] NEW YORK (Reuters) - Fay Wray, the shrieking blond beauty
] who earned fame as the frightened girl stalked by King
] Kong up the Empire State Building, has died at age 96.

'King Kong' Star Fay Wray: 1907-2004

] Diatoms, a single-celled marine life form that has been
] around at least 100 million years, are being harnessed by
] researchers at Oregon State University to help make
] progress in one of the newest and most promising fields
] of science - nanotechnology.

[ Neat way to take advantage of natural processes... -k]

Ancient Life Form May Help Create Newest Technologies

] Acidus writes "While researching for an embedded systems
] project (a magstripe enabled Coke machine), I was shocked
] by the lack of magstripe information: Programs/code that
] would run on a modern OS were all but nonexistant,
] articles that were 6-10 years old, etc.

Acidus is on Slashdot today.

[ Congrats, Billy! -k]

Slashdot | Unlocking The Power Of the Magstripe

] Now meet Brett Bursey. He committed the crime of holding
] up a No War for Oil sign when sensitive George visited
] Columbia, South Carolina, last year. Standing amid a sea
] of pro-Bush signs in a public area, Bursey was commanded
] by local police to remove himself forthwith to the FSZ
] half a mile away from the action, even though he was
] already two football fields from where Bush was to speak.
] No, said Brett. So, naturally, they arrested him. Asked
] why, the officer said, "It's the content of your sign
] that's the problem."

[ An article in this months issue of the Nation, which lays out this Free Speech Zone bullshit in clear view. The sad thing is that it's not just Bush... the dems have been pulling this shit too, if not as frequently. Fucking insane. -k]

Bush Zones Go National

] A skyscraper’s exterior skin adds structural support
] and helps maintain the building’s internal temperature;
] some skins also offer aesthetic value, shimmering in the
] light and reflecting the landscape in pleasing ways. But
] what if a skyscraper’s outside wrapping could take a
] more active role in sustaining the building’s
] operational needs and engaging passers-by?
]
] One result might be PV-TV. Developed last year by the
] Tokyo-based MSK Corporation in conjunction with chemical
] company Kaneka and Japanese architecture firm Taiyo
] Industries, this amorphous silicon technology has a
] “three-in-oneâ€? functionality: it is able to act as a
] glazing element, solar panel, and video display screen.
] The panels, which are 980mm long and 950mm wide, come in
] a standard depth of 10mm thick, as well as in a
] 13mm-thick, strengthened-glass option.

[ Cool stuff! -k]

PV-TV: A Multifunctional, Eco-Friendly Building Material | Metropolis Magazine

] In September, Pantheon Books will publish Art
] Spiegelman's comic strip musings on 9/11 and its
] aftermath, In the Shadow of No Towers. Spiegelman, of
] course, is the author of Maus, a key book in the
] development of the modern graphic novel, as well as the
] editor (along with his wife Francoise Mouly) of Raw, the
] award-winning anthology of avant garde comics. 

ICv2 News - In the Shadow of No Towers

] Plume Re-titles Book by Katie Tarbox A Girl's Life Online

[ It's the first link... followup to the thread from a few days back. Looks like the publishers recognized that legal threats were worthless and they didn't want to deal with the confusion anymore. Good for them, even if they were lame for threatening to begin with. -k]

'Katie.Com' renamed!

] You can create your own COLORCELL by choosing up to four of
] your favourite colors.
]
] Your cell is living in a virtual livingspace with cells from other users.
] There is space for 100 cells.
]
] Everybody can select their favourite cells once a day.
]
] Each day, the daily selections of each cel; get converted into fitnesspoints.
]
] Cells that seem to be likeable will become stronger (because they
] have been selected often).
]
] Cells that didn't get selected often enough will become weaker
] (apparently the color combination isn't very popular).
]
] There are various statistics about each cell (just click the cell),
] about the livingspace and the cemetery.

Colorcell Home - A reputation system for color combinations

] The 32,000 net jobs added in July represented the
] smallest gain in hiring since December and followed a
] revised gain of just 78,000 in June, even less than
] previously reported. May's payrolls also were revised
] down to show a gain of 208,000.
]
] "Employers got cold feet," said economist Ken Mayland,
] president of ClearView Economics. "Employers just don't
] have the confidence in the economy that we need to
] sustain the kind of economic growth that we've seen."

Forbes.com: Only 32,000 Jobs Are Added in July

Mike the Usurper wrote:
] I would deeply like to thank the current administration for
] this pile of crap. They've chosen to make screwing over hate
] and discrimination a centerpiece of American daily life and
] are doing their best to make it the law.

I think the problem lies with the word "marriage" which has religous significance. Rather aboloshing, ammending the word so its definition in law has nothing to do with a sacrament, or changing it to something else which means a legal pairing.

[ To be fair, this isn't 100% the fault of this administration... the issue was coming to the fore regardless, and in fact, politically speaking, it's done more harm than good for them. Solidifying the fundie base isn't something W had to be too concerned with, and i think he lost some of the leaners in the middle. I'm not saying it's not shameful, and I won't let them off the hook for the Hate Amendment, but there's a lot of people who agree with them, so it was bound to happen.

Personally, I'd like to see everyone grow the fuck up and let the issue die... let people marry each other... whatever. I've been back and forth on this a few times, and something still sits ill whenever i consider adjusting legal definitions. The ideal outcome for me is for the supreme court to say "Shut up. That's unconstitutional. Now, get out of here."

Still, in reality, I have a feeling we'll end up with something like terratogen states above - the government altering itself to refer to and recognize *only* civil unions, a contractual status, and leave the term "marriage" open to whatever silly debates people wish to have about it's proper application. It's become too charged a term, and while i can't and don't want to tell anyone to cede it's definition to a group of fundamentalists, the government is probably better off if they remove themselves from what is essentially a religious argument and stick to the precise issues of equality, which is their purview. -k]

RE: Marriage is over