, birds are singing and the weather is warming up. We are feeling active, it's time to get up and get busy. Spring brings a new energy to most of us, calling us to play. It's the perfect time of year for some spring cleaning.

I hear and read too many debates these days peppered with accusations of socialism, fascism, or other extremism regarding governmental policies. People who have lived in socialist (and fascist) countries (East Germany is a great example) rightfully laugh themselves silly over this ideologically ignorant, partisan-driven American mudslinging. The fact is that these -isms are terms thrown around as scare words.

Since it is April 1, I can't fail to mention one of the best all-time April Fool gags, the BBC's 1957 Panorama broadcast on the spaghetti harvest in the Ticino area of Switzerland, narrated by the very distinguished and golden-voiced Richard Dimbleby, CBE. They reported a bumper crop, owing to the mild winter and the effective control of the pasta weevil.

Back in February,I posted a note here about a study showing that the most popular vehicle for Web-based malicious software was Adobe's PDF document format.

Friends have been asking lately what I think of the health care bill, now that it has passed (and bears no resemblance to my own health care reform plan). Of course, like the legislators who voted it into law, I have not read the 1000 pages and truly have no idea what the intended and unintended implications might be. But I do get the main point: as a society we will be spending an extra $1 trillion on health care that we wouldn't have spent previously.

Conventional wisdom tells us that we design technological artifacts in response to perceived needs; that is, needs drive technology. The formidable Don Norman recently wrote a web article suggesting that, contrary to convention, technology can drive needs.

The popular Mexican fast food giant Taco Bell is now in India and has opened its first outlet in Bangalore. They plan to open more outlets in other locations in India in the coming months.

Apparently Glenn Beck has taken a fancy to nonviolence. "Get God on your side, and then pick up a hammer," Beck said Saturday at a tent-revival-meets-politics rally that nearly packed the University of Central Florida basketball arena. Quoting Gandhi, he took the hammer to an anvil onstage and said: "With nonviolence, take your hammer and pound that truth every day, and everything that doesn't fit, toss it out! We have the truth . . . With nonviolence, be the anvil of truth every single day!"

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