[ *This* should be televised. Fuck monster garage, american chopper and the whole Ty-Pennington-TLC-look-at-us-make-stuff genre.

I want backstory on all the teams and their vehicles. I want to watch them work and watch them fail and get information as to how and why they did in either case.

Looking forward to it.]

DARPA Grand Challenge 2005

I came here today because I believe that American democracy is in grave danger. It is no longer possible to ignore the strangeness of our public discourse . I know that I am not the only one who feels that something has gone basically and badly wrong in the way America's fabled "marketplace of ideas" now functions.

How many of you, I wonder, have heard a friend or a family member in the last few years remark that it's almost as if America has entered "an alternate universe"?

[ Al gets a gold star. -k]

Al Gore at Media Conference

Recorded sound has played an important role in the cultural, social, and political life of the United States. Recognizing this, and concerned about the preservation of and long-term access to the national sound heritage, the U.S. Congress enacted the National Recording Preservation Act of 2000 (Public Law 106-474). This law directed the National Recording Preservation Board (NRPB), under the aegis of the Library of Congress (LC), to conduct a study and issue a report on the current state of sound-recording archiving, preservation, and restoration activities and to recommend standards for access to preserved-sound recordings by researchers, educators, and other interested parties.

[ A study regarding the preservation of various audio, including discussions of copyright problems among others. Blogged for future reference. -k]

CLIR Reports

The Republican-controlled Senate overwhelmingly approved a measure Wednesday that would set standards for the military's treatment of detainees, a response to the Abu Ghraib scandal and other allegations that U.S. soldiers have abused prisoners.
"Our enemies didn't adhere to the Geneva Conventions," he said, referring to the international agreement on the treatment of prisoners of war. "Many of my comrades were subjected to very cruel, very inhumane and degrading treatment, a few of them even unto death.
"But every one of us -- every single one of us -- knew and took great
strength from the belief that we were different from our enemies, that we were
better than them, that we, if the roles were reversed, would not disgrace
ourselves by committing or countenancing such mistreatment of them."

'Bout god damn time. You cannot chunk the Geneva Convention claiming its quaint without replacing it with a better standard and expect people to "just trust you" while huge abuse scandals are going down.

Senate sets standards on detainees / Lawmakers defy Bush to overwhelmingly OK McCain bill in response to Abu Ghraib

"There are two worldviews that are in conflict," Mr. Thompson said. "I do feel that even though Christians are 86 percent of the population, they have become second-class citizens."

[ Ah, hmm. If "christians" have become second-class citizens, it's because they've stopped following actual Christian ideals. When I look at the main voices of "christianity" in this country, I don't see a lot that represents Jesus Christ. The bible? Yes, very much so. But you can't just thump the bible, read it in whatever way you want, and claim to be Christian. Sorry. -k]

In Pennsylvania, It Was Religion vs. Science, Pastor vs. Ph.D., Evolution vs. the Half-Fish

[ To the citizens of the United States of America, in the light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of your independence, effective today.

Her Sovereign Majesty Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states, commonwealths and other territories.

Except Utah, which she does not fancy. ]

Declaration of Revocation� by John Cleese

When Congress agreed this spring to tighten the bankruptcy laws and crack down on consumers who took on debt irresponsibly, no one had the victims of Hurricane Katrina in mind.

Oh whatever, those people are totally responsible for the fact that their city flooded. They shouldn't have taken on debt knowing that hurricanes sometimes blast cities. How can we imbue a sense of personal responsibility in our society if people don't have to pay back debts they incurred before totally unpredictable, collosal disasters!

Strict bankruptcy law new blow for victims | IndyStar.com

New Orleans Flooding Again

Levee's are breaching again.. already.

[ Terrible. Still, though I kind of hesitate to say it, because it sounds like it diminishes the efforts put forth to date, I feel like it's better that this happen now. I mean, if it was gonna happen, at least it's at a time when things are already demolished and many people are still away, rather than halfway through the rebuilding process. -k]

FOXNews.com - U.S. & World - Texas Braces for Catastrophe; New Orleans Flooding Again

Three authors filed suit against Google yesterday contending that the company's program to create searchable digital copies of the contents of several university libraries constituted "massive copyright infringement."

The lawsuit, filed in United States District Court in Manhattan, is the first to arise from the Google Print Library program, the fledgling effort aimed at a searchable library of all the world's printed books.

Another front in the ongoing IP Wars. Interesting things to consider here.

Writers Sue Google, Accusing It of Copyright Violation - New York Times

“If we could land the space shuttle on the moon, fill the cargo with canisters of helium-3 mined from the surface and bring the shuttle back to Earth, that cargo would supply the entire electrical power needs of the United States for an entire year,” he said.

Sounds *great* guys! If only you could A) land a space shuttle on the moon, B) extract the helium in that quantity C) PRODUCE NUCLEAR FUSION and D) sell the public on said NUCLEAR FUSION, we'd all be happy energy consumers forever.

Don't get me wrong, as a forward looking, yay-for-the-future, maybe someday, blue sky kinda thing, i'm all for it. But really, this article should have been titled "Moon potential source of helium-3, in case we ever get this fusion thing to work."

US: UW scientists want to mine moon energy | EnergyBulletin.net | Energy and Peak Oil News