Ariel Sharon’s ruling Likud Party has won the general election by a wide margin, Israeli television exit polls show.
According to preliminary results, Likud captured up to 36 seats, almost doubling its representation in the Israeli Knesset (parliament).

The main opposition Labour Party suffered the worst defeat in its history, losing up to eight of the 25 seats it held before the poll, according to the exit results.

The secular Shinui party emerged as the third-largest party, winning up to 14 seats in the 120-member Knesset, the exit polls show.

With Israel’s left-wing suffering a crushing blow, the leader of the Meretz party, Yossi Sarid, resigned after the exit polls showed his party lost up to half its seats.

Afghanistan
The heaviest fighting in nine months has taken place in southeastern Afghanistan broke out yesterday between US and coalition forces and 80 rebels aligned to renegade leader Gulbuddin Hekmatyar.

At least 18 rebel fighters were killed, and there were no coalition casualties, the military said. “It’s the largest concentration of enemy forces since Operation Anaconda,” U.S. military spokesman Roger King said from Bagram Airbase, a reference to fighting in March in eastern Afghanistan that involved the largest number of American troops in the Afghan war.

“We’ve had reports of various numbers of armed men, groups of people trying to gather in order to carry out attacks on the coalition,” King said. “We’ve been actively engaged in trying to develop intelligence that would lead us to a precise location and yesterday (Monday) we did.”

Kuwait
What is it like to be a Canadian in Kuwait, watching international news and waiting for an evacuation order?

e-thrombosis
This is basic common sense.

Long haul air travel is not the only activity to pose a risk of developing potentially deadly blood clots - sitting at your computer for too long may also put you at risk.
The European Respiratory Journal reports the case of a young man from New Zealand who nearly died after developing deep vein thrombosis following long periods of physical inactivity in front of his computer.

Xweb
There have been a lot of Google searches here at Bene Diction Blogs On regarding the browser Xweb, developed by a 16 year old, that won the top science prize in Ireland.

Osmani’s programming precocity is undoubted, said judges for the competition. Larry Taylor, a judge from the competition’s sponsor Esat BT, said Xwebs “is of the level of a final-year project by a university student and would be given the highest marks.”

Osmani said he has developed an algorithm that speeds up the way information is handled inside the browser. The technique takes advantage of the features of a particular type of server used widely on the Internet.

The browser handles multiple requests for information, he said. So, instead of a single stream of information, several streams are processed simultaneously. In essence, the task of bringing over a Web page is divided into a set of smaller tasks, cutting the time it takes to reassemble a Web page on the computer screen.

But the judges evaluated Osmani’s browser without even considering its speed, as they could not independently benchmark it and lacked complete access to the browser’s source code, Taylor said.

Osmani won’t reveal more of the code because he is exploring the possibility of patenting or copyrighting aspects of his browser. Some judges said they were unsure whether the process would work in the real world, but others believe it could.

One judge, Intel Ireland’s head of process engineering, Leonard Hobbs, said: “Certainly the capability is there. The technique he invented seems unique.”

But Hobbs de-emphasized the speed claims. “What impressed us most of all is he absolutely knew what he was doing. It was a complete work, a whole.” Osmani’s project demonstrated “the science of the Web,” he said.

MIT principal researcher with Media Lab Europe, Gary McDarby, said he was astonished by the teen’s “years ahead” programming skills. Even if the speed claims prove false, McDarby said, “What he’s certainly doing conceptually is raising the bar for the commercial companies.”

The browser is based on the version of Microsoft Internet Explorer that third-party developers use. But rather than using Visual Basic, Osmani used an older language called Borland C++, which meant he also had to use some Microsoft tools to translate from one language to another.

These processes generate thousands of extra lines of code — a point raised by critics on sites like Slashdot and Fark, who couldn’t see how any single developer could write the one-million-plus lines first claimed for the browser.

So, no, it’s not going to be in the marketplace anytime soon.

Bloggies
So what really went wrong?

Slammer
This past weekends disruption in the internet because of a fast spreading attack was a bit more serious than experts anticipated.

Edge of Englands Sword
Iain Murray finally gets some mainstream news coverage after being fired for blogging.
Link via Ranting and Roaring

Oldie but Goodie

One dark night outside a small town, a fire started inside the local chemical plant and in a blink it exploded into flames. The alarm went out to the fire departments from miles around.

When the volunteer firefighters appeared on the scene, the chemical company president rushed to the fire chief and said, “All of our secret formulas are in the vault in the centre of the plant. They must be saved. I will give $50,000 to the fire department that brings them out intact.”

But the roaring flames held the firefighters off.
Soon more fire departments had to be called in as the situation became desperate. As the firemen arrived, the president shouted out that the offer was now $100,000 to the fire department who could bring out the company’s secret files.

From the distance, a lone siren was heard as another fire truck came into sight. It was the nearby rural township volunteer fire company composed of Newfie men over the age of 65. To everyone’s amazement, the run-down fire engine passed all the newer sleek engines parked outside the plant…..and drove straight into the middle of the inferno. Outside, the other firemen watched as the newfies jumped off and began to fight the fire with a performance and effort never seen before. Within a short time, the old Newfies had extinguished the fire and saved the secret formulas.

The grateful chemical company president joyfully announced that for such a superhuman feat he was upping the reward to $200,000, and walked over to personally thank each of the brave, though elderly fire fighters.

The local TV news reporter rushed in after capturing the event and asked, “What are you going to do with all that money?”

“Well,” said the 70-year-old fire chief, “the first thing we are going to do is fix the brakes on that truck!”

Does anyone know how to do this with Jean Cretien?
Link via Mark Morris

Mere Madness is having his own awards….

I would like to announce the first-ever MereMadness Christian Blog Awards! These awards are given to Christian blogs that have made an impact on my personal life as a Christian and blogger, and carry no prestige whatsoever other than the knowledge that the nominees have blessed Ganns Deen immensely. Who needs them Bloggies? What matters is that you’re loved and appreciated, y’all.

So, without further adue, the categories and nominees are:

Well??? What are you waiting for? Go check it out!