Cancer Breakthrough

Astonishing news. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis have found a protein which causes cancer cells to self-destruct. They say it destroys up to 70% of cancer cells.

The Tiger Woods of Tennis

Serena Williams won her fourth straight "major" yesterday, defeating her sister Venus in three sets at the Australian Open. In so doing, Ms. Williams became only the fifth woman in the history of the game to win four straight Grand Slam tournaments in a row.

Forward Progress:228 pounds

Demolition Man

Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz today addressed the issue of Iraqi "compliance" with UN Resolution 1441. It's a riveting read.

Ellis Defends The New York Times

Well, International Herald Tribune CEO Peter Goldmark has left with a long, self-serving letter which you can read by clicking here. I thought the New York Times made a mistake breaking up its IHT partnership with The Washington Post, but getting rid of Goldmark was clearly the right move. Let's go to the text of the letter:

This means I am the last publisher of the IHT as an independent newspaper with its own voice and its own international outlook on the world.

There are many issues on which the New York Times and I have disagreed over the past few months, but this is the fundamental one: the end of the IHT as an independent newspaper, with its own voice and its own international outlook.

This is a great loss. The world needs more independent voices, not fewer. And at a time when the world is growing to mistrust America, it needs thoughtful voices and independent perspectives that see the world whole and are not managed from America. So while for me it is a difficult and a sad moment, in the history of the paper it is more than that: it is the end of an era in international journalism that will leave a big hole, just when we need it most.

No wonder they canned him.

Frankenfood

Norman Borlaug has an excellent piece today about the need for the developed nations to get their act together on guidelines for genetically modified agricultural products. Hysteria over the issue is causing starvation and malnutrition, especially in Africa.

You need a WSJ.com subscription to access Borlaug's column. And, obviously, it's available in the paper itself.

Darwin Award Candidates

This story would be funny if it was not so sad.

Wrong Direction: 229 pounds.

$50 Pizza

In 1995, then-Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich rammed through what came to be known as the "gift ban" for Members of Congress. You will not be surprised to learn that the "gift ban" has recently been "clarified". You will also not be surprised to learn that the "gift ban clarification" enables Members of Congress to accept more goodies from those seeking to influence their votes.

This is Republican politics at its most stupid.

Gephardt's Problem

I'm not sure a 10-person focus group of Iowa Democrats is indicative of what will happen there twelve months from now, but I do think that this piece is right when it argues that Rep. Richard Gephardt's 2004 presidential candidacy runs the risk of being caricatured as yesterday's news.

If you talk to the people who were key Gore fund-raisers in 2000, you'll find them leaning to Kerry and away from Gephardt. Said one to me the other day: "When you look at the field, Gephardt is yesterday's candidate, Edwards is tomorrow's candidate and no one thinks Lieberman is going to make it. So we're all -- well, most of us -- sort of leaning to Kerry."

Are You Sick or Do You Just Hate Your Job?

Lucy Kellaway argues that if you liked your job, you wouldn't call in sick. It's not a column likely to endear her to her colleagues, but it's worth reading. Unfortunately, you must be a subscriber to FT.com to read it. Here are the two key graphs:

"When a cold comes - which it does to most adults at least twice a year - there are two things you can do. You either think: oh dear, I seem to be getting a cold. You take some paracetamol or cold treatment of choice, go to work and carry on as normal. Or you abandon yourself to days of mucus misery and loll about at home feeling dreadful.

Which road you take depends in part on how you feel about work. It is often said that busy professional jobs make you stressed and ill and may even kill you. On the contrary, most of them make you well."

Need To Know

Why would anyone publish this story? It compromises the mission. It compromises operational security. And it endangers the lives of the men and women who are conducting the operation. Not that anyone at USA Today gives a damn about the people conducting the mission.

Weight Watcher: 228 Pounds.