Russians dig in as pullback moves on -

Fattest children to be taken away from their parents - More social "services" abuses. Just great. I suppose they will try to have social workers in there to monitor if the kids turn fat also?

Turkey bows to the dark side - A Turkey-Iran alliance in the works?

India has big plans for lunar exploration

Pax Arcana

In dramatic leap forward for humankind, researchers from MIT have announced that humans are almost as smart as plants.

Specifically, the scientists say we are close to an inexpensive, efficient mechanism for storing energy from the sun -- a process modeled on photosynthesis that could go a long way to saving us from the carbon-emitting power sources on which we now rely. Sound too good to be true? Yeah, it does, doesn't it. But these guys are freakin' serious about this:

"This is a major discovery with enormous implications for the future prosperity of humankind," said Barber, the Ernst Chain Professor of Biochemistry at Imperial College London. "The importance of their discovery cannot be overstated since it opens up the door for developing new technologies for energy production thus reducing our dependence for fossil fuels and addressing the global climate change problem."

Okay, it's the 202nd anniversary of Robert Fulton's historic, 32-hour steamboat trip from New York City to Albany, demonstrating the viability of steamboat travel for commerce on the Hudson.  But for such a historic river, why not delay that fete for a couple of years and roll it into the 400th anniversary of Champlain's exploration of the lake that now bears his name, and Henry Hudson's discover of the mouth of the river to the south, the Hudson, whose mouth is home to New York City.

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="275" caption="400 years of Hudson River history in 2009 - Hudson, Champlain, Fulton"][/caption]

And so 2009 marks the Quadricentennial Celebration on the Hudson, honoring Hudson, Fulton and Champlain.