21 Tishri 5767 * 13 October 2006: Hosha`na' Rabba'/National Peanut Festival

Greetings.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “The Holidays (1991)”
  
• “Oldest Embryo Fossils Provide Picture of Early Animal Life”
  
• “Rice: Palestinian struggle for state echoes battle for US independence” (Would someone please tell me why the Bush administration is considered pro-Israel? Rice has consistently bought into the Muslim propaganda.)
  
• “Best. Saturn. Picture. EVAH!”
  
• “Tiny Genome May Reflect Organelle in the Making”
  
• “Radioactive snails lead to Spain-U.S. atomic probe” (No, there are no gigantic gastropods threatening Toledo.)
  
• “Falling into the gap trap”
  
• “Darfur sanctions needed -report” (PREDICTION: The UN and superpowers will do nothing of any substance to stop the genocide ever, but will cry about the dead after the fact and claim that if they had only known the true extent of what was happening, they would have intervened.)

Today’s weird thing is the Bath University RepRap Project, whose goal is to make a machine that can make practically anything, including copies of itself—and make the whole thing open source. You’ll know they’ve succeeded when a friend gives you a universal constructor for free. Enjoy, Shabbath shalom, hagh sameah, and share the weirdness (or universal constructors).

Aaron