...What Should We Spend The Surplus On? Remember three years ago when our congressmen were most concerned about how we were going to spend the budget surplus? 800 billion dollars later, we're thinking about cutting just about every social program for the sake of fighting the a war against an intangible concept. I'm reminded of what a famous Republican war hero once said: "Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies in the final sense a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed." President Dwight D. Eisenhower April 16, 1953 The true cost of war is that we're not going to have money for other priorities. Do we want to spend billions on education...Sorry, no money! Science? Tapped. The arts? That would be nice, but this is wartime. We have to be willing to sacrifice...Meanwhile... O.K., so we're not all going to sacrifice, but you'll have to. I Know what you're thinking...what's Tom Volk's Fungus of the Month? Fungus of the Month Link What was that gooey stuff I found in the backyard last summer? Well, It's not a plant, it's not an animal, it's the mavel of the myxological world: Slime moulds! Slime Hunting Link School of Rock "Scientists believe volcanic ash blown across the landscape or dust, transported by water or wind, accumulated to form the angled layers visible in the sulfur-rich rock. "That generally means whatever medium the matrix was deposited in was in motion - whether it was the air or water," said Steve Squyres, a Cornell University astronomer and the mission's main scientist". Mars Rover Geology isn't my bag, baby, but I'm curious about what they'll find...perhaps the Martian fungus of the month...That is, if we're still funding higher education.