Brazil recognizes Palestinian state

Brazil recognizes Palestinian state: "SAO PAULO -- Brazil says it has recognized the state of Palestine based on borders at the time of Israel's 1967 conquest of the West Bank."

Another Sign of the Apocalypse - Christine O'Donnell has a book deal

Christine O'Donnell seals a book deal on 2010 - Jennifer Epstein - POLITICO.com: "The book will “take the reader behind the scenes of her race for the Senate and embody O’Donnell’s identification with America’s frustrations and concerns with the current political climate,” publisher St. Martin’s Press said in a news release."

Juan Williams can STFU too

Juan Williams: Extended Jobless Benefits Hurt The Unemployed (VIDEO) | TPMDC: "On Fox News today, Juan Williams, formerly of NPR, advanced an argument about the detrimental effects that extended jobless benefits can have on people. You see, Williams said, these unemployment checks can kill people's work ethic, hurt their values, even harm their sense of style."

After meeting, Obama and Republicans hopeful about a deal on Bush tax cuts

After meeting, Obama and Republicans hopeful about a deal on Bush tax cuts: "President Obama and congressional Republicans expressed determination Tuesday to reach an agreement on the tax cuts due to expire at year's end, raising the possibility of a compromise that could avert a tax increase for virtually every American worker."

Assassination is for Assclowns

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The Dark Canuck: "One of Stephen Harper’s advisors is “feeling manly” today and says that Julian Assange should be assassinated."

More on John McCain

A Breath Of Sane Air, Ctd - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: "Alas, I don't actually believe that in McCain's case. McCain knows and has worked with and relied upon openly gay people in his own staff. His disgusting posturing on this question now is not, in my view, out of conviction but out of calculation. He got re-elected by veering to the far right and junking much of what he once believed in. He is also clearly consumed with bitterness and hatred of the president who so humiliated him in his disastrous campaign. He is lashing out. And he is contemptible for it."

John Boehner set to slice up spending bills - Jake Sherman and Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com

John Boehner set to slice up spending bills - Jake Sherman and Jonathan Allen - POLITICO.com: "The move would facilitate cutbacks in government programs and, GOP aides say, enhance oversight and accountability for individual agencies, fulfilling promises made by Republicans on the campaign trail and in their Pledge to America. But it would also threaten to complicate an already tattered appropriations process on the House floor and in negotiations with the Senate, which is why the mechanics of the transition are still under discussion."

Trial Begins Over Goldman Sachs Computer Trading Code - NYTimes.com

Trial Begins Over Goldman Sachs Computer Trading Code - NYTimes.com: "Is Sergey Aleynikov an evil computer scientist who brazenly stole valuable, closely guarded trading code from Goldman Sachs, his former employer?

Or is he a humble Russian immigrant who, upon leaving his programming post at Goldman for a higher-paying job, innocuously took some open-source code with him on his way out the door?"

Opinion: Are we poorer than we used to be? - Michael Kinsley - POLITICO.com

Opinion: Are we poorer than we used to be? - Michael Kinsley - POLITICO.com: "Life did not seem so terrible for most people back in 2006 or 2007, did it? So why are so many people glum now? Why are so many actually suffering, losing their houses or their jobs? Why are there so many stories like the one on the front page of The Washington Post on Nov. 19 about a woman who used to be a nursing-home executive with a six-figure income and this year will clear $11,000 selling chicken dinners? Changes in GDP are not a perfect reflection of changes in the average citizen’s prosperity at any given time. But it’s not a bad one. Why does $13 trillion feel poor today, although as recently as 2007, it felt rich?"

Wikileaks moves to Amazon's cloud to evade massive DDoS

Wikileaks moves to Amazon's cloud to evade massive DDoS: "It's possible that the DDoS against Wikileaks was orchestrated by a government in effort to retaliate against the leak and disrupt access to the documents. Prominent figures in the US government, including a congressman, are calling for an extreme response to the leak, arguing that Wikileaks should be treated as a terrorist organization. The group is clearly facing considerable pressure and close scrutiny as a result of the leak."

Opinion: Joe Scarborough tells GOP to man up and confront Sarah Palin - Joe Scarborough - POLITICO.com

Opinion: Joe Scarborough tells GOP to man up and confront Sarah Palin - Joe Scarborough - POLITICO.com: "But if the party of Ronald Reagan, Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio wants to return to the White House anytime soon, it’s time that Republican leaders started standing up and speaking the truth to Palin."

Laura Rozen: on foreign policy - POLITICO.com

Laura Rozen: on foreign policy - POLITICO.com: "Meantime, nonproliferation hands suggest the Obama administration has a major GOP figure coming to the White House Wednesday to endorse START ratification. Obama's public schedule shows no afternoon appointments at the moment. The White House wouldn't confirm or provide any specifics yet, but didn't wave off.

Some o"

On John McCain

Rising Hegemon: What's a little lying to go with being a bigoted asshole?: "John McCain is a pathetic, bigoted, asshole."

Spankin' Sarah Palin: A clown short of a circus - MoscowTopNews.com

Spankin' Sarah Palin: A clown short of a circus - MoscowTopNews.com: "If Sarah Palin is not some kind of a massive political joke in the USA, wheeled out to liven up the political scene from time to time with nonsensical and pastiche (one hopes) displays of sheer and utter ignorance, then it is worrying. It is even more so if anyone other than a manic depressive suffering from a chronic lack of lithium takes this...female...seriously."

World AIDS Day - I am not dead

The bullshit about giving up one's digital life for World AIDS day is just about the dumbest fucking thing that I have seen in a long time. It trivializes the real pain and death caused by this fucking virus and the people that participate in it should be ashamed of themselves.

Architecture for faster analytics

IBM Press room - 2010-11-19 Made in IBM Labs: New Architecture Can Double Analytics Processing Speed - United States: "NEW ORLEANS - 19 Nov 2010: At the Supercomputing 2010 conference, IBM (NYSE: IBM) today unveiled details of a new storage architecture design, created by IBM scientists, that will convert terabytes of pure information into actionable insights twice as fast (1) as previously possible. Ideally suited for cloud computing applications and data-intensive workloads such as digital media, data mining and financial analytics, this new architecture will shave hours off of complex computations without requiring heavy infrastructure investment. IBM won the Storage Challenge competition for presenting the most innovative and effective design in high performance computing with the best measurements of performance, scalability and storage subsystem utilization."

New IBM Supercomputer

IBM Press room - 2010-07-02 MADE IN IBM LABS: IBM Hot Water-Cooled Supercomputer Goes Live at ETH Zurich - United States: "ZURICH, - 02 Jul 2010: IBM (NYSE: IBM) has delivered a first-of-a-kind hot water-cooled supercomputer to the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich), marking a new era in energy-aware computing.  The innovative system, dubbed Aquasar, consumes up to 40 percent less energy than a comparable air-cooled machine. Through the direct use of waste heat to provide warmth to university buildings, Aquasar's carbon footprint is reduced by up to 85 percent."

Science communication: Scientist as star : Nature News

Science communication: Scientist as star : Nature News: "''What the hell are you doing?' That's what all my scientific friends were saying,' she says. ''This is not helping you get tenure.'' Mednick says that she wrote the book, together with co-author Mark Ehrman, because she wanted her research to reach people. 'It was such an obvious book to write,' she says. 'I just like the idea of having my research being real world.' She concedes that vanity and the hope for a pay cheque were a small part of the motivation. Ultimately, however, Mednick seems driven by a desire to overturn conventions. A former actress, Mednick marches to her own drumbeat, say friends and colleagues. The book definitely got her noticed — leading to the whirlwind of media attention in 2007 (see 'Spreading the science of napping to the masses')."

Plants flowering later on the Tibetan Plateau : Nature News

Plants flowering later on the Tibetan Plateau : Nature News: "In many regions, climate change has advanced the timing of spring events, such as flowering or the unfolding of leaves. But the meadows and steppes of the Tibetan Plateau are bucking that trend — plants are starting to bloom later in spring, making the growing season shorter. This change could threaten the livelihood of the thousands of nomads who survive by raising cattle on the plateau."

Physics centre plans rapid growth : Nature News

Physics centre plans rapid growth : Nature News: "Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Bohr, Dirac — the list reads like the ultimate physics dream team. That the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics in Waterloo, Canada, has chosen to name five new research chairs after some of the greatest physicists in history is a sign of its lofty aspirations."

Portland bomb plot: 'Potential for entrapment,' Mohamed Mohamud's lawyer says | OregonLive.com

Portland bomb plot: 'Potential for entrapment,' Mohamed Mohamud's lawyer says | OregonLive.com: "He said a quite sophisticated government agency had been 'basically grooming' the individual and Sady said there was 'potential for entrapment.'

'It's the first meeting that matters,' he said, complaining that the government's recording devices had failed in the first meeting."

Comcast fires a shot against net neutrality

We Need Net Neutrality: Comcast Demands Bandwith Payment From Level 3 « Oliver Willis: "“On November 19, 2010, Comcast informed Level 3 that, for the first time, it will demand a recurring fee from Level 3 to transmit Internet online movies and other content to Comcast’s customers who request such content. By taking this action, Comcast is effectively putting up a toll booth at the borders of its broadband Internet access network, enabling it to unilaterally decide how much to charge for content which competes with its own cable TV and Xfinity delivered content. This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the dominant control that Comcast exerts in broadband access markets as the nation’s largest cable provider."

WikiLeaks on the Arab Gulf States vs. Iran | The Nation

WikiLeaks on the Arab Gulf States vs. Iran | The Nation: "You’d think that the United States could safely ignore, and privately laugh at, the policy recommendations made by kings, royal sheiks and emirs of the gulf states. The leaders of these nations—and most of them, such as Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and the UAE, really don’t deserve to be called 'nations'—are anyway for the most part puppets of the United States. Three of them (Kuwait, Qatar and Bahrain) are essentially US-occupied territories, hosting American ground troops, naval forces and an air force base; and the fourth, the UAE, is not really populated by its own citizens but by imported South Asians, Iranians and others, and made up of a series of family-ruled sheikhdoms run by utterly corrupt and degenerate, inbred gangsters. They huddle in their palaces, praying that the United States will protect them from their own people, from actual Arab citizens—including the Palestinians, Syrians and Egyptians, whose remaining nationalists covet their oil wealth—and from rambunctious Iran to the north and east."

After the Great Recession: Foreign Born Gain Jobs; Native Born Lose Jobs - Pew Research Center

After the Great Recession: Foreign Born Gain Jobs; Native Born Lose Jobs - Pew Research Center: "In the year following the official end of the Great Recession in June 2009,1 foreign-born workers gained 656,000 jobs while native-born workers lost 1.2 million, according to a new analysis of U.S. Census Bureau and Department of Labor data by the Pew Hispanic Center, a project of the Pew Research Center.2"

Most Continue to Favor Gays Serving Openly in Military - Pew Research Center

Most Continue to Favor Gays Serving Openly in Military - Pew Research Center: "Nearly half (48%) of white evangelical Protestants oppose letting gays serve openly in the military, while just 34% support this proposal. Majorities or pluralities across other religious groups favor allowing gays to serve openly."

More on that birther thing

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Birther Society Nonsense: "The argument is of course Obama is a British citizen and therefore ineligible for the office of President, to which the Supreme Court said 'You sir, are a douchebag' and went and had lunch. I'm sure Kerchner's next move will be to have the Founding Fathers exhumed and their ghosts summoned forth so that they can settle the question of intent once and for all (at taxpayer expense)."

on Inflation Fears - A fact based approach

Roubini Global Economics - U.S. EconoMonitor: "So the quantity theory (which, just to remind readers, refers to money and not money base) suggests little prospect of rapid inflation, given the recent evolution of money aggregates. With the 2010 output gap between 3.4 to over 6 percentage points of GDP [0], a Phillips curve analysis seems to point to muted inflation if not disinflation."

Adm. Mullen’s Spinning vs. Prof. Hayek’s Insight by David R. Henderson -- Antiwar.com

Adm. Mullen’s Spinning vs. Prof. Hayek’s Insight by David R. Henderson -- Antiwar.com: "In 1945, the flagship journal of the American Economic Review published one of the ten most important economics articles of the 20th century. Entitled “The Use of Knowledge in Society,” it was written by an Austrian economist named Friedrich Hayek. I deal with this article in every economics course I teach. (For the notes on this article that I share with my students, see this.) The article is explicitly about why central economic planning doesn’t work and why free markets do work. This article put the final intellectual nail in socialism’s coffin. Hayek’s insight was that the most important information that a completely well-intentioned central planner would need to plan an economy is information that the planner can’t have. Instead, this information exists in millions of individuals’ minds and is information that only they can have because of their particular circumstances. Economists who write in the Hayekian tradition call this knowledge of local circumstances “local knowledge.”"

Dolphins & Teleportation Symposium 2001

Dolphins & Teleportation Symposium 2001: "I recently had the immense pleasure of meeting 3 people who happen to be friends with each other, and are on the cutting edge of interspatial technologies regarding our abilities to travel in time. Because the dolphins have demonstrated this fascinating ability with me, I have a natural desire to learn more about it. The dolphins that I befriended 22 years ago have the capacity to swim alongside us for hours and in that tranquil, trance-like state, entrain our mind into Oneness with them. At that point we can experience their world. The dolphins have taken me time traveling into the future and they have shape-shifted with me, allowing me to experience their multidimensional reality of great Joy and Harmony. Through these experiences I have learned that humans have what it takes to enjoy this transdimensional world when we are daring enough to go there and explore it."

Video - Raheem DeVaughn - She's Single - NSFW

Personally, I needed a cold shower after this

On Civil Servant Pay Freezes

Hullabaloo: "I hope the White House is not taking any comfort from this support from beltway gasbags. It's a Democratic disease to think that pleasing the wealthy celebrities who make up the political punditocracy is a good guide to successful governance. These are, after all, people who are so caught up in their useless false equivalence that they continually ask why the relations between the two parties are so hostile. Sure it's rhetorical, but the problem is that in their view it's perfectly obvious that if only the president would just pass the Republican agenda everything would be fine. And what could be wrong with that?"

When did God become a sports fan? - CNN.com

When did God become a sports fan? - CNN.com: "Athletes who publicly thank God for victory are often calling more attention to themselves than their faith, says William J. Baker, author of 'Playing with God.'
They are selling their goodness, and their brand of faith, to a captive audience, says Baker, who describes himself as a Christian.
'I don't think it's the right place and it's not the right gesture,' says Baker, a former high school quarterback. 'It's an athlete using a moment to sell a product, like soap.'"

I love Birthers

SCOTUS confers on Presidential eligibility; ruling could be this week - National Conservative | Examiner.com: "Vattel was a French/Swiss writer who penned a work entitled, 'The Laws of Nations,' which maintains that during the era of the Founders it was common knowledge that 'natural-born citizen' meant a person born within the U.S. to parents who were both U.S. citizens. Court precedent affirms this understanding of the term, given the Court's numerous rulings on other matters in which the Vattel definition was accepted as that which the Framers of the Constitution assumed. Chief Justice John Marshall had affirmed the Vattel definition as the correct one in 1814.

According to the attorney for the Petitioners, Barack Obama's father was not a U.S. citizen but a British subject at the time of Obama's birth, meaning that according to the historical record, Obama would thus be ineligible to serve as President of the United States."

ThinkProgress » Boehner Staff Met With Right-Wing Activist Who Demands GOP End Abortion Or Be Treated As ‘Child Killers’

ThinkProgress » Boehner Staff Met With Right-Wing Activist Who Demands GOP End Abortion Or Be Treated As ‘Child Killers’: "“In the Boehner-led House, having a miles-long rap sheet calling for violence against abortion providers and their patients gets you an invitation to meet with the incoming speaker’s staff,” president of NARAL Pro-Choice America Nancy Keenan said. “The Randall Terry meeting signifies that, when it comes to listening to the most extreme elements of the anti-choice movement, Boehner is all ears.”"

On Peter King as Wikileaks pundit

How many times is he going to say "lives at risk" or "destabilize" ?

What a tool.

Fire reported at US Islamic center; no injuries | kens5.com | San Antonio News, Weather, Sports, Traffic, Entertainment, Video and Photos

Fire reported at US Islamic center; no injuries | kens5.com | San Antonio News, Weather, Sports, Traffic, Entertainment, Video and Photos: "CORVALLIS, Oregon (AP) — Arson caused a fire at an Islamic center on Sunday that was the occasional place of worship for a Somali-born teen who two days ago was arrested on charges of plotting a terror attack in Portland, authorities said."

Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Chokes Up At The Wealthy's Lack Of Contribution To This Country | Crooks and Liars

Billionaire Hedge Fund Manager Chokes Up At The Wealthy's Lack Of Contribution To This Country | Crooks and Liars: "It's easy to take a cynical view of the weepy billionaire, but Steyer actually does put his money where his mouth is. A signatory to The Giving Pledge, Steyer has promised to donate half of his fortune to charity and has already given money to various philanthropic sources, including the successful defeat of Prop 23 here in California."

Haiti candidates denounce election - Americas - Al Jazeera English

Haiti candidates denounce election - Americas - Al Jazeera English: "Nearly all of the major candidates in Haiti's presidential election have called for the country's election to be scrapped amid allegations of fraud and reports that large numbers of voters were turned away from polling stations throughout the nation.

Twelve of the 18 candidates endorsed a joint statement denouncing Sunday's voting as fraudulent and called on their supporters to show their anger with demonstrations against the government and the country's Provisional Electoral Council (CEP)."

New Rule for Science Journalism

"Blessedly Disconnected" - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan

"Blessedly Disconnected" - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan: "Put bluntly, if we are all too busy and self-absorbed to notice or challenge things, then evil will win by default. Or, as Milan Kundera put it: 'The struggle of man against power is the struggle of memory against forgetting.'"

Reihan Salam: Conservative Backlash Against TSA Part of a Revival of Civil Liberties Talk on the Right | Video Cafe

Reihan Salam: Conservative Backlash Against TSA Part of a Revival of Civil Liberties Talk on the Right | Video Cafe: "SALAM: The conservative backlash against the TSA is just part of a bigger revival of civil liberties talk on the right. We’re going to see a lot more of it in the next year or two."

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Beyond redemption

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Beyond redemption: "Liberals like Henry A. Kissinger, James A. Baker III and Brent Scowcroft also strongly support ratification of the START treaty.

So that’s where things stand right now: virtually every old-school Republican foreign policy person you can think of favors ratification of START, David Broder thinks Jon Kyl should be allowed to weaken it or kill it.

It’s going to get worse when the government shutdown comes. I don’t doubt that a lot of old-school Republicans will come out against shutting down the government, but the Village will side with the teatard barbarians on it anyway."

On political dementia

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » The chronicler of dementia: "It is dementia to think that everything must be filtered and vetted through Wing-nut talking points, memes, myths and fantasies. And yet that is how the Villagers think. It is pathetic to see folks promoting Broder’s chronicle of dementia as political wisdom instead of recognizing his haphazard word strings for the gibberish that they are."

Jellyfish inspire flexible pumps

Jellyfish inspire flexible pumps: "Nawroth has also observed how tiny juvenile moon jellies take advantage of a layer of water that adheres to their outer surface, using it to close the gaps between their lappets (“arms”), so that their bodies are able to act more like a paddle and less like a sieve. Additionally, it has been noted that they have a network of neuronal “pacemakers” throughout their bodies, that allow them to control their contractions, according to the conditions. If such a system could be reproduced using human technology, it could allow for flexible pumps with consistent yet tunable performance."

US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomacy crisis | World news | guardian.co.uk

US embassy cables leak sparks global diplomacy crisis | World news | guardian.co.uk: "At the start of a series of daily extracts from the US embassy cables - many of which are designated 'secret' – the Guardian can disclose that Arab leaders are privately urging an air strike on Iran and that US officials have been instructed to spy on the UN's leadership."

Iceland - on not rescuing banksters

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Meanwhile, On Another Island: "“The difference is that in Iceland we allowed the banks to fail,” Grimsson said in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Mark Barton today. “These were private banks and we didn’t pump money into them in order to keep them going; the state did not shoulder the responsibility of the failed private banks.”"

Neowin.net - Kinect meets robotics

Neowin.net - Kinect meets robotics: "The list of innovative Kinect hacks is growing by the day, with the open-source community having already discovered how to use the motion controller as a PC multitouch and gesture control solution, 3D webcam, motion capture device and as a virtual lightsaber simulator."

The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

The FBI successfully thwarts its own Terrorist plot - Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com

Third, there are ample facts that call into question whether Mohamud's actions were driven by the FBI's manipulation and pressure rather than his own predisposition to commit a crime. In June, he attempted to fly to Alaska in order to work on a fishing job he obtained through a friend, but he was on the Government's no-fly list. That caused the FBI to question him at the airport and then bar him from flying to Alaska, and thus prevented him from earning income with this job (para. 25). Having prevented him from working, the money the FBI then pumped him with -- including almost $3,000 in cash for him to rent his own apartment (para. 61) -- surely helped make him receptive to their suggestions and influence. And every other step taken to perpetrate this plot -- from planning its placement to assembling the materials to constructing the bomb -- was all done at the FBI's behest and with its indispensable support and direction.

It's impossible to conceive of Mohamud having achieved anything on his own. Before being ensnared by the FBI, the only tangible action he had taken was to write three articles on "fitness and jihad" for the online magazine Jihad Recollections. At least based on what is known, he had no history of violence, no apparent criminal record, had never been to a training camp in Afghanistan, Pakistan or anywhere else, and -- before meeting the FBI -- had never taken a single step toward harming anyone. Does that sound like some menacing sleeper Terrorist to you?

Next Target?

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » Suffer, Little Children: "So which country will the banksters loot next? Portugal? Spain?"

Hannity Quotes Thomas Paine -- To Support the Christian Right : Dispatches from the Culture Wars

Hannity Quotes Thomas Paine -- To Support the Christian Right : Dispatches from the Culture Wars: "Hannity does here what the religious right always does, takes a quote from the founding fathers about the importance of morality and then equates morality with Christianity. But since Paine was a bitter enemy of Christianity, that can obviously not be the source for the dictates of conscience that he is referring to."

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A Real Sunday Morning Ray of Sunshine

Balloon Juice » Blog Archive » A Real Sunday Morning Ray of Sunshine: "And am I the only one who finds all the hand-wringing over Lugar and Scowcroft that DougJ linked to last night a little amusing. The GOP is now insane. There is no such thing as reasonable conservatives anymore. Call them what they really are, which is enablers. If you vote Republican, you are standing up and deciding to support the nuts. Reading Outside the Beltway and many of the other sites I enjoy is like watching an exercise in excuse-making."

Recipe - salmon and dill soup

Nigel Slater's salmon and dill soup, and tomato fish broth recipes | Life and style | The Observer:

onion 1 medium to large
leek 1
butter 50g
cauliflower 500g
waxy potatoes 750g
swede 350g
water 1.25 litres
tomatoes 2 medium-sized
salmon fillet 600g
cream 100ml
lemon juice to taste
dill a small bunch
buttered rye bread to serve

As usual, go to the originating site to get details to put it all together.

Angry protests over Korea shelling - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English

Angry protests over Korea shelling - Asia-Pacific - Al Jazeera English: "South Korean protesters demanding a harder line against neighbouring North Korea have on Saturday scuffled with police outside the defence ministry in the capital, Seoul.

The demonstrators, former members of the 'Underwater Demolition Team,' set off fire extinguishers and waved sticks as they called on the government to take action after four people were killed as a result of North Korea shelling of Yeonpyeong island, near the disputed Yellow Sea maritime border.

'We can not help expressing our anger about the behaviour of the defence ministry and the government in general that failed to take due retaliatory action,' they said."

Willie Nelson Busted On Tour Bus With Six Ounces Of Marijuana -- In Texas | Crooks and Liars

Willie Nelson Busted On Tour Bus With Six Ounces Of Marijuana -- In Texas | Crooks and Liars

SIERRA BLANCA, Texas (AP) — A U.S. Border Patrol spokesman says country singer Willie Nelson was charged with marijuana possession after 6 ounces was found aboard his tour bus in Texas

Willie Nelson smokes pot? Imagine my surprise! If only someone had written a song about it ...

Wiz Khalifa Arrested On Drug Charges - Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV

Wiz Khalifa Arrested On Drug Charges - Music, Celebrity, Artist News | MTV: "On Tuesday morning (November 9), a spokesperson for the Pitt County Detention Center confirmed to MTV News that Khalifa (born Cameron Thomaz), 22, was booked into the jail at around 1:30 a.m. He posted $300,000 bail and was released from detention at around 8 a.m. ET.

The 'Black and Yellow' rapper was charged with a felony count of trafficking in marijuana, a felony count of maintaining a dwelling/vehicle/place for sale or storage of marijuana and one misdemeanor charge of possession of drug paraphernalia. Nine other people were arrested along with Khalifa on the same charges and were still in jail at press time."

Strangest thing that Juan Cole has ever put on paper

Blair, Hitchens Debate Religion | Informed Comment: "The best argument for religion might be that there is no secular reason for which to forgive either of these two for following George W. Bush around like puppies and assenting to his illegal war and occupation of a country that had attacked neither the US nor the UK. But the religions teach that neither of them is beyond redemption, and that the rest of us should worry about our own imperfections rather than obsessing about the foibles of others. But then, as Hitchens points out, the actually-existing believers in the religions seldom achieve that blessed state of minding their own business so often recommended to them by the great religious Teachers."

Open Letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham

Open Letter to Sen. Lindsey Graham: "Given your belief that a currency whose value is lower than you think it should be confers “advantages” upon its holders, I hereby offer to confer such advantages upon you and your family. Before you or anyone else in the Graham household spends dollars, contact me first. I will give you a fifty-cent coin in exchange for each dollar that you would otherwise have spent on your purchases. You will then make your purchases using only the 50-cent coins. That is, you will have a lower-valued currency unit to spend rather than be burdened by the heavy yoke of having to spend a higher-valued currency unit."

why do I find it creepy that DHS visited my blog yesterday?

I probably shouldn't, but I do.

The least they can do is click through on an ad or two... just sayin'

No Truth Was Spoken

He told her that she was pretty. She told him that he was great in bed. They both agreed that the soggy bacon and greasy eggs were a terrific breakfast.

The Reference Frame: Penrose's CCC cosmology is either inflation or gibberish

The Reference Frame: Penrose's CCC cosmology is either inflation or gibberish: "At any rate, if Penrose and his collaborator preferred proper physics solutions of problems over tendentious non-quantitative bullshiting with the predetermined (and unjustified) goal to attack inflation, they would realize - like your humble correspondent - that the fact that the circles don't get too 'weak' simply means that what is propagating is associated with objects with negative pressure such as cosmic strings and domain walls."

nanoscale views: Memristors - how fundamental, and how useful?

nanoscale views: Memristors - how fundamental, and how useful?: "I would maintain that this is conceptually very different and less fundamental than the resistor, capacitor, or inductor elements. The resistor is the simplest possible relationship between current and voltage; the capacitor and inductor have a dual relationship and each involve energy storage in electromagnetic fields. The memristor does not have a deep connection to electromagnetism - it is one particular example of the general 'mem'device, which has a complex electrical impedance that depends on the current/voltage history of the device. Indeed, my friend Max di Ventra has, with a colleague, written a review of the general case, which can be said to include 'memcapacitors' and 'meminductors'. The various memgizmos are certainly fun to think about, and in their simplest implementation have great potential for certain applications, such as nonvolatile memory."

Daily Kos: A time for vision

Daily Kos: A time for vision: "We have another president with a rare gift to inspire. To reignite his base and the entire Democratic party, he would do well consider Herbert's thoughts. The Republicans keep telling us what we can't do, and too many Democrats buy into it, even if but because of the Republicans. Let's hear what we can do, from a new green economy to a new approach to human and civil rights that finally reflects our claimed national ideology. Aim high and the nation will rally."

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Zandar Versus The Stupid: Zandar's Thought Of The Day: "People keep telling me Obama's race has nothing to do with it. And no offense, but every person I've heard that from happens to be white."

No More Mister Nice Blog

No More Mister Nice Blog: "And it's the perfect no-win game. The media cannot win either way when it comes to Palin. If they report on her, it's evil bias against her. If they ignore her, it's evil bias against her. No matter what happens, Palin wins and the media loses, because Palin and the Republicans change the script to fit every time. If the media bites on her self-serving narcissism, they're consumed with trying to destroy her. If they take the high road and ignore her obvious news-generating gambits, they're misogynist 'lamestream media'."