Hello My Friends,

I have several unrelated items today:

1. Nuptial. An old friend from high school, Anne Wojcicki, recently married Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google. It has been in the news partly because Google made an investment in Anne's start-up biotech company.

Anne may have been a reader of this thread for a short time right after Peter was killed; she almost surely is not a reader anymore. But just in case: Congratulations Anne! May you have a long and happy marriage. And nice work on getting your company funded.

I am not one of those people who will claim that I was best pals with Anne...we have been sporadically in touch over the years...a few years back, we talked about developing low-income housing in Africa, but it didn't go anywhere.

In any event, it is nice to see someone with a great head on her shoulders and is not a gold-digger (Anne first started dating Sergey several years ago) marry someone like Sergey. Anne is one of those down-to-earth people who has always made her own way and to the extent it's possible to not be changed by $14 billion, Anne will be one of those people who won't let it go to her head and won't let the money change the core of who she is.

2. Al Gore. A very surprising source (and regular reader of this blog) was recently saying nice things about Gore to me and sent me a link to this article. Go ahead and take credit if you wish, source. Just as surprisingly, another reader of this blog from the opposite end of the political spectrum was just saying positive things about to McCain to me. Go figure! As has been pointed out, Gore's new book does not feature a giant picture of Gore on the cover, as is the case with probably 99% of political biographies.

3. ACLU. An article in the WSJ today pointed out that a few years back, The Onion (satirical periodical) had a headline that said, "ACLU Defends Nazi's Right to Burn Down ACLU Headquarters." Great headline. But the article raised serious points about ACLU defending free-speech rights of students who wear pro-gay t-shirts, but declining to defend free speech rights of students who wear anti-gay t-shirts. Being socially liberal, I of course have more sympathy for the pro-gay t-shirt crowd, but's that's beside the point.

Notwithstanding that (prude that I am) I think t-shirts about sex and sexual orientation generally aren't appropriate for schools, it does seem fairly hypocritical for ACLU not defend free speech rights for the anti-gay t-shirt crowd.

This is the same ACLU that defends Nazis' rights to free speech and sued on behalf of a Muslim woman in Florida who didn't want to remove her face-covering burka for her driver's license picture.

4. Monica Goodling. If you don't know who she is, take five minutes and read this article. If you do know who she is, take five minutes and read this article. Regent University, where Ms. Goodling got her law degree, is formerly CBN University School of Law (CBN = Christian Broadcasting Network). Conveniently re-named Regent, but the mission is still the same. There is a remarkably high representation from Regent grads in the Bush Administration. Similar to Patrick Henry College. (See this article from The New Yorker.) It's not that I mind Christians or evangelicals having powerful positions in our government; it's that this administration seems to quietly use religious beliefs as one of the important qualification criteria for hiring.

Crazy idea, how about competence first?

5. Alien on Earth? Last night I heard a guy on NPR talking about the series "Planet Earth." Supposed to very good. He mentioned this video of an ant who acquires a fungus...and the fungus grows out of the ant's head (killing the ant, of course). Amazing camera work to find an ant who looked like it may have the fungus, and then time-lapse sequence of the fungus breaking through the head and growing.