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Wednesday, May 12, 2004

Globe Grows Darker as Sunshine Diminishes 10% to 37%. Defying easy explanation, hundreds of instruments around the world recorded a drop in sunshine reaching the surface of Earth from the late 1950's to the early 90's. By Kenneth Chang. [New York Times: Science] 10:18:35 PM  Permalink  comment []

Dancing Alone. For the Bush crowd, getting re-elected and staying loyal to the conservative base is more important that getting Iraq right. By Thomas L. Friedman. [New York Times: Opinion] 10:15:28 PM  Permalink  comment []

Comet NEAT The fun thing about a comet is watching it several nights in a row and seeing it move against the background of stars. I've only seen Comet NEAT last night and tonight, but its progress is still fun. Friday and Saturday as it goes by the Beehive Cluster should be fun,  if the moon doesn't interfere. If you haven't had a chance to see it yet, this Sky and Telescope map is handy. It's a faint fuzzy, looking out over the SF Bay towards San Francisco. If you have reasonably dark skies and a bit of patience, take a look through binoculars; I've found it to be a fairly easy binocular object. 10:04:39 PM  Permalink  comment []

Pollsters: Kerry aside, Bush is in trouble. "Voters may not yet be ready to flock to challenger John Kerry, but President Bush’s continuing decline in opinion surveys — including one released Wednesday — is a clear warning sign for an incumbent trying to persuade the public to rehire him for four more years, pollsters say. A new Pew Research Center poll Wednesday showed Bush’s approval rating at 44 percent, down from 48 percent a month ago and 58 percent in January." (05/12/04) [Rational Review News Digest] The Republican slime machine is due to gear up any day. Trouble is, I think they've already shot their wad. 9:55:14 PM  Permalink  comment []

The oceans are dying... Overfishing Could Make Cod Extinct in 15 Years-WWF. GENEVA (Reuters) - Cod could be extinct within 15 years unless governments rein in fishing of the species, the environmental group World Wildlife Fund said Thursday. [Reuters: Science] 7:17:02 PM  Permalink  comment []

Integrating Xgrid into Cocoa Applications, Part 1. Drew McCormack: "Xgrid was unveiled by Apple at the last Macworld to almost negligible fanfare. Admittedly it is still in an early stage of development, but the silence from Apple was almost deafening for a technology that may well prove to be one of the most significant in years. Yes, you read right, Xgrid may well be as big a revolution as the iMac was for home computing, and iMovie was for home movies." [Studio Log] Now this is really exciting. A standard framework that will let developers write code that uses a bunch of computers. Like the SETI application. 5:17:40 PM  Permalink  comment []

The moral bankruptcy of the right This article in Slate summarizes the morally bankruptcy of the right wing in this country. The right would have you believe that "liberal outrage about torture" is worse than torture itself. This is the same bunch that has increasingly used Saddam's torture chambers as an excuse for the war (after all the other excuses are crumbling into dust). It's not enough for us to say we're not as bad as Saddm for us to be good guys. It's not enough for us to say that it's the fault of a few bad apples. (Funny how when our side does it, it's a few bad apples, when their side does it, it's the fault of an entire society or religion.) When people wearing the uniform of a county commit unspeakable acts, it's the responsibility of everyone who stands behind that uniform to condemn those acts. 2:08:24 PM  Permalink  comment []

© Copyright 2004 Steve Michel.