The New Republic's editors write that the problem is not that the government did anything to help stop Enron's collapse, it's that measures that could have lessened or prevented the damage from the collapse were blocked.
Tallying the New Bioethics Council: on something I wondered about when the Council on Bioethics was announced, but never finished chasing down.
Let's stipulate that the Council is composed of very distinguished thinkers and researchers. However, examining Kass' roster, it becomes apparent that he has chosen many cronies that share his dour fears about the direction of medical progress.
On the transformation of Bush from "bumbler to statesman".
"Those of us who have lived through these challenging times have been changed by them," said President George W. Bush in his State of the Union message on Tuesday. Surely few people have been changed more than Bush himself. Having entered the presidency only after a bitter and divisive recount farce that undermined the authority he brought to the office; having arrived in Washington perceived as inarticulate and barely informed about world affairs, the president one year later stood before a joint session of Congress and, in a few words, reshuffled the world.
Read all about the relationship between Tolkien and Calculus, Sauron's missing finger, and Arwen, the Warbabe on the Tolkien Crackpot Theories Page. [via CamWorld]
NASA's Terra satellite took this photo of a red tide bloom extending down Florida's Gulf coast in December.
The EUVE satellite is expected to come down in an uncontrolled reentry sometime overnight tonight. It could reenter between 10p and 7a Eastern time. Chunks weighing up to 100 pounds are expected to survive and impact anywhere from Brisbane to Orlando. NASA should have a better idea 12 hours before impact.
Update: The latest prediction is for impact around 11pm Eastern in the Atlantic Ocean. There will be an update posted on the Goddard site at 9:45pm.
If you're reading this, then I've made the jump to Movable Type. BlogMax has served me quite well, and I will probably continue to use it for composing. Editing in XEmacs is the only way to go. But, I wanted to try a few things that Movable Type does, including categorization and comments, and I really didn't feel like taking the time to write the code. I can't help fiddling though, so I've made a couple of changes from the stock MT. I think the only visible one so far, other than the templates of course, is that I've blocked the code that lists a commenter's email address if a URL is not given (which I think was a suggestion I found in Aaron's MT notes).
I will get the old archives moved into MT before a whole lot longer, but until then you can get to them here or through the Archives link over on the right.
If you see problems with the new stuff, please let me know.
At their meeting today the Commonwealth chose not to suspend Zimbabwe's membership, as it looked like they might have after their last meeting, though they did speak out again about the political violence and recent oppressive laws.
The Group reviewed the situation in Zimbabwe in the light of developments since its last meeting on 20 December 2001. It expressed its deep concern over the continued violence, political intimidation and actions against the freedom and independence of the media.
The Group also condemned the recently enacted Public Order and Security Act and the General Laws Amendment Act, as well as the proposed Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Bill, as further direct curbs on the freedom of speech, of the press, and association in Zimbabwe and contrary to the Commonwealth's fundamental political values as enshrined in the Harare Commonwealth Declaration.
The Group expressed the strongest concern that the statement by the Zimbabwe Defence Forces Chief and the recent and foreshadowed legislation constituted a direct threat to the conduct of free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
Full text of Bush's State of the Union address and Gephardt's Democratic Response.
The part that really caught my attention in Bush's speech was his comments on the "Axis of Evil". He all but threatened Iraq, Iran, and North Korea based on a lot of "They could..."s:
Continued...
