The idea of insuring ordinary people in what may be the most violent place on earth came from Abbas Shaheed al-Taiee, an executive at the Iraq Insurance Company.

"It is a kind of gift to the Iraqi people," said Mr. Shaheed, 53, a big, heavyset man with terribly serious eyes and a reputation as a master salesman. "We have expanded the principles of life insurance to cover everything that happens in Iraq."

Amazingly, the company has yet to pay out on a single claim.

New Business Blooms in Iraq: Terror Insurance - New York Times

What is Google Finance?
Google Finance is an early beta product that offers a broad range of information about North American stocks, mutual funds and public and private companies along with charts, news and fundamental financial data.

How is Google Finance different from existing financial websites?
Google Finance offers an easier way to search for stocks, mutual funds, public and private companies. Further, Google Finance also offers a broad range of company news and information in order to deliver more relevant, unbiased results in a clean, uncluttered user interface.

Google Finance

More AJAX! Yay!

Microsoft executives stressed that its Ajax toolkit will work with browsers and operating systems other than Microsoft's.

Microsoft Develops Version of Internet Software Tools - New York Times

Scientists who have read the book say that somehow, Ms. Goodman has managed to write a tale about life in a science lab that rings so true and includes details so accurate and vivid that they say they are left reeling.

How could an outsider, someone who has not been bathed in the culture and mores of science, get it so right?

"I think it's a unique book because it completely nails this world," said Dr. Jerome Groopman, an oncologist and a professor of medicine at Harvard and the director of a laboratory there.

"It understands the psychology, the dynamics, the processes and pressures that exist in the current culture of science," Dr. Groopman, who reviewed "Intuition" for the online magazine Slate, said in a telephone interview. "I was stunned. I was really stunned."

Writer Depicts Scientists Risking Glory for Truth and Truth for Glory - New York Times

The sick children are Bedouin. Until recently their ancestors were nomads who roamed the deserts of the Middle East and, as tradition dictated, often married cousins. Marrying within the family helped strengthen bonds among extended families struggling to survive the desert. But after centuries this custom of intermarriage has had devastating genetic effects.

A Hunt for Genes That Betrayed a Desert People

"Brown has used 'H.B.H.G.' with the intention of appropriating the work of its authors," Mr. Rayner James said. "He and/or Blythe has intentionally used 'H.B.H.G.' in order to save the time and effort that independent research would have required."

Judge Asks Sharp Questions at Close of 'Da Vinci Code' Case - New York Times

Also Out Today

CAPOTE Philip Seymour Hoffman's Oscar-winning performance as Truman Capote, investigating the Kansas murders that would become the basis of "In Cold Blood." Sony Pictures; $28.95; R.

PARADISE NOW The trajectory of two Palestinian suicide bombers, traced in an Oscar-nominated film by Hany Abu-Assad. Warner Home Video; $27.98; PG-13.

New DVD's - New York Times

The idea of struggling in your post-student days is nothing new. The problem, according to all three books, is that for today's young adults, those lean early years -- the Top Ramen phase -- may never give way to the stability and prosperity enjoyed by their boomer parents. A number of factors are blamed, chief among them student loans, credit cards, wage stagnation, the rising costs of health care and home ownership, the disappearance of pensions and the likely collapse of Social Security under the weight of all those retiring boomers.

Get a real job you losers.

Beyond Their Means

A war of ideas exists within Islam between the small numbers of extremists and the vast moderate majority, Caslen said. American strategy, therefore, needs to concentrate on defeating not only extremists in arms, but stopping people from joining extremist organizations.

That may be true, but it ignores the disconnect about the role of religion in government.

That "vast moderate majority" is devoted to the idea that religion and government are one.

This is not a military matter.

Who is fighting that war?

Americans Must Maintain Resolve to Win Long War, General Says

Unlimited online storage and bandwidth for $40 a year.

The Oboe Locker's biggest benefit might be that it can serve as an unlimited online storage backup for your music files. The no-limit bandwidth will cost you $39.95 a year.

So much for that Amazon S3 service -- that'll cost you $40 a year for a measly 22 GB, and that's if you don't even transfer anything. To actually upload your 22 GB will cost you another $4.40.

More Bandwidth for Bands