The Washington Post is reporting that McDonalds restaurants is asking their meat suppliers to cut back on the use of antibiotics. The move comes as a reply to the growing concern that antibiotics in the food chain are contributing to the increase in antibiotic-resistant bacteria, a growing health concern. McDonald's …

The Washington Post has an interesting article on a growing trend (about thirty campuses in the US right now) to offer so-called Whiteness Studies courses in colleges. The idea has raised quite a bit of controversy on some campuses, due to the nature of the subject matter and the way …

A bill sponsored by two Washington state Democrats (Brian Baird and Jay Inslee) will make its way in to the US House of Representatives aimed at auditing the controversial ICANN and putting a decision by the organization to give Verisign a monopoly on "wait listing" domains on hold. An page …

I have been refraining from the various blow-by-blow rumors for the upcoming Apple WWDC, but this one is just too juicy to let pass. I will note that the following may well be a hack from outside of Apple or it may just be a huge mistake from inside, but …

Thanks to Amanda for pointing out this new piece of software from Math Game House Software called iStorm. The product provides a combination of electronic chalkboard and voice collaboration application for Mac users. The product costs $19.95 for an individual license and is available for download as a demo …

From the man who brought us "There's no excuse for anyone violating copyright laws" and "If that's the only way, then I'm all for destroying their machines. If you have a few hundred thousand of those, I think people would realize" the errors of their ways, now comes "that's ironic …

An article from CNet details the efforts of Intellect (an industry group made up of IBM, Microsoft, BAE Systems, Intel and others to get the UK government to steer clear of allowing GPL licenses for government funded projects. It's pretty common for governments (including the UK and the US Federal …

CNet reports that Steve Ballmer commented at a press conference in Japan that the replacement for the Xbox isn't due until 2006. This was a bit of a surprise, since many expected it in 2005.

The four people whose names were given up by Verizon (under court order) and one person who subscribes to Earthlink (which did not fight the request by the RIAA) have been sent letters by the RIAA. According to an article from CNet, the RIAA didn't say anything other than they …

An article from CNet talks about a report from Forrester Research that states that the money spent on building out 802.11 for public spaces is a waste of money. While I agree that some of the organizations are exaggerating the likelihood of people paying a lot of money for …

Apple has released version 3.1 of the Airport software supporting the Airport and Airport Extreme Base Station. The update is available via the web or Software Update. Mainly, this brings the system in line with the 802.11g final specification.

Apple has released version 2.01 of the iPod software. The update includes goodies for both Macintosh and Windows users, but most importantly for the Windows folks are Audible.com support and USB 2.0 support. Better support for Asian languages Enhanced On-The-Go playlist functionality Improved playback performance Improved handling …

Wired reports about an FTC hearing on personal information privacy. As would be expected, various groups showed up to complain about too much and too little information being available. Privacy groups such as EPIC argued that companies should ask for less information and keep to just what they need to …

An article from afterdawn details the goings-on in Sweden where they are preparing an implementation of the EUCD (European Union Copyright Directive). The proposed legislative implementation of the EUCD is considered one of the most prohibitive that has been proposed to date. Among the provisions are: An additional tax on …

In a Rolling Stone article this past week about Apple's recent discussions with independent music companies (covered here), it is revealed that Apple representatives say the company is working on a stored-value model to enable non-credit card purchases of songs from iTunes. It's a great opportunity, and I hope they …

Following up a story from earlier this week, another company is providing background music via Apple's iPod. Activaire is a New York company that runs an iPod- based music service offering content licensed directly from independent music labels. An article from Wired provides some additional perspective.

If you have $20M, you can have one of two seats on upcoming Soyuz missions to the ISS. According to an article from the New York Times, Virginia-based Space Adventures and the Russian Aviation and Space Agency have reached an agreement to resume commercial space travel to the ISS. NASA …

Sony, which has been shipping their FIU-600 fingerprint reader for some time, has now announced that they are shipping it in the US with their "Puppy Suite" authentication integration software, which they also have available for Windows. One annoying thing is that Mac users will be paying about $20 more …

A story from CNet details a new e-commerce security service from Verisign (corporate press release also available) that aims to pair your credit card information with the location of the network address that you are coming from. On the surface, it sounds like a good idea: if you have a …

Not a whole lot of details yet, but Handspring has a new Treo in the works that is smaller, faster, and more feature-laden. Features include: PalmOS 5 Built-in Camera JavaScript-enabled web browser SD/MMC expansion slot No schedule yet on when any particular mobile carrier will be supported, but the …