Johnny C. Taylor, president and CEO of Black Web Enterprises, viewed the results of Google searches to be too white-oriented, thereby ignoring the needs of minorities. So in April the organization developed their own search engine, RushmoreDrive, and their own algorithms to weigh black-focused web sites more heavily than others. Claiming to be the “first-of-its-kind search engine for the black community,” RushmoreDrive offers search results that are more in tune with what black people are looking for; yesterday’s LA Times article on the subject referred to a search on the term “Whitney,” which, in Google, returned results that included the Whitney Museum of Art in the number one spot (its web site URL is www.whitney.org - having this be the first thing that shows up on a search for “Whitney” doesn’t seem all that crazy to me personally). On RushmoreDrive, the number one spot from the same search was reserved for Whitney Houston, because that was most likely what a black person would be looking for. (I’m finding it hard to bite my tongue about the fact that the “Whitney” search on RushmoreDrive did indeed turn up Whitney Houston’s web site … with Dominican singer Kat De Luna’s description below it. Huh?)

Stereohyped did a very interesting test of search results with RushmoreDrive and Ask.com (though the latter is not exactly one of the top search engines in the world) which you should check out.

I do think this is an excellent example of entrepreneurship - providing a service to a specific segment of the population - as long as it doesn’t get all political and mention that whole “oppression” thing. And they need not worry about Google searches being determined by the majority - aka white - population for too much longer. A U.S. Census Bureau study released Thursday has determined that today’s minorities will outnumber the white population in the United States by 2042.

This is exciting: scientists at the University of California, Berkeley, have finally been able to “cloak” three-dimensional objects so that they basically appear invisible.  A report on Yahoo! News explains that “people can see objects because they scatter the light that strikes them, reflecting some of it back to the eye. Cloaking uses materials, known as metamaterials, to deflect radar, light or other waves around an object, like water flowing around a smooth rock in a stream.”  I know I’d definitely be in the market for one of these!

9-pound, 5-ounce Susan Juliette Beatie was born a few weeks ago. That name likely means nothing to you. But it means a whole helluva lot for Thomas Beatie, the man who gave birth to her.

In case you haven’t yet heard the story - and that would be surprising, given that it’s been a feature in many magazines, newspapers, and TV shows - Thomas Beatie was born a woman, but legally became a man ten years ago, opting for top surgery (removal of the breasts) and testosterone treatments. He did not, however, mess around at all with his reproductive organs because he knew he wanted to have a child one day.

“It’s not a male or female desire to have a child. It’s a human desire,” Beatie said in an interview on Oprah. And after a perfectly normal pregnancy, Beatie got his wish.

Of course, something like this is bound to spark off huge debates about “naturalness” and morality. Take a look at some of the comments I’ve found:

“I think if he wanted to have a baby, he should have stayed a woman, this is nothing but, a drama queen wanting attention. What is this going to prove to his unborn child?”

“This is not a man, it is a woman who is pretending to be a man. She has a vagina, not a penis or any facsimile there of, she cannot produce sperm she is a woman who wants to look like a man.”

“THIS IS STILL BIOLOGICALLY A WOMAN!!! SHE still has her womanly parts!! If this person wanted to truly be a man SHE would have had the complete sex change.”

“The person in question is very much a FEMALE, with female reproductive organs in place. So nothing much worth making a noise…. Females do get pregnant…. don’t they ?”

And, straight from the MSNBC newsroom: “I’m gonna be sick. I am going to be sick … If he’s the mother, who’s the father?” and “That was not only stupid and useless, but, quite frankly, disgusting.”

I’m not going to lie: it’s extremely difficult to find any positive quotes about this except from the parents themselves and, well, Oprah.

Now, from my perspective, as a supporter of the whole gay marriage/parenting thing, I have no doubt that Beatie and his wife (as they are legally married as a man and a woman) have the potential to be wonderful parents. However, I’m wondering how this is going to affect the gay parenting movement in the long run. I’m also a little confused as to how a woman who feels as though she is inherently a man, and has gone through lengths to create a pseudo-masculine body and become legally recognized as a male, considers giving birth to a child as not having any effect on her supposed male inclinations. Men - that is, men who were born male - do not naturally have a supposed need to carry and give birth to children; at least, this is the case with every man I have known.

I don’t know; I guess I’m just a little befuddled by this whole thing. I’m glad the child is healthy and that the parents are ecstatic about the new addition to their family, and, contrary to many right-wing fanatics, I’m sure the child will grow up and mature into a properly-functioning adult, but even in this relatively open-minded era, this all seems a bit too ‘out there,’ even for me.

I love British news. I check BBC News regularly, and it’s more often than not that they highlight a story that just makes my day.

We’ve all heard the stories about Welshmen (and New Zealanders, for that matter) and their sheep, as well as Catholic priests and their little children, but one little occurrence that goes overlooked is perhaps the most bizarre: blue-collar men and their inanimate objects.

We travel now to Wiltshire, UK, where a man has just been arrested for - get this - having sex with a lamp post. The 32-year-old was, for all intents and purposes, humping a lamp post outside of an apartment complex where a number of young women lived.

Oh, but that’s not all. Last week a Polish man was found allegedly having sexual relations with a vacuum cleaner. Despite claiming that he was merely “cleaning his underpants … common practice in Poland,” he was quickly fired from his job. Poor Henry never saw it coming. The ironic part is, I had a Henry in each of my flats at university. And, no, I never “cleaned my underwear” with him.

Both of these come at the tail end of two other stories involving men and, well, non-humans. Back in 2007, a 51-year-old got drunk, did naughty things to his bicycle, and was sentenced to a three-year probation. He was recently listed on a sex offenders registry for “sexual breach of the peace.” And around the same time, a 24-year-old drunk guy broke into Leicester Square Gardens and got up to some hanky panky with a fence.

But I guess it’s not fair to just pick on the strange characters of Great Britain.

An Indian man, erm, in India, was so convinced that he had been cursed after stoning to death two dogs that he did the obvious: he married one. The wedding, which was attended by 200 people, was a huge success, I’ve heard, except for the minor incident of having a runaway bride, though of course they found her again and shortly thereafter consummated the marriage … by feeding the dog a bun and some milk.

In honor of the ongoing tax season - and my procrastination with regard to filing my own taxes - I spent a few moments today perusing lists of humorous nuggets about the world’s weirdest tax write-offs.

I think one of the funniest, perhaps not as weird as the rest, was the one about a married couple who were in a meeting with their accountant. Quite innocently, the accountant asked, “What about the mortgage interest deduction for the condo in Utah?” Turns out the husband had a secret condo where he had set up his mistress. Talk about a whoops moment!

Or take the Manhattan man who was low on dough … and something else entirely.

“He had made some money being a sperm donor and wanted to know if he could take a depletion allowance,” the accountant recalled. “I told him he really needed to be an oil well or something like that.”

Check out some more odd write-offs at Third Age and AOL Money & Finance, and happy tax season, everyone.