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Doctor Who Comin Back

After aeons drifting hopelessly lost in the space/time continuum, Doctor Who is finally coming back to Earth.In a move that heralds the most eagerly anticipated comeback in television history, BBC1 said yesterday that it is developing a new series of the sci-fi classic.The BBC hopes that Doctor Who, which ran from 1963 to 1989, with a brief reappearance by an eighth incarnation of the Time Lord in a film in 1996, will once more become a fixture of Saturday early evening viewing.
http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/09/26/nwho26.xml&sSheet=/news/2003/09/26/ixhome.html

The Future Was Cancelled

Modern art often treats space exploration in a mocking and playful manner, which is emblematic of our diminished aspirations to conquer the stars. 1972 was the last time that humans actually travelled to and walked upon the Moon. In 1999, by contrast, artist Aleksandra Mir staged her happening First Woman on the Moon - in which, as Topham explains, a beach at Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, was transformed by mechanical diggers into a crater-filled landscape, and participants enacted their own lunar landing while children played among the giant sandcastles. Genuine space exploration seems to have become subordinate to cultural kitsch. In the absence of substantial state funding, even pioneers of real-life space exploration missions have to turn their work into a cultural gimmick in order to win investment and publicity. Topham describes how the Beagle 2 probe currently travelling to Mars was dressed up as a piece of Cool Brittania: Blur composed a track based on a mathematical sequence to act as a call sign once the Beagle has landed. A spot painting by Damien Hirst will be used as an instrument calibration chart to check everything is in order after touchdown.
http://www.spiked-online.com/Articles/00000006DF1E.htm

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Plasma Life

Physicists have created blobs of gaseous plasma that can grow, replicate and communicate - fulfilling most of the traditional requirements for biological cells. Without inherited material they cannot be described as alive, but the researchers believe these curious spheres may offer a radical new explanation for how life began.Most biologists think living cells arose out of a complex and lengthy evolution of chemicals that took millions of years, beginning with simple molecules through amino acids, primitive proteins and finally forming an organised structure. But if Mircea Sanduloviciu and his colleagues at Cuza University in Romania are right, the theory may have to be completely revised. They say cell-like self-organisation can occur in a few microseconds.
http://www.newscientist.com/news/news.jsp?id=ns99994174

US Senator Challenges RIAA

Brownback said the DMCA subpoena process raises serious privacy and due-process concerns. "There are no checks, no balances, and the alleged pirate has no opportunity to defend themselves," Brownback said when introducing the bill. "My colleagues, this issue is about privacy, not piracy. "This will provide immediate privacy protections to Internet subscribers by forcing their accusers to appear publicly in a court of law, where those with illicit intentions will not tread, and provides the accused with due process required to properly defend themselves."
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,60461,00.html

Are you worse off than Mom and Dad?

According to Elizabeth Warren and Amelia Warren Tyagi, coauthors of "The Two-Income Trap: Why Middle Class Mothers and Fathers Are Going Broke," the average two-income middle class family today earns 75 percent more than the typical single-income family did 30 years ago. But todays family, they say, ends up with less money for everyday living expenses and savings. Why? The costs of housing and a good education are killing them.
http://money.cnn.com/2003/09/11/commentary/everyday/sahadi/index.htm

StrongBad: Teen Girl Squad #4

http://www.homestarrunner.com/tgs4.html

Plane Didnt Hit The Pentagon On 9/11

Pretty convincing page -- I cant see how the pentagon was hit by a 757. Why the cover up?
http://www.asile.org/citoyens/numero13/pentagone/erreurs_en.htm

Opus the Penguin Back In the Funny Business

After eight years away from newspapers, Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Berkeley Breathed is creating a new comic strip called "Opus," starring his beloved penguin of the same name. The Washington Post Writers Group, which will syndicate the strip, is expected to officially announce Breatheds return this Sunday. The reclusive Breathed, who rarely gives interviews, could not be reached yesterday for comment. The new strip will appear on Sundays in The Washington Post starting Nov. 23.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A45450-2003Sep8.html

RIAA Sues 12 Year Old Girl

Brianna and the others sued yesterday under federal copyright law could face penalties of up to $150,000 per song, but the RIAA has already settled some cases for as little as $3,000.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,96797,00.html

New StrongBad Email

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Plants Have a Way With Metals

If farmers could plant crops designed to exploit these genes, they could theoretically produce food with more nutrients while using less fertilizer by making plants pull minerals from soil more efficiently, Salt said. They also could use plants to mop up toxins. For markets in richer nations, Salt is partnering with a company called NuCycle Therapy to develop selenium-rich plants, because that compound has been found to fight cancer. Likewise, many people in developing nations suffer from "hidden hunger," Salt said. They lack important vitamins in their diet even though they get enough calories. He hopes his technology will address that need.
http://www.wired.com/news/medtech/0,1286,60302,00.html

New StrongBad Email

http://www.homestarrunner.com/sbemail83.html