Coretta Scott King, who turned a life shattered by her husband’s assassination into one devoted to enshrining his legacy of human rights and equality, has died. She was 78.

Markel Hutchins, a close family friend of the Kings, told The Associated Press he spoke early this morning with Bernice King, who confirmed her mother’s passing.

Former Mayor Andrew Young said on The Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Web site that Bernice King found her mother at about 1 a.m.

Young, who was a former civil rights activist and was close to the King family, told NBC’s “Today” show: “I understand that she was asleep last night and her daughter went in to wake her up and she was not able to and so she quietly slipped away. Her spirit will remain with us just as her husband’s has.”

Rest In Peace, Mrs. King.

Head on over to “The Soda Stand” and say hello to my sister.

Lisa, from E. Webscapes and Blogs-About set her up with a spiffy new look.

Pepperoni Pizza

Robust and dominant. When you go for something, you go full force. You tend to take control of situations easily. And in return, you get a ton of respect.

[Hat Tip: Vinny]

I first became acquainted with GM Roper when he ordered a new design for his blog last year. Since then, he has asked for help a couple of times, usually when DIV tags were not doing what he wanted them to do.

His post today knocked me on my ass.

This is not a post I ever wanted to write. In fact, I don’t think it is a post that anyone, ever, anywhere, would want to write. But I have a number of faithful readers and a number of irregular, but delightful readers and I think I owe them something. Thursday, January 26th, I was diagnosed with lung cancer. Talk about a kick in the teeth.

The diagnosis is obviously freightening, but at the same time, it has given me a new resolve. And that resolve is to fight this son-of-bitch right down to the wire and I have every intention of winning.

…

So, my catch phrase for the future is FIGHT ON!

He didn’t ask for help this time, but he’s gunna get it. I would give my eyeteeth for GM (okay, so no one really wants eyeteeth, but you know what I mean). He’s one of the best and he is not done yet, that’s for sure.

Take a moment every day and say a prayer for GM.

Let me see if I’ve got this right…

Pupils have been stopped from putting their hands up to answer questions because their school believes it leads to feelings of victimisation.

…

The head, Andrew Buck, says it is always the same children who wave their arms in the air, while the rest of the class sits back. When teachers try to involve less adventurous pupils by choosing them instead, that leads to feelings of victimisation.

Mr Buck believes that it can also cause panic in children who are picked but do not know the answer while others around them are straining to give it. To spare the embarrassment of those who do not know the answer, the school uses a “phone a friend” system, allowing one child to nominate another to take the question instead.

Instead of the teacher being the one to single out a student for “victimization”, they are now allowing other students to single out each other for “victimization”?

I don’t know about you, but I can see this going awry very quickly. I think this has the potential of taking bullying to a whole new level, but that’s just me I guess.

Who picks the student who gets to “nominate” another student? The teacher? Isn’t that still victimizing the “selector”, and then letting him/her victimize another student? Wasn’t it enough that the school thought one person was being victimized? Double the pleasure and all that I guess. Why make children answer any questions at all? The panic involved could be totally eliminated if we let them teach themselves. Yeah, that’s the ticket.

Victimization: A feeling people get when other people subject them to stupid stuff like this.

[Hat Tip: Sister Toldjah]

From GoogleBlog:

Filtering our search results clearly compromises our mission. Failing to offer Google search at all to a fifth of the world’s population, however, does so far more severely. Whether our critics agree with our decision or not, due to the severe quality problems faced by users trying to access Google.com from within China, this is precisely the choice we believe we faced. By launching Google.cn and making a major ongoing investment in people and infrastructure within China, we intend to change that.

No, we’re not going to offer some Google products, such as Gmail or Blogger, on Google.cn until we’re comfortable that we can do so in a manner that respects our users’ interests in the privacy of their personal communications. And yes, Chinese regulations will require us to remove some sensitive information from our search results. When we do so, we’ll disclose this to users, just as we already do in those rare instances where we alter results in order to comply with local laws in France, Germany and the U.S.

Obviously, the situation in China is far different than it is in those other countries; while China has made great strides in the past decades, it remains in many ways closed. We aren’t happy about what we had to do this week, and we hope that over time everyone in the world will come to enjoy full access to information. But how is that full access most likely to be achieved? We are convinced that the Internet, and its continued development through the efforts of companies like Google, will effectively contribute to openness and prosperity in the world. Our continued engagement with China is the best (perhaps only) way for Google to help bring the tremendous benefits of universal information access to all our users there.

Most of you, who have read my site for a while, know of my displeasure with Google in the past. From my initial attempt to sign up for Google Adsense to my frustration with ‘everything Google”, I have been a vocal “dissenter” in a group of otherwise happy Googlers.

Well, today the roles are reversed. I totally, and completely, support Google’s launch of Google.cn. While I am skeptical of the Chinese government, I have no reason not to support Google. Their presence in China alone (along with Yahoo and MSN) will have an impact the world has never seen.

Tonight, I have read many blogs who are calling for a boycott of Google but I don’t see the point, let alone the reason. I have read comments where people say, “We are very disappointed, remember there are other search engines around”. Well, yeah, there are. And they are also in China, and they are also being censored. Gasp. Where is the outrage towards those other two search engines who have been there for a while now? Why is there no call to boycott them? Is it because they are not the “mighty” Google? Or is it because most people have no idea they are there? Either way, big surprise. Because I refuse to jump on the hypocritical bandwagon, Google Adsense, AdSearch and Referral Ads have all been returned to their place on this blog as a show of support for Google.

If I were living in a country that censored my access to the internet, I would prefer using a search engine that informed me something was “removed” from my search results, than a search engine that would never notify me that my results were being censored in the first place.

Knowledge is power, and I feel Google is providing knowledge to the Chinese people. Information may not be flowing fast enough for some critics, but give it time. Once the floodgates open, there will be no stopping it.

More similarities have been found between the bird flu creeping into Eastern Europe and the 1918 Spanish flu that decimated populations worldwide, including the discovery of an entirely new way bird flu may kill human cells.

Researchers from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., have found that bird flu viruses carry a gene that can latch onto many crucial proteins inside human cells, presumably disrupting their function and causing far more severe disease than human viruses.

…

There’s no evidence so far that the H5N1 avian flu is transforming into the next human pandemic flu strain, but “we certainly are really increasing our efforts in terms of preparedness,” says Dr. Theresa Tam, of the Public Health Agency of Canada.

While I think it’s important to keep the world informed on the developments of H5N1, I also think it’s getting a bit old to read article after article and press release after press release that starts off with startling (and scary) facts yet ends with “we have evidence so fat that this is even going to happen”.

This article for instance, uses the 1918 Spanish flu (which killed millions of people) to plant thoughts of “decimated populations” alongside the new bird flue and it’s “entirely new way to kill human cells”. Yet, just a few paragraphs later they admit there is no evidence that H5N1 is transforming (or ever will transform) into the next human pandemic flu strain.

It’s time to stop the hype and start informing the public on what’s is happening, not what might happen.

Oh, man. I have not heard that name in a long, long time.

Even I thought the Humuhumunukunukuapuaa, pronounced HOO-moo-HOO-moo-NOO-koo-NOO-koo-AH-poo-AH-ah), was the state fish of Hawaii. Heck, I have a patch somewhere in a box that says so.

Of course, that patch is over 20 years old, but still.

Everyone thought the humuhumunukunukuapuaa was Hawaii’s state fish. As it turns out, the brightly colored fish with the excessively long name has been dethroned.

The news shook the world of Rep. Blake Oshiro, who found out the designation was no longer official from Joel Itomura, a 6-year-old fish-loving son of a friend and constituent.

“I was really surprised,” said Oshiro, who has drawn up a bill that would make humuhumunukunukuapuaa - also known as the rectangular triggerfish or “humuhumu” for short - the official state fish for the islands.

…

In 1984 the state Legislature asked the University of Hawaii and the Waikiki Aquarium to survey the public and come up with a candidate for the state fish. The humuhumu was swept into the spot in part through the support of school children who learned of the campaign through classroom projects.

Although the issue of the state fish would seem to come with little controversy, the method used to poll the public was questioned and lawmakers limited the designation to five years.

No one told the public that the humuhumu’s reign was over, so few knew anything had changed.

You follow the progress of HB1982 on the Hawaii State Legislature website.

It’s funny the bill is number 1982, because the last time I went to Hawaii was in 1982.

I thought I would take a moment to acknowledge all of the famous people who were born on this day, January 28th.

John Banner, who played Sgt. Schultz on Hogan’s Heroes, was born in 1910.

Abstract artist Jackson Pollock was born in 1912.

Alan “Hawkeye Pierce” Alda was born in 1936.

Hee-Haw model, and Playboy bunny, Barbi Benton was born in 1950.

PGA golfer Nick Price was born in 1957.

Folk singer Sarah McLachlan was born in 1968.

World renowned photographer and novelist Vincent Ferrari was born in 1976.

I think I’ll take a moment celebrate my age
End of an era and the turning of a page
Now it’s time to focus in on where I go from here
Lord have mercy on my next thirty years

In my next thirty years I’m gonna have some fun
Try to forget about all the crazy things I’ve done
Maybe now I’ve conquered all my adolescent fears
And I’ll do it better in my next thirty years

My next thirty years I’m gonna settle all the scores
Cry a little less laugh a little more
Find a world of happiness without the hate and fear
Figure out just what I’m doin’ here in my next thirty years

For my next thirty years I’m gonna watch my weight
Eat a few more salads and not stay up so late
Drink a little lemonade and not so many beers
Maybe I’ll remember my next thirty years

My next thirty years will be the best years of my life
Raise a little family and hang out with my wife
Spend precious moments with the ones that I hold dear
Make up for lost time here in my next thirty years
In my next thirty years

[Source: Tim McGraw's "My Next Thirty Years" via Leo's Lyrics]

Happy Birthday Vinny!

Twenty years ago today, Dick Scobee, Mike Smith, Ellison Onizuka, Judy Resnik, Ron McNair, Greg Jarvis, and Christa McAuliffe were lost in our country’s first in-flight disaster. Our thoughts and prayers are with their families and everyone who witnessed the events that tragic day.

The crew of the space shuttle Challenger honored us by the manner in which they lived their lives. We will never forget them, nor the last time we saw them, this morning, as they prepared for their journey and waved good-bye and “slipped the surly bonds of earth” to “touch the face of God.”