Links for September 29th
Boston Globe: Worcester woman’s two-faced cats makes the record booksTwo-faced and two-headed cats generally live for days or weeks at the most. "Frank and Louie"—one cat, two faces—is twelve years old now, and is doing just fine. (Other than being not entirely pleasant to look at.) Twan van Laarhoven: Finding rectanglesSolving problems like this is [...]
Adorable puppy available for adoption.
This is Copper, a little boxer mutt who was recently brought into the Charlottesville Albemarle SPCA along with his five siblings. He started on leash training today, he’s getting socialized with our two dogs, and he’ll be drilled on some basic manners over the next few days. We’re fostering him through Sunday, and he’s available [...]
Links for September 27th
Mediaite: AP Reporter Responds To Chris Hayes Panel Debate On Racism Of Droppin’ G’s From Obama SpeechThere's some fussing about how an AP reporter transcribed a quote from President Obama. In a recent speech, the president said: "Shake it off. Stop complainin’. Stop grumblin’. Stop cryin’." On one of those sunday morning shouting shows, the [...]
Links for September 27th
Bloomberg: Obama Lawyers Signal Likely Supreme Court Appeal on Health CareThe White House wants to end the federal appeals court rulings on the president's health care reform, and for the Supreme Court to take up the case. That's likely to bring a decision in June, in the middle of the presidential campaign. "President Barack Obama [...]
Links for September 23rd
FlowingData: Watch the Growth of Walmart and Sam’s Club Across AmericaThis is an interesting visualization, but the data that it shows is no less interesting. Slate Magazine: Rick Perry’s Christian Israel policy is a gift to Islamic extremistsQuoth Rick Perry: "Both as an American and as a Christian, I am going to stand with Israel." [...]
Links for September 20th
Ars Technica: Patent trolls have cost innovators half a trillion dollarsA study by some Boston University researchers have found that, from publicly traded companies alone, $500B has been spent on paying off patent extortionists. That's a quarter of all U.S. R&D expenses, wasted. If we want to get serious about reducing the cost of doing [...]
Did Connaughton lie to the CTB and Albemarle about the Western Bypass price tag?
Sean Connaughton probably won’t sleep very well tonight. A FOIA request reveals that he low-balled the estimate for building Charlottesville’s proposed Western Bypass, which might help explain why he pushed through approval of the thing, getting a four-person majority on the Albemarle Board of Supervisors to hold an unadvertised midnight vote to sign off on [...]
Some of the questions raised by the approval to toll I-95.
I’m wondering what to do with the news that the Federal Highway Administration has provided preliminary approval for Virginia to toll I-95. There’s so much that I don’t know about transportation funding. Here’s some of what I’d like to know: The funding from this can only go to 95, right? How much of the cost [...]
“Your ideas are intriguing to me, and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.”
There was a moment in an episode of The Simpsons (“Mountain of Madness”), that aired back in 1997, that I’ve mentally revisited every so often over the past decade: In transcript form: Homer: So, Mr. Burns is gonna make us all go on a stupid corporate retreat up in the mountains to learn about teamwork. [...]
It only took Allen a week to prove himself a hypocrite.
Remember last week, when George Allen criticized Tim Kaine for raising money out of state? Well, today George Allen was at a fundraiser in Newport Beach, California. That took exactly one week. It was a dumb-ass criticism from Allen in the first place. He got burned making the same criticism of Webb in 2006, and [...]
Links for September 15th
Federal RegisterIf you haven't seen the website for the Federal Register in the past year, it's really a thing of beauty. Andrew Carpenter, Bob Burbach, and Dave Augustine put it together as an independent site, GovPulse,us, which the feds liked so much they asked the guys to take on the job of replacing federalregister.gov with [...]
Links for September 12th
Wikipedia: Avondale Mine DisasterOne hundred and ten workers died in this Pennsylvania mine fire in 1869. The mine owner wouldn't allow but one tunnel to be constructed, so when the fire started, anybody below that point in the mine was trapped and suffocated. The result was that the Pennsylvania General Assembly created the nation's first [...]
Links for September 9th
Washington Post: Poll Finds Public Wary on Tax CutThe A1 headline in the Washington Post on the morning of September 11, 2001 was for this prescient story: "A majority of Americans say they are prepared to roll back President Bush's $1.35 trillion tax cut to help deal with the shrinking federal budget surplus and say [...]
Allen says it’s bad to leave Virginia.
From the Daily Progress, covering George Allen getting a haircut at my barber today (seriously): Allen criticized Kaine for his spending time with Obama in Chicago, rather than campaigning in Virginia. “While I’m here in Charlottesville, at Staples Barber Shop, he’s up in Chicago with President Obama’s big money bundlers, in Chicago, and I’d rather [...]
An independent has joined the 59th House race.
Connie Brennan announcing her 2007 campaign. Good news for my friend Connie Brennan: a conservative independent has become the third candidate in the race in the 59th House of Delegates district, which will surely split the vote on the right. This is the race for Watkins Abbitt’s seat, the conservative Democrat-turned-independent (caucusing with Republicans) who [...]
Links for September 8th
Open: Emphasis Update and SourceThe New York Times has a great feature that I'd never noticed—the ability to link to pages with specific content highlighted. It's perfect for calling attention to specific paragraphs or sentences when sharing a link with somebody. It's cleverly implemented, too. Time: Why Some Languages Sound So FastAll languages, when spoken, [...]
Links for September 6th
ThinkProgress: The Conservative Recovery Teeters Into Recession17,000 new jobs were created by the private sector last month. 17,000 jobs were eliminated by the public sector last month. Bummed by last month's flatlining of job growth? Thank a congressman. New York Times: Rep. Shelley Berkley’s Cause Is Often Her Husband’s GainShe's a strong supporter of (admittedly [...]
Eastern Shore ticked off the Commonwealth Quest list.
With a trip over the past four days completed, I’m inching closer to completing the Commonwealth Quest, Craig Fifer’s challenge to visit every municipality in Virginia. Wanting to get the Eastern Shore under my belt, I spent the weekend there with my wife (with a detour for a picnic lunch in Charles City County—check). The [...]
Links for September 5th
New York Times: Inmate Visits Now Carry Added Cost in ArizonaWant to visit inmates in Arizona prisons? That'll cost you $25. And it could be a couple of months before your application is approved. It would be difficult to list all of the reasons why this is an awful, awful idea. New York Times: Obama [...]
Links for September 1st
Wall Street Journal: Waffle House Index Measures Hurricane RecoveryTheir approach to disaster recovery is impressive. People have to eat, Waffle House wants to make money—everybody wins. Wikipedia: BunyipThere's a widespread Australian Aboriginal belief in the "bunyip," a terrifying, water-dwelling mythological creature. It's theorized that these stories arose from occasional discoveries of fossilized bones from any [...]
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Waldo Jaquith (JAKE-with) is an open government technologist who lives near Charlottesville, VA, USA. more »
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