Steven Landsburg makes The Case for Looting, in Slate.  A fascinating analysis which convincingly challenges conventional wisdom.

John Howard, the Prime Minister of Australia, is daily competing with Donald Rumsfeld for the title of straightest shooter.  Very refreshing.  The Age notes his suggestion to demote France as a permanent member of the U.N. security council!  He'd like Japan and India to be represented, along with a country from South America (presumably Brazil, although they have to put their economic house in order first...)  I hope everyone stays aware of Australia's role in the coalition effort in Iraq; not only were they 100% supportive but they had troops on the ground and in the air.

Steven Den Beste has an interesting analysis of the developing situation in North Korea...  In which we see that doing the right things in one area (Iraq) is helpful in another (North Korea).

Peking Duck writes about AIDS in China.  Amazing and scary.  After you read this, please scroll through this well-written blog to see how the Chinese authorities are covering up SARS.  I tell you, this will get much worse before it gets better, regardless of what the World Health Organization says.

[ Later - looks like the Chinese are starting to admit they have a 'Grave" Crisis. ]

For many April 14 is "the day before tax day"; not pleasant.  But it is also the anniversary of Black Friday, the April 14 in 2000 when the Dow and the Nasdaq suffered their largest daily drops ever (6% and 10%, respectively).  This was indeed the tip of the iceberg poking through the bubble.  I remember it well, and not fondly.  Who then would have thought that the "recovery" would still be three years away?

Someday soon LEDs will replace incandescent bulbs.  Remember, "The future is already here, it just isn't evenly distributed" - William Gibson.

In response to some great feedback and suggestions from visitors, I went back and revised my How to Write C++ Classes article.  (Not a major rewrite, but some good solid tweaking.)  The central technique is called a "Cheshire Cat" class.

This is amazing!  Remember the Honda ad I linked a few days ago?  Turns out the whole thing was real.  I assumed (like you probably did) that this was computer graphics at its finest, but no - it just took 606 takes.  According to this Slashdot thread there is only one computer graphic element.  Can you spot it?