I know you don't like to talk politics, but I feel like it's important now, considering it's the election season. I really feel like it's imperative to know who you think will be the best president — who can get us out of this mess?

The Republicans, with the exception of Ron Paul, say the war is working. They are all only talking about Iraq and have forgotten about Afghanistan. McCain seems to be the moderate choice while Obama and Clinton are in a cage fight for the Democrats. I am worried about them all and what type of a team they will pick. Considering how bad Rumsfeld turned out it's a real concern.

Stallman on handing over GNU Emacs, its future and the importance of ...

Confessions of a Caller-ID spoofer.

Musharraf's cheery swing through Europe

You have to hand it to Pervez Musharraf. With all the problems the Pakistani president faces at home, he still found time to spend eight days in Europe last week, assuring world leaders everything is fine in his nuclear-armed state. But everything is not fine, and the cracks in his sunny public relations facade were not hard to see.

And when a leading Pakistani journalist at a London news conference asked a reasonable question about the security services, Musharraf implied that he was an enemy of the state.

Inventing "The Cylie Rule"

A dog that goes to school is a good story. It's not this story, but it would be a good one.

Another good one is any story that renews your faith in human kindness. And that story did just board the bus.

It takes place in De Smet, S.D., and it began nearly two years ago with a bump on Cylie Pastian's right leg. That bump turned out to be bone cancer. There were weeks of chemotherapy, multiple surgeries, and worst of all

"I guess not being at school very much," Cylie said.

"I'm sorry, I must have misunderstood," Hartman said. "I thought you said I missed going to school."

Cylie said, yeah, "I missed going to school."

Not so much the work, of course, as the friends and especially the basketball.

Francine Nijimbere: "My husband cut off my arms for having a girl"

She is now living in fear following her husband's release and has sought refuge with ADDF, an association based in Bujumbura, dealing with the protection of women's rights. She spoke to IRIN on 22 February:

"In December [2007], the president announced a pardon for all inmates suffering from incurable diseases. I hear my husband was released on a false name; how can a criminal like him be pardoned? The head of state pardoned inmates suffering from incurable diseases but my husband was not ill.

"I was married to his elder brother, who was a soldier. He died in 2000 five months after our wedding. However, I remained in the house as I waited for the end of the mourning period in order to return to my parents' home. My mother-in-law insisted I should not go to my parents since dowry had been paid.

Call them canapes, antipasto or appetizers

Tomato pesto, crumbled bacon, and chopped toasted nuts are good. Heat in the oven until warm and creamy. If dairy isn't your thing, use beans as the base for dips. Ashton says combine a can of beans (black, pinto or navy are good), a chopped chipotle chile, lime juice and salt in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Alternatively, buy a tub of hummus and doctor it with pesto or tapenade. For another dairy-free option, Sandy Gluck, food editor at Everyday Food magazine, says to puree a small jar of roasted red peppers, a tablespoon of tomato paste, paprika and 1/4 cup toasted almonds.Now, on to the canapes and appetizers, or antipasti, if you prefer. These ideas are from Mary Ann Esposito, host of Public Television's long-running "Ciao Italia" cooking show and author of the recent "Ciao Italia Slow and Easy" cookbook."I like to do an antipasti that is unexpected," she says.

Follow the wresting tournament online and on your phone

The Iowa High School State Wrestling Tournament begins today at Wells Fargo Arena. And the Register has plenty of options for how to follow it:

Find our main wrestling page with photos, stories videos and more here.

Follow the action on your cell phone through text messaging by sending the word DMRWRESTLING to 44636 (or use the box below). You'll have to reply A to set the alert. You'll get a message every time we post a new story to our web site.

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Moderates Don't Do as Well in School as Liberals or Conservatives

Rush Limbaugh fans have often heard the conservative talk radio host suggest that people who consider themselves politically moderate just can't make up their minds on important issues of the day.

A recent study about ideological differences which drive more liberals to seek Ph.D.'s than conservatives might offer some answers as to why that is.

Every year, self-identified liberals apply to Ph.D. programs in far greater numbers than do conservatives. However, the reasons for this ideological imbalance are far from clear.

50 ways to make your software do more

Add holidays to Outlook: Want to avoid manually adding Memorial Day and Christmas to your Outlook calendar each year? You can input 12 months' worth of holidays at once by clicking ToolsOptions, Calendar Options (on the Preferences tab). On the next screen, click Add Holidays, select the appropriate country or countries, and click OK.

Organize and prioritize Outlook data: The ClearContext Information Management System offers tools that are useful for organizing your Outlook data, starting with a dashboard that provides a consolidated look at your tasks and calendar items. ClearContext allows you to assign topics (which you define) to messages; then it automatically files subsequent messages in the thread. The system flags your most important contacts based on how often you deal with them, and it color-codes messages based on the sender's importance.

In Defence of Food by Michael Pollan

Her parents wouldn't recognise the foods we put on the table, except maybe the butter, which is back. Today in America, as in much of the western world, the culture of food is changing more than once a generation, which is historically unprecedented - and dizzying.

What is driving such relentless change? One force is a multibillion-dollar food-marketing machine that thrives on change for its own sake. Another is the constantly shifting ground of nutrition science that, depending on your point of view, is advancing the frontiers of our knowledge about diet and health or just changing its mind a lot because it knows much less than it cares to admit. Part of what drove my grandparents' food culture from the dinner table was official scientific opinion, which, beginning in the 1960s, decided that animal fat was a deadly substance.