It's all happening...

North Korea in the news:  Powerline says there's something happening here.  Conrad reports strange doings in the hermit kingdom.  And Glenn Reynolds links The Age: North Korea's dear leader less dear.  "Analysts are debating whether Mr Kim is losing his grip on power, or, more likely, quietly downsizing his own personality cult."  Anyway North Korea may be easing stance on nuclear talks.  What does it all mean?  Can't tell.  But as Hindrocket notes: "North Korea is one of the places of which it can truly be said that things can only get better"... 

Have you been following the case of the marine who shot the "unarmed wounded man" in Fallujah?  L.T.Smash ponders the rules of engagement.  I totally agree with him, and not just because my daughter's in the Navy.  There's a great discussion on Powerline about Kevin Sites, the reporter who shot the movie.  LGF has a more aggressive take: they're called security rounds. 

Bigwig predicts there's life in Saturn's rings.  Interesting!  and surprisingly plausible... 

Wired: Stem cells feed brain tumors.  "Researchers have identified stem cells in brain cancer tumors that replenish the tumors and keep them growing.  Snuffing out these cancer stem cells could lead to a raft of new treatments for various cancers."  Excellent. 

FuturePundit reports Sonic hedgehog gene triples brain stem growth.  No, I am not making this up, and yes, that is "Sonic hedgehog" as in the video game character.  Guess you'll just have to read it. 

A little water, but good fishing... 
Oops.  I hate when that happens.  [ via Joi Ito ] 

So I was typing really fast and somehow the letters came out wrong and I typed "connectino".  And I thought, of course, the elementary particle exchanged during socket connects!  Probably massless but definitely has spin and charge :) 

Matt Haughey posts more information about the Tivo's fast forward plans.  I still think you should call them and complain.  They just might be listening. 

This is just too funny!  When your coworker is away... 

Here we have the Chief Blogging Officer.  Aka Rageboy.  Excellent. 

Has anyone out there used HandBrake?  A multi-threaded DVD to MPEG4 ripper/converter for OSX.  Looks like exactly what I need, if it works... 

This is awesome: hack your way out of writer's block.  "Write five words - Literally.  Put five completley random words on a piece of paper.  Write five more words.  Try a sentence.  Could be about anything.  A block ends when you start making words on a page."  Sounds like great advice for coder's block, too.  [ via Mark Frauenfelder ] 

I just re-discovered gridlock.  What a great waste of time! 

(not the way out of coder's block :)