Tonight on Extension 720: Stem cell research has recently become a hot button issue in the 2004 presidential campaign. Effectively banned by President Bush in 2001, the death of Ronald Reagan and his son’s subsequent speech at the Democratic National Convention have brought the issue to the forefront of the public’s mind. Can stem cell research provide a cure for diabetes, Alzheimer’s, cancer and perhaps even AIDS? Is it ethical to use embryonic tissue for this sort of research? Joining Extension 720 tonight to address all the ethical and scientific questions are ANN B. PARSON, acclaimed science writer and author of the new book The Proteus Effect: Stem Cells and Their Promise for Medicine, HARINDER SINGH, professor of molecular genetics and cell biology at the University of Chicago, and NIGEL CAMERON, research professor of bioethics at Chicago-Kent School of Law.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return on Monday.

Tonight on Extension 720: The enduring horror of Nazi Germany and the Holocaust continues to command attention, and Extension 720 once again examines the Nazi era and the experience of Jews in Germany during World War II. As one of our guests, we are pleased to welcome back BRYAN MARK RIGG, eminent historian and author of the groundbreaking work Hitler's Jewish Soldiers. His latest book is Rescued from the Reich: How One of Hitler's Soldiers Saved the Lubavitcher Rebbe. He will be joined by LEON STEIN, professor of history at Roosevelt University and a renowned Holocaust historian.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT...as Fred Barnes of the Weekly Standard perceived and judged it.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT...as Jonah Goldberg of the National Review watched and enjoyed.

WHAT HAPPENED LAST NIGHT...the alternative version put forward by The Nation magazine. David Corn declares Kerry the winner, but is less than joyful.

WHAT NEW BEAST IS SLOUCHING TOWARD KINSHASA? A possibly "new" species of ape has been "found" in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Here's the fascinating--if too brief--account supplied by the BBC.

IS HOMOSEXUALUTY A CHOICE...asked the moderator last night. Here is the straightforward account, by Reuters, of that portion of the debate.

AND HERE'S ONE APPROACH TO ANSWERING THE QUESTION "SCIENTIFICALLY": A prominent psychologist reviews the work and conclusions of some major researchers who are themselves gay and who have concluded, tentatively or otherwise, that choice has a good deal to do with it.

FROM THE AUTHOR OF "HOMOSEXUALITY AND THE POLITICS OF TRUTH": Jeffrey Satinover is one of the leading "scientific experts" to address the question. In this article of a few years ago he approaches it with the complexity that it requires but comes, essentially, to the same conclusions as do Byrd and his colleagues.

CONTINUING REVERBERATIONS FROM THE GREAT CIVIL WAR...in Spain!! This article from the International Herald Tribune makes clear that "ideological tensions" that exploded over seventy years ago can still be fanned into bitter conflict.

THE BRITISH CLASS SYSTEM IS SHIFTING UNDERFOOT...or so says Ferdinand Mount in a new book responded to here by a contributor to the London Review of Books who writes engagingly as he half doubts and half confirms the diagnosis.

WHY WOULD AN ENGLISH FEMALE INTELLECTUAL BECOME A MUSLIM? Hillary Saunders explains the great and chosen change in her life in this article from the U.K. Guardian published two years ago but all the more notable today.

THE COMING METHUSALAN AGE: Demography remains a good portion of ultimate destiny...and in Scotland they worry, as all of Europe should, about the social consequences of an ever-increasing average age. This properly provocative article appeared yesterday in The Scotsman.

SO THAT'S WHAT DERRIDA MEANT! A friend of his--and a notable academic in his own right--attempts to "report his cause aright to the unsatisfied" in this encomium to the recently departed father of Deconstructionism.

THE FUNNIEST BAND THERE EVER WAS...was, of course, Spike Jones and his City Slickers. Here they are at their nihilistic best. Apart from the famous "In Der Fuehrer's Face" don't miss their tratment of the William Tell Overture and My Old Flame.

Tonight on Extension 720: On this final night of the presidential debates, Extension 720 will once again go live after the debate at 9:30 p.m. Our task: to analyze the debates and forecast where the presidential race is heading as both Kerry and Bush have just three weeks until the election. Our guests will be WAYNE STEGER, professor of political science at DePaul University, and JOE MORRIS, chairman of the United Republican Fund of Illinois.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the debate and the show from 8 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.

Tonight on Extension 720: Tonight on Extension 720, as Milt takes the night off, we examine the upcoming presidential election and “man’s principal toy and tool”: words and the languages they create. During the first hour, JOHN FUND, columnist for the Wall Street Journal, discusses his new book Stealing Elections: How Voter Fraud Threatens our Democracy, which details the long history of voter corruption in politics. In this fascinating interview, he talks about the history of voter corruption and predicts the chances of having another Florida-esque disaster in this year's presidential election. During the second hour, BOB McHENRY, former reference editor at Merriam-Webster and editor-in-chief of the Encyclopedia Britannica, will discuss the development of language, as well as how language serves to create knowledge. He is the author of the new book How To Know.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

Milt's File is taking the day off, but will return tomorrow.

Tonight on Extension 720: John Dewey once defined intelligence as “in constant process of forming, and its retention requires constant alertness in observing consequences, an open-minded will to learn and courage in re-adjustment.” If this is our working definition, is it possible for any man-made device to ascend to this level of intellect? We will discuss these matters and more tonight as we are joined by JEFF HAWKINS, author of the new book On Intelligence, and KRISTIAN HAMMOND, professor of computer science at Northwestern University and director of the Intelligent Information Lab.

More information on this and other programs is available at our monthly program guide. You can listen to the show from 9 to 11 p.m. central time here.

ALL SORTS OF FOLKS CAN NOW MAKE NUCLEAR WEAPONS...IF they can get their hands on fissionble material. Graham Allsion examines the danger and the possible measures of prevention in the new book reviewed here by John Allen Paulos. We recently did a full, two-hour program on these matters of urgent concern with Allison. It can be heard here.

HITCHENS ON THE BOMB SADDAM "DIDN'T HAVE:" Its not quite as simple as some interpreters of the Duelfer Report have argued. And then there's this new memoir by Saddam's "chief nuclear physicist." As usual, Hitch has a fascinating angle, as developed here in Slate. Read on!

FROM A MASTER OF POLITICAL SATIRE: Whatever you think of Senator Edwards you can't not get a chuckle--or a disabling fit of hysterical laughter--out of this most recent minor masterpiece from Mark Steyn.

IS JIHADIST TERRORISM CONSISTENT WITH THE KORAN? Some in the west argue that the former follows logically (and "faithfully") from the latter. In this article from Front Page magazine an important Islamic voice from Turkey argues that true Islam and the real intent of the Koran are tolerant and peaceful. The argument is pursued seriously here...but we'd love to know what they make of it in Tora Bora. Persist.

ISLAMIST FUNDAMENTALISM TAKES MANY FORMS...and one of them is superficially "western" in appearance. But Hizb ut-Tahir is recruiting in European and American Muslims into the struggle to establish, by whatever means required, a greater, pan-Arabic Islamic State. This Reuters Foundation report is worth close perusal.

THE WAY THINGS REALLY ARE...is given in mathematical form by the great physicists. And even if this sort of thing has always scared you off, you stand at the brink of comprehension. IF, that is, you give this fine article from the BBC your serious attention and--where neccessary--reread after you have read!

IS ANTI-ISRAELISM THE LAST REFUGE OF A SINKING CHURCH? In the case of the Presbyterians, says John Leo in this hard-hitting column from U.S. News, the answer is, disgracefully, "Yes."

THE ENDANGERED SITUATION OF THE "JEWS" OF EGYPT: They are, of course Christians--the Jews being long gone--of the Coptic minority. Their history of persecution over the last century is reviewed here even as the author predicts (or perhaps merely hopes against reason) that better times are coming.

THE NOBELS FOR LITERATURE ARE O.K....BUT don't give them to Scandinavians!! That seems to be the drift of this curious piece from the San Francisco Chronicle. Does it occur to Mr. Villalon that, on that basis, people with Hispanic names and locales might also--by his standards--be slighted?

AFTER ALL, IT'S A PEACE PRIZE, NOT A PRIZE FOR INTELLIGENCE OR JUDGEMENT! Still, these comments by Ms. Maatthai of Kenya will, one expects, not amuse the King of Norway if repeated in her Oslo speech.

GETTING SOLZHENITSYN RIGHT...is the task that Daniel Mahoney set for himself in his recent biography. In this impressive article from the current issue of First Things, he undertakes to examine the great Russian writer's work and thought and thus to "report his cause aright to the unsatisfied."

WITH THAT LAST QUOTATION FROM HAMLET...we might as well go on to the fine essay on the displaced Prince that has just been drawn from Stephen Greenblatt's new book on Shakespeare and published in the New York Review of Books. Greenblatt will be with us on Extension 720 next Thursday, October 21st.

DERRIDA DIED LAST THURSDAY. WHAT DID HE MEAN BY THAT? The obituaries are everywhere, but this one from the U.K. Telegraph will do for now...before the heavier and less readable encomium "texts" begin to flow in.

HAVE YOU TRIED ANY SAKI LATELY? Not the drink; the wonderfully Edwardian author of perfectly rounded cameo stories, each featuring a gentle jolt. Here's one of the best.

BACK TO LUGANO...for more "live" chamber music at this year's Aregerich Festival. This concert begins with a great performance by Argerich and Yuzuko Horigome of Beethoven's Sonata Number 4 in A Minor.