Miscellaneous
LJ: The Customize Screen has been overhauled and more layouts are now available to paid and plus users. Also, the Navigation Strip can now be customized by color.

Details on Apple’s battery recall.

Author David Brin predicted this would happen one day: Dallas man foils a robbery 4,589 miles away in Liverpool England, while watching a webcam over the ‘net. Brin foresaw this in his 1999 book, The Transparent Society: Will Technology Force Us to Choose Between Privacy and Freedom?

City Mitts. Interview with the creator: The Subway Glove (Via fleurdelista)

Crummy Church Signs

LA Weekly: Welcome to Gentrification City


Politics
Bush spends 90 minutes with 5 families of slain soldiers.

kiji_kat on the Left Behind series and Christianity

On Sept. 11, CNN will replay its coverage from 2001 in real time, online. In addition, their pipeline service will be free for 24 hours.

Pope Benedict XVI has sacked his chief astronomer after a series of public clashes over the theory of evolution. The Pope believes in ID. Guess he didn’t get the memo.

A 30-person Baptist church in Mississippi banned black members and a biracial twelve-year old boy because he might encourage African Americans to join.

Nine black children attending Red River Elementary School in NOLA were directed last week to the back of the school bus by a white driver who designated the front seats for white children.

Welcome to the new Solar system, now with one less planet.: “Leading astronomers declared Thursday that Pluto is no longer a planet under historic new guidelines that downsize the solar system from nine planets to eight. After a tumultuous week of clashing over the essence of the cosmos, the International Astronomical Union stripped Pluto of the planetary status.”

Something for rparvaaz: That restaurant we’ve been discussing is changing its name.

The FDA approved Plan B by Barr Pharmaceuticals this morning. Full CDER info. Plan B is an emergency contraceptive that, taken within 72 hours after contraceptive failure or unprotected sex, can reduce the risk of pregnancy up to 89%. It is not an abortifacent and does not work on those who are already pregnant. Women may buy it without a prescription, but only with proof they’re 18 or older. Girls 17 and younger still will need a doctor’s note to buy the pills. This compromise is the culmination of a nasty three-year political battle.

Someone has it in for the SciFi Channel. :)

Wisconsin’s Beloit College has published its sixth annual Mindset List.

Does anyone even watch the show anymore? Survivor plays the race card: “So yesterday, on CBS’s morning infotainment program, the network announced that for “Survivor: Cook Islands,” which debuts next month, 20 contestants would be divided into the White Tribe, the African American Tribe, the Asian American Tribe and the Hispanic Tribe. We’ll pause here to give you time to re-hinge your jaw.” More here. Just for laughs,

Just because I love the name: The Velveteen Rabbi Syndicated feed: velveteenrabbi.

10 Tips for Keeping Your Desk Clean and Tidy

The digital toilet


Politics
Back to the Ouija Board: Nuclear Apocalypse milder than expected. A leading Islamic scholar predicted armagaeddon would happen on Tuesday.

Don’t worry. WWIII may yet happen: Israel says “We may have to go it alone against Iran”.
Israel is also using the Lebanon war as justification to put the agreed-upon pullout plan on hold temporarily. In doing so they’re also snubbing President Bush, their staunchest ally. The plan is about a year old. More here. Don’t count on this being the case for too long, though: “Israel’s costly and inconclusive war in Lebanon has triggered a round of internal recriminations so bitter that some observers question whether Prime Minister Ehud Olmert’s government can survive.”

The WashPost has had solid coverage of this latest MidEast crisis.

Independent Weekly: Do You Know What It Means to Myth New Orleans? “One of the Crescent City’s biggest challenges is overcoming inaccurate reports and stereotypes that formed in the immediate wake of Katrina”

Choices that come back to haunt you....: “In the heart of Tehran sits one of Iran’s most important nuclear facilities, a dome-shaped building where scientists have conducted secret experiments that could help the country build atomic bombs. It was provided to the Iranians by the United States.”

Vanity Fair: Rare scenes from 9/11

Evolutionary biology has vanished from the list of acceptable fields of study for recipients of a federal (US) education grant for low-income college students. The government says “Oops,” (yeah, right) and promises to restore it.

"A new restaurant in India's financial hub, named after Adolf Hitler and promoted with posters showing the German leader and Nazi swastikas, has infuriated the country's small Jewish community.

'Hitler's Cross', which opened last week, serves up a wide range of continental fare and a big helping of controversy, thanks to a name the owners say they chose to stand out among hundreds of Mumbai eateries.

"We wanted to be different. This is one name that will stay in people's minds," owner Punit Shablok told Reuters."


Note the distinct lack of outraged response in the article from non-Jews living in Mumbai.* I suppose a shrine to General R.E.H. Dyer would have been required for that.....


* Edit: In addition to her comments below, rparvaaz posted an excellent explanation and questions about the restaurant to the Mumbai residents of her flist this morning. She's even raised a discussion on whether a similarly-themed restaurant for Brigadier-General Dyer would be an issue in Mumbai. Consider it required reading for a full perspective.

Non-Politics
Our solar system has nine twelve planets? Astronomers have drawn up a new way to define the word planet. This would mean adding three new planets to the Solar System, boosting the current tally of nine to 12. Astronomers are voting on the new definition in Prague this week.

Try to take over the world....: Scientists have repaired a mouse retina using stem cells.

FlickrLeech (Dialup users should skip this link)

Stephen Colbert makes a surprise appearance on The Daily Show to demand Jon Stewart apologize to Geraldo Rivera. (via sophiaserpentia)

Studies of the mental processes of chess grandmasters have revealed clues to how people become experts in other fields as well

The world’s first 3-D crop circle has appeared in an English field. (from lizziebelle)

The priciest places to park.

UK Independent: Seven days to green your life.


Politics
brelson posted a link to an essay from London’s Review of Books called “You are terrorists, we are virtuous” from left-wing Israeli poet Yitzhak Laor. It’s an interesting perspective into how the Israeli left feels about the war and the IDF.

Wimmin at War. How their support of the peace movement is changing the ideals of UK feminists.

The new Dominionist agenda? Public Stoning: Not Just for the Taliban Anymore

Sen. George Allen is in trouble for using a term for monkeys -- and a racial slur elsewhere in the world -- to ridicule a dark-skinned man at a campaign rally.

The days when former Presidents refused to comment on current policy are over. Bill Clinton on the politics of terror.

Userfriendly on the Reuters photo incident.

If only the IRS were this incompetent.... The U.S. government has misplaced the original recording of the first moon landing, including astronaut Neil Armstrong’s famous “one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”