Vicious Thinks (a weblog)

	Thursday, December 11
	CNN.com \| Bush defends restrictions on Iraqi contracts The policy excludes France, Germany, Russia and Canada from bidding on construction projects. In an awkward bit of timing, Bush on Wednesday appealed to the leaders of those same countries to help speed Iraq's recovery by forgiving debt the country owes them. "It is in every nation's interest that Iraq be free and peaceful, and we welcome contributions," Bush said. Bush said he spoke Wednesday with French President Jacques Chirac, German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder and Russian President Vladimir Putin -- all of whom opposed the U.S.-led war -- and asked them to meet with former U.S. Secretary of State James Baker, Bush's special envoy on Iraq, about restructuring that country's debt. Asked whether the exclusion of those countries from bidding on construction contracts violates international law, Bush said, "I don't know what you're talking about by international law. I better consult my lawyer." full article here .: handled with care at 1:30 PM :: link this post
	Monday, December 1
	AP \| Court Says Redistricting Unconstitutional The issue before the court was whether the redistricting map pushed through the Legislature by Republicans this year was illegal. Colorado's constitution calls for redistricting only once a decade and Democrats contended that task was completed by the judge. Republicans said the map drawn by the judge was temporary and the law requires redistricting work to be done by the Legislature. The court rejected that argument, saying: "Because the General Assembly failed to redistrict during this constitutional window, it relinquished its authority to redistrict until after the 2010 census. There is no language empowering the General Assembly to redistrict more frequently or at any other time." The justices chastised the lawmakers for claiming they should be able to redraw the maps "two, or even 10 times in a single decade." full article here .: handled with care at 10:13 AM :: link this post
	Friday, November 21
	TIMEeurope Magazine \| Fixing Iraq [W]ith U.S. officials scrambling to hand back power to Iraqis with a haste they used to insist was impossible — and on a schedule that happens to match the needs of a President seeking re-election — the glitter of dining at Buckingham Palace will have a grim backdrop. This visit was penciled in 18 months ago, but "detailed planning started when it was 'Mission Accomplished,'" says a White House aide, referring to the balmy days when Bush landed on an aircraft carrier to declare victory. "Now they're stuck with it. The world is a far different place." The terrorists and insurgents in Iraq are good at picking soft targets, and European opinion is certainly one of those. Two days after the Italian police were bombed, nine Portuguese journalists were ambushed by gunmen near Iraq's border with Kuwait as they drove to cover the arrival of 128 Portuguese military policemen sent to help coalition forces. The attack on the reporters (one was wounded, another was kidnapped and later released) provoked a torrent of criticism. "The Americans and the British are responsible for this war," said a caller to a TV program on the war. "Let them fight it." full article here .: handled with care at 11:00 AM :: link this post
	Thursday, November 20
	Slate.com \| Holy Matrimony - What's really undermining the sanctity of marriage? Do you want to know what's destroying the sanctity of marriage? Phone messages like the ones we'd get at my old divorce firm in Reno, Nev., left on Saturday mornings and picked up on Monday: "Beeep. Hi? My name is Misty and I think I maybe got married last night. Could someone call me back and tell me if I could get an annulment? I'm at Circus Circus? Room—honey what room is this—oh yeah. Room 407. Thank you. Beeep." It just doesn't get much more sacred than that. Here's my modest request: If you're going to be a crusader for the sanctity of marriage—if you really believe gay marriage will have some vast corrosive, viral impact on marriage as a whole—here's a brief list of other laws and policies far more dangerous to the institution. Go after these first, then pass your constitutional amendment. full article here .: handled with care at 7:29 PM :: link this post
	USA Today Gay Marriage Poll If you have an opinion one way or the other, go vote in the USA Today poll on gay marriage. Currently it's 50.33% agreeing that gays should be able to marry, with 49.14% disagreeing and 0.53% with no opinion. .: handled with care at 8:22 AM :: link this post
	Tuesday, November 18
	USA Today \| FBI may collect juveniles' DNA The FBI system works by using computers to match a person's DNA, the cellular acid that contains an individual's unique genetic code, to DNA taken from unsolved state and federal crimes. Using DNA drawn from convicted adults, the system made 8,920 matches through September, the FBI says. Proponents, including the Bush administration, say that expanding the number of profiles in the database would greatly increase the number of crimes solved. Keeping DNA profiles on file to solve future crimes, they argue, differs little from maintaining a database of fingerprints, which the FBI also does. The American Civil Liberties Union counters that DNA is different because it contains genetic information that should be kept private. Taking a person's DNA before he is even convicted, said ACLU Washington lobbyist Jesselyn McCurdy, "removes the presumption of innocence." full article here .: handled with care at 8:29 AM :: link this post
	Friday, November 14
	AP Political News \| Democrats Block Two Judicial Nominees In each of three successive votes Friday morning, Republicans secured 53 votes to advance the judicial nominees to a final confirmation vote. That was seven short of the 60 needed to overcome Democratic resistance. As in similar confrontations on judges this year, the only Democrats to side with the 51 Senate Republicans were Sens. Ben Nelson of Nebraska and Zell Miller of Georgia. Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats were energized by the GOP-staged talkfest. "The other side seems to think they can just intimidate us," he said. "We are not going to let the president take the judiciary and move it out of the mainstream." But Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa., said some Republicans already are plotting revenge for the day when a Democratic president tries to get his judges approved. His colleagues are saying, "We'll have our opportunity someday, and we'll make sure there's not another liberal judge. Ever!" Santorum said. I'm sorry ... did I miss the part where we all actually graduated high school? full article here .: handled with care at 1:18 PM :: link this post
	You Had to Be There Theater Presents "It's spelled 'DEH-mi' but I pronounce it 'deh-MI'" .: handled with care at 12:37 PM :: link this post
	Wired News \| US Struggles to Determine Who Is the Enemy in Iraq Gen. John Abizaid, responsible for military efforts in Iraq as chief of U.S. Central Command, has estimated that no more than 5,000 people have taken up arms in the resistance. But U.S. officials said they could not identify the leader or leaders of the insurgency, the degree of collusion among its elements and whether central coordination existed or autonomous groups operated merely at a regional level. "It would be helpful if we knew. That might make it easier. At least you know who you're going after," a defense official said on Friday. The failure to know with better clarity who is perpetrating the attacks is "a very powerful indication of how deficient our intelligence is," said Andrew Bacevich, a Boston University international relations professor and retired Army colonel. full article here .: handled with care at 11:59 AM :: link this post
	Thursday, November 13
	Wired News: Ancient Maize Genetics Amazing Early corn farmers in Mexico manipulated corn's genetic makeup through selective breeding, effectively changing a grassy weed with seeds that could not be chewed into something edible -- and they did it quickly, not over many generations, the researchers say. Story Tools Story Images Click thumbnails for full-size image: See also * Cracking the Frankenfood Code * Moms Battle Genetic Engineering * Public Wants Biotech Food Tested * Biotech Debate Centers on Africa * Check yourself into Med-Tech Today's Top 5 Stories * Laying Down the Virtual Law * Chip Design Reverses a Hot Trend * Ancient Maize Genetics Amazing * Academics Can Be Fun and Games * Three Arrested in IBM Bribes Bust Researchers in Germany and the United States identified the genetic modifications by extracting DNA from 4,400-year-old ears of corn. The study results appear to bolster the argument that genetically modified crops are not dangerous because farmers have been creating them for thousands of years. And plant biologists say the changes biotech companies are making in plants today are actually much smaller than those discovered in the new study published in the Nov. 14 issue of Science. "Changes being made today are probably much smaller than the ones that changed a wild grass with very hard seeds to one that is edible and useful for people," said Nina Fedroff, a plant biologist at Penn State University, who wrote a perspective that accompanied the Science study. "As far as a general hazard, (modern day genetic modifications) are much less hazardous than what people have done for most of the century." full article here .: handled with care at 12:07 PM :: link this post
	Wednesday, November 12
	Washington Post \| Senate Readying Itself for All-Night Talkathon on Judges Democrats set up an "action room" off the Senate floor to hold interviews and news conferences through the night. A support group sent them "care packages" containing coffee (along with de-caf to give to Republicans), headache pills, "tummy tablets for nausea," and "letter-sized copies of the Constitution to remind us all what you're fighting for." The reason for these preparations: a 30-hour marathon debate -- scheduled to begin at 6 p.m. this evening and last into Friday -- that Senate Republican leaders have called to draw attention to several judicial nominations that they say are being unfairly blocked by Democrats. The all-night Senate session, the first since 1994, promises more political theater than substance, as both sides agree that nothing is likely to happen to break an impasse over four of President Bush's nominees for the U.S. Court of Appeals. full article here .: handled with care at 1:21 PM :: link this post
	AP \| New Plastic Memory Technology Unveiled The new memory, which could end up in a small format similar to CompactFlash or SD Cards, doesn't use transistors to store information. Instead, bits are written when a strong current passes through a polymer fuse, causing it to blow and change its conductivity. Smaller currents determine what junctions are opened or closed - which translates into the digital world's ones and zeros - to retrieve the contents. Because manufacturing wouldn't require vacuum chambers or high temperatures, layers could be stacked atop each other, like a layer cake. Such stacking has yet to be attempted. "There are no critical alignment steps and no lithography," said Stephen Forrest, a Princeton scientist and study co-author. "Most importantly, it's not on a crystalline substrate so that we can stack these memories very tightly. We can use three dimensions to create the memory." full article here .: handled with care at 11:03 AM :: link this post
	Tuesday, November 11
	AP \| Experts Criticize Approved Stem Cells The approved cell lines, created for possible future disease treatments, were initially grown on mouse cells. That could expose humans to an animal virus their immune systems couldn't fight, the panel said. The experts said Monday that safer stem cell lines now exist, but those would not be eligible for federal funding. The ethics panel announcement was the latest sign of the friction between stem cell scientists and Bush, who two years ago set limits on the controversial research which destroys human embryos. Earlier this year, the director of the National Institutes of Health called on the president to lift his restrictions. And a number of scientists note that research into stem cells is progressing overseas. A spokesman with Bush's Health and Human Services Department said no one was available to comment on the ethics panel finding. Of course no one was available to comment. When you feel like you don't need to explain or excuse your behavior, you don't provide a comment because you don't feel it's necessary. Ass. full article here .: handled with care at 8:28 AM :: link this post
	Thursday, November 6
	The Hill \| Rage erupts over profiteering clause At a Democratic Policy Committee hearing, Melanie Sloan, executive director of the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, testified that “Halliburton [formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney] has charged an average price of $2.65 a gallon of gasoline imported into Iraq from Kuwait, despite experts’ conclusions that the total price should be less than $1 a gallon.” Sloan added that Iraq’s state oil company is importing “the exact same gas” for 97 cents. She concluded that between $286 million and $339 million of the $900 million the administration has requested for the importation of petroleum products could be wasted “if Halliburton’s pricing practices are not stopped.” Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), who chaired the hearing, said, “Is there anything more ironic than getting ripped off on the price of oil imports in Iraq, of all places?” full article here .: handled with care at 4:25 PM :: link this post
	Tuesday, November 4
	Washington Post \| Hiding the Bad News "It is almost impossible for a journalist to talk to any official from the authority without getting the approval of a public information officer. Recently, when an army major and the head of operations of an American agency here sought to take a reporter for coffee at the Rashid Hotel, where senior American personnel live and eat, a sentry told them that no reporter could enter the hotel without an escort from the press office. The American officials were more astonished than the reporter. "If civilian authorities here see reporters as ignoring good news, reporters view the coalition public information officers as determined to withhold information, out of fear that it would become 'bad news.' The result is gaps in information that make it harder for American readers to assess just how good or bad the news really is. "For example, American officials have said that many suicide bombings and other attacks on American soldiers have been thwarted. But they won't say how many. Publicly, the officials cite security reasons; when speaking behind a veil of anonymity, officials say they don't want to cause alarm. "It's no secret that shoulder-fired missiles have been fired at planes coming into Baghdad International Airport. How many? American officials will not say." full article here .: handled with care at 7:00 AM :: link this post
	Monday, November 3
	Technology Review \| Computer-Enabled Democracy? Feedback for the Accelerated Democracy project has been mixed. While Tester strived for what he calls “design agnosticism,” focusing only imagined future scenarios, many people don’t quite understand what he’s up to. One e-mail to Tester included a pleading conclusion: “Please, do America a favor and stop your project.” Tester welcomes such strong reaction. “I'm at least happy people are outraged at how technology might impact voting, even if they don't quite get my role in it,” he says. Could any of the technologies Tester identifies ever become part of the fabric of our society? “Unfortunately, election technology has not advanced to the point where it can provide us with electronic systems that are reliable enough to trust with our democracy—we just aren’t there yet,” says David Dill, a professor of computer science and electrical engineering at Stanford who recently established VerifiedVoting.org to help people understand what technical solutions are and are not within reach. Despite the rush to technology fixes in the wake of the Florida election fiasco, technology may not yet be the answer, says Dill—and indeed may never be. full article here .: handled with care at 4:03 PM :: link this post
	Washington Post \| I See Naked People Nowhere were the cultural wars over nudity fought more fiercely than at the gates of the entertainment industry. The full nudity of the late-'60s American theater productions 'Hair' and 'Oh! Calcutta!' -- so stunning at the time as to signal the collapse of American morals for some observers -- now seems old, if anything, a testament to how blase we've become with actors disrobing onstage. Unlike New York playwrights and theater producers, who enjoyed a certain license, network television executives couldn't overcome the resistance of mainstream audiences to nudity until 1993, with the arrival of 'NYPD Blue,' which, in showing naked backsides and employing a shadowy nudity during love scenes, prompted many ABC affiliates to preempt the show. Whether it was the reaction to Hugh Hefner and Playboy magazines in the '50s, or Jesse Helms wanting to place a fig leaf over nude sculpture in the '90s, the furors serve as a reminder that nudity remained synonymous with sexuality and something forbidden. But the illicit titillation that once turned us on so easily now seems to have lost much of its force. The old nudity seems to have fallen out of commercial favor -- not because it arouses, but because it doesn't. full article here .: handled with care at 7:48 AM :: link this post
	Wired News \| Aussies Do It Right: E-Voting While critics in the United States grow more concerned each day about the insecurity of electronic voting machines, Australians designed a system two years ago that addressed and eased most of those concerns: They chose to make the software running their system completely open to public scrutiny. Although a private Australian company designed the system, it was based on specifications set by independent election officials, who posted the code on the Internet for all to see and evaluate. What's more, it was accomplished from concept to product in six months. It went through a trial run in a state election in 2001. Critics say the development process is a model for how electronic voting machines should be made in the United States. full article here .: handled with care at 7:19 AM :: link this post