Why would anyone want to build something so destructive? Because by making their own prions, researchers can learn how they work. Learning how these deadly proteins operate is the first step in understanding how to stop their destruction.

Wired News: Science Cooks Up Deadly Proteins

George Bush's record on fighting terrorism today suffered a further blow when the president's former anti-terror adviser said that his administration had failed to take the threat from al-Qaida seriously before the September 11 attacks.

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | CIA chief admits gaps in national security

give it to the kids! spread it around!

black death plush toy

LONDON, March 20 (UPI) -- Coca-Cola's brand of bottled water, Dasani, was pulled from shelves in Britain Saturday when it was found to contain bromate, a cancer-causing chemical.

If this is their standard for bottled water, I wonder what they use for their soft drinks?

Coca-Cola water pulled from U.K. shelves - (United Press International)

bucy wrote:
] ] VeriSign says it will combine Unimobile technology with
] ] its own services to offer a new set of short message
] ] service (SMS), multimedia messaging service (MMS) and
] ] secure content delivery capabilities. The combination of
] ] technologies will also enhance messaging
] ] interoperability, as it will enable connections to more
] ] than 300 carriers around the world, VeriSign says.

Why do i have a feeling thet this can only lead to spam?

RE: VeriSign acquires Unimobile - 2004-03-22 - Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal

] Although there is debate over the exact date it started,
] on November 02, 2000, a person calling themselves
] Timetravel_0, and later John Titor, started posting on a
] public forum that he was a time traveler from the year
] 2036.
]
] One of the first things he did was post pictures of his
] time machine and its operations manual. As the weeks went
] by, more and more people began questioning him about why
] he was here, the physics of time travel and his thoughts
] about our time. He also posted on other forums including
] the old Art Bell site. In his posts John Titor
] entertained, angered, frightened and even belittled those
] who engaged him in conversation.
]
] On March 24, 2001, John Titor told us he would be leaving
] our time and returning to 2036. After that, he was never
] heard from again. Speculation and investigation about who
] John Titor was and why he was online continues to this
] day.

An interesting read at the very least. A great use of sci fi to rephrase relevant social points.

John Titor :: Time traveler

The statement said it supported President Bush in his reelection campaign, and would prefer him to win in November rather than the Democratic candidate John Kerry, as it was not possible to find a leader "more foolish than you (Bush), who deals with matters by force rather than with wisdom."

International News Article | Reuters.com

] 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

WASHINGTON (BP)--The U.S. Senate finally will vote on a bill that would recognize an unborn child as a crime victim when he or she is injured or slain during the commission of a crime against a pregnant woman.

I'd like to see a fetus file a complaint. That would make my day. Other than that, this a shitty way to decide where life begins.

Unborn victims bill slated for Senate inaugural vote - (BP)

RSF says the Chinese government has shut down two blog hosting sites, for allowing bloggers to post articles critical of the government. At least 15,000 weblogs have been shut down as a result. [ed: Chinese political bloggers might like to investigate Invisiblog.com, an untraceable weblog publishing service]

vigilant.tv - China shuts down blogs