Tut's gem hints at space impact

In 1996 in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Italian mineralogist Vincenzo de Michele spotted an unusual yellow-green gem in the middle of one of Tutankhamun's necklaces.

The jewel was tested and found to be glass, but intriguingly it is older than the earliest Egyptian civilisation.

...An Austrian astrochemist Christian Koeberl had established that the glass had been formed at a temperature so hot that there could be only one known cause: a meteorite impacting with Earth. And yet there were no signs of an impact crater, even in satellite images.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/5196362.stm

Mideast Crisis Worsens as US Weighs In

The United States faces growing pressure to intervene in the conflict between Israel and Lebanon-based Hezbollah, but the Bush administration is not about to rush into action.

US President George W Bush has blamed Hezbollah along with its main supporters, Iran and Syria, for the crisis that has resulted in a large-scale Israeli assault on Lebanon that has claimed hundreds of lives since last week.
http://news.monstersandcritics.com/middleeast/article_1182403.php/US_says_root_cause_of_Mideast_conflict_must_be_tackled

/. Rant on the Paradox of Abundance

"[T]he bigger and more complicated a decision, the easier it is for me to decide. Choosing a college: Simple. I went, I looked, and by the time I needed to apply, I'd already decided. Only applied to 1 school. (Graduated 3 + years ago, picked up a dual Engr. degree, and had a blast). Buying a car? Simple. I knew what I wanted. Buying a house? Simple. (Going on 2 years now, still satisfied)."

"But man... you put me in front of a vending machine and I cannot make up my friggin mind. I'm not kidding. I can't decide. I'll stand there staring at it."
http://backslash.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=06/07/19/1739244&from=rss

Flightgear

This FOSS Flight Sim looks amazing -- I want to try it this weekend.
http://flightgear.org/

The Rise and Fall of the Hit

There has never been a better time to be an artist or a fan, and there has never been more music made or listened to. But the traditional model of marketing and selling music no longer works. The big players in the distribution system ? major record labels, retail giants ? depend on huge, platinum hits. These days, though, there are not nearly enough of those to support the industry in the style to which it has become accustomed. We are witnessing the end of an era.
http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/14.07/longtail.html

Forget Oil Independence

While President Bush said his goal was to cut dependence on foreign oil by 75 percent by 2025, a Department of Energy agency says that his goal is about as attainable as my goal of playing centerfield for the Oakland A's.

The Energy Information Administration says oil consumption in North America (mostly from the U.S.) will increase by 38 percent between 2003 and 2030, while the global demand for oil (due in large part to China and India) will increase by 47 percent to 118 million barrels per day.

The country expected to provide the most of the additional supply will be (say it with me) Iran!
http://blog.wired.com/cars/index.blog?entry_id=