Lets start today’s entry with how I start my day: Get some coffee and have a look at APOD.

Neat. Now, to the news(ish)!

Hawkeye football players under curfew. 5 Hawks have been suspended since mid-July this year.

Home foreclosures up 80% in August 07 compared to July in San Diego County. I also have heard that Miami-Dade County in FL is close to the same story, but I’ve heard that contractors there are still building new properties. Nothing like a heaping pile of denial to help you ignore reality.

“Disrupt then reframe.” Ars talks about a marketing strategies research paper.

Vertical Farming in Seattle. Considering the projected food demands in the next 50 years, I expect this sort of thing to find some real uses, and not only in cities.

Remember all that NSA spying? Think someone needs to answer for it? Well, there’s a big push to take the telco companies out of that equation by granting retroactive immunity.

Dan Rather fights back. Took him long enough.

…

Took a few days off, as is my perogative. 😛

Secrets of the 6V battery revealed! I had no idea.

Wreck and Salvage Season NUMERO GIGANTE DOS is and has been available! Seems to have a nude theme started…interested if they ride that the whole season. Nerds should start here and then thank Miss Witherspoon.

Bob Dylan is still not dead and is dragging Elvis to Iowa City. This item aimed at a certain Californian of my acquaintance.

Sprint is breaking into WiFi/Cell hybrid market. Good to see movement on this technology. If one person were to digest the idea thoroughly, one could see why deploying a common carrier WiFi network not controlled by a major telco conglomorate would be advantageous to innovation and local commerce, as well as providing a revenue stream from said major telco conglomorate. And just think if that one person were on an oversight board…

The New York Times ends the online pay service. Good. This was a silly move for many newspapers and I’m glad to see it start to fade away. Sell subscriptions for the service of removing those annoying ads, not to read the articles.

NY Telco PAETEC buying McLeodUSA. More local telco stuff, but the level of Fino-investo-manager speak in the buyers statement is worth a read. (e.g. – ‘synergies’)

Sperm donor litigation discussion. Interesting conundrum on posthumous insemination and inheritances. I think the Gazette just wanted to put ‘Sperm’ in a headline.

‘Tramp Stamp’ safety concerns. Tattooed and preggers? You may not want to get that epidural.

Nicholas Johnson weighs in (last Friday) on the push to arm campus police, and how that reflects on us as a society. I agree wholeheartedly that the rush to give University DPS guns should be much more tempered than it currently is. Be sure to poke around over at Mr. Johnson’s blog, there’s a lot there to think about.

ACLU supports Larry Craig (R-ID) in his bid to withdraw his guilty plea. The cultural and legal issues/information that are coming out because of this keeps on surprising me. Good on the ACLU for throwing their hat in. Make sure to catch the tidbit about Mr. Craig’s civil rights voting record at the end. [Hat tip to George on this find]

More coming…sometime…

Good morning/afternoon/sabbatical!

Here’s what I’ve got for today:

Verizon sues FCC over 700MHz auction Open Access Provisions

Peninsula Neighborhood Draws Mixed Opinons – Has a decent history of the place included in the article, and some good insight in the comments. I really didn’t have an opinion on this until I drove out there and looked, and once I did, it seemed like a well intentioned but ill timed (and somewhat ill placed) idea. Expect this neighborhood to be an issue in the next elections. For those who want to see first hand, here is a link to the location. (Google maps)

Winamp to Challenge iTunes – Winamp Lite (free) is my player of choice. Something to be said for simplicity.

Alberto’s last day – TPM Muckraker snipped one of the most interesting parts of the article:

Almost every senior Justice Department official has resigned or announced plans to depart this year, leaving the department under the control of more than a dozen acting officials. More than a quarter of the nation’s U.S. attorneys are also temporary appointees, partly because of the mass firings that eventually had repercussions on Gonzales’s tenure.

DoD and ‘Homeland Security’ flunk audits – I know its not surprising, but it should be repeated until people actually understand what that means. It’s right there in the first paragraph.

For those who like a good civil rights debate, here’s your story for the day.

So far on this ‘blog’ it’s been mostly internet findings, but not too much serious stuff. In an effort to show more than 1 dimension, I am going to try a daily post of ‘newsie’ items. At first this will just be a collection of links, but at some point I hope to add some commentary [informed or otherwise] and possibly elicit feedback from those of you who care to comment.

I’ll still be posting the oddness I find in my internet journeys, but I thought that if I’m going to be representing myself on the internet with a blog, I’d better actually ‘represent’. Thusly…

CLEVER’S NEWSISH ITEMS

Oil Buddies – Talking Points Memo

ISB&T Changes Name – IC Press Citizen

FCC to cable: You must support analog TVs until 2012 – Ars Technica

Big Ten Network losing confidence in Mediacom Deal – CR Gazette
Live in Iowa City and have a complaint that Mediacom isn’t addressing? Let your cable administrator know!

I will be updating this post throughout the day.