As Buddhas Fall: Richard Cohen’s op-ed piece in the Washington Post suggests that the Shrub’s faith-based initiative ought to be seen in the light of what the “pathologically pious” Taliban are doing to Afghanistan.

Who’s Obscene? Hackers Put Pornography on Hamas Web Site. “Hackers invaded the Internet site of the Muslim militant group Hamas
to make it show pornography on Tuesday, after the fundamentalist organization
claimed responsibility for a suicide bombing that killed three Israelis.

Web surfers trying to access http://www.hamas.org were re-routed automatically to a
pay-for-view pornographic site offering a fare ranging from ‘kinky co-eds” to
‘Latina fetish.’ ” Reuters’

Five factors caused sub collision, admiral testifies. Rear Adm. Charles Griffiths Jr. said a longer periscope search could have averted the disaster and cited five contributing factors:

Lack of qualified sonar operators.

Broken equipment that could have helped detect the Japanese ship.

The number and location of the civilian visitors.

A rush to complete the emergency surfacing drill.

A command climate in which crew members were unaccustomed to questioning the commanding officer because they trusted his skills. AP

WHO retracts statement backing South Africa in drug companies’ lawsuit. South Africa is in the midst of an epic patent-infringement lawsuit battle against pharmaceutical giants for the right to import cheap generic equivalents of AIDS drugs to deal with its HIV emergency — an estimated 10% of its population are HIV (+). The WHO now says a spokesperson was in error in stating that the agency believed South Africa’s actions were defensible under international law. AP

FBI protecting actor Russell Crowe. “The FBI is investigating a possible plot to kidnap Oscar-nominated
Gladiator star Russell Crowe.” Life imitating art? “… Crowe played a kidnap-and-ransom expert in his latest movie, Proof of Life.

Don’t look at your nakedwife Geek.com

US couple give up fight for twins BBC

Tim Wise: School Shootings and White Denial. “I can think of no other way to say this, so here goes: white people need to pull our
heads out of our collective ass… I said this after Columbine and no one listened so I’ll say it again: white people live
in an utter state of self-delusion. We think danger is black, brown and poor, and if
we can just move far enough away from ‘those people’ in the cities we’ll be safe.” AlterNet

Add 2 Sperm and Stir:

‘Dr. Calum MacKellar, a bioethicist associated with the University of Edinburgh,
has been outspoken about egg nuclear transfer, expressing a concern that it could
be used to “mate” the genetic material from two sperm cells to create a biological
child from two men. Theoretically, the technique could be used to introduce sperm
DNA into an enucleated egg, fertilize this “male egg” with another sperm and
gestate the resulting embryo in a surrogate mother. (Of course, this could be done
with the DNA of two female eggs as well.) […and recent speculation suggests it’s not impossible to alter a man’s body and hormonal environment to allow gestation…]

As simple as it might sound, this scenario is still somewhat remote, since the
creation and fertilization of a male egg would require researchers to overcome
certain biological obstacles, not just legislative and psychological ones. One such
impediment would be the automatic response that mammalian gametic DNA seems
to exhibit in which it recognizes the DNA of the opposite sex, otherwise known as
imprinting. Nevertheless, MacKellar is concerned that loopholes in the British
legislation allow research that could bring about the male egg. In the draft of a
recent article, he asks rhetorically: “Would society accept such motherless
children?” ‘ AlterNet

Eye of the Beholder?

‘Traditionally a procedure sought only by patients with excess eyelid skin or those hoping to lessen signs of aging,
eyelid surgery or Blepharoplasty has become popular among young Asian American women and accepted as
just another cosmetic choice in an array of many — like tinting your eyelashes or straightening your teeth.
Approximately half of Asians are born with eyelids that are naturally smooth and uninterrupted by a crease in the skin. Asian patients
seek out blepharoplasties to create or exaggerate a crease in their eyelids commonly referred to as “double eyelids.” … Critics of eyelid surgery believe it is a cosmetic cop-out for Asian Americans who want to downplay their race,
since all Caucasians and most non-Asians are born with the crease. Still others argue personal confidence is the issue, since an estimated
fifty percent of Asians are also born with the eyelid fold. But Asians have been characterized by their eyes more than any other feature by
Westerners (think Fu Manchu-style caricatures and slant-eye miming in the schoolyard.) This deep-rooted, racist cultural imagery makes
it somewhat impossible not to see the widespread effort to alter this trait as a reaction. as well as a statement about the effects of
Westernization on Asian Americans.’ Wiretap

Microsoft seeks revenue boost with rush Office release: “Within days of launching the Office XP preview program, Microsoft has released final, or gold,
code to manufacturing. In past projects, a gap of up to two months has separated final beta, or
preview, versions and the product’s gold release. The rush this time may well be inspired by
Microsoft’s sagging financial fortunes recently, as the Office line has been one of the software
giant’s most reliable money-makers.” c/net

Emotions and Disease, an exhibit “developed by the History of Medicine Division of the National Library of Medicine… to explain to the general public the meaning and relevance of scientific developments linking neurophysiology to the functioning of our immune systems… One of the paradoxes we found was that the close relationship between health,
disease, and the emotions seemed to be more readily accepted in popular culture than
within the contemporary scientific community. Why, we asked, has the close
relationship of emotions to disease been so central to the long history of medical
practice, yet has been regarded with suspicion by some sectors of the modern
biomedical community?

This exhibition evolved as a dialogue between scientists and historians pursuing answers
to these questions.”

Taking the wraps off “Ginger”. Let’s not forget this flash in the pan quite yet. “An article in the March 20 issue of Inside magazine claims that Ginger is indeed a
two-wheeled scooter-like device and further asserts that it will run nearly emission-free using a
hydrogen-based engine. In theory, the engine could power a range of devices.” c/net

Sharp to challenge Palm, Pocket PC with Linux PDA: “Osaka-based Sharp will be the first major maker of PDAs (personal digital assistants) to introduce a Linux OS-based PDA… The new models will be available in the United States and Europe from October… c/net