] Homosexuality can be separated from marriage in roughly
] the same way. Marriage is a broadly shared American
] value. You don't have to support homosexuality to support
] marriage. A politician can say, "I'm pro-marriage. The
] issue isn't whether you're straight or gay. The issue is
] whether you support marriage."

This is a fantastic article for anyone interested in the political ramifications of the Mass. ruling concerning gay marriage. A clear way for liberals to win the argument. William Saletan is a savvy dude.

It's the Commitment, Stupid - How to sell gay marriage. By William Saletan

A new tool that blocks disease-causing genes, RNA interference, could lead the way for the next wave of blockbuster drugs in biotechnology

A story Wired is running about a technology that I am about to learn about in my next lab rotation in grad school. The use of RNA to silence genes can be a powerful thing with regard to future therapies - I am very excited about learning about this technique. - Nano

Next Big Thing in Biotech: RNAi

] A new species of baleen whale has been discovered. The
] stunning find, made after researchers studied the body
] shape and genetics of a few leviathan skeletons gathering
] dust for the last 25 years in a Japanese museum, brings
] the total number of known species in the main genus of
] baleen whale to eight.

Japanese discover new whale species

] Red Hat’s use of the Fedora™ brand name and its assertion
] of ownership over that name are of considerable concern
] to the Cornell and Virginia Fedora™ project team. Red
] Hat’s guidelines for use of the Fedora™ brand place
] restrictions on use of a term for which the Cornell and
] Virginia team have over five years of prior use. This
] position seems inconsistent with Red Hat’s stance on open
] source and its prominence in the open source community.

did someone forget to do their homework, or does RH just not care?

The Fedora

] Panic is just nature's way of putting your body into
] over-drive. It's a defense mechanism that gives you an
] edge when dealing with potentially harmful situations,
] such as a severed arm or the loss of your Internet.

yeah, some funny out of the wintry northlands...

What Should I Do If The Internet Goes Down?

anyone else think this kind of thing should be the responsibility of the vendor?

isn't this kinda like solving the problem of pollution by issuing filter masks, instead of fixing the factory?

Cisco security initiative / 4 major firms working to head off Net attacks

] along the southern tip of the continent -- in the shadow
] of an aging, obsolescing water-cooled reactor --
] state-run utility giant Eskom and its international
] partners want to build the world's first commercial
] "pebble bed" reactor.

pebble beds are really cool, and about as safe as nuclear power can be. as usual, i'm concerned more about human factors than technical ones. Such as, secure transport and long term storage for the waste, reactor physical security, etc. These days, i consider dirty bombs more threatening than most anything else, and the more nuclear reactors we have, the more nasty waste is available for theiving.

nevertheless, i still think that unless we get some super-efficient photovoltaics Real Soon Now, nuclear is gonna be the only way we can go, and PBMR are at the top of the list as far as that goes.

Wired News: Uranium Pebbles May Light the Way

] A British newspaper reporter infiltrated Buckingham
] Palace ahead of U.S. President George W. Bush's state
] visit, using a fake reference to get job on the royal
] staff, and was assigned to serve members of Bush's party
] in an embarrassing breach of security revealed today.

AHHHHHHHHAHAHAHAHAHA! Holy crap that's both funny and scary at the same time. Dolts.

TheStar.com - Imposter set to serve Bush at Buckingham Palace

] Steve Rucker, a registered nurse at the National
] Institutes of Health, broke with his lunchtime routine
] yesterday, forgoing his usual visit to the cafeteria and
] opting instead to roll up his sleeve for a shot filled
] with the biological essence of Ebola -- one of the
] world's deadliest and goriest diseases.

!

Volunteer Gets Experimental Ebola Vaccine (washingtonpost.com)

] Cabello is a "silbador," until recently a dying breed on
] tiny, mountainous La Gomera, one of Spain's Canary
] Islands off West Africa. Like his father and grandfather
] before him, Cabello, 50, knows "Silbo Gomero," a language
] that's whistled, not spoken, and can be heard more than
] two miles away.

kick ass!

CNN.com - Nearly extinct whistling language revived - Nov. 18, 2003