State News

John Nance, the former FAA administrator, and now an aviation consultant to ABC News, says that there's a 50-50 chance that the missing Air France jet went down in an explosion. The story was just on ABC. They tended to downplay Nance's comments, but I have to admit, i was wondering about the possibility of terrorism as well. Obviously, it's too soon - and it's suspicious that no terrorist group is claiming credit, since they're usually not very shy about such things.

The Dish was all over yesterday's big story - the assassination of George Tiller by a crazed Christianist. We traced O'Reilly's troubling rhetoric here, here, and here, and readers checked my reaction here. We chronicled the disturbing role of Operation Rescue here, here, and here, and commentary from the far right here, here, here.  A noteworthy voice on the far-right was Robert P. George, who struck the perfect chord. We also aired personal accounts of abortion here and here.

A traumatic Sunday, to say the least. For the right approach to religion, listen to Bob Wright.

Verizon Wireless will introduce phones based on Google Inc.'s Android software "in the near future," its chief executive said Thursday.

So far, only T-Mobile USA has introduced an Android phone in the U.S. Several manufacturers are making phones with the software, including Samsung Electronics Co. and Motorola Inc.

Previously, Verizon Wireless has been noncommittal to Android.

"Conspiracy theorists ... said that we would never do anything with Google, but we have had some very good dialogue with Google," Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam told an investor conference in New York, according to a transcript. "We like what we see and we will, in fact, be bringing Android devices to the marketplace in the near future."

McAdam also said that the country's largest cellular carrier will carry the Pre, an eagerly awaited new phone from Palm Inc., within six months.

However, McAdam may have misspoken: Sprint Nextel Corp. spokesman James Fisher said Sprint will be the exclusive carrier for the Pre at least until the end of the year. It was the first time Sprint confirmed the minimum length of the exclusivity period.

The Pre goes on sale June 6, and is seen as a chance for Palm to revitalize a line that has been losing out to Apple Inc.'s iPhone and BlackBerrys from Research In Motion Ltd. The phone features a touch screen, a slide-out keyboard and a new operating system, WebOS. Sprint, which has been losing subscribers, also needs a hit device.

McAdam added that Verizon Wireless will launch within six months a previously unknown Palm device, a "cousin" to the Pre. Palm has said it is making WebOS the basis for an entire new line.

The Verizon Wireless CEO complimented Motorola, which is struggling to turn around shrinking phone sales.

"You'll see Motorola back into our portfolio. We feel very good about the progress that the Motorola...

“A documentary film by Jack Oatmon ( http://twitter.com/jackoatmon ).

A look into the hardware hacking community in Montreal, including the Foulab collective. Why are more and more hobbyists experimenting with hacks and circuit bends? What relationship does this imply about consumer society and technological advancement? Is this a real-world analog of ‘user generated content’?

Check out the lab: http://foulab.org/

Check out more music by XC3N: http://www.last.fm/music/XC3N“

Related posts:

1. New York City Hackers ...


2. Chariots Of The Gods, Classic 1970 Documentary Based On Von Daniken’s Book Of The Same Name ** HIGHLY RECOMMENDED ...


3. The Joseph Newman ‘Energy Machine’, Turning Matter Into Energy ...

Do you feel safer today? Let's hope so, since you're certainly less free to travel about the Northern Hemisphere. Beginning just after midnight, every American returning from Canada, Mexico, and various island paradises now have to flash a U.S. passport to get back in the country. For the 70 percent of citizens who don't have passports, that means a minimum four to six weeks waiting time (and probably more, given the new filing rush) to legally escape the national boundaries. Better hope you weren't birthed by a midwife and have a funny-sounding surname!

No one informed Betancourt that his American citizenship was in question before – not in all the presidential elections he's voted in, not when he served in the Marines and not when he first became an emergency medical technician a decade ago. His father, a U.S. citizen, also served in the Marines.

"It's like a slap in the face," Betancourt said. "It doesn't change the way I feel or act, but I'm trying to do something as American as apple pie and go on vacation, and it feels like I've got the rug pulled out from under me."

Well, at least our country's top political leaders are totally aware of this grimly important trade of liberty for security.

Bill Clinton and George W. Bush admitted yesterday they had no idea the U.S. was implementing a new rule Monday that would require Canadians and Americans to have passports to cross the border.

The former presidents were caught off guard during a 90-minute joint appearance in Toronto when moderator Frank McKenna, the former Canadian ambassador to the U.S., spoke about how Canadians feel slighted by the new rule.

"I'll be frank with you Frank, I don't know about the passport issue," Bush told the crowd of 6,000.

"I thought we were making good progress on using a driver's licence to cross the border. What happened to the E-Z card?"

Clinton said he'd only heard about the passport requirement a day earlier, adding that in all likelihood most Americans were completely unaware of it as well. [...]

"I promise you, you have got my attention with this, so I'm going back home I'll see if there is anything else I can do," he said to cheers from the audience.

Yet another indication that our previous two presidents would have been better off reading Reason.

How Canadian can you get?

The Finance Minister understates the deficit by $16 billion. Do we get mad?

Nah. The guy's doing his best. Let's give him another chance.

Canadian Press:

OTTAWA - Canadians appear to be willing to cut Finance Minister Jim Flaherty a little slack over his deficit shocker.

A Canadian Press Harris-Decima poll shows few Canadians think the
finance minister should resign just because he made a $16-billion
mistake on his deficit projection.

The survey of 1,000 people finds only 28 per cent who want Flaherty to
step down, while 59 per cent think he should stay on the job.

Even among Liberal supporters, 54 per cent don't think he should lose
his position because the budget deficit has ballooned to more than $50
billion - not the $34 billion predicted in the budget four months ago.