Bush sets new record

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304 billion dollar deficit

Well, Bush has gone and set a new record by plunging the U.S. into a $304,000,000,000 deficit, which is only likely to get worse and worse (I’ve seen some estimates eventually putting us at the trillion level) should we start turning Iraq into a molten slagheap. Doubly impressive when only a few years ago, at the end of Clinton’s time in office, the US actually had a $236 billion surplus — according to this infographic, the first time the US budget had been in the black at all since the Johnson/Nixon switchover. Previous recordsetting defecits had been set by King George the First ($290.4 billion) and his predecessor, Ronald Reagan ($221.2 billion).

I guess there’s always that drive to show up your folks by doing them one better, eh? Seems to me that Bush (and the country) would have been better off if he’d tried to show Clinton up by increasing the surplus, but hey, I’m no politician.

And yes, I know that the Sep. 11th attacks have contributed heavily to our current deficit. However, I also know that the surplus was virtually wiped out prior to Sep. 11th with Bush’s tax rebate checks.

Grrr. Can we just get to the next round of elections please? My single vote might not be enough to get Bush out of office on its own, but I’m sure itching to do my part to try.

(Infographic from Yahoo!, via Megnut)

More on Animatrix

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Back in October, I mentioned an upcoming DVD release called ‘Animatrix’ — a series of short animated films set in the universe of The Matrix. It turns out that of the nine shorts that will be on the disc, four are going to be released to the web, and the first has just been posted.

Very interesting stuff, as it turns out. Well animated, and at least in this epsisode, fleshing out the back-story of the universe, taking a look at the creation of the machines and beginnings of their rise to power. In fact, I think that one of the sequences in the short — a robot on trial for the murder of it’s owner — reminded me of one of Asimov’s robot stories, though I can’t bring to mind exactly which one. Or I could be remembering something else, which is entirely possible. In any case, I’ll definitely be picking up the DVD when it finally hits the streets.

(Via /.)

WTC finalists chosen

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The two finalists for the WTC replacement

The two finalists for the project to rebuild on the site of the World Trade Center have been announced.

Of the two, I’m partial to the Think proposals, especially the World Cultural Center. I wasn’t entirely sold on it until I watched the flyover animation of the entire structure, but I have to admit, that’s a very impressive concept. I also liked the effect of the lit ‘towers’ at night (seen at the end of the animation) — in my mind, they tie in very nicely to the Towers of Light spotlights that took the place of the towers for a time.

Daniel Libeskind’s proposal, on the other hand, just doesn’t grab me as much. It doesn’t have quite the same striking visual aspect to it — aside from the spire reaching skyward, for the most part it just comes across to me as one more big building in the middle of New York. Maybe it would work better once realized, but from the pictures shown here, I’d go for the Think towers, myself.

So — which is your choice?

The pervert motto

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Ross: Rachel won’t open the door.

Phoebe: That’s because you’re a pervert.

Ross: I am not a pervert!

Phoebe: That’s like the pervert motto…they make you put your right hand in the air, your left hand down your pants, and recite that.

— “Friends” (thanks to Prairie, who is brave enough to watch shows like that so I don’t have to!)

Nothing to see here. Really.

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Pablo Picasso’s anti-war painting “Guernica” has hung in the lobby of the U.N. since 1985. It serves as a sobering reminder of the horrors of war to those in the U.N. who may be faced with making decisions as to whether or not to sanction attacks against one country or another.

Unless, of course, it’s politically expedient not to remind them what war can do, in which case we’ll just cover it up.

Television cameras routinely pan the tapestry as diplomats enter and leave the council chambers, and its muted browns and taupes lend a poignant backdrop to the talking heads.

So it was a surprise for many of the envoys to arrive at U.N. headquarters last Monday for a Security Council briefing by chief weapons inspectors, only to find the searing work covered with a baby-blue banner and the U.N. logo.

The drapes were installed last Monday and Wednesday — the days the council discussed Iraq — and came down Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, when the subjects included Afghanistan and peacekeeping missions in Lebanon and Western Sahara.

So when Secretary of State Colin L. Powell enters the council Wednesday to present evidence of Iraq’s acquisition of mobile biological weapons labs and terrorism ties, he will walk in front of flags that wouldn’t look out of place in the auditorium of a high school gymnasium.

(Via MeFi and BoingBoing)

Photographic glitches? Lightning? Alien death rays?

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Well, it shouldn’t take long for all the various conspiracy theory buffs to start jumping all over this one —

A San Francisco amateur astronomer who photographs the space shuttles whenever their orbits carry them over the Bay Area has captured five strange and provocative images of the shuttle Columbia just as it was re-entering the Earth’s atmosphere before dawn Saturday.

The pictures, taken with a Nikon-880 digital camera on a tripod, reveal what appear to be bright electrical phenomena flashing around the track of the shuttle’s passage, but the photographer, who asked not to be identified, will not make them public immediately.

I think the thing that bugs me the most about this is that even though NASA has set up a page for people to upload images and video that they may have taken during the shuttle disaster, rather than do that (or, to give them the benefit of the doubt, maybe in addition to that), this guy decided to run to the media and stir up a little controversy. \<grumble>I guess everyone needs their fifteen minutes of fame, deserved or not.\</grumble>

MT: SimpleComments

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Thanks to a clever little hack by Adam Kalsey, all comments and TrackBack pings that I receive are displayed as a single list on each entry’s page, sorted by the time they were received. Much nicer visually than having two seperate listings of responses to one of my posts.

(Via Phil R. and Phil U.)

geek*muffin

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Ladies and gentlemen (or, given my readership, mayhaps that should be lady and gentleman?) — please stop by and welcome my good friend Kirsten to the weblogging world.

I give you: [geek*muffin]!

This describes the beginning of geekmuffin. I am the flawed, the utterly imperfect, screwy wannabe-god of this blog, a nearly-clueless fucking idiot trying to make something that at least works, sort of.

bear with me until i graduate from idiot to underling, and this place won’t look so pre-made.

(Now I just have to hope she doesn’t smack me upside my possibly well-deserving head for jumping on this so quickly….)

Desktop images from Columbia

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Columbia moonrise

Columbia sunrise

There are some gorgeous images taken by the crew of the Columbia before it broke up on reentry, courtesy of NASA. I’ve taken two of my favorites and turned them into 1024×768 desktop images, which you can grab here if you like.

On the left: “STS107-E-05697 (26 January 2003) — A quarter moon is visible in this oblique view of Earth’s horizon and airglow, recorded with a digital still camera aboard the Space Shuttle Columbia. (NASA caption)” (Original high-resolution version)

On the right: “STS107-E-05070 (18 January 2003) — The bright sun dissects the airglow above Earth’s horizon in this digital still camera’s view photographed from the Space Shuttle Columbia. (NASA caption)” (Original high-resolution version)

(From lies.com via Dave Winer)