People want to live in important times and no one has more acolytes than Steve Jobs - he can do no wrong.  When he was caught illegally giving himself stock options, which other CEOs went to jail for, he simply gave them back and even his most progressively anti-corporate fans dismissed the problem because the stock did not go down.   

The more centralized the power, the easier corruption becomes.  Hu Zhicheng, a Chinese-born American scientist who returned to China to bring some entrepreneurship to the Communist world superpower, discovered the dark side of that.

Chinese companies cultivate influence with local officials and use law enforcement and a malleable legal system as competitive weapons and, because a business civil claim in the US is a criminal one in China, competitors can make sure you never get back home if you try to compete there.

There are other cases like Hu's, the US embassy said, without specifying how many.   Obviously quiet lobbying has not worked so maybe some international attention will.

Since the bulk of academic research has been taxpayer-funded, it's become increasingly silly to allow private companies to take ownership of the results.   Congress passed a law declaring NIH-funded studies must be put in a public repository and it withstood the onslaught of the Democratic House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers Jr. in 2008 but strong leadership by Elias Zerhouni at the NIH prevented them from overturning it.

When I want a popsicle, I want a popsicle, I don't need the popsicle framed through social justice issues or a world view, but if you need a certain kind of popsicle to assuage your liberal guilt that you can buy a popsicle and a woman in Arabia cannot (or is it just driving, voting, and wearing clothes of their choosing they cannot do?) , San Francisco - Frisco as local people love to call it - is the place to go.

All joking aside, this is cool stuff, literally and figuratively; need a single-malt Scotch popsicle?  They have it. Vegan popsicles?  Right there in the Bomb Truck.  Like buying your popsicles from strangers on tricycles instead? Want one that tastes like corn?  You're in luck.
 

In Morocco, the native Tamri goats love the berries of Argan trees they literally climb into the branches to get them.

Multi-purpose circle of life bonus; the feces of the Tamri contain Argan seed kernels which local farmers then grind into an oil used in cooking and cosmetics.

It is more shocking to read about San Francisco residents wanting less government busybody interference than about gay nudists, but that's Frisco for you.

The Castro district, home of the gay rights movement starting in the 1960s, which included desiring more government involvement in securing their rights, has a contingent who don't always think they should be told to wear pants. Maybe that is why gay marriage got voted down in California but not New York - no one in New York is going to insist they can attend church in the nude, it's too darn cold nine months out of the year.

Atheists can't figure out religious people. It shouldn't be that hard, religious people only believe in one more God than atheists, so they aren't all that different, while atheists only believe in one fewer God than religious people, who don't believe in a lot of other Gods, so they aren't that different either.   Yet they just don't get along.

There may be new hope for understanding and dialogue. Religious Belief Systems of Persons with High Functioning Autism (HFA) finds that autistic people are more likely to be atheists than neurotypical (NT) people.

Living in northern California, I have enjoyed one of the nicest summers I have ever had anywhere.  It's been spectacular.  Of course, climate instability can be a very bad thing - next year it could be heat winds like vorpal blades, dogs and cats living together...real mass hysteria.  But this year was pretty good, since I did not live in the southern or eastern US.

The Champagne region of France is also loving life.  They say climatic shift has made their lives easier and their Champagne better. Recently, the Champagne harvest ran from mid-September to early October, but it has progressively crept earlier, late August through mid-September.

Obama Foodarama, the public portion of the digital archive of record about Obama Administration food and nutrition initiatives from the White House by Eddie Gehman Kohan, has this nifty article on President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama's mark on culinary.  They served homebrewed White House Honey Ale, made with a pound of honey from the White House Beehive, to guests at last year's Super Bowl party. 

Turns out no one, not even Thomas Jefferson, had done it before.  This won't make any campaign speeches in 2012, but it should.