Antigravitas endorses anti-homicidal-punk bill

There is a proposal in the Maryland legislature to add homeless people to the list of protected classes under the state's hate crimes law. (B'more Sun) That's a good idea. Did you know that random "sport killings" of homeless people by teenagers are on the rise? (CNN) Just today two ten-year-olds are in court for beating a homeless man in Florida. (also CNN)

This kind of thing just f*ing boggles the mind and erodes your faith in humanity. What is up with our society when it would even occur to some innocent kid to raise a hand to a helpless homeless guy?

Spam...from the future

NPR introduces new flavor

NPR is working on a project to repackage itself for the 25-44-year-old set. (Boston Globe via Achenblog) 'Twill be called: NPR Zack. Naming the product--that is so IKEA, and the kids will totally go for it.

But it might help if the NPR brain trust tried to avoid writing things like, "We will curate for you, and you can trust us to reflect your lifestyles and interests" in project development documents like the memo the Globe article quotes. We're not so sure we want to be curated for. We don't even really know what that means.

FreeConference in the not-so-free market

If you use a web-based free service to host your conference calls, beware: The Man is trying to shut them down.

March 19, 2007
Users of FreeConference.Com, a Web-based service that offers long-distance conference calling for the price of a single long-distance call, found itself cut off last week, as AT&T/Cingular, Sprint, and Qwest began blocking subscriber access to the service....FreeConference.Com CEO Alex Cory said AT&T was simply trying to push conference callers back to its own 800-number calling service and thereby reap more profit. (ConsumerAffairs.com)

In the long run, this is crap and must be stopped. In the short run, a tip: I was still able to call into a FreeConference call today on my Verizon mobile phone.

Industry lobbyist sweat

Phil Cooney, American Petroleum Institute lobbyist-cum-Bush CEQ appointee-cum-Exxon lobbyist, got grilled this morning by the House Oversight Committee. Mr. Cooney, of course, is the guy who edited and deleted global warming references in scientific government documents to downplay scientists' findings on the reality and likely consequences of global warming. You can see a few examples here in the Sierra Club magazine. During the hearing, Cooney was asked to read aloud some of the passages he had altered, compared to the final version.

The pursuit of truth and good public policy is what it's all about, but I gotta say, half the fun is the squirming.

Adoption addiction

Not that we really care, but--yeah, we do.

So, Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are adopting another child, this time a 3-year-old Vietnamese boy. (FOX News! but I first read about it in In Touch, natch.) That brings them up to a total of 4, including 3 adopted children and one biological child. All within 5 years.*

Do you ever wonder if maybe Angelina is addicted to adopting? I'm sure you get a rush from it--the excitement of bringing a new addition into the family; the warm feelings of giving an abandoned kid a home; and so forth. And there's all that pain in her own family life. Maybe it helps her cope.

I have a few friends who have adopted kids from overseas. It ain't easy, and it ain't cheap, and it is also a pretty big time investment. There are few people who would have the time or money to adopt three children this way, let alone raise them all. So I suppose that if this is an addiction, it is one that few people will ever have the means to develop.

*I really have to point out here that while I support adoption to control population growth and conserve natural resources, you have to imagine that kids being raised in a multi-million-dollar LA mansion are hardly living lightly on the land.

Lifting the veil

The Sunlight Foundation has launched OpenCongress.org, a website that "brings together official government data with news and blog coverage to give you the real story behind each bill."

Based on a quick click-through, this looks great. Here's the problem: a lot of information about what Congress is up to is available to the public, but only if you know what you're looking for. For example, in theory, anyone can track legislation and read records of congressional proceedings using the Library of Congress's Thomas website, House and Senate committee websites, and so forth. Doesn't mean your grandmother would be able to do it on the first try, though. And anyone could search Google News for coverage of issues, legislation, and politicos they are interested in. If they know what they're searching for.

It remains to be seen how well OpenCongress will do at weaving together the information from these different sources in a clear, accurate, and unbiased way, but for now, I say--cool idea.

Operation Spamalot: protecting the tragically gullible

The Securities and Exchange Commission has launched "Operation Spamalot," an initiative to shut down those annoying "hot stock" investment spammers, who profit when they manage to drive up the price of some cheap stock with investment tip spam. (WP)

"Shareholders lost tens of millions of dollars in the past year by biting on fraudulent Internet offers to 'ride the bull' or win 'fast money' by buying thinly traded stocks, agency officials said."

Whoa, Nelly--Tens of millions of dollars? Who on earth are these people? These people who get an unsolicited e-mail from some stranger, like the one below, and think, "hey, not a bad idea?" This is why we need the nanny state.

Every guy with a dark mustache looks exactly the same

Iraqi expat Hussein Hayal al Zaidi, once sentenced to death by Saddam Hussein, is seeking political asylum in the U.S.


Maybe his long-lost twin Borat can help him out.

Urban wildlife

The variety of critters in Rock Creek Park, right here in the District, never ceases to amaze me. You can see many of them stuffed and mounted (and a few swimming in tanks) at the Rock Creek Park Nature Center, which is also a good water stop when running in the park.

This morning in the park I saw a beautiful little red fox, darting through the falling snow on the trails. He looked very much like the one pictured here but was moving way too fast for a photograph.