anonymous_echidna writes "Florida has voted to accept the new K-12 science curriculum standards amidst a storm of controversy around the teaching of evolution, which had up until now been the scientific concept that dare not speak its name. There was a compromise made at the last minute, which was to call evolution a 'scientific theory', rather than a fact. While some lament that the change displays the woeful ignorance of science and scientific
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dtwood writes "Infoworld's Cringely has an interesting take on the Julius Baer bank trying to silence WikiLeaks.org — and how stunningly stupid they've been. 'But the bank's solution is so mind-bogglingly stupid, you have to wonder if these guys need help getting their pants on each morning. First, this is exactly the kind of story bloggers and Net-centric journos crave. Big nasty corporation stomps all over plucky public-serving underdog.
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We want to give you a quick update on the progress of our upgrade at RT. For those of you that are new to the site, we're in the midst of making some long overdue changes to the RT site to make it more fun, more useful and easier to...

COLUMBUS, Ohio (Reuters) - Republican presidential front-runner John McCain accused Democrat Barack Obama on Wednesday of rolling back on a pledge to limit himself to public money in November's U.S. presidential election.

NAJAF, Iraq (Reuters) - Iraqi Shi'ite cleric Moqtada al-Sadr will announce by midnight on Saturday whether his feared Mehdi Army is to extend a six-month ceasefire, an aide said on Wednesday.

Fashion Wire Daily - Every so often in fashion there comes a moment when you see a new future, a different vernacular of style, an insight into people's minds and thinking precisely because the clothes are so different, so intelligent, so brilliantly displayed.

AP - Sets are being built. A stretch of Hollywood Boulevard is closed. Rehearsals have begun. With the writers strike finally in the rear-view mirror, round-the-clock preparations are under way for Sunday's Academy Awards.

The venerable British university is embarking on a study that brings together theologians, scientists and academics to ponder the biggest question of all.

Redmond appears ready to appeal directly to Yahoo shareholders to sell their stock to Microsoft, even as Yahoo sets the table to make an acquisition more difficult.

The California network-equipment maker says the $2.2 billion deal to be acquired by a Chinese telecom won't proceed, because federal authorities reviewing the proposed sale said security issues can't be resolved.

Here are the essays and short stories originally published in The New Yorker that were later collected in Houghton Mifflin?s annual ?Best American? anthology series (1915-present). Some of the later ones are freely available online, all are in the Complete New Yorker collection (it's a sort of best-of guide to the archive).

Magical dragon-faeries? Flaxen-hair'd elflords? Dank scary dungeons, reminiscent of Grandpa's basement? Kids' stuff. Whether you're a Camwhore, Emo Kid, or Troll, Forumwarz everything relevant about the Internet (i.e., Forums and IM) distilled down to a browser-based RPG. Buy warez from shady Russian dealers, upgrade your hacking/whining skills, pwn total strangers by crashing their web sites, and join or fight a shadowy government conspiracy.
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Apparently, the new black is... really, really black. "Researchers in New York reported this month that they have created a paper-thin material that absorbs 99.955 percent of the light that hits it, making it by far the darkest substance ever made -- about 30 times as dark as the government's current standard for blackest black." But what possible benefit to society could come from this blacker than black substance? Why, invisibility cloaks, of c
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Adding to today's cavalcade of posts tagged with feminism, here's a short, non-comprehensive post about controversial and awesome feminist Andrea Dworkin. Usually criticized without being read or understood, Dworkin's writing offers a lot to love or hate. Here's a link to an archive of some of her short stories, essays, and excerpts from her books, so that you can get to know this brilliant and singular mind for yourself. I particularly recommend
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How Well Do You Know Your World? Because you should have to wait until Friday for Flash Fun.

Josh Sommer is a student at Duke who is researching and advocating to find a cure for chordoma, a rare type of cancer that he was diagnosed with during his freshman year of college. He's not new to being an advocate-- when he was in high school, he and his mom (Dr. Simone Sommer) spoke publicly about the dangers of toxic mold, which they had both experienced firsthand.