A fungus that lives inside trees in the Patagonian rain forest naturally makes a mix of hydrocarbons that bears a striking resemblance to diesel, biologists announced today. And the fungus can grow on cellulose, a major component of tree trunks, blades of grass and stalks that is the most abundant carbon-based plant material on Earth.

Sweet!

Rainforest Fungus Naturally Synthesizes Diesel | Wired Science from Wired.com

2008-10-05: Damn It Feels Good To Be a Banksta

Take a stroll through the archive, Ishida has been on a roll for about the last 2 months!

Sinfest

Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) has been granted an Operational License by the US Air Force for the use of Space Launch Complex 40 (SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on the Florida coast. Receipt of the license, in conjunction with the approved Site Plan, paves the way for SpaceX to initiate Falcon 9 launch operations later this year.

SpaceX Receives USAF Operational License for Cape Canaveral Launch Site | SpaceRef - Your Space Reference

Biologists have constructed a genetic map of Europe showing the degree of relatedness between its various populations.

Science Visuals - The Genetic Map of Europe - NYTimes.com

Dandy’s Western Wear, the local cowboy attire shop, cannot keep enough python skin and cowhide boots in stock because of all the Danes and Germans who have come to town to invest and work in the wind fields, then take home Texas souvenirs.

“Wind has invigorated our business like you wouldn’t believe,” said Marty Foust, Dandy’s owner, who recently put in new carpeting and air-conditioning. “When you watch the news you can get depressed about the economy, but we don’t get depressed. We’re now in our own bubble.”

Move Over, Oil, There’s Money in Texas Wind - New York Times

In a rare Fortune interview several years ago Warren Buffett warned that America was "selling the farm" to live "high on the hog." Forget the hog: that dream's gone, and the farm may not be far behind.

Ten resolutions that will help you survive the coming bear market - MarketWatch

Computers inside pharmaceutical giant Pfizer's network are spamming the internet with e-mails touting the company's flagship erectile-enhancement drug Viagra, along with ads for knockoff Rolexes and shady junk stocks.

Zombie Pfizer Computers Spew Viagra Spam, Security Company Reports

In the past month, however, two new court rulings suggest that judges are developing a more sophisticated sense of how corporations conduct online and technology transactions with their customers.

Courts Turn Against Abusive Clickwrap Contracts

The bottom line: I have decided to shift my academic work, and soon, my activism, away from the issues that have consumed me for the last 10 years, towards a new set of issues. Why and what are explained in the extended entry below.

In Code Lessig makes a statement very early on that I found shocking, coming from a lawyer, particularly one of his stature, and particularly given that the statement was unexplained and unqualified. Unfortunately I don't have the book with me, but it was something to the effect that our government is completely unprepared to face the challenges ahead, that it is completely incapable of reaching the right policy answers. I highlighted the passage and had intended to write him about it at some point. Now I don't have to.

Lessig blog: Required Reading: the next 10 years

The vote on a resolution of no confidence, to be sponsored by Senators Charles E. Schumer of New York and Dianne Feinstein of California, could come as early as next week, Democrats said. Such votes of censure or condemnation are uncommon, although a handful were held in the 19th century, Congressional historians say. In 1886, the Senate adopted such a resolution against President Grover Cleveland’s attorney general, A. H. Garland, because he had refused to provide documents concerning the firing of a federal prosecutor.

The researcher who dug this up gets a cookie!

Senate Democrats Plan a Resolution on Gonzales - New York Times