Clinics Full of Frozen Embryos Offer a New Route to Adoption. While rarely chosen yet, “adoption” might be an option for tens of thousands of frozen embryos stored after in vitro fertilization; they are a potential source of embryonal stem cells as well, whose use is controversial because harvest of the stem cells renders the embryos nonviable. New York Times

Powell Surprised On Bombing Clamor: ‘At a news conference after meeting here with Israel’s Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon, Powell said the attack could have been coordinated better in order not to inflame Arab sentiment. “Our action was a little more aggressive than usual and got a little more attention,” Powell said. “But I have no apologies.” ‘ Cracks in the administration facade already? Dubya, in his statement on the airstrike, could do nothing but drone on repeating the “routine” mantra over and over.

U.S. Agrees to Clinton-Era Arms Talks with Russia. “The United States on Saturday accepted a Russian request that arms control experts resume talks in the framework developed under Russian President Vladimir Putin and former President Clinton. A senior U.S. official said Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov told Secretary of State Colin Powell (news – web sites) at their first meeting in Cairo that Russia liked the old framework for talks and wanted to know if the Bush administration would continue it.”

Powell said: ‘Yes, good idea.’ ” How disingenuous of us, when it is the official policy of the new administration to push ahead with the “missile defense” program against “rogue states”, which requires brazen abrogation of the ABM (Anti-Ballistic Missile) Treaty and destabilizing the arms race again. Reuters

Sharon Tells Powell Talks Hinge on End to Violence. “Prime Minister-elect Ariel Sharon Sunday set a end to violence as a pre-condition for peace talks with the Palestinians and demanded President Yasser Arafat take unspecified ‘steps” before Israel eases economic sanctions.” What makes Sharon think that the Palestinian Authority has any control over Palestinian mob sentiment?

Two Heads Not Always Better Than One: “Learning to solve a problem as part of a twosome and learning on your own produce different benefits, a Penn State researcher has found and he says these differences can be exploited to enhance cooperative learning strategies, decision support systems for corporate managers or on line courses.” The research focusd on defining situations in which group or individual problem-solving might have an advantage, but there’s no mention of something that seems abvious to me — that certain people may do better with one strategy or the other depending on their innate characteristics.

New E-Mail Will Be Personalized. Its promoters think this arrangement to attach animated faces to email to convey the emotion of the writer will be the next “killer app”, even though it’s little better — or perhaps less effective — than those silly little “emoticons” no one’s used for years. The developers of this system trumpet that it will fulfill the potential of the Internet, and they’re right — it may very well complete the move to the complete banality of e-communication! Oh, and let’s not forget its potential applicability to e-commerce, via the creation of “virtual sales clerks… to answer all your questions and take your orders”. Actually, I wish that I had the capacity to attach an animated face to this message right now, just this once — if it could adequately convey disdain.