27 Marḥeshwan 5768: Dunce Day

Greetings.

Worthy causes of the day (thank you, Barry): “Fund peace”, “The mother of all tax loopholes”, and FreeRice.

Today’s news and commentary:

• “Negotiations With Non-Democracies (1987)”
  
• “Danger Ahead”
  
• “Guardian's Lax Student Research”
  
• “'Why has Israel failed with Pollard?'”
  
• “NASA satellites to predict and prevent infectious disease outbreaks”
  
• “Saddam's damn dam”
  
• “Abstinence-only programs — they still don’t work”
  
• “World’s First Image Taking of the Moon by HDTV”
  
• “Olmert voted most corrupt politician” (I wonder what would happen if this survey were extended planetwide...)

Today’s weird thing is “Starship Size Comparison Chart”, which shows comparative spaceship and space station sizes from science-fiction. Of everything listed on this chart, the Galactic Empire has the biggest ship. Notable omissions of the fictional universes these vessels come from are Doctor Who (at 1 pixel = 10 meters, the TARDIS is too small to show up, though externally larger vessels do appear on the show) and Firefly/Serenity. Enjoy and share the weirdness.

Aaron