[Obit] What a thing to wake up to...

Oy.

We've lost evolution-booster, science writer and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, 1942 - 2002. Popular science will never be the same. Also, on May 17, Golden Age artist and long-time Mad Magazine mainstay Dave Berg, known best for his "The Lighter Side of..." series, passed on to that great studio up in the sky. We'll miss you, Roger Kaputnik.

Maybe this'll slow him down a bit...

Sharon Fires Ministers, Government in Crisis

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's government was plunged into crisis on Tuesday after he kicked ministers of the linchpin Shas party out of his government for voting against an emergency economic package.

He faced the challenge of governing with a narrowed parliamentary majority and the possible threat of new elections.

In a stinging defeat for Sharon, parliament voted 47-44 on Monday against a 13-billion-shekel ($2.7-billion) package aimed at reining in swollen budget deficit created in part by higher defense spending to cover the army's offensive in the West Bank.

A fight for political survival by Sharon, a rightwing former general, could push aside international pressure for restarting peacemaking after 19 months of Israeli-Palestinian violence and for reforms in the Palestinian Authority

By all means, go to elections. Maybe then there'll be a change in the premiership and a chance for some rationality on the Israeli side...

Two for the road

Naked Chicken Plan May Make Feathers Fly

Chickens could fly even faster to the dinner table if an Israeli geneticist gets his way and develops the featherless fowl.

Avigdor Cahaner, from Israel's Hebrew University, has crossbred a small, bare-skinned bird with a regular boiler chicken as part of a research project to develop succulent, low fat poultry that is environmentally friendly.

Cahaner's red-skinned chicken looks a little ridiculous, but the lack of feathers keeps the birds cooler and leaner than their feathered cousins -- useful in hot countries.

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'Copy-Proof' CDs Cracked with 99-Cent Marker Pen

Technology buffs have cracked music publishing giant Sony Music's elaborate disc copy-protection technology with a decidedly low-tech method: scribbling around the rim of a disk with a felt-tip marker.

Internet newsgroups have been circulating news of the discovery for the past week, and in typical newsgroup style, users have pilloried Sony for deploying "hi-tech" copy protection that can be defeated by paying a visit to a stationery store.

"I wonder what type of copy protection will come next?" one posting on alt.music.prince read. "Maybe they'll ban markers."