I Heart Kazakhstan

And apparently so do most people according to the 92% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes. The movie has made $67.8 million in 10 days and only cost $17 million to create.

But the movie has already sparked one lawsuit by two of the drunken frat boys who make racist and sexist comments in the movie; from personal experience that was the only part of the movie that the audience seemed muted. The lawsuit states that they were tricked and quote:

... engaged in behavior that they otherwise would not have engaged in.

The villagers of Glod ("Mud"), in south-east Romania, are equally displeased by the movie and accuse Sacha Baron Cohen of exploiting them. The villagers believed that Cohen was making a documentary about their hardships rather than being portrayed as rapists, abortionists, and prostitutes. Nicolae Staicu, a local councilor, says he was never told what the movie was about and that the film crew never obtained an appropriate permit. The local vice-mayor, Petre Buzea, stated that

"They got paid so I am sure they are happy. These gipsies will even kill their own father for money,"

in response to whether the villagers were offended by Cohen's film.

In London, Turkish Internet celebrity, Mahir Cagri, who gained through his I Kiss You!!!!! website is considering legal action because he worries people will mistake him for Borat.

"If you (see) this, what you think about me? Mahir is a very bad comedian, Mahir is a homosexual, Mahir may be say the bad things about Jewish people? This is very bad."

Mahir set up his website in the late 1990s to make new friends by offering

Who is want to come TURKEY I can invitate ... She can stay my home.

And in Kazakhstan, "Borat" will not be shown even though it is not officially banned, while in Russia, a government agency believes the film will offend certain groups, and Russian distributors will not be releasing the movie.

Grow Cube RPG Ver0.1f

In Grow Cube RPG, you, the hero, must vanquish the deadly monster by choosing the correct order of the items. This is another in the series of games by Eyemaze called Grow. If you really enjoy Grow, you can make donations to the creator.

The solution

1. House
2. Tree
3. Castle
4. Water
5. Tower
6. Rock
7. Chest
8. Stairs

Electronic Voting and Hacking Democracy

Election day is almost here, and as of this morning more that 191,000 absentee ballots have been requested by Maryland residents. The governor of the state called for the state to scrap its $106 million electronic voting apparatus and to use paper ballots; a plan that was rejected. The machines were manufactured by Diebold, a company who has come under attack for the integrity of its voting machines in an HBO documentary Hacking Democracy; Diebold unsuccessfully attempted to prevent the documentary from airing. The documentary is by the founder of Black Box Voting, Bev Harris, who has been questioning voting irregularities since the 2000 election in Florida when Al Gore received negative votes. Diebold has been known for its secretive nature refusing to release the computer source code installed in its machines. In Florida, a DUI charge was dismissed because a manufacturer refused to reveal more technical details about its breathalyzers. And late last month a former Democratic Maryland legislator Cheryl C. Kagan received three disks containing the Diebold source code, which were apparently stolen and the FBI is currently investigating.