Unqualified Offerings

Who imagined that the great opportunity for joint progressive and libertarian advocacy and activism would end up being economic? But that’s where we are. This loathsome bailout plan is a slap in the face to anyone who believes in either free-market principles or social justice. William Greider calls it “a historic swindle.” Paul Krugman says, [...]

By Thoreau
This past week I went to a workshop on designing writing assignments, because bad lab reports are the bane of my existence.  It was a useful workshop (pedagogy workshops are actually useful when the person giving them isn’t trying to help you find Jesus and buy a timeshare) and I got some great ideas [...]

Wouldn’t it save administrative costs if I just started giving my money to random rich people?

By Thoreau
I am thinking of renting an apartment that I can’t afford.  This will eventually cause me to eat through my savings and go broke, and when I default on my rent my landlord will lose money for a few months until I’m evicted and a new renter is found.
I ask that when I do [...]

By Thoreau
A friend just coined the exquisite phrase in this post title to describe the schadenfreud of watching a Republican politician’s privacy invaded by digital snoops.
I am not glad that her privacy was violated, but goddamn do I love sneering at hypocrites.

By Thoreau
I mentioned this a few days ago in the comments, but I’ll blog it anyway:
China got the first major oil deal with the new Iraqi government. Not a US firm, China. Now, some may see this as a refutation of theories regarding oil and the motivations for the war, but consider how [...]

By Thoreau
Via Schneier, I learn that the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History conducted a dissection of a giant squid. The dissection team was a museum curator and a 9 year-old boy.
Schneier seems to have a weekly tradition of Giant Squid Friday, and I have decided to start a Monkey Tuesday at UO. [...]

By Thoreau
Scientific American has an interesting article claiming that for most voting machines (paper, touch screen, whatever) the error rate in a well-run election will be around 1 miscount per 10,000 ballots. I don’t know how valid the study is, but let’s assume it’s good. Even allowing for cases that come out double [...]

By Thoreau
Satellite data supports the contention that ethnic cleansing prior to the surge is the real reason for the decrease in violence in Iraq.
My question is, why do military weather satellites hate Our Brave Troops so much that they won’t give the credit to heavily armed government employees?