If the mortgage crisis and housing bubble have taught us one thing, it should be to watch out for the unintended consequences of greed. Unfortunately, our nation's legislators and political appointees haven't learned that lesson. Recent plans for housing and mortgage bailouts generally run from dumb to dumber. Today, The Wall Street Journal reported on yet another scheme, reportedly being spearheaded by Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson. It's an idea so naively populist and antimarket that you would think it came from Hugo Chavez, Evo Morales, or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if not for its cringe-inducing, Beltway-wonk moniker: the Hope Now Alliance.

Paulson's Plan to Punish the Public

Many a mother has said, with a sigh, “If your friends jumped off a cliff, would you jump, too?”

The answer, for cockroaches at least, may well be yes. Researchers using robotic roaches were able to persuade real cockroaches to do things that their instincts told them were not the best idea.

Brilliant!

Led by Robots, Roaches Abandon Instincts - New York Times

The latest version, SimCity Societies, which launches on Thursday, allows you to play out the climate experiment, designing cities that either expand or limit their greenhouse-gas contribution and environmental footprint.

Be an Eco Sinner or Saint in the New SimCity - Dot Earth - Climate Change and Sustainability - New York Times Blog

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) and NHK (Japan Broadcasting Corporation) have successfully performed the world's first high-definition image taking of an Earth-rise* by the lunar explorer "KAGUYA" (SELENE,) which was injected into a lunar orbit at an altitude of about 100 km on October 18, 2007 (Japan Standard Time. Following times and dates are all JST.)

Kaguya (Selene) Images of Earth-Rise Over the Moon | SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens

Such developments are providing some of the first tangible benefits of the genetic revolution. Yet some social critics fear they may also be giving long-discredited racial prejudices a new potency. The notion that race is more than skin deep, they fear, could undermine principles of equal treatment and opportunity that have relied on the presumption that we are all fundamentally equal.

In DNA Era, New Worries About Prejudice - New York Times

“The train wreck was predetermined on Day 1,” said A. Thomas Young, a former aerospace executive who led a panel that examined the project.

The Future Imagery project is one of several satellite programs to break down in recent years, leaving the United States with outdated imaging technology. But perhaps more striking is that the multiple failures that led to the program’s demise reveal weaknesses in the government’s ability to manage complex contracts at a time when military and intelligence contracting is soaring.

In Death of Spy Satellite Program, Lofty Plans and Unrealistic Bids - New York Times

For years, the broadband wars have been largely fought over download speeds, but Verizon has just thrown down the gauntlet and declared that it's going to fight over upstream speeds too, and in a big way. How does 20Mbps sound?

Verizon discovers symmetry, offers 20/20 symmetrical FiOS service

A contemplative toy
that gently rocks
as it infuses
clouds of flavor
before your eyes.

This is what happens
when designers
and connoisseurs
meet for tea.

I encountered this tea infuser at Ritual Coffee -- it's the coolest tea infuser I've yet encountered!

Features

It is the question of the moment in music circles, where a short but growing list of recording stars that includes Prince, Madonna, Nine Inch Nails and — as of Sunday night — Radiohead have indicated their willingness to depart from the conventions of music sales and the control of the four multinational corporations that dominate the industry.

In the latest instance the members of Radiohead, the respected British rock act, said that the band would sell its new album, at least initially, exclusively as a digital download and allow fans to decide how much to pay for it, if anything. In a statement yesterday, the band said it had begun taking orders for the album, “In Rainbows,” which will be available beginning Oct. 10.

Radiohead - Album - Cost - New York Times

The Navy plans to spend $600,000 for “camouflage” landscaping and rooftop adjustments so that 1960s-era barracks at the Naval Base Coronado near San Diego will no longer look like a Nazi swastika from the air.

The resemblance went unnoticed by the public for decades until it was spotted in aerial views on Google Earth.

Navy to Mask Swastika Look of Barracks in California - New York Times