Extremely cool: UCSD chemists have come up with a way to screen molecules using CD players. The project is called DISCODE, and their info page is here. They've printed molecules onto a CD using a damn inkjet printer, soaked the CD in a solution, and then played the CD and watched for errors, and, hence, hits. They seem to be open-sourcers, as well. Not only will we all soon be our own programmers, running our own personalized versions of Linux, we'll all soon be able to do biomolecular screening at home. The future is looking strange.

The Judge Roy Moore thing is finally coming to a head. This sort of thing is really not that troubling, because it's so silly. The only possible conclusions that the common, objective observer can come to, upon hearing about this matter in its entirety are these: 1) Alabama (Alabamy) is the most backward state in the union. 2) Judge Roy Moore is a fringe goofball. 3) Evangelical Christians are stupid. Only number 2 is really, objectively true, so it's too bad that Moore's actions have forced the other two conclusions. Chris's and my conversation of a few weeks ago seems more and more apt. We came to the conclusion that fire-and-brimstone JVI evangelical types are really just Live Action Role Players who got out of hand. They LOVE theater and drama. If Judge Moore wants to believe that the U.S. Constitution is founded upon the Judeo-Christian Ten Commandments, fine. The preponderance of evidence is against him, but that's his own business. When he starts foisting it upon others in his official capacity as a justice, then it's everybody's business. And when he foists it upon others in the form of a gargantuan monument, then he's just acting like the hyperactive high school drama club kid. I'm curious to see exactly how much he ends up paying in fines. Hopefully it won't be zero.

Why do I still write letters to the Daily Utah Chronicle? I'm surprised they keep printing them. Letter to the Editor: Many misunderstand religious freedom.

I have been forwarded a classic post from Christianity.com (complete post is here) about the Great Pyramid at Giza:

The there is the little matter of the fact that the Great Pyramid is at the center of the earth, it is alinged to the stars, it is alinged to the precisions, its equal to pie, it stays 68 degrees year round, it is aligned to 10,500 B.C., when it was built, it is equal to one inch, one year, in scale, it has a change in build, at every interval of year as based on the Bible, there are no carving marks on any of the stones, which were supposedly cut by hand, the entire mass is equaly divisble to the mass of earth, it has computer modem slots, run by liquid controlled (nanotechnology) computers inside the main chamber, etc., etc., etc.

mmmm, pie...

Analysis of Linux Code that SCO Alleges Is In Violation Of Their Copyright and Trade Secrets: "The ATT source code is here on the net, from a version released around 1979, although we believe that earlier versions exist. The Caldera license letter releasing this code is here. Caldera is, of course, the company that now calls itself SCO. The license very clearly permits the Linux developers to use the code in question." A portion of the code claimed by SCO against the world is a short, simple function which has been public knowledge for over a decade. The copyright on this work will probably expire in the year 2074. How absurd. This is another example of how copyright law is broken with respect to modern technology. The code presented by SCO (so far) is the software equivalent of a sentence. It is rediculous to me that rights to such simple portions should be in force for more than a few years. This may be very valuable code, commercially, because it is small, simple, and perhaps necessary. But it would also be extremely valuable if someone could copyright the phrase "another suicide bombing in Israel today," so that every news outlet had to pay a royalty every time they wanted to utter that phrase.

AmIGovernorOrNot.com: rate candidates for California governor. So far, it looks like Will Wheaton is winning.

Everyone's (my) favorite topic: entropy -- Slashdot | The Death of A Universe

Effects of global warming already being felt on plants and animals worldwide: 1/03: "In their Nature paper, Root and her colleagues analyzed 143 scientific studies involving a total of 1,473 species of animals and plants. Each study found a direct correlation between global warming and biological change somewhere in the world. For example, several studies revealed that, as temperatures increased in recent decades, certain species began breeding and migrating earlier than expected. Other studies found that the geographical range of numerous species had shifted poleward or moved to a higher elevation -- indicating that some plants and animals are occupying areas that were previously too cold for survival."

A new worm is on the loose which uses the same DCOM flaw as the MS BLAST worm from last week. The new worm is designed to kill MS BLAST. It then downloads and installs Microsoft security patches which fix the DCOM vulnerability. The worm deletes itself in January, 2004. Interesting approach.

As noted in this blurb: The Command Post - 2004 US Presidential Election - Huffington Receives Flack Over Taxes, CA gubenatorial candidate Arianna Huffington paid just over $700 in income tax last year. That is comparable to what I paid. Huffington, however, lives in a $7 million house. I couldn't afford a place with grounded electrical outlets last year. Of course, "she apparently did nothing illegal." Kudos to her for taking advantage of tax loopholes for rich people. Lesson learned: if you have enough money to lose some, then you can mostly avoid taxes by writing off your "business losses." If you're on your way up from somewhere near the bottom, then there's no easy way out. Perhaps this tax scheme contributes to two stereotypical responses. First, there's the "liberal guilt" reaction in which Huffington realizes that doesn't "shoulder a fair share of taxes." Her way of "giving back" to the community is to run for governor. And possibly to buy a sandwich for some homeless internet CEO. The second reaction is a natural one that I can identify with: "I paid more than my fair share on the way up and I'll be damned if I'm gonna keep paying through the nose now that I have some money." I think it is clear that some systemic tax reforms are in order.

James' prescient post about magic tours in chess [link] has arrived at Slashdot: Slashdot | No Magic In A Knight's Tour. The Slashdot post has some interesting additional links.

MP3.com: Corpse-Divine, the German electronic band, now has mp3's available for download. I just hope they don't sign an album deal with a RIAA affiliate and then attempt to sue me for blog-squatting.

sandalandsoxer.co.uk

A lot of interesting news today over at the independent.co.uk. Here are some of the highlights:

• "Bush blamed for chaos which led to blackouts." [link]

  Writing in The New York Times, President Clinton's energy secretary, Bill Richardson, accused the Bush White House and the Republican-controlled Congress of stalling on legislation to force power companies to take measures guaranteeing grid reliability. Very similar criticisms were voiced by some of the leading contenders for next year's Democratic presidential nomination. "Just two years ago, [President Bush] and his allies in Congress blocked a Democratic proposal to invest $350m in upgrading America's electrical grid system," said the Florida Senator Bob Graham. "The blackout is further evidence that America needs to invest in its infrastructure." ...most energy experts agree on the root causes of a failure many of them have been predicting for years. Deregulation of the power industry has left energy companies with insufficient incentive to invest in new transmission lines or enough generating capacity.

• "Catholic Church [long known for its impeccable honesty] denies bishops were ordered to cover up sex abuse claims" [link]

  Richard Scorer, a British lawyer acting for British victims of abuse, told The Observer yesterday: "This document appears to prove [that] the Catholic Church systematically covered up abuse." The Conference of Catholic Bishops in the United States said: "Those making this claim ... are taking the document entirely out of context and therefore distorting it completely." It added that the document "has no bearing on civil law. It does not forbid the civil reporting of civil crimes."

• "Britons consider suing Saudi Arabia over jail treatment" [link]

  A group of Britons jailed for alleged involvement in a car-bombing campaign in Saudi Arabia will meet lawyers this week to discuss taking legal action against the Arab state... Sandy Mitchell, 44, from Kirkintilloch, Glasgow, and William Sampson, also from Glasgow, who has a Canadian passport, had been sentenced to public beheading after being convicted of co-ordinating the attacks. The other four were each serving 12-year sentences. A seventh Briton had been detained for 10 months but was not charged. They later withdrew their confessions and their relatives have always said the charges were trumped up.

• "Britain 'may face sudden Ice Age'" [link]

  Many scientists now believe that rapidly increasing CO2 emissions will exacerbate the natural cycle of hot and cold weather that led to the mini Ice Age of the 17th century by severely affecting natural ocean currents.

For *nix enthusiasts (including cygwin): There's a new open-source development branch of XFree86, called Xouvert. Actually, it is an alternative to XF86. Actually, it appears to be mostly hypothetical at the moment. Appropriately, "Xouvert" is the name of the ancient Babylonian godess of open windows. I look forward to trying it out when they release something. I'm especially curious about their revision control system, Arch. We've been investigating CVS for our larger projects, but it seems inadequate for projects with many forks and concurrent developers. I guess any kind of revision control is better than our current approach of "print out the results in a graph and then misplace/overwrite the code that you used to get those results."

I'm watching this Discovery Channel documentary about the Ice Age. Creationists love to criticize these shows, and their complaints are usually unfounded. On this particular show, however, the narrator is conspicuously over-using the word "proof." The word has occured more in this show than at a convention of mathematicians. It's strange -- insecure, even. Here's my favorite line:

Some researchers believe that saber-toothed cats may have been social animals. Proof of this comes from a surprising conjecture...

Do biologists get to prove things based on conjectures?