Welcome to ...

The place where the world comes together in honesty and mirth.
Windmills Tilted, Scared Cows Butchered, Lies Skewered on the Lance of Reality ... or something to that effect.


Monday, September 21, 2009

The shrub on Larry Craig: "What is Up With All These Republicans?"

The book isn't officially out yet, but some have managed to pick up copies of Matt Latimer's Speech-less: Tales of a White House Survivor already, and it's obvious it will be water cooler talk for some time.
The book, a tell-all from a former shrub speechwriter, has quite a few tidbits thay may be unintentionally, or intentionally, humorous.
And it proves beyond any doubt (as if there was any in the first place) that the shrub was as clueless and he appeared.

Full Story

Twenty years ago today ...

Hurricane Hugo paid us a visit.

And what a night it was.

I slept through the entire thing.

Debtor's Revolt Update: Victory!

Ann Minch, who single-handedly started a "debtor's revolt" within the last couple of weeks, after seeing huge increases in her credit card interest rate, has declared victory.
In a follow up post on YouTube, Minch stated that Bank of America has agreed to reduce her rate.

McCain Would Have Been Worse for the Country Than Obama

Glenn Beck said: "McCain Would Have Been Worse for the Country Than Obama"

Say What?! Come again!
It's the truth - but from Beck ... something's amiss here and I cannot quite put my finger on it just yet.

Considering how Glenn Beck feels about Barack Obama, this must mean he loathes John McCain. In the opening episode of Katie Couric's new website, @katiecouric, Beck is clear that he feels John McCain would have been worse for the country than Barack Obama.

Full Story

Something is definitely up in fantasyland!
And all sane people should be on guard for the unveiling of what has the delusional in such a state because it won't be good for the world.
You can rest on that.

Customer tackles bank robber

Customer tackles bank robber

Dramatic surveillance video from suburban Milwaukee shows a customer stopping a bank robbery by tackling the suspect and then holding him until police arrived.

Late Show starring the President of the United States

Barack Obama to Visit David Letterman Tonight

Earlier this year, Barack Obama became the first sitting president to appear on the "Tonight Show," when he appeared on the then Jay Leno-hosted show in March. Tonight he will appear on "The Late Show with David Letterman," becoming the first sitting president to appear on that show, as well.


President Obama talks with David Letterman

Undisturbed, Prehistoric Sand Dune Discovered at Michigan State University

From Treehugger:

sand dunes michigan state university
Photo: Courtesy MSU.

The sprawling campus of Michigan State University takes in 5,200 acres.

There are trees that shade the landscape and a Grand River that runs through it.

Researchers have just found a 16,000- to 20,000-year-old sand dune on the campus, too, beneath a grove of pine trees.

Internet 'net neutrality' endorsed by FCC chief

The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission today called for more aggressive action to keep online traffic moving freely, proposing two new government policies to prevent telecommunications companies from restricting websites and other services on the Internet.

The two new FCC rules would govern how Internet service providers such as AT&T Inc. and Time Warner Cable Inc. manage their networks, enshrining so-called "network neutrality" into the agency's policy. Under the proposal from FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski, network operators would be prohibited from discriminating against the type of data traveling through their systems and would have to be clear about how they manage their networks.

The rules would apply to Internet access no matter how it is delivered -- over coaxial cable, fiber-optic lines or wirelessly on mobile devices.

"The rise of serious challenges to the free and open Internet puts us at a crossroads. We could see the Internet's doors shut to entrepreneurs, the spirit of innovation stifled, a full and free flow of information compromised," Genachowski said today in a speech at the Brookings Institution think tank. "Or we could take steps to preserve Internet openness, helping ensure a future of opportunity, innovation and a vibrant marketplace."

Genachowski's proposals, which would have to be approved by the FCC, follow President Obama's support for network neutrality during the 2008 presidential campaign.

The issue has become a major cause in recent years for Internet activists and many Democratic lawmakers who worry that large telecommunications companies will squeeze out competitors offering video and other services or charge websites fees to have their pages delivered faster to users.

Since 2005, the FCC has had four Internet principles assuring that Internet users can access any legal content, application or service and allowing them to attach any device to the Internet as long as it doesn't harm the network.

Genachowski proposes to strengthen those guiding principles by making them formal rules and add the two new rules prohibiting network operators from slowing certain applications or website access and mandating that operators clearly state their policies. He also wants to extend all the rules to wireless Internet service.

Genachowski, a former Internet industry executive appointed by President Obama, said the Internet has become "such a powerful engine for creativity, innovation, and economic growth" because its original architects decided to make it "an open system."

Telecommunications companies oppose nondiscrimination rules for the Internet because they believe those rules will limit their ability to manage their networks to keep them running smoothly, such as preventing some large users from eating up so much bandwidth that it slows down service for others. Restricting how networks run will make it harder for companies to get the funding they need to expand their networks, they said.

But Genachowski dismissed those concerns, saying history has shown that a fully open Internet promotes investment. And he cited some recent incidents that have raised concern about how telecommunications companies run their networks, including FCC action last year to order Comcast Corp. to stop blocking customer access to file-sharing technology.

"This is not about government regulation of the Internet. It's about fair rules of the road for companies that control access to the Internet," he said. "This is not about protecting the Internet against imaginary dangers. We're seeing the breaks and cracks emerge, and they threaten to change the Internet's fundamental architecture of openness."

Genachowski said the FCC would deal with online discrimination of content case by case. When networks are congested, for example, telecommunications companies might be allowed to limit use by "very heavy users" so other customers would not be prevented from using the Internet.

World of Warcraft's stats

World of Warcraft's stats wow

The most popular online video game has 4,600 staffers to manage its 12 million players.

Marine charged with faking war wounds

Marine charged with faking war wounds

He wore medals and got VIP treatment, but his Afghanistan injury story has led to criminal charges.

Headlines

Headlines:

Dumb Crook News

From the "They walk among us" Department:

A guy walked into a little corner store with a shotgun and demanded all of the cash from the cash drawer.
After the cashier put the cash in a bag, the robber saw a bottle of Scotch that he wanted behind the counter on the shelf.
He told the cashier to put it in the bag as well, but the cashier refused and said, "Because I don't believe you are over 21."
The robber said he was, but the clerk still refused to give it to him because she didn't believe him.

At this point, the robber took his driver's license out of his wallet and gave it to the clerk.
The clerk looked it over and agreed that the man was in fact over 21 and she put the Scotch in the bag.
The robber then ran from the store with his loot.
The cashier promptly called the police and gave the name and address of the robber that he got off the license.

They arrested the robber two hours later.

Perot is back in the headlines

Perot is back in the headlines

The third-party candidate from the '90s isn't running for president again.

Extremely rare mental power

Extremely rare mental power

Only 4 people worldwide are confirmed to have the condition known as 'super memory.'

NetFlix a Threat to Cable TV

It had taken the better part of a decade, but Reed Hastings was finally ready to unveil the device he thought would upend the entertainment industry. The gadget looked as unassuming as the original iPod—a sleek black box, about the size of a paperback novel, with a few jacks in back—and Hastings, CEO of Netflix, believed its impact would be just as massive. Called the Netflix Player, it would allow most of his company's regular DVD-by-mail subscribers to stream unlimited movies and TV shows from Netflix's library directly to their television—at no extra charge.

The potential was enormous: Although Netflix initially could offer only about 10,000 titles, Hastings planned to one day deliver the entire recorded output of Hollywood, instantly and in high definition, to any screen, anywhere. Like many tech romantics, he had harbored visions of using the Internet to rout around cable companies and network programmers for years. Even back when he formed Netflix in 1997, Hastings predicted a day when he would deliver video over the Net rather than through the mail. (There was a reason he called the company Netflix and not, say, DVDs by Mail.) Now, in mid-December 2007, the launch of the player was just weeks away. Promotional ads were being shot, and internal beta testers were thrilled.

But Hastings wasn't celebrating. Instead, he felt queasy. For weeks, he had tried to ignore the nagging doubts he had about the Netflix Player. Consumers' living rooms were already full of gadgets—from DVD players to set-top boxes. Was a dedicated Netflix device really the best way to bring about his video-on-demand revolution? So on a Friday morning, he asked the six members of his senior management team to meet him in the amphitheater in Netflix's Los Gatos offices, near San Jose. He leaned up against the stage and asked the unthinkable: Should he kill the player?

Three days later, at an all-company meeting in the same amphitheater, Hastings announced that there would be no Netflix Player. Instead, he would spin off the device, letting developer Anthony Wood take the technology and his 19-person team to a small company Wood had founded years earlier called Roku. But Netflix, which had already begun streaming movies to users' PCs, was hardly giving up on the idea of streaming them to televisions as well. Instead, the company would take a more stealthy—and potentially even more ambitious—approach. Rather than design its own product, it would embed its streaming-video service into existing devices: TVs, DVD players, game consoles, laptops, even smartphones. Netflix wouldn't be a hardware company; it would be a services firm. The crowd was stunned. In half an hour, Hastings had completely reinvented Netflix's strategy.

Today, nearly 3 million users access Netflix's instant streaming service, watching an estimated 5 million movies and TV shows every week on their PCs or living room sets. They get it through Roku's player, which was successfully launched in May 2008. (The Roku now also offers more than 45,000 movies and TV shows on demand through Amazon.com and, since August, live and archived Major League Baseball games.) They get it through their Xbox 360s—Microsoft added Netflix to its Xbox Live service last fall. They get it through LG and Samsung Blu-ray players. They get it through their TiVos and new flatscreen TVs. By the end of 2009, nearly 10 million Netflix-equipped gadgets will be hanging on walls and sitting in entertainment centers. And Hastings says this is just the beginning: "It's possible that within a few years, nearly all Internet-connected consumer electronics devices will include Netflix."

And the devices won't just be streaming remaindered basic-cable or art-house fare: Already, Netflix customers can call up just about any episode of SpongeBob SquarePants, The IT Crowd, or Lost whenever they like. They can watch recent releases like WALL-E and Pineapple Express. In other words, they can get unlimited access to the kinds of programming that previously required a cable subscription. (One visitor to the Netflix blog was particularly pleased to see that they could stream old episodes of Dora the Explorer: "We couldn't cancel cable until more kids' shows were available to watch instantly. Thanks for saving us another $400/year.") Netflix has taken the boldest step yet toward a world in which consumers, not programmers, determine not only what they watch but when, where, and how. The dream of routing around cable companies just may be in sight.

You'll never hear Hastings point that out, however. Unlike many in the tech world, he's a quiet disrupter, sabotaging business models silently and irretrievably. His first hit was to the DVD business. Netflix, which lets subscribers hold on to movies for as long as they like, was cheaper, easier, and more convenient for consumers than building film libraries; DVD sales have plummeted as Netflix has grown. And while his streaming service would seem to present a similar threat to cable companies, Hastings argues that their real challenge comes from the Internet in general, not just Netflix. "I mean, will people disconnect their cable over time?" He shrugs. "Potentially." Hastings may undersell the impact of his service, but some of his partners don't share his gift for diplomacy. "Our goal is to have everyone cancel their cable subscription," Roku's Wood says.

Whether Hastings cops to it or not, that day could be coming soon. That's why, for Hastings to fully accomplish his vision, he'll have to go up against some of the most powerful incumbents in media: the cable companies and content providers that have successfully stymied or co-opted all previous entrepreneurial efforts. So far, Hastings has avoided the wrath of the giants by building his Netflix service surreptitiously, slowly amassing his library of streaming content and giving viewers new ways to access it. And now, even if the cable and content companies do take him on, it may be too late. Hastings' Trojan horse—Netflix's software, embedded on myriad consumer devices—is already in place.

It is odd, in an era when the Internet seems able to worm its way into every part of life, that nearly all of us still watch television the old-fashioned way, piped over cable or beamed in by satellite and available only in bloated packages of channels programmed by network executives. Breaking out of this system requires more patience, money, and technical expertise than the average couch potato is willing or able to expend: Plunk an expensive streaming device or PC tower in the living room, wire up a connection to the TV, and install the Boxee app or program a BitTorrent RSS feed to get the content. Watching live shows in real time requires an even more elaborate work-around. Cable companies have made some feints toward giving subscribers more control over what they watch, but most of their efforts have been lackluster. Verizon's FiOS TV offers access to a few user-generated Web sites; Comcast and Time Warner Cable are rolling out services that let subscribers stream cable channels to their PCs.

The set-top box has proven to be a closed and well-guarded fortress against a world of clouds and openness. The cable and satellite industries, and their partners in Hollywood, work strenuously to keep it that way. It's easy to see why: Those little boxes bankroll their business. While the cable companies offer telephone and broadband, TV subscriptions still account for about 60 percent of their revenue. About a third of those fees get funneled to cable networks like Disney and Discovery, where they account for at least half of their revenue. Another chunk of subscription revenue goes to movie studios, which make more than $1 billion a year charging premium channels like HBO for the right to air their films. Even broadcast networks like ABC and NBC, which don't make any money from cable bills, would still prefer that the content they make available online not be viewed on a TV set, because they can't sell as many ads for their Web versions. Fox crams 18 commercials into every Sunday night airing of The Simpsons, earning 54 cents per viewer. But, according to research firm Sanford C. Bernstein, Fox airs just three commercials for the same show on Hulu—a site it co-owns with NBC Universal and Disney—earning a measly 18 cents per viewer.
Netflix CEO Reed Hastings.
Photo: Robert Maxwell

The man who would overturn this decades-old system is an unlikely revolutionary. Hastings carries himself with a laconic modesty that contradicts an ambitious and restless mind. He has the deep tan of a dedicated snowboarder and a salt-and-pepper goatee that gives him a casual, approachable air. A quiet, hands-off leader, he sets the tone and objectives and lets his employees figure out how to execute them. His main directive is that everyone act like an adult: Netflix has no vacation policy (take as much as you need, when you need it), pay is flexible (stock or cash, your choice), and though firings are unusually common, severance checks are unusually generous. Hastings is comfortable creating his own rules for how to run a business; you don't see any management tomes in his office. In fact, he doesn't even have an office. The CEO prefers to stroll around, a ThinkPad in hand, pitching camp in an empty conference room or huddling in an engineer's cubicle to whiteboard some formula.

One recent morning, Hastings gathered a group of seven newly hired Netflixers in a sunny conference room on the roof of the company's headquarters. He does this once a month and, as always, kicks off the discussion by asking everyone to talk about the best movie they've seen in the past few weeks. He picks Jimmy Carter Man From Plains: "Five minutes in, I was hooked. The filmmaker did a good job making him not boring." The talk flows easily, but the goal is bigger than making everyone comfortable; he's reinforcing the idea that Netflix culture revolves around serving up content.

Since starting the company in 1997, Hastings' goal has always been the same: to deliver the right content in the fastest and most economical way. Obsessed with designing the perfect algorithm for helping viewers discover new movies, he has packed the place with mathematicians and engineers. They test everything, from the recommendations engine to the Web site's design. But if Hastings uses geeky number-crunching to help customers find their movies, his process of delivering them has been decidedly low tech: sending DVDs in red envelopes via the US Postal Service, which costs him roughly a quarter of his $1.4 billion in annual revenue.

Hastings has wanted to move beyond the silver discs for years, but his early attempts to deliver movies over the Net were slow and kludgy. In 2000, his engineers came up with a service that took 16 hours to download a two-hour movie. Hastings killed the project and disbanded the team. In 2003, a new group of engineers built a small, TV-connected Linux PC that could pull in movies. It cost $300 and took two hours to download a film. Again he wielded his ax. Hastings' decisions may have seemed coldhearted, but ultimately they were proven correct. Other competitors like Akimbo brought similar boxes to market—and failed.

It wasn't until 2006 that he tried again. By this time, the long-download problem had been solved by widespread adoption of broadband among consumers. Meanwhile, the spread of YouTube had gotten users used to the idea of streaming content rather than downloading and saving it. So Hastings put together another team of engineers, who developed a way to navigate unreliable home networks, allowing bitrates to shift midstream to maintain the best picture quality with the least amount of buffering.

But the technology was the easy part. Once Hastings decided not to release his own player, he encountered a different challenge: finding devices beyond Roku that would agree to host Netflix's streaming service. One of the first companies he turned to was Microsoft. Practically since releasing its Xbox in 2001, the company had dreamed of making the console into more than just a gaming machine for teenage boys. It offered more than 17,000 movies and TV shows over Xbox Live, but consumers mostly ignored them; apparently they still saw the console as a Halo delivery device. Providing unlimited access to Netflix's streaming library could change that. Microsoft executives were won over, but even they were surprised at the service's success: Within three months of the late 2008 launch, more than 1 million people had signed on, a huge percentage of whom had never touched an Xbox before. "There's a whole demographic—women—that we now pick up," says Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft's entertainment and devices division. "They always thought of Xbox as a hardcore gaming machine. It belonged in the kid's bedroom or the den or some place where 'my husband cocooned when he wanted to play games.' Now its front and center in the house because everyone wants to stream a movie."

Since then, a full Netflix pandemic has broken out. Microsoft incorporated the service into its Windows Media Center software, meaning anyone with Vista can stream Netflix to their TV. Hastings inked deals with Sony and Samsung to put the service into Bravia TVs and Blu-ray players, respectively. The service started showing up in TVs made by Vizio, the largest seller of LCD televisions in the country. And Broadcom began baking the software into some of its flatscreen chips, making it easy for any TV maker to offer sets pre-loaded with Netflix. (As an extra incentive, Netflix pays manufacturers a bounty for any new subscribers that sign up via their products.) Investment bank Piper Jaffray estimates that 25 percent of Netflix's 2.4 million new subscribers this year will come through one of the streaming devices.

With the device makers on board, Hastings had an even tougher task. He needed more and better content. The interface could be the slickest around, but nobody would tune to Netflix's service if it only had back-catalog flicks and old TV shows. In other words, Netflix needed Hollywood.

Despite having run a movie-distribution company, Hastings was far from a Hollywood insider. Netflix simply bought DVDs like any other customer (albeit one with a major movie jones), occasionally striking special revenue-sharing deals for certain titles. The studios couldn't do much: A section of the US copyright law known as the First Sale Doctrine states that, as long as you own it, you can basically do whatever you want with a physical disc. As one studio exec says, "We don't have a choice. We were backed into the business model."

But with online streaming, Netflix has no such advantage. The First Sale Doctrine gives Netflix the right to do what it wants with the disc, not the movie. Netflix suddenly needed to craft more-complicated licensing deals. Push too hard or offer the wrong incentives and the studios could block Netflix from getting good content; acquiesce too easily and Hollywood would happily impose intolerable rules regulating when a movie could be shown, on what platform, and for what price. Part of Netflix's promise is that it offers, like cable and broadcast TV, all-you-can-eat content. If the company bargained away that feature, its service would become just another pay-per-view platform.

To woo Hollywood, Hastings turned to Ted Sarandos, who oversees a staff of 75 at Netflix's Beverly Hills beachhead. Sarandos, a former executive at a video distribution company, serves as translator between the geeks and the studio executives. "There's a lot about the entertainment industry that drives Silicon Valley insane," Sarandos says. "Just the way things work, the politics of it, the pace of it."

Sarandos asked his team to use their data-mining skills to help him find deals. While other video providers might ask studios for a sack full of sure things—new releases by big-name stars—Netflix's engineers could dig through their queue and review databases to find sleeper hits that its users actually wanted to watch but that studios might be willing to license for a pittance. Earlier this year, for instance, Netflix jumped at the chance to stream a French film called Tell No One. The movie pulled in just $6 million at the US box office, but enough subscribers added it to their rental queues that Netflix was able to calculate an estimate of how popular the film would be. Almost immediately after Netflix started streaming it, Tell No One became the fourth-most-watched piece of content. "We have the rental history and the queue insight that enables us to go after things that other people may not be really even hunting," Sarandos says.

Unearthing overlooked gems is great, but Netflix's service will never take off until it can offer up its share of blockbusters. To get those titles, the company needed some way to hack the so-called windowing system, the complicated schedule that governs which distributors can show what films and in what format. First, national and international theatrical distributors pay to show a film in their theaters. Next, there's the DVD and pay-per-view windows. Then there's the combined $1.7 billion a year that channels like HBO, Starz, and Showtime spend to secure the exclusive rights to show movies to subscribers. (Each studio usually signs with just one pay channel; all Warner Bros. movies appear only on HBO, while Sony's go to Starz.) After a few months, the pay-TV networks hand off their rights to broadcasters and ad-supported cable stations. A few years later, the premium channels get the films back, giving them exclusive rights to air them. The windowing system can keep films locked up for years; Disney's National Treasure: Book of Secrets came out in 2007 and is spoken for until 2016. Unless Hastings and Sarandos could find a way around the windowing system, it would be a challenge to show any major movies that had been released in the recent past.

Then they discovered a loophole: Why couldn't Starz sell Netflix the right to air its movies, just as it did with Comcast? Starz had the pay-TV rights to newer titles, exactly what Netflix lacked. Netflix had nearly 9 million (now almost 11 million) subscribers; if it were a cable company, it would be number three, bigger than Cablevision and Charter combined. "We looked at our contract rights and saw that they were an aggregator of content just like the other distributors," says Starz CEO Robert Clasen.
Anthony Wood created the Roku media streamer while working at Netflix.
Photo: Robert Maxwell

In October 2008, the two companies announced a deal that would add 2,500 fresh titles to Netflix's service. The studios were stunned. "This is the last thing you want," moaned one studio executive. "More eyeballs with no incremental revenue."

Hastings' window probably won't stay open forever. Unhappy studios or cable companies could easily renegotiate their contract with Starz to discourage it from working with Netflix. Still, the deal kicked off what Hastings hopes will be an unstoppable virtuous cycle. If Netflix can use the Starz offerings to sign up more subscribers, those subscription fees will generate more revenue. And with more revenue, Netflix can afford to pay more studios for rights to more films—which will draw in still more subscribers. And so on. Ultimately, if Netflix can grow and maintain a big enough library by working directly with the studios, it won't need the likes of Starz. Sure, it could potentially overturn the way Hollywood has done business, but as long as the studios are getting paid, why should they mind? "Think of all things in Hollywood as 'money talks,'" Hastings says. "If we can generate enough money for studios, we can get any content we want."

As Hastings chips away at Hollywood, he's also moving as fast as possible to cement Netflix's presence in the next generation of home entertainment devices. He knows he has limited time before the rest of the movie-distribution industry realizes what has hit it. "We had DVD by mail mostly to ourselves for five years before Blockbuster attacked," he says. "And then they gave us hell for five years. So, as great as things are going now, I'm like, remember, hell will return."

It could come from anywhere. Maybe one day the studios decide they don't need Netflix and start dealing directly with device manufacturers. Or they could just jack up the fees they charge Netflix. Amazon or Apple could emerge as a tough competitor. Cable behemoths could use their power to block Netflix's access to content, or they could try to put together their own Netflix-like services. ("There is no reason why this isn't something we can compete with," says Peter Stern, chief strategy officer of Time Warner Cable.)

There are a million different ways for Netflix to fail. But that has always been the case. Netflix should have failed already, taken down by Blockbuster or Wal-Mart, kneecapped by Hollywood, made irrelevant by BitTorrent or iTunes. Yet time and again, the company has not only survived but quietly thrived—on the strength of its unique algorithms and its relentless focus on getting customers content they didn't even know they wanted.

Speaking to his new hires, Hastings lets slip a rare glimpse of immodesty. "When people connect with a movie, it really makes them happy, and that's fundamentally what we're trying to do," he says. "Today you love one out of three movies that you watch. If we can raise that to two out of three, we can completely transform the market and increase human happiness." He makes it all sound so easy—never mind the powerful competitors. Ultimately, the key to film nirvana, whether delivered by DVD or streamed over the Internet, can be as simple as cracking an equation.

Thief steals gold ring by swallowing it in store

A Croatian couple has been detained by police after the man was caught stealing gold jewelry by swallowing it.

Full Story

Surprising theory on how Mars turned red

Surprising theory on how Mars turned red

New research suggests that the planet's rusty hue may actually be a recent development.

Assumptions upended
Also:

Why your resumé gets tossed

Why your resumé gets tossed

Top-level recruiters reveal what separates the good job applications from the bad.

Tips to avoid the trash

Also:

Unemployment benefits may be extended

Unemployment benefits may be extended

The House considers an emergency measure that would provide a 13-week extension.

Fantastic photos from space

 Images Newrings-Saturn-Cassini-520 Smithsonian posted an absolutely breathtaking gallery of images taken by space probes over the last decade.

From Smithsonian:
The Cassini spacecraft, which is now orbiting Saturn, looked back toward the eclipsed Sun and saw a view unlike any other. The rings of Saturn light up so much that new rings were discovered.

Unchecked healthcare costs will ruin America

As the US becomes richer, its people will grow poorer, because of the rising cost of healthcare.

Better World

Better world: Share things

An awful lot of energy could be saved if only people shared things more – especially their homes.

Better world: Move to the city

To many, going green means moving to the countryside. To reduce your carbon footprint, though, you'd be better off cultivating an urban idyll.

Better world: Vaccinate your children

Fewer than 1 in 150 children die before age 5 in developed countries, and a lot of the credit must go to vaccines.

And I Quote

Satan's mentally challenged younger brother.

~ Stephen King, describing Glenn Beck.

A President Was Killed ...

...the Last Time Right-Wing Hatred Ran Wild

Excerpt:
That being John F. Kennedy, of course.

I've been thinking a lot of Kennedy and Dallas as I've watched the increasingly violent rhetorical
attacks on Obama be unfurled. As Americans yank their kids of class in order to save them from being
exposed to the President of the United States who only wanted to urge them to excel in the classroom.
And as unvarnished hate and name-calling passed for health care 'debate' this summer.

The radical right, aided by a GOP Noise Machine that positively dwarfs what existed in 1963,
has turned demonizing Obama--making him into a vile object of disgust--into a crusade.
It's a demented national jihad, the likes of which this country has not seen in modern times.

But I've been thinking about Dallas in 1963 because I've been recalling the history and how
that city stood as an outpost for the radical right, which never tried to hide its contempt for JFK.

*****

I assume the Secret Service is extra-alert in the "I-hate-that-nigger" era.
I also assume Obama won't riding in an open-air convertibles?
*****
Bart posted this over at Bartcop today and it is too important not to re-post everywhere.

Repugican Popularity Plummeting

Even As They Continue Boarding The Crazy Train


Wow - they're down to only 25% of whites and less than 5% of non-whites trust them?

House moves to extend unemployment benefits

Despite predictions the Great Recession is running out of steam, the House is taking up emergency legislation this week to help the millions of Americans who see no immediate end to their economic miseries.

Coworkers Find They're Long Lost Brothers

Two coworkers, who have been working side by side for weeks, have discovered that they are actually long lost siblings, following a series of incredible circumstances and strange fate.

Coworkers Find They're Long Lost Brothers

Coworkers discover they're brothers

Gary Nisbet and Randy Joubert worked together for months before learning they're related. How

Also:

Dad loses daughter in card game

A father in eastern India gambled away his money and his teenage daughter after losing at a card game where he put her up as a stake.

Full Story

How to save $100,000

How to save $100,000

It's quite possible that cleaning up your credit can save you an amazing amount of money.

Quick dinner recipes

Seven quick dinner recipes

Make dinner prep worry-free with these simple menus for every day of the week.

Alzheimer's on the rise

Startling report shows Alzheimer's rising

Millions more than expected are living with dementia — and the number may double in the next 20 years.

Factors
Also:

We're sinking

Huge swaths of land are sinking

Rising seas and human activity threaten the delta regions that are home to a half-billion people. Highest-risk areas
Also:

Unusual Holidays and Celebrations

Today is the International Day of Peace.

Daily Almanac

Today is Monday, Sept. 21, the 264th day of 2009.

There are 101 days left in the year.

Today In History September 21, 2009

Our Readers

Some of our readers today have been in:

Anatalya, Anatalya, Turkey
Ramat Gan, Tel Aviv, Israel
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia
Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand
Surrey, British Columbia, Canada
Leeds, England, United Kingdom
Islamabad, Islamabad, Pakistan
Caracas, Distrito Federal, Venezuela
Swindon, England, United Kingdom
Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Luqa, Luqa, Malta
Winnipeg, Alberta, Canada
London, England, United Kingdom

as well as Brazil, Germany, and the United States

Daily Horoscope

Today's horoscope says:

You are like an effective pool shark when it comes to your work.
You cruise the pool hall.
You check out the competition.
You rub that little chalk thing on the tip of your cue stick.
You even know why you're supposed to do that.
Then you pick an opponent, and you win!
You pick another opponent -- and you win!
Then you win some more!
Sounds like a pretty good day at the office, doesn't it?

Great.