] lawmakers opted for an ill-conceived program that has
] become a disappointment for seniors, a boondoggle for
] drug companies and a rapidly rising burden for taxpayers.

Now normally USA Today gives one viewpoint and their second OpEd piece is a counterpoint from someone who disagrees with them. Either they couldn't find anyone to argue or maybe that "Drug Discount" is just as screwed up as they think it is.

Answer? It's even more screwed up than they think it is. And who is the idiot who thought this would be just great? Complaints can be sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Attn: Village Idiot.

[ McPaper! HA! That's good. I don't usually pay much heed to them, but i've seen a lot of the same opinion from all over the place, so i'm less skeptical. not that the media, in toto, hasn't fucked up before, a lot, but this one seems pretty fubar. -k]

McPaper Attacks!

] Don't be so quick to toss out your old PCs, fax machines
] or digital cameras -- office supply retailer Office Depot
] is offering to recycle one electronic product a day for
] free all through the summer, according to a published
] report Tuesday.

[ This is very good news! I know Chez Biltmore has about a ton of worthless electronic gear sitting around, which we had been saving for the biannual GATech recyclefest, but this is much easier... there's an office despot right around the corner and we can just drop one thing off per day... do it people!

edit: this'll take you to the office depot site regarding the program -- http://tinyurl.com/6n5ff

-k]

Office Depot offers to recycle electronics for free - Jul. 13, 2004

] If you can conjure up an image of wincing and sympathy,
] you've got the look on the faces of PBS execs. Here's a
] fight -- a line in the sand, as Dreyfuss said -- that PBS
] can't engage in because it simply doesn't have the money
] to stand up for what it believes in.
] ...
] "We believe, however, that the new FCC regulations
] represent an unacceptable assault on our First Amendment
] rights -- on everyone's First Amendment rights. An act
] unworthy of a free country. An act of censorship."

[ hear hear -k]

PBS watches its mouth rather than pay big fines. Now it's up to the other networks to fight the FCC. / 3 no-nos bleeped from new crime drama -- Richard Dreyfuss blasts government censorship

] Judge: Two papers are better. Two papers cover the rock TWICE.
] That fucking rock ain't going NOWHERE
]
] Saddam: I've got your two papers RIGHT HERE. NOW PLAY SERIOUS, ASS.

[ As entirely unfunny as this fucking murderer is, i can't help laughing at this site. Well done.

Ask Aziz, he knows! Classic. -k]

Rock, Paper, Saddam!

] ... he castigated the group's officers, who include
] President Kweisi Mfume and Chairman Julian Bond. "I would
] describe my relationship with the current leadership as
] basically nonexistent," Bush said, as reported by Knight
] Ridder Newspapers. "You've heard the rhetoric and the
] names they've called me."

[ Awwwwwwwww... those meanies!

Seriously, how childish can you be? Will his next trick be to refer to the pope as a doodoo-head and refuse to play on the same side of the schoolyard? Or did that already happen... i can hardly keep track. -k]

Bush Criticizes NAACP's Leadership (washingtonpost.com)

] I think that Kansas City may have better barbecue, Texas,
] but they don't have the sweltering, molten heat that
] subdues human intellect. So, you guys each have
] something.

[ Tycho always knows just how to phrase things... -k]

Penny Arcade!

] Called Facetop, the system simultaneously transmits a
] video feed of users along with a shared, transparent
] image of the desktop. It allows two colleagues to work on
] the same document, Web page or graphic, while
] communicating face to face.

[ Neat! I'm not particularly interesting in extreme programming, but this seems like it could be a very good collaboration tool, in general.-k]

Wired News: Transparent Desktop Opens Doors

] What has Homeland Security officials worried is that
] terrorists could attempt to disrupt the election in the
] same way that train bombings in Madrid created unrest
] three days before the Spanish general election,
] Roehrkasse said.
]
] Although there is no evidence that the bombings
] influenced the March 11 vote, socialist Jose Luis
] Rodriguez Zapatero unseated Prime Minister Jose Maria
] Aznar, whose center-right government supported the
] U.S.-led war in Iraq.

[ I think it sets a dangerous precedent to make it too easy to shift election day, however, it's also undeniable that certain acts could influence the outcome of the vote.
I guess, at present, i'm leaning towards the opinion that voting is a duty, an act of patriotism even, and that if you have to do it during a time of danger or instability, then you should suck it up and do it. I'm interested in other opinions, certainly... for now, I'm not ready to accept that someone who isn't congress should be able to play this game. -k]

Officials discuss how to delay Election Day

] By raiding nature's tool cabinet, researchers have
] developed a potentially faster and more practical version
] of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR), itself a
] foundation of modern genetics.
]
] The breakthrough, called helicase-dependent amplification
] (HDA), could result in small, hand-held devices which
] enable doctors to test blood samples directly in the
] surgery and forensic teams to detect a suspect's DNA at a
] crime scene.

I am going to go ahead and file this one under "Damnit, why didn't I think of that". This is a discovery that someone could have made ~25 years ago. Helicases were discovered in 1976, and Mullis presented PCR to the world in the early 80s. If Kary had of thought about adding helicases to his tube of nucleotides and polymerase, it would have saved alot of work for grad students in the 80s (of course, just the fact that he came up with PCR already saved grad students from alot of work, but whose counting). PCR sans helicases require temperature changes in a cyclic fashion in order to make the copies of the DNA. Before the invention of the thermal cycler (god bless this machine), grad students would have to move tubes from water bath to water bath by hand (keep in mind that to make enough copies to work with, the PCR reaction has to be cycled through all required temps ~25-30 times, which resulted in hours of moving tubes every couple of minutes to a different water bath (once again, god bless the thermal cycler).
Adding helicases to the mix was a genious idea - could be nobel worthy. With helicases, the reaction can take place at 37 degrees, which means that PCR just got portable, and cheaper too (helpful for labs without alot of money to buy a thermal cycler). My hats off to these scientists....its always those discoveries that were sitting right in front of our faces for years that are sometimes the most amazing.

[cool -k]

New Scientist

] "I don't know what this couple were playing at, but there
] must have been tremendous pressure inside the penis to
] make this happen."

[ Sweet mother of god... that is the absolute suck. -k]

Ananova - Penis explodes during sex