Net Neutrality

This is important, now that the internet is a widely used medium, and has increased it's value exponentially, the telecom's want more control over it. No thank you. If the telecoms want QoS for Video, they can overbuild the networks first, and provide service (45 Mb/S, Synchronous, over fiber) worth the alleged $200 billion stolen from tax-payers.

…an unfettered open road is directly at odds with the broadband business plans of AT&T (formerly SBC), Comcast, Time Warner, and Verizon. The cable and telephone industry see enormous revenues as operators of a private Internet toll-road.

Save the internet has everything you need, including a list of the congress members who aren't acting right. It is a coalition which includes Vint Cerf, and Bob Kahn after all... that's the father of the Internet and the main engineer behind it for the rest of us.

CryptoKids™ America's Future Codemakers & Codebreakers

Ok, so maybe the NSA isn't all that bad.

All you need to know...

Truthiness hurts.

And as far as presidential approval rating polls go with the glass is half empty analogy: "the last 1/3 is usually backwash." You can thank Stephen Colbert too.

I think it's safe to say that the biggest challenge for Stephen Colbert after his show started was, could he distinguish himself from Jon Stewart and The Daily Show? I've watched almost all episodes of The Report so far (and TDS :)), and there are times where he comes off as a parody of Chris Matthews more than O'Reilly, because he does take certain arguments to exhaustion, but the rest of the show is unique and has loads of comedic value (Go fightin' Pacifists! of non-violence preaching Universities). I saw more of that at this dinner (even if some of the material was old :)).

The Washington Post has wide coverage.

A couple of good Slate articles about the whole, forget taxing the oil companies, let's give them tax breaks instead logic. It really is an obscene world we live in.

If 150 million barrels could be extracted a year ago for $46 a barrel, it shouldn't cost much more than that to extract another 150 million barrels in 2006.
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The oil industry refers to this as "production," but a more accurate term would be "extraction." Nature produced the oil and charges nothing for it.
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Let's round off a bit and say that American oil extractors are getting an extra $25 a barrel. For 150 million barrels a month, that's $45 billion a year. And that's just for the oil that's extracted. The oil that remains in the ground is also about $25 a barrel more valuable. And other energy resources—used and unused—are more valuable by a similar amount.
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Ordinarily, we shouldn't want the government to decide when profits become "excess." But the case of huge profits from the run-up in oil prices is different for two reasons. First, it is unusually clear that these profits have nothing to do with productivity. Diverting them to the U.S. Treasury would have no effect on the incentive to extract more oil from American ground. Second, some or all of these profits are directly related to a situation that is imposing huge sacrifices—financial and otherwise—from others; that is, the Iraq war.

and...

What none can acknowledge is that higher gas prices in the United States are a good thing. To be sure, oil at $70 a barrel causes hardships for working people and delights some of the world's worst dictators. But cheap gasoline imposes its own costs on society: greenhouse gas emissions, air pollution and its attendant health risks, traffic congestion, and accidents. The ideal way to cope with these externalities would be with higher gas taxes or a carbon tax. But these are politically impossible ideas at the moment—Democrats lost control of Congress in part because they passed a 4-cent-per-gallon tax increase in 1993. The next best solution is the one that has arrived on its own: a high market price for oil, which spurs conservation and substitution. Sustained high prices will bring about behavioral and political changes: energy conservation, public transportation, less exurban sprawl, and eventually the economic viability of alternative fuel sources such as biomass, fuel cells, wind, and solar power, which may one day undermine the power of the oil oligarchs. Are politicians too stupid to understand this, or just smart enough not to say it aloud?

Haha, it was only a matter of time.

From the autoextremist (Everything except the next two lines)...

What's the difference between a redneck and a NASCAR fan?
None :)

So, I think it's about f^%-ing time...

It has come to our attention that serious discussions are taking place for the first time in the conference rooms of one domestic manufacturer in particular on a subject heretofore unthinkable in Detroit. The subject? Pulling out of NASCAR. Yes, it has been mentioned before, and I have predicted it for months now - ever since the announcement was made that Toyota would be buying its way into the France family circus - but we have confirmation that not only are the discussions taking place, they're so far down the road that a timetable for a pullout has been created, taking into account the end dates of existing contracts with individual racing teams currently aligned with this particular manufacturer.

This can't be overstated: Considering how NAFTA is effectively off the table even while discussing immigration and other trade reform, Adam Smith argued for movement of free labor, not just free movement of capital. Without trade agreements reflecting this, immigration is as simple as osmosis, people will go where the jobs are. Also, tax breaks on the order of hundreds of millions to a foreign company so they can setup a manufacturing plant, doesn't happen in other countries a lot.

PMD: The Saturn Aura has the design presence, the content, the tasteful interior packaging and the overall value equation necessary to make a real impact in the market. In short, it has "hit" written all over it. The Aura's problem? It can be encapsulated in one eye-opening number - $175 million. Why is that number significant? $175 million is the amount of money Toyota is going to spend to launch the new Camry. If Saturn is lucky, they might get $50 million to launch the Aura - that is, if they're lucky. The number will probably be closer to between $32 - $40 million. The Aura is a perfectly competitive car in every respect, with the added bonus of an authentic, on-the-road presence - and it's in danger of getting launched in such a way that the majority of the car-buying consumers out there will barely even notice it exists.
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we're now dealing with a global economic world that cares little about "free" trade or doing business the way we as a country think it should be done. Every import auto manufacturer has exploited our way of doing things here. Build plants? Sure, we'll do that - if you guarantee a big enough incentive package that would make it worth our while. But if a Detroit manufacturer were to ask for some relief to do business the answer would be: "We're not bailing your asses out, what have you done for us lately?" It's as if the U.S. government is dismissing the 100+ years that the automobile industry has thrived here, and the role it has played in powering the economic engine that made America's economy the envy of the world.
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Consider this: If each and every vehicle sourced from an offshore-based automobile company (whether they're built here or not) had a $1,500 tariff slapped on it that would be paid for by the manufacturer and would go directly to a fund that would underwrite the pensions and health care costs of our own automobile industry and its workers, then we'd be a lot better off.

They ruined it!

It looks like a Miata or an Acura TSX from the front


...and a bangled BMW from the back, and the side is just ugh... I won't even bother with pictures. Give me the original TT, which is still in the Gugenheim, with the V6 and a DSG anyday. It has been, and will continue to be the perfect car in my mind. I would take a Turbo 1.8T + a DSG swap or a Turbo V6 mod :)

Acura vs. Porsche in LMP2 should be good to watch, I must say the ALMS and endurance racing in general is getting to be racing like it should be. F1 has gotten it's act together as well, but I don't do performance racing.