Whale explodes in Taiwanese city: "A dead sperm whale has exploded while being delivered to a research centre near the southwestern city of Tainan. Passers-by and cars were soaked in blood and body parts were sprayed over a road after the bursting of the whale, which was being carried on a trailer." [Universal Rule]

That must have been something. I hope the research center can find a replacement. Whales do not appear to travel well.  11:11:32 PM    

The Pig and the Python. Some thoughts on today's fourth quarter GDP report: The growth rate -- what the British call the "headline number" -- was a bit lower than expected: 4% versus a consensus forecast of just under 5%. That's less than half the... [Whiskey Bar]

More economics than you might want to read but check out the Baefoot and Naked link in the forst comment. It has some very nice graphs of capital utilization and the employemnt rate. Not very encouraging.  11:04:16 PM    

The Humanitarian Case for War in Iraq. Ken Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, has written a commentary effectively skewering the Bush administration's "humanitarian" justification for invading Iraq: War in Iraq: Not a Humanitarian Intervention Now that the war[base ']s proponents are relying so significantly on... [Whiskey Bar]

Read the entire article. It should make for some very interesting discussions on the role of the military in police actions.  10:49:13 PM    

Why Are We Ruled by These Fools?: Part CCCVIII. The MinuteMan notes that Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia, and that the chocolate ration has been raised again: JustOneMinute: Rumsfeld Completes The Slow Flip-Flop: After months of "we don't need a bigger army", we are told that we do need a bigger army. Temporarily. People who worry about the planning process in Washington (or the connection with reality) will worry about this. I'll stop calling this administration "Orwellian" when they stop using 1984 as an operations manual.... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]

Nice to read about this 20 years after 1984 was supposed to happen. So Orwell got the dates a little wrong.  10:08:29 PM    

The "Besides That" Game!. From Sadly, No! A fun party game for all ages. Sadly, No!: The Besides That Game Returns!: GOP Wake-Up Call Besides the fact that Republican presidents accumulate record-setting deficits every time they are in office, the GOP truly is the party of fiscal discipline. Rules of the game can be found here.... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]

SOunds like a really fun game ;-)  10:02:10 PM    

The Clown Show Continues. John S. Irons covers the clown show that is Bush administration fiscal policy: ArgMax Economics Weblog: Painful cuts and bigger deficits: the president's budget will require painful cuts in programs, and no progress on deficit reductions... and these are the Republicans' complaints!... [Brad DeLong's Semi-Daily Journal (2004)]

How in the workd could the Medicare package skyrocket over 30% higher? These guys were selling a load of cr#p to everyone and when it really hits the fan in a few years, Bush and his adminstration will not be remembered fondly.  10:00:59 PM    

How Industry Hijacked 'Sound Science'... (Oliver Houck). How Industry Hijacked 'Sound Science'... (Oliver Houck) [Common Dreams]

This Administration will continue to degrade science until it is totally worthless. Which apparently is their plan. Then sound science will really be whatever they want it to be. Read Deceit and Denial to get an idea of how government abuses science in order to help corporations to the detriment of of the people it supposedly serves.  9:58:14 PM    

It's Mine Mine Mine, All Mine, Every Little Factoid in My Database! Mine!. Updated post: Recommended: The Coming of the Anti-Feist, Part II (Donna Wentworth @ Copyfight). Congress is talking about locking down data in databases. Feist was this case where the Supreme Court ruled that facts (like the temperature, the score of the local hockey team, the number of voters in a state) are not copyrightable, only special arrangements of those facts in databases, collectively are, and then it's the arrangement, not the facts themselves that are... [bIPlog]

What exactly is this bill designed to protect? What problem is it designed to fix? What benefit do the citizens of this country derive by this bill? Copyright and patents are a contract between the people's government and creators. Providing some IP protection in these cases furthers society's goals. What goals are furthered here, other than the greed of certain companies.  9:33:13 PM