(no subject)

Senior Islamic figures in Singapore have ruled that Muslim men cannot divorce their wives by sending text messages over their mobile phones. The decision ends weeks of debate over the issue after a court in Dubai ruled that a mobile-phone text message was acceptable as a written declaration of divorce. Muslim men are allowed to divorce their wives simply by saying the word "talaq" - I divorce you - three times.
BBC World Service report, 2001

...

Latest estimates from the International Telecommunication forecast that this year, for the first time, the number of mobile phone subscribers worldwide will exceed the number of fixed phone lines - 1.4 billion versus 1.1 billion. The figures for Africa are particularly striking. Only 3% of Africans have mobiles, but they represent 53% of all phone subscribers on the continent. In some countries with virtually no working phone system before the advent of mobiles, the proportion is much higher. In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for instance, there are only 20,000 working land lines, and 150,000 mobile subscribers. In Gabon, there are 37,000 land lines, but more than 250,000 Gabonese have a mobile. Hundreds of thousands of people in Uganda, Tanzania and Cameroon have sidestepped the need for a fixed phone.

from the Guardian special report on mobile phones and society - a fascinating read.

[link via Sashinka]

Learning Styles

According to the Multiple Intelligence Inventory, my learning styles are weighted

Linguistic 33
Mathematics 36
Visual/Spatial 31
Body/Kinesthetic 27
Naturalistic 34
Music 46
Interpersonal 33
Intrapersonal 36

I think I would have switched the maths and music figures myself - I think that the maths questions were worded as maths and science questions and my science (and interest in it) is not that hot so I down graded myself. Still, apart from that, an interesting test.

(no subject)

Cool - found items. I love the notes particularly.

[link via but she's a girl...]