Muhammad Yunus, Banker to the World's Poorest Citizens, Makes His Case
http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/index.cfm?fa=viewfeature&id=1147

"... Muhammad Yunus [is] managing director of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh and a pioneer in the practice of microcredit lending. Grameen Bank received formal recognition as a private independent bank in 1983 and, as of this month, had dispersed close to $5 billion in loans to four million borrowers. Grameen's strategy is to offer miniscule loans to very poor people, giving them the means to generate income and work their way out of poverty."

Oneworld.net, besides having news and opportunity postings, also has a great resource section for Internet skills, multilingual computing, all sorts. (They also offer OSS content management, knowledge management and portal solutions for nonprofits).

http://www.oneworld.net/


A review of a new edition of The Silmarillion retells Tolkien lore and looks at this book's place in the Middle-earth canon and cosmos:

"Perhaps that is why Tolkien's myths feel so familiar in their foreignness: They tap into a collective, unconscious sense of loss -- loss of the once oral tradition of storytelling and mythmaking..."

Sense of loss, yes... though not oral tradition necessarily. Other things too.

http://www.salon.com/books/feature/2005/02/18/silmarillion/

On the Silmarillion (and could be said of other books as well?):

"It's a book that everyone wanted but seemingly no one wanted to read all the way through."

On the Bible - this was interesting:
"...something else [John] Gardner [professor of medieval literature and not a Tolkien fan] said...: "Reading the Bible straight through is at least 70 percent discipline, like learning Latin. But the good parts are, of course, simply amazing. God is an extremely uneven writer, but when he's good, nobody can touch him."

"Throughout sub-Saharan Africa the death of a father automatically entitles his side of the family to claim most, if not all, of the property he leaves behind, even if it leaves his survivors destitute."

AIDS and Custom Leave African Families Nothing
By SHARON LaFRANIERE Published: February 18, 2005
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/international/africa/18property.html?pagewanted=1&8bl

An article on New York theatre intermissions:

The Show Between Acts By RANDY KENNEDY Published: February 18, 2005
http://theater2.nytimes.com/2005/02/18/theater/newsandfeatures/18inte.html?8dpc

I still haven't got around to reading the one about the origami science guy.

In other news, here's some sites from which to get the Bud Light Real Men of Genius mp3s: http://budlight.whipnet.com/
http://www.ksilebo.com/realamerican/
Haven't tried any of them yet. Been hearing the dog clothing manufacturer one, and the stock tips one, both of which are pretty funny...

Article on Central Market from Kakiseni.com:

Trinkets Sdn Bhd 27-01-2005
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/features/MDYxNw.html


Review of Hamlet in B.M. by - *coolness* - Jit Murad, on Kakiseni.com:

To Bitch or Not to Bitch 14-02-2005
http://www.kakiseni.com/articles/reviews/MDYyNQ.html
We went to see this courtesy of Mei Li

For Mongolians, E Is for English, F Is for Future
By JAMES BROOKE Published: February 15, 2005

"...part of a nationwide drive to make [English] the primary foreign language learned in Mongolia, a landlocked expanse of open steppe sandwiched between Russia and China. "We are looking at Singapore as a model," Tsakhia Elbegdorj, Mongolia's prime minister, said in an interview...

Its camel herders may not yet be referring to one another as "dude," but this Central Asian nation, thousands of miles from the nearest English-speaking country, is a reflection of the steady march of English as a world language...

"I need 2,000 English teachers," said Puntsag Tsagaan, Mongolia's minister of education, culture and science. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/02/15/international/asia/15mongolia.html?pagewanted=2&hp