They mostly come at night... mostly.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:01 AM | Comments (240)
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When you're mired in the midst of economic depression, you'll be wanting books that deliver genuine value for the scarce coin you can afford to spend on them, right? Books that significantly expand your knowledge far beyond the pathetic propaganda the schools fed you as a child.

Amidst all the typical loser landfill candidates, Dollar Tree served up a real gem recently if you can still find it for a buck on the shelves - Sea of Glory by Nathaniel Philbrick.

Its the story of the 1838-1842 American Exploring Expedition, which set out to chart hundreds of south pacific islands, the Columbia river, San Francisco bay, and search for the rumored existence of land at the bottom of the world.

You probably never heard of the Ex Ex in grade school unless you're an amateur naval historian or history major - I know I never did, and I went to a supposedly pretty good high school. In fact, American history post Revolution/War of 1812 through pre-Civil War was generally kinda light - i.e. non-existent and probably still is.

Did you know that when we invaded Tarawa during WWII, the only available nautical charts of the area were those produced by the Ex Ex 100 years prior?

Remember the Vincennes incident in the Gulf, Iranian airliner shot down blah, blah? Did you know there was an earlier Vincennes? It was the flagship of the Ex Ex squadron.

The Ex Ex found Antarctica, charted over 1,000 miles of coastline, the specimens and collecting prompted the creation of what later became the Smithsonian and outclassed anything Cook or any of the other European explorers ever did. Did you know the Smithsonian is named not after an American, rather an Englishman named Smithson who donated about a half million bucks (in mid-1800's dollars) for its creation.

Its a truly amazing story of madness, cruelty, cannibalism, petty revenge, reckless daring, cowardice, heroism, incredible sacrifice, and spectacular accomplishment in spite of shifting ill political winds in Washington, a cast of officers and scientists who came to hate the expedition leader, and a leader who often treated his officers and seamen like crap.

If you can pick this gem up for a buck at Dollar Tree, do it. You won't be disappointed.

Posted by: Purple Avenger at 09:19 PM | Comments (87)
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Welcome to the Monday.

WaPo: WikiLeaks 'a Clear and Present Danger'

The Washington Post's Marc Thiesson doesn't pull any punches:

Let's be clear: WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a criminal enterprise. Its reason for existence is to obtain classified national security information and disseminate it as widely as possible -- including to the United States' enemies.

In 1989, the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel issued a memorandum entitled "Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Override International Law in Extraterritorial Law Enforcement Activities."

This memorandum declares that "the FBI may use its statutory authority to investigate and arrest individuals for violating United States law, even if the FBI's actions contravene customary international law" and that an "arrest that is inconsistent with international or foreign law does not violate the Fourth Amendment." In other words, we do not need permission to apprehend Assange or his co-conspirators anywhere in the world.

And if all this wasn't reason enough to despise Julian Assange, it also turns out that he also writes poetry. I won't bother excepting any here but trust me it is teh horrible. And now I don't feel so bad about sending the blog's kick-murder squad out after him.

Posted by: Maetenloch at 05:53 PM | Comments (588)
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Just a reminder: For two weeks Gallup had the Democrats surging on this and the GOP plummeting. Just some noise, I figured, or really hoped, because who knows.

Well... I guess it was just two bad, bad polls in a row.

The thing about the Democrats' spike there, too, is that there is no news you can plausibly attribute it to -- what, everyone's so happy about a lame financial regulation bill? (And PS, Gallup had the Dems surging before that actually passed.)

So-- if it were real (hypothetically), what could have caused this strange reversal? And what re-reverses it now?

I'm sort of wondering if this was real, but temporary, because PPP has Democrats edging up in Senate races. I'm hoping they got the tail end of this One Week Wonder, too, and next week this blip will be off the radar.

Posted by: Ace at 02:28 PM | Comments (335)
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Okay, so I reposted (or re-reposted) the Rapist Warning System guy video.

Here's a funny video from Adam Baldwin on Twitter: What happens when you toss a brick into a washing machine. He throws the brick in about twenty seconds from the end; until then it's just spinning normally.

And I'm worried this is a repost, but who knows: Rap video for Alvin Greene for Senate.

more...

Posted by: Ace at 02:05 PM | Comments (61)
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Thick as thieves.

By February 2006, businessman and political fixer Tony Rezko was already politically radioactive, caught up in a federal investigation that would see him criminally charged by the end of that year.

News reports had linked Rezko, a key adviser and campaign fund-raiser for then-Gov. Rod Blagojevich, to shady deals involving state pension funds -- among the crimes that ultimately would send him to prison.

This was the Tony Rezko who, looking for millions of dollars for a massive South Loop development, turned to Broadway Bank, owned by the family of Alexi Giannoulias. Giannoulias, the Democrat now running for U.S. Senate, had left his post as a senior loan officer at the Chicago bank in late 2005 to mount a successful campaign for Illinois state treasurer, though he still held an ownership stake in the bank.

Rezko's company asked. And Broadway Bank came through.

On Feb. 14, 2006, newly obtained records show, the bank made a $22.75 million loan to a company called Riverside District Development LLC, whose owners, it turns out, included Rezko.

Later this week, Obama will host a fundraiser for Giannoulias in Chicago.

Posted by: Ace at 01:19 PM | Comments (135)
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I would not have guessed this -- not because I knew anything about the science either way, but because I think the universe usually avoids making questions easy for you, you know? It seemed unlikely to me that a big moral dilemma would turn out to be no dilemma at all, because adult stem cells were where the action was at.

But that's the case.

For all the emotional debate that began about a decade ago on allowing the use of embryonic stem cells, it's adult stem cells that are in human testing today. An extensive review of stem cell projects and interviews with two dozen experts reveal a wide range of potential treatments.

Morley Safer reported for "60 Minutes" this summer on the rapidly increasing trend of "regenerative medicine," where cells in the human body are manipulated into regrowing damaged tissues.

Researchers have created beating hearts, ears and bladders using stem cells. Biotech companies and the Pentagon have invested hundreds of millions of dollars in research that could profoundly change millions of lives.

Adult stem cells are being studied in people who suffer from multiple sclerosis, heart attacks and diabetes. Some early results suggest stem cells can help some patients avoid leg amputation. Recently, researchers reported that they restored vision to patients whose eyes were damaged by chemicals.

Apart from these efforts, transplants of adult stem cells have become a standard lifesaving therapy for perhaps hundreds of thousands of people with leukemia, lymphoma and other blood diseases.

"That's really one of the great success stories of stem cell biology that gives us all hope," says Dr. David Scadden of Harvard, who notes stem cells are also used to grow skin grafts.

"If we can recreate that success in other tissues, what can we possibly imagine for other people?"

That sort of promise has long been held out for embryonic stem cells...

But in the near term, embryonic stem cells are more likely to pay off as lab tools, for learning about the roots of disease and screening potential drugs.

Posted by: Ace at 11:27 AM | Comments (252)
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A friend of mine did a short film series about geeks working for an online gaming review site, called "The GameRev."

It's entered in a competition and, lookie here, no rule prohibiting vote-whoring.

If you wouldn't mind, go here and scan down to the "T's" -- it's alphabetized under "T" for the "The" in "The GameRev," despite the fact that that's totally retarded. (My friend isn't running the contest so the alphabetizing isn't on him.)

You can also watch at the button there , but if you don't have time to watch, well I watched on your behalf my guess is that you'll think it's very funny and would want to vote for it. So I just save you some time.

But seriously, it's a cute look at game-geek culture and nerd heirarchies. A little like Grandma's Boy.

Posted by: Ace at 10:44 AM | Comments (70)
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She's here to tell you three things:

1. She's like totally against "prejudice and injustice," and, also, "bullshit."

2. But she's not boycotting Arizona because she's too "brave" for that.

3. She has returned from the grave to eat your soul.

She does note the absurdity of thinking "us dumb fucking pop stars" could "collapse" the Arizona economy.

Wow, I thought Marilyn Manson was freaky as a dude. It turns out it's worse as a chick. (Allegedly.) more...

Posted by: Ace at 10:32 AM | Comments (194)
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Playing with dynamite.

The United States once -- under a very different president* -- had an idea of how to deal with that kind of arrogant banditry.

He's been at the center of the discussions and controversies surrounding illegal immigration enforcement in Arizona for quite a while.

On the day parts of Arizona's immigration law, SB 1070, went into effect, Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio is in the news for another reason: there's a price on his head - allegedly offered by a Mexican drug cartel.

The audio message in Spanish is a bit garbled, but the text is clear.

"It's offering a million dollars for Sheriff Joe Arpaio's head and offering a thousand dollars for anyone who wants to join the Mexican cartel."

A man who wants to remain anonymous says his wife received the text message Tuesday evening. It also included an international phone number and instructions to pass the message along.

Were anything like that to even be attempted... well, nothing would happen exactly under President Apology Tour.

But after.

* Hah, I just realized -- Woodrow Wilson. Not really a "very different president" at all, in many respects, as Glenn Beck will tell you. But definitely was pretty free and easy about sending US troops into war.

Posted by: Ace at 10:26 AM | Comments (141)
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