My dad passed this along to me: ZIPskinny, where you can see census data on any zip code in the U.S. You can also compare data for several zip codes, so if you’ve lived in several zip codes, you can compare those places to see which had better economics, diversity, etc. Good luck staying on the site for less than twenty minutes!
Disgraced former Attorney General Albert Gonzales gave a speech at the University of Florida Monday night. Unfortunately for Gonzales, he was not afforded the luxury his former boss has in only speaking to friendlies, as the First Amendment was on full display at the event (the jump suit of the guy in the video says “Civil Liberties”). (This is off-topic, but leave it to the main-stream-media, in this case CNN, to tie this story in with the student taser incident a few months ago at a John Kerry event—what does this event have to do with the other? Nothing, except the MSM can blow past stories that actually matter, like torture and civil liberties, and instead report on silly, fluff stories.)
The former AG said in his speech about the Bush Administration:
It will take years for the entire story to be told. We know the first manuscripts of administrations are often incomplete, and they can be inaccurate, and they have to be discarded.
Yes, he’s exactly right on this one. It will take years to hear the entire story of what went on in this administration. The “first manuscript” of this administration is incomplete because we’re only being told what they want us to hear. Expect more stories like this one from former White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan (on the Valerie Plame case):
I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice President, the President’s chief of staff, and the president himself.
I served as a co-editor and a contributor to SoD 06 (School of Design). The book features student essays from a Design Issues course at RIT in the fall of 2006. The book is available at Lulu. Proceeds from the book go to help fund future RIT class publishing.
My essay was about the dangers and failures of electronic voting machines:
Instead of a front seat, hands-on approach to the situation, the federal government is merely providing states the funds to acquire electronic voting equipment. Through the Help America Vote Act of 2002, passed by Congress after the punch card nightmare in the 2000 presidential election, the federal government is forcing states to buy the equipment to replace older voting technologies, such as punch cards and lever machines (U.S. Election Assistance Commission). Indeed, the federal government is forcing states to buy into a faulty, untrustworthy product, a product with the capability of severely crippling our democracy.
Given these high stakes, actions to solve the numerous security and verification problems of electronic voting machines must be a top priority for the federal government and every citizen. Several academic and state-commissioned reports have cited the gaping lapses in adequate technological development of electronic voting machines. Until those lapses are resolved and the federal government provides guidelines and standards for the use and manufacture of electronic voting machines, the machines should not be approved for use in conducting elections. The current machines administering the elections cannot be trusted to provide accurate election results, and if the machines cannot be trusted, then neither can the elections.
…as it tries to take over the world, or, at least, make it a better place.
In Google’s words, its recently unveiled “Android” is the “first truly open and comprehensive platform for mobile devices.” But it is a signal of much more. Google is as much an ideology as a firm and can resemble a nation-state in its pursuit of power rather than a mere corporation chasing quarterly numbers. Google and its allies are now trying to make the principles of openness—the commanding ideology of the Internet—the conquering principle of the wireless world, and the Android announcement is just the first step.
The problem, as the article points out, is the choke hold the established companies already have on the market and the technology, in this case the wireless networks. They, of course, will do everything in their power to fight-off any competition, and certainly any company that would change the status quo. Normally, they’d have a high chance of success, say, against some small, start-up company. But this time they’re going against The Google. Let’s hope fairness and openness prevail, because in the world of wireless, we could sure use some.
Apparently, according to a new study:
A flood of new video and other Web content could overwhelm the Internet by 2010 unless backbone providers invest up to US$137 billion in new capacity, more than double what service providers plan to invest, according to the study, by Nemertes Research Group, an independent analysis firm. In North America alone, backbone investments of $42 billion to $55 billion will be needed in the next three to five years to keep up with demand, Nemertes said.
This is definitely one worth watching.
Here are some useful tips to help organize and make your CSS files more usable to you and anyone else who works on them after you. I don’t agree with #3 and #4 is likely for large websites, but the rest of the list is very useful. Like this one:
6) Place color scheme in one place for refrence.
Before you start your CSS file, comment your common colors and add it to the top of your style sheet. This will save you ton of time and will insure that your site has one color scheme.
If you’re a fan of logos or logo design, or even a fan of design before-and-after, you should check out the blog Brand New. The blog features company and organization logos that have been recently redesigned. In addition to a before-the-redesign logo and the after-the-redesign logo, the blog gives excellent commentary on the old, the new, and the process. Check it out!
The Chicago Olympic bid logo:
Some cool things around the world people found using Google Earth. And the site give the coordinates, so you can check them out too!
Cool info-graphic on the doctor-to-patient ratio around the world.
Have Democrats in the U.S. Senate grown some balls? It may be too early to tell, but this looks promising:
the version of the FISA bill that was just reported out of the Judiciary Committee does not—repeat, does not—contain retroactive immunity for the telecom companies.
No doubt the president and many GOP senators will have a cow, but let’s hope this sticks.
Hillary Clinton’s opposition to granting NY-state drivers licenses to illegal aliens after the measure was pulled by NY governor Elliot Spitzer got a swift reaction from the Obama camp:
When it takes two weeks and six different positions to answer one question on immigration, it’s easier to understand why the Clinton campaign would rather plant their questions than answer them.
—Barack Obama spokesman Bill Burton, referring to the Clinton campaign’s admission that aides had staged a question for her at an Iowa event
Rudy Giuliani’s presidential campaign is solely about two words:
I honestly fail to understand why his supporters don’t see him as the enormous joke he is.
Apparently the Catholic Church has never heard of separation of church and state:
Roman Catholic voters and lawmakers must heed church teaching on issues ranging from racism to abortion or risk their eternal salvation, U.S. bishops said Wednesday.
I’m sorry, but you want to tell me how to vote? You want to tell me who to vote for? In a democratic society? Right. You get one vote just like I get one vote. And since I can’t tell you how to vote, you can’t tell me how to vote. And on that subject, when was the last time you asked for my input when you were electing a new pope? You know, the guy who leads the church and issues doctrines the rest of us are ordered to follow (talk about authoritarian). Oh what’s that? That’s not how the Catholic Church works? Fine, then if I don’t have a say in who you elect pope, then you don’t have a say in who I elect president, senator, representative, or member of my local school board.
Does the Catholic Church not see how big of a joke they’ve become? Separation of church and state is meant to protect the church from the state. But it isn’t a one-way street. This doctrine should also protect the state from the church. Just as the state cannot influence the church, the church cannot influence the state. But that’s not the way the Catholic Church sees it.
I’ll say it again: on this issue and so many others, the Catholic Church is stuck churning in the 12th century.
From Political Wire: “Most Think Bush and Cheney Abused Powers.”
A new American Research Group poll finds that 64% of American voters say that President Bush has abused his powers as president and 70% say that Vice President Dick Cheney has abused his powers as vice president.
Well that’s great, but how many people in Congress believe that too and are actually willing to do their job and do something about it? Two? Maybe three?
This upcoming presidential election needs to be about hope, about real change, and about restoring America’s greatness at home and abroad. The politics of fear and divisiveness must be replaced with politics of truth, fairness, and real compassion. We need not a leader of the blue states or the red states, but a leader of the United States. This man is that leader, that hope, that change:
Windows NT crashed.
I am the Blue Screen of Death.
No one hears your screams.
Since NBC decided to pull its TV shows from the iTunes store, they’ve since launched a beta version of their own media center.
Christopher Breen at playlistmag.com sums up NBC’s Hulu as compared to iTunes.
The [NBC, Fox, and FX] shows will be available from the Hulu site as well as from partner sites that include AOL, MSN, and MySpace. Sample videos are higher-than-YouTube quality and free. What’s not to like? Not a thing, unless you’ve actually experienced television and the Internet during this millennium.
