] What is Check 21 and what is its basic purpose?
]
] Check 21 is a federal law that is designed to enable
] banks to handle more checks electronically, which should
] make check processing faster and more efficient. Today,
] banks often must physically move original paper checks
] from the bank where the checks are deposited to the bank
] that pays them. This transportation can be inefficient
] and costly. Check 21 becomes effective on October 28,
] 2004.

[ FYI everyone who still writes checks. I got a heads up email from someone at my company about this, so I thought I'd share. The primary result i see is that you won't be able to "float" checks, if you were of a type that did so. There won't be a day or two of "processing" your check anymore. Not a big deal for most of us.

The upshot is that, while there's no mandate for banks to pass on savings, the reduction in processing costs may well result in cheaper banking for everyone. -k]

FRB: Frequently Asked Questions about Check 21

] The journalistic juggling at CBS provides an ironic
] counterpoint to the furor over apparently bogus documents
] involving Bush's National Guard service. One
] unexpected consequence of the network's decision was
] to wipe out a chance -- at least for the
] moment -- for greater public scrutiny of a more
] consequential forgery that played a role in building the
] Bush administration's case to invade Iraq.

[ And after the fiasco, CBS may as well not bother. They're the boy who cried wolf now, and pretty much everything they say is gonna be ignored. They may as well sit out the next couple of months. Too bad. Maybe it'll end up smacking some reporters into shape though, if there's any good to come of this, that's it. -k]

MSNBC - The Story That Didn't Run

] Mr. Bush might have done better at wooing broader
] international support if he had spent less time on
] self-justification and scolding and more on praising the
] importance of international cooperation and a
] strengthened United Nations. Instead, his tone-deaf
] speechwriters achieved a perverse kind of alchemy,
] transforming a golden opportunity into a lead balloon.

[ But other countries hate america, so they're the enemy. -k]

President Bush's Lead Balloon

] Pongmechanik is an absolutely physical game. The game is
] realized electromechanically, and essentially consists of
] four elements:
] A relay computer, the mechanical movement with collision
] detection, the display and the acoustic components.

[ So fucking cool. -k]

*** PONGMECHANIK ***

] But Kerry needs to do a better job of explaining what he
] would do -- beyond what Bush is already trying to do --
] to rescue Iraq and America from the calamity Bush has
] been creating.

[ I wish reporters would stop trying to soften their criticisms of Bush by ending like this. I'm not denying that hearing a reasoned and well designed plan for Iraq from Kerry would be fabulous, but it's certainly not necessary at this stage. Kerry may not be able to fix Iraq. Maybe no one can. But it doesn't take much to realize that the dipshit who fucked up so bad in the first place probably isn't the best choice. -k]

Boston.com / News / Boston Globe / Opinion / Editorials / Getting real about Iraq

] Scientists can see how a virus causes infection by
] interacting with DNA, thanks to the first molecular-scale
] images of the phenomenon. Now that they can see how the
] virus does its dirty work, researchers can try to build a
] drug to block it.

Wow...so these scientists have actually been able to image an adenovirus attacking DNA and have created a computer model of the image....this will be the cover of the next Molecular and Cellular Proteomics....can't wait....science is so rad

Wired News: Catching a Virus in the Act

] I'm as weary as you are that our politics veer away from
] what matters -- Iraq, terrorism, health care, jobs -- and
] get sidetracked into personal issues manufactured by
] political consultants and ideological zealots. But the
] Bush campaign has made clear it wants this election to
] focus on character and leadership. If character is the
] issue, the president's life, past and present, matters
] just as much as John Kerry's.
]
]
] Dan Rather has answered his critics. Now it is Bush's
] turn.

What Is Bush Hiding? (washingtonpost.com)

] "The bottom line is, at this moment we are losing
] the war," says Andrew Bacevich, a former Army
] colonel who teaches international relations at Boston
] University. "That doesn't mean it is lost, but we
] are losing, and as an observer it is difficult for me to
] see that either the civilian leadership or the military
] leadership has any plausible idea on how to turn this
] around."

"Retired Marine colonel Thomas Hammes, a contractor who trains foreign fighters allied with the United States, says Iraq will take time. “Insurgencies last 10 to 30 years,” he says. “It took the British 12 years in Malaysia” to end the Communist uprising after World War II, and the British were losing for the first three years, he says. “We certainly have the capacity to get it right” in Iraq, he says. “But it is an incredibly complex situation.”

Bruce Hoffman, a terrorism specialist at RAND, agrees that patience is needed. But he says the United States has already “squandered a lot of precious time.” He points to bungled efforts such as poorly training Iraqi police and relying on air power to battle the insurgency, which turns civilians against the coalition. “Helicopter gunships become potent propaganda,” he says."

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld cast it a little differently this week, at a news conference in Missouri. Iraq is making progress, he said. “At some point the Iraqis will get tired of getting killed and we'll have enough of the Iraqi security forces that they can take over responsibility for governing that country,” he said."

[ More good news, and a fascinating strategy from Rumsfeld. That's the fucking Sec. of Defence talking! EVENTUALLY THEY'LL GET TIRED OF GETTING KILLED?!!?!? You've got to be fucking kidding me. No shit, Rumz, but how many americans are gonna get shot, maimed, or beheaded in the meantime? How many civilian casualties? How many new terrorists are we going to create in the process? What an asinine thing to say. -k]

Rumsfeld's a moron.

] Among the many people quoted in the Atlantic is Jeffrey
] Record, a professor of strategy at the Army War College,
] who summed up a good deal of the thinking in Washington
] now: "Are we better off in basic security than before we
] invaded Iraq? The answer is no. An unnecessary war has
] consumed American Army and other ground resources, to the
] point where we have nothing left in the cupboard for
] another contingency -- for instance, should the North
] Koreans decide that with the Americans completely
] absorbed in Iraq, now is the time to do something."

When the Army War College says one thing and the White House says the opposite, I think I'm going to have to go with the guys who have a clue. The Army.

Yahoo! News - WHAT IF WE HAD NOT GONE INTO IRAQ?

] A9 requires users to download a toolbar (which, in turn,
] requires the Windows version of Microsoft's Internet
] Explorer) to store and manage their Web surfing and
] searching history.

[ Thank you for excluding me from what sounds like a very cool set of enhancments.

For fucks sake why IE... -k]

Amazon's A9 Reaches Beyond Google's Basics (washingtonpost.com)