Sorry I haven’t been around, but we’ll always have NEWSISH:

• How Your Creepy Ex-Co-Workers Will Kill Facebook – more and more I hate Facebook. Did you know this?
• Court orders Bush administration to disclose telecom lobbying ties. What about senators? – Good news for Law and order types.
• Leahy takes next step toward holding White House in contempt – It must be ‘grow a pair’ day…
• Venus: Earth’s twin planet? – Cool pictures to boot.
• No Hoff, and now this? – I guess not all remakes can be as good as Battlestar.
• Feds pushing states on gun database – ‘there is no guarantee that the information wouldn’t be used for other purposes‘. You mean the gov’t isn’t completely trustworthy? I would add the question of competency to that as well…nothing like losing 4 million persons mental health records. But its for our own protection, of course…
• This could never be abused either…
• VA GOP will demand ‘oath’ of February primary voters – I can smell the ’08 confidence…
• And if you screen wasn’t cluttered with enough ads…

¡Noviembre newsish, ahora mismo!

• No email privacy rights under Constitution, US gov claims – Of course, Big Brother has your best interests at heart. Expect an email encryption tutorial in the near future. Via ./
• Picketing begins in NY in writers strike – Beware the rabid Reality shows, they are a-comin’
• Season 1 of The Jubi Show is in the can! Well, maybe not ‘the can’, but it is grouped together on a magnetic storage medium, as well as an array of DVD discs.
• More Wreck and Salvage available. I’ll need 7 wheel chocks [octogonal], 73 left handed garden trowels, 3 dry erase markers, 1 gallon of kerosene, and 6 packs of Doublemint [Plent-T-Pak]. Place your orders now.
• Verizon DNS Redirection ‘Service’ Spreads – When you have a captive audience due to a mono/duopoly, you can do pretty much whatever you want.
• Senate Committee Approves Broadband Bill – You have to follow the links in the article to get the whole picture, but at first glance this seems like a great step forward for local responsiveness and control over broadband offerings.

maybe some more later. maybe not.

We start the day with the IM buffer regreaser left me over the weekend:

• France’s new answer to youth crime: the building-less entry-hall
• McCain: Eats hot dogs, loves ABBA. Wants desperately to be cool?
• Good Dog, Bad Cat

Here’s some more:

• I Was a Hacker for the MPAA – not me personally, just the title of the article 😉
• Slideshow: Instant Housing and Designing for Disaster
• Russia’s Space City Frozen in Time
• Some of the students in my office made a Youtube video advertisement.
• After fight, airport embraces SUX code
• Waxman Accuses Blackwater of Millions in Tax Fraud, Cover-Up
• How to Make a Robotic Dalek Pumpkin – via HogBlog
  
  This thing looks awesome:
  
• Think Tank Recommends Broadband Regulation – First of most likely many links to Broadband Reports
• Comcast traffic blocking: even more apps, groupware clients affected

Today’s vocab words: phenomenology, flocking

I haven’t the time to explain it to you, you just have to trust me. Now go, and take your newsish:

• The case of the missing CableCARD-ready set-top box
• President Colbert? Then who’s the VP, Carell or Stewart? Or Pappa Bear?
• House Votes to Extend Internet Tax Ban – Senate, you’re up.
• Coralville getting more retail – A ‘Galleria’ next to the mall? The comments in the article are intriguing.
• Mid-American franchise for IC moves forward – Good, bad? I have not a clue.
• Remember, Iowa Citians/Johnson Countonians: You can vote by mail [absentee] very, very easily.
• Read what one of your Iowa Senators is doing.
• Clapton Shreds!
  
  More on the author of the above piece.
• Second Earth
• F*&# the FCC: Appeals Court upholds FCC anti-line-sharing rules – For all the bruhaha about competition, the FCC sure does alot to stifle it. Be sure to read the comments on the article, some real gems and priceless links.
• 

I have a job. Back later?

Tuesdays don’t require lead-ins.

• How The Onion tackles tech
• Bio-inspired construction leads us closer to transparent aluminum
• Phone Companies Refuse to Provide Data on Spy Program
• “He had refused to drop the camera which could be used as a weapon.” – Good luck with that one. Link has video.
• AT&T threatens to take its ball and go home over Connecticut TV rules – Someone pushes back on state video franchising, even if only on a technicality. The big fella’s really don’t want to talk about the nuts and bolts of this legislation, as then people will see what they are losing so that ‘video service providers’ can serve a select marketing group.

Maybe more later, I’m pretty busy.

Today’s Vocab Word: Flatulence

I didn’t want to do this, but they made me.

• Colbert writes Dowd’s column.
• Men should ejaculate more. As if there needed to be a legitimate reason
• Mmmm, Ritalin nachos.
• This 2 part series from DKos is an interesting thought experiment: Part 1, Part 2.
• TPM Muckraker is awesome. Plenty to read there.
• Radiohead’s Warm Glow – An analysis of the ‘donation’ model of the band Radiohead’s most recent release
• FCC lifts AT&T pricing restrictions – While this doesn’t affect consumers directly, it could prove to be extremely detrimental to smaller, local phone and internet providers by allowing AT&T to increase backbone access rates. One more deregulation in the name of consolidation…er, I mean, competition.

More later.

Today’s Vocab Words: revanchism, femtocells

Just gonna drive-by on these:

• AT&T threatens to disconnect subscribers who criticize the company
• Consumer group blasts binding arbitration clauses
• Money In, Money Out [doesn’t matter your party]
• US trains Gulf air forces for war with Iran

You should just read them.

My Wonderful Trip To South Africa That Didn’t Happen Thanks To The TSA And Delta Airlines

Interview with Kip Hawley, head of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA)

I went. It was great. Hell, it was awesome.

For a good concert-goer rundown, go read this guy.

For the Chicago Sun-Times version, go read this article.

I’ll put up my two decent pics I took after a bit.

Here’s the opener:

but its nice to have someone say it to you.

It is worth noticing though, the backlink to the SEO site. Even that site could end up being about money. [Update] See this post’s comments. Seems the backlink was just part of the counter code.

Via Digg

AND this type of crap is also part of our problem.