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.”

360º QT panoramas from around the world on New Year’s Eve.

BBC Magazine has posted their annual list of “100 things we didn’t know this time last year”

New Year’s prophecies are a risky business.

40 things that only happen in movies.

50 Best Firefox Extensions for Power Surfing / Lifehack: Essential Firefox extensions for webmasters

A free version of TurboTax is available online.

Kottke’s best links of 2005

A story I missed from this year... some guy added a javascript worm to his MySpace profile and gained over 1 million ‘friend requests’ in less than 5 hours. The hole has since been fixed. Explanation, articles and code available through the link.

BattlestarGalactica.com has an interview with Ron Moore (contains mild spoilers)


Scientists at a laboratory affiliated with the University of Wisconsin-Madison have developed a stem-cell culture medium free of animal cells and used it to derive two new human embryonic stem-cell lines.