The incomparable Tara Calishain sent along a pointer to Northern Light’s special edition on GM foods.

I was listening to NPR this morning and they were talking about genetically modified food. I don’t know much about the issue, but at the same time, I think it’s pretty important. Many people, especially Americans, don’t really give much thought to what they’re putting in their mouth. We eat plenty of food that’s created with a formula rather than a recipe, and we’re not too demanding about what people spray on the plants we eat, either. I think that’s a shame. The only thing I know for sure about GM foods is that Monsanto is one of the big companies behind them, and I’m pretty sure that anything Monsanto is for, I’m against. Here are some resources I found:

• What’s Wrong with Genetic Modification? (con)
• Genetic Engineering of our Food (con)
• AgBioWorld (pro)
• Special report: Food under the microscope (news report covering both sides of the debate)
• dmoz: GM-Genetically Modified Food

Subversion is a new open source version control system that’s being designed as a replacement for CVS. There’s no running code yet, but it looks interesting.

Chris Byron takes a hard look at the finances of Salon and other dot coms in the New York Observer, and comes out wondering why they went public in the first place. The answer, according to the article, is so that the underwriters of their stock offerings could pocket millions of bucks in hard cash, which makes sense to me. Things really do look bleak for Salon, which is a real tragedy, because most of their product is excellent, and because I have several friends who work there.

We’re getting an IMAX theater here, and it’s going to be paid for with public funds. The new theater is exciting, because I love IMAX movies, unfortunately the financing for the theater is fraught with the intrigue and politics associated with building recreational spaces on the public dime. The proponents come up with a bunch of ludicrous projections of future earnings, and the opponents do their best to tear the numbers apart. Naturally, there are arguments over reinvigorating the city’s downtown area as well. In the end, these things always seem to get built, which, in this case, is good for me.

Paul Krugman explains why lowering taxes on gasoline will lead to an increase in gas prices over the long term, not a decrease. At the end of his column, Krugman suggests that cynicism drives George Bush, Jr. to promote these policies, not ignorance of economics. Trying to figure out whether Bush is governed by cynicism or ignorance is a challenge that I’m not ready to tackle. (This is a New York Times problem, but you shouldn’t have to register to see it. If you do, let me know.)

Believe it or not, there are actually some undervalued dot coms. These companies actually have a lower market capitalization than cash on hand, and could theoretically buy back all of their stock and have money to spare. What an interesting warped business strategy. IPO and take in a bunch of cash. Conduct your business in such a way that your stock price falls below the IPO price (many companies have done this without trying at all). Buy back all of your stock, close down the company, and walk away with the difference. Sounds like a better business plan than many I’ve encountered. Seriously, though, it must be depressing to go to work every day at a place where the market has valued your company’s business at less than zero dollars. Ouch.

Today I learned that not only is Emacs available for Windows, but XEmacs is as well. Naturally, I’ve downloaded it to conduct a comparison test.

My copy of my new CGI book arrived in the mail today. I haven’t been home to see it yet, but I’m excited already. Getting a freshly minted copy of your new book is a wonderful experience, right up until you find the first typo, grammatical error, or technical mistake in the book.

OK, this whole link patent thing is stupid. I think that it will serve to illustrate the idiocy of the current laws protecting the rights of inventors, which will be a good thing. Here’s hoping that some a nice collection of prior art is collected that will make this all go away quickly.