The Dawn of Galaxies: “Detailed analyses of mankind’s deepest optical view of the universe, the Hubble Ultra Deep Field (HUDF), by several expert teams have at last identified, what may turn out to be, the earliest star-forming galaxies. Astronomers are now debating whether the hottest stars in these early galaxies may have provided enough radiation to ‘lift a curtain’ of cold, primordial hydrogen that cooled after the big bang. This is a problem that has perplexed astronomers over the past decade, and NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has at last glimpsed what could be the ‘end of the opening act’ of galaxy formation. These faint sources illustrate how astronomers can begin to explore when the first galaxies formed and what their properties might be.

But even though Hubble has looked 95 percent of the way back to the beginning of time, astronomers agree that’s not far enough.” (NASA — Hubblesite)

“America recently decided — and on this point, let’s be crystal clear — that it indeed wanted another four years of George Bush. And even if my man Greg Palast is utterly convinced that the 2004 election, as in 2000, was decided ahead of time by pervasive voter fraud and election commission corruption in more than one state, this election shouldn’t have been close at all to begin with.

Bush is, without a doubt, the worst president America has ever had, something it should have been able to figure out if it weren’t so deeply involved in the alternate reality fed to it by the scandal-ridden New York Times, bankrupt network television, MTV, and so-called news outlets like CNN, MSNBC and Fox. He should have had his ass handed to him in a gold-encrusted box with a forwarding address in Crawford, Texas, plastered across it.

But he didn’t, and the reason is very simple. The Democrats thought they could run with the same lame-ass, lesser-evil strategy they employed in 2000. Problem was, they weren’t the lesser evil. John Kerry voted for this baseless war in Iraq, and Democratic knuckleheads like Jamie Rubin, as Arianna Huffington recently pointed out, were even crowing about how the patrician patsy probably would have invaded Iraq anyway, even though the WMD that Colin Powell staked — and lost — his reputation on never materialized. Hey, can you pass that peace pipe?

Bush, true to character, didn’t waste a moment in making his agenda for the next four years obvious to anyone paying attention (not that too many were, or are). Immediately after Kerry conceded, Bush talked — in exquisitely blatant language, for those few linguists left alive — of ‘capital’ he wanted to ‘spend’ before proceeding to bomb the living crap out of Fallujah, something he didn’t dare do when the election was afoot. Then Arafat kicked the bucket (nice timing!), erasing another roadblock in the neocon foreign policy. Then Bush made Powell’s emasculation official by dumping him for Condi Rice, an unusually close confidant who once accidentally called Bush her husband. Then partisan hack Porter Goss became the CIA’s top dog, and made his first order of business a memo that demanded unconditional participation with the administration. Then Bush’s party circled the wagons around Tom DeLay, deciding to ignore whatever the Texas courts decided on the corrupt politician’s future. Spot a pattern?”

“…(A)fter the incident was videotaped by Jewish women peace activists, it prompted revulsion among Israelis not normally perturbed about the treatment of Arabs.

The rightwing Army Radio commentator Uri Orbach found the incident disturbingly reminiscent of Jewish musicians forced to provide background music to mass murder. ‘What about Majdanek?’ he asked, referring to the Nazi extermination camp. The critics were not drawing a parallel between an Israeli roadblock and a Nazi camp. Their concern was that Jewish suffering had been diminished by the humiliation of Mr Tayem.

Yoram Kaniuk, author of a book about a Jewish violinist forced to play for a concentration camp commander, wrote in Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper that the soldiers responsible should be put on trial ‘not for abusing Arabs but for disgracing the Holocaust’.” (Guardian.UK)

“This document provides a simple guide to eating sushi. Its target audience are non-Japanese people who enjoy sushi but aren’t familiar with the customs and traditions that make for an outstanding experience. If you enjoy sushi, or if you think you’d like to give sushi a try, this document is for you.

Many sushi eating subcultures have developed outside of Japan, particularly in the United States. This document was prepared with input from the author’s Japanese friends and acquintances. When a custom is discussed this HOWTO chooses the ‘Japanese way’ of doing things over ‘the local way’.”

Red Cross Finds Detainee Abuse in Guantánamo: “The International Committee of the Red Cross has charged in confidential reports to the United States government that the American military has intentionally used psychological and sometimes physical coercion ‘tantamount to torture’ on prisoners at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba.” (New York Times )

“Much is at stake in whether a condition is elevated to the status of a full-fledged diagnosis. Because no laboratory tests or other objective criteria exist for making psychiatric diagnoses, the American Psychiatric Association’s manual is the definitive arbiter of the line between normal and abnormal. Its definitions help determine such practical matters as insurance reimbursement, competence and eligibility for disability. But they also help determine something more elusive, and probably more important: whether someone’s behavior should be considered a personality quirk or a symptom of mental illness.” (New York Times )

Why Good Friends Don’t Always Make Good Doctors: “The potentially distorted judgment of a physician caring for a loved one is well-worked territory. The traditional argument is that doctors may underestimate the severity of illnesses because they are unable to accept grim information about loved ones. Hippocrates, in fact, cautions against treating one’s own family.

My mistake, however, arose from a different, and much more modern circumstance. Medicine in the 21st century is a contact sport. It hurts. We have developed an assaultive, physical, even brutal approach to diagnosing illnesses and treating people: chemotherapy, surgery, biopsies, transplants. All for the better, most would argue, but literally a painful way to proceed. Once it was the awful taste of syrupy medicine; now it is the pain of a spinal tap.

And this creates the following conundrum: Even when someone is quite ill, the doctor can’t worry about hurting the person or the person’s feelings. Sorry, but the next biopsy or the next surgery or the next awful test must be done. Trying to soften the blow in the name of friendship invites disaster. Stated another way, a better question to ask your doctor is: ‘What would you do if it were a total stranger?'” (New York Times )

“As millions of women inject Botox, reshape noses, augment breasts, lift buttocks and suck away unwanted fat, a growing number are now exploring a new frontier, genital plastic surgery. They are tightening vaginal muscles, plumping up or shortening labia, liposuctioning the pubic area and even restoring the hymen, sometimes despite their doctors’ skepticism about the need for such cosmetic measures.” (New York Times )

“Lacking Reagan’s pragmatic streak, the president may find it impossible to unite a party deeply divided on social, foreign policy and budget issues.” — Matthew Dallek (Salon)

“If U.S. officials who are complaining about election fraud in Ukraine applied the same standards in Ohio, then our own presidential election certainly was stolen.

… In Ohio, the secretary of state in charge of the elections process was co-chairman of the Bush campaign in the state. He obstructed the vote count systematically — for instance, by demanding that provisional ballots without birth dates on their envelopes be thrown out, even though there is no requirement for that in state law. He also required that provisional ballots be cast in a voter’s home precinct, ensuring that there would be no escape from long lines. Republicans fielded thousands of election challengers to Democratic precincts, mainly to try to intimidate black voters and to slow down the voting process. A recount, demanded and paid for by the Green and Libertarian parties, has been stalled in court, so that it won’t possibly upset the certification of Ohio’s electoral votes.” — James Galbraith (Salon)