Tapestry

Tapestry looks damn cool.

Quickies

NewScientist Data stored in multiplying bacteria

A message encoded as artificial DNA can be stored within the genomes of multiplying bacteria and then accurately retrieved, US scientists have shown.

The scientists took the words of the song It's a Small World and translated it into a code based on the four "letters" of DNA. They then created artificial DNA strands recording different parts of the song. These DNA messages, each about 150 bases long, were inserted into bacteria such as E. coli and Deinococcus radiodurans.

The beginning and end of each inserted message have special DNA tags devised by the scientists. These "sentinels" stop the bacteria from identifying the message as an invading a virus and destroying it, says Wong.

The beginning and end of each inserted message have special DNA tags devised by the scientists. These "sentinels" stop the bacteria from identifying the message as an invading a virus and destroying it, says Wong.

"The magic of the sentinel is that it protects the information, so that even after a hundred bacterial generations we were able to retrieve the exact message," says Wong. "Once the DNA message is in bacteria, it is protected and can survive." And as a millilitre of liquid can contain up to billion bacteria, the potential capacity of such a memory system is enormous.

The Guardian: Gun crimes soar by 35%

The figures also show the number of crimes involving handguns has more than doubled since the ban on the weapons imposed after the Dunblane massacre from 2,636 in 1997-1998 to 5,871 in the 12 months to April last year.

What do you know? They ban guns, so now only the criminals have them... and gun crime goes up! Is this surprising?

Great, problems on the Buffy DVD set I just got yesterday. I'm returning it. Though, I haven't opened it yet and would like to confirm the problems for myself, but screw it, I'll believe him, and I'd rather have the money back. I don't get it... no one watches the DVDs before it goes out?

Wow, France really is a socialist country:

Under French law, retail stores are allowed to run sales only twice a year, in January and August. Today marked the start of a merchandising offensive that can last legally for only four to six weeks.

This sucks. I want to know what brand of TV that was.

Via Simon Brunning, IBM's Decimal Arithmetic FAQ is interesting.

It's taking too long:

It's taking too long. And now Britain is pressing to delay things even more, as that grinning fool Blix announces -- to no thinking person's surprise -- that his sham inspections haven't found a damned thing.

DoctrineML 1.0, here we come