Interesting- Bush might be a criminal (more so than usual).

I could dig this diet.

I don't know if this is true, but it's frightening that it seems plausible. Excessive secrecy on the part of our government is a bad thing- really.

Hehe: McSweeney's. Hehe- spiders and deadly snakes.

I'm not sure what this says about Bush II's chances... Well I'm hopeful, at least.

A fun game. Park that sucker...

Here's a totally awesome collection of photoshop'd classics: Ashcroft might approve.

Damn you Ashcroft- and take the RIAA with you! The RIAA has convinced one lovely group Senators to propose some unpleasant legislation. It would:

...amend chapter 5 of title 17, United States Code, to authorize civil copyright enforcement by the Attorney General, and for other purposes.

Just grand- now Ashcroft will be bringing civil complaints against people. Fantastic! Thanks, Leahy, Shumer and Hatch!

More good news: Take that, Ashcroft!

"We hold that the Ashcroft Directive is unlawful and unenforceable because it violates the plain language of the Controlled Substances Act, contravenes Congress' express legislative intent and oversteps the bounds of the Attorney General's statutory authority," the court said in a 2-1 opinion.

Quite the tongue lashing from Albert Gore, Jr. Go Jr., Go! At last someone brought an oilcan!

Tell your friends: Can't vote here! b.s.

Yet another good reason to dislike Clear Channel.

Okay, so this article in yesterday's Guardian is scary. Glad to know the military uses only the finest and most reputable reference material on which to base its international relations. Here is the article's author's page.

Band name: Corpse Porn Stockpile

Was it The Onion that said you "should never change horses mid-apocalypse?"

Ahh, funny stuff.

It appears that Kerry has been google bombed.

Finally, some state level polling. I think they may have it a bit wrong- the key states from the last election may not be the 'battlegrounds' this time around.

Since my internet prayer was answered last time: I would be interested to see the amount spent by each campaign by state.

Just putting it out there. Hear me, O' Gods of the Internet!

Interesting story about eBay and Erdös numbers.

Funny thing I read somewhere:

But what you need to understand is that everything changed after 9/11. Including the laws of probability. And don't ask what the new formula is -- that would be unpatriotic.

Bizarre, but funny.

This is quite the story.

Insidious entrapment! Sounds like something the Bushes would do...

All snarkiness aside, does anyone know why the gay republicans call themselves the "Log Cabin" Republicans?

Is Nancy Pelosi more dangerous than the republican leadership? You decide.

So has anyone heard of DidTheyReadIt? Pretty cheesey.

Here's something cool and useful: free, online textbooks, by Wikipedia. I can't vouch for all the stuff, but I can vouch for most of the physics.

Apparently, DeLay is even more nutty than I thought. Not that Pelosi is playing with a full deck, though...

Here's an interesting post...

And here's the data. See p.12 and on.

Here's an example of how strange the undergrads are at Caltech. Mmm. Foamy.

A fantastic plan from Slate, here.

One free drink.

Let's take the 10 biggest population centers. In each one, set up a business-type council, full of media types and celebrities, to push voting. In September and October, have them sign up bars and restaurants to put up a red-white-and-blue logo on Election Night. What does the logo mean? With your ballot stub, first drink is on the house. Soon everybody will want to have a logo, the way in the New Deal, businesses showcased the Blue Eagle. Put the word out on college campuses. Get them to compete to throw the biggest party. Pump it up, the way we've done with Halloween.

Registration lotto.

Each state has a special drawing. Anyone who registers to vote is automatically entered. (The number that's drawn will be a voter-ID number.) Set the pot at 10 percent of all the dough Bush raises in your state. Ads can remind people, "But to play, you gotta vote!" This can also make people aware of the last day to register to vote, which is usually 30 days before Election Day. As the deadline nears, the ads can say, "Last chance to play Registration Lotto!"

Letter to the Editor in the Barometer (OSU student paper):

In response to [the article] "Goodbye Rumsfeld, hello ethical future" by Mike Nierengarten.
   "In the end, Rumsfeld may have known nothing about the prisoner abuses. He may not deserve to be fired and blamed, but for the sake of our country's reputation and out of respect for other nations, Rumsfeld needs to be ousted."
   Let's replace a few words and, Mr. Nierengarten with your wonderful logical skills, maybe you can help me find a parallel between your words and the political ideology of terrorists.
   "In the end, Mr. Berg may have had nothing to do with the prisoner abuses. He may not deserve to be imprisoned or beheaded, but for the sake of the reputation of, and out of respect for the Islamic terrorists, Berg needs to be beheaded."
   The similarities are quite astounding don't you think? Firing Mr. Rumsfeld for the acts of a few, or even a few dozen, is an inexcusable idea. Watch the movie "A Few Good Men" or read up on the My Lai Massacre and the following court martials and trial or the Nuremberg trials.
   Every soldier is responsible for his or her own actions, and every member of the military knows this, so quit trying to find a scapegoat in Rumsfeld. It is as wrong as beheading an innocent American.
Corey Brown, Freshman in environmental engineering

So that's an interesting idea. Blaming Rummy for not doing his job is "as wrong as beheading an innocent American"? I realize this person is just a freshman and as such cannot be put entirely at fault for his/her idiocy, but give me a break.

This is asinine. Why don't these people look into smaller plates and bowls? It couldn't cost $400 and a trip to the dentist! Heck, you could do small forks and spoons, too. Grand total? $50 at Target. And you would get one of those snappy bullseye bags.

Here's some fun:

Uncle Milton's Giant Ant Farm is a fun, interactive way to teach children ages 5 and up about unceasing, backbreaking toil and the cold, inescapable reality of death.

What I'd like to see is some state-level polling. The national polls only confirm the Bush/Kerry popularity contest. What matters in the end is the electoral college (blech). Anyone know where I can find such stuff? The parties have the data, but I'm sure they'd rather not show it to me...

As Jon Stewart said, "It's not even a noun..." But this idiot thinks that terror[ism] -ed. is "...the greatest threat yet to our national survival..." Right. Bigger threat than half the country saying, "No, y'all stuff your Union- hey! blackie! back to work!" Bigger threat than, say, the third-world-level economic inequality being hardwired into our population. Sure. Sure.

Some good news, for a change: people within a demographic cohort grow more tolerant towards homosexuals with time. Also, each cohort is more tolerant than the last. Via Yglesias.

Happy birthday, Dad, from we denizens of the strange patch.

Here is an ominous article- from a year ago. It is amazing how vast the right-wing conspiracy is ;) Also, this Confessore fellow (author) tends to the shrill, but if you can wade through it, worthwhile.

Congratulations to Myles; he's employed! Gainfully! UPDATE: the exclamation points are in no way meant to convey surprise ;)

Jon Stewart's commencement address to William and Mary.

So apparently Harry Potter and Left Behind are more alike than you might think...

Well, it seems to me that having a TV show about the lions that perform in Siegfried and Roy's Las Vegas show might be just a tid bit in poor taste- given that they're just a mane and stripes away from maiming their poor tamer.

Bush can d'oh! no wrong...

Here's a funny article: Salmon, Trees, Cancer.

Misheard on the news: Kobe: Not quite guilty, your Honor.

Howard and Me an interesting article in the NYT Magazine by Ira Glass.

Hehe Farscape conventions.

Okay, so this is really odd. Swatch has made a watch with bunnies on the dial. The bunnies are behaving as you might expect... here, click the box at the right.

The Saga of the Mario Bros., parts 1, 2. 3. and 4.

An ode to spot.

Here's and interesting OP-ed from the Washington Post. Makes the point that the so-called battleground states may be called such for no reason in particular...

Someone gets it.

Rumsfeld sucks. DeLay sucks, too.

Good ol' Sinfest

Are you a neocon? I'm a liberal, according to the Christian Science Monitor (great source! They really have the pulse of the nation!).

It turns out that I hate Howard Stern. Most of the shock-jocks, really. But this is good. Very, very good. Take that, Oprah!

Wow- this is fascinating:

There is also strong evidence that time seems to go faster as you get older. (Do we leave the problem-solving mode as we age?) Say you are forty and you will live to eighty. According to one set of calculations, your life, as subjectively perceived, is already seventy-one percent over.

See Marginal Revolution for the post, further links.

It is just me, or is one of these ducks on fire?

Look: it's where I am.

Attacks in Saudi Arabia. Shocking. Apparently, the crown prince thinks that zionist forces were responsible. Good ally.

Beware! The Tenureclock!.

From Heather Mallik's column in the Globe and Mail, about an interview with O'Reilly:

The whole degraded debacle and everyone's reaction to it, including mine, reminded me that Americans now have to cope with a new surrealism in public life. In the 1936 Spanish Civil War entries in a diary I read long ago, by someone who may well have been Stephen Spender, the writer describes an O'Reilly-esque scene. "A man squats and defecates in the street, without comment." Re-reading these diaries decades later, Spender writes, "What on earth did I expect him to say? Olé?"

Olé, indeed.

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