Screaming Penguin - Source Does Matter

Obviously the people in charge know what they're doing.

Klepac and other newcomers to Prince William County were drawn there during the housing boom because they thought it would be a cheaper version of Fairfax County, with its upscale subdivisions, good schools and plentiful shopping. Yet a year after Klepac moved in, the Potomac Club subdivision is still not completely built, and promised amenities have yet to materialize.

As their home values plummet and their taxes go up, some of the new arrivals, many of whom are 30-somethings with families, are beginning to sour on Prince William, which has the highest number of foreclosures in Virginia.

"We're stuck," Klepac said. "I don't think I would have moved to Prince William County. I felt I was getting into a brand-new community with all these luxuries. They haven't delivered."

...

Even so, Fuller said it's going to be a "slow cure," in part because the county's actions to curb illegal immigration have "damaged its image as a good place to do business."

Katherine M. Gotthardt said she thinks it's a waste of time and money for police to check the legal status of arrested criminal suspects. She would rather see the county invest in fire department staffing, affordable housing and schools.

That's crazy talk from Ms. Gotthardt.

I was struck by this bit, also:

"It was like the land got eaten up by these subdivisions," she said. "They've added to that climate of everyone being divided. There's no town center."

Despite the rapid growth, Prince William is still a bedroom community. Roughly two-thirds of its residents work outside the county. When it's time to shop or go out for an upscale meal, they get in their cars and drive to shopping centers in the region. What new residents want is an urban experience, with shopping and dining within the comforts of their suburban community, developers say.

Is this really what new residents want? If so, there's a giant mismatch between a tremendous amount of exurban development over the past decade and what people want.

noreply@blogger.com (Atrios)

The Seven Words (NSFW)

YahooNews:

Comedian George Carlin, a counter-culture hero famed for his routines about drugs and dirty words, died of heart failure at a Los Angeles-area hospital on Sunday, a spokesman said. He was 71.

Carlin, who had a history of heart problems, died at St. John’s Health Center in Santa Monica about 6 p.m. PDT (9 p.m. EDT) after being admitted earlier in the afternoon for chest pains, spokesman Jeff Abraham told Reuters.

Known for his edgy, provocative material, Carlin achieved status as an anti-Establishment icon in the 1970s with stand-up bits full of drug references and a routine about seven dirty words you could not say on television.

In a stunning acknowledgment that having more money may, in fact, be better than having less money, Barack Obama decided to opt out of public financing for his campaign yesterday, eschewing $80 million in federal funds for the $300 million in his private war chest.

At first glance, this would seem to be a betrayal of many of Obama's core principals -- his commitment to campaign finance reform, tightening ethics restrictions, and not crushing John McCain between his pointer finger and pinky -- but it's hard to blame the man when you realize how many items he's got on his campaign wish list, all of which cost $300 million.

Among those items:

*300,000,000 dollar store mini-detergents

*150,000,000 ironic John McCain yard signs

*300,000 purebred golden retrievers

*50,000 Vespa GRANTURISMOS

*300 pretty good yachts

*50 six million dollar men

*30 twelve-ounce jars of the world's leading mustard.

*1 feature-length campaign ad, directed by Michael Bay

More »

Barack Obama has launched a website called Fight the Smears, in which he strikes back against the negative jabs that get thrown his way. The site includes a section refuting the rumor that Obama is a Muslim. Counter-refutations have started to surface, including this handy guide we found in the bathroom at Swifty's Swiftboatery Inn and Swiftboatorium:

* If you greet your wife fist-to-fist instead of open palm-to-open palm, you might be a Muslim.

* If you want to turn the USA into a terrorist paradise with universal terrorist healthcare and college tuition credits for every terrorist, you might be a Muslim.

* If you have ever not punched a gay person you totally could have punched, you might be a Muslim.

* If you lob inspiring platitudes like hand grenades, you might be a Muslim.

* If you have talked to a Muslim, you might be a Muslim.

* If young people aren't immediately revulsed by your craggy, translucent skin and creepy old man giggle, you might be a Muslim.

* If you go to a Christian church that has a crazy pastor, you might be a Muslim.

* If you're black and running for president, you might be a Muslim.

More »

Cancer patient recovers after injection of immune cells A cancer patient has made a full recovery after being injected with billions of his own immune cells in the first case of its kind, doctors have disclosed. The 52-year-old, who was suffering from advanced skin cancer, was free from tumours within eight weeks of undergoing the procedure.

After two years he is still free from the disease which had spread to his lymph nodes and one of his lungs. Doctors took cells from the man's own defence system that were found to attack the cancer cells best, cloned them and injected back into his body.

Previously.

jwz@jwz.org

Shared by kebernet
As the great Peter Venkman once said, "No human would stack books this way".

It’s really hard to find anything dumber than crop circles. I don’t usually use words like that, but c’mon! Aliens come here from a bazillion miles away just to flatten cereal stalks?

And yet there is an astonishing range of dumbosity even within the crop circle field (haha, "field"). The latest, reported on a Faux Fox News website, has one that has — be prepared to gasp — the number pi encoded in it.

GASP!

I’ve read the description twice, and I still can’t figure out what the guy is saying. But it seems suspicious that rounding is involved. Whenever you do that, precision kinda goes out the window. But let’s assume, sure, pi is in the crop circle. Then my fave is this:

Crop-circle enthusiasts claim that’s just more proof that the barley and wheat stalks have been stomped on by aliens who seem to have a special affinity for southern England.

Y’know, that would be more convincing if humans didn’t know what pi was. But since we do, how does that preclude humans from creating this circle?

As the great Peter Venkman once said, "No human would stack books this way". That’s a skeptical mantra I wish more people would learn.

Tip o’ the tin foil beanie to BABloggee Rick White.

As the great Peter Venkman once said, "No human would stack books this way".

You may think you are aware of all internet traditions. O RLY? Following on the success of Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, The Traditional Internet Preservation Society invites you to celebrate Internet Traditions Awareness Week, and help preserve our valuable internet traditions.

See also, and, and, and, and.

There’s a blog.

It's been a while since we've had a robots post here, but I believe this is the world' first robot rock band:

Will they hook up with robot groupies after the show, you ask? They just might if this Japanese robot girlfriend initiative picks up steam. Be afraid.

Incidentally, wouldn't countering the robot menace be a good issue for John McCain? It seems to play to his combination of cranky old man-ness and national security paranoia. They all laughed at Admiral Adama when he didn't want networked computer on the Galactica but look how that turned out.

(author unknown)

via Melissa McEwan.

(updated below)

I'll have a new update very shortly on the genuinely exploding campaign against the Steny-Hoyer-led Congressional effort to give the President warrantless eavesdropping powers and amnesty to lawbreaking telecoms. Just among a handful of blogs alone, almost $80,000 has been raised in less than 24 hours, with the total fundraising amount now over $160,000, to be aimed exclusively at vulnerable members of Congress who support this legislative travesty.

Until those updates are ready, I wanted to note one highly revealing fact. Two weeks ago, I wrote about how Comcast -- which is one of the telecom-defendants which broke the law and which has donated substantial sums to amnesty-supporter Chris Carney's campaign -- refused to run televisions ads submitted to them that criticized Carney for supporting amnesty for telecoms. Comcast's primary excuse for rejecting the ad was that one of the statements in the ad was, Comcast claimed, potentially defamatory and could subject Comcast to lawsuits (presumably from itself). The offending line Comcast cited was this one: "[Carney] wants to pardon phone companies who broke the law and gave thousands to his campaign."

While numerous newspapers and radio stations -- as well as the one other company operating cable stations in Carney's district -- all accepted and ran the ad, Comcast refused, claiming that line was potentially defamatory because "the mere filing of a lawsuit, whether civil or criminal, is not equivalent to a finding of liability or wrongdoing." Thus, claimed Comcast's lawyer, one could not say that the telecoms "broke the law" without leaving oneself vulnerable to lawsuits.

Today, The New York Times Editorial Board vigorously condemned the Hoyer bill, and in doing so, wrote this:The bill is not a compromise. The final details are being worked out, but all indications are that many of its provisions are both unnecessary and a threat to the Bill of Rights. The White House and the Congressional Republicans who support the bill have two real aims. They want to undermine the power of the courts to review the legality of domestic spying programs. And they want to give a legal shield to the telecommunications companies that broke the law by helping Mr. Bush carry out his warrantless wiretapping operation.That was exactly what the rejected ad said. It's just extraordinary that a corporation like Comcast can use its control over media outlets to block arguments from reaching Carney's constituents which: (a) concern a public figure (telecoms); (b) relate to a matter of significant public interest (whether amnesty should be granted) and (c) are printed verbatim in The New York Times. As indicated, the same claim was made repeatedly in the past by all sorts of public figures, such as Sen. Chris Dodd.

In fact, I've never heard anyone in the telecom amnesty debate ever deny that the telecoms broke the law. How could anyone deny that? Our long-standing federal laws could not be clearer, since their core purpose was to prohibit telecoms from allowing the Government access to their customers' communications without warrants. That telecoms "broke the law" -- continuously, knowingly and deliberately -- is hardly in dispute. That's precisely what makes amnesty so corrupt.

For Comcast to claim that this fact is "defamatory" -- all in order to block ads aimed at one of their donated-to Congressman who, in turn, is working feverishly to obtain amnesty for Comcast -- is indefensible though unsurprising. Comcast is, after all, one of the telecoms that purposely broke our surveillance laws for years in order to allow illegal government spying on their customers. For that reason, it would be foolish to expect any better behavior from them.

UPDATE: To call Comcast's bluff, the Carney ad was revised to accommodate every one of Comcast's objections and re-submitted to them today. Here is the revised ad:



This episode has only bolstered, not undermined, the resolve to run even more ads in Carney's district.

Glenn Greenwald

AFGHANISTAN....The news from Afghanistan these days isn't just bad, it's weird:Local officials and villagers [near Kandahar] said the Taliban, who pushed into the area Sunday night, were laying mines, blocking roads and culverts and destroying footbridges, apparently preparing to do...Kevin Drum

Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) has made his principled opposition to earmarks, pork, and federal subsidies well known. Based on those principles, he has:

– Opposed subsidies for alternative fuels like ethanol.

– Blocked tax incentives for renewable energy and energy efficiency.

– Opposed legislation to protect the Everglades.

– Mocked funding for research on threatened species.

Yesterday in Houston, he put aside his principles, in favor of off-shore oil and natural gas drilling. After calling for lifting the federal moratorium on off-shore drilling, he said:

And in states that choose to permit exploration, there must be an appropriate sharing of benefits between federal and state governments.

He provided the translation for “appropriate sharing of benefits” in a press briefing previewing his speech:

I think that this, and perhaps providing additional incentives for states to permit exploration off their coasts, would be very helpful in the short term in resolving our energy crisis.

McCain has previously made clear his anti-pork principles also do not apply to federal support for nuclear power. In that case, it’s not “subsidies” — it’s “leveling” the playing field for a “vital” industry. Funny how McCain’s principles hold strong in opposition to clean energy and the environment but don’t apply to the nuclear and fossil fuel industry interests fueling his campaign.

Shared by kebernet
Every thing he says has three parts: a noun, a verb and 9/11. -- still the best line in politics in YEARS.

Rudy comes out of hiding to attack Barack Obama about ... 9/11.

Every thing he says has three parts: a noun, a verb and 9/11. -- still the best line in politics in YEARS.

Record your own or Listen to other Audio Clips!

Yes I tried unplugging it and waiting 30 seconds

did u call teknical support kitteh?

picture: dunno source, via our lolcat builder. lol caption: bethmonster

» Recaption This

Scientists find bugs that eat waste and excrete petrol

They start out as industrial yeast or nonpathogenic strains of E. coli, but LS9 modifies them by custom-designing their DNA. Because crude oil is only a few molecular stages removed from the fatty acids normally excreted by yeast or E. coli during fermentation, it does not take much fiddling to get the desired result.

Using genetically modified bugs for fermentation is essentially the same as using natural bacteria to produce ethanol, although the energy-intensive final process of distillation is virtually eliminated because the bugs excrete a substance that is almost pump-ready.

"Our plan is to have a demonstration-scale plant operational by 2010 and, in parallel, we'll be working on the design and construction of a commercial-scale facility to open in 2011," says Mr Pal, adding that if LS9 used Brazilian sugar cane as its feedstock, its fuel would probably cost about $50 a barrel.

jwz@jwz.org

Thought not safe for work due to the repetition of a particularly naughty word.

noreply@blogger.com (Atrios)

With talk in the air of the Obama campaigning trying to target Georgia as a potential pickup reach, I think Nate at 538 raises a cogent objection, noting that it's "very difficult to imagine Obama winning Georgia without winning North Carolina, and if he's won North Carolina, he almost certainly won't need Georgia." That seems right.

Elsewhere in the same post, Nate notes that McCain at least claims to be treating Virginia as a safe state rather than a swing state in which case he may want to read the polls more closely or take note of who's winning statewide elections these days. Of course McCain's campaign HQ is in Virginia, so it's easy enough to do some covert organizing at this point while still maintaining blustery talk about winning Connecticut.

Photo by Flickr user Abbydonkrafts used under a Creative Commons license

(author unknown)

Last.fm users will now be able to stream music videos from Universal Music Group's artists for free as part of a deal announced today. The ad-supported videos will give Last.fm users even more reason to stay on the site, but attracting non-Last.fm users to watch videos there could be a challenge.

Read More...

jacqui@arstechnica.com (Jacqui Cheng)

Firefox 3 is here! Set a Guinness World Record for the most downloads in 24 hours and download Firefox today. Then check out Firefox 3's top 10 features, and more advanced tricks in our power user's guide. Get our ongoing, full Firefox 3 coverage here. Update, 10:06AM: Mozilla's servers appear to be unreachable. Hang in there and keep trying!

(author unknown)

pshuke writes "After 15 years of development, Wine version 1.0 has been released. Wine is an Open Source implementation of the Windows API on top of X, OpenGL, and Unix. While perfect windows compatibility has not yet been achieved, full support for Photoshop CS2, Excel Viewer 2003, Word Viewer 2003 and PowerPoint Viewer 2003 have been among the goals prior to the release. For further information about supported applications, head over to the appdb. Get it (source) while it's hot."

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

timothy