Sunspots 150

Things I have recently spotted that may be of interest to someone else:

Science:
Male birds fed some pollutants can be more attractive to females, according to an article in Wired.

Wired selects the top ten chemistry on-line videos. (Nine from YouTube, one from PBS.)

Politics:
An editorial in USA Today , calling for a special prosecutor to pursue the issue of torture carried out by the US. Here's an excerpt:

In refusing to allow a criminal investigation, therefore, Mukasey has chosen an argument often used by criminal defendants: He blamed the lawyers. It was not a crime, Mukasey has said, because Bush relied on advice from his handpicked lawyers. Because the lawyers said it was OK, it was: "Whatever was done as part of a CIA program at the time that it was done was the subject of a Department of Justice opinion through the Office of Legal Counsel and was found to be permissible under the law as it existed then."

Of course, any crime could be magically transformed into a non-crime by simply hiring clueless or collusive counsel. Ironically, while Bradbury was one of those misguided lawyers, Mukasey is seeking his confirmation as one of his top lawyers. It is enough to make the most mobbed-up lawyer blush.

Computing:
(or politics) An allegation that the Clinton campaign darkened Obama in a TV ad.

Christianity:
Jan points out that, in one New Testament story, the men were fixing the meal while a woman was engaged in evangelism.

Thanks for reading! Keep clicking away.

Image source (public domain)