] The Department of State has notified elections
] supervisors that touchscreen ballots don't have to be
] included during manual recounts because there is no
] question about how voters intended to vote.

[ WHAT THE FUCK! Hang on, vision blurring, i think there's a hemorrage in my brain.

What an excellent idea... maybe even a SUPER-EXCELLENT idea: Let's give the NEW systems, already SHOWN to be error prone, if not outright FAULTY, even LESS accountability.

Holy mother of monkeys, if there's another voting fiasco this year, i swear to god there will be rioting in the streets. People are gonna lose it. End of story... minds, lost. Gone.

What a total and complete outrage. Even without the conspiracy theorist inside me thinking about how conveniently this sets up Diebold's promise to deliver a Bush victory, it's an outrage.

Some truly outstanding, unprececedented bullshit right here.

[edit: from the article
] "We're working very hard to educate the voters,
] to build the comfort level and to get rid of
] some of the myths out there," Hood said. "I think
] these things are raised for political purposes
] and distractions. Any effort to undermine that
] public confidence is a tactic that is wrong and
] I believe it weakens our democracy by causing
] voters to doubt if their vote has been counted."

The very instant that citizens start believing everything politicians say without a hint of doubt is the very instant that democracy disappears. Period.

] "Technology is going to continue to develop and
] if we can find ways to improve Florida's
] elections and process with new equipment, then
] we're going to do that," she said.

How about improving Florida's "elections and process" with oversight, transparency and proven technology. And it wouldn't hurt to put some serious pressure on anyone who appears to be engaged in disenfranchising substantial segments of the population.

-k]

Herald.com: Miami & Ft. Lauderdale News, Weather, Dolphins & More

"She may look clean, but 'Good Time' girls spread syphilis and gonorrhea. You can't beat the Axis if you get VD!"

[ Neat sidebar to this one -- i was up in the office of one of the Grants Officers at work today (I'm a contractor at the Procurement & Grants Office of the CDC), and he's got a bunch of these up on his wall in frames, including that last one you mentioned. Probly pretty valuable i'd guess... but very cool regardless. -k]

Public Health Posters at the National Library of Medicine

[ So i went to this article because the headline offered the promise of an interesting analysis of how public life has changed in the years since 9/11. Alas, i was wrong. I only meme it because of the extraordinary level of disappointment it gave me. What the fuck? Should I blame Gannett, or is this guy just simple? -k]

Other Views: Sept. 11 attacks seem to have sapped the nation of joy / Opinion -The Olympian

] Western Canada is adrift in last-minute ski bargains,
] including seven nights at a five-star resort and a
] six-day lift ticket from $589

Awesome pricing! We should look into this for next year!

[ western canada kicks ass... I spent a week at Lake Louise/Banff, and it was some of the best skiing ever. Perfect snow. Long runs. Short lines. Highly recommended.

edit: I forgot to mention, the place we stayed out there was the Fairmont Chateau Lake Louise, as mentioned in the article. If memory serves (it *was* 12 years ago) the Chateau is everything they claim it to be. Search online for pictures... one of the most beautiful places i've ever been. I have fond memories of eating 2 inch thick slices of french toast in a dining room looking out on the long lake, all the way to the glacier situated in the mountain's saddle on the far end. There were also a couple of highly intricate ice sculptures (created for an event taking place there, i think). Two castles as i recall, lit from within by colored lights... pretty stunning at night. -k]

Seven nights of snowy luxury

[ An interesting argument in favor of shortening the process of campaigning and getting to the GE faster. I can't decide. -k]

CBS News | Nine More Months To Go%u2026 Spare Us | February 12, 2004 17:10:20

] John Kerry lined up the support of campaign dropout
] Wesley Clark on Thursday, hoping to pre-empt any move by
] his remaining Democratic presidential rivals to sneak up
] on him in next week's Wisconsin primary.

[ Well that's that. unless the clark supporters are specifically anti-kerry, or the kerry supporters are specifically anti-clark, this thing is over. At least Clark waited one full day after dropping out before getting in line like a good Democrat drone. -k]

Wesley Clark to endorse Democratic front-runner John Kerry

]
] Microsoft, has lost the first round of its legal battle
] over its ownership of the word 'windows'. It was a key
] point in its trademark battle with the Linux distributor
] Lindows.

[ Ah, the pitfalls of choosing a generic word to be your trademark... -k]

Microsoft doesn't own the word 'windows' judge rules

] Mr. Brown "philosophically" prefers bottom up. But his
] strongest examples of design are top down: not only
] iTunes and Disney World, but also Ideo's design for
] Prada's New York store, which opened in December, 2003.
] There, every item, room, frequent shopper and salesperson
] is tagged with technology designed to enhance -- and
] control -- well, everything. Prada's pricey products are
] the high end of fashion: Many are one-offs or made in
] small quantities. The company aspires to discreetly
] "control" every aspect of its customers' experiences.
]
]
] If you're a frequent Prada shopper, the loyalty card in
] your wallet or purse contains a radio frequency
] identification (RFID) tag that announces your arrival in
] the store. When you encounter a saleswoman, her handheld
] computer brings up your tastes, buying history, vital
] statistics and personalized suggestions from in-stock and
] coming inventory; the handhelds also place orders and
] book change rooms. Every item for sale bears an RFID tag.
] The tag certifies the authenticity for Prada's pricey
] togs -- and discourages theft (setting off alarms) and
] counterfeiters (it's nearly impossible to copy).
]
]
] Prada's change room is certainly an experience. Its RFID
] reader electronically detects every item in the pile
] you've selected to try on. A video screen displays
] alternative colour combinations and co-ordinates. The
] room's mirror has a delayed-action camera so it can offer
] a 360-degree view of that fashion item on your body after
] you twirl around in front of it. The overall "experience"
] is sealed at the moment of transaction with a unique,
] Ideo-designed "Prada way of scanning." The only bottom-up
] part is the mirror in the change room.

[ Welcome to the future, people. This bit captures perfectly both the promise and the danger of these sorts of new technologies. I like the idea of being in the changeroom with a pair of pants and having the system make suggestions about matching shirts, or alternative colors. It's totally cool to use the tags as antitheft devices. What's not so kosher is storing personal information and accessing it, unprompted, as soon as i show up. Of course, if you shop with credit cards, this tracking is already done, only there's no way to scan your card while it's still in your wallet.

There's gonna be a lot of debate about this sort of thing. At the moment, it's confined to places i don't shop (i.e. Prada), but it won't be long before Wal-Mart implements all sorts of nasty RFID tech, and somehow i doubt they'll be interested in all the neat customer service applications for the tech. Cheap cheap cheap. -k]

The Globe and Mail

] Brit Hume is the Fox anchor who helped orchestrate the
] Republican-led 39-hour Senate talk-a-thon intended to
] counter the Democratic filibuster against four of
] President Bush's most radically conservative judicial
] nominees.
] Hume and fellow anchor Tony Snow pitched the idea
] outright to Senator Majority Leader Bill Frist on Fox
] News Sunday, challenging the Senator's repeated
] contention that an all-night protest session would be
] counterproductive. Two weeks later, the two-day marathon
] session was announced.
] Having successfully prodded Frist to hold the all-night
] session, Hume sought special coverage of the event.
] According to a leaked email, a producer for Hume's
] evening news show, Special Report with Brit Hume, worked
] directly with a staffer for Senator Frist, in an effort
] to choreograph the launch of the Republican protest as a
] "live opening shot" for Hume's November 12 newscast. As
] reported in The Hill, the leaked memo read:
] "It is important to double efforts to get your boss
] to S-230 on time ... Fox News Channel is really excited
] about this marathon and Brit Hume at 6 would love to open
] with all our 51 senators walking onto the floor -- the
] producer wants to know will we walk in exactly at 6:02
] when the show starts so they get it live to open Brit
] Hume's show? Or if not, can we give them an exact time
] for the walk-in start?"
] Hume's behavior in this incident shatters any illusion of
] 'fair and balanced' journalism. Worse, it evidences an
] effort to orchestrate PR coups for Bush Republicans.

[ fair and balanced indeed. what a travesty of newspeak. journalistic integrity? what's that, and who needs it? -k]

MoveOn.org: Media Corps: Award to Fox anchor prompts outrage

] Herr, 33, of Denton, said he declined to fill the
] prescription for the so-called "morning-after pill"
] because he believes it could have killed the embryo if
] the woman already had conceived. Though he had declined
] five or six times in the past to fill such prescriptions,
] it was the first time he had been handed one for a rape
] victim, he said.
]
]
] "I went in the back room and briefly prayed about it,"
] said Herr, who had worked for Eckerd for five years. "I
] actually called my pastor ... and asked him what he
] thought about it."

[ It's tempting to put this story into the category of religious fundamentalist moral imposition, but perhaps the issue is more complex than that.

Certainly, from a legal standpoint, the employment agreement the guy entered into forbade him from refusing to fill this prescription, fine, he should've read it and, recognizing a moral conflict, turned down the job, or negotiated for a policy change.

That being said, if you're a person who believes that abortion (even this form) is murder, it would seem that you have a moral obligation to refuse to perform a job task that will result in one, even if it may cost you your job. I may think it's wrongheaded and foolish, but at least it's consistent.

What bothers me more is that none of the 3 pharmacists present would fill it. In this case, there was a pharmacy down the block who was willing to fill the prescription... what if there was only one pharmacy in town? I suspect that this sort of thing is more common than we know...
-k]

CNN.com - Pharmacists fired for denying 'morning after' pill - Feb. 12, 2004