500 people read your blog? Go to prison!

Well, slightly more complicated than that.

There was a section in the lobbyist reformation legislation being worked on in the US Congress that if more than 500 people read your (EDIT: political) blog, you are effectively classified as a lobbyist and must report to Congress quarterly. Don't report, potentially go to jail.

http://infowars.net/articles/january2007/180107Bloggers_Prison.htm

Nasty stuff. Apparently it's been defeated. http://yro.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=07/01/19/0553211

"The attempt to require political bloggers to register as lobbyists previously reported by Slashdot has been stripped out of the lobbying reform bill. The vote was 55 to 43 to defeat the provision. All 48 Republicans, as well as 7 Democrats, voted against requiring bloggers to register; all 43 votes in favor of keeping the registration provision were by Democrats."

I don't follow the Dems being the ones in favor of keeping this provision, gonna have to read the other sources to see what's up. I can see the GOP not liking this as they've been shown to have paid blogger pundits out there and all of that would be revealed, and I wouldn't be surprised in the least if the Dems also have them out there. It just seems to me that the Republicans would be in favor of it as it would further restrict free speech and criticism of the gov't and big business.

The problem with genetic engineering to prevent Mad Cow Disease

http://www.wired.com/news/columns/0,72508-0.html

2007: A biotechnology company in Sioux Falls, South Dakota, breeds cattle that are immune to mad cow disease. A relieved beef industry pours funding into the lab.

2008: Mad-cow-immune cows become the standard for livestock, but it is discovered that their prion-resistant brains have given them a primitive, sinister intelligence. Farmhand kickings, rodeo clown gorings and milkmaid stompings rise 400 percent. A few of the cows escape into the wild, making capture difficult. The government decides to sow biogenetically engineered grasses in their grazing areas, grasses that will release deadly spores into their systems.

(continued in the link)

Welcome to the arms race for the 21st century -- space!

The Chinese apparently have successfully destroyed one of their aging weather satellites with a kinetic kill at an altitude of 500 miles.

Let the space wars begin!

http://www.aviationweek.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/CHI01177.xml