Reprinted from Looka! “Horrendous classical music joke of the day: A-one,
and a-two, and a-three … (*bomp*bomp*bomp*)

You say Carmina, I say Carmana,

You say Burina, I say Burana,

Carmina, Carmana, Burina, Burana.

Let’s Carl the whole thing Orff.

— Robert Feiertag, posting on soc.motss”

Cheaper Flat Panels Comin’ At Ya’ The Register

“For healthy people, mind reading is an innate and effortless
ability, even though it’s in fact very complicated. For people
with autism, it’s like doing mental arithmetic.” Mind theory: “The brain regions critical in allowing us to
understand another person’s thoughts are
revealed.” Several years ago, researchers found that, in autistic subjects, facial recognition of others uses the same brain regions as object recognition, not the distinct specialized areas for person recognition. Now, a complementary study shows that patients with Asperger’s syndrome (arguably related to autism) do not use distinctive brain regions, as non-AS subjects do, to solve problems involving figuring out or imagining what another person is thinking or feeling. They have an impairment in the capacity to form a ‘Theory of Mind’; more simply put, empathic ability. Extraordinary to think that specific brain regions subsume this skill; it gives new meaning to the notion of humans as the ‘social animal’. However, reading this research made me wonder (as it turns out in the last paragraph does the study’s author) whether these findings might enable us to probe the claim that other animals — notably chimpanzees — have the capacity for a Theory of Mind. New Scientist

UCSF researchers move in on role of brain’s naturally occurring marijuana: “Nearly a decade ago, researchers determined that the brain contains a molecule that mimics the active ingredient in marijuana, but its
location and role in the brain were unclear. Now, UCSF researchers have discovered that the molecule acts, at least in part, in a region of
the brain that plays a key role in learning and memory.

The study, reported in the March 29 issue of Nature, suggests, the researchers say, that the molecule, known as a cannabinoid, plays a role
in particular cognitive functions within a structure known as the hippocampus. Paradoxically, marijuana disrupts cognitive function and the
likely explanation, the researchers say, is that marijuana disrupts the very cognitive system the cannabinoid normally supports.” EurekAlert!

So Gore Really Won? “One day after the Miami Herald published a story that prompted
national headlines about George W. Bush being the real winner in
Florida, the newspaper effectively recanted.

In a new story in Thursday’s editions, the Herald acknowledged what we also
pointed out: that a careful examination of the Herald’s own data would have
led to a conclusion that Al Gore was the choice of Florida voters under a
reasonable standard judging the “clear intent of the voters.”

The Herald’s data revealed that by looking at the so-called ‘undervotes’ in all
67 counties and counting various markings for president, Gore would have
won Florida and thus the presidency.” The Consortium

Free-Floating Planets — British Team Restakes Its Claim. “An academic tug-of-war over worlds beyond our solar system continued Tuesday, with two British
scientists reasserting their claim to have found free-floating planets that others say are nothing of
the sort.” Departing from the commonly-understood concept of a planet as an object orbiting a star, the argument here is that measurements of these objects — in the Trapezium Cluster of the Orion Nebula — qualify them as planets because they are “sub 13Mjup”, i.e. less than 13 times the mass of Jupiter. Nothing smaller has sufficient temperature and pressure in its core to support fusion. The counterargument is that the calculations are off and that these objects are really more massive brown dwarf stars, “unattached balls of gas.”

I’ve been had! …along with alot of others, it seems. Thanks to a reader who alerted me to this. To be fair, I did ask you if you really believed the “We Deliver” spiel. ‘(T)he
We-Deliver.tv domain name is registered to Sputnik7, a
New York entertainment portal out to grab some eyeballs
by any means necessary.

The We Deliver Web site is a form of “stealth marketing,”
says Sommer Hixson, the company’s public relations director.

“We Deliver is Sputnik7’s first original, live-action ‘webisodic’
about a fictional weed delivery service in New York called
Green Acres,” she says. “The 10-part series will launch on
Sputnik7 on Friday, April 20. We-deliver.tv is a campaign
to create a pre-launch buzz.” ‘ Salon

DOJ: Cypherpunk Threatened Feds. “A federal prosecutor said on Wednesday that an Internet essayist spent
months illegally compiling information about IRS agents through CD-ROM databases and conversations
with members of a mailing list of ‘cypherpunks.’

Robb London, an assistant U.S. Attorney, said in court that Jim Bell was not conducting a legitimate
investigation of government wrongdoing last year but instead was a disturbed person who had never
renounced a political treatise he wrote entitled ‘Assassination Politics‘, (a) long-winded thought experiment predicting how future
technologies including untraceable digital cash, encryption and anonymity should allow
anyone upset with the feds to bet on when a certain government agent will die. The
winner, presumably the assassin, wins the pool of money… Bell has pleaded not guilty to five counts of interstate stalking that allegedly took place
last year, saying he was legally assembling information about government agents he
thought were participating in a conspiracy involving illegal surveillance. ” Wired Wired correspondent Declan McCullagh, who has covered the Jim Bell affair and is covering the trial, was forced to testify over his objections that he might be compelled to reveal the identities of confidential sources of some of his information. The Register McCullagh describes the first day’s proceedings here. cluebot.com

Three New Places to Fight Hate. “Hate speech may flow freely on the Internet, but it just got a powerful rebuttal in the form of a trio of
new websites preaching tolerance.

The three sites will help fill a vacuum left by Hatewatch.org, which closed shop in January after its
founder said hate groups had failed to gain widespread acceptance on the Internet.” Wired