Daily Manna (1/30)

This will be a new feature of the Ross Review, where I'll try and highlight interesting articles/media available on the web. I'll try to limit the scope of my recommendations to the informative, as there are certainly more than enough humor sites on the web. My use of the term 'manna' is not, in this sense, accidental: I aim to nourish.

Check out this once-in-a-lifetime picture, snapped by amateur photographer John White in Southern Australia. He nailed a comet streaking across a lake just after twilight, backed by a starry sky. Impressive.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/johnwhite/366649244/

Check out this article from last week's New Yorker, detailing Google's mythical quest to scan (into a web-searchable database) every book ever published. Sound ambitious? They've made much more progress than you might think.

http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/articles/070205fa_fact_toobin

Read this week's Economist cover story on the progressive "greening" of America. A renewed push towards environmentalism is occurring on the left AND right, and from unexpected sources like big business and the religious conservatives. The former because they know regulation is coming eventually, and they want a say in it, if it's inevitable, the latter because Christian leaders are beginning to take more seriously biblical verses requiring the "stewardship of the earth". Dominion, after all, does not only mean the license to destroy. With a green consensus taking shape nationally, it will be interesting to see if we adopt an emissions cap/trade system like the EU.

http://www.economist.com/world/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8586069

One more from the Economist, that overflowing fountain of knowledge: this piece takes on the fallout from China's decision last week to bring down one of its own satellites by way of a missile, which was interpreted as a veiled threat to the United States' satellites. America's GPS satellites, crucial for troop positioning and intel during times of war, are particularly vulnerable. No one, however, wants an escalation of space arms as it would certainly threaten current/future exploration by all countries. The article lays out some of the better options for managing this sensitive conflict.

http://www.economist.com/opinion/displaystory.cfm?story_id=8592950