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Jared writes "The Pirate Party of the United States has announced that it is currently trying to register itself as an officially recognized party in the state of Utah. The first step in the registration of the Pirate Party as a political body in the State of Utah is to gather statements of support from at least 2000 registered voters in the state, and it has until early February 2008 to do so. "We feel that Utah is an ideal state to begin registration of the Pirate Party as a political body," says Andrew Norton, spokesperson for the Pirate Party of the US. "Utah has a strong history of political diversity, and technological progress.""
http://www.zeropaid.com/news/8957/Pirate+Party+Officially+Begins+Forming+in+Utah

Coryoth writes "Neal Koblitz, the creator of Elliptic Curve Cryptography, has an interesting article on the history of sophisticated mathematics in cryptography. Math has always played a key role in cryptography, but in the last few decades far more sophisticated pure mathematics has become increasingly vital to cryptography. This, in turn, has brought about an uneasy relationship between pure mathematicians and cryptographers. The result has been fruitful, but has also had a few unpleasant side effects; the article spends some time discussing and dissecting, and debunking the claims of "provably secure" cryptosystems."

Robby Russell writes "It appears that Kevin Carmony, CEO of Linspire, has left or stepped down days after the company signed a patent deal with Microsoft. News of the departure was spotted with the release of Freespire 2.0 earlier today when a press released mentioned a different CEO, Larry Kettler."
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=201307098&cid=RSSfeed_IWK_News

Large swaths of garbled human DNA once dismissed as junk appear to contain some valuable sections, according to a new study by researchers at the Stanford University School of Medicine and the University of California-Santa Cruz. The scientists propose that this redeemed DNA plays a role in controlling when genes turn on and off.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070423185538.htm

The Governor of Oregon and his wife have taken up The Food Stamp Challenge, a program for rich people here in Oregon to give them a taste (litterally) of how the other half lives. I think it's a good idea- but then I saw the budget: $42 for the week, or $1/person/meal. Well, I've got a 3 person family- and we try to stay under $60/week for our food, under $90 if you throw in food for the daycare business, but that raises the number of people eating to 8. I thought this was a NORMAL food budget- it allows for creative cooking and even a gourmet attempt every now and then. Is that what people really get on food stamps?

An RNA-binding protein that is overproduced in ovarian cancer may present a new target for diagnosis or treatment of ovarian and other cancers, according to researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago.
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/04/070409144832.htm