Afghanistan is preparing for its first democratic election. Polling stations are being prepared (separate ones for men and women), and the public is being educated on how to cast their vote through a series of cartoons and illustrated posters. Another problem is in finding enough people to man the voting centers in a country rife with illiteracy.

As a way of ensuring each person votes only once, voters’ thumbs will be marked with endelible ink. This has made some citizens concerned about becoming targets for Taliban sympathizers.

To help ensure security, the ballot boxes will be shipped off to Denmark, where they will be counted. ‘”This country has never experienced elections before,” Mr Azam says. “The results may take two to three weeks.”‘ Hey, compared to our elections, that’s no time at all to find out who your president is!

Oh, and where are these ballots being printed so that Afghanistan can enjoy the democracy that the United States brought to them?

Canada.

–I’ve discovered the joy of surfing bOINGbOING as if it were a miniature Google by plugging random words into their search engine and seeing what entries come out.

For instance, here are the results for the word “skycap“.

“Photoblogger”

“Poetry”

–As a result of that last search, I discovered Rob’s Amazing Poem Generator. Ok, it’s not that amazing, because I wrote one of these myself back in college. The difference was, that one was written in spitbol for a DOS environment, and Rob’s runs on the web, which makes it a much more convenient application. Actually, none of Collapsing World’s posts make very good poetry. Maybe you can find something that works better.

Two things make THIS a must have:

1. “In practice, you can experience the benefits of this improved accuracy by mousing over surfaces other than a standard mousepad–a glossy magazine, a shiny wooden floor, even your shirt.”

Because I want to be able to mouse on my shirt.

2. “Note: According to a Logitech spokesperson, the laser has surpassed class 1 safety standards, so it should not be harmful to the human eye. He went on to say that a lot of time was spent, on the engineering side, to ensure that even if the laser were altered, it could not be made harmful.”

Because of that note, I want one. Because I bet I could make it harmful – as a projectile if not as a laser.

Note from Oliver:
All I have to say is this:

Quote of the day:

“In Russia, democracy is who shouts the loudest. In the U.S., it’s who has the most money.”
–Russian President Vladimir Putin