] A thread of carbon nanotubes more than 100 metres long
] has been pulled from a fiery furnace. The previous record
] holder was a mere 30 centimetres long.

[ holy crap! -k]

100-metre Carbon Nanotube Produced

] The government's top expert on Medicare costs was told
] not to tell key lawmakers about cost estimates that could
] have torpedoed the White House-backed Medicare
] prescription-drug plan.
]
] Richard Foster, the chief actuary for the Centers for
] Medicare and Medicaid Services, told colleagues last June
] that he would be fired if he revealed a number higher
] than some lawmakers said they would approve.
]
] When the House of Representatives passed the
] controversial benefit by five votes in November, the
] White House was embracing an estimate by the
] Congressional Budget Office that it would cost $395
] billion in the first 10 years.
]
] But for months the administration's analysts in the
] Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services had concluded
] that the drug benefit could cost upward of $100 billion
] more than that.

[ So, they lied. Again. And not in a pseudo-mistruth, beating-around-the-bush kind of way. In an outright, unprincipled, we-need-this-political-victory-at-all-costs kind of way. The bill passed by 5 votes. More than 5 people would have jumped ship had they known the number was closer to $500 B than $400 B. It's stunning how much total bullshit this administration is willing to shovel.
Also, on the heels of all this indignation over Kerry calling them a bunch of liars, this couldn't be better timing. See, dammit, you *are* liars. Bush's people lied, conspired to get a bill passed under false cost estimates, all while the main administrator was interviewing for private sector jobs (which he eventually got, jumping the HHS ship). Completely outrageous. -k]

Charlotte Observer | 03/12/2004 | Medicare cost expert muzzled

] The Prestige 2000W VoIP Wi-Fi phone, compatible with IEEE
] 802.11b wireless standard, is a perfect solution for
] Voice over IP applications. It allows users to make or
] receive phone calls as long as they are in the coverage
] of IEEE 802.11b or 11g wireless Access Points. By using
] the Prestige 2000W, users no longer have to pay expensive
] communication fees and can enjoy the convenience of
] wireless mobility.

[ Some pretty non-wack techmology, imho. Neat stuff. -k]

ZyXEL Prestige 2000W - VoIP Wi-Fi Phone

] "I'm the commander - see, I don't need to explain - I
] don't need to explain why I say things. That's the
] interesting thing about being the President. Maybe
] somebody needs to explain to me why they say something,
] but I don't feel like I owe anybody an explanation."
]
] - George W. Bush, Washington Post, 11-19-02

[ That about sums it up right there. There are quite a few excellent (enraging) quotes from hypercons in here. For the sake of balance, i'd like to see what the conservatives would come up with if they tried a similar list. If only to confront the possibility of my own hypocracy, it'd be interesting to see what quotes they could find to demonize the liberals. I'd like to think they don't exist, because most liberals in positions of power aren't quite as insane. -k]

t r u t h o u t - William Rivers Pitt | Fish. Barrel. Boom.

] The Senate dealt a surprising election-year rebuke on
] Wednesday to the White House goal of new tax cuts as it
] narrowly backed a new rule to require at least 60 votes
] to approve any tax cuts in the next five years.
]
] Four Republican senators %u2014 Lincoln Chafee of Rhode
] Island, John McCain of Arizona and Susan Collins and
] Olympia Snowe, both of Maine %u2014 joined Democrats in
] the 51-to-48 vote.

[ Pretty awesome. -k ]

In Rebuff to Bush, Senate Raises Bar for Tax Cuts

] "Space commercials could embrace huge areas and a
] colossal number of consumers," he said. "This would
] literally be intercontinental coverage."
] ...
] "People would be able to see writing in the skies from
] the Earth no worse than they see the stars," he said.

[ Um, actually, they'd probably see the writing *better* since you'll be BLOCKING said stars. I wish i understood why anyone thinks this is a good idea. I guess maybe if you accept that we're reaching a point where people can hardly see any stars anyway, it's easier to justify, but man, can't we have at least one safe direction to point our eyes and try to remember what it was like to be something other than a consumer?

Yahoo! News - Russian Inventor Patents Space-Ads Device

] A robot for "printing" houses is to be trialled by the
] construction industry. It takes instructions directly
] from an architect's computerised drawings and then
] squirts successive layers of concrete on top of one other
] to build up vertical walls and domed roofs.

[ science is cool. i wonder if this is a boon for the art of architecture though... i guess it could make certain complex objects easier to produce, which is probably good. -k]

New Scientist -- Robot Builder could 'print' houses

In a comment on an NYT editorial about McDonalds, I suggested that the logic had a sort of Mad Lib quality to it. Other NYT readers were thinking along the same lines.

McDonald's decision to downsize its meals causes one to reflect on other aspects of our lives that need downsizing.

Our wants, needs and necessities have bloated, just like the average American waistline. More clothes to wear, bigger cars to drive, more space to live, more power, more influence -- the plague of gigantism has hit us. In our mad rush to the big, we should remember that dinosaurs were not the most successful form of life on this planet.

[ Hear hear...

on a side note, I wonder if McD's will keep up the trend once the congress passes this new fast food company indemnification bill... it's already through the house. -k]

Eating Too Much? Time to Pay the Price

QUOTE: On April 24, 2003, President Bush traveled to Timken Company’s Canton plant to promote his tax plan. In a speech to workers, he promised that the tax cut plan “means more money for investments, more money for growth and more money for jobs.”

Numerous studies have refuted that claim, showing that while the President's tax cuts rewarded wealthy Americans with tens of thousands of dollars in tax windfalls, the rest of America actually received relatively little. The average Bush tax cut for the wealthiest one percent of Americans is $938,000, reports Citizens for Tax Justice.

According to Reuters, the Chairman of Timken Company, W.R. Timken, made $2.62 million in 2003, clearly placing him in the wealthiest one percent of Americans.

Two months later, W.R. Timken co-hosted a fundraiser for Bush’s campaign in Akron which raised $600,000, and earned Timken ‘Ranger’ status (for those who raise more than $200,000 for the campaign).

Then, in September last year, Timken Company announced it was laying off 700 workers, adding more pain to one of the jobless recovery's most hardest-hit states.

[ Dude, trickle down works. That $600,000 will support at least a dozen people in the dirty-campaign-ad industry. Um, maybe one or two of those 700 unemployed plant workers can get in on the action -- sweeping the studio floor, taking out the trash, etc.

Campaign Money Watch

] Some have questioned whether liberals can succeed at all
] in the realm of talk radio. Conservatives, the argument
] goes, see the world in black and white, and offer
] more-entertaining points of view, while liberals tend to
] debate shades of gray and put audiences to sleep. In
] addition, corporate advertisers may favor conservative
] hosts who are friendlier to their points of view.
]
] "If you're promoting SUVs, you're more likely to get an
] SUV commercial than if you're bashing them. That's pretty
] elementary," said Oakland Mayor Jerry Brown, a liberal
] who had a talk show for several years on Pacifica Radio,
] including Berkeley's KPFA (94.1 FM). "The fact of the
] matter is, the liberal in American terms is offering
] correctives to capitalism, whereas the conservatives are
] singing the praises of capitalism, unfettered and
] unabashed and unapologetic. So, right there you have an
] order of magnitude difference in terms of corporate
] favorability."

[ Food for thought... Air America goes live at the end of march... -k]

Upstart 24-hour talk radio network prepares to turn the dial to the left / Liberal Air America to start national broadcast at end of month