E-mail onslaught to feed anti-spam firms. Spam may be a costly and seemingly unstoppable nuisance, but the trend offers an opportunity for companies developing technology to fight it, according to a new report. [CNET News.com]

This is another huge issue in law firms (and, I imagine, all other organizations); it will be interesting to watch over the next few years to see what new technology is developed.  I'll be especially curious to see how the algorithms change to avoid false-positives. 

From [Wired News]:

Why Some With HIV Are Healthier. Researchers have solved the 16-year-old mystery of why a small number of HIV patients remain healthy after contracting the virus. By Kristen Philipkoski.

From the article...

They hope their findings will lead to a treatment for AIDS, which affects 40 million people worldwide and has killed 25 million.

"This is not going to be the ultimate solution but it is another weapon we can use in our arsenal against HIV," Dr. David Ho of the Aaron Diamond AIDS Research Center at Rockefeller, who helped lead the study, said in a telephone briefing.

This sounds like fantastic research and makes me want to, I don't know, organize fundraisers for the researchers or something.  I wonder if there is anything out there...

 

Buffy the Vampire Slayer as theological parable...

Wow.  Two articles in one day. 

Cool.

From reason.com...

Niggardly With Common Sense (9/24)
Akwana Walker wants her daughter's teacher, Stephanie Bell, fired. Why? Bell tried to expand the fourth-grader's vocabulary. The problem started with one of the words that Bell assigned the class to learn and to spell: niggardly. The word is a synonym for stingy. But it sounds too much like a racial slur for Walker. Bell received a letter from the irate parent saying the word was not allowed in her house, no matter what it means. After Walker complained, her daughter was moved to another class. Administrators reprimanded Bell, forced her to issue a formal apology, and sent a counselor to talk to her class.  [Emphasis added.]

You have GOT to be kidding me.  A similar incident occured in in DC a while ago, too, and the unfortunate staffer whose vocabulary offended later resigned, thinking it would be "better" for Mayor Anthony Williams administration.  The staffer later returned to the administration

He he he.  Buffy the Vampire Slayer in the news--and compared to the UN?  Hmm.  Well, I feel compelled to post this, as it was that show that first drew me into the online world.

Yeah, I Did Watch Last Night. Jonah gets Buffy. Cool. UPDATE: Oh, yeah -- there's some cool, clever stuff about the UN in there, too. FURTHER [VodkaPundit]

Another Sad Story About A Detainee. Chisun Lee has been writing great articles in the Village Voice about civil liberties violations since September 11. This week... [TalkLeft: The Politics of Crime]

Who knows how much of this is true, but I am unfortunately inclined to believe that it is.  I've said it before, but it is SCARY that the government can act this.  It seems distinctly un-American to me.

This is so cool.

The Economist.  A sunken ship from the first century BC recently found reveals the world's first computer.  It was a mechanical computational device for predicting celestial movement and postioning (very useful in navigation).  Imagine the brilliant but unkown (and unlucky) Greek that built this and lost it.

... Mr Wright (a scientist that has built a scale model of the device) is convinced that his epicyclic interpretation is correct, and that the original device modelled the entire known solar system.

from [John Robb's Radio Weblog] [Mobilog]