] The Bentley Snow Crystal Collection of the Buffalo Museum
] of Science is a digital library providing a high-quality
] collection of stunning, un-retouched images of Wilson A.
] Bentley%u2019s original glass slide photographs of snow
] crystals, and includes dynamic resources to further an
] appreciation and understanding of Bentley and his work.

[ Gorgeous, really... -k]

The Bentley Snow Crystal Collection

] Sales of legally downloaded songs have shot up more than
] tenfold in 2004, with 200 million tracks bought online in
] the US and Europe in 12 months.
]
]
] The global music industry has hailed the increase as a
] sign the digital music market has "taken off".
]
]
] A million songs are now available to buy on legal sites,
] according to an International Federation of the
] Phonographic Industry (IFPI) report.
]
]
] IFPI boss John Kennedy said: "At last the threat has
] become the opportunity."

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Legal music downloads 'take off'

] Decades ago, it was physicist Enrico Fermi who pondered
] the issue of extraterrestrial civilizations with fellow
] theorists over lunch, generating the famous quip: "Where
] are they?" That question later became central to debates
] about the cosmological census count of other star folk
] and possible extraterrestrial (ET) visitors from afar.
]
]
] Fermi%u2019s brooding on the topic was later labeled
] "Fermi%u2019s paradox". It is a well-traveled tale from
] the 1950%u2019s when the scientist broached the subject
] in discussions with colleagues in Los Alamos, New Mexico.
] Thoughts regarding the probability of earthlike planets,
] the rise of highly advanced civilizations "out there",
] and interstellar travel -- these remain fodder for trying
] to respond to Fermi%u2019s paradox even today.
]
]
] Now a team of American scientists note that recent
] astrophysical discoveries suggest that we should find
] ourselves in the midst of one or more extraterrestrial
] civilizations. Moreover, they argue it is a mistake to
] reject all UFO reports since some evidence for the
] theoretically-predicted extraterrestrial visitors might
] just be found there.

wouldn't it be interesting but ... why would aliens be so coy

ET Visitors: Scientists See High Likelihood

] Tiny fluctuations in the density of matter after the Big
] Bang are definitely reflected in the distribution of
] galaxies in our Universe, according to two research
] groups. The findings confirm theories of how the Universe
] grew from being almost uniformly smooth to having dense
] clusters of stars and galaxies.

news @ nature.com - Echoes of Big Bang found in galaxies - Spread of stars in the sky traced to primordial ripples.

] Researchers at the University of Toronto have invented an
] infrared-sensitive material that's five times more
] efficient at turning the sun's power into electrical
] energy than current methods

[ Rad. They say something like 30% efficiency, so maybe something like 300 W/m^2 if I'm remembering right. Not bad. -k]

CTV.ca | New plastic can better convert solar energy

] SAN DIEGO -- A new study reveals that the center of our
] Milky Way Galaxy is loaded with black holes, as
] astronomers have expected in recent years.
]
]
] The galactic center is dominated by one supermassive
] black hole. It packs a mass equal to about 3 million
] Suns. Around it, scientists have expected to find a high
] concentration of stellar black holes, the sort that
] result from the collapse of massive stars. Each can be a
] few to many times the mass of the Sun.
]
]
] Observations have hinted at the existence of many stellar
] black holes near the galactic center. But nosing around
] there is hard, because the region is shrouded in dust.
] Visible light doesn't escape the region.
]
]
] The ongoing study, led by UCLA postdoctoral fellow
] Michael Muno, is searching the inner 75-light-years of
] the galaxy with the NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory.
] X-rays conveniently pierce interstellar dust.
]
]
] Muno and his colleagues have found strong evidence for
] seven black holes (they could be neutron stars, which are
] also very dense). Importantly, four of the objects were
] concentrated in the inner 3 light-years of space around
] the supermassive black hole.

Milky Way's Center Packed with Black Holes

] ATLANTA (Reuters) - A new battle in America's fight over
] gay rights has erupted in Atlanta, cradle of the U.S.
] civil rights movement, where a golf club is resisting a
] city order to grant spousal benefits to its gay members.

Yahoo! News - Atlanta Golf Club Sparks Battle Over Gay Rights

] MOSCOW (Reuters) - As snow and ice melt away into puddles
] of dirty water months earlier than usual, Russians are
] asking what's happened to their once-dreaded winter.
]
]
] Scientists said the mild temperatures, which may be
] linked to global warming, were close to record highs for
] a Russian winter -- infamous for its ferocity and
] credited with frustrating invaders from Napoleon to
] Hitler.

Russians wonder what's happened to

] BEIJING (AP) - China is planning to make selective
] abortions of female fetuses illegal as a way to close the
] widening gap between the number of boys and girls in the
] country, the official Xinhua News Agency said.
]
]
] ``The government takes it as an urgent task to correct
] the gender imbalance of newborns,'' Zhang Weiqing,
] minister of National Population and Family Planning
] Commission, was quoted as saying Thursday by Xinhua.

Guardian Unlimited | World Latest | China Outlawing Selective Abortions

] In a bid to demonstrate the futility of trying to ban
] peer-to-peer file-sharing networks, a computer scientist
] has written the shortest P2P program ever.
]
]
] Like all P2P applications, Tiny P2P, written by Edward
] Felten of Princeton University in New Jersey, establishes
] a network between PCs on which files can be transferred
] without using a central server. Members of the network
] make content on their hard drives available to everyone
] else. But this decentralisation allows, for instance,
] movie pirates to hide illicit footage more easily.

New Scientist Simple programs make file sharing inevitable - Technology