US cracks down on blogging from the frontlines. The Defense Department has drastically restricted blogging and prevented many enlisted soldiers from visiting social networking sites. Last year, a policy banned thirteen popular websites, including YouTube, MySpace and BlackPlanet, from military computers. The restrictions would pre-empt bloggers like Watson, who started writing through a personal profile on MySpace. And this year the Air Force banned access to a military social networking site, TogetherWeServed.com. Pentagon officials say these measures are designed not only to save bandwidth but to save lives. — The Nation

Out of Control: The tragedy of Tasmania’s forests. Richard Flanagan received the John Curtin Prize for Journalism this week for this piece, published in The Monthly in May 2007. — The Monthly

Scientists catch cells in the act of remembering. Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but how the brain is able to re-create it. — International Herald Tribune

What scarlet letter? When I first heard about Sarah Palin’s, uh, domestic irregularities, I expected social conservatives to react with a kind of qualified, patronizing support—we are all sinners, there but for the grace of God, something like that. Instead, they are embracing her with unbridled admiration. Here’s why Christian conservatives have only admiration for Sarah Palin. — Slate