As the Democratic Convention came to a close last week, both candidates are now on the campaign trail, almost meeting in Iowa on Wednesday. Bush appears to be signaling the beginning of a month-long attack against now Democratic nominee John Kerry, whose better-than-expected delivery of his acceptance speech at the convention is seen to have given him a boost with the American public. Hopefully the Bush campaign will refrain from recent gaffs where a campaign worker stated that Americans dissatisfied with their low-quality jobs should either just go out and find new ones, or start taking Prozac. Bush himself has reversed a previous decision and decided to implement some of the recommendations of the 9/11 commission. Elsewhere in the Bush administration, the John Ashcroft's Justice Department has been caught asking libraries to destroy certain books, some of which are texts of federal statues, only to have it rescinded after the order went public.
The Homeland Security Department has issued a terror warning based on what they call specific and detailed bomb threats to financial institutions in the United States, apparently partially based on computer documents found during the arrest of a al-Qaeda suspect. However, it was discovered after the fact that most of the intelligence from this latest warning is actually several years old, leading to additional questions about the overall credibility of the department. The CSM looks at how the terror alert system seems to be working overall. The British, on the other hand, seem to be doing slightly better as of late in the "war on terror" after reports that they arrested an al-Qaeda leader.
In the Darfur region of Sudan, French troops have arrived in Chad to begin an aid mission to all of the refugees that fled there during the atrocities, which according to UN aid workers are still being committed. This is sparking fears in the international community of a new wave of refugees crossing into neighboring countries. The United Nations security council has given the Sudanese government a 30-day deadline to dismantle the Arab militias accused of carrying out the attacks and called for additional food aid from the international community. Sudanese marched in a government-organized protest against the United Nations resolution which they see as no more than a declaration of war. Despite the the government of Sudan's discontent with the resolution, it has agreed to double the security forces in Darfur to meet with international demands.
Also:
- NASA has formulated a 'wish list' for future studies into the origins of the universe.
- Studies on the planets orbiting neighboring stars have led astronomers to hypothesize that the structure of our solar system might be the exception, not the rule.
- NASA has also launched its latest probe, Messenger, that will be headed for Mercury.
- The Mars rovers are starting to break down, though they have already performed activities for twice as long a duration as they were designed for.
- Scientists have discovered that Mars may have had active volcanoes much more recently than previously thought.
- A new telescope being built by the University of Texas and Texas A&M is expected to have a definition 10 times the clarity of the Hubble Space Telescope.
- Acid rain, despite all of its negative effects, has been shown to decrease the rate of global warming.
- Women who believe that they will live a long life have a greater chance of giving birth to male children.
- Francis Crick, one of the pioneers of the double-helix structure of DNA, has died at 88.
- Aloe vera might have more uses than just treating sunburns, they are now being studied as a method to cope with massive blood loss on the battlefield.
- Vitamin pills might be good for you overall, but recent studies have found that they have little effect decreasing your risk of heart disease.
- Amazingly enough, having four to five bottles of wine a week might actually make your brain work better.
- The CSM looks into why oil prices might remain at record high prices.
- Several cities and town in California may have inadvertantly banned SUVs from many of their roads.
- Social mobility is on the decrease in America.
- A cleaned up version of a JFK assassination audio tape may shed some light as to whether Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
- A Wal-Mart in Quebec might be the first store in the chain to successfully unionize.
- The Vatican has issued a document condeming the 'lethal effects' of feminism on society.
- The 11th circuit court of appeals has upheld an Alabama ban on the sale of sex toys.
- Missouri has passed a constitutional amendment prohibiting same-sex marriage.
- The 'father of photojournalism,' Henri Cartier-Bresson, has died at the age of 96.
- The Campaign Desk wonders why the major magazines don't follow the Economist's tactic of using actually important news as a cover story.
- In some much-needed good news for East Timor, a multi-billion dollar oil development project is underway that could revitalize the region's poorest nation.
- An interesting article on vocational training in Germany.
- Afghans, despite continuing threats of violence, are registering to vote in droves.
- The music industry in Canada is forcing dentists to pay licensing fees for the music they play in their offices, a move that might spread to the United States.
- New Zealand has captured a suspected Mossad agent who might have been using a falsified Canadian passport.
- Not satisfied with Air America, liberal activists are looking into creating their own news channel.
- All you could possibly want to know about error in polls.
- A website devoted to playing with time.
- Another website that deals with interesting results in math, after which you can learn about ethnomathematics.
- What the world apparently looks like to a fool.
- Portrats of different celebrities as if they had been painted by various masters.
- This website takes the subject lines from spam email and turns them into cartoons.
- First there was the subservient chicken, in 2004 we now have the subservient President.
- An independent ad for Kerry/Edwards that uses nothing but Bush's 2003 State of the Union address accompanied by pictures.
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