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This was a little distressing to read about: the Great Wall of China is falling apart.

Dong Yaohui, secretary-general of the Great Wall Society of China, delivers the wake-up call. “Believe it or not, the Great Wall is crumbling, unable to withstand natural deterioration and calamities caused by people.”

Dong, who has personally surveyed huge sections of the structure originally built as a defensive barrier against marauding invaders, says he believes that of the portion built during the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644), less than 20 percent is still intact.

A probe of 100 sections drew the alarming conclusion that a third of the structure has already vanished, subject to the natural ravages of the weather and the encroaching Gobi Desert, as well as the attention of peasants and farmers living in its shadow.

The Great Wall is just one of the many, many places I’d like a chance to visit someday. While it’s not likely that the entire wall is going to suddenly up and disappear overnight, it’s a shame that we’re in danger of losing major portions of such an astounding monument.

Sorry, I couldn’t help the title — especially after Slate magazine’s unfortunate choice of headline (‘Supreme Court tries sodomy’) from the beginning of this trial.

The Supreme Court struck down a ban on gay sex Thursday, ruling that the law was an unconstitutional violation of privacy.

The 6-3 ruling reverses course from a ruling 17 years ago that states could punish homosexuals for what such laws historically called deviant sex.

Laws forbidding homosexual sex, once universal, now are rare. Those on the books are rarely enforced but underpin other kinds of discrimination, lawyers for two Texas men had argued to the court.

The men “are entitled to respect for their private lives,” Justice Anthony M. Kennedy wrote.

“The state cannot demean their existence or control their destiny by making their private sexual conduct a crime,” he said.

[…]

Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas dissented.

What a wonderful ruling heading into this year’s pride weekend!

(via ‘Michael Savage Weiner’, Daily Kos, and Mathew Gross)

The Vatican has put their artwork collections online at Vatican Museums. I haven’t taken the time to dive through it extensively yet, but it looks to be a fascinating site.

(via MeFi)

Just something very geek-cool: someone is working on coding — in assembly language, no less — an OS for the old Intellivision gaming platform!

IntyOS is not a port of Contiki and does not have the same desktop environment, nor the same built-in tools. It was written from scratch in CP-1600 assembly language in order to fit exactly to the hardware specificities of the Intellivision. Its main goal is now to see how far it’s possible to go with today’s technologies on such a limited system from the early 80’s…

(via /.)

I’ve got a habit of hanging up on people if I know that they’re calling me from a cell phone in their car. I’ve been grumbled at this on more than a few occasions, especially lately when they can use the excuse that they’re using a ‘hands free’ headset, so they don’t have to have one hand on the phone. I’ll still get off the phone — I’ve never believed that jabbering on a cell phone while driving, with or without a headset, is safe.

Looks like researchers agree with me.

Talking on a mobile phone while driving your car is just as dangerous when using hands-free equipment as when holding the phone in your hand, according to a Swedish study published on Monday.

The National Road Administration (SNRA) tested 48 people in driving simulators, dividing them into two groups — one with and the one without hands-free mobile phone devices.

The drivers in both groups received about 10 phone calls each during 1.5 hours of simulated driving in different conditions. The test revealed almost no difference in reaction time between the two groups.

“It is the distraction of the phone conversation that is the problem,” Ingemar Skogo, the SNRA director general, told Reuters.

So, please — if you’re going to call me — get out of the damn car first.