The Good: With the United States entering Iraq and Afghanistan it is time that embassies are created within these countries. The two embassies will be located in Baghdad and Kabul, and now it is up to the state department to assign diplomats to the area. While they are waiting for volunteers within the department to step up, they won’t be waiting for long. Any foreign services officer who is reapplying to work in 2009 will be added to a roster of candidates for work at the embassies. There are about 300 positions that must be filled, so if by the end of the summer there is not enough volunteers, a small group will be forced to go overseas. While forcing people isn’t right, I think it is great that we are finally stepping up by adding an embassy.

The Bad: A hundred and eleven nations came together yesterday to agree on a ban against cluster bombs. Cluster bombs are groups of small bombs, as many as two hundred, that are then dropped on a large area. While effective, cluster bombs have a tendency of not detonating on time and have killed numerous innocent citizens. The ban would call for all cluster bombs to be destroyed within eight years, and their use to be discontinued immediately. The ban left room though for more direct bombing systems to be used and developed without incident. While this is a great ban, it unfortunately did not include the biggest cluster bomb makers and users: the United States, Russia, China, Israel, India and Pakistan (surprising that these are also the nuclear bomb nations). I hope that these countries will come to their senses and implement their own ban.

The Good: The prison system in the United States is currently in rehabilitation mode. This means teaching, training, and hopefully changing convicts to be responsible citizens. This is all well and good in theory, but the sad truth is when most convicts are released back into normal society, they reoffend because they can’t find work anywhere. These “frequent flyers” take up room in the system, making prisons overcrowded and the whole rehabilitation aim pointless.

Why should this matter to you though? These are convicts; it’s better that they stay locked up where they can’t hurt anyone, right? Well wrong. If any of the rehabilitation strategies are going to work then convicts need a place to go. If you have filled out a job application you have probably seen the box that asks if you have been convicted of a crime, by law ex-cons must answer yet. Sadly, by telling the truth many of these “rehabilitated” people are denied a job. To change this, Philadelphia’s mayor has introduced a plan that would give businesses who hire ex-cons a tax break. This program will not only allow ex-cons to be successful, contributing members of society, but it will also ease jail overcrowding by lower the repeat offender rate. Let’s hope that this policy becomes the newest thing in all cities in America.

The Funny: Last year a very smart and talented nine-year-old tricked his mother and airline security. The boy, Semaj Booker, used his power of persuasion to hop on a flight from Washington to Arizona and then caught a connecting flight to Texas before being found by authorities. This year, Semaj did it again, getting through security at the Seattle-Tacoma airport before he was detained by authorities. Children like these restore my faith in our generation; if they can make it past security and sneak onto two airplanes than good for them. I think the only reason Semaj was caught this time is not improved security (since he did make it past them without a boarding pass) but the fact that he tried to scam the same airline twice. Semaj’s mom says he doesn’t like living in Tacoma and wants to live with his grandfather in Dallas, and that that is the reason he keeps pulling these stunts.

The Good: Living in Florida, bugs are a way of life. Sure you can try the citronella candles, the OFF spray, and screening but at least one will always get through. Knowing this, researchers at the University of Florida (Go Gators!) accessed USDA data from the past half century. They studied the chemical bug repellents and ranked them according to how well they repel. After this, they took all of the best repellents and looked for the similarities between them. The resulting 34 molecules studied and the top seven are now entering clinical trials. Let’s hope these means a new, better, repellent will be coming out in the next few years for Gator country.

The Bad: While on the Space Station, astronauts still have the same needs that you and I have. The need to eat, exercise, and relieve yourself still hold in space, the only problem is if one of these things become unavailable, it is much harder to fix. This is the problem with the Space Station toilet. Three people are currently using the seven year old toilet which has not lost the ability to collect urine. Now the astronauts are using a jury rigged system until officials can figure out how to get parts up to them. The next space shuttle is already packed to the gills, and finding the space for new parts would be very difficult. Let’s hope this small comfort can be restored.