] Attorney General John Ashcroft on Monday ordered federal
] prosecutors to come down harder on criminal defendants,
] instructing them to seek maximum penalties and to limit
] the use of plea bargains.

I can't beleive I didn't hear about this for a week!

Dude, it totally makes sense... all criminals are terrorists. They're trying to undermine the fabric of good, clean, wholesome American society.

I move for one punishment for all crimes -- decapitation. That's right. Hack a computer that's not yours? Decapitation. Have an ounce of weed and a couple of baggies? Decapitation. Question authority, er, i mean, inflame opponents of the U.S. and corrupt the youth? Decaptitaion.

Also, seriously, we need to send a message to all the terrorist kids theiving intellectual property after school that we will not tolerate their actions and that they are responsible personally for the deaths of 9/11/2001.

Honestly, criminals are broken anyway, and you can't fix them, so cap 'em and make life better for all the good, law abiding sheep of the country.

My favorite part of this is the following :

[ "You want uniformity," Mercer said. "You don't want ]
[ someone's viewpoint or philosophy determining the ]
[ outcome. What we are after is eliminating disparity ]
[ from place to place and defendant to defendant when ]
[ the crime is the same." ]

Yeah, we should totally take the human element out of it. Breaking the law is breaking the law, and there's no difference between situations. Sentencing should be handled by a computer. Talk about uniformity. And while we're at it, we don't really need juries or lawyers either. I mean, you wouldn't be in court if you hadn't done anything wrong, right?

Federal prosecutors to seek maximum penalties

Brief James Gosling interview at red herring. a couple of good tidbits, but it looks like he's having some of the same thoughts i've been having regarding the use of the internet as a tool for increasing the representative part of our democracy.

RED HERRING | The Business of Technology

cool

Antibiotic Laced Nanoballs Could Improve Infection Treatment

On first glance the MusicMatch deal seems pretty much identical to iTMS. May have to dig deeper to find the differences... i weep that MM got to market first though, regardless.

MusicMatch apes iTMS

] " Riddle me this: What would you get if you crossed a BlackBerry
] with an iPod? The answer: The future of the music business. Let me
] explain. Imagine, if you will, an iPod as a wireless digital
] ladle. It would dip into a nearly bottomless stream of continual
] music, scooping up any song you wanted, when you wanted, where you
] wanted. There would be no need for CDs, hard drives, or any other
] storage device. And trying to capture such music would be about as
] easy as trapping mist in a jar. Every song would contain a digital
] expiration date, so, over time, they would evaporate."

interesting concept. viable?

A Wireless iPod Can Torpedo the Pirates

Valid project or another useless "X sux!" whiner? You decide. There's a 78 page PDF, so if it's the latter, he's a very dedicated whiner.

Y - Individual Project - Mark Thomas

i'm all for that!

New method could aid in prostate and breast cancer diagnosis

] Congress moved Wednesday to delay the planned takeoff of
] a controversial new airline passenger-profiling system
] until an independent study of its privacy implications
] and effectiveness at stopping terrorism can be completed.

Good news!

Wired News: Congress Puts Brakes on CAPPS II

] The Wollemi Pine, a plant from the Jurassic age which
] survived in a single isolated Australian grove, is set
] for an amazing comeback.
]
] It was once thought to be extinct, but in 2005 small
] plants cultivated from the pines will go on sale.

wilpig:
] While the story for this is neat. I just love the title of
] the article.

I think the meant potted.... Doh!

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Jurassic pot plants on sale soon

standard teen angst + available guns == bad things happen

they haven't said shit about a motive, but the fact that it was an acne scarred loner type shooting some people in the weight room probably tells most of the story.

anyone placing bets that this kid is a gamer?

ABCNEWS.com : Teen Kills One, Wounds Another in Minn.