California's Department of Public Health has issued cease and desist letters to 13 genetic testing startups - most notably 23andMe, which Michael tried out earlier this year. The C&D's are mandating that the labs demonstrate that they have been certified by both the state and federal government, and, perhaps more importantly, that all genetic tests were ordered by a patient's doctor, which is required by state law.

Cease And Desist: California Tries to Unravel 23andMe's Genetic Testing - washingtonpost.com

The push to find ways to build not just buildings, but communities — even small cities — with low environmental impacts is under way, although mainly outside the United States, it seems. Ever since I stumbled onto the fascinating Web site www.inhabitat.com, I’ve been assembling a list of large-scale projects designed for negligible fossil-fuel use and emissions of greenhouse gases, access to mass transit, and other environmental and social attributes.

Solar City to Rise in Persian Gulf; Why Not Arizona? - Dot Earth - Climate Change and Sustainability - New York Times Blog

A couple of years ago, a Canadian magazine published an article arguing that the rise of Islam threatened Western values. The article’s tone was mocking and biting, but it said nothing that conservative magazines and blogs in the United States do not say every day without fear of legal reprisal.

Things are different here. The magazine is on trial.

American Exception - Unlike Others, U.S. Defends Freedom to Offend in Speech - Series - NYTimes.com

David Brooks:

The United States has been an affluent nation since its founding. But the country was, by and large, not corrupted by wealth. For centuries, it remained industrious, ambitious and frugal.

Over the past 30 years, much of that has been shredded.

The Great Seduction by Debt

In case anyone's never seen this before...

The Geek Hierarchy | The Brunching Shuttlecocks

Michel Fournier, the retired French army officer who hoped to fly a giant helium balloon a record 25 miles into the Earth’s atmosphere and parachute down again, failed again Tuesday.

Attempt at 25-Mile Skydive Is Scrapped Again - NYTimes.com

A telescopic camera in orbit around Mars caught a view of NASA's Phoenix Mars Lander suspended from its parachute during the lander's successful arrival at Mars Sunday evening, May 25.

This is quite a feat!

Camera On NASA Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter Snaps Phoenix During Landing | SpaceRef - Space News as it Happens

The first pictures sent back by NASA’s Phoenix Mars lander from the northern arctic plains of Mars show a flat terrain marked by a polygonal pattern of shallow troughs and a few pebbles scattered about.

Mars Lander Transmits Photos of Arctic Terrain - NYTimes.com

Lamest Fetish Items Ever: Gear Lust Gone Bad, 1993 - '95
Research by Nate Ralph Write to the Author
See related story: 15 Years of Wired: A Look Back
05.19.08 | 6:00 PM

15 years of Wired Fetish. That's 442 pages of obsessive gear lust. We were bound to make a few bad selections...

Lamest Fetish Items Ever: Gear Lust Gone Bad, 1993 - '95

Next month, Representative John B. Larson, a Connecticut Democrat, plans to go even further, proposing legislation that would essentially ban over-the-counter trading of energy futures by traders who don’t plan to take physical delivery of the commodity. While Nymex trading would be largely unaffected, billions of other trades could potentially be brought to a halt.

Market Maker - Energy Speculators Draw the Heat - NYTimes.com