Bonner & Associates lying about letter-forging scandal.
About the only thing that astroturfing PR firm Bonner & Associates has had going for them in their ongoing letter-forging scandal is that they immediate contacted all of the organizations from whom they faked letters to Rep. Tom Perriello. They’ve said over and over again that they immediately owned up to the error as soon [...]
links for 2009-08-31
Glenn Greenwald: It's time to embrace American royalty
The Salon columnist makes the point that some of those crying out in opposition to affirmative action have their soap box solely because of affirmative action, in the form of nepotism. Jenna Bush Hager, Luke Russert, Liz Cheney, Megan McCain, Jonah Goldberg…the list goes on for quite a [...]
links for 2009-08-29
YouTube: Electroland Connection
Los Angeles street art duo Cameron McNall and Damon Seeley ("Electroland") created a great bit of surveillance art found here in the Indianapolis Airport, entitled "Connection." In a stretch of the airport where two moving walkways pass each other, and the ceiling is perhaps ten feet high, the ceiling is gridded with foot-wide [...]
links for 2009-08-27
Chickasha News: Inhofe slams health reform
Sen.Jim Inhofe (R-OK) on the health care reform bill: "I don't have to read it, or know what's in it. I'm going to oppose it anyways." Ass.
(tags: politics healthcare)
Gizmodo: IBM Takes First 3D Image of Atomic Bonds
An actual photograph of a molecule, complete with atomic bonds. It looks just like [...]
links for 2009-08-26
Lowering the Bar: Defendant Gone Wild
The asshole / rapist / crook behind the "Girls Gone Wild" videos has adopted a new defense tactic for the court: pretending to be blindingly stupid. I'm not sure this is going to pan out for him.
New York Times: The Torture Papers
The paper's editorial board is calling for a complete [...]
links for 2009-08-25
Wikipedia: John Wilkes Booth
Booth killing Abraham Lincoln would be roughly equivalent to Stephen Baldwin killing George Bush. Somebody once told me that, and I've found it a helpful way to grasp Booth's position in the national eye prior to his murder of the president.
(tags: lincoln history)
Boing Boing: 1932 banana-ice cream injector patent
Brilliant. I want one.
(tags: [...]
The Hamilton scandal tells us it’s time to overhaul the General Assembly.
Delegate Phil Hamilton (R-Newport News) is in a lot of trouble for ethics violations, and rightly so. FOIAd e-mailed records show that Hamilton had Old Dominion University hire him as a consultant, using funding he’d allocated from the state budget, contingent on the earmark going through. Basically, he put in an earmark for himself, funneling [...]
links for 2009-08-24
New York Times: Rendition of Terror Suspects Will Continue Under Obama
I call bullshit. If they're not going to be tortured, what's the point of sending them to black sites?
(tags: obama president terrorism)
New Scientist: Expanding waistlines may cause shrinking brains
The brain size of the elderly varies inversely with their weight. The effect is great enough to [...]
From the Department of Unlikely Studies of Virginia Electoral History.
In response [to Sen. Creigh Deeds' speech] McDonnell for Governor Director of Communications J. Tucker Martin noted, “That was the most backwards looking speech ever given by a Virginia gubernatorial nominee.”
links for 2009-08-21
BBC: Bizarre newt uses ribs as weapons
This little critter is like Wolverine—he actually sticks his ribs through his skin, onto which he secretes poison, to stab any attackers. You'd think it'd hurt like hell, but they heal up every time.
(tags: evolution biology)
BBC: Homeopathy not a cure, says WHO
The World Health Organization wants people to know [...]
links for 2009-08-20
Public Policy Polling: A deeper look at the birthers
More birthers believe that Obama was born in Indonesia than Kenya (where did *that* come from?), and while 6% know that he was born in Hawaii, they refuse to concede that Hawaii is part of the U.S. It's hard to know what will be tougher to explain [...]
links for 2009-08-19
Wikipedia: Hunkerin'
Weirdest. Fad. Ever.
(tags: social fads history)
New York Times: In North Korea, Clinton Helped Unveil a Mystery
President Clinton learned more about North Korea in 20 hours in the country than the US has learned in years of intelligence gathering. This is the sort of thing that Obama talked about when running for office: If you [...]
links for 2009-08-18
Greta oto Butterfly
This clear-winged butterfly looks like a Photoshop job, but it's just a defense mechanism of semi-invisibility through camouflage.
(tags: nature)
Bruce Schneier: Self-Enforcing Protocols
"Here’s a self-enforcing protocol for determining property tax: the homeowner decides the value of the property and calculates the resultant tax, and the government can either accept the tax or buy the [...]
McDonnell will build HOT lanes with Monopoly money and pixie dust.
Shorter Bob McDonnell: I’m going to both spend more and cut taxes, using magic math that I cannot explain right now, but if I were governor, I’d totally figure it out.
McDonnell’s getting squeamish about abortion.
Bob McDonnell is getting awfully squeamish about Sen. Creigh Deeds bringing up the topic of abortion, and rightly so. As The Washington Post points out in an editorial today, McDonnell has dedicated much of his career to restricting access to abortion, contraceptives, and even information about contraceptives. McDonnell has fled to the center of the [...]
Kris Amundson’s new job.
Kris Amundson has a new job now that she’s retired from the General Assembly. It looks like both Kris and Chris Saxman will be starting interesting new chapters in their lives—not leaving politics, just getting involved from a different angle.
links for 2009-08-17
The Games Factory
The plant where Mario, Tetris, Sonic, and Pong parts are fabricated, with the conceit being that the components aren't made of pixels, but are physical realities.
(tags: videogame photography)
A "Horseless" Carriage; The Motive Power Is Supplied by a Compact Gasoline Englien
"SPRINGFIELD, Mass., Aug. 24, 1895—A horseless carriage—called so because it has power of locomotion [...]
Tucker Watkins just making stuff up about Perriello.
From the Department of Making Shit Up:
“I think that there is a great opportunity for this district to be Republican again,” said Tucker Watkins, the longtime chairman of the 5th Congressional District Republican Committee, who has been meeting with a dozen possible candidates. “Congressman Perriello has not lived up to his pledge of working overtime, [...]
Some odd characters are lining up to challenge Rep. Perriello.
The lineup of challengers to Tom Perriello is shaping up to be quite a bunch of characters. Where do they find these people?
Here’s Rep. Perriello challenger Feda Kidd Morton accusing the boards of elections in municipalities across the state of colluding with the State Board of Elections and Tom Perriello to get Virgil Goode tossed [...]
Del. Marshall explains the constitutional exception to bill limits.
This was the first year in which the House of Delegates has had a self-imposed 15-bills-per-person limit. So while in 2008 there were 2,234 bills introduced, that dropped to 1,774 this year (and that includes bills carried over from the prior session), a 21% reduction. But the limit isn’t really 15—it’s possible to introduce more. [...]
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Waldo Jaquith (JAY-kwith) is a website developer and political pundit who lives in the vicinity of Charlottesville, VA, USA. more »
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