The rumor mill

Matt Welch suspects that reports of violence in New Orleans are wildly exaggerated, and that the exaggeration has hampered relief efforts. There aren't, for instance, any first-hand confirmations of people shooting at helicopters.

Stupid post about toys

This thing is almost exactly the object described in the confused rumors bandied about just before the iPod Mini was first introduced. It wasn't possible for that price at the time, which was why I didn't believe the rumors, but it is now.

I predict disappointment that it only comes in white and black.

Chimp genes

Carl Zimmer gives some more fascinating detail on the chimpanzee genome paper, including a description of what sounds like a gigantic game of Core Wars going on in everyone's DNA.

The article ends with a wistful warning of the knowledge about humanity that stands to be lost if chimpanzees and other great apes become extinct. When I first read about the chimp paper I started thinking about how at one time (maybe not so long ago) there were multiple species of humans, and all the things we'll never know about human evolution because the others aren't around any more. But apparently German scientists are trying to reconstruct the Neanderthal genome from fossils. I wonder how much can really be recovered.