16 Sep 2005
G.O.P. Split Over Big Plans for Storm Spending

This will be a big part of the real price we'll all pay for the Federal Government's bungling response to Hurricane Katrina: a guilty inability on the part of Congress to say "No!" to any rebuilding scheme, no matter how insane or idiotic.

We, as a nation, simply cannot afford $62 billion for Katrina relief, $90 billion for Iraq and $140 billion in tax cuts. But I guarantee that this Congress will try - and end up foisting the bill on our grandchildren.

The drive to pour billions of federal dollars into the Gulf Coast is widening a fissure among Republicans over fiscal policy.

(link) [New York Times]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft's Vista looks to get tablets on write track

Tablet computers will always be a sideshow - they'll never take off to become the new laptop. Why? Because handwriting is a disappearing skill - penmanship is no longer taught in schools beyond the most rudimentary levels, and nearly every document (even personal letters) is composed on a word processor. Even the typewriter has practically gone the way of the dodo.

The only way that tablet PC's could make any inroads would be for the old stenographer's skill at shorthand to make a comeback. This was the trick Palm used with the original Pilots - a standardized system of gestures and sweeps that conveyed information - but it sure as Hel was not handwriting!

With new desktop Windows, company hopes to solve some Tablet-tech problems, starting with your unintelligible scrawl.

(link) [CNET News.com]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

Anthrax confirmed in northeastern Montana

A natural outbreak of a non-weaponized, non-aerosol variety of anthrax, and hence not spread animal to animal. Yet look at the death rate - 15%. Read the warning to ranchers. And wonder what a few pounds of stuff from Soviet or American labs spread over, say, Montana or Nebraska could do to the cattle population.

If terrorists get bioweapons, and grow a bit sharper on military strategy, they won't be targeting Los Angles or Melbourne - think Bozeman and Perth, or the vast reaches of the Great Plains and the Outback.

HELENA, Mont. - A naturally occurring case of anthrax has caused the death of 37 cows from a single herd northwest of Culbertson, according to Dr. Tom Linfield, Montana state veterinarian.

(link) [The Prairie Star]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Adult use of ADHD medicines surges

Given this recently reported study, it occurs to me that we as a society are merely substituting one drug for another - enriching "Big Pharma" rather than "Big Tobacco".

But with this we get a bonus - all prescription pharmaceuticals are "safe and effective when used as directed"! Right?

Use of prescription drugs for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is growing at a faster rate among adults than children, new research shows.

(link) [CNN]

00:00 /Home | 3 comments | permanent link