The War President By PAUL KRUGMAN June 24, 2005 VIENNA Source In this former imperial capital, every square seems to contain a giant statue of a Habsburg on horseback, posing as a conquering hero. America's founders knew all too well how war appeals to the vanity of rulers and their thirst for glory. That's why they took care to deny presidents the kingly privilege of making war at tby archive - Archive
MIT physicists create new form of matter June 22, 2005 Source CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- MIT scientists have brought a supercool end to a heated race among physicists: They have become the first to create a new type of matter, a gas of atoms that shows high-temperature superfluidity. Their work, to be reported in the June 23 issue of Nature, is closely related to the superconductivity of electrons inby archive - Archive
BREAKTHROUGH FOR THE DISABLED `Bionic' arm brings back sense of touch Technology links computer, nerves By Kelly Kennedy Tribune staff reporter Source June 23, 2005 Jesse Sullivan lost both of his arms at the shoulders, but with the help of a prosthetic hand and a set of rewired nerves, he can now feel--and sense hot and cold--almost as if he had real fingers. Two years ago, experts tby archive - Archive
Guardian Unlimited If patent law had been applied to novels in the 1880s, great books would not have been written. If the EU applies it to software, every computer user will be restricted, says Richard Stallman Patent absurdity By Richard Stallman Monday June 20, 2005 Source Next month, the European Parliament will vote on the vital question of whether to allow patents covering software, whiby archive - Archive
The Rude Awakening Wall Street, New York Friday, June 17, 2005 Source The Rude Awakening PRESENTS: Financial bubbles are mortal organisms. Even though they might seem immortal for a time, they never live forever. The housing bubble will be no different. Are we ready for the after-life? THE AFTER-LIFE By Eric J. Fry Financial bubbles are mortal organisms. Even though they might seem immortal fby archive - Archive
The US war with Iran has already begun By Scott Ritter, Aljazeera.net Monday 20 June 2005 Source Scott Ritter is a former UN weapons inspector in Iraq, 1991-1998, and author of Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of America's Intelligence Conspiracy, to be published by I B Tauris in October 2005. Sunday 19 June 2005 - Americans, along with the rest of the world, are starting to wake up tby archive - Archive
World's dry regions set to expand BBC News Friday, 17 June, 2005 Source Desertification is a growing menace that puts at risk global efforts to tackle poverty and hunger, a new report from a coalition of scientists states. The group says bad crop management and the misuse of irrigation in a number of regions is putting unsustainable pressure on dryland areas. The UN-led team estimates thby archive - Archive
But Mr Juncker’s arguments are deeply unrealistic—not to mention arguably undemocratic. The Dutch prime minister, for example, made it clear at the summit that his country would not vote again on the same, unamended constitution. Europe's identity crisis deepens Jun 18th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source The European Union summit has broken up with a deal on the constitution thby archive - Archive
Fears of military action on Iraq-Iran border By Phil Sands and Jumana Al Tamimi Published: 17/6/2005, 09:05 (UAE) Source Muntheria, Iraq/Dubai : Tensions between Iran and Iraq have escalated in recent weeks to the extent that threats of military action have been made, a senior member of Iraq’s security forces said. General Nazim Mohammad, chief of Iraq’s Border Police in Muntheria, told Gulfby archive - Archive
Nanoparticles transport cancer-killing drug into tumor cells to increase efficacy, lower drug toxicity in mice U-M scientists use folic acid as bait to get methotrexate inside tumor cells Written by Sally Pobojewski June 15, 2005 Source ANN ARBOR, MI - University of Michigan scientists have created the nanotechnology equivalent of a Trojan horse to smuggle a powerful chemotherapeutic drug insby archive - Archive
Peaking of World Oil Production: Impacts, Mitigation and Risk Management by Robert L. Hirsch et al. ( "Waiting until world conventional oil production peaks before implementing crash program mitigation leaves the world with a significant liquid fuel deficit for two decades or longer," according to a report prepared for the Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laborby archive - Archive
The global housing boom In come the waves Jun 16th 2005 From The Economist print edition Source The worldwide rise in house prices is the biggest bubble in history. Prepare for the economic pain when it pops NEVER before have real house prices risen so fast, for so long, in so many countries. Property markets have been frothing from America, Britain and Australia to France, Spain and China. Rby archive - Archive
"The whole world economy is at risk. The IMF has warned that, just as the upswing in house prices has been a global phenomenon, so any downturn is likely to be synchronised, and thus the effects of it will be shared widely. The housing boom was fun while it lasted, but the biggest increase in wealth in history was largely an illusion." House prices After the fall Jun 16th 2005by archive - Archive
Buttonwood An odd time to be rising Jun 14th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source Europe’s share prices are rising smartly even though Europe itself seems to be falling apart DOES it strike anyone else as odd that European shares are jumping ahead these days? The future of the euro, perhaps even of Europe, looks more than a bit uncertain. Each new economic statistic is soggier than thby archive - Archive
European Charter Architect Faults Chirac for Its Rejection By ELAINE SCIOLINO Published: June 15, 2005 Source PARIS, June 14 - As the architect of the European Union constitution, Valéry Giscard d'Estaing seemed at the top of his game, praised as "the Mozart of politics" and poised to go down in history as the founding father of a new Europe. Only two months ago, Mr. Giscard dby archive - Archive
EU: What kind of club? By Paul Reynolds World Affairs correspondent, BBC News website Thursday, 16 June, 2005 Source The European Union summit in Brussels this week is unlikely to resolve the twin issues currently facing Europe - the future of its proposed constitution and the imbalances in its budget. if Rome was not built in a day, the EU will not be saved in a summit. On the constitution,by archive - Archive
NASA sees earliest manned moon landing in 2015 Mon Jun 13,12:02 PM ET Source The next mission to land a man on the moon will take place in 2015 at the earliest, the new chief of the United States' space program said on Monday, adding the mission could be followed by the construction of a multinational space station there. But NASA has not yet decided what vehicles will be used to reach thby archive - Archive
PRESS RELEASE Date Released: Tuesday, June 14, 2005 Source: Transformational Space Corp. Source t/Space Demonstrates New Air-Launch Technology Three weeks of flight tests over the Mojave desert have demonstrated a breakthrough in how to safely launch future passenger-carrying rockets using a carrier aircraft. Transformational Space Corp. (t/Space) and Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites drop-by archive - Archive
Canada's government-run insurance system has much less bureaucracy and much lower administrative costs than our largely private system. Medicare has much lower administrative costs than private insurance. The reason is that single-payer systems don't devote large resources to screening out high-risk clients or charging them higher fees. The savings from a single-payer system would probaby archive - Archive
Losing Our Country By PAUL KRUGMAN Published: June 10, 2005 Source Baby boomers like me grew up in a relatively equal society. In the 1960's America was a place in which very few people were extremely wealthy, many blue-collar workers earned wages that placed them comfortably in the middle class, and working families could expect steadily rising living standards and a reasonable degree ofby archive - Archive
IBM Turns to Open Source Development By David Worthington, BetaNews June 13, 2005, 2:47 PM Source INTERVIEW Is open source changing the way that software is made? It is at IBM. BetaNews sat down with Doug Heintzman, IBM Software Group's VP of Strategy and Technology, to discuss the adoption of a hybrid development model called Community Source that combines the best elements of the open soby archive - Archive
Spinoza Reconsidered Jonathan Israel, Radical Enlightenment: Philosophy and the Making of Modernity 1650-1750 Oxford University Press Review by Ann Talbot 26 August 2003 Source I last reviewed Jonathan Israel’s Radical Enlightenment on this site in 2001 just after it came out in hardback. Why return to it now? The book itself would justify another review since it is a large and rich work thatby archive - Archive
Boards Get Brains, Chalk Vanishes By David Cohn 02:00 AM Jun. 09, 2005 PT Source NEW YORK -- Third graders at Columbia University's elementary school may never know the painful sound of fingernails scratching on a chalkboard. That's because the dust-covered board that normally would be the focus of their classroom has been replaced by a giant, touch-sensitive computer screen. Allby archive - Archive
Can this union be saved? Jun 6th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source The French and Dutch referendums have dashed hopes of political union in Europe. As criticism of the euro grows louder, there are fears that monetary union, too, might be in peril VARIOUS countries have been called “the sick man of Europe” at one time or another, but never before has the competition for the title proby archive - Archive
Buttonwood Bankers scratch their heads—and worry Jun 7th 2005 From The Economist Global Agenda Source An inverted yield curve may be approaching in America. Do we care? Banks do IT’S official: Alan Greenspan, chairman of the Federal Reserve, is still puzzled by the stubborn refusal of American bond yields to rise in sympathy with the Fed’s upward yanks on short-term interest rates. In his satby archive - Archive
Many Scientists Admit to Misconduct By Rick Weiss, Washington Post Staff Writer Thu Jun 9, 1:00 AM ET Source Few scientists fabricate results from scratch or flatly plagiarize the work of others, but a surprising number engage in troubling degrees of fact-bending or deceit, according to the first large-scale survey of scientific misbehavior. More than 5 percent of scientists answering a confidby archive - Archive
Building Iraq's Army: Mission Improbable Project in North Reveals Deep Divide Between U.S. and Iraqi Forces By Anthony Shadid and Steve Fainaru Washington Post Foreign Service Friday, June 10, 2005; A01 Source BAIJI, Iraq -- An hour before dawn, the sky still clouded by a dust storm, the soldiers of the Iraqi army's Charlie Company began their mission with a ballad to ousted presideby archive - Archive
Believing (and Believing and Believing) in Bullion By STEPHEN METCALF June 5, 2005 Source On a recent early spring morning, I made my way down to the appropriately poker-faced and austere building that houses the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. In its sub-basement, 80 feet below street level, there is a vault that rests on the granite bedrock of Manhattan. ''No man-made floor couldby archive - Archive
Senate panel votes to expand Patriot Act June 7, 2005 7:22 PM PDT Source Forget scaling back the Patriot Act. Instead, the controversial post-9/11 law would be expanded to give the FBI new powers to demand documents from companies without a judge's approval, according to a vote late Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence committee. The final text of the Senate Intelligence committee's aby archive - Archive
Coming in out of the cold: Cold fusion, for real posted June 06, 2005 Source By Michelle Thaller | csmonitor.com PASADENA, CALIF. – For the last few years, mentioning cold fusion around scientists (myself included) has been a little like mentioning Bigfoot or UFO sightings. After the 1989 announcement of fusion in a bottle, so to speak, and the subsequent retraction, the whole idea of cold fusby archive - Archive