Slashdot Mirror

hughk writes "A trial is taking place in China where a webmaster who is running a site dedicated to help finding missing people is facing trial over content provided by a third-party. Unfortunately, someone had the audacity to mention Tiananmen Square. The story is written up on the BBC website amongst others. This comes down to the old problem of how do you run a service like this when not only do you monitor the articles, you have to monitor the replies as well? From a comparison point of view, you can not be prosecuted for doing something similar in Russia, but it does help to be up to date with your taxes." There are so many of these articles we can't run them all. But it helps to run some from time to time to remind people living in the freer areas of the world that not everyone lives as they do.

DrGoon writes: "The BBC has reported that "After docking, the shuttle crew of five astronauts delivered supplies and gifts to the Alpha crew, including a computer, cables for the laboratory, food, water, clothes and about 20 DVD movies. " in this story, which raises the interesting question: what DVD region is the International Space Station?" So, either they have a region-free DVD player - which is theoretically illegal according to Hollywood - or only the U.S. crew gets to watch movies.

SEWilco writes "This BBC story points out that a team of astronomers have found a way to adjust the orbit of the Earth. They suggest moving a large asteroid past Earth and using its gravity to pull us out to a slightly different orbit. Their concern was how to keep the Earth cool as the Sun ages and warms up in a billion years. It's nice to see someone thinking of the long term."

A private consortium of scientists plans to clone a human being within the next two years. They claim they will develop ethical guidelines to determine when to clone and not to clone. This assumes the scientists that develop a technology are able to limit society's use of that technology. It also assumes scientists are the best judges as to whether society is sufficiently mature to use a given technology sanely. Both questions seem debatable to me. What do you think?

Simon Cozens writes "The BBC is reporting that Napster is introducing a subscription charge to pay off the music industry. " And the real question is what percentage of Napster users will shell out the clams vs moving to OpenNap or Gnutella.

Simon Cozens writes "The BBC is reporting that Napster is introducing a subscription charge to pay off the music industry. " And the real question is what percentage of Napster users will shell out the clams vs moving to OpenNap or Gnutella.

A developer writes: "Sony and DoCoMo announced they will jointly develop on-line games worldwide. Sony, Motorola and JVC have greatly invested in a new Sun Authorized Java Virtual Machine which is also being used in the new Amiga computer. Founder of the UK based Tao Group and ex-Amiga developer Mr. Charig just returned from Japan for the launch of DoCoMo`s new Java technology based i appli service. Interestingly Tao demonstrated its technology running on the Dreamcast a year ago as well and recently it was announced that Sega is going to make games for new set-top boxes and mobile phones. BTW every C, C++, Java or Vitual Assembler written Amiga/Tao application can be executed code identical on top of other operation systems as well including Linux. :)" edhak also points to this BBC article on the possibility of worldwide handheld wirelessly distributed games, and gloats "Wipeout on a mobile!"

stewart.hector writes: "BBC Online reports on research that suggests drinking water at the wrong time can reduce brain power. Here's the story."

An unnamed and unsampled reader writes: "According to the BBC The UK home secretary is expanding the police DNA database to include innocent people. And, of course, these can be taken without your consent if the police have 'reasonable' grounds. The police state (RIP bill, etc.) emerging in the UK is looking less and less 'reasonable' every day." The article cites Home Secretary Jack Straw as making a comparison that may strike him as more attractive than it does me, namely likening DNA testing to widespread video surveillance. According to Straw, the "introduction of closed circuit television in streets and shopping centres had been seen at the time as an attack on civil liberties but [is] now welcomed by the public." Anyone from that side of the water feel that way?

An unnamed and unsampled reader writes: "According to the BBC The UK home secretary is expanding the police DNA database to include innocent people. And, of course, these can be taken without your consent if the police have 'reasonable' grounds. The police state (RIP bill, etc.) emerging in the UK is looking less and less 'reasonable' every day." The article cites Home Secretary Jack Straw as making a comparison that may strike him as more attractive than it does me, namely likening DNA testing to widespread video surveillance. According to Straw, the "introduction of closed circuit television in streets and shopping centres had been seen at the time as an attack on civil liberties but [is] now welcomed by the public." Anyone from that side of the water feel that way?

Andy Smith writes: "The BBC reports that researchers from Dartmough College in New Hampshire aim to create robots made from 'smart building blocks.' The idea is that the robots can then transform into other objects. According to the story, the reseachers eventually 'hope to use thousands of microscopic units to make infinitely flexible machines, fit for any task'. The article goes into a lot more detail about how the units will work, and the research that is currently being done."

Andy Smith writes: "The BBC reports that researchers from Dartmough College in New Hampshire aim to create robots made from 'smart building blocks.' The idea is that the robots can then transform into other objects. According to the story, the reseachers eventually 'hope to use thousands of microscopic units to make infinitely flexible machines, fit for any task'. The article goes into a lot more detail about how the units will work, and the research that is currently being done."

jeffsenter writes "The BBC has coverage of China's launch of a rocket into space carrying a 'lifeform.' This is China's second rocket launch with an orbiter. China plans to launch a person into space in 18 months, making it only the third country to do so."

jeffsenter writes "The BBC has coverage of China's launch of a rocket into space carrying a 'lifeform.' This is China's second rocket launch with an orbiter. China plans to launch a person into space in 18 months, making it only the third country to do so."

zebidee writes: "I've always been pretty amazed at the advances they continue to make in the field of medical science but this one really does take top prize. The BBC is reporting that the clever boffins at St. Mary's Hospital in London are preparing to use a new robotic arm to carry out heart bypass surgery using the da Vinci system developed by Intuitive Surgical. Read more about on the BBC News page. This really is the 21st century!"

zebidee writes: "I've always been pretty amazed at the advances they continue to make in the field of medical science but this one really does take top prize. The BBC is reporting that the clever boffins at St. Mary's Hospital in London are preparing to use a new robotic arm to carry out heart bypass surgery using the da Vinci system developed by Intuitive Surgical. Read more about on the BBC News page. This really is the 21st century!"

brak writes: "Weird sea creature is found that exhibits Photonic abilities. Talking about its spine, researchers said... "The precise arrangement of the cylinders maximised reflectance around a narrow wave bandwidth, giving rise to the red colour." The whole article can be found at the BBC "

bitva writes: "A landing site has been chosen for the 2003 UK Mars mission. Here's the finer details." Beagle 2, being built now in the UK, will sample air and soil of the red planet, looking for evidence of Martian life. They even have a nice Minesweeper-looking map illustrating the ellipse within which the Beagle must land, in "Isidis Planitia, a large flat region."

bitva writes: "A landing site has been chosen for the 2003 UK Mars mission. Here's the finer details." Beagle 2, being built now in the UK, will sample air and soil of the red planet, looking for evidence of Martian life. They even have a nice Minesweeper-looking map illustrating the ellipse within which the Beagle must land, in "Isidis Planitia, a large flat region."

wpanderson writes "The Ukrainian nuclear power station at Chernobyl has finally been closed down by President Leonid Kuchma, according to the BBC News. The plant has been plagued with problems - the most public and visible was the failure of Reactor 4 on 26th April 1986, although there have been more problems since. The most recent was a "malfunction" in Reactor 3 which caused a shutdown, just 9 days before the closure date. Although the plant is now closed, and the Ukrainian government has pledged not to use the site for electricity generation again, it will "be 2008 before the fuel rods can be safely removed from the plant". There are quite a few pictures taken inside the ill-fated Reactor 4 (cyrillic link) for the morbid!"

wpanderson writes "The Ukrainian nuclear power station at Chernobyl has finally been closed down by President Leonid Kuchma, according to the BBC News. The plant has been plagued with problems - the most public and visible was the failure of Reactor 4 on 26th April 1986, although there have been more problems since. The most recent was a "malfunction" in Reactor 3 which caused a shutdown, just 9 days before the closure date. Although the plant is now closed, and the Ukrainian government has pledged not to use the site for electricity generation again, it will "be 2008 before the fuel rods can be safely removed from the plant". There are quite a few pictures taken inside the ill-fated Reactor 4 (cyrillic link) for the morbid!"

jeffreyporter was one of a number of people who sent in the BBC story that's running about the hold-up of DSL in Britain, and the situation with the companies investing in it -- but the cable modem companies are quite pleased about this.

mistah_monkey writes: "The BBC reports that an international team of scientists have identified some planets in what they call the habitable zone. Apparently, the planets may be as big as Jupiter, but exist in a region surrounding the stars they orbit in which water can exist as a liquid, which is good news for those of us who believe that little green men might actually be out there somewhere."

mistah_monkey writes: "The BBC reports that an international team of scientists have identified some planets in what they call the habitable zone. Apparently, the planets may be as big as Jupiter, but exist in a region surrounding the stars they orbit in which water can exist as a liquid, which is good news for those of us who believe that little green men might actually be out there somewhere."

hiroko writes "BBC has an article here. $600m worth of solar array now in place, but not without hitch - One wing is less taut than it should be because of problems encountered during the roll out of the structure." Supposedly we should be able to see it from the ground now, and I thought I had a URL for an ephemeris but I can't find it. Anyone?

What to do with your collection of AOL CDs, an antique drill and a flourescent bulb? Anxious to know what happened to the missing Enigma rotors? Want to go digging with gopher, but with your Web browser? Read on for more info.

No sir, we can't keep sending you more. guido_sst writes: "The winners of the Great AOL CD Invention Contest sponsored by UltimateChaos have been announced at http://www.ultimatechaos.com/contest/. Winners include two lamps, a clock, and a 'scaled' car."

Also, the DVD-grabber style cases that AOL is spreading right now make a nice way to give your relatives pictures on CD-ROM, once you slip in your own insert sheet.

Now you can read all your letters from Mom again. Remember the Enigma machine cleverly stolen and cleverly returned from Bletchley Park? You may recall that though the apparatus itself was returned, the all-important Enigma rotors were not recovered at that time. Now you can stop holding your breath, because evilandi writes: "ThisIsGloucestershire, the website of the local newspaper covering UK spy centre GCHQ's home town of Cheltenham, have this story telling how the police have finally recovered all the missing rotors for the stolen Enigma historic wartime encryption device. Without the rotors, the Enigma device returned to the BBC would have been useless. This brings the stolen Enigma story to a close; a man was arrested and the entire Enigma device is now complete and back in safe hands. The working Enigma device should be back on display at Bletchley Park soon."

Yes, I'd like one copy of "Gopher Hunt," please? emanuel writes: "After reading the gopher:// manifesto, it got me to do something that I had been considering for some time: move my internet presence into gopherspace and out of the Web. The problem: few people have a gopher browser, and most Web browsers have poor (Internet Explorer) to non-existent (Netscape 6) gopher support. The solution: write a gopher-to-Web gateway which will allow anyone with a web browser to navigate gopherspace. And while I'm at it, why not add WML support to let mobile phone users into gopherspace as well (after all, gopher is well suited for wireless devices)? So after a few evenings of mad coding, I have something that works fairly well (but is far from complete). See the webgopher project at gopher://gopher.heatdeath.org/. It's Free, and I'd love some involvement from other gopherheads." Greetings to my 7th Grade English teacher Note that the next installment of Hellmouth Revisited is now online.

Noel Carroll writes: "The BBC reports that 'Websites will be banned from using or showing video clips of Olympic events for the next decade. The restriction, which is being imposed by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is designed to protect the substantial investments made by national broadcasters who do not want their television and radio audiences undermined by internet coverage.'"

psychohorsie writes: "The BBC are reporting that the British intelligent services and the police want all of the telephone calls, e-mails and internet traffic in the countr to be logged and kept in storage for [7] years. If this comes to pass, this is a major blow to democracy in my opinion. They may have good intentions with this stuff to begin with ..." Hian Bosu also points to this story in The Observer . The shape of things to come?

A few more bits about ICANN's latest meeting, where they picked several new .tld's: The BBC has a report about the demands made by ICANN upon country-code registrars. They seem pretty peeved about not having any voice whatsoever within ICANN. Ted Byfield has some good coverage of the meeting itself, distilled down from his roving_reporter column for TBTF.

nerdygeek writes: "The BBC are reporting the first successful, self-contained Bionic Hand. They've made them small enough for children but they plan to upgrade to adult sizes. It's especially good for young kids since they can adapt and learn to control it very quickly. I thought these kind of things must have been about for ages, but apparently not. I just wonder if they make a Steve Austin style noise when they're used ?" Five kids have the hands so far, about which the article has this to say: "The unit is operated by signals from the brain. The user sends a signal to move a muscle in the forearm, and electrodes detect this and pass the message on to the motors."

nerdygeek writes: "The BBC are reporting the first successful, self-contained Bionic Hand. They've made them small enough for children but they plan to upgrade to adult sizes. It's especially good for young kids since they can adapt and learn to control it very quickly. I thought these kind of things must have been about for ages, but apparently not. I just wonder if they make a Steve Austin style noise when they're used ?" Five kids have the hands so far, about which the article has this to say: "The unit is operated by signals from the brain. The user sends a signal to move a muscle in the forearm, and electrodes detect this and pass the message on to the motors."

Noryungi writes "The BBC is reporting about bacteria-propelled nano-subs that can be used to deliver drugs in the bloodstream. Interesting part is that (a) salmonella bacteria are ideal for this and (b) that prototypes could be just one year away. Nano-VaporWare?" Somehow, I think the one-year estimate seems a bit optimistic.

Noryungi writes "The BBC is reporting about bacteria-propelled nano-subs that can be used to deliver drugs in the bloodstream. Interesting part is that (a) salmonella bacteria are ideal for this and (b) that prototypes could be just one year away. Nano-VaporWare?" Somehow, I think the one-year estimate seems a bit optimistic.

Richey writes: "The British Library is making the Gutenberg Bible, the first major bible printed in the West available online. (Direct link to the book)." This isn't the first high-res copy of the Gutenberg Bible online; a German university library has already done it with their copy, but it's still cool. Update: 11/23 8:25 AM by michael : For the people that skipped those boring history classes, this was the first book printed in the western world with movable type, a huge leap in printing technology.

nickovs writes "The BBC report that the worlds first commercial power station powered by ocean waves has gone on line. Built by WaveGen, who have issued this press release, the system uses the swell from waves reaching the shore to force air through a Wells Turbine which has the neat property that it turns the same direction irrespective of which way the air flows through it. According to WaveGen "It has been estimated that if less than 0.1% of the renewable energy available within the oceans could be converted into electricity it would satisfy the present world demand for energy more than five times over". Now wouldn't that be nice?" Nice trick.

Jack.Gavigan asks: "Today, the BBC is reporting that the NASDAQ index, widely regarded as a key indicator of the health of tech stocks, has dropped below 3,000 points. If you compare the NASDAQ's performance over the past five years with the Dow Jones' Industrial Average and the Standard & Poors' 500 Index, it becomes apparent that, whilst the NASDAQ began outperforming the other indices at the beginning of 1999, its meteoric rise into the financial stratosphere really took off toward the end of last year, peaking in March. Today, it's close to the level it was a year ago and, although it would have to drop another 1,000 points to bring it back in line with the DJInd.Avg. and the S&P500, I think that we may be able to conclude that the Internet/Tech Stocks bubble has finally deflated. How has the rise and fall of Internet and tech stocks affected your lives and careers? If so, was it for better or for worse?"

"Those graphs directly reflect my own experiences over the last 12 months. A year ago, I became CTO of a dot-com startup with seed funding and started a roller-coaster ride that peaked in February and March, when we were talking to VCs about how many millions they would invest. But April saw investor interest in dot-coms evaporate, and we shut down the company in July, returning the remaining seed funding to the original investors, rather than burn their money waiting for first-round investment from VCs who had recoiled from their former darlings - the dot-com entrepreneurs.

Despite failing to become a dot-com millionaire, I'm not hugely disappointed. Being part of the management team of a start-up is a truly unique experience and I would do it all over again for that reason alone. It sure beats being a wage slave. Fortunately, having been CTO of a dot-com has also had a positive effect on my career and, at the end of the roller-coaster ride, I can say that I have no regrets.

What sort of experiences did other Slashdot readers have over the past year? I know that there are probably one or two paper millionaires reading this right now, and I'm sure that their stories are very interesting, but what about the rest of you?"

Jack.Gavigan asks: "Today, the BBC is reporting that the NASDAQ index, widely regarded as a key indicator of the health of tech stocks, has dropped below 3,000 points. If you compare the NASDAQ's performance over the past five years with the Dow Jones' Industrial Average and the Standard & Poors' 500 Index, it becomes apparent that, whilst the NASDAQ began outperforming the other indices at the beginning of 1999, its meteoric rise into the financial stratosphere really took off toward the end of last year, peaking in March. Today, it's close to the level it was a year ago and, although it would have to drop another 1,000 points to bring it back in line with the DJInd.Avg. and the S&P500, I think that we may be able to conclude that the Internet/Tech Stocks bubble has finally deflated. How has the rise and fall of Internet and tech stocks affected your lives and careers? If so, was it for better or for worse?"

"Those graphs directly reflect my own experiences over the last 12 months. A year ago, I became CTO of a dot-com startup with seed funding and started a roller-coaster ride that peaked in February and March, when we were talking to VCs about how many millions they would invest. But April saw investor interest in dot-coms evaporate, and we shut down the company in July, returning the remaining seed funding to the original investors, rather than burn their money waiting for first-round investment from VCs who had recoiled from their former darlings - the dot-com entrepreneurs.

Despite failing to become a dot-com millionaire, I'm not hugely disappointed. Being part of the management team of a start-up is a truly unique experience and I would do it all over again for that reason alone. It sure beats being a wage slave. Fortunately, having been CTO of a dot-com has also had a positive effect on my career and, at the end of the roller-coaster ride, I can say that I have no regrets.

What sort of experiences did other Slashdot readers have over the past year? I know that there are probably one or two paper millionaires reading this right now, and I'm sure that their stories are very interesting, but what about the rest of you?"

Andy Smith writes "This BBC story reports on efforts by the World Health Organisation ^[?] to improve the quality of health-related web sites. They want a new TLD -- .health -- to be introduced. All .health sites would then be regulated by the WHO. Here's the press release, which predicts that 'dot health could soon be as well known as dot com'." It's quite an issue - do you want to be able to "trust" the health sites, assuming that's what regulation means, or do you worry more about the innovation of the sites being quashed by an organization?

Alphamike writes "This story was spotted on BBC SCI/TECH. Studies of the Y chromosome in more than 1000 men from Europe and the Middle East have enabled scientists (writing in Science) to trace the lineage of 95% of European men to 10 common ancestors (!). The story also talks about how the data was used to date early migrations from Asia and the Middle East. "

mukund writes "The Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider will be dismantled soon, as this article on BBC News reports. The LEP is the world's largest particle collider and is built inside a 27km long tunnel. The collider has been used to confirm the existence of the Higgs particle unsuccessfully. A new project to build another larger collider is on the way. The article says, "According to commentators, whoever finds the Higgs first will probably win a Nobel Prize.""

mukund writes "The Large Electron-Positron (LEP) collider will be dismantled soon, as this article on BBC News reports. The LEP is the world's largest particle collider and is built inside a 27km long tunnel. The collider has been used to confirm the existence of the Higgs particle unsuccessfully. A new project to build another larger collider is on the way. The article says, "According to commentators, whoever finds the Higgs first will probably win a Nobel Prize.""

dannyspanner was among the teeming masses to point out that: "The BBC has a short story about some research that will be carried out to see if penguin colonies fall over when aircraft fly overhead. I hope they get some footage if they prove it's true ..." I secretly believe that news outlets like stories like this because penguins look so comical already -- thinking of them rolling around like duckpins (rather than the ultra-coordinated hero of Tuxracer) makes everybody laugh.

Start this one off with a creative hack: tim.kerby sent in just that: using a tortilla as a bread board when your local radio shack is out. Future creative hacks may involve i4u's link to camborg which tracks wearable cameras. Ant found cats and robots. You can practice by playing Kitty Lick 3, an FPS you play as a feline (thanks bjorky) But If cats aren't your pet of choice, how about pigs? Rookie sent in linkage to a story about a one in first class that you'll swear is fiction (but it isn't). radiator sent in a hilarious parody: first aid for a dying dot com. Some auctions worth noting: drDugan sent a picture autographed by Linus being sold on eBay (and donated to charity). Dirty Yanni noted that Metallica/Napster parody t-shirts are for sale on eBay. And the last auction (but not on eBay) is Spock's original ears from the original trek. Oh, and how about t-shirts mocking the MS breakin & source code theft? CArnesen noted that Anime Expo 2001 has been scheduled for this summer. I'm seriously considering going. Mothy notes that famed Rubber Chicken vendor Archie McPhee is now selling the Linux Voodoo Penguin (however the ad features a "Sysadmin" wearing a tie! Have to much free time? Ant does! He sent us a reflex tester (I've managed a .24) but thats nothing compared to Am I Hot or Not which is fun for hours on end if you're the type that amuses easily. And finally, tshell noted that that now that there is a complete O'Reily ate my balls site, the Internet is now complete. You can all go home now.

Lyserjic seems to have been first with the news. Some linkage: CNET. CNN. AP. MSNBC. BBC. MSNBC's story is a copy of the Wall Street Journal article which apparently broke the news - it's the most complete.What's known - the passwords were being sent to St. Petersburg, Russia. They probably had access for about three months.

Martin Spamer writes: "The BBC reports that today the UK introduces Controversial new regulations (RIP) giving employers sweeping powers to monitor their workers' e-mails and Internet activity. Campaigners say the rules, under the new Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, are an assault on personal privacy." I guess I just don't see it. If I was gonna bad mouth my boss, I'd use my domain as the e-mail address, and PGP crypt the message. It's not so simple when you're using, say, a corporate laptop on your couch at home on a Saturday night tho.This bill was passed a while ago - but this is the day it takes effect.

Martin Spamer writes: "The BBC reports that today the UK introduces Controversial new regulations (RIP) giving employers sweeping powers to monitor their workers' e-mails and Internet activity. Campaigners say the rules, under the new Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act, are an assault on personal privacy." I guess I just don't see it. If I was gonna bad mouth my boss, I'd use my domain as the e-mail address, and PGP crypt the message. It's not so simple when you're using, say, a corporate laptop on your couch at home on a Saturday night tho.This bill was passed a while ago - but this is the day it takes effect.

Snaller writes: "'Established architectural virtual reality modelling systems tended to be very expensive, Mr Richens said. "We get slightly better results using a £30 game running on a £150 graphics card. So it's extremely low-cost virtual reality.'
The man saying this is Paul Richens, director of the Cambridge University's Martin Centre for Architectural and Urban Studies, and he's talking about a project to use Quake 2 as means to visualize new buildings. It's difficult for people to read architectural plans, but if you can "run" around in a virtual building you get a much better idea of what it looks like. The project is quite serious and is intended to let architects' clients see what the end product would look like - of course the guns and monsters just had to go, lest clients start to get trigger happy and blast away. 'They were doing that originally but we had to take the guns out -- the head of the department didn't like that at all,' Mr Richens said." It's a fascinating project -- reminds me of my longtime hope to see driving games used to simulate actual upcoming trips, to learn what exits will be like, etc.

Ralph Bearpark asks: "There are several hundred/thousand radio stations out there putting out live streaming audio on the Internet. What if you want to regularly record your favorite show at, say, 11:30 on Wednesday on BBC Radio 4 and then, maybe, download it to your MP3 player for listening on the move ... How'd you do this? Is there software out there already? If not, what would you need to put it together?"

More news from the protecting-the-children front in Indianapolis (and it's good news, even if fleeting); bits on emulation and long-ago video games from a British perspective (and another wacky British story that you can tell your kids as a cautionary tale); and educational news of Cosmic significance, all below. And I promise, apart from this paragraph, there will be no mention of Lieberman, Gore, Cheney or Bush.

Meanwhile, kids, make sure to join the Marines! An unnamed correspondent writes: "An update on a slashdot article from Oct 14: The video game industry has obtained a stay from the 7th US Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. According to the article, "the city on Wednesday was ordered to hold off enforcement, temporarily at least, of its ordinance against children under 18 using violent or sexually explicit coin-operated video games." The CNN article can be found here."

Those whom the gods would destroy ... Sacrifice writes: "The Times tells the whimsical story of an inventor too overconfident in the difficulty of a puzzle he estimated would take a genius four years of work to complete; three possible solutions are being reviewed after only 16 months, and royalties aren't enough to cover the half million pounds he pledged, so has put his 67 room mansion up for sale to make good on his pledge (Lloyd's will pony up the other half)."

.. then only criminals will play emulated videogames. Ultra-protective reader FortKnox writes: "Although we've all heard about retro-gaming emulators and copyrights, this BBC article mentions a few of the copyright holder's that waived their copyrights to emulators. Its good to finally see some of these copyrights being waived to let us retro-gamers get our fix."

quintillions and jazillions (with inflation) general_re writes: "Carl Sagan's groundbreaking series "Cosmos" is finally available on VHS/DVD after many years. Although it isn't scheduled to ship until sometime next month, there's a reasonable discount for pre-orders. Many of you probably remember how awesome this series was (I first saw it when I was 9, and still remember it), and for those of you who haven't seen it, go see it. One caveat: after hunting around Project Voyager and carlsagan.com, nobody seems to be offering an official Carl Sagan commemorative bong. ;)"

Take that, evil wicked dirty spammer scumbags! And that! And that! rhea writes: "As an update to this article, Harris dropped the lawsuit they brought against MAPS for putting them on the RBL. Read the final word from MAPS. Paul Vixie: 1; Spammers: 0." The close of that "final word" is pretty biting:

In the final analysis, it would seem that the only thing which Harris has accomplished was getting one, possibly two ISPs (depending on AOL) out of more than a dozen ISP defendants to start accepting their email traffic, something which they could quite possibly have done without the expense and complication of filing a lawsuit.

And, oh yes, they helped to prove MAPS' position that it is up to each individual subscriber to the RBL to decide for themselves whose email they will accept, and whose they will reject.

Harris remains on the RBL.

Not that there's any truly good answer to spam, but MAPS represents about the sanest approach I've ever seen -- it's voluntary, it's factual, and it makes no bones about either one of those. Congratulations, Paul. Keep up the good work.

Cruachan writes: "Reuters reports that scientists in the United States have revived a 250-million-year-old bacteria that is believed to be the oldest living creature ever discovered. (The story is no longer available on the Reuters Web site.) The bacterium that lived millions of years before the dinosaurs was in a state of suspended animation in an ancient salt crystal in an underground cavern near Carlsbad, New Mexico." This is one of the most amazing things I've heard in a long time. [Updated 19 Oct.14:00GMT by timothy:] Reuters has since pulled it; look below for more links :)

Links that work are tough to come by sometimes -- emmett sent one to to BBC Coverage (with pictures!), while several folks contributed others, including this unnamed correspondent, who writes: "An article in the L.A. Times has an interesting story about a revived microbe which might have been locked in a crystal of salt for 250 million years." Additionally, readers pointed to the Reuters story, hosted on yahoo! Thanks for the links, everyone.