] There was Bush looking under furniture in a fruitless,
] frustrating search. "Those weapons of mass destruction
] have got to be somewhere," he said.

ah ha! AH HA HA! Thats right - since there apparently never WERE any, just move the goal posts and make the whole WMD thing out to be one big joke! Guess those 600 (and rising) BODY BAGS of US soldiers that have been coming home in a steady stream for the last 12 months are a joke too?

B.A.S.T.A.R.D. -LB

Bush pokes fun at himself at dinner

] Hope you have a great day:)

[ Yes, hear-hear! -k]

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TOM!!!!!

[ That was awesome. "er, if you have some citations, uh, heh..."

OK, Jackass, here's some citations right here... hope your lying ass enjoys looking like a complete buffoon for the next 30 seconds. Perfect.

The hosts there should have stood up at the end there, slammed the desk and said "DOMINO, MOTHERFUCKER!" -k]

Rumsfeld gets nailed.

] Monty Python's film The Life of Brian is to return to US
] cinemas next month following the success of The Passion
] of the Christ.
]
] The Biblical satire will be re-released in Los Angeles,
] New York and other US cities to mark its 25th
] anniversary.
]
] ...
]
] Distributor Rainbow said it hoped the film would "serve
] as an antidote to all the hysteria about Mel's movie".

[ HA! Perfect. -k]

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Python film to challenge Passion

] ATLANTA - Genital piercings for women were banned by the
] Georgia House Wednesday as lawmakers considered a bill
] outlining punishments for female genital mutilation.

They just had this report on 11 Alive news in Atlanta. Rep. Bill Heath (R, of course) was asked by the reporter whether he though Genital Piercing was something the state governement should be involved with. His reply "Normally,... I'd say no, but with the state of morals in this country, maybe it is."

I. Hate. The. Bible. Belt.

11 Alive's website sadly doesn't have the story with the quote yet.

[ Holy sweet jesus i hope there are details i'm missing on this. Such as defining "genitals" as the clitoris itself (as differentiated from the "hood" or whatever you call it), which i'm willing to accept is mutilation. Still bullshit, and not something the government should be fucking with. I'm completely on board with banning the horrifying female "circumsiscion" bullshit that they do in some places... that deserves punishment. Anyway, it sounds like another issue of completely out of touch legislators overstepping their bounds. -k]

Georgia House Bans Female Genital Piercings

] Royal Philips Electronics (NYSE: PHG, AEX: PHI), Sony
] Corporation(NYSE: SNE) and E Ink Corporation announced
] today the world's first consumer application of an
] electronic paper display module in Sony's new e-Book
] reader, LIBRIé, scheduled to go on sale in Japan in late
] April. This "first ever" Philips' display utilizes E
] Ink's revolutionary electronic ink technology which
] offers a truly paper-like reading experience with
] contrast that is the same as newsprint.

[ This is an area I follow with some enthusiasm, since I love to read. I'm still not sure how i feel about ebooks... there's something missing in the sensual experience -- the texture of the page, the smell of ink and paper, the heft and solidity of a bound novel. I can't help but think that this line of thinking will expire, like most traditional modes, as current youth grow up with the new modalities. I see myself already becoming the oldster, lamenting the lost experience offerd by paper books, while the kids snicker about silly old men not being hip to the present. And I'm only 25. Anyway, I'm curious to see what the MS community thinks about all this.

Leaving behind the philosophy, i think this device, as a product, needs to lose the keyboard, add a slick pen interface, and be wireless. Then it's existence as *the* newspaper is solidified... constant realtime updates to news content from the source(s) you choose, an easy means for annotation and bookmarking, clipping and forwarding news objects.

The evolution towards Star Trek style tablets continues. -k]

Latest Ebook venture...

[ I esp. like the fine text in the first panel... modern republicans have mastered the art of demonizing other people for the very same activities they take part in day after day, and then change the subject when questioned about it.

Back on topic, this comic is absolutely right on the money. -k ]

Salon.com Comics | This Modern World

In a paper published this week in the journal Nature Cell Biology, UC Berkeley molecular biologists describe a significant difference between the way normal and cancerous cells handle an enzyme called telomerase, which is critical to unrestricted cell growth. The enzyme maintains the telomeres that cap the ends of each chromosome, keeping them long enough so that DNA replication and cell division go without a hitch.

Funny, I didn't know that cancer cells treated telomerase any differently than normal cells did! Apparently they keep it active, all the time, when healthy cells segregate telomerase and only use it once per round of cell division.

Targeting Enzymes that Immortalize Cancer Cells

] Texas Safe Voting reviewed the videotapes of the January
] 2004 closed meetings used to review voting systems for
] certification (the videos were acquired by open records
] requests).
]
] What we saw may shock you. Here's a two minute clip, in
] Windows and Quicktime format. The clips show how the
] state of Texas examines voting machines for
] certification.
]
] A group of examiners reviews voting systems, and makes
] certification recommendations to the Secretary of State.
] You might think that these examiners would conduct a
] comprehensive testing process, assessing the voting
] machines against a set of detailed critieria and
] discussing the underlying code.
]
] But there was nothing on the videotapes that resembled a
] testing process. The examiners didn't start with a set of
] criteria to test against. They didn't even start with a
] comparison the new machines to the older versions.
] Instead, the Diebold representatives gave a demo.
] Reviewers voted on the machines and looked at the final
] output. A few of the committee members watched closely,
] while others chatted together.

This is a _must_ see.

Texas Safe Voting - Leaked Video of Texas Certification of Diebold Machines

] More than 27,000 defense contractors owe the federal
] government about $3 billion in unpaid taxes as of
] September 2002, the watchdog agency concluded in a new
] report, "DoD Contractors Abuse the Federal Tax System
] with Little Consequences (GAO-04-95)."

Ryan said some contractors stay in existence just for a short time to get a government contract, and then dissolve and change names to get another contract. He said one contractor used magnetic signs on trucks so it could quickly change names.

In some cases, the tax evasion was flagrant. The owner of one contractor with $10 million in unpaid taxes used corporate funds to buy a home in the Caribbean and a luxury boat. Another owner took $1 million from his company to buy a large home and a luxury car.

Ryan: Corruption at its finest. Sound familiar to anyone?

Government Executive Magazine - 2/12/04 Defense contractors owe billions in unpaid federal taxes