Bits: Monk Fight Edition

-The British Telegraph newspaper has a fun article that lists 50 things you didn't know about Barack Obama. I actually knew a couple of these. Interestingly, none of the 50 involves him being a terrorist, but he did have a pet monkey at one point and has read every Harry Potter novel, so same difference I suppose.

-By popular demand, more cholera news. There is another, perhaps more serious outbreak taking place right now at a refugee camp in the Congo. As you may now, the Nation Formerly Known as Zaire is in the midst of yet another civil war, and thousands of people are being driven into small areas in these makeshift camps. There's a cease-fire in place right now, but it is apparently unraveling. There are fears that the disease will spread if the cease-fire fails and the refugees are forced to scatter. Complicating matters is a lack of the medication that cure the disease, as well as an organized method of distribution.

-The police had to be called to the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, supposedly built on the site where Jesus was born, after monks from two different sects got into a violent brawl. The church has long been run in an uneasy joint arrangement between the Greek Orthodox, Armenian Orthodox, and Coptic churches. In this case the Greeks tried to block a procession by the Armenians, "so that the Armenians could not establish a claim which they do not have." Um... anyway, violence ensued. This is the same place where there has been a ladder outside the entrance since the 19th century because the three sects can't agree on who has the authority to take it down.

-Cracked.com's latest history lesson/list/funny caption collection involves the six stupidest points people died trying to prove.

-The latest thing we're boycotting: Utah, for the Mormon Church's aggressive support of California's gay marriage ban, unique because it took away from people a right that had already been granted. As things we're boycotting go, this one makes more sense than most.

-Today's Free TV on the Internet: The Daily Show/Colbert Report election special. Not as great as it could have been, but still has Stephen Colbert delivering state electoral votes with a parrot perched on his shoulder.

We're Back, Baby

So... Barack Obama will be the 44th President of the United States of America. He won somewhere north of 370 electoral votes, including pretty much every swing state with the exception of Missouri. He won in places like Indiana, North Carolina, Virginia, and Colorado. It was an historic moment, one of the greatest I have been a part of in my adult life. People stopped in the street, dancing, singing, and hugging total strangers. I have never seen anything like it. I think it surprised even Obama's biggest supporters, the level of emotional outpouring. It wasn't just history, it was us as a nation standing up and saying, no, this is who we are, we're not going to spiral into oblivion. I have never been prouder to be an American.

Life goes on. Here's a story I haven't seen elsewhere: There has been a major cholera outbreak on the campus of China's Hainan University, and it's resulted in the gradual breakdown of civilization. Though cholera can be treated with a three-day course of treatment and is no longer considered fatal in developing countries, the Chinese government has quarantined the campus. Food is running out, and the military is trying and failing to control the crowds. It's like a dry run for when the big epidemic hits. If the disease doesn't get you, the quarantine will. The media hasn't picked up this story, but one female student on campus has been writing a harrowing blog that is getting some attention on the net. Read about this here.

Meet the New Nobility

The Nobel prizes, perhaps the greatest honors given out by mankind, have been announced, and there are some surprises and some interesting stories. Here’s who’s getting them this year:

Physics: Yoichiro Nambu (b. Tokyo, currently at the Fermi Institute in Chicago), for the discovery of the mechanism of spontaneous broken symmetry in subatomic physics. Also, Makoto Kobayashi & Toshihide Maskawa (KEK in Kyoto), for the discovery of the origin of the broken symmetry which predicts the existence of at least three families of quarks in nature. The Irish news service RTE reported that “They laid the theoretical foundations for modern understanding of how the laws of physics differ for matter and anti-matter.”

Medicine: The prize went to three researchers crediting with discovering important viruses, this allowing for their effective treatment. The honorees are Harald zur Hausen (German Cancer Research Centre, Heidelberg) for his discovery of human papilloma viruses causing cervical cancer, and Francoise Barre-Sinoussi & Luc Montaignier (Institut Pasteur, Paris) for their discovery of human immunodeficiency virus. Definitely deserved all around.

Chemistry: Three Americans: Osamu Shimomura (born in Japan), Martin Chalfie, & Roger Tsien, received the prize for the discovery and development of the green fluorescent protein, GFP. Remember those pictures of the glowing cats? Yeah, that was these guys. I want a glowing cat. It was reportedly discovered in jellyfish, then researchers discovered they could use it as a study marker.

Literature: I personally think the literature branch is completely out of touch with reality. I’m not usually nationalist, but the head of the committee said the other day that there’s “nothing of value” coming out of America right now. Uh-huh. The prize this year went to a French writer I’ve never heard of, Jean Marie Le-Clezio, "author of new departures, poetic adventure and sensual ecstasy, explorer of a humanity beyond and below the reigning civilization."

Peace: Probably the most prestigious prize goes this year to the former President of Finland, Martti Ahtisaari. He has apparently been a peace moderator everywhere from Kosovo to Indonesia’s Aceh Province, though I had never heard of his laudable efforts before now. Most Americans have only heard of the current Finnish president, a woman who Conan O’Brien supported because he thought she looked like him. Um…

The Economics prize will be announced Monday. Of course, the Nobel prizes were started by Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite. He decided that his invention was too violent and decided to do something positive with his fortune in his will. In addition to the prestige, winners get oodles of cash. The prizes are awarded in Stockholm, except for Peace, which is awarded separately in Oslo, for whatever reason.

Updates: As the Bailout Turns

-The Senate voted for a version of the bailout today, 74 to 25. Both Barack Obama and John McCain voted in favor of the bill. The current version is very similar to the one the House rejected earlier this week, except for "sweeteners" (and yes, that's apparently the official term) that were added, especially tax cuts. Said cuts are apparently intended to lure Republicans. If I was a Republican, I would feel insulted by that. "They'll vote for anything with tax cuts, it doesn't matter how much they hate the rest of it." And of course, that makes it even less likely that we actually have the $700 Billion dollars to use for this.

-Scientists now say the AIDS virus jumped to people as early as 1884, much earlier than previously thought. I'm not sure what the implications of that are, but it's interesting stuff.

-Sarah Silverman, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Jonah Hill are among an all-star cast that doesn't want you to vote. That reverse psychology won't work on me! http://www.collegehumor.com/video:1832128

-The Baseball playoffs are underway here in the States. Early victories for the Phillies, Dodgers, and Red Sox.

-Comic books too... booky for you? Ever thought "this is great, but I wish it was more computerized?" Comic book stories animated through machinima, now on the intertubes. http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=DF54DE54A3BAA597

-Real life blind people have apparently decided that the upcoming film "Blindness" is offensive in its depiction of blind people. Shocking!