What Caught My Eye Today

North Korea - A North Korean-flagged ship under close watch in Asian waters is believed to be heading toward Myanmar carrying small arms cargo banned under a new U.N. resolution, a South Korean intelligence official said. I wouldn't put it past North Korea to test these sanction, but still, it would have appeared slightly less suspicious if some other intelligence agency had made this announcement. After all, South Korea (understandably) is a bit jittery these days. The U.S. military began tracking the ship after it left a North Korean port last week on suspicion it was carrying illicit weapons. Analysts say a high seas interception — something North Korea has said it would consider an act of war — is unlikely. Why bother? If the U.S. blocks the ship from unloading its payload, the same objective is achieved. Myanmar's military government, which faces an arms embargo from the U.S. and the European Union, reportedly has bought weapons from North Korea in the past. Again, not much of a surprise. You have to figure that despotic military regimes with little regard for their people or the international community, would gravitate toward each other...you know, for moral support and that sort of thing.

Tobacco - Lamenting his first teenage cigarette, President Barack Obama ruefully admitted that he's spent his adult life fighting the habit. Then he signed the nation's toughest anti-smoking law, aiming to keep thousands of other teens from getting hooked. Obama praised the historic legislation, which gives the Food and Drug Administration unprecedented authority to regulate what goes into tobacco products, to make public the ingredients and to prohibit marketing campaigns geared toward children. Full disclosure: I'm a non-smoker and in favor of anything that makes the air cleaner. That being said, the President could be treading on thin ice here. I'm not saying that I oppose measures to prevent teens and children from picking up bad habits, but where do you draw the line? I'd really rather not see responsibility for making lifestyle decisions completely left to the federal government. When I was growing up, those choices were left to a different set of decision makers--you might be familiar with them. They were called "parents".

Dark Matter - Time to embrace your inner science-geek. Far below the Black Hills of South Dakota, crews are building the world's deepest underground science lab at a depth equivalent to more than six Empire State buildings — a place uniquely suited to scientists' quest for mysterious particles known as dark matter. The site is ideal for experiments because its location is largely shielded from cosmic rays that could interfere with efforts to prove the existence of dark matter, which is thought to make up nearly a quarter of the mass of the universe. So why bother with all this? I'll tell you. Scientists believe most of the dark matter in the universe contains no atoms and does not interact with ordinary matter through electromagnetic forces. They are trying to discover exactly what it is, how much exists and what effect it may have on the future of the universe. Physicists have said that without dark matter, galaxies might never have formed. By learning more about dark matter, they hope to understand better whether the universe is expanding or contracting. Scientists hope to start construction on the two deepest labs by 2012 and open them by 2016. The projects are expected to cost $550 million. Maybe, I'm missing the bigger picture here, but isn't the fact that the universe does exist and, by some cosmic miracle, we happened to find a suitable environment--the Earth--to live, enough? Let's say that we prove dark matter exists, and let's say that in doing so, we discover that the universe is going to implode upon itself in a couple of billion years or so. Is that really going to change anything? Heck, the human race will be luck to survive 10,000 more years, let alone a few billion. I'm just saying.

Golf - The U.S. Open finally concluded on Monday after players slogged through 5 days of nearly non-stop rain. Tiger Woods managed to scrape his way to a sixth place finish (even-par). On the off chance that you were wondering who won, some dude named Lucas Glover earned what will likely be his only major championship with a 7 under par score, two shots better than the rest of the field. Even in loss, Woods managed to make the headlines. Apparently, this is the first time in five years all the major trophies belong to someone other than Tiger Woods. Frightening how much game this guy has.

Soccer - Humor me on this one. The things that had to go right for the United States in this tournament are almost beyond belief. Outplayed by Italy and Brazil, the U.S. soccer team once again was on the verge of first-round elimination from a big international tournament. To reach the semifinals of the Confederations Cup, the Americans needed to beat Egypt by at least three goals while the world champion Italians lost to Brazil by at least three. At the risk of stating the obvious, both happened. Otherwise, why would I have reported this story in the first place. Now it’s on to a semifinal matchup with European champion Spain, unbeaten in 35 matches since a November 2006 exhibition loss to Romania. The Spaniards are the world’s top-ranked team. Suffice it to say, if the U.S. manages to pull off an upset against Spain, the soccer world may spontaneous combust. Seriously.