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Monday, December 15, 2003

A plan for ridding the world of dictators. [OpinionJournal] 2 down, 43 to go, says the Journal. Proposes "Secretary to Oust Dictators" position in the State Department, which is a pretty good idea. Of course, it's the kind of idea George Bush campaigned against four years ago. 10:19:17 PM  Permalink  comment []

Professor, Biotech Butt Heads. A teacher denied tenure at the University of California at Berkeley says he was turned down because the biotech industry didn't like his research into genetically modified corn. The school disagrees. By Kristen Philipkoski. [Wired News] Read along with the Chricton talk I linked to the other day. In this case, maybe he's right. In this case, the consensus seems to be that geneticically modified foods are safe. Would Chrichton's proposed scientific truth association fight this consenus or support research that questioned it? Maybe he's right, but I suspect it'd enforce a different consensus. 9:39:46 PM  Permalink  comment []

Is Polygamy Confusing, or Just a Matter of Family Values? [New York Times: International News] 9:31:47 PM  Permalink  comment []

The next 100 years of flight - part one [New Scientist] I guess this is YANHYOF story. (Yet Another Next Hundred Years of Flight) 8:24:41 PM  Permalink  comment []

Meteorite That Killed 90% of Species May Have Hit Tropics. Scientists now assert that they have narrowed the location of the meteor crash that they believe coincided with earth's largest mass extintion. By Kenneth Chang. [New York Times: Science] 8:15:37 PM  Permalink  comment []

The Master and Margarita.  The Master and Margarita. A hypertext exploration of the subversive Stalin-era fantasy, with maps and illustrations. A background to Bulgakov's life is here. [MetaFilter] A terrific view of the novel. I read it some 30 years ago, and I guess the newer translations are longer and better. Note to self: re-read this book. Note to others: read this book! 4:42:23 PM  Permalink  comment []

The Future of Flight. With "High Times," the Economist delivers a very long and extremely well-documented article about the future of aviation during the next fifty years. [Roland Piquepaille's Technology Trends] There is a joke in the airline industry that the future crew of an airliner will consist of a pilot and a dog. The pilot's job is to watch all the computers, and the dog's job is to bite the pilot if he tries to touch anything. 4:19:41 PM  Permalink  comment []

Every gun that is made... Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed - Dwight Eisenhower [via today's Undernews] 9:27:16 AM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.