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Who is Laszlo Pastor ?
An in-depth and on-going study into just one of the players in the political underpinnings of America today. You may be shocked how much influence this person has and the history and background that inform his positions. Worth the time it takes to read and extensively sourced.
comment posted at 6:08 AM on Oct-29-04

Hobbits found near New Zealand! A new species of human, only 4 feet tall and dating to only 18,000 years ago, has been discovered in Indonesia. It's important enough that Nature has a special issue. Even better? The tiny people hunted tiny elephants. (Journal article here, for those of you with access.)
comment posted at 12:00 AM on Oct-28-04

World (er... MLB) Champions once more. The last time the Boston Red Sox lost was in the 86 World Series. The last time they won was 86 Years Ago, when they beat the Chicago Cubs in the 1918 World Series. (The Cubs finished that season with 86 wins.) This year, after retiring the Anaheim Angels 8-6, they lost three straight to the New York Yankees in the ALCS and seemed to be on the verge of failing once again. Eight straight wins later, they finally manage to eighty-six the Curse of the Bambino.
comment posted at 12:05 AM on Oct-28-04

Christian-right views are swaying politicians and threatening the environment. Maybe that's why the Bush administration is trying to stifle scientific evidence of global warming. Meanwhile, some experts think global warming may cause stronger hurricanes. [Via Disinformation and the Intersection.]
comment posted at 12:17 AM on Oct-28-04
comment posted at 12:48 AM on Oct-28-04

Missed Opportunity A Florida motorist was arrested on Wednesday on charges of trying to run down U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris.
comment posted at 3:39 PM on Oct-27-04

Amnesty International Condemns U.S. for War on Terror Torture
Amnesty's report accused Washington of stepping onto a "well-trodden path of violating basic rights in the name of national security or 'military necessity'."
comment posted at 12:52 AM on Oct-28-04

Girl Power or: Partnership status and the human sex ratio at birth: a paper by Karen Norberg

Could the sex of a child be influenced by the status of the parents' relationship at the time of conception? In a sample of 86,436 births in the United States, we find a small excess of sons among births to parents who were married or living with an opposite sex partner before the child's conception, compared to births to parents who were not. This is the first evidence that household arrangements can affect the human sex ratio at birth, and could explain the fall in the proportion of male births in some developed countries over the past thirty years.

(Data published on FirstCite registration required) via The Economist

(special note for mathowie: No word yet as to whether or not those single moms can also reliably produce offspring with an astigmatism.)
comment posted at 1:04 AM on Oct-28-04

Limecat is not pleased.

In the grand tradition of oolong comes Limecat, who is not pleased.
Also available, Limecat Mini: "The world's smallest displeased cat. Five new colors."
comment posted at 3:54 AM on Oct-26-04

Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist has been hospitalized for treatment of thyroid cancer. Doctors expect to release the 80 year old chief justice later this week. Rehnquist had a tracheotomy on Sunday after being admitted to Bethesda on Friday. More coverage abounds.
comment posted at 10:27 AM on Oct-25-04
comment posted at 10:57 AM on Oct-25-04

Identity theft is epidemic.
comment posted at 10:31 AM on Oct-25-04
comment posted at 10:33 AM on Oct-25-04

Someone finally gets around to lodging an attempt to prove to the standards of a court of law that Bush Knew about 9/11 in advance, among other evil deeds. Now what?
comment posted at 4:16 AM on Oct-25-04

PIPA : who's your daddy ? " "The roots of the Bush supporters' resistance to information....very likely lie in the traumatic experience of 9/11 and equally in the near pitch-perfect leadership that President Bush showed in its immediate wake. This appears to have created a powerful bond between Bush and his supporters"
comment posted at 4:20 AM on Oct-25-04

Six decades of Brooklyn as chronicled by the paper that Walt Whitman edited for two years. The Brooklyn Public Library has made available a searchable version of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle from 1841-1902. Among other things chronicled, Brooklyn's version of Draft Riots, the death of Lincoln as well as many bits and pieces that simply illuminate urban life more than a century ago. And, of course, there are ads.
comment posted at 8:15 PM on Oct-24-04

Devil and the deep blue sea. A devil-worshipping non-commissioned officer in the Royal Navy has become the first registered Satanist in the British Armed Forces. Chris Cranmer, a naval technician serving on the Type 22 frigate Cumberland, has been officially recognised as a Satanist by the ship's captain. That allows him to perform Satanic rituals aboard and permits him to have a funeral carried out by the Church of Satan should he be killed in action. A spokesman for the Royal Navy insisted that Mr Cranmer's unconventional beliefs would not cause problems on board ship. "We are an equal opportunities employer and we don't stop anybody from having their own religious values".
Followers of the Church of Satan live by the Nine Satanic Statements, which include Satan represents vengeance instead of turning the other cheek”
comment posted at 11:25 AM on Oct-24-04

And they're like, it's better than yours. The automotive arms race continues -- what's bigger than a Hummer or Ford F350? The Navistar CXT. Or is this all about hauling power for people who don't just want to buy a Kenworth?
comment posted at 7:34 PM on Oct-23-04
comment posted at 8:16 PM on Oct-23-04

160 observers couldn't monitor the election in Bexar County Texas, let alone the whole US. -- National Journal's Charlie Cook. A hundred and sixty, though, isn't the half of it. [plenty more inside]
comment posted at 7:55 PM on Oct-23-04
comment posted at 7:57 PM on Oct-23-04

Contemporary Tibetan Painting.
comment posted at 8:10 PM on Oct-23-04

At what point does it become a little counter productive? While it's no secret that The Guardian is hoping for Kerry to win isn't there a level of rhetoric that hurts their cause? As their recent forays into influenceing the US vote might have shown them. Is a columnist hoping for assasination over the line? "... John Wilkes Booth, Lee Harvey Oswald, John Hinckley Jr - where are you now that we need you?"
comment posted at 5:41 AM on Oct-24-04
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comment posted at 8:19 PM on Oct-24-04

SEIU union and other Democratic groups have been holding rallies at early voting locations in Palm Beach County, where they have a captive audience of voters standing in line. Normally campaign workers can not come with in 50 feet of polling places, but apparently that rule does not apply to this year's new Early Voting in Florida.
One woman who voted early in Boca Raton, at the Southwest County Regional Library, complained that as she stood in line, two men behind her were "trashing our president," Fletcher said, declining to identify the woman. She tried to ignore them. Then the man touched her arm and said, "Who are you voting for?"

"I said, `I don't think that's an appropriate question,'" the woman said she responded.

"Uh oh! We have a Bush supporter here," screamed the man behind her.

For the 2 1/2 hours she had to wait in line, she was heckled by the man. As they neared the voting room, someone in the rear of the line yelled, "I sure hope everyone here is voting for Kerry!" she reported.

That's when the man behind her held his hand over her head and screamed, "We have a Republican right here!" There were "boos and jeers" from the crowd.
comment posted at 8:38 PM on Oct-23-04

Wacky World Animal News Round-up: Fat males refuse to mate in China's crocodile farm, Stray dogs hunt and kill gazelles in Missouri, and Coyote, kangaroo, or Chihuahua, what is that thing in Texas?
comment posted at 9:30 AM on Oct-23-04

Big G.O.P. Bid to Challenge Voters at Polls in Key State Republican Party officials in Ohio took formal steps yesterday to place thousands of recruits inside polling places on Election Day to challenge the qualifications of voters they suspect are not eligible to cast ballots.
comment posted at 3:22 AM on Oct-23-04
comment posted at 9:40 AM on Oct-23-04

Becoming what you hate : Nathan Sproul, case study in moral relativism on the Religious Right "former head of the Arizona Republican Party and of the Arizona Christian Coalition....Sproul is connected with the Republican National Committee-funded voter registration organization, Voters' Outreach of America Inc." - Sproul's firm is accused of fraud and the destruction of voter registration forms. He also failed to pay his workers and his office rent. Rick Perlstein, in the Village Voice, comments on the Sproul scandal : "Both sides are not equally bad, and any reporters who don't recognize that conservatism's very core has become shot through with a culture of mendacity should turn in their press badge..... It used to be that we could count on the conscience of conservatives to protect our democratic institutions."
comment posted at 3:13 PM on Oct-22-04
comment posted at 3:00 AM on Oct-23-04
comment posted at 9:26 AM on Oct-23-04
comment posted at 8:26 PM on Oct-23-04
comment posted at 11:59 AM on Oct-24-04

Proof that George W. Bush is the Anti-Christ, just as the Pope suspected.
comment posted at 12:41 PM on Oct-22-04

A Walk in the Woods. Farewell to the original Cold War warrior: Paul Nitze, the college professor's son who went to Hotchkiss and Harvard and worked as investment banker before going to Washington in 1940, where he quickly became one of the chief architects of American policy towards the Soviet Union. His doctrine of "strategic stability" became its cornerstone for half a century (Nitze held key government posts in Washington, from the era of Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan's, when he was the White House's guru on arms control). By the end of 1949, Nitze had become director of the State Department's policy planning staff, helping to devise the role of Nato, deciding to press ahead with the manufacture of the H-bomb, and producing National Security Council document 68, the document at the heart of the Cold War: in it, Nitze called for a drastic expansion of the U.S. military budget. The paper also expanded containment’s scope beyond the defense of major centers of industrial power to encompass the entire world. (NSC-68 was a top secret paper, written in April 1950 and declassified in the 70's, called "United States Objectives and Programs for National Security"). More inside.
comment posted at 11:40 AM on Oct-22-04

Doplhins and whales have no standing to sue. This is a sad day for the cetacean community. The time for revolution is now.
comment posted at 9:42 PM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 4:54 AM on Oct-22-04

Lying liars want their lies reported? --There's a bigger problem, the most sobering lesson of this campaign. It's that lies, even when exposed, work. Indeed, we're seeing a diabolical paradox: That exposing the lie enables it to work. Ethics anyone?
comment posted at 9:01 PM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 9:45 PM on Oct-21-04

American teens have spoken, and they want George W. Bush for president. Nearly 1.4 million teens voted in the nation's largest mock election, and the Republican incumbent wound up with 393 electoral votes and 55 percent of the total votes cast.
comment posted at 9:21 PM on Oct-21-04

Don't they teach these kids anything in school ? History ? Punctuation ? And what's that smell ? - Conservative Adam Yoshida steps in it, inadvertently calls for reversal of 1965 Civil Rights bill, arguing for the disenfranchisement of 20% of the voting public through the reinstitution of poll tests (outlawed in 1965). Plus, his punctuation is awful ! : " we should consider maintaining (or even increasing) their benefits while, at the exact same time, making it harder for them to vote (I recommend modern and simple literacy tests for this purpose.

From my extensive time spent examining present and future members of our underclass, I'mquite convinced that a series of simple language and math questions would be enough to discourage them from voting). "
comment posted at 10:56 AM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 10:58 AM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 11:31 AM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 2:10 PM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 9:51 PM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 8:44 PM on Oct-23-04

Porn and politics bump and grind synergistically in an erotic flick benefiting the Kerry campaign. With the hotly contested election looming, nothing brings our country together like pornography. At least that's the theory behind Fahrenheit 69: The Porn for Kerry DVD. A group of Ivy League grads, appalled by the prospect of four more years of Bush, seized the opportunity to meld their passions for business, politics and porn into Porn for Progress. The crew, led by Executive Director "Dick Tater," a 23-year-old Wharton biz-school alum, spent two months creating this full-length film, which retails for $19.99 (more info at www.pornforprogress.com [WARNING: some content VERY NSFW]).[mi]
comment posted at 10:04 AM on Oct-21-04

"No soup for you! Only salad!" The Soup Nazi stars in a Center for Consumer Freedom ad about overeating and the "calorie curmudgeons" trying to regulate it.
comment posted at 10:10 AM on Oct-21-04
comment posted at 10:13 AM on Oct-21-04