] "We are reviewing the issue to determine what steps need
] to be taken to secure the election,"

You know this quote is taken out of context, but....

I will admit that conspiracy theories fascinate me to no end. This one that's playing out in the subtext of almost every politics and current events news story really does take the cake. I mean, Masons and Catholics and Zionists are all pretty scary boogeymen, but now that we're all grown up, it doesn't take much to see (or imagine?) the boogeymen of the beltway.

I am going to email all of my elected "representatives" and let them know that I'll be at the polls, even if they ARE blowing up - which they won't be.

MSNBC - Exclusive: Election Day Worries

] To All Concerned Parties: In light of recent events, I
] feel the need to clarify some of the language and
] "descriptive phraseology" we've been using in regard to
] the war on terrorism and our ongoing efforts in Iraq.

Read it and weep.

Global Buzzword Search-And-Delete: Rove at the Keyboard

] my rides through chernobyl area
] now including a photos of new rides (spring 2004)
]
]
] beginning of a story about town where one can ride with
] no stoplights, no police, no danger to hit some cage or
] some dog..

GHOST TOWN

"This is a simple model
you can use
to explore
some aspects of
the war on terror."

Newsgaming.com -- September 12th

] So let’s see if I have this correct. Have an audience
] and be overtly critical of the government, lose your job,
] or at least be beaten into impotency. On the grand scale
] our first amendment rights are non-existent. Doesn’t
] it scare people one little bit that one of the most
] important and basic freedoms we have is being trounced
] right in front of their faces. Freedoms that American
] soldiers are dying for right now? Do tax cuts mean that
] much? Do party hard-liners honestly; have no problem with
] this kind of thing from an elected government? Do they
] just chalk it up historical corruption, governments have
] been corrupt forever, and nothing is going to change
] that now? Am I just a fringe lunatic that thinks this is
] inherently wrong and dangerous? I don’t know anymore.
] It seems as if conservatives and the general public are
] content to let this blatant violation of the Constitution
] go unchecked, as long as it is their party doing the
] violating.

Payback: The Bush Connection to Clear Channel Firing  Howard Stern; It's Worse than You Thought.

] Rock legends Peter Gabriel and Brian Eno plan to launch
] on Monday a musicians' union to help artists stand their
] ground in the digital age.
]
] The union will be called Mudda, short for "magnificent
] union of digitally downloading artists".
]
] "The digital environment will change the way music is
] made, and here artists need a voice", Peter Gabriel told
] BBC News Online at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
]
] In the age of digital downloads musicians and the music
] industry have had to find a way of giving consumers what
] they want while securing revenue streams.

BBC NEWS | Business | Gabriel to launch musicians' union

These 9 drawings were done by an artist under the influence of LSD -- part of a test conducted by the US government during it's dalliance with psychotomimetic drugs in the late 1950's. The artist was given a dose of LSD 25 and free access to an activity box full of crayons and pencils. His subject is the medico that jabbed him.

First drawing is done 20 minutes after the first dose (50ug)

An attending doctor observes - Patient chooses to start drawing with charcoal.

The subject of the experiment reports - 'Condition normal... no effect from the drug yet'.

Acid trip 1

] NASA plans to scrap its space shuttle fleet to pay
] for the agency's new plan to return to the moon and
] develop human space exploration systems, senior
] administration officials said.
] The agency intends to return to the moon early
] next decade in preparation for sending crews to explore
] Mars and nearby asteroids, the officials said. Such
] endeavors would require a new generation of spacecraft,
] but in the interim, American astronauts would use
] Europe's Ariane rockets and Russia's Soyuz capsules.

I have mixed feelings about this. Seeing the ISS turned into abandonware in the same way that Apollo and Apollo Applications was gets a little bit under my skin. Plans to replace the shuttle are fine, but "the current timetable leaves a period of several years when NASA would lack manned space capability"? I guess they figure we'll placate the international partners in the Station program by buying hardware off of them for our own use.

NASA plans return to moon - The Washington Times: Nation/Politics

]
] Today, a significant milestone was achieved by Scaled
] Composites: The first manned supersonic flight by an
] aircraft developed by a small company's private,
] non-government effort.

SpaceShipOne Breaks the Sound Barrier - Press Release 17 Dec 2003

Flight Software verification, validation and development

Nat'l Academies Press, An Assessment of Space Shuttle Flight Software Development Processes (1993), Table of Contents