“One of the uncommitted voters in the audience sensibly asked President Bush to name three mistakes he’d made in office, and what he had done to remedy the damage. Mr. Bush declined to list even one, and instead launched into an impassioned defense of the invasion of Iraq as a good idea. The president’s insistence on defending his decision to go into Iraq seemed increasingly bizarre in a week when his own investigators reported that there were no weapons of mass destruction there, and when his own secretary of defense acknowledged that there was no serious evidence of a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.

Even worse, the president’s refusal to come up with even a minor error – apart from saying that he might have made some unspecified appointments that he now regretted – underscores his inability to respond to failure in any way except by insisting over and over again that his original decision was right.”

Program was touted publicly, then came official gag order: “During the Cold War, the Air Force funded numerous scientific studies of the basic physics of antimatter. With the knowledge gained, some Air Force insiders are beginning to think seriously about potential military uses — for example, antimatter bombs small enough to hold in one’s hand, and antimatter engines for 24/7 surveillance aircraft.” (SF Chronicle)

“Why do they hate McDonald’s so much? Some of us might not think its food tastes that great, but surely that is a matter of, well, taste. There is no evidence that eating a McDonald’s meal is bad for you, but plenty to suggest that it is being made an easy scapegoat for obesity.

I want to let you in on a scientific secret. There is no such thing as ‘junk food’. Given the news coverage that it attracts, this may sound like saying that there is no war in Iraq. But junk food really is a myth. As Professor Stanley Feldman from the University of London told me: ‘Of course, some foods taste better or are more nutritious. But the idea that some are ‘junk’ – containing nothing of value, or harmful to our health – is nonsense.” — Mick Hume (spiked)

Podcasts: New Twist on Net Audio: “‘It’s aggregating audio content, but it’s taking one extra step, in that it’s putting it on your device,’ said Adam Curry, who built the first podcasting aggregator, known as iPodder. ‘Not only do these devices play it, but you don’t have to put it there yourself. It just happens automatically.’

To get audio feeds, users simply connect their MP3 player to their computer, go online, and subscribe to feeds they want the podcasting service to provide. Audio content is then pushed from the original source to an aggregator and then to the subscriber.

To some, podcasting is one of the most exciting innovations to come along in quite awhile. They see it opening up an endlessly varied universe of audio content to anyone who wants it at any time.” (Wired)

“The FBI yesterday seized a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, after serving a subpoena in the US on Indymedia’s hosting firm, Rackspace. Why or how remains unclear.

Rackspace UK complied with a legal order and handed over hard disks without first notifying Indymedia. It’s unclear if the raid was executed under extra-territorial provisions of US legislation or the UK’s Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Provisions of RIPA make it a criminal offence to discuss warrants, so Rackspace would not be able to discuss the action with its customer Indymedia, or with the media.” (The )Register