Print your tax forms to PDF.

Never has Mac OS X's "print to PDF" capability come in so handy as when I had to email tax documents to my accountant.

Lots of banks offer tax forms online these days, and instead of printing them out on paper and snail mailing or faxing them to your accountant, print 'em to PDF for emailing or archiving on your hard drive. Mac users, this functionality is built right in for you: from the Print dialog, choose "Save as PDF" from the PDF menu. Windows peeps, free software CutePDF will add this capability to your PC. Perfect for income tax return slackers (like me) who need to get their accountant their forms pronto.

 
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[Lifehacker]

The print to PDF feature of OS X is one of its unheralded advantages. It is so easy and something that I have to do so often.  9:09:06 AM    

A creationist pest.

A certain creationist has been spamming me lately with these same questions over and over. I'll answer them here, and I'll send the link to JASE3217 and see if we can't get him over here to "handle the truth."

From: JASE3217
To: pzmyers@pharyngula.org
Sent: Fri, 10 Mar 2006 17:23:10 -0500
Subject: About evolution?

1. Is a theory a fact or a belief?

2. Where did the gases (big bang theory) come from?

3. After the water was formed, what was the first creature to come out of it?

4. Was it amphibious? Or did it run in and out of the water until it developed lungs?

5. If, yes why would it develop lungs under water?

6. What are the true mathematical odds (ask someone in your physics department) of something evolving? Of course you won't because you don't like the physics department, because they always prove biologist wrong.

7. If any of these questions are answered with a no, then using science they can not be facts at all!

This would make the cartoon completely hypocritical. You see if you just simply BELIEVE in evolution, then you have a religion! The religion maybe Darwinism, but if you answer I don't know to any of the questions above then you have a faith based concept of how we as a planet came about. Not a fact based!

I would challenge you to answer these questions, and give me a reply! I doubt you will, because most of you people are only interested in your truth and not actual truth. Try reading LEE STROBEL, "A Case for Christ."

I see you won't answer my questions, but I figured you wouldn't because most liberals can't handle the truth.

Ho hum. I've put my answers below the fold.

Read the entire post | Read the comments on this post [Pharyngula]

These aren't even very difficult questions. The inability of so many creationists to even bring forward coherent arguments is astounding. And they all feel that by simply disproving evolution or the Modern Synthesis or even just Darwin, that this means creationism is true. That does not follow.  9:06:13 AM    

And the Winners of the "MURROW for a MINUTE" Contest Are....

And the Winners of the "MURROW for a MINUTE" Contest Are...

Truly amazing effort on everyone's part. It was a great pleasure for me to put together this contest on behalf of John, and I thank everyone in the C&L community for being so gracious and welcoming. Of course, a special thank you goes to the amazing John Amato for the invite and I look forward to next time.

Here are the three winners, which were compiled through the comment section here, as well as emails I received through my blog. Kryptic came in a strong first; Steve Davis second; with Ian in third place. Congratulations! (Nice efforts by Scott Knick, Kitty, Jeff, Mike Anderson and Emmett, but just not enough.)

Once again, the C&L "Murrow for a Minute" winners, only this time I'm going to add Murrow's coda, which they've earned the right to share, at least in this community.

When the government and journalists no longer speak for the American citizen, the American Citizen must learn to speak for himself. Good night, and good luck. - Kryptic

Too often, this administration has been unable to distinguish friend from foe, or to separate substantive reasons from insubstantial rhetoric. To the Republican chairman, who believes that the senator from Wisconsin has 'sided with the terrorists,' we offer the following advice: when you find yourself on sentry--Republican and Democrat alike--with the lines drawn close to your enemies, and when the night's smothering darkness is broken only by the flashes of distant battle, there is a password to let you know friend from foe, and that word is 'liberty.' Good night, and good luck. - Steve Davis

We must not forget that everything we take for granted was once an act of great courage. That only by risking one's comfort, one's job, or one's life, can we ensure that future generations will not have to do so. Good night, and good luck. [^] Ian

guest posted by Taylor Marsh

"Good night, and good luck."

[Crooks and Liars]

Loved all of these. Wish we had some reporters who would actually talk and act this way. Most are just too comfortable with their high salaries to actually ever rock the boat. Superstar journalists are the death of journalism. Someone making millions a year is really not so interested in the little man. And the guys who might do something work in outlets that really do not have the resources to accomplish much. I guess TV really did destroy the Golden Age of Reporting.  9:03:52 AM    

ABC's Tapper: Iraqi sitcom coordinator assassinated while I was there.

ABC's Tapper: Iraqi sitcom coordinator assassinated while I was there

On "Reliable Sources" Sunday morning, the discussion revolved around" if the media's coverage was fair," and Jake Tapper of ABC recounted a horrifying story that illustrates the violence that permeates Iraq.

                                               Video-WMP Video-QT

(transcript provided by CNN)

TAPPER:  It's a very complicated question, obviously. What journalists, when, who, what are you talking about specifically? I think that there is a lot of violence still in Iraq, and I think that if you listen to commanders on the ground and if you go to Iraq, you'll see that that security situation is an incredibly important one.  And as much as the Pentagon may not want to talk about it or may want to talk about the positive, the parliament and the elections and the things that are being achieved, which are tangible achievements, the violence makes it very difficult to get past, you know, the daily boom.  Let me just -- one quick story. 

We wanted to do a story about the freedom of the press in Iraq, and we went to the set of a new Iraqi sitcom that they're filming, because there's been -there's all this entertainment now, and it's one of the things that the ambassador there has trumpeted. 

KURTZ:  So what happened? 

TAPPER:  We got there, and the guy who had set it up with us- we shot-we shot for a little while, and the guy who had helped us arrange it was assassinated the very morning while we were there on the set.  And so our cameras were rolling while the director and the producer and the cast and crew found out that the guy that had green-lit the show and the guy that had set up our being there was killed.  So no matter how hard we try to cover the positive, the violence has a way of rearing its head. 

KURTZ:  Talk about changing your storyline.

[Crooks and Liars]

Even when trying to cover something good, something bad intervenes. This is like something out of the movie Network.  8:54:17 AM    

Iraqi Police Accuse US Soldiers Of Executing 11 Civilians In Raid Last Wednesday....

Iraqi police have accused American troops of executing 11 people, including a 75-year-old woman and a 6-month-old infant, in the aftermath of a raid last Wednesday on a house about 60 miles north of Baghdad.

The villagers were killed after American troops herded them into a single room of the house, according to a police document obtained by Knight Ridder Newspapers. The soldiers also burned three vehicles, killed the villagers' animals and blew up the house, the document said.

[The Huffington Post | Full News Feed]

We will have to see how this plays out but it does not help us with the Iraqi population if our troops are involved in these things. No new schools can overcome this sort of news  8:51:34 AM    

Dubai Company May Take Over Some US Weapons Plants....

Dubai, which agreed this month to sell its interest in U.S. ports, said its $1.2 billion takeover of a U.K. company with U.S. plants that make military equipment is delayed while the authorities investigate security concerns.

Dubai International Capital LLC, which is owned by the government of the Persian Gulf emirate, and Doncasters Group Ltd. agreed to delay the transaction by as many as two months from March 31 while government agencies review the purchase, Sameer Al Ansari, Dubai International's chief executive, said in an interview today.

[The Huffington Post | Full News Feed]

So, building equipment for our military raises security concerns but running our ports does not. This sure makes me feel safer.  8:49:06 AM    

A Promise

8:40:06 AM    

Who Are The Crazy Ones?. NASA climate scientist Jim Hansen again blasted the Bush-Cheney White House, saying that Climate Change is 'real', and that human activity is the most likely cause (See Mole333's diary):

[CBS] "There's no doubt about that, says Hansen. "The natural changes, the speed of the natural changes is now dwarfed by the changes that humans are making to the atmosphere and to the surface."

CBS asked Ralph Cicernone, the president of the National Academy of Sciences, about Hansen's expertise and conclusions:

"I can't think of anybody who I would say is better than Hansen ..." Asked what is causing the changes, Cicernone says ... "Carbon dioxide and methane, and chlorofluorocarbons and a couple of others, which are all -- the increases in their concentrations in the air are due to human activities. It's that simple."

Dozens of federal agencies report science but much of it is edited at the White House before it is sent to Congress and the public. It appears climate science is edited with a heavy hand. Drafts of climate reports were co-written by Rick Piltz for the federal Climate Change Science Program [...] Asked what happens, Piltz says: "It comes back with a large number of edits, handwritten on the hard copy by the chief-of-staff of the Council on Environmental Quality." Asked who the chief of staff is, Piltz says, "Phil Cooney." Cooney, the former oil industry lobbyist, became chief-of-staff at the White House Council on Environmental Quality.

This is consistent with what scientists at many government organizations have been saying quietly for years now: The White House is second guessing and/or censoring every facet of public science policy based on what is 1) the most convenient for the corporate funding base, or 2) pleasing to the radical, religious right.

Daily Kos and other progressive venues have been attacked by right-wing ideologues who describe us as 'crazy or 'extremist'. Yet, the progressive base believes the rule of law applies to everyone, that science trumps wishful thinking, that our Constitution matters, and that the War in Iraq was based on lies and has been run by incompetent civilian leaders at the highest level.

Much of the conservative base makes a habit of denying scientific reality and arguing that the Constitution is meaningless when applied to George Bush or Dick Cheney. Millions of them fervently hope and sincerely believe that any day now, they and a few selected animated corpses straight from the grave will be sucked up right out of their clothes, and plopped onto heavenly ringsides seats to gleefully watch the eternal torture of every man, women, and child left behind. Tell me again, who are the crazy ones?

By DarkSyde . [Daily Kos]

But as someone in this administration said, they create their own reality. Too bad that has no effect on global warming. Their reality is going to hit 'real' reality and we will all have to deal with the consequences. King Canute, anyone? Except he tried to make the waves go back to prove a point to his courtiers - That he was no all powerful and their flattery did not make him capable of the impossible. We have here an administration that actually believes it can make the tides retreat.  8:37:29 AM