Friday, March 31, 2006

Less Bang For The Buck

Only 30 out of more than 180,000 Millionaires Faced Traditional IRS Audits Last Year
"New data from the IRS reports that only 30 of the nation's 180,000 plus millionaires were subject to face-to-face audits in FY 2005. Analysis by Syracuse University's Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse (TRAC) also shows that when only traditional face-to-face audits are considered, those reporting less than $25,000 in total positive income were six times more likely to be audited than all those reporting $200,000 or more in income. IRS continues to withhold from TRAC statistical data it has made public in the past that might explain the aberration."

Who Owns The Rights?

copyright treaty table

No Experience Required

Do you want to be a God or Goddess, just start your own religion? Apply Today!

via

A Lifetime

New Orleans Recovery Could Take 25 Years

Ignore The Special Interest Behind The Curtain

Grover G. Norquist has become one of the nation's most influential activists by portraying his group, Americans for Tax Reform, as the leading ''grass-roots taxpayers movement," which gets thousands of politicians to sign a pledge against any new tax. Behind the ''grass-roots" activism, however, is a multimillion-dollar donor list that is the envy of Washington. And the Massachusetts native has always refused to name his financial backers.

Too Funny

MetaFilter's longest thread with 1729 comments.

(Obligatory stolen link with no reference to the referral source)

Happy Birthday Bucko

Ryan
Uploaded by techrcg on 7 Feb '06, 6.42pm PST.

Ryan turns five today.

Touch The Sky

Luigi Di Serio’s 15 Best Skylines in the World

Thursday, March 30, 2006

Final Statement

You don't have to live fast, or die young to leave an attractive corpse.

(I must say, this stunned even me in my belief that you can find ABSOLUTELY everything on the web)

Bottom Of The Barrel

Earmarks in Appropriation Acts [Congressional Research Service]. Because of the famous bridge to nowhere approved in the "austerity budget" this past January, there's a lot of public interest in the issue of these "earmarked" projects. Department by department, this report documents that for most of them, since 1994, there's been a fairly steady increase in the number of earmarked expenditures, the amount expended on them, and their percentage of the total budget.

Nanosecond Makes All The Difference

Best ever map of the early universe revealed

Diebold's Diecast Voting

After 23 years as Emery County clerk, Bruce Funk will decide this morning whether he will resign because he cannot endorse an election on Utah's new voting machines.

Wednesday, March 29, 2006

Fortress America

Virtually unnoticed in the immigration debate is the proposed expansion of the current immigrant detention system that is already rife with abuse, writes New America Media contributor Andrea Black, coordinator for the Detention Watch Network, a national coalition working to reform the U.S. immigration detention system. She was the executive director of the Florence Immigrant and Refugee Rights Project in Arizona.

Pay And Pay Per View

Comcast is one of the biggest media companies in the world, they hold customers in monopoly 'service' across the country. They can dictate what you see, hear, and download. Who is watching them? Certainly not our government, but ComcastWatch is.

Keep On Rolling

Abramoff also pleaded guilty in January to conspiracy and fraud charges in Washington, admitting he showered golf trips, meals, sports tickets and other gifts on lawmakers in return for actions that would help his clients. Federal investigators were examining Abramoff's links to a number of Washington politicians, including former House Majority leader Tom DeLay of Texas and Republican Rep. Bob Ney of Ohio. DeLay and Ney have denied any wrongdoing.In a recent Vanity Fair interview, Abramoff said that he worked closely with many top Republicans and said if they denied it, they were lying.

Gender Relations

Gay and Lesbian Comic Book Characters

Life In The Stacks

LibraryCareers.org "The Web site includes basic information on what it takes to become a librarian or library worker and also information on education, financial assistance and possible career paths."

The God Fossil

Most Americans who accept evolution think God created it. These scientists think they can prove the opposite.

Sunday, March 26, 2006

Pinch Yourself

How to eat lobster.

Hey Big Spenders

National Debt Graph as a percent of the nation's annual income for 1950 through the most recent federal budget projections. "The data plotted here were taken directly from the White House web site and plotted without modification." Includes links to related material about contributions to the public debt from the presidential terms of George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan. From an author and economist who consults for electricity markets.

Commercialism

A collection of older television commercials

Saturday, March 25, 2006

Dissecting Gadgetry

Take It Apart - This site is a resource to be used by anyone who wishes to see -- for any reason -- how to take apart certain electronic devices.

Spice Of Life

Alphabetic Spice Index

Like Talking To A Wall

15 answers to creationist nonsense

Friday, March 24, 2006

Disco Decade

The Top 100 Seventies Singles.

A Look Back

Daily Perspective - Your source for extra, often forgotten information and a refreshing dose of historical perspective.

Knock, Knock

The Senator Prank - Posing as a 10-year-old boy, a writer solicits U.S. Senators with a request for their best joke.

Thursday, March 23, 2006

What Do You Owe?

Debt Visualizer with a credit card calculator.

An American Icon

Norman Rockwell's The Saturday Evening Post.

Lies, Damned Lies, And Statistics

Political Arithmetik - Where Numbers and Politics Meet. A blog by Charles Franklin, a professor who teaches statistical analysis of polls, public opinion and election results. He helps people understand issues like political bias in poll samples and questions, and provides historical context for current data.

Magic Bullet

The Ground Zero Grassy Knoll - Take a look around and pick out your favorite 9/11 conspiracy theory.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Outdoor Gourmand

How to build a campfire for cooking.

Put Out A Hit

Ticket Assassin - Advice and shareware form letters and forms for fighting a traffic ticket in California

A Constant Flow

Dan Froomkin's White House Briefing blog

Meow

The Hello Kitty Encyclopedia - Here it is your full resources guide to the world of Hello Kitty!

Monday, March 20, 2006

Womenomics 101

Women play a greater role in the American economy today than at any time since Rosie the riveter gave up making bombers for the baby boom after World War II, but American corporations -- enabled by a political class dominated by men -- continue to punish them for the high crime of being female.

Science Fiction, Science Reality

Where Science Meets Fiction "Explore the wide variety of inventions and ideas of science fiction writers - over 975 are available on Technovelgy (that's tek-novel-gee!)." .

To Market

American Antigravity strives to provide the most detailed, compelling coverage available for Antigravity and Breakthrough Technology applications,

Airportal

The Airchive, you can read about the history of over 30 airlines told through their schedules and maps. Find out about airliners and airports from around the world. Ads, promos and sales literature from airlines and aircraft manufacturers. And don't forget to visit the airliner graveyards, see historic classics and check out airline museums.

Sunday, March 19, 2006

Information Wire

Scamerica.org is an informational site dedicated to helping fight the rise in online fraud and Phishing, marketing scams, Spyware and identity theft.

Knowledge Transfer

Tell Me How is the place to find out and share your hints and tips on just about everything.

Got A Date?

Google Date lets you enter a date and then searches using Google for what happened on that date and shows three results.

Saturday, March 18, 2006

Geocide

How to destroy the Earth
Why destroy the Earth?
Geocide in fiction
Earthmoving
Useful data
International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board
Interviews
History of HTDTE
Etymology

Pilgimage

Sacred Destinations - A free online travel guide to the history, significance and features of over 1,100 sacred sites, holy places, pilgrimage destinations, historical religious sites and places of worship around the world.

All Roads Lead To Rome

Google owns a lot of Domain names that point to their site.

Friday, March 17, 2006

National Strategery

National Security Strategy of the United States 2006

Get Your Geek On

From Edison's Desk is the blog of GE Global Research.

Comic Geek

The Religious Affiliation of Comic Book Characters

Lost In A Good Book

The Internet Speculative Fiction Database.

Incompetent

Bush's approval falls to 33% in the aftermath of the Dubai ports deal, President Bush's approval rating has hit a new low and his image for honesty and effectiveness has been damaged.

Thursday, March 16, 2006

When Is Good Enough?

10.2 million cosmetic plastic surgery procedures in 2005 - up 11 percent.

Dying To Meet You

Obituaries.com - Directory of newspaper obituaries from the United States and Canada. Also provides a search tool for obituaries and guest books.

It's A Bird, It's A Plane... No, It's...

The SCI FI Channel, and legendary comic book creator Stan Lee (Spider-Man, Hulk, The Fantastic Four, X-Men) will produce a six-episode, one-hour weekly competition reality series that will challenge a lucky few to create their very own Superhero and reward the winner with the best reality competition prize yet: immortality! All you’ll need is an original idea for a Superhero, a killer costume, and some real Superhero mojo. The winner of this six-week competition will walk away with their Superhero immortalized in a new comic book created by Stan Lee himself. It gets better! The winning character will also appear in an original Sci Fi Channel movie!

Th-Th-That's All Folks

Wikipedia lists hundreds of signature phrases and catch phrases.

Geek Badge

Top 10 Geek Watches

Wednesday, March 15, 2006

Darfur Today

This week, NBC’s Today Show is airing a series of television reports on the ethnic cleansing that continues to occur in the Darfur region. Although news coverage has dwindled, the genocide in Sudan has not, and it is now spreading to endanger the lives of innocent people in neighboring Chad.

No Really, Go Away!

Find a telephone Rejection Line for your area.

Rejection Hotline is similar to the one above, but they have more numbers around the US.

Go Away

Paper Napkin is a service to help passive-agressive cowards avoid people who would like to date them. If someone random asks you for your email address so they can contact you for a date, give them an email address @papernapkin.net (write it on a cocktail napkin for maximum effect) and they will send them a rejection message. You can put anything before the @ sign in the address, so feel free to use a real-sounding name so that they'll believe it. If they actually send a message and it's funny and/or desperate enough, it might get posted on the best-of page.

Olympic Dreams

Hoth 2014 - Believes that the sixth planet in the Star Wars universe should host the 2014 XXII Winter Olympiad.

Tuesday, March 14, 2006

In The News

Winners Gallery 2006 of World Press Photo of the Year.

Gecko Ball

Cactus League.com - Official site for Major League Baseball spring training in Arizona. Includes trip planners, stadium maps, history, and team information.

Do Not Forget

Foundations for Recovery - Funds for Hurricane Katrina and Rita displaced residents, as well as a New Orleans recovery fund.

Different Circles

Wafah Dufour Bin Ladin, whose mother was married to the al Qaeda leader's half brother, was born in California but lived in Saudi Arabia from the age of three to 10. Osama bin Laden's niece, an aspiring singer who posed for a sexy photo shoot in a men's magazine last year, has signed up for a reality television show about her life and her as yet unfulfilled "quest for stardom."

Monday, March 13, 2006

Unidentified Flying Object

The Mystery Airship of 1896 - on November 17, 1896, hundreds of people, from San Francisco to Chicago, saw a mysterious airship in the skies.

Impress Your Friends

Visual Walkthroughs - Presents walkthroughs of many popular video games featuring actual screenshots so the player knows exactly what to do and when.

On The Move

City Town Info - Provides comparative profiles on thousands of U.S. communities including information on real estate, families, commuting, and population.

Sunday, March 12, 2006

Conservative Hollywood

List Of Republican Celebrities

Book By Its Cover

What's My Image? is your chance to find out how others make snap judgements about you based on your appearance.

Climate Footprint

Carbonfund.org is a simple and affordable way for you to reduce your climate footprint. They reduce the threat of climate change by supporting renewable energy, efficiency and reforestation projects that reduce carbon emissions.

Saturday, March 11, 2006

You Want To Know

InterviewsRus - This site shows celebrity interview archives, just register.

Life Is But A Stage

List of fictional Republicans and a List of fictional Democrats

Hello Sunshine

Sunshine Week is not about journalists, it's about the public and the importance of protecting and promoting open government. Sunshine Week is not about protecting journalists' rights, it's about the right of all citizens to know what their government is doing -- and why.

Friday, March 10, 2006

Turning Tide

More and more people, particularly Republicans, disapprove of President Bush's performance, question his character and no longer consider him a strong leader against terrorism, according to an AP-Ipsos poll documenting one of the bleakest points of his presidency.

Thank you Anand (My friends know how to cheer me up)

A Veteran’s Letter

Mr. President:


“I Return Enclosed the Symbols of My Years of Service”

The Light Of Day

Supreme Court justices keep many opinions private but Sandra Day O’Connor no longer faces that obligation. Yesterday, the retired justice criticized Republicans who criticized the courts.

The Springfield Five

See The Simpsons intro sequence Live Action

Corporate Takeover

A group of lawmakers on Friday said an industrial bank owned by Wal-Mart, the world's largest retailer, could threaten the stability of the U.S. financial system and drive community banks out of business.

No Stone Unturned

Interior Secretary Gale Norton resigned today after five years in President Bush's Cabinet and at a time when her agency is part of a lobbying scandal over Indian gaming licenses.

The Twilight Zone

Vernon Robinson is a Republican candidate for Congress in North Carolina's 13th District. (I sat in shock watching this clip)

Thursday, March 09, 2006

A Whole New Universe

Star Wars Blogs

Darfur Update

Human Rights Watch

By The Power Vested

TheocracyWatch raises awareness about the pervasive role of the Religious Right in the U.S. government. TheocracyWatch is a project of the Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy (CRESP) at Cornell University. CRESP is a nonsectarian, action-based educational organization with its roots in religious dialogue, human rights advocacy, and ethical thought.

God Help Us All!

Executive Order: Responsibilities of the Department of Homeland Security with Respect to Faith-Based and Community Initiatives.

President Bush ordered the Department of Homeland Security March 7th to create a center for faith-based and community initiatives within 45 days to eliminate regulatory, contracting and programmatic barriers to providing federal funds to religious groups to deliver social services.

Under President Bush, millions of dollars of faith-based and abstinence-only grants have gone straight into the pockets of religious conservatives, including major grants to right-wing evangelical outfits such as the Christian Coalition and Prison Fellowship Ministries. Muslim, Jewish, Buddhist, and Hindu organizations have yet to receive a single cent of faith-based funding.

Five years ago the Christian right was in a tenuous position. Its standard-bearer, the Christian Coalition, was under investigation by the IRS and the Federal Election Commission, and many of its state chapters were nearing collapse. Now, five years later, thanks to George W. Bush, the Christian right is on top of the world. Bush has not only bucked up the movement by ceding huge swaths of his domestic and international policy to this lobby, from his efforts to block abortions and gay marriage to his expenditure of significant political capital to support abstinence education, church-based social services and socially conservative judges. He has also revived the movement by injecting tens of millions of federal dollars directly into the coffers of the Christian right's grassroots organizations, while at the same time starving their most vigorous political opponents of funds--singling out family planning and AIDS organizations for special punishment.

Bush told the audience that since he had been unable to garner congressional support for his faith-based initiative, he issued executive orders; recently putting the finishing touches on regulations instructing all federal agencies not to discriminate against religious groups. This executive order makes religious groups eligible for $3.7 billion in Federal program funds dispersed through the Justice Department.

Happiness Is A Warm Gun

Videos by The Beatles on YouTube

Wednesday, March 08, 2006

View From The Gallery

Legal Commentary - Lay-Skilling trial analysis from Texas attorneys

Mash It Up

Mash Up Mansion is a new blog all about mashups.

Got You Covered

American Matchcover Collecting Club - At this site, you will enjoy information about matchcover and match-industry history, an online store, a matchcover auction, and much more.

Full Monty

Full Disclosure - Business writer Loren Steffy at the Lay-Skilling Enron trial.

Partisan Politics

According to the Wonkette, the US military is censoring liberal websites for our soldiers in Iraq.

Tuesday, March 07, 2006

Desert Deserters

Decades later, Marines hunt Vietnam-era deserters. Attorneys, Louis Font and Tod Ensign, say the Pentagon, and the Marine Corps in particular, are cracking down on long-term cases in an effort to warn current-day troops in Iraq against deserting. "My view is that the Marines are trying to send a message to people in the ranks today that they, too, will be required to participate in a war, whether they think it's illegal or immoral," Font says. (Related story: 8,000 desert during Iraq war)

Port In A Storm

World Port Index and searchable database; List of U.S. Ports; List of worldwide ports; Ports in the World; Seaports of the Americas.

Why Must They Torture?

U.S. Cites Exception in Torture Ban - Bush administration lawyers, fighting a claim of torture by a Guantanamo Bay detainee, yesterday argued that the new law that bans cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment of detainees in U.S. custody does not apply to people held at the military prison.

What's Left To Like?

An existential question to the remaining Bushites

They Track Us

GovTrack.us - A nexus of information about the United States Congress, following the status of federal legislation and the activities of your senators and representatives.

Monday, March 06, 2006

~*~THHhhWWwwWwPPppPPSss~*~

26th Annual Golden Raspberry (Razzie©) Award “Winners”

07734

Common Pager Codes - Quick reference to common pager codes, numerical representations of phrases or words, usually sent to numerical pagers.

Piece Of The Pie

Snapshot of Philanthropy's Response to the Gulf Coast Hurricanes from the Foundation Center.

(I'd like everyone to at least look to see the difference in the rate of individual giving to the corparate rate.)

With My Little Eye

Set your alarm clocks between 4:30 and 5:00AM sometime over the next two or three days because a bright new comet that can be seen with the unaided eye, even better through binoculars, is dancing head first near the horizon almost due east before sunrise. The comet is named Pojmanski and has been given the official designation of C/2006 A1. It was discovered earlier this year on January 2.

Follow The Leader

Enron Trial Exhibits and Releases from DoJ.

Sunday, March 05, 2006

The Goto Guide

Knowledge Hound - Free how-to advice on a variety of subjects from around the web.

Call To Order

Your Parliamentary Procedure Resource

X Cite'ing

getCITED - Online academic database providing citations to journal articles, books, reports, conference proceedings, and other publications.

Saturday, March 04, 2006

Stamp Licker

Postage Rate Calculator - Calculate domestic or international postage with this tool from the U.S. Postal Service. Select your mail's destination, shape, size, and weight to get a postage quote. Also includes a ZIP code lookup.

I Knew That

Answerbag - A user-built and moderated collection of universal Frequently Asked Questions.

Ovaltine Decoder Ring

ZipDecode - Java-based map of the continental U.S. that progressively narrows down the area covered by a ZIP code as you type in the numbers one by one.

Friday, March 03, 2006

This Just In

Talking Heads - A project capturing images of all the anchors on cable TV.

What's Your Frequency Kenneth?

AM/FM radio signal strength as according to zip code.

Crazy Craze

Top 10 strangest iPod accessories

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

Take A Right

Map24 - plan your route in 3D

Discourse Disconnect

US Troop poll results in 72% of American troops serving in Iraq think the U.S. should exit the country within the next year, and nearly one in four say the troops should leave immediately. In a BBC poll, 58% of Americans think the troops should stay. 85% of US Troops said the U.S. mission is mainly “to retaliate for Saddam’s role in the 9-11 attacks,” 77% said they also believe the main or a major reason for the war was “to stop Saddam from protecting al Qaeda in Iraq.”

Abu's Freedom Of Religion

Americans know more about The Simpsons TV show than the US Constitution's First Amendment, an opinion poll says.

(Our own President needs to re-read the entire document, then maybe he'd stop doing some of the things he's doing.)

WAV Planet

Online Audio Database

Another Night At Home

Icebox Diner - Consumer-to-consumer reviews of prepared meals, TV dinners, and frozen entrees, along with full nutritional information, ingredients, and macronutrients.