We all know that the City of New York is an expensive place to live. A recent study of 213 visual artists aged 62 and older by the Research Center for Arts and Culture at Columbia University's Teachers College found that the average income of these artists was $30,000 a year. Here is how they do it. jmj

Meanwhile, it seems that the McCain family has over $225,000 worth of credit card debt. That seems a bit excessive to me. jmj

President Bush urged Congress yesterday to end a federal ban on offshore oil drilling and open a portion of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil exploration. I'm not sure how I feel about this, but my gut tells me that it's a bad plan. jmj

Japan and China came to an agreement yesterday concerning the joint development of a gas field in the East China Sea, ending a long dispute between the two countries. jmj

Cody Martin, a high school baseball pitcher, and his brother Ethan, an all star shortstop drafted by the Dodgers, were apparently growing ever the more upset with the umpire in a recent Class AAA Championship game in Georgia. They recruited the catcher, Matt HIll, and hatched a plan for Cody to throw a fastball while the catcher would fail to catch it. The pitch struck the ump directly in the face. Unfortunately for the two boys directly involved it was caught on tape. The catcher, Hill, was subsequently told by the head coach of the college team he planned to play for not to bother coming out. glc

I am somewhat reluctant to link to this simply because I personally can't stand Keith Olbermann. But this New Yorker piece is pretty damn good. glc

Doctors harvested immune cells from a 52 year-old skin cancer patient. They then cloned the immune cells to the tune of billions and injected them back into the patient. The cancer, which had spread to a lung and his lymph nodes, was dead in 8 weeks and has yet to return in the two years since treatment. glc

Genetically altered white blood cells have been used before to treat cancer patients but this is the first study to show that simply growing vast numbers of the few immune cells in the body to attack a cancer can be safe and effective.