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Microsoft PowerPoint uses an invisible grid. The grid’s conversion ratio from inches to centimeters is:

1 in = 2.4 cm

This is different from the accepted standard conversion ratio from inches to centimeters, which is:

1 in = 2.54 cm

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Heat over a Florida church’s plans to burn Korans on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks is being felt as far away as Afghanistan.

Gen. David Petraeus, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, warned that Florida pastor Terry Jones’ incendiary stunt could put American troops’ lives in danger and drum up support for terrorists.

"It could endanger troops and it could endanger the overall effort," Petraeus told the newspaper. "It is precisely the kind of action the Taliban uses and could cause significant problems. Not just here, but everywhere in the world we are engaged with the Islamic community."

Could we just send these extremists from both sides into a Thunderdome or something?

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Given the history of ACTA leaks, to no one’s surprise, the latest version of the draft agreement was leaked last night on KEI’s website. The new version – which reflects changes made during an intense week of negotiations last month in Washington – shows a draft agreement that is much closer to becoming reality. Square brackets have been removed from many sections, leaving the core issue of scope of the agreement as the biggest issue to be resolved when the next round of negotiations begins in a few weeks in Japan.

Perhaps the most important story of the latest draft is how the countries are close to agreement on the Internet enforcement chapter. The Internet enforcement chapter has been among the most contentious since the U.S. first proposed draft language that would have globalized the DMCA and raised the prospect of three strikes and you’re out. In the face of opposition, the U.S. has dropped its demands on secondary liability but is still holding out hope of establishing digital lock rules that go beyond the WIPO Internet treaties and were even rejected by its own courts.

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The Vatican is essentially Hogwarts. Step thought its doors and be instantly transported several hundred years back in time, surrounded by people dressed in a wide variety or robes and ridiculous hats frantically studying a subject which science every day comes closer to proving definitively not to exist.

Strangely, the fact that Catholic upper management believe, or at least appear to believe in this sorcery is oddly not a hindrance to their political power, but the source of it. You would think in an era where science is daily extending and enriching our lives after centuries of ongoing battle against religion, that being a grown man dressed in a costume whose sole claim to fame is an intimate relationship with a sort of celestial (and rather moody) Snuffleupagus, might hinder your credibility. It’s fascinating that the opposite seems to be the case, and even more fascinating that everyone from the faithful to the Associated Press, takes this seriously.

All areas of the fantasy of fiction are susceptible to ret-con, and theology is no different. In 2007 the Catholic International Theological Commission was under pressure to move the souls of aborted fetuses from the imperfection of Limbo to the eternal bliss of Heaven. This is no small spell to cast, moving millions of dead babies from one fake dimension to another, and while very little information on what actually went down or even the names of those involved is available, I assume that the Catholic Church, with it’s flair for costumes, smoking balls on chains, and gothic cathedrals understood that this level of inter-dimensional conjuring required several highly skilled wizards pulling out all the stops. To properly complete the spell they may have needed to sacrifice a unicorn, or preform the most powerful spell in all Christendom: lynching a jew.