] The rocket plane SpaceShipOne has shot to an altitude of
] more than 100km for the second time inside a week to
] claim the $10m Ansari X-Prize.
]
] More than two dozen teams around the world are involved
] in the competition. Many of these teams, realising that
] SpaceShipOne would in all probability take the X-Prize
] on Monday, are already setting their sights on orbital
] flight.
]
] The founder of the Virgin Group of companies plans to
] offer flights into space for $205,000 (£115,000).

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | SpaceShipOne rockets to success

Not quite a live stream, but it does have images that are updated every 5 minutes. According to the webpage, this USGS cam is the closest-operating camera to the volcano, which means about 4 miles away. There was a closer one at the Johnston Ridge Observatory, but since the Level III alert went out earlier today, that facility has been evacuated.

Mount St. Helens VolcanoCam

] What did Dem presidential contender John Kerry take out
] of his jacket as he approached the stage [with his back
] to the auditorium's audience]?
]
] What did Kerry place on the podium?

From the people who brought you the CBS news document forgery scandal, here's Jacketgate. Kerry won the debate because he seemed more on message. He didn't flounder around much and he made points his opponent couldn't rebut. Having a cheat sheet when your opponent doesn't could easily produce this effect.

Neither Rathergate nor Swiftboatgate seemed very serious to me, but I must confess to their effect. If it turns out that Kerry did bring a cheat sheet, his campaign is toast.

The mainstream press hasn't picked this up, yet.... The NY Post is claiming that if you look at it from another camera angle its a pen. I never believe anything I read in the NY Post. So, where are the other camera angles? Lets have 'em out on the net!

U Turns out it WAS just a pen.

DRUDGE REPORT 2004: Did Kerry Cheat?

] Emory University officials sent warning letters to more
] than 500 surgery patients at the school's medical center
] after a brain surgery patient tested positive for a fatal
] disease similar to the human version of mad cow disease.

ABCNEWS.com : Warnings Sent to Emory Brain Patients

Terror attacks in Israel produce a temporary lull in light accidents followed by a 35% spike in fatal accidents on Israeli roads 3 days after the attack. Our results are based on time-series analysis of Israeli traffic flows, accidents, and terror attacks from January 2001 through June 2002. Whereas prior studies have focused on subjective reports of posttraumatic stress, our study shows a population-level behavioral response to violent terror attacks.

Subscription required for full text.

Terror attacks influence driving behavior in Israel

Is it moral to use tax payer dollars to fund things that a large group of people in a society feel are totally immoral or unethical? Stated another way, is it ok to force people to pay for something they think is immoral, or should we have a broad moral consensus on something before we spend public money on it.

Examples:
On the right:
Government funding for embryonic stem cell research.
Government funding for abortions.
Certain tax benefits for homosexual life partners.
NEA funding of offensive artwork.

On the left:
The Iraq war.
Government vouchers for private religious schools.
Government funding for faith based charities.
Tax credits for large SUVs.

John Kerry is this country's intellect. George Bush is our heart.

Kerry clearly won the debate. He made strong points that Bush couldn't counter. Bush had his moments too, but they were fewer. Bush did not build the coalition that he said he was going to build. Bush did not use war as a last resort. With we did win concessions from Lybia, and possibly Syria, through the invasion of Iraq, Iran is moving forward with their nuke plan.

Bush was defensive, and in a sense you have to identify with his position. I don't like a number of his policies. I don't want to see him win. But he is a sitting President, and he may have been goofing off before 9/11, but he hasn't since. He kept repeating that its a hard job. It is a hard job. Most countries leaders are either corrupt enough to have opulent wealth and pleasure as a result of their position, or lucky enough to be running some place like Canada that basically just needs maintenance and isn't at the center of World affairs. Bush has worked his ass off and he has fought hard, and all he gets in return is jeers from his political enemies. At the end of the day you want the American people to show you that they appreciate it. Its impossible to simultaneously honor someone's service to his country while you're firing him, and that is a shame on some level.

Kerry is right, in a moral sense, that we need more people in Iraq to secure the country. If we really care about Iraq, we need to secure it. At the same time, the costs and risks that this entails are staggering. Are we really prepared for this commitment? This is the draft.

John Edwards sounds like a fucking redneck. In a sense he is the Dem's dark horse. All of the Democrats who've won elections in the past half century have been Southerners. The South's Democratic block is the thing that has kept this country from completely turning into an Urban vs. Rural culture war. Southerners like to vote for Southerners, even if they are Democrats, because Southern is still a cultural identity that is stronger then urban or rural. Furthermore, in the South the local Republicans have traditionally been the guys with holes in their sheets. No one wants to vote for a racist.

If the Republicans can pull the South, they win. Thats why they support the fundamentalists. Christian is a more important cultural identity then Southern or Republican. If they can connect with it over the next few cycles they'll control the country, and it will become a very uncomfortable place for multiculturalist intellectuals from the big city.

Some have argued that because Kerry is a Northerner, and Bush is from Texas, that Kerry really doesn't have a prayer. The visibility of Edwards during these debates might change that. Thats really Kerry's best hope.

K is right that the Dems need to think more strategically. To put a point on it, the Dems will loose the South over the next few years as the Republicans work to extend their concept of Christian to associate the GOP with Southern. People with pickup trucks vote for Bush. The Dems need to figure out what core cultural identities they are going to connect with. The intellectual elite is not large enough to win elections on its own. They need to tie themselves to core American identities.

All in all, it was a really good debate. It felt like a much more substantive discussion then the crazy hate fest that this election season has been, with Michael Moore on the one hand and Swift Boat Veterans on the other, its been really difficult to keep the important stuff in the crosshairs.

] We stood idly by while Baghdad was ransacked. As the
] occupying power, we had an obligation to maintain law and
] order, but we failed to live up to it. If we had cared
] about the people of Iraq we should have had more troops
] available for the occupation than we needed for the
] invasion. We should have provided protection not only
] for the oil ministry but also the other ministries,
] museums and hospitals. Baghdad and the country's other
] cities were destroyed after we occupied them. When we
] encountered resistance, we employed methods that
] alienated and humiliated the population. The way we
] invaded homes, and the way we treated prisoners generated
] resentment and rage.

GeorgeSoros.com

] Part of the Patriot Act, a central plank of the Bush
] Administration's war on terror, was ruled
] unconstitutional by a federal judge on Wednesday.
]
] U.S. District Judge Victor Marreo ruled in favor of the
] American Civil Liberties Union, which challenged the
] power the FBI has to demand confidential financial
] records from companies as part of terrorism
] investigations.

ABCNEWS.com : Judge Rules Against Patriot Act Provision

] The problem is that Google News has multi-million-dollar
] news publishers scared because of the incredibly low-cost
] method that Google has employed to bring us 'up the
] minute news.' Currently they are able to scrape the
] content of news sites under fair use because they are not
] using it for commercial purposes. Once they move away
] from the nonprofit, educational purposes of their system
] they can expect to be deluged by cease and desist orders.

Hrm.

Slashdot | The Google News Dilemma