[ Cool looking tech from Cray. The idea of built in FPGA's that can be used as coprocessors for particularly repetitive algorithms seems really smart. -k]

Cray Inc - The Supercomputer Company - XD1 Overview

] A motorist in France went a little faster than he wanted
] when he claimed his cruise control got stuck, leaving him
] barreling down a busy highway at 120 mph and forcing
] police to help clear a route.
]
] The Le Parisien newspaper quoted Hicham Dequiedt saying
] he was overtaking a truck when his Renault Vel Satis
] started to accelerate with a life of its own. He couldn't
] cut the ignition, he said, because his car has a magnetic
] card instead of a key.
]
] "It was impossible to slow down! Stomping on the brakes
] proved pointless, nothing worked. I avoided one car after
] another by flashing my lights at them," the 29-year-old
] was quoted as saying.

[ Could be a hoax, since he claims it finally just decided to slow down when he got to the toll booths, but, if not a hoax, that's some shit. -k]

WFTV.com - News Of The Strange - Driver Calls Police For Help When Cruise Control Gets Stuck At 120 MPH

] So, sitting in front of me right now is a notebook very
] similar to the ThinkPad T42 that I reviewed a few weeks
] ago. However, just below the cursor keys is a slim, and
] very unobtrusive fingerprint scanner.

[ If i was gonna get an x86 laptop, it'd be a ThinkPad. If i was paranoid, or consumed by geek fetishism, it'd be this one. -k]

Biometric IBM ThinkPad T42 | The Register

] The buzz phrase most often heard in the institute's
] offices is academic freedom. "My hackles go up on the
] academic freedom issue," Chapman says. "You should be
] allowed in the sciences to ask questions and posit
] alternative theories."

[ There's a lot of language in this article about the ID folks talking about scientific equanimity, "understanding the full range of scientific views", and so on, but nothing I have seen points to ID being scientific in any way, shape or form.

Its central tenet is that there are structures in Biology that are too complex to be the result of Darwinian selection. They then make the fallacy of stating "therefore, there must be an intelligent designer." It's a fallacy because the conclusion is not logically supported by the assumptions.

And that's not the biggest issue, because science is based on repeatable, verifiable experiments. If you have none, then you aren't doing science. The statement that one theory is wrong, so my theory is right, based on no evidence, is definitionaly unscientific.

Even the "evidence" they cite is only, at *best*, demonstrative of areas where darwinism fails to completely explain a phenomenon. Again though, even assuming is that's the case, the failure of one system to explain something is insufficient to support the claim of another.

And for the record, that's not to say they're wrong, or shouldn't believe whatever they want, but it's just that, a belief. And therefore has no place in a discussion about teaching science.

Don't get me started on Gilder. He tries to cite newton, but neglects to mention that no one threw Newton out because of quantum mechanics. And that's his most cogent argument.

The bottom line, as Lawrence Krauss implies, is that biologists need to stand up. Forget your fears about lending credence to the opposition by engaging them. Dispell any implication that evolutionary theory and ID are even close to each other in terms of support. They may have couched the debate in the lingo of science, but the result will be teaching about God and His plan, as defined by the political Right wing. Fairness doesn't enter into it. -k]

Wired 12.10: The Crusade Against Evolution

I've always voted about a block from my house, along with my husband. This year, I've just been informed that I was moved to a new location. I have no idea where it is! My husband, however, who lives in the same house as I do, is getting to vote at his old location.

WTH is with that?

The only thing that has changed...is that THIS year...I'm a registered democrat. He's independant.

WTH is with keeping all the democrats voting in one place?

[ That is odd. My polling place has changed 3 times since living here (4 years) but I have no way to correlate based on registration. I thought the precinct polling places were based solely on address. -k]

Trying to confuse the democrats? Change in voting location

] 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.

[ Also turns out, in the video, both men take something out and put it on the podium. So, whatever, mostly. Granted the rules state that no candidate was allowed to bring anything to the podium but seriously, what the fuck. If we can't trust the candidates not to hide some sort of magic crib sheet in their pen, then they shouldn't be there in the first place. It's a dumb rule. -k]

DRUDGE REPORT 2004: Did Kerry Cheat?

] But even with so many issues still on the table, one
] seems to have been long ago put to bed: Birth control is
] unquestionably a woman's responsibility.
]
]
] Or is it? A remarkable new product is on its way that may
] make it possible to shift the burden of reproductive
] responsibility%u2014gasp!%u2014 to men.

[ Interesting and compelling article? Would you go on the pill, gents? -k]

Jagged Little Pill - Will male birth control ever become a reality? By Alex Mar

] Mohanty, an assistant professor in BU%u2019s Department
] of Physics, has carved tiny switches out of silicon,
] fabricating mechanical switches that are thousands of
] times smaller than a human hair.
]
]
] When put through their paces as data storage tools, these
] nano-sized devices were capable of functioning at
] densities that far exceed the physical limitations of
] electromagnetic systems and could retrieve information at
] speeds that cruise in the megahertz and gigahertz ranges,
] millions and billions of cycles per second, respectively.
]

NEMS Switches as memory -- fast and dense

] X Prize officials said the privately funded craft reached
] 368,000 feet -- well into space -- Monday to win the $10
] million prize.

[ Huzzah! Congratulations to Scaled Composites, and all the other X Prize teams out there. I really do think this is an important step forward. -k]

SpaceShipOne captures X Prize - Oct 4, 2004

] Archaeologists at the federal institute also defend their
] decision to let the project go ahead. True, a small
] pre-Hispanic altar of clay and stone was discovered under
] what will be an expansive parking lot, along with a few
] other artifacts, said Sánchez Nava, an official with the
] institute.
]
]
] But most of the artifacts have already been recovered
] from the area where the supermarket is being built.
] Besides, he said, teams of archaeologists from the
] institute are at the site each day, watching over the
] work. "I don't feel there is a risk," he said.

[ The WalMartization of Mexico is fully underway now. -k]

No, the Conquistadors Are Not Back. It's Just Wal-Mart.