The price of gold is higher than it has been in 17 years - pushing $500 an ounce. But much of the gold left to be mined is microscopic and is being wrung from the earth at enormous environmental cost, often in some of the poorest corners of the world.

And unlike past gold manias, from the time of the pharoahs to the forty-niners, this one has little to do with girding empires, economies or currencies. It is almost all about the soaring demand for jewelry, which consumes 80 percent or more of the gold mined today.

The extravagance of the moment is provoking a storm among environmental groups and communities near the mines, and forcing even some at Tiffany & Company and the world's largest mining companies to confront uncomfortable questions about the real costs of mining gold.

Not just diamonds.

Behind Gold's Glitter: Torn Lands and Pointed Questions

President Bush nominated Ben S. Bernanke, his top economic adviser, to replace Alan Greenspan as chairman of the Federal Reserve Board.

At least from this article, the guy sounds decent. He hasn't announced plans to upgrade the Bureau of Engraving with new, high-speed printing presses, at least :P

Bush Nominates Bernanke to Succeed Greenspan as Fed Chief

The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-old law, is requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies and cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it easier for law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online communications.

Ahhh CALEA...

Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems

The mighty Titan -- a pillar in American rocketry for five decades -- flew into orbit for the final time Wednesday, capping a distinguished career of heavy-lifting that has spanned the nation's space age.

Final Titan Rocket Launch Ends an Era

NASA is faced with a dilemma right now: It wants to fly 19 Space Shuttle missions - 18 to the International Space Station (ISS) and one mission to service the Hubble Space Telescope between now and the end of FY 2010. The problem is that NASA simply does not have the money to do this. As it has been preparing its FY2007 budget NASA identified $5.6 billion in so-called "over-guideline" costs needed to support these missions - at the rate it wanted to fly the missions.

New NASA Plans Could Dramatically Limit Shuttle Flights And Halt Space Station Assembly | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

Microsoft is planning to work with the Nigerian government to help track down and prosecute criminals involved in e-mail scams and other Internet-based fraud originating from the African country.

I'm not holding my breath...

Nigeria enlists Microsoft to fight spam scammers | CNET News.com

Steven Spielberg, the Oscar-winning filmmaker, and Electronic Arts, the video game maker, said on Friday that they would jointly create three new original video game franchises.

EA and Spielberg Agree to Deal

Wal-Mart's proposal to open a bank has sent a wave of concern through community bankers, who view the move as the first of several maneuvers that will turn the company into a financial services behemoth and drive them out of business.

For the time being, all it sounds like they're trying to do is dodge credit card processing fees. Nevertheless, the prospect of a Wal-Mart consumer bank is a little ... frightening.

Bankers Oppose Wal-Mart as Rival

Common wisdom in the aerospace community is that larger rockets will be cheaper than smaller rockets. Yet, common wisdom has failed to reduce the cost of human spaceflight—why?

Criticism of the proposed Heavy Lift Vehicle. I've heard folks say that the economics of STS would have worked out a lot better if they built 12 and flew it once a week.

The Mega-Module Path to Nowhere (Or: How to Eliminate Human Space Flight With an HLV)

These people are talking about flying a "space van" orbiter up to high altitude suspended under a sort of "kite" and then lighting a rocket engine. They think they can develop it for $200M.

3rd millenium space van