Sophont

wcg : "D.C. is now officially considered foreign travel. NIH has been instructed by the Office of the Secretary, Office of Global Health Affairs, that travel of NIH staff to U.N. international organizations located in the United States is to be considered foreign travel,..... Your staff should prepare NFTs [Notifications of Foreign Travel] for travel to all D.C.- and N.Y.-based UN international organizations: The World Bank, PAHO, UNICEF, UNDP, and other NY-based UN organizations."

Samizdata.net jaynote: WOW! great pics, this was a rocket-geek's Woodstock

Transterrestrial Musings : ...... "The talk in question was presented by J. E. Brandenburg of the Florida Space Institute, titled Microwave Enhancement of Inertial Electrostatic Confinement of Plasma for Fusion: Theory and Experiment. Inertial Electrostatic Confinement (IEC) uses two (or more) nested spherical grids charged to a high relative voltage to accelerate ions towards the common center of the grids, where they collide and fuse. Philo Farnsworth patented an IEC concept he called the Fusor, and there are all the usual conspiracy theories about suppression of his research surrounding the history of the Fusor, though I suspect the truth of the matter has a lot to do with the fact that it didn't really work very well, at least for power generation. Anyway, back to the point. IEC has seen a resurgence of interest lately (for an overview of what people are up to check out the presentations at the 2002 US-Japan workshop on IEC). Various problems are slowly being worked out

New York Daily News : "The 'bozo' who withheld a diploma from a Brooklyn valedictorian after the teen publicly slammed her high school made a grade-A goof, Mayor Bloomberg said yesterday. 'What bozo tried to hold back a diploma in a country where freedom of speech is so prized? I don't know,' Bloomberg fumed. 'Fortunately, the chancellor, when he heard about it, overruled it,' the mayor said. 'They should have given her a diploma. C'mon, let's get on with it.' High School of Legal Studies valedictorian Tiffany Schley was refused her diploma Friday after she painted a blistering picture of what was wrong with the Bushwick school in her graduation speech. "

Betterhumans > Longevity Uncorked? :To understand the hope and controversy around resveratrol, you have to start in France—the land of wine and cheese. For years, no one understood why the French, who eat a diet rich in fatty foods, have a 30% lower incidence of heart disease than North Americans. They were also confounded as to why just 7% of French adults are obese compared to 22% of Americans. This phenomenon, known as the French Paradox, was discovered in the 1970s but was first brought to the attention of the North American public in 1991 in a 60 Minutes' special. The revelation prompted various studies to uncover the solution to the paradox. In 1992, in a study published in the American Journal of Enology and Viticulture, researchers Evan Siemann of Rice University in Texas and Glen Creasy of Lincoln University in New Zealand reported that resveratrol, found in red wine, protects against heart disease and other aging-related illnesses. In 1997, a group of scientists

Offbeat Dollars for Scholars : 1) be Catholic 2) change your last name to Zolp 3) have kid 4) kid is now eligible for scholarship at Loyola From the article: "So far, officials said, the Scarpinato scholarship has never gone wanting. That's not the case, though, at Loyola University of Chicago. There, a lack of applicants for one highly specialized endowment has prompted admissions officers to page through out-of-town phone books whenever they travel, said Edward Moore, the university's scholarship director. 'They're trying to find Zolps,' he said. Or more specifically, eligible students who can prove two things: that they are Catholic and, since birth, have been named Zolp. Anyone who can and is otherwise eligible for admission can get a scholarship that covers tuition at the private Jesuit college, worth nearly $22,000 next school year. 'We'd really like to spend that money,' Moore said. Seven or eight years ago, in a mor

ABCNEWS.com : "High school graduation tests are not 'overly demanding' and measure only a small part of the skills considered essential by colleges and employers, according to a study of the exams in six states that was released Wednesday. For instance, the math portion of the tests includes material generally taught, internationally, in the eighth grade. And questions that were designed to measure basic comprehension made up half of the reading portion of the tests. Achieve Inc., a nonprofit group that promotes higher academic standards, looked at the high school graduation tests of Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas.

www.nickbostrom.com : [ 2004. Forthcoming in The Journal of Medical Ethics] Once upon a time, the planet was tyrannized by a giant dragon. The dragon stood taller than the largest cathedral, and it was covered with thick black scales. Its red eyes glowed with hate, and from its terrible jaws flowed an incessant stream of evil-smelling yellowish-green slime. It demanded from humankind a blood-curdling tribute: to satisfy its enormous appetite, ten thousand men and women had to be delivered every evening at the onset of dark to the foot of the mountain where the dragon-tyrant lived. Sometimes the dragon would devour these unfortunate souls upon arrival; sometimes again it would lock them up in the mountain where they would wither away for months or years before eventually being consumed."

The Holy Observer : CINCINNATI, OH – Cincinnati resident Steve Philips is noticeably more excited about his recent switch from Windows-based PCs to Apple computers than his recent conversion from atheism to Christianity. Philips, an account manager for Choice Communications, was baptized shortly after his conversion and is in contact with Apple computers as a potential candidate for the company's popular "Switcher" ad campaign. The two life changes came about the same time but had different influences, according to Philips. "Well, I became a Christian in late June after talking to my friend Ted, who's a really smart guy. The switch to Mac was more a result of some pretty intense personal study, looking at web sites that compare Windows and the Mac OS, price comparisons, and stuff like that. I bought an eMac after the [4th of July] holiday to replace my home computer, and I just got a sweet new PowerBook laptop for work last week."

Shadow Wolf's Den : "Quick quote found on MetaFilter Regarding this quote on the site, MillionForChrist.com: 1 million people praying for 1 hour is like 114 years of continuous prayer! Comment: But if a million people prayed at once. Isn't that just a DoS attack?"

The Register : "By Lester Haines, Published Thursday 17th June 2004 13:45 GMT Updated: We gather that things do not run as smoothly as they should down at BBC Bristol. Apparently, someone in London recently sent an urgent video tape via courier which duly arrived in the post room at said outpost of The Corporation. One of the operatives therein - noticing that the label was peeling off - decided to replace it with a new one. He removed the original and stuck it on the fridge, intending to copy the address after lunch. The next morning, the sender of the tape was surprised to find this voice message (mp3) on his mobile. Enjoy. In response to those readers who have requested, nay demanded, a transcript of the voice message, here it is: 'First saved message: message received yesterday at 9.20am.' 'Hi Paul, this is Beth. We have an emergency. Apparently you gave the courier a six-foot fridge to be delivered to BBC Bristol instead of the tape we need in the st

The Globe and Mail : "Mongolians seek to make a name for themselves After more than 80 years without surnames, picking one is as much about personality as it is ancestry By GEOFFREY YORK, Saturday, June 12, 2004 - Page A3 " For more than 80 years, everyone in Mongolia was on a first-name basis. After seizing power in the early 1920s, the Mongolian Communists destroyed all family names in a campaign to eliminate the clan system, the hereditary aristocracy and the class structure. Within a few decades, most Mongolians had forgotten their ancestral names. They used only a single given name -- a system that eventually became confusing when 9,000 women ended up with the same name, Altantsetseg, meaning "golden flower." By the mid-1990s, Mongolia had become a democracy again, and there were growing worries about the lack of surnames. One name might be enough when most people were nomadic herdsman in remote pastures, but now the country was urbanizing. The one-n

Philip Greenspun's Weblog: : "No New York experience is complete without at least one cabbie story. The fellow who drove me to LaGuardia Airport was a Coptic Christian from Egypt (the Copts are the descendants of the original Egyptians who built the pyramids, etc.; after the Arab invasion of 640 A.D. they've survived as a minority within their ancient homeland). Fully trained as a lawyer in Egypt, he came to the U.S. 12 years ago. 'The Muslims were making it harder and harder for Christians to survive. I was just starting out so I decided to start in the U.S. Of course the situation in Egypt is much worse now for Copts than it was back then.' He couldn't work here as a lawyer easily because Egyptian law is based on the Napoleonic code rather than cases. 'I got a degree in networking from NYU and worked at a French bank in mid-town until 2001 when they downsized their IT department.' Since then he has been driving a cab. How does he like living

TheOmahaChannel.com : "Photographer Jeff Frolio, 45, died while on assignment Thursday afternoon. He was struck by a vehicle near 222nd Street and West Center Road. The investigation of the collision is not yet complete, but it appears Frolio was struck by a car while he was crossing the road on foot. He was shooting footage of a memorial left for two Elkhorn teens who were killed at the intersection last month. Frolio's camera marked the spot where the accident happened, just after 5 p.m. Police believe he was focused on a memorial left to the Elkhorn teens when he was hit. 'He was running across the street with his camera, I believe, to get more footage of the memorial,' said Lt. Steve Glandt, with the Douglas County Sheriff's Office."

stayfreemagazine.org : "When Public Enemy released It Takes a Nation of Millions to Hold Us Back, in 1988, it was as if the album had landed from another planet. Nothing sounded like it at the time. It Takes a Nation came frontloaded with sirens, squeals, and squawks that augmented the chaotic, collaged backing tracks over which P.E. frontman Chuck D laid his politically and poetically radical rhymes. He rapped about white supremacy, capitalism, the music industry, black nationalism, and--in the case of 'Caught, Can I Get a Witness?'-- digital sampling: 'CAUGHT, NOW IN COURT ' CAUSE I STOLE A BEAT / THIS IS A SAMPLING SPORT / MAIL FROM THE COURTS AND JAIL / CLAIMS I STOLE THE BEATS THAT I RAIL ... I FOUND THIS MINERAL THAT I CALL A BEAT / I PAID ZERO.' In the mid- to late 1980s, hip-hop artists had a very small window of oppor-tunity to run wild with the newly emerging sampling technologies before the record labels and lawyers started paying attention. No on

View Thread : "I am sorry to report that much of Elena's story is not true. She did not travel around the zone by herself on a motorcycle. Motorcycles are banned in the zone, as is wandering around alone, without an escort from the zone administration. She made one trip there with her husband and a friend. They traveled in a Chornobyl car that picked them up in Kyiv. She did, however, bring a motorcycle helmet. They organized their trip through a Kyiv travel agency and the administration of the Chornobyl zone (and not her father). They were given the same standard excursion that most Chernobyl tourists receive. When the Web site appeared, Zone Administration personnel were in an uproar over who approved a motorcycle trip in the zone. When it turned out that the motorcycle story was an invention, they were even less pleased about this fantasy Web site."

crackerbarrel.com : "Heard any good books lately? Nothing makes a long road trip go by faster than a book you listen to. And at every Cracker Barrel Old Country Store location, you'll find a great selection of over 200 great titles to choose from, including many New York Times best sellers. Here's how it works: 1. Buy a Books-On-Audio tape at any Cracker Barrel location (prices range from $12.99 to $48.00). We also offer some titles on CD. Visit New Releases for a list of those new titles available on CD. 2. When you finish the book, simply return it at the next Cracker Barrel you visit. We'll refund the purchase price, minus $3.50 for each week you've had it. 3. Do it again! Best of all, there's no membership fee. Just come on in and pick your book to get started."

The Morning News : "The show (The Apprentice) finally began. As the date for our own episode drew close, we got to know D, our new upstairs neighbor. We really liked her. She was mature and friendly, a Columbia Journalism School graduate and newspaper reporter. She gave us a key to her apartment because she often lost her own; we gave her a key to ours so she could look after our mail when we went away, something we would never have done with M. We talked about her experience on the show. It turned out that she had actually rented the apartment before it was renovated. She had looked at a few places in the neighborhood, picked the apartment upstairs from us, and made arrangements to move in before learning that it had been pulled off the market for the show. She went ballistic. The landlord told her not to worry, she could still have the apartment at the agreed-upon rent but would have to participate in the episode in order to get it. During the filming, she went through the motio

Robots that Jump : "Anyone remember the 1980s? This was the era when each increase in computer speed brought radically new software to the consumer. When the Mac doubled its speed, it went from black and white to color. When chips got faster digital phones got practical. Each time a game console got faster there was a huge jump in the games. Doubling computer speed in the early 1990s allows them to browse the web efficiently. Today, there's little effect of comparable increases in hardware. So, I'm not going to bash Microsoft for the usual reasons. But I do think they are becoming about as interesting as the power company. After all, in the 1920s tech boom power companies were the dotcom darlings. Today, nobody thinks twice about a wall socket. We all use it, but ignore its wonders. The same will happen to Microsoft, unless it wakes up to robots as the next tech boom. By the way, this critique extends to the whole PC industry. Linux is not the future the way some ima

rtmark.com : "Steve Kurtz is Associate Professor in the Department of Art at the State University of New York's University at Buffalo, and a member of the internationally-acclaimed Critical Art Ensemble. Kurtz's wife, Hope Kurtz, died in her sleep of cardiac arrest in the early morning hours of May 11. Police arrived, became suspicious of Kurtz's art supplies and called the FBI. Within hours, FBI agents had 'detained' Kurtz as a suspected bioterrorist and cordoned off the entire block around his house. (Kurtz walked away the next day on the advice of a lawyer, his 'detention' having proved to be illegal.) Over the next few days, dozens of agents in hazmat suits, from a number of law enforcement agencies, sifted through Kurtz's work, analyzing it on-site and impounding computers, manuscripts, books, equipment, and even his wife's body for further analysis. Meanwhile, the Buffalo Health Department condemned his house as a health risk. Kur

penknife : "Virginia just passed the 'Marriage Affirmation Act.' Not only does it ban gay marriage or civil union, and ban recognizing gay marriages or civil unions performed in other states, but it bans any 'partnership contract or other arrangements that purport to provide the benefits of marriage.' What benefits are those? Well, the bill's pretty clear about that. ETA: Reading through it again, it's not actually out on the table in plain English. But this particular language probably means the following, according to the lawyers looking at the bill: Powers of attorney. Custody arrangements. Health insurance coverage for same-sex domestic partners. Joint ownership of property. And--most sickeningly--wills leaving property to a same-sex partner. It means that starting July 1, when this bill goes into effect, anyone who dies with a will that leaves their property to their same-sex partner can be treated as if they died without a will. Their propert