How many websites can boast of a whole day dedicated to rats? How many websites focused on the waste of food, the disposal of energy saving light bulbs and the recycling of mobile phones in July? How many websites celebrated the birthdays of both Nelson Mandela and Daley Thompson? How many websites covered China, Iran, Pakistan, Mongolia, ANWR, Finland and then told you to boycott the Nobel Prizes? We know of one…

Ovi magazine hasn't had time for a summer holiday, even though we thoroughly deserve one. We continue to man the controls of this online juggernaut and will never take our foot from the accelerator, especially while contributors such as Emanuel L. Paparella are explaining the five ways to God's existence or explaining photovoltaic solar power in Portugal, like Luis Alves, or while Alexandra Pereira wants to teach us about brave men like Aristides de Sousa Mendes. Brake pedal, what brake pedal?

Aside from presenting Thomas Aquinas' Five Steps, Emanuel L. Paparella also presented two other essays, one of which posed the question: Does the Internet make us more Intelligent but less Human? Whatever your opinion on the subject, we can only hope that Ovi raises the benchmark of intelligence and forces us all to better ourselves and open ourselves up to conflicting opinion.

Binoy Kampmark discussed whaling politics and GM Food, Valerie Sartor analysed Beijing's new generation and the Bloody White Baron, while Linda Lane related her story about a Bible and dental floss and passionately explained why we shouldn't support drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

Doug McGill kindly contributed a piece on how Ethiopian terror is affecting Minnesota, Jack Wellman shocked us by revealing there is mercury in energy saving light bulbs, Abdulhadi Hairan provided us with a history of Pakhtunkhwa, Dr. Habib Siddiqui asked whether Iran's nuclear proliferation means we are heading for war and Leah Sellers sang the praises of Texas philanthropist Mr. T. Boone Pickens, Jr.

Ovi is not all about the mind; we also care about the soul, which is why we have had covers for poetry, artwork, fiction, thoughts and a song. Frances Zheng made her debut with some thoughts on the tiger in Helsinki Zoo, Michael Lee Johnson made his poetry debut with "In the Garden Where the Flowers Grow", Christopher Wilkinson revisited his song "Piper in the Wood" for Rat Catcher's Day, Sarah Pow's debut dazzled us with some talented artwork and Matt Williamson shared a fictional effort entitled "Dreams and Tears".

Asa reviewed Sir David Lean's classic Lawrence of Arabia, recommended recycling ideas to Nokia, urged us not to waste food and was highly-critical of Finland's Lutheran Church. Thanos urged us to boycott the Nobel Prize, wished Madiba a happy 80th birthday, continued to wage war against his "favourite" tyrant, picked up on Reverent Jesse Jackson's Obama outburst and also wondered whether Obama could trigger a domino effect.

How many websites can boast of this variety of content? We know of one for sure.

The Ovi Team

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