Quickies

Image from Wild Gas Masks.

Israel is planning on more settlements in Jerusalem and sinking peace talks at the same time. Not that there was any real effort made in peace talks recently.

The White House has withheld documents from Congress regarding the firings of U.S. Attorneys. National Journal has the documents and they were provided by a senior person within the executive branch. This thing continues to look like a bigger scandal. Slate's Dahlia Lithwick has commentary on Gonzales' testimony to House members yesterday. TPMmuckraker has many videos from the testimony.

New evidence is said to have been unearthed about Japan's use of sex slaves in WWII. I just posted this link for the commenter who continues to argue contrarily about this even though his own links posted to absolve Japan of the use of coercion do nothing of the sort.

Wolfowitz drama continues to play out into next week. Ho, hum, we all know the ending. I hope this series is canceled soon.

Bats fly differently from birds. Long known, but new insights into how.

Here's a Contrarian study that won't get publicized in the U.S. due to our hysterical attitudes about drugs and alcohol: Kids in homes that introduce alcohol consumption properly don't indulge in binge drinking at nearly the same rate as homes that deny consumption instruction.

Aspirin found to cut bowel cancer. Hm, the simplest, cheapest drug is such a wonder.

It used to be that sex required an R rating by the MPAA. Sex was even more horrific than violence in the board's eyes. Now, smoking is being added to the list. Here's an idea: get rid of the Board and have reviewers inform parents of the contents and let them decide.