The New Scientist reports on new calculations based on general relativity theorizing that wormholes large and stable enough to allow intergalactic travel really can exist. The trick is that they produce enough postulated ‘exotic matter’ to keep themselves open and arbitrarily large.

Another vain attempt to halt the MP3 juggernaut.

I continue to be disconcerted about the sellout: Ben & Jerry’s, the ice cream maker dumps Newport Folk Festival sponsorship. A sign of the times after the announcement earlier today that it was being acquired by Anglo-Dutch conglomerate Unilever, which already owns the Breyer’s and Good Humor ice cream brands. Update: I heard today on NPR that the highminded terms of sale to which Ben Cohen is holding Unilever (continue to donate 7.5% of net to charity; use only Vermont, hormone-free milk, etc.) are only binding for two years.

“Road rage” on high? “Since July 1997, over a dozen passengers have attempted to

breach cockpit doors during commercial airline flights. We’ve

been lucky so far.” [Salon]

`Copenhagen’: A Fiery Power in the Behavior of Particles and Humans: The New York Times weighs in quite favorably on this challenging drama about what happened during a mysterious 1941 meeting between Neils Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, originator of the famed “uncertainty principle”. What may have been at stake was the possible success of a German project to develop atomic weapons under Heisenberg’s direction.

John Hinckley’s Request: The New York Times finds “disconcerting” a report that St. Elizabeth Hospital officials are supporting John Hinckley Jr.’s request for passes for unsupervised visits with his parents. Hinckley has been walking unescorted around hospital grounds without incident for years and for the past six months has taken supervised field trips to area restaurants and shopping malls. The Times, in a remarkably unwarranted and unjustified editorial position, IMHO, opines that skepticism about Hinckley’s progress should be preserved and that “the decision should not be based solely on the advice of hospital doctors.”

Decision time: The discovery of the protein that steers the differentiation of mouse embryonic stem cells suggests we may be closing in on hoped-for methods of controlling recently-developed human immortal lines of stem cells.

Deadly Dengue Fever Could Worsen in 21st Century: “The outbreak of dengue fever and its sometimes deadly hemorrhagic strain will continue to

increase across the Americas in the 21st century unless governments boost their will to combat the tropical virus, experts said.

Cases of dengue are on the rise in almost every country in North and South America even though the disease was almost wiped out by a

1962 plan to eradicate the mosquito that carries and spreads the virus”.

NASA’s Advanced Space Transportation Program looks at ways to turn science fiction into reality. Researching new propulsion methods and new methods of onboard energy generation to power propulsion; and “how to attain the ultimate achievable speeds to dramatically reduce travel times…(including) faster-than-light travel if it turns out to be physically possible”.