What Caught My Eye Today

Stem Cell Research - Pushing back against the Democratic-led Congress, President Bush vetoed a bill that would have eased restraints on federally funded embryonic stem cell research. Democrats, who had made the stem cell legislation a top priority when they took control of the House and Senate in January, were quick to denounce the president's decision. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is expected to schedule an override vote, but the date has not been set. Democrats, however, currently do not have enough votes to override Bush's veto. This was the third veto of Bush's presidency. His first occurred last year when he rejected legislation to allow funding of additional lines of embryonic stem cells — a measure that passed over the objections of Republicans then in control. The second legislation he vetoed would have set timetables for U.S. troop withdrawals from Iraq. Is it just me or is Congress completely inept at trying to reign in the President? You have to give props to Bush. I for one certainly didn't think he was going to be able to continue to do as he pleased without fear of reprecussion from Congress.

Russia - By accepting Vladimir Putin as a democrat, Western governments have allowed the Russian president to continue running the country like a police state, according to former chess champion Gary Kasparov. Kasparov said Russia is quickly becoming a dictatorship, adding that all the national television networks are now controlled by Putin and his band of former KGB officers. And the once powerful Russian Parliament has become a toothless Kremlin lapdog. I'm not sure how much influence a chess player is going to have on international affairs, but he does raise some interested questions. My concern is that most countries, the U.S. included, share Kasparov's view but don't know how or are afraid to confront Putin.

China - China has overtaken the United States as the top emitter of carbon dioxide, the main greenhouse gas, because of surging energy use amid an economic boom. The rise to number one emitter may put pressure on Beijing to do more to help a U.N.-led fight against global warming. China's carbon dioxide emissions totaled 6.2 billion metric tons in 2006, compared with second place U.S. emissions of 5.8 billion metric tons. The European Union was in third place on the ranking ahead of Russia, India and Japan. With a population of 1.3 billion, China's per capita emissions are a quarter of those in the United States, with 300 million people. So on a per capita basis, the U.S. is still number one. U-S-A, U-S-A, U-S-A. Oops, hold up. This is another one of those rankings where number one is a bad thing, isn't it?

Space Travel - The European Space Agency is looking for volunteers to make a pretend trip to Mars. The job will last almost two years, the living conditions will be cramped and the food all pre-packed -- just like on the spacecraft that might one day make the epic voyage to our remote red neighbor. The project will kick off with one or two shorter, 105-day studies in 2008, followed by the full 520-day study late next year or early in 2009. Application forms for the ESA jobs can be found here. So let's say you get the job. What do you put down on your resume after having completed this job? '2009 to 2011 - Spent two years in cramped quarters eating crap food and pretty much stared at the walls.' Sounds like the first two years of college to me.