] A massive virus has been found lurking in a British water
] cooling tower. The virus lives in single-celled organisms
] called amoebae and may be able to infect humans.
]
] The virus is so large that at first researchers mistook
] it for bacteria. Most viruses can only be seen with
] electron microscopes but this one was spotted through a
] high quality optical microscope.

hmmm.....interesting.
/me goes digging to see if she can find more info on this.

CBC News: Giant virus discovered in water tower

] "Bombs Over Baghdad" sounds even more like
] self-contained, self-conscious artillery. The title
] promises internationalist fervour, but in fact seems to
] be just a clever metaphor for the repetitive vagueness of
] other hip hop artists - "don't pull the thang out unless
] you plan to bang... don't even bang unless you plan to
] hit somethang" - which is ...ironic... under the
] circumstances. But Outkast impart their message better
] than Dead Prez did on "Hip Hop", and with more reason to
] feel confident; the music is utterly blinding. What
] Outkast, or perhaps producer Earthtone III, seem to have
] realised is that much of the truly scary, fervent
] sounding music made during the nineties (hardcore techno
] and jungle being the relevant examples here) has been
] made in digitalised circumstances, without conventional
] ideas of meaning and feeling propelling them.

Or otherwise the song doesn't really mean anything...

However, I really like it anyway. I think I might buy this CD...

:)

Skykicking - Outkast - Bombs over Baghdad

] A Florida-based Web hosting company knocked a small news
] site offline after it posted controversial photos of
] captured American soldiers, stoking accusations that
] private firms are censoring free speech.

USATODAY.com - POW pictures spark Internet censorship debate

] Even before it began, the 1991 war with Iraq was
] headlined as an environmental apocalypse. The allied
] forces would wreak their share of environmental damage,
] critics warned, but Saddam's actions would be
] devastating. His likely sabotage of Kuwaiti oil wells
] would produce the largest, most destructive oil spill
] ever. And according to the late US scientist Carl Sagan,
] smoke from burning wells would shroud the planet in soot,
] creating a "year without summer".
]
]
] It did not happen quite like that, of course. Many fears
] turned out to be misplaced or inaccurate. Twelve years
] on, are we in a better position to judge how badly the
] environment would suffer in a new war with Iraq?

More info on the ecological situation in Iraq

New Scientist - Future looks bleak for Iraq's fragile environment

] An enzyme-catalysed battery has been created that could
] one day run cell phones and laptop computers on shots of
] vodka

Whoa....cheers to that:)

New Scientist - Bio-battery runs on shots of vodka

] The statement says IUCN concluded the environmental
] consequences of the 1991 war against Iraq had caused
] widespread, devastating damage extending far beyond the
] conflict itself.
]
] "A repetition of the damage caused then to rivers,
] wetlands, marshes, the desert and the seas will have
] disastrous long-term impacts.
]
] "Damage to the natural environment from armed conflict
] can undermine the natural resource base on which millions
] of people depend for their livelihood.

I found this to be pretty interesting. Ecologists are pissed about the war because of the future impact on the ecology of the land. An important, uniqe slant that hasn't been broadcast very loudly.

BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | Scientists urge rethink on war

To make the fibres, Yushan Yan and a team of engineers from the University of California at Riverside give the silk thread a glassy coating, and then extract the silk by baking. They soon expect to be able to make hollow fibres with cores just two nanometres wide - or 50,000 times thinner than a human hair.

New Scientist | Spider silk delivers finest optical fibres

Tom, the evil CEO of Industrial Memetics, turned another year older today...and another year wiser.
Yay for Tom!!!:)

Donald Rumsfeld often quotes a line from Al Capone: "You will get more with a kind word and a gun than with a kind word alone."
But should the guiding philosophy of the world’s leading democracy really be the tough talk of a Chicago mobster?

The Arrogant Empire by Fareed Zakaria

] With another product, Accord, users insert special
] cigarettes into a small electronic device. The unit's
] microprocessor ignites the cigarette when the smoker
] puffs, and it also sucks up secondhand smoke. Warner
] wonders about its future success. "You have to be pretty
] desperate to go around smoking a pager," he speculates.

heh...this guy must not be a smoker

The Scientist :: Can Science Make Cigarettes Safer?, Mar. 24, 2003