I know we've talked about this, but this figure is truly amazing...

According to the U.S. Department of Energy, around 75 percent of the energy
used by our home appliances is drawn while we think they are "off."


http://grist.org/advice/ask/2007/11/05/?source=daily

http://www.we-make-money-not-art.com/archives/009784.php

From http://ssdp.org/drugwardraft/ ---->

"FAST FACTS:

* 200,000 students have been denied education opportunities since the Aid Elimination Penalty was added to the Higher Education Act in 1998.

* 18 percent of Army recruits in Fiscal Year 2007 year needed waivers for past criminal behavior, according to the Military Times.

* More than 350 prominent education, addiction recovery, civil rights, and religious organization have called on Congress to overturn the aid elimination penalty.

* More information about the Aid Elimination Penalty can be found at http://www.ssdp.org/campaigns/hea/

NEWS HITS:

Military Times - "Chu: Some lawmakers would need moral waiver" http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/10/military_chu_congressmarijuana_071010w/

Military Times - "More Army recruits have criminal past" http://www.militarytimes.com/news/2007/10/ap_armyrecruits_071010/

New York Times - Editorial: "Cutting College Aid, and Fostering Crime" http://www.nytimes.com/2005/07/20/opinion/20wed4.html "

What a surreal chain of events if, at some point, it's Blackwater vs. the U.S. military in full frontal violence...

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/10/12/105744/13

Uh-oh. I recently got a small phone with a keyboard

From the organization that brought us among other things, the Internet and current GPS technology, comes some really sci-fi shit. http://eetimes.com/news/latest/showArticle.jhtml;jsessionid=DCOQXJM2YHC4UQSNDLSCKHA?articleID=202200707

We were talking about it and thought it unsettling to one day have to watch for swarms of bugs that might be government surveillance.

And then, this, at a recent anti-war rally...
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html

Really? That's what its gonna be like in 2007? And here I thought I was gonna weave this in as some good background setting for some sci-fi...

Though it is some really fascinating stuff and potentially useful technology as long as it's used responsibly and yadda yadda yadda...

the village idiot's clip reel rolls on...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Z1tevub9I&eurl=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2Freader%2Fview%2F%3Fadded%3D1

In 2004, the two conflicts together cost $94 billion; in 2005, they cost $108 billion; in 2006, $122 billion.

The new spending request is likely to push the cumulative cost of the war in Iraq alone through 2008 past the $600-billion mark -- more than the Korean War and nearly as much as the Vietnam War, based on estimates by government budget officials.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-na-warcosts22sep22,0,234891.story?coll=la-home-center

Let the good times roll...

I'm not kidding. what if? We've set up the military might to slowly drain the county creating refugee camps on the borders of its neighbors.

Ten billion dollars a MONTH spent on the war why his people go without? What for? It feels stupid and patronizing to even ask that rhetorical question.

here's something else to chew on.
http://www.loosechange911.com/

This is not a fringe, nut ball theory here people as Time points out.  This is maintstream political theory when 36% of Americans consider it "very likely" or "somewhat likely" that government officials either allowed the attacks to be carried out or carried out the attacks themselves.
(http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1531304,00.html)

That's currently the same amount of people that approve of the president's job performance. (http://www.cnn.com/2007/POLITICS/09/13/bush.poll/index.html)

That's nice an ironic for me as I (and many, many like me) consider supporting the president a nutball and stupid idea.

Now, the time article also points out that often conspiracy theories arise in the face of great catastrophe. That conspiracy theories, like the "9/11 was an inside job" theory to create some comfort for people.  I can understand and respect this.  For a small group of people to completely disrupt a nation is rather unsettling.  It would be more comforting to think there was an elaborate plot perpetrated by the U.S. government as opposed to some  small sect of people.  I also completely agree that it is dubious that the federal government is smart and slick enough to carry out such an attack and manage to keep most of it a secret from the mainstream. 

I do have to ask the question, what is more elaborate?  Is it a group of saudi arabian men with no flight experience, that failed flying tests in Florida that were able to navigate the NYC skyline to hit the towers and dupe one of the most protected air spaces in the world, or was it something else?