NZ BEAR has updated his links page. Unlike my simple-minded alphabetical registry he has created a list ranked by how often other bloggers link using some sort of fancy script that searched blog pages. This is an interesting approach, though even a brief scan will demonstrate that ranking does not necessarily correlate with quality. Words of wisdom: “if you’re gauging your own blog’s success by any measure other than how much enjoyment it gives you, well, that way lies madness.”

MICKEY KAUS unleashes a torrent of posts on everything from welfare reform, to immigration and terrorism, to gay Afghan warlords. The big bucks from Slate seem to have produced a new level of productivity. Maybe the Boeing has a satellite broadband connection!

CLONING UPDATE: Scientists have successfully implanted cloned, artifically grown kidneys in a cow.

The experiment has a wide range of implications in terms of “grow-your-own” organs for humans as it is the first time that an animal’s immune system has not rejected cloned tissue.

It could mean that cloned embryos may, in future, be created using human DNA to grow organs and tissues to treat illnesses such as heart disease, Parkinson’s, diabetes, strokes and cancer.

Bioengineers from the Children’s Hospital in Boston and Advanced Cell Technology in Worcester, Massachusetts, claimed the experiment would put an end to criticism that therapeutic cloning will not work.

(Via Rich Hailey). Here’s the Boston Globe version, which is a bit longer.

UPDATE: By the way, Charles Murtaugh had this story a while back, based on rumor.

SPEAKING OF KEN LAYNE, I finished reading his book Dot.con yesterday, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. It reminds me of early Neal Stephenson, say around Zodiac. I can’t wait to read the next one.

LAYNE TO ALTERMAN: Your prose is goofy, and I’m a liberal!