Today's Shared Google Reader Items, 11/20

I'm going to try something new in my shared items today, mostly to allow my sister to skip the "Programming" block. Let me know what you think.

Programming:

• Adobe released a C/C++ to Flash compiler. This is potentially very awesome, depending how well it does. It could result in a ton of programs migrating to the web, for one. But not to the iPhone, of course.

Politics:

• The Texas State Board of Education has voted to allow students to receive four years of credit for high school organized sports, rather than two. At first I thought this was a silly idea, but I got four years of credit for playing drums, and I can't really argue that playing drums is somehow more worthy of credit than is playing a sport.
• Jimmy Carter and others are going to visit Zimbabwe, despite warnings from Mugabe. Mugabe would be crazy to do anything bad, but, well, Mugabe is crazy. Kudos to Carter for (not all that surprisingly surprisingly) risking his life to do what he thinks is right, but eek!
• Somehow the first place I saw that Obama is likely to name Governor Janet Napolitano (D-AZ) as Secretary of Homeland Security was Indecision 2008. I know she's a very popular governor, but, well, that doesn't necessarily mean much. I really don't know anything else about her, so I have no opinion on this (possible) appointment just yet.
• I do know things I don't like about Larry Summers, but I didn't know he assured Gray Davis in CA that market manipulation wasn't an important factor in the CA energy crisis. Oops. Please, Obama. You can do better for the Secretary of the Treasury, and that position is even more important right now than it usually is.

Science:

• A spider has gone missing on the International Space Station. There are so many possibilities here, but one way or the other I'm pretty sure this is happening within the first 15 minutes of some sort of movie.
• A study recommends online gaming and social networking for kids. Geek kids do better. I just love that thought.
• Scientists have found the tomb of Copernicus. Mostly this doesn't seem like that important of a thing to do, since it's not like we're going to go worship at it or anything, but I like the idea of facial reconstruction to verify what he looked like. Cool stuff.

As always, comment on these or other shared items (or, really, anything you want) below.