From the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, this story of a remote-controlled robot armed with a water cannon that its creator, Rufus Terrill, claims has helped prevent break-ins and drug deals on his block and stopped vandals from trashing a local day care center. Others suggest he's a vigilante who's harassing the homeless.
A while back, I mentioned the town of Obama in Japan. The Ethiopian Review has a story on how "this ancient fishing town of 32,000 people" is rooting for the candidate with the same name to win, hoping he'll put them on the tourist map.
Supporters in Obama — which means "small shore" in Japanese — have held parties to watch election results, put up posters wishing the senator luck and plan a special batch of the town's "manju" sweets bearing his likeness.
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Lest cynics find the city's efforts naive, it was Obama himself who first drew attention to the connection.
Obama, speaking to Japan's TBS network in December 2006, said that when he flew once to Tokyo, an officer stamping his passport told him of the town.
"He looked up and said, 'I'm from Obama,'" the senator said.
Over at Edge, Kevin Kelly confronts the economics of the digital age:
When copies are super abundant, they become worthless. When copies are super abundant, stuff which can't be copied becomes scarce and valuable.
When copies are free, you need to sell things which can not be copied.
Well, what can't be copied?
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From my study of the network economy I see roughly eight categories of intangible value that we buy when we pay for something that could be free.
A recent Slashdot discussion brought up the the way that Soledad O'Brien asked John Edwards about evolution, specifically the phrase "man came, evolution-wise, from apes.", and whether that was an attempt to whip up the ""I didn't come from no monkey!" camp.
It got me imagining my ideal candidate giving a reply. Wouldn't you love to hear something like this:
"Why, yes, Ms. O'Brien, according to our best evidence we did descend from apes - more precisely, we and modern apes descended from a common, ape-like ancestor. And I'm proud of how far our species has developed, how far up from the muck we've come, how far towards grace we've climbed; and I hope that our umptity-great grandchildren will be as far above us as we are above the Australopithecines. My opponent the Biblical literalist, on the other hand, seems to hold that we're all the fallen result of incestuous inbreeding from a single original pair of idiots dumb enough to be fooled by a talking snake. I've got to say I find the scientific account not only more rational, but orders of magnitude more inspiring."
Letter to the Editor, Baltimore Sun:
What strange world does Governor O'Malley inhabit, where the state taking flesh from citizens is "noninvasive" ("O'Malley urges DNA collection", February 14, 2008)? Ignoring for the moment the massive privacy concerns that DNA collection raises, there is a much more fundamental issue here: the sovereignty of the state ends at my skin. The government has no legitimate authority to compel citizens who have not been convicted of a crime to undergo any medical procedure, however minor.
Jesus of Nazareth had a pretty good take on the question of how far the legitimate authority of government goes: "Render unto Caesar what is Caesar's; and unto God what is God's." Our bodies may or may not be "temples" of some deity, but they certainly are not Caesar's, for him to demand any amount of flesh from us, for any purpose.
Put down whatever you're doing and go read Tim Kreider's artist's statement for this week's The Pain -- When Will It End?.
Highlights:
But there’s a half-millennium of institutional racism on this continent, and social progress happens slowly and unevenly, person by person. There are still vast, savage swaths of unapologetic bigotry in this country. I spent fifteen years living in a county where there's still an active Klan chapter, where guys in diners or bars will casually drop the old N-bomb early on in a conversation just to test you out, to see if you’re one of them or some “edjumacated idjot.” This wasn’t in darkest Alabama or anything—it was technically within the East Coast megalopolis, between Baltimore and Philadelphia, just off I-95. There are millions of people out there who chuckle over the wit of the nickname “Obama-Osama.” And thanks to the second amendment, they can all have top-of-the-line, high-powered rifles with excellent telescopic sights.
So who won Super Tuesday?
For the GOP, obviously McCain won big, and will almost certainly take the nomination. Huckabee is staying in, running surprisingly strong, and may have a shot at the VP slot on the GOP ticket.
For the Democrats, it depends on how you count. The Obama campain claims victory yesterday and a lead in the total delegate count. But look at the New York Times results, and they say Clinton's ahead. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Reason magazine and StopTheDrugWar.org detail the sad story of Barack Obama's cowardice on the issue of marijuana decriminalization.
The Washington Times broke the story, reporting that in his 2004 Senate campaign Obama supported eliminating criminal penalties for cannabis use or possession. When the Times brought this up, the Obama campaign first stood by those remarks - then, within 24 hours, changed its story and declared that Obama does not support eliminating criminal penalties for cannabis.
If you thought Barack Obama was a man of courage, think again.
Reuters reports that CIA Director Michael Hayden has admitted to Congress that his organization used the near-drowning torture known as "waterboarding" on three suspects captured after the 9/11 attacks.
Two interesting endorsements for Obama:
Randall Munroe, author of the great webcomic xkcd, notes Obama’s commitment to open systems.
Shepard Fairey, creator of the "Obey Giant" campaign, is putting his sticker and poster art behind an effort to make Obama the face of progress.