Alternet
Will California Legalize Pot?
With only a few months to go until the election, the campaign to legalize marijuana in California has only $50,000 in cash on hand. The question now is: How can it win?
Today, at least a third of Americans say they've tried smoking weed. Is it possible that after half a century of increasingly mainstreamed pot use the public is ready for marijuana to be legal? We may soon find out. California has long been on the front lines of marijuana policy. In 1996, it became the first state to legalize medical cannabis. This year, the Tax Cannabis initiative -- now officially baptized Proposition 19 -- may very well be the best chance any state has ever had at legalizing the consumption, possession and cultivation of marijuana for anyone over 21.

Associated Press
July becomes deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan
Six U.S. service members have been killed in Afghanistan, bringing the toll for July to at least 66 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the near-nine-year war. A NATO statement Friday said three troops died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan Thursday. The statement gave no nationalities, but U.S. officials said all three were Americans. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity pending notification of kin. Another statement issued later Friday said three more had died, one following an insurgent attack and twoin a roadside bombing in southern Afghanistan.

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BBC
Details of 100m Facebook
users collected and published
Personal details of 100m Facebook users have been collected and published on the net by a security consultant.
Ron Bowes used a piece of code to scan Facebook profiles, collecting data not hidden by the user's privacy settings. The list, which has been shared as a downloadable file, contains the URL of every searchable Facebook user's profile, their name and unique ID. Mr Bowes said he published the data to highlight privacy issues, but Facebook said it was already public information. The file has spread rapidly across the net.

New Scientist
Alzheimer's unlocked: New keys to a cure
Attempts to treat the world's most common form of dementia may have been attacking its symptoms, not its root cause I HAVE lost myself," cried Auguste Deter to her physician. Deter was trying to write her name, scrawling "Mrs" in a spidery script, only to forget the rest every time. "What are you eating?" the doctor asked Deter on her second day at the hospital for the mentally ill in Frankfurt, Germany, as the confused 51-year-old lunched on cauliflower and pork. "Potatoes," she replied.

Science Daily
Marine Biodiversity Strongly
Linked to Ocean Temperature
In an unprecedented effort that will be published online on the 28th of July by the international journal Nature, a team of scientists mapped and analyzed global biodiversity patterns for over 11,000 marine species ranging from tiny zooplankton to sharks and whales. The researchers found striking similarities among the distribution patterns, with temperature strongly linked to biodiversity for all thirteen groups studied. These results imply that future changes in ocean temperature, such as those due to climate change, may greatly affect the distribution of life in the sea.

Hey Minnesota!
Tarryl Clark for Congress

This is War - 30 Seconds to Mars

Cumbersome - Seven Mary Three

Rolling Stone
U2's Spider-Man Musical Gets Back on Track
After months of financial woes and casting changes, rehearsals for Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark, the Broadway musical featuring songs by U2's Bono and the Edge, will finally begin on August 18th, a spokesperson for the musical told the New York Times . The $50 million production has yet to announce details about its new premiere date, but actor/singer Reeve Carney, who will play hero Peter Parker, confirmed on his Twitter that choreography rehearsals were already underway. "I can't wait for the world to see this thing — It's finally happening," he tweeted.