Work is moving right along here in my writer's cottage hidden away in the Abu Dhabi Hilton. My book now tops four hundred pages and that's before adding the graphics.

Michelangelo said the statue was inside the stone. All he needed to do was chip away the superfluous marble to let the statue emerge. I've stuck together a sufficiently massive stone so as of today I'm taking out the chisel, praying that the statue that emerges won't be too avant guard.

At Emerging Elearning, several of us addressed the importance of FlickR as exemplifying not only a nifty way to share photographs, but also as a social networking device, a learning tool, and good entertainment. For the past two days, going to FlickR gets this response:



I notice that this embargo started soon after FlickR posted one of their humorous downtime notices that "FlickR is taking a massage." When the kiddy-porn blockers sees hundreds of thousands of people flocking to a site about massage, the system probably goes on red alert. I wrote to complain and have had no reply, but I imagine my email went directly to the electronic shredder without intervention.

On the other hand, yesterday's local paper covered the news that Bush told Blair he wanted to bomb Al Jarezza, the only television station telling the Arab side of the news in a professional manner. Last night I watched Al Jarezza for a while; it was a lot more interesting than watching The Sopranos with Arabic subtitles. Even joking about obliterating (W's explanation for a leaked memo on this plot) shows our president to be seriously stupid. How would we feel if Osama had blown CNN and a chunk of downtown Atlanta off the map because he felt their news coverage was biased and incendiary?

I believe that humankind is basically good and that the flat world will be a better place to be. It will also highlight our indivdual brands of ignorance. Locking arms in unity will not be a day at the beach.