How to Hack an Election

It was an "easy matter," they reported, to reprogram the access cards used by voters and vote multiple times. They were able to attach a keyboard to a voting terminal and change its vote count. And by exploiting a software flaw and using a modem, they were able to change votes from a remote location.

NYT following up an issue Krugman initiated back in Dec.

It seems like this criticism is based on the same study WaPo was criticizing at the end of Dec.

Saddam’s Gifts
Document: Saddam Supporters Received Lucrative Oil Contracts

ABCNEWS has obtained an extraordinary list that contains the names of prominent people around the world who supported Saddam Hussein's regime and were given oil contracts as a result.

Real surprising how many French and Russian names are the list. Wow, this is going to be big. Via instapundit. Did you know Glenn Reynolds was in the National Spelling Bee.

Burst Whale

A 56-foot sperm whale's insides lie strewn about after its belly burst due to decomposition while being transported to the National Cheng Kung University in Tainan in southern Taiwan on January 26, 2004. The whale ran aground and died on a beach in the southwestern county of Yunlin on January 17. (Taiwan Apple daily via Reuters)

Absolutely gross. This reminds me of the incredible exploding whale story. Watch the video.

Merriam-Webster Online Toolbar

Merriam-Webster has upgraded their dictionary page. It's pretty slick. You can load a toolbar feature and look up words just by highlighting the word in the text and hitting search, no need to cut and paste.

If you have the Google Toolbar and use the pop-up blocker, like me, you will need to set the toolbar options to display results in current window, otherwise the page gets blocked. Not really a big deal, but a little quirky.

In the process I've become a lot more familiar with customizing my toolbars. I never really realized how easy it was to reconfigure. I've reduced my toolbar from 4 lines to 3 by getting rid of extra text and buttons, and moving things around a bit.

Anyway, I thought this was cool. Looking up words is now that much easier, now if I could just bethink half the words I look up.

Georgia may shun 'evolution' in schools
Revised curriculum plan outrages science teachers

New middle and high school science standards proposed by state Schools Superintendent Kathy Cox strike references to "evolution" and replace them with the term "biological changes over time," a revision critics say will further weaken learning in a critical subject.

Absurd. Via Fark.

In Shake-Up, Dean Names Gore Ally to Run Campaign

After spending nearly $40 million only to face devastating defeats in Iowa and New Hampshire, Howard Dean named a longtime friend of former Vice President Al Gore as his campaign chief on Wednesday, prompting the abrupt resignation of his campaign manager, Joe Trippi.

Dr. Dean said he had tapped Roy Neel, who was given the title of chief executive officer, to streamline day-to-day decision making as the Democratic presidential contest enters a lightning round of multistate contests. He said he had hoped to keep Mr. Trippi on as senior strategist.

But after a year of building the Dean juggernaut, from a staff of seven to what he has often called "the greatest grass-roots movement in the history of American politics," Mr. Trippi refused to be sidelined, and walked out after what aides described as an emotional staff meeting here.

This is really too bad, I'm a big fan of Joe Trippi. You may remember that Melissa and I went to see him speak right here in Waterbury. The NYT article linked above has some interesting insight on the story.

The shake-up comes at a perilous time for the Dean campaign. Only weeks ago, he was riding high in the polls and had amassed far more money than any other campaign. But this week, campaign fund-raisers said, the operation had only $4.5 million to $5 million on hand, about the amount it raised over the Internet since Jan. 1, and was scrambling to collect more money.

After raising $41 million in 2003, far more than any of his Democratic rivals, Dr. Dean spent so much on television and on the ground in Iowa and New Hampshire that campaign officials said they were only confident of having enough money to compete through next week.

This blows my mind that they didn't save any of that money. I guess with the way things were going it made sense to try and wrap it up early, but it's still amazing, Dean is in a big hole.

Obviously I didn't get either of my wishes from the NH primary, Dean wasn't close, and Edwards finished fourth.

I still think Kerry is vulnerable, especially if Dean, Clark, and Edwards can each win a state on the 3rd. I'd like to see results from past Dem primaries to see how these things play out.

At least Sullivan hasn't given up on Dean.

Girl 'sees' broken bones

“Both the tibia and fibula bones - the two below the knee - are broken. I was amazed as she identified the two separate breaks and told me I had problems bending my knee joint.

“Then she said she saw ‘traces of several metal pins and screws’ which had left their mark on the bone.

“She could not possibly know, without seeing the scars, that until two weeks ago my leg was held together by half-a-dozen pins and screws.

“She even said the scars where the screws had been were covered over with new tissue - which is exactly what my last X-ray showed.�

Perhaps she is another Edgar Cayce. Via Drudge.

Drum rips Sullivan, defends Krugman

Did Sullivan read the same column as the rest of us?...Was he just hoping that no one would click the link to see what Krugman actually wrote?...I guess Sully prefers a lazy, cheap shot, even if it's wrong. Pitiful.

'Sully' is taking some heat lately. Besides ripping Sullivan, this post also has some good analysis of the budget deficit. I like that Calpundit is committed to economic analysis, I find it very helpful. I haven't seen a righty blog with a similar commitment.

The Present and Future of Blogitics
By Pejman Yousefzadeh

Howard Dean has been widely considered to be this year's Internet candidate, and his blog and Web presence helped propel him to one of the major candidates for the Democratic presidential nomination. But his failure to win in Iowa followed by his speech-cum-shriek, and his potential failure to win in New Hampshire after leading there for many months (at the writing of this article, John Kerry is ahead in the polls) has prompted some to muse that blogs and the Internet are less important to the process than many thought. Humor blogger Scott Ott wrote this recent parody post speculating hilariously that the Internet and blogs were "hardest hit" by the Dean loss. All humor aside, it is worth asking how Dean's loss might affect the power of blogs and the Internet to influence presidential politics.

Pulpit Editorial - $20 Bills by Gary Kowalski

I was at this service. Gary was powerful as usual.

This month the U.S. Treasury will begin circulating brand new twenty dollar bills. The currency will be more colorful and harder to counterfeit, but will still carry the image of America’s premier war criminal, President Andrew Jackson.

Most modern courts would put him in the same category as Pol Pot or Slobodan Melosivic–guilty of crimes against humanity.

...Andrew Jackson’s picture should be in a National Hall of Shame, not on the twenty-dollar bill. And I like to imagine acts of grassroots resistance to his presence on our currency. What if people wrote the word "genocide" across his face on every bill that passed through their hands? Or what if they simply refused to accept twenties, and demanded one dollar coins--Sacajaweas or Susan B. Anthonys--or asked for five dollar notes, featuring good old Abraham Lincoln, instead? None of these things are likely to happen soon. We’re likely to be looking at that bouffant of white hair, that prim little smirk, that "Southern Gentleman" countenance, for quite some time. His mug will remain a sorry reminder of how often our nation has worshiped at the shrine of making money, whatever the cost in justice or blood.

The parts between the ... are good too, and provide the justification. Not your typical comments from the minister.

I won't be as daring with my predictions as Atrios, but I will say what I'd like to see happen for tomorrow:
- Dean beats Kerry or at least makes it close. I'm really not a Kerry fan.
- Edwards beats Clark for third. I'm really liking Edwards more and more, I'd like to see him do well in SC.

Clark has just failed to impress me as a presidential candidate, but I still think he'd be a powerful VP.

I liked Chait's take on the whole Clark/Michael Moore thing, as did Calpundit.

I watched that debate, and really felt Clark could (should?) have been more prepared. He's just not ready for the big time.

UPDATE: My big post-NH question: Will anyone drop out before Feb 3? My guess is no. Lieberman, Kucinich, and Sharpton will want the spotlight of the SC debate, obviously not because they have a chance to win, but just to have one more chance to push their ideas for a national audience. There, I made a prediction.

I'm loving the Atrios vs. Sullivan battle that started during last night's Blogging of the President Radio Show.

Be sure to listen to the MP3 clip on Sadly, No!with the segemnt of the show when Sullivan and Atrios get testy. Sullivan is ruthless. His challenge doesn't occur until the end of the clip.

UPDATE: It's also interesting to put a voice with the blogger.

Calpundit has some great posts up.

CHENEY vs. THE TRUTH....

Dick Cheney, two days ago:

We've found a couple of semi-trailers at this point which we believe were in fact part of [a WMD] program. I would deem that conclusive evidence, if you will, that he did in fact have programs for weapons of mass destruction.

David Kay, today:

Dr. Kay added that there was now a consensus within the United States intelligence community that mobile trailers found in Iraq and initially thought to be laboratories for biological weapons were actually designed to produce hydrogen for weather balloons, or perhaps to produce rocket fuel.

I'm sure Cheney will issue a retraction any day now.

THE WMD HUNT....A REAL EXPLANATION AT LAST?....

David A. Kay, who led the government's efforts to find evidence of Iraq's illicit weapons programs until he resigned on Friday, said the C.I.A. and other intelligence agencies did not realize that Iraqi scientists had presented ambitious but fanciful weapons programs to Mr. Hussein and had then used the money for other purposes.

....After [about 1998], Dr. Kay said, Iraqi scientists realized they could go directly to Mr. Hussein and present fanciful plans for weapons programs, and receive approval and large amounts of money. Whatever was left of an effective weapons capability, he said, was largely subsumed into corrupt money-raising schemes by scientists skilled in the arts of lying and surviving in a fevered police state.

This rings true to me as well.

This is kinda amusing.
Saddam's bolt-hole has to go, say Americans

Iraqis have reacted with a mixture of bemusement and annoyance to plans by the US military to fill in the spider hole where Saddam Hussein was captured.
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Now military commanders fear it will become a tourist attraction and hordes of Iraqi tourists will descend on the site once the high level of security is relaxed by the Americans.
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No tourist agency was available for comment although Fwad Hassan, a former travel agent, said: "Are the Americans mad? No one does tourism any more in this country because of the security situation."

Via WorldNetDaily.

Computer reportedly seized from Frist's office
Democrats say their computers were infiltrated by GOP staffers
Via WorldNetDaily. This is getting interesting.

Via Oxblog.
160,000 sets of Interceptor Body Armor on the way to Iraq

Analysis: Outstanding -- it's great to see the system work. Of course, it took a lot longer than it should have, and it should've never taken this kind of political and media attention to get soldiers such a mission-critical item. But the soldiers now have the IBAs they need, and that's what counts. I wrote back in September 2003 that the Pentagon should have procured this item for every man and woman in uniform; maybe now they will.

This is kind of like waiting until after the Titanic sinks before you require every ship to have enough lifeboats for all the passengers.

From the Stars & Stripes article.

Interceptor vests are the Army’s best body armor. The $1,585 items are composed of layered sheets of Kevlar, with pockets in front and back for ceramic plates that protect vital organs. The vests are highly effective against ammunition and shrapnel. Soldiers wearing the vests in Iraq have been shot at point-blank range with AK-47s and lived to tell about it.

Mystery Deepens over 'Churchill's Parrot'.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Jumping the shark: Dean take deep-water dive
Jonah Goldberg

This is pretty good too.

Dean Goes Nuts
Here is the complete listing. Oh my. Via Atrios. I think this sums it up.

The Dean dream is gone
By Charles Krauthammer

R.I.P. Captain Kangaroo. 'Captain Kangaroo,' Bob Keeshan, Dies at Age 76. I used to see him buying groceries in New Fairfield, CT.

Engineering Google Results to Make a Point

Google Bombing goes mainstream.

Atrios has another version of the yawp. You know this reminds me of Steve Ballmer's introduction at a MS kickoff a couple of years back. Let me see if I can find that. Oh, yes here it is. I love that it is the year of the monkey. Here are some more Ballmer antics, great stuff.

Tyler Cowen of The Volokh Conspiracy asks:
Should you buy freedom for slaves?

Nicholas Kristof has recently purchased the freedom of two young girls in a brothel. It appears that the young girls were held there against their will and tricked or coerced into joining in the first place.

As an economist of course I wondered whether buying slaves will lower net enslavement.

David Adesnik of Oxblog has some comments too.
NYT COLUMNIST WHORING IN CAMBODIA

George W. Bush Conspiracy Theory Generator . Via Volokh.

Gene Healy has Dean's "Barbaric Yawp". Nice.

Via Slashdot.

Infiltration of files seen as extensive
Senate panel's GOP staff pried on Democrats

Republican staff members of the US Senate Judiciary Commitee infiltrated opposition computer files for a year, monitoring secret strategy memos and periodically passing on copies to the media, Senate officials told The Globe.

From the spring of 2002 until at least April 2003, members of the GOP committee staff exploited a computer glitch that allowed them to access restricted Democratic communications without a password. Trolling through hundreds of memos, they were able to read talking points and accounts of private meetings discussing which judicial nominees Democrats would fight -- and with what tactics.

They even used the blog term "trolling". I wonder if this will pan out, digital-gate 2004 here we come.

Update: Calpundit rips into the Republicans.

And even if it's true, try this on for size instead: "My window cleaner told your gardener a year ago that you had a loose window in your backyard. You didn't do anything about it, so we figured it was OK to sneak in and take your stuff."

Don't you just love those law-and-order Republicans? And when do we learn just what this "glitch" was, anyway?

Art Garfunkel Charged With Having Pot

Ridiculous.

Chris, you and Dick Morris seem to be on the same wave length. Via InstaPundit.

Calpundit has links and snippets to some interesting SOTU stats.

From Uggabugga:
opening remarks 308
WOT: general 86
WOT: Patriot/tracking down 288
WOT: Taliban/al Qaeda, Afghn. 105
Iraq: Saddam 162
Iraq: rebuild 200
WOT: Libya, N.Korea 169
WOT: general 335
WOT: international relat. 303
WOT: WMD 86
Middle East, democracy 217
WOT: wrap-up 74
Taxes 168
New skills, NCLB 476
Taxes 121
Lawsuits, energy, Social Sec. 131
Budget 85
Immigration 138
Medicare 309
Healthcare (misc) 204
Values 84
Children / drugs 177
steroids 100
Children / abstinence 138
Marriage 184
Faith-based 114
prisoner re-entry 142
letter from Ashley 283
closing remarks 92

It seems he's going forward with the marriage amendment, boy do I ever disagree with that.

From Andrew Sullivan.

F*** THE NAZIS, SAYS CHURCHILL'S PARROT

SHE WAS at Winston Churchill's side during Britain's darkest hour. And now Charlie the parrot is 104 years old...and still cursing the Nazis.

Her favourite sayings were "F*** Hitler" and "F*** the Nazis". And even today, 39 years after the great man's death, she can still be coaxed into repeating them with that unmistakable Churchillian inflection.

Absolutely Hilarious.

Instapundit rounds up comments from the Blogosphere about the Iowa caucuses.

Cannabis is blamed as cause of man's death

I don't believe this. Via Drudge. Nothing here yet that I see.

Kerry Wins Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucuses

Instapundit dismisses the notion, but I really think the tide started to turn when Dean didn't tack back to the center after the capture of Saddam. It was the perfect time to talk tough on national security without pissing off the anti-war left.

I also think that Dean and Gephardt did an extremely effective job of pointing out the deficiencies of each other and ultimately called a truce too late. By the time they backed off, Edwards and Kerry had already gained the momentum. I'm not sure who I'd favor if Dean doesn't rebound, but there's something appealing about Edwards. Gephardt might withdraw as early as this week, and Kucinich can't be far behind. I'm still very hesitant on Clark, he seems more like a Secretary of Defense than a President.

If Dean wins NH then that should stifle Kerry. Clark and Edwards are still wild cards for Feb 3. Lieberman will wait until after NH to drop out. NH should be more predictable with the straight vote. Iowa traditionally is a poor indicator.

That's my take. Obviously this is a big set back for Dean, now we'll see how he plays from behind.

Finally an answer to this mystery.
Explaining the Mars Photo Colorization

Jim Bell of Cornell U. drops some knowledge.

Calpundit points out that you can use google to search on a UPC code.

Patrick Belton has the Arab Democracy Update over on Oxblog. Very cool.

Update:
These Iraqi demonstations are impressive. Glad to see that they are peacefully engaged.

End of the affair

One pill now costs about the same as a pint of beer - and is almost as easy to get hold of. But the youth of Britain is starting to turn its back on ecstasy. Leo Benedictus on how the drug of the 90s fell from favour

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Dean's Wife Joins Him on Iowa Campaign

Judith Steinberg, Dean's wife and a doctor in Vermont who has not appeared with him on the campaign trail, joined Dean at the airport in Davenport.

The couple spent several minutes alone on Dean's chartered jet before emerging to face a phalanx of cameras. Both wore sweaters -- Steinberg's a bright blue -- and no overcoats despite the below-freezing temperatures.

...Steinberg was to appear with Dean, who is also a doctor, at an afternoon rally in Davenport, Iowa, and then continue with him to an evening event in Cedar Rapids. But an aide said she would fly back to Vermont on Sunday night because she had "patients to see" on Monday.

Tomorrow's the first big day. Even Judy is getting into it.

Via Drudge.

We've been tweaking the Mycelium Network template a bit. The sidebar is reorganized so that the links are now in several different categories. The various font sizes on the page have also been reduced. It seemed like our fonts were larger than what appeared on other blogs. Let us know what you think.

The Comments feature is back, and improved!

You may have noticed that the comments feature has been unavailable recently. Our old comments provider, BlogSpeak was recently acquired by Haloscan and the comments feature was disabled during the transition period. Impressively, all old comments have been retained. They finally e-mailed me to say things were ready and I just added the new scripts to the template.

I actually like the new comments window better than the old window. You also no longer need to type an e-mail address to add a comment. The Haloscan icon has also been added to the sidebar.

Wow, I'm starting to sound like I know what I'm doing. Don't be fooled.

UPDATE: I almost forgot, you can also create links to individual comments.

Israeli ambassador kicked out of Swedish museum after vandalizing art

Israel's ambassador to Sweden was kicked out of Stockholm's Museum of National Antiquities after he destroyed an artwork featuring a picture of a Palestinian suicide bomber, the artists said.
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According to museum director Kristian Berg, the ambassador went berserk in front of the 400 specially-invited guests when he saw the piece.

"He pulled out the plugs and threw one of the spotlights into the fountain which caused the entire installation to short-circuit and made it totally life-threatening," he told TT.

One of the two artists who created the work, Israeli-born Dror Feiler, told AFP the ambassador was "totally unreasonable and undiplomatic" and would not listen to his explanations.

I'm not sure what to think of this, but you would think an ambassador would have a little more tact than that. Via Drudge.

Josh Marshall gets some blogging cred and a big waz up from Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.

Via Oxblog.

Shooting for the stars
By Charles Krauthammer

This surprised me a little.

It is not only pointless to continue orbiting endlessly around the earth; it is ridiculously expensive and indefensibly risky.

Lots of other good tidbits in there, read the whole thing.

This is just too funny. Via Fark.

Streakers In Restaurant Watch As Their Car Is Stolen

SPOKANE, Wash. -- Three men who went streaking through a Denny's restaurant were chilled and chagrined when they spotted a thief drive off in their getaway car, their clothes inside.
Naked in the 20-degree weather, the three young men huddled behind cars in a parking lot until police arrived.

Via Drudge.

"Ghost Net" Pulled From Ocean, Hundreds Of Sharks Found Dead

As many as a thousand sharks and fish were found dead when federal officials pulled a large abandoned fishing net from the ocean.

Did you know that Ben Franklin invented the glass armonica.

One of America's Founding Fathers invented a musical instrument that inspired original scores from Mozart, Beethoven and other greats. That instrument is the glass armonica (named after the Italian word for harmonic), devised by Benjamin Franklin in 1761. And out of all of his inventions, Franklin once said it was the one that gave him the "greatest personal satisfaction." But for more than a century and a half this once-popular instrument--which employed glass bowls stacked horizontally inside one another and mounted on a small table--sat in disrepute, nearly lost to history.

Yucca Update and it doesn't look good for the feds. Via Volokh.

Jeff Jarvis points to more crushing of dissent, for real.

Incredibly -- unbelievably, disturbingly, appallingly -- CBS has barred MoveOn from airing its commercial on the SuperBowl.

An Iraqi Education

Encouraging column about the rebuilding of Iraqi schools written by an American who's just been there for 6 months working on the task.

Braun to Quit Presidential Bid, Back Dean

Dean needs every thing he can get. Iowa and NH are tightening up. I really think Dean is a much better candidate than Clark. Clark has been saying some kooky stuff lately.

Calpundit has the picture of the American Airlines pilot flipping the bird to Brazilian security.

Knicks Fire Coach Chaney, Hire Wilkens

Isiah Thomas pulled off a shocker on a bizarre day even by New York Knicks standards, firing Don Chaney and his two top assistants Wednesday and hiring Lenny Wilkens as head coach.

No telling how all this will turn out, but Isiah is clearly not afraid to make a move. I like it, and I think New York will also.

The Vital Republican Center

Christie Whitman, former head of the EPA who resigned last year has a column in today's NYT where she argues that the Republicans are losing the center. It's interesting to see a person who seems passionate about the environment try to reconcile the challenges of serving under the Bush administration. I agree with her that environmental groups will go over the top to criticize the Bush administration, but Bush really does have a miserable record for environmental protection. Her insights go beyond the environment, it's a good read.

It doesn't seem to matter to conservatives that moderates share their views on the vast majority of those bedrock principles that have always been the foundation of Republicanism: smaller government, the power of free markets, a strong national defense. Because we disagree on a few issues, most notably a woman's right to choose, many conservatives act as if they wish we moderates would just disappear.

This phenomenon is not unique to Republicans. Many moderate Democrats also feel alienated from their party; Senator Zell Miller of Georgia has recently written a book about it. Party estrangement is, sadly, bipartisan, and it is destroying American politics.

To Avoid Fuel Limits, Subaru Is Turning a Sedan Into a Truck

Subaru is tweaking some parts of the Outback sedan and wagon this year to meet the specifications of a light truck, the same regulatory category used by pickups and sport utilities. Why? Largely to avoid tougher fuel economy and air pollution standards for cars.

It is the first time an automaker plans to make changes in a sedan — like raising its ground clearance by about an inch and a half — so it can qualify as a light truck.

..."This is a new low for the auto industry, and it would make George Orwell proud," said Daniel Becker, a global warming expert at the Sierra Club.

It is particularly striking that Subaru wants to call the Outback a light truck because many of its owners see the wagon version as a rugged alternative to a sport utility, and the Outback sells best in those parts of the country, like college towns, where many people think it unfashionable to own an S.U.V.

The alternative to SUV line is defintely true, the Outback Wagon is the number one car in VT. I'm curious if it will remain as popular after these changes.

How Much Dead Stuff Does It Take to Fuel Your Tank?

Jeff Dukes ...asked his wife a question that seemed simple at the time, but led to an astonishing answer.

"We're burning a lot of gas," noted Dukes, then a postdoctoral researcher in ecology at the University of Utah. "Where does all that gas come from?" he asked his wife, also an ecologist.
Months later, after extensive research, Dukes has found his answer.

It turns out that it took tons and tons of tiny plants and animals, buried at the bottom of the seas, lakes or river deltas, to produce every gallon of gasoline that poured through the big engine of that SUV.

It took 98 tons, to be exact, or 196,000 pounds. For every gallon.

...And of course nobody burns just one gallon of gasoline. ...We burn millions of gallons every day, and we rely on fossil fuel for a wide range of other energy needs. So how much prehistoric plant and animal material do we need to get through a single year?

Dukes zeroed in on the year 1997, and relying on reports from various agencies, including the United Nations, he came up with statistics that are really astonishing.

He found that the total amount of fossil fuel burned that year amounted to 97 million billion pounds of carbon. That's equivalent to more than 400 times the plant material produced by the entire world during a single year.

So every day, the amount of prehistoric biological material needed to produce the fossil fuels that we burn that day is more than the entire world's production over an entire year.

Amazing statistic. I've never thought of it in those terms. Tough to say how accurate it is, but it's probably in the ballpark.

Via Justin Feil.

Man Jumps In Lions' Pit, Pretends To Bullfight

I wonder if this guy was on LSD, be sure to watch the video.

Via Matt Tyson.

Powers of Ten

View the Milky Way at 10 million light years from the Earth. Then move through space towards the Earth in successive orders of magnitude until you reach a tall oak tree just outside the buildings of the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory in Tallahassee, Florida. After that, begin to move from the actual size of a leaf into a microscopic world that reveals leaf cell walls, the cell nucleus, chromatin, DNA and finally, into the subatomic universe of electrons and protons.

Liberal Hawks Reconsider the Iraq War

From: Jacob Weisberg
To: Paul Berman, Thomas Friedman, Christopher Hitchens, Fred Kaplan, George Packer, Kenneth M. Pollack, and Fareed Zakaria
Subject: Should We Have Backed This Invasion?

Gentlemen,

Thanks for agreeing to participate in this Slate dialogue. I've invited you because you're fellow members of what Bill Keller, the editor of the New York Times, once termed the "I-Can't-Believe-I'm-a-Hawk Club." With the arguable exceptions of Fareed and Christopher, you're liberals by background and inclination. Yet you decided to support the U.S. invasion of Iraq despite a range of objections to the Bush's administration's foreign policy. Ten months on I thought that, like me, you might be having some second thoughts about that decision. The question I'd like to raise with all of you this week is a straightforward one: With the benefit of hindsight, do you still believe that the United States should have invaded Iraq in March 2003?

What a great article. I found it somewhat therapeutic. Via Hit & Run.

Study links marijuana buzz to 'runner's high'

High levels of anandamide were found in young men who ran or cycled at a moderate rate for about an hour, according to a study made public this week by the Georgia Institute of Technology and the University of California, Irvine.

Anandamide is a cannabinoid, or lipid molecule, that is naturally produced in the body. It is known to produce sensations that are similar to those of THC, the psychoactive property in marijuana.

Chris, I've always said you were addicted to running.

How's this this for a weather forecast?

We're at -11 right now, looking at high of -3 today. When the low is a bigger number than the high you know you're in trouble. This is what Vermonters call a little 'cold snap'. Insane.

Today
Jan 10 Partly Cloudy -3°/-15°
Sun
Jan 11 Partly Cloudy 14°/12°
Mon
Jan 12 Few Snow Showers 27°/-3°
Tue
Jan 13 Few Snow Showers 0°/-12°
Wed
Jan 14 Snow Shower 1°/-26°
Thu
Jan 15 Snow Shower -10°/-21°
Fri
Jan 16 Snow Shower -1°/-9°
Sat
Jan 17 Snow Shower 13°/-14°
Sun
Jan 18 Snow Shower 8°/-9°
Mon
Jan 19 Mostly Cloudy 9°/-7°

Via weather channel.

Vt. Town Wants to Secede to New Hampshire

Officials in the popular ski resort area of Killington want the town to secede from Vermont and join neighboring New Hampshire in a dispute over taxes.

...New Hampshire, just 25 miles east, has no income tax or sales tax.


Killington's Select Board wants to put the secession idea before voters on Town Meeting Day in March.


Secretary of State Deborah Markowitz said Killington has little chance of secession "absent an armed insurrection type of thing. ... A town is a construction of the state and exists at the pleasure of the Legislature."


New Hampshire Deputy Secretary of State David Scanlan said he would be flattered if Vermont wanted to join New Hampshire — but he's not making any promises.

This is hilarious.

Iowa Senator Tom Harkin to Endorse Howard Dean

This ought to put the brakes on Clark in Iowa.

Friends foil Olympia man's home
Downtown resident returns from trip to find belongings silver-coated

Trerice and his friends unrolled the toilet paper in the bathroom, enveloped the bath tissue in aluminum foil and rolled it back up again. They covered Kirk's book and compact disc collections but made sure each CD case could open and shut normally.

They even used foil to encircle Kirk's spare change -- each individual quarter he had left atop a living room bookshelf.

Check out the pics. Via fark.

Gott Mit Uns
Shibboleths in presidential politics
Julian Sanchez

The answer religion provides is that perhaps nobody needs to be actually watching the watchmen, so long as they believe that they are always being watched—and being held accountable—by a power more informed and perceptive than even the electorate. To borrow Nietzsche's provocative term, we may want to ensure that our political masters are bound by a slave morality—which is to say, an ethos characterized by humility and empathy with the powerless, one in which the "will to power" is suppressed. Social theorist Jane Jacobs suggested in her book Systems of Survival that everyday commercial life and the sphere of government are (ideally) governed by distinct "moral syndromes." We don't much object when private citizens act through the market to pursue their own self-interest; such behavior tends to benefit us all in the long run. But we want those who wield political power to play by different rules. So we may want political leaders to express deference to religious principles, even if we don't adhere to the same principles in our private lives.

This article is full of great links. I like this one from the The Humanist.

Would the freethinking Jefferson be elected today?

Via Hit & Run.

From InstaPundit:

HERE'S A COUNTER of the number of lives saved each day by our invasion of Iraq.

Gene Healy points to this interesting LSD experiment conducted by the US government.

LSD Art

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.

This reminds me of the cat sketches made by a schizophrenic at different periods in his life. Oh hell, I'm sure I can find it. Ok...his name is Louis Wain. Here it is that didn't take long.

Instapundit has a roundup of all the latest poll numbers.

This latest USA Today poll shows Bush at 60% approval, with 61% approval for his handling of the war, leading Robert Musil to think that Bush isn't very beatable at all. I'm not so sure about that -- everybody is beatable -- but look at the Dean disapproval numbers in that USA Today poll: 39% unfavorable overall, against only 28% favorable! Ouch! Dean does better among Democrats, of course, but even there he's 22% unfavorable. Are those all Clark supporters who'll wind up backing whoever the party nominates? The Democrats had better hope so.

Oxblogs Patrick Belton points out that Clark is gaining on Dean according to a CNN/Gallup poll.

POLLS SHOW GOOD NEWS FOR BUSH, CLARK: CNN/Gallup show Bush's approval ratings improving, and Clark gaining ground on Dean in the pool of Democratic candidates. Bush's New Year's approval rating of 60 percent compares favorably with 56 percent for Carter in 1980 (before Carter's popularity had been worn down by the Iranian hostage crisis), 52 percent for Reagan in 1984, 46 percent for Bush in 1992, and 42 percent for Clinton in 1996. Clark, for his part, has pulled within five percentage points of Dean, whose last month's lead of 27-12 over Clark has narrowed to 24-20.

Winds of Change has the War on Terror Roundup. Always a good source of information.

Toyota Unveils All-New Highlander Hybrid SUV

The system features a larger-capacity battery that will deliver nearly
double the power of the battery in the Prius. An all-new high-speed electric
motor will operate at twice the speed and deliver more than twice the power as
the motor in the Prius. With combined peak-system power projected at
approximately 270 horsepower, the new system will improve upon the V6
Highlander's already impressive less-than-eight-second zero-to-60
acceleration.

The Hybrid Revolution continues. This is the future of Hybrids, more fuel efficient and better acceleration.

A Caucus of Democracies

I really like this concept. It seems like a less politically volitile version of the the tiered membership concepts that were written about several months ago.

In order to advance the principles of the U.N. Charter, a strong Democratic Caucus must emphasize human dignity as an essential ingredient for peace and stability. It must challenge and limit the influence of the regional blocs that, for example, decide on the rotating membership of the Security Council and the various U.N. missions and commissions. Decisions and resolutions of the heavily politicized General Assembly--including the selection of states for commissions and other U.N. activities--should be formally approved by the Security Council before being considered decisions of the U.N. This would provide a safeguard for the U.N. Charter's foundational principles and objectives.

...We should put Kofi Annan's statement to the test: "When the U.N. can truly call itself a Community of Democracies, the Charter's noble ideas of protecting human rights . . . will have been brought much closer."

Protocols of hate block peace in the Mideast

Via Winds of Change.

Knicks Bring Marbury Home in Big Trade

It's official! I'll tune in to watch a few Knicks games.

Knicks Reportedly Near Deal for Marbury

The Knicks would acquire Marbury, Penny Hardaway and Cezary Trybanski from Phoenix for Antonio McDyess, Howard Eisley, Charlie Ward, Maciej Lampe, the rights to Milos Vujanic and cash

Looks like Isiah is mixing it up in NY.

Bill Bradley Expected to Endorse Howard Dean on Tuesday

I've always admired Bill Bradley. I'd love to see him get a cabinet position in a Dean White House. I would have much preferred a Bradley vs. McCain showdown in 2000 instead of Gore vs. Bush.

Saddam captured by Kurds?

This is the first I've heard of this. I guess it got lost in the Holiday mayhem. Can't tell how valid this information is.

Clark Rules Out Joining Dean Ticket

I wonder if he'll be singing this tune once he's out of the race.

Confirming every redneck stereotype of the University of Georgia...
Fraternity members catch, kill, consume raccoon

Via Wes Finger.

Jordan and Egypt to connect power grids with Iraq

This seems like a step in the right direction.

Jordan and Egypt have agreed to supply western Iraq with electrical power by connecting the national grids of the three countries, Jordanian Energy Minister Azmi Khraisat announced Saturday.

...He pointed out that about 11.6 billion dollars has been allocated to help rebuild the Iraqi electricity sector that was badly damaged in last year's U.S.-led war on Iraq.

"The United States has approved a grant of 8.6 billion dollars, while other donor countries pledged 3 billion," Samaraie said.

Unbelievable. A quarter billion miles away! The next couple of decades are going to be really exciting for space travel within our solar system. There are more links about the Mars rover landing in this slashdot post.

This is a good article.

First images show spectacular camera views from nearly a quarter billion miles away, on the surface of Mars. The rover, Spirit, landed 'petal-down' meaning images could be uplinked within hours of landing--a fortuitous one-in-four chance of happening. The geology of this ancient lake bed presents geologists with a multitude of sampling opportunities, as the rover makes its way in nine days to a distance of up to a 100 meters per day.

Our Humanist Legacy, by William F. Schulz

I really like this article in the Nov/Dec 03 UU World. I think Humanism would be a healthy alternative for many people who identify themselves as Atheist. Atheism seems too focused on what someone doesn't believe in, and to me it feels stagnant and negative. Humanism affirms what someone does believe in, and it's more positive, and leaves the door open for growth and change. It's interesting to hear about Shulz's own spiritual journey.

God dies only for a few. Over time, God may well change form for many people, from personal to vague to immanent, from transcendent to omnipotent to limited. But in American culture, at least, God dies only for a few. "Whither is God?" cried Friedrich Nietzsche's madman. "I shall tell you. We have killed him you and I." But the people only stared in astonishment. "I come too early," said the madman. "This tremendous event . . . has not yet reached the ears of man." (And that was in 1882!) Even so, the madman's cry has reached some ears in every generation since. And for those, the madman had a question: "Must not we ourselves become gods simply to seem worthy of [God's death]?" When God is gone, faith turns to humanity.

Read the whole thing.

I'm comfortable with God as a concept and I feel that God is an important part of my own faith, not in a biblical/creator kind of way, more of a Zen Buddist, abstract kind of way. It's not something I can completely define or point to, but I have a strong sense God's presence and feel that I am part of something much larger and more complex than my own consciousness, but this article really helped me understand the humanist elements of my faith.

I also checked out the American Humanist Association web site, but only briefly. I like this elevator speech explanation on their front page:

Humanism is a progressive philosophy of life that, without supernaturalism, affirms our ability and responsibility to lead ethical lives of personal fulfillment that aspire to the greater good of humanity.

I had never even heard of AHA, something new every day.

This has never occurred to me before, but it makes a lot of sense. I wonder if Rudy would be healthy enough to do it.

Rudy v. Hilary in 2006?

Grist has a population growth update

Population growth is expected to slow dramatically over the coming decades, but the number of people on the planet is still likely to reach 8.9 billion by 2050, up from 6.3 billion today, according to a new U.N. report released yesterday. Granted, that's not the sort of runaway growth experienced during the 20th century, when the world's population nearly quadrupled, but that's still 2.6 billion new people on what many feel is an already cramped planet. By 2300, the population level is expected to stabilize at 9 billion. That's notably smaller than U.N. forecasts from just two years ago, when demographers predicted a population of 9.4 billion by 2050.

Predictions out to 2300 are ludicrous, but the 2050 numbers sound like good news. It seems that population growth is coming under control, and the bigger challenge will be lack of resources to support countries like China and India experiencing increased wealth and the increased consumption that comes with it.

Here are some interesting stories.

Captured python said to be world's biggest snake

Officials at the zoo in Curugsewu, central Java, told the Republika newspaper that the reticulated python is 14.85m (49ft) long and has a maximum body circumference of 85cm (almost three feet). It weighs, they say, 447kg (70 stone, 3lbs).

Via Drudge Report.

Man Trapped Under Mountain Of Junk In Apartment

The incident recalled the legendary case of the Collyer brothers, who in 1947 were discovered dead in their house in Harlem after one of the brothers was found trapped under a pile of papers and the other died of starvation.

Via Andrew Sullivan.

Hit & Run has the list of lists link for all your 2003 highlights.