What Caught My Eye Today

Russia - Mikhail Kalashnikov, the man who invented the AK-47 assault rifle has won Russia's highest honor--Hero of the Russian Federation. Presenting the award to Kalashnikov on his 90th birthday, Prsident Dmitri Medvedev said the AK-47 was "a national brand that makes each citizen proud." Sort of the Russian version of the Smith & Wesson...I guess. Kalashnikov himself expressed mixed emotions, saying he regretted that his rifle was "sometimes used where it shouldn't have been." The AK-47 is the weapon of choice for guerrilla groups, because it is easy to take apart and won't jam in sandy or wet conditions. Meaning it can kill people no matter how inept the person pulling the trigger happens to be. Nonetheless, I do feel for this guy a little bit. More than 100 million AK-47s have been sold worldwide and the inventor never got a single royalty check. Moral considerations and karma aside, this guy got hosed on this deal. It's this sort of thing that, in my humble opinion, will always doom communism to failure. People want to get paid fairly for what they produce. Think about it, if this guy had invented the AK-47 in Sweden, we'd probably have a bunch of Kalashnikov laureates, in addition to those Nobel prize winners. Royalties on guns certainly would have been at least as much as what was paid for a few sticks of dynamite.

Mexico - Mexican security forces have unearthed an elaborate 400-foot tunnel connecting Tijuana to the U.S.--indicating just how sophisticated human- and drug-smuggling operations have become in the region. I'm not so sure about that. For my money, this is more of an indication that the border patrols on both side are woefully understaffed or blind as bats. Dude, it's a freakin' tunnel! What, nobody noticed the massive amounts of dirt being excavated from the ground? It's not like this was a hastily built tunnel either. Check this out. The unfinished tunnel which starts in a building near the Tijuana airport has a lighting and ventilation system, is wood-lined, and roomy enough for a 6-footer to walk through without having to crouch. I hear they were working out a deal for a McDonald's as well, before they got busted by the 'federales'.

Egypt - Italian archaeologists believe they have unearthed the remains of 50,000 Persian soldiers killed in a freak sandstorm 2,500 years ago. Really? That's a pretty big find. The Greek historian Herodotus wrote about the lost army of King Cambyses II, sent to conquer Egypt in 525 B.C. "A wind arose from the south, strong and deadly, bringing with it vast columns of whirling sand which entirely covered up the troops and caused them wholly to disappear." Most modern historians though the story was made up. Can you blame them? Admittedly, technology has evolved a bit in the past 2,500 years, but it is still rather difficult to imagine that a sand storm wiped out a 50,000 soldier army.

Visual Impairment - A visually impaired man is suing the Sony Corporation for not making its video games accessible to blind people. No no. You read that right. The man claims in his lawsuit that the Americans With Disabilities Act entitles him to "full and equal enjoyment" of Sony's products, but that the company has so far "constructed the products in a way that blind people cannot enjoy." Um, okay. So like seeing as you filed the lawsuit, what would you recommend the folks at Sony do to make those video games more appealing to blind people?