Bush adviser quits after appearing in swift boat ad. Politics. Sigh... I think it's best to just shake my head in bemused wonder
at the whole spectacle.

There's no way to obtain clean separation between the 527 "churches" and the "states" of political campaigns. Both are peopled by politically active folks, many of whom have undoubtedly worked on both sides of the 527 / political party fence. They all move in the same circles and go to the same parties. For every "official" connection, I'm sure there are hundreds more in the form of cocktail advice.

I suspect that even if both candidates shook hands and agreed to do everything in their power to prevent negative advertising, they could barely influence third-party political grandstanding. Why? Because there is money to be made - either directly ala Moore, or through increased donations to the 527 groups. And what could be more patriotic than free enterprise? If there was a strong need to reign in 527 noisemakers, effort would have to be directed at the source of their power - the purchasers and contributors who fuel these quixotic fires.

I believe third-party mudslinging is tarnishing the image of the political process and institutions, and this effect is surely a mixed one. So much of the authority and structure of our society is built on psychological foundations - it really is a case of the plane continuing to stay in the air because all the passengers believe that this massive, steel and aluminum envelope can fly. To the extent that political mudslinging undermines this faith, we can expect greater turbulence in the form of increased corruption and general disrespect for law. OTOH, it tends to bring the politicians down a notch and makes voters less manipulable by charisma and more focussed on performance issues.

A larger issue being raised is the notion that free speech must be regulated. I believe this is something which should not, and for many practical reasons, can not be effectively policed. If a moneyed muckraker wants to be heard, the message will go out.

And, hey, it's better than most "reality TV"!

Thin Film Fuel Cells May Obsolesce Large Electric Plants. This could be big. Or small, really. The article claims two soda-can-sized thin-film fuel cells attached to a household gas line could produce 5 kilowatts, (almost) enough to supply the entire electrical needs for the house, at twice the energy conversion efficiency of current power generation and distribution technology. Come to think of it, I can't ever remember having a gas outage. But in our neighborhood, we suffer electrical outages once every couple of months. Sounds great all around. I hope we see it real.

Massacre. How is it that this sort of thing gets almost no attention? If the opening paragraphs instead read:

New York - Hundreds of people wandered silently through devastated alleyways around Times Square in New York CIty, trying to make sense of a massacre of almost 160 men, women and children.

Victims were shot, burned and hacked to death at the well-known tourist spot in an overnight attack on Friday.

"The enemies came and shone lights on the people, then they fired shots and stabbed them," said Xavier, a survivor.

How does being on the other side of the world make such a huge difference in how people feel about this? We live in primitive times.

Lawyer sues Yahoo "he called me a bad word, mommy!" It never ceases to amaze me what people will sue other people for. This nimrod is suing Yahoo because someone on one of Yahoo's discussion boards subjected him to a bunch of abusive messages, and Yahoo's terms of service forbid such abuse, but because Yahoo did not prevent the abuse, they owe him big time, along with anybody else he can get to join his class-action suit.

StumbleUpon Toolbar. Better than surfboard wax, StumbleUpon's toolbar is addictive, and more useful than Google for finding interesting new stuff. A big thumbs up.