This is so cool - Apple has the story of a nine-year old boy suffering from leukemia who designed a computer game in which the hero kills cancer cells.  The Make-a-Wish foundation jumped in to help, and now Ben's Game is available for download.  You've got to love that!

Well, the Lakers showed up again last night, especially Kobe Bryant, beating the Spurs by 8 in a game that wasn't that close, after another overwhelming third-quarter run.  So we have a series.  Interestingly this series parallels the Lakers-Spurs series of a year ago; the Spurs won the first two in San Antonio, then the Lakers won two in L.A.  Last year the Spurs went on to win out at home, we'll see what happens this year...

In other L.A. sports news, the Dodgers won - again - but the Angles lost a thrilling rain-delayed extra-inning game to the Yankees.  So now the Dodgers and Angles are tied for the best records in baseball.  Yippee.

Global IQ: 1950-2050.  Animated extrapolation from IQ and the Wealth of Nations, reaching the same conclusion I did, that average global IQ is declining rapidly.  [ via Jason at GNXP, which has an interesting comment thread. ]

Russia's new space agency chief is an optimist: he predicts Russia will have a manned mission to Mars by 2013.  Good luck.  Sending people to Mars is really hard, but it is even harder to send them back.  This is not going to happen.

African frogs threaten San Francisco.  (Looks like an Onion headline, but it's not.)  "California biologists are alarmed over the latest invasive species to take up residence in [San Francisco]: African clawed frogs, which eat just about anything and tend to breed like crazy.  Even worse, they're kind of cute - and thus more likely to be whisked away by children and dumped into other ponds, where they spread even more."  Hide your children!

Another looks-like-Onion-but-it's-real headline: The return of 'The Dick Van Dyke Show'.  Warm up the Tivo for this one.  There's a great line from Desi Arnaz in this article: "How many people do you think you entertain when you're on television?  Four.  The mother, the father and [two] children..."

Adam Curry posted this great picture of Bill Gates, at an iMac.  "no comment".

Every once in a while I have to relay gadget news: Sony has announced a PVR with 1TB of storage and seven tuners.  What!?  It is Japan-only, for now...  [ via engadget ]

[ Later: Matt Haughey comments... ]

Cult of Mac reports online marking firm DarkBlue will award an iPod to the person who earns Google's top search ranking for the nonsensical term "Nigritude Ultramarine."  So be it.

Eric Sink's latest Business of Software column is up: Closing the Gap, part 2.  If you hadn't already, you might want to read Closing the Gap, part 1 first.  Great stuff - Eric is so down to earth.  At the highest level, to close the gap between your customer and your product, you must:

1. Make Sure Customers Know About Your Product
2. Make Sure Your Product Is Something Customers Want
3. Make Sure They Can Afford Your Product
4. Offer a Full-Featured Demo Download
5. Answer the Customers' Questions
6. Provide a Place for Community
7. Make It Easy to Buy Over the Web

So be it.  If I had to fault Aperio, it would be (6) - we have a blog, but our customers are not using its comment facility to interact...

Wired: Endless Summer (on demand).  "Kerry Black is bringing world-class waves to the malls of America.  Grab your board - surf's up 6 a.m. to midnight, 365 days a year."  Am I the only one who thinks it won't quite be the same?

Finally, I'm not quite sure what to make of this, but it's cool.  More evidence, if any were needed, that some people have too much time on their hands...  [ via Doc Searles ]