Blix: Iran Years Away From Nuclear Bomb - "Former U.N. chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said Monday that Iran is a least five years away from developing a nuclear bomb, leaving time to peacefully negotiate a settlement."
Hussein charged with genocide - "Former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein has been charged for the first time with genocide, Iraqi chief investigative judge Ra'id Juhi announced Tuesday."
West accused of fiddling figures on Iraq aid - "Britain and other Western nations are using huge debt write-offs to Iraq to boost development aid statistics and give a misleading impression of their generosity to the Third World, campaigners say. ... A report released yesterday by non-governmental organisations said that, while the countries were not breaking international rules, they were misleading the public."
Reid calls for Geneva Convention to be rewritten - ""We risk trying to fight 21st-century conflict with 20th-century rules which, when they were devised, did not contemplate the type of enemy which is now extant," he said. "The laws of the 20th century placed constraints on us all which enhanced peace and protected liberty. We must ask ourselves whether, as the new century begins, they will do the same."" -- Hasn't terrorism always been around? It's not new to the 21st century.
Chávez seeks to peg oil at $50 a barrel - "A long-term agreement at that price could allow Venezuela to count its huge deposits of heavy crude as part of its official reserves, which Caracas says would give it more oil than Saudi Arabia. "We have the largest oil reserves in the world, we have oil for 200 years." Mr Chávez told the BBC's Newsnight programme in an interview to be broadcast tonight. "$50 a barrel - that's a fair price, not a high price.""
Obama: Dems Should Stress Oil Independence - "Democrats should stress energy independence, education improvement and science investment in the 2008 presidential campaign, Sen. Barack Obama said Monday. He laughed off a question on whether he wants a place on the ticket."
US Media Dead Silent On Israel Lobby Report - "Never before have the mainstream US media performed so atrociously, if not discouragingly, as they did this month when the editors ignored a damning report by two prominent university professors who are on the faculties of some of the country's most respectable institutions, Harvard University and the University of Chicago." -- And that speaks volumes.
Straight Out of Science Fiction: Organs Engineered in a Lab - "The news is being hailed as a medical milestone: Several years after receiving new bladders engineered entirely in a laboratory, seven young patients are all still healthy. ... The neo-bladder is just one of many different forms of tissue engineering currently being explored. Bone and skin regeneration already exists, and in the future, parts of or entire complex organs like the heart may even be replicated in a laboratory."
DeLay to quit campaign, step down from Congress - "Rep. Tom DeLay, the Texas Republican who stepped down as House majority leader last year, will abandon his re-election bid and resign his seat in coming months, sources on Capitol Hill say."
UT professor criticized over comments about impending pandemic - "A University of Texas biology professor has been targeted by talk radio, bloggers and vitriolic e-mails _ including a death threat _ after a published report that he advocated death for most of the population as a means of saving the Earth. But Eric Pianka said Monday his remarks about what he believes is an impending pandemic were taken out of context. "What we really need to do is start thinking about controlling our population before it's too late," he said. "It's already too late, but we're not even thinking about it. We're just mindlessly rushing ahead breeding our brains out.""
Churchgoers Live Longer - "The study, which is actually a review of existing research from the three categories, does not reveal what the link between faith and health might be. "Religious attendance is not a mode of medical therapy," said study leader Daniel Hall, a resident in general surgery at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. "While this study was not intended for use in clinical decision making, these findings tell us that there is something to examine further." Hall is also an Episcopal priest."
Stockpile human bird flu vaccine now, say experts - "Countries should stockpile vaccines against H5N1 flu even before any H5N1 pandemic begins, experts warn. A new modelling study shows that without such vaccines, and antiviral drugs, efforts such as school closures and travel restrictions will have almost no effect on the number of deaths a pandemic would cause in the US."
Canada Scraps Plans to Legalize Marijuana - "The bill, which had alarmed law enforcement officials in Canada and the United States, died on the floor of the House of Commons after the Liberal Party lost elections in January. ... U.S. authorities worried the legislation would have weakened their efforts to curb marijuana exports from Canada, which has numerous marijuana farms, particularly in the lush western province of British Columbia."
Expert Says It Was Hotter 247M Years Ago - ""It was the biggest extinction by far of all time," he said. "Geologists and paleontologists all agree on that. ... The extinction that killed the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago, that wasn't anything compared to this." ... Scientists aren't certain what caused the episode some 247 million years ago. They estimate that temperatures ranged in the low 100s year-round for thousands of years, he said. "Its kind of scary that we don't know for sure what caused the worst catastrophe of life on this planet," he said."
Laughter really is the best medicine - "It might be regarded as a statement of the obvious. But scientists have proved what everyone else takes for granted - that laughter really is good for you. It turns out that even the anticipation of watching a funny video can raise the levels of immune-boosting hormones in the blood and the benefits can last up to a day."
How art of conversation between parents and children has died - "All-day television, the demise of the family meal and even the forward-facing design of pushchairs are conspiring to kill the art of conversation between parents and children."
3 percent of U.S. families victimized by identity theft, Justice study finds - "The department said the most frequent victims of identity theft were households headed by people age 18 to 24; those in urban or suburban areas; and those with incomes of at least $75,000."
When the facts get in the way of a story - "Nothing comes for free: if you can cope with 400 words on statistics, we can trash a front page news story together. "Cocaine floods the playground," roared the front page of the Times last Friday. "Use of the addictive drug by children doubles in a year." ... So I got the document. It's a survey of 9,000 children, aged 11 to 15, in 305 schools. The three-page summary said, again, there was no change in prevalence of drug use. I found the data tables, and for the question about using cocaine in the past year, 1% said yes in 2004, and 2% said yes in 2005. Except almost all the figures were 1%, or 2%. They'd all been rounded off. By asking around, I found that the actual figures were 1.4% for 2004 and 1.9% for 2005, not 1% and 2%. So it hadn't doubled. But if that alone was my story, this would be a pretty lame column, so read on."
Even Cell Phone Users Annoyed by Them - "Most cell users find their phones very useful, with half keeping them on all the time. But almost nine in 10 say they encounter others using those phones in an annoying way. Only 8 percent of cell users acknowledge their own use of cell phones is sometimes rude."
Public TV host Brancaccio says people just don't trust the media - ""The level at which the public trusts journalists continues to fall," he said. "The good news is the public still seems to think that it's a decent idea for the news media to keep a close eye on public officials and government -- that's nice, but they don't trust us. They think we are biased." ... "Only 5 percent of what was in the blogs were what you or I might consider journalism," he said. Defined as: "Did they do any interviews? Did they consult any documentary sources? Were they witness to events? The answer: no, 95 percent of the time," he said."
Oliver Stone: "Media Slanders Politically-Minded Stars" - "Movie-maker OLIVER STONE has blasted media groups who "slander" celebrities for their political comments - because intelligent stars have every right to question their leaders."
The misinformation superhighway - "Gone, too, I'm afraid, is the pipe dream of the Internet becoming a trusted source of information. Instead of the "Information Superhighway," the 'Net has become the "Misinformation Superhighway," an ever-engulfing sea of extremism, fringe web sites, paranoia and outright lies. ... But all too often the Internet fuels extremism, paranoia and tin-hat conspiracy theories at cyberspeed. It also fosters hate, bigotry and racism."
Workers Have Retirement 'Overconfidence' - "The majority of American workers think they'll be able to retire comfortably, but most aren't saving nearly enough to meet that goal, according to a new study."
Will they choose the girl or God in reality show - "God or the Girl captures the tension, terror, and triumph of Joe, Mike, Steve, and Dan, four 20-something men at the most important crossroads of their lives, as, over the course of this series, they decide whether or not to enroll in the seminary and become Roman Catholic priests, or to find the love of a woman and settle down with a family. This is the ultimate struggle between the choice of two goods."
Bringing Back the Brontosaurus - "But the past few years have brought new developments. Scientists have gotten better at isolating DNA from fossils. They have also learned that perfectly preserved samples aren't necessary to build up lost genomes. Meanwhile, Haussler, benefiting from clever algorithms and massive increases in computing power, has made it much easier for them to fill in the gaps. If one scientist has sequenced DNA fragments from a woolly mammoth bone, and if Haussler has a tool that can re-create other parts of its genome, the two together put us a lot closer to seeing that beast at the local zoo."
Quote of the Day
"You are what you love, not what loves you."
~ Donald Kaufmann, Adaptation
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