All the talk in Bush Jr’s Presidential runs had been about likability, “Who would I like to drink a beer with?” That’s fine and all (and even after all that’s happened I’d probably still rather have a beer with Shrub than Kerry — if for no other reason than to just throw it in his [...]

I remember a quote, either from Bush the Younger’s first campaign for President, or early in his first administration, that one goal of his administration would be to “wreck” government spending so much that future Presidents will have no choice but to cut programs across the board and, thus, fulfill the GOP smaller-government-is-better plan. At [...]

This is why I read the New Yorker. The article by Malcom Gladwell is ostensibly a book review, but really, it’s an essay on the book’s premise of the types of reasons we give for things/actions depending on the situations. He moves from an interaction between a mother and one of her children, to another [...]

Excellent article by Malcolm Gladwell explaining the limitations of profiling and why it’s much better (more likely to reach desired result) to come up with more general (and yet more targeted) attributes.

A while ago, I blogged about anonymity and how it didn’t really serve much of a purpose any more, except for allowing irresponsible behavior (I can’t find the link currently …… Admittedly, it was a rather naive argument, since there are still many people that would take advantage of any lack of anonymity to punish people who don’t believe/think the way they do (our currect administration is more and more heading this way).Bruce Schneier has now blogged a couple articles on the same subject in response to Kevin Kelly’s view against it (From the Edge’s World Question Center, “What is Your Dangerous Idea” – have to scroll down a little).Bruce is right on in skewering my argument. In my perfect world, I’d still say lack of anonymity is best, but in our real world, or really in both of these worlds, accountibility (or, maybe, responsibility is a better word?)

Very interesting commentary by Bruce Schneier on the recently reported eavesdropping allowed by Bush. Included are many links from many different viewpoints which would be good to follow up on.Bush keeps talking about how this was legal and within his powers…. What is it with these people, that “in the name of liberty” they invade other countries and do their best to build a police state within our own?

Very interesting commentary by Bruce Schneier on the recently reported eavesdropping allowed by Bush. Included are many links from many different viewpoints which would be good to follow up on.Bush keeps talking about how this was legal and within his powers…. What is it with these people, that “in the name of liberty” they invade other countries and do their best to build a police state within our own?

This site has excellent graphical animations showing different trends (such as poverty and income) based on UN data…. Sounds like a great vision to me, and from what I’ve seen, they do a noteworthy job. Not only is the data compelling, but the way it’s presented is interesting and worth keeping an eye on for inspiration.

Wouldn’t it be better, on both sides, for him to leave:The White House would be able to give the impression (without actually stating it, ‘natch) that it’s cleaning house and starting anew.Rove would get to focus his energies on the upcoming Congressional votes and start breeding the next Presidential candidate.Seems to me that it’s a win-win scenario. Now, I know, there’s the whole “working directly with the leader of the free world thing” that Rove would be losing, but if he leaves now (assuming that he’s not also indicted in the Plame investigation), he’d still be able to have access to the President when wanted/needed.So why isn’t he leaving?… His magic seems to be waring thin, and, if nothing else, he’s distracted with all that’s going on to focus too much on the future.

Discussion of something called an Intelligent Grid (small, distributed electrical grid system as opposed to the large easy-to-bring-down system we now have).Great discussion here, not only covering what this is, but the reasons why it will take a while to overcome our currently entrenched system to build this.(Although it may be hard to find – biiiiggg disadvantage of Blogger IMHO – there’s three parts to this discussion as of this writing.)