] In 1912 Wilfrid Voynich, an American rare-book
] dealer, made the find of a lifetime: a manuscript
] some 230 pages long, written in an unusual script
] and richly illustrated with bizarre images of
] plants, heavenly spheres and bathing women. Despite
] 90 years of effort by some of the world's best
] code breakers, no one has been able to decipher the
] script. The failure of the code-breaking attempts
] has raised the suspicion that it may simply be an
] elaborate hoax.

Scientific American has a writeup by Gordon Rugg
on how the manuscript may have been faked.

SciAm: The Mystery of the Voynich Manuscript

The new Iraq flag, as per the Onion.

[ wow. especially about the two stripes. so, so wrong... -k]

The Onion | Infograph

] FINK: When you're talking about politics, what do you and
] [your father] talk about?
]
] DUBYA: Pussy.
]
] -- Interview with David Fink of the Hartford Courant at
] the Republican Convention, 1988

Things I never want the leader of my country, who makes policies about what I can and can't do with my body, to have said.

This was apparently said two years AFTER Rev. Billy Graham helped him to "recommit his life to God".

[ I'm less concerned that he said it, as crass as it is, than that he said it to a REPORTER. In my home, with my friends, i can be crass, and that really doesn't reflect on how I might conduct myself elsewhere. To say something like that, in public, to a reporter, is really stupid, more than anything else. -k]

DubyaSpeak.com : Dubya on Himself

] The Hubble Space Telescope has looked deep into the
] cosmic abyss and created a unique baby picture of the
] universe. Until now, images returned by Hubble showed
] galaxies as they appeared when they were cosmic
] youngsters. The new images reveal the galaxies as
] toddlers, in the midst of a period of rapid developmental
] changes.

It's interesting to hear about the Hubble after so many years of it not being in the news.

Hubble Space Telescope Sees Where Time Began

So this leaves universities somewhat alone. This isn't meant to be self-serving, but it plays nicely into the change in higher education -- it has to become more research university-oriented than just classroom affairs.

Q&A With Nicholas Negroponte

] The preparations for the possibility of an early transfer
] were started a week ago, according to a senior U.S.
] official.

To paraphase Jay Leno: "And if Fahrenheit 9/11 keeps doing well, Carl Rove said the Administration will push forward the bin Laden capture"

Iraq handover of sovereignty completed

] "It's not new physics nothing new has to be
] discovered, nothing new has to be invented from scratch,"
] he says. "If there are delays in budget or delays in
] whatever, it could stretch, but 15 years is a realistic
] estimate for when we could have one up."
]
] Edwards is not just some guy with an idea. He's head of
] the space elevator project at the Institute for
] Scientific Research in Fairmont, W.Va. NASA already has
] given it more than $500,000 to study the idea, and
] Congress has earmarked $2.5 million more.
]
] "A lot of people at NASA are excited about the idea,"
] said Robert Casanova, director of the NASA Institute of
] Advanced Concepts in Atlanta.
]
] Edwards believes a space elevator offers a cheaper, safer
] form of space travel that eventually could be used to
] carry explorers to the planets.
]
] Edwards' elevator would climb on a cable made of
] nanotubes - tiny bundles of carbon atoms many times
] stronger than steel. The cable would be about three feet
] wide and thinner than a piece of paper, but capable of
] supporting a payload up to 13 tons.

[ I love space stuff, and the things i've read about space elevators all excite me to no end. I really want to see a viable plan. I want to blow my retirement funds on a trip to space. So, the scientists have 40 years, at the outside, to get it working... hop to! -k]

Scientist sees space elevator in 15 years

BAGHDAD—As the Coalition Provisional Authority prepares to hand power over to an Iraqi-led interim government on June 30, CPA administrator L. Paul Bremer publicly touted the success of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
As the Coalition's rule draws to a close, the numbers show that we have an awful lot to be proud of," Bremer said Tuesday. "As anyone who's taken a minute and actually looked at the figures can tell you, the vast majority of Iraqis are still alive—as many as 99 percent. While 10,000 or so Iraqi civilians have been killed, pretty much everyone is not dead.
According to U.S. Department of Defense statistics, of the approximately 24 million Iraqis who were not killed, nearly all are not in a military prison. Bremer said "a good number" of those Iraqis who are in jail have been charged with a crime, and most of them have enjoyed a prison stay free of guard-dog attacks, low-watt electrocutions, and sexual humiliation.

Onion | Coalition: Majority of Iraqis still alive.

Oh fuck yes!!!

Ghost in the Shell 2 - In theaters Summer 2004

] Mr. Hatch also said the induce bill - the name is short
] for "inducement devolves into unlawful child
] exploitation" - was intended to defend children, who he
] said make up about half of the users of file sharing
] software. "This for-profit piracy scheme mostly endangers
] children, who are ill equipped to appreciate the
] illegality or risks of their acts," he said.

[ Ooohhh, it's for the children now... i see. Please, everyone, think of the children! If we don't continue to prop up the business model of this behemoth RIAA represents, what will become of the poor, doe-eyed, children?

Fucking please. You want to come out and say 'We need to strengthen IP laws in this, this and this way, to the benefit of such and such.' then just fucking do it. Couching this issue in some kind of drug-pusher, corrupting-the-minds-of-the-youth bullshit is cheap and insulting, not to mention absurd. I guess saying 'I want to remove some traditional rights given to consumers and makers of independent products, for the benefit of these record companies.' doesn't sell too good. -k]

Bill to Curb Online Piracy Is Challenged as Too Broad