Harvesting items, newsworthy or not

 
All hat, no cattle, again: "Restore confidence to investors," Bush says, but don't even think of hiring new regulators to do it. Here's another view of the Administration's edicts; this one made me laugh out loud. Nor will the Bushies help the steel industry address its biggest problem; all those promised benefits to current and former employees. But the tariffs may provoke constructive dicussions with trade partners, argues Clinton's trade rep, Mickey Kantor. If something of that sort does occur, one can be sure Mr. Bush and his minions will be the first to say "see, that's what we had in mind all the time," and it might even be true.

Deconstructing Art: John Singleton Copley meets medical historian. More prosaically, how about using a Pringles can to hack into wireless networks? And here's a local story which would be really funny if it wasn't fraught with potential disaster; an impounded car, in use as a training vehicle for bomb-sniffing dogs, was returned to its owner by the Army. The catch: it was returned a tad early.

UH Wins Again!
posted by Link Meister at 11:25 PM

 
By golly, a test which finally gets me right!

	You are Kermit! Though you're technically the star, you're pretty mellow and don't mind letting others share the spotlight. You are also something of a dreamer.
Take the What Muppet Are You? Quiz!

(via Erin)

Suggesting food to Jon is emphatically not what I have in mind here, but...Chorizos! Presumably the web source in the article is not fraudulent; here's a story about auction sellers who are. Caveat emptor, people! More edifying is this article about finding replacement china on the Web; Bob, TOC, got any interest, here?

Forget the possibly questionable ethics of this behavior; is this the kind of judgment one wants to have in the person who controls the US Army (and its budget)? "The Securities and Exchange Commission should be able to punish corporate leaders who clearly abuse their powers, by banning them from ever serving again as officers or directors of publicly held corporations.". That's President Bush, speaking to the 2002 winners of the Malcolm Baldridge awards. Well, sir, how about applying the same standard to public officials? If they behaved unethically in their capacity as private executives, shouldn't they be precluded from serving in policy-making positions in the Federal Government? Of course, this might (emphasize might) eliminate a few members of your own Cabinet(see previous story), but...

UH wins!
posted by Link Meister at 4:24 PM

 
Another victory for the disclosure cops; if the Administration keeps losing these, they might learn a little humility. Ya think? Humility could also be learned by the (mis?)management folks at ABC.

"Many social conservatives argue in favor of stay-at-home parenting--just not when the parent is a poor woman with young children who may have been abandoned by a spouse. Such women, according to Bush, must spend more time out of the home and away from their children." Couldn't have said it better myself; wish I had. In the same vein, although it's since been disavowed, is this charming idea; why should those welfare folks get paid minimum wage?

Here's one for all the film-makers out there (you listening, Hoops)? In other film news, need a soundtrack? While listening to the soundtrack, guys, perhaps you'd like some pasta? For something entirely different, have some cuckoo news!

Off to March Madness; see y'all later!
posted by Link Meister at 5:38 PM

 
Musicians' graves in New Orleans are sometimes honored more in the breach than in the reality; a plywood headstone marks the grave of Jessie Hill, composer of Ooh Poo Pah Doo. From graveyards to penthouses, the A-List of moguls!

I do my share of railing against our current President, but I've never thought he was complicit in anything like this; quoting Yakov Smirnoff, "What a country!"

Anyone interested in how much your metropolitan area is scheduled to receive for AIDS primary care can look here. More medical news: a new portable needle system for breast biopsies is about to go on the market. Why one would need to do up to 16 biopsies a minute is beyond me, but...(I have this vision of an assembly line of women going through an oncologist's office). And lest ye worry about the nation's medical schools, fear not. They are gearing up to teach a future generation of doctors about the threat of terrorism.

Volcanos slide into oceans, creating catastrophes. We can see forerunners of this event every day, merely by hiking a few miles on the Big Island. When you see clouds of steam rising from the ocean as lava flows reach it, you start feeling really insignificant. And regarding insignificance, do you suppose that's what this woman felt while being painted?
posted by Link Meister at 4:18 PM

 
If you like Stoly, you're unwittingly in the middle of a copyright fight. In far less amusing news, suspicion of your government may kill your kids. More suspicion of government, this time in the UK; the "Golden Boot" awards given by Privacy International include one to the UK government.

"...humans might pull off a real-life version of "Star Trek," minus the space Lycra and perpetual syndication rights." Sounds good to me; I've always wanted to see Alpha Centauri. The folks in Tuvalu, on the other hand, just want to see their beaches remain sandy.

Finally, all of you Barry Manilow fans, rejoice! He's released an entirely new album! (Yes, yes...lousy critical reviews encumbered the guy in the past, but if you've ever seen a live show or one of the PBS specials that air during pledge drives, you gotta admire the talent. He really entertains an audience.) And if you wanna stay home or go jogging, try this; books on CD, not just tape.
posted by Link Meister at 6:40 PM

 
Mom's eye is improving steadily; today she can read the trailers at the bottom of the TV screen during CNN's Late Edition, while simultaneously muttering about the continuing slide of Wolf Blitzer from the merely inane to the completely useless as a tough questioner of his guests. This is good news. A little more good news, this less personal, but nonetheless welcome; and nearly as exciting for Hawai'i sports fans is this breaking news. If ever an award was deserved, this is it.

Maureen Dowd is 14 months younger than I am, and we even have a common employer (I delivered the Washingon Star in the early 1960's); it seems entirely unfair she can use vitriol so much more effectively. The topic is Administration secrecy, of which more here. "The cumulative message from the White House and from Ashcroft is: Stall. Don't release..." Charming; instead of government "of the people, by the people, for the people" we have government of, by and for the Executive Branch. And on and on it goes: Senator Reid of Nevada has filed an amicus curiae brief in the GAO case demanding Cheney release his energy task force records; he feels that Bush lied about using Yucca Mountain as a prospective repository for nuclear waste. Similarly, of course, Senator Lott and Congressman Delay have virtually accused Senator Daschle of being unpatriotic for questioning Administration war policy; supposedly, democracy includes honest debate, but not, apparently, to those two.
posted by Link Meister at 5:27 PM