WashPo Poll Shows Americans like Obama Energy Policy

We want cap and trade (subscription required - but only a free one), say 52% of Americans... probably if they worded it something like, "would you support a system where companies that pollute beyond certain reasonable thresholds are required to make contributions to a system that invests in renewable energy projects" that 52% might grow. Anyway, this is awesome. Thank you Washington Post, and thank you America for being friggin awesome. Now, Congress, are you listening!?!?!? Seriously! Let's get this cap & trade done, already.

An interesting peek at Iran

I stumbled today upon an interesting collection of images from Iran pulled together by a guy who's a student at teh New School in NYC... he was interested in showing some of what normal life (before the election and the ensuing protests) looks (or looked) like in the streets of a nation many Americans know so little about.

Shatner

Enjoyable little Friday tidbit from SNL

William Shatner SNL skit Get A Life 1986-12-20
Uploaded by efly2020 - Watch more hilarious videos.

PA to have 2 Democratic Senators as of later today, Democrats to have even bigger less filibuster-prone majority!

Wowzers... so PA has played big this year... the Phillies won the World Series, the Steelers the Superbowl... the Sixers and Flyers made the playoffs (at least I think the Flyers did, right?) but no sports action can quite rival what's going on in Washington today thanks to the Keystone State. With almost 30 years of service in the Senate, stalwart independent/moderate Republican Arlen Specter is announcing later today that he will switch party affiliations to join the majority and (once the whole Minnesota debacle is settled) provide a filibuster-proof margin to the Democrats in the US Senate.

Now, Specter has been facing up with the prospects of a concerted challenge from right-wingers in PA come the next round of elections, and while he enjoys a high degree of popularity back home the state laws are such that only registered Republicans can vote in their party's primary for the Senate seat. If Specter lost the Republican primary he would not be able to run as an independent like Lieberman did up here in CT... so there certainly is some smart political calculus behind the decision. Anyway, this is a pretty monumental day in politics, PA state politics and a big day for Democratic priorities up on Capital Hill!

Since my election in 1980, as part of the Reagan Big Tent, the Republican Party has moved far to the right. Last year, more than 200,000 Republicans in Pennsylvania changed their registration to become Democrats. I now find my political philosophy more in line with Democrats than Republicans. - from a statement released by Specter today

Thanks, Arlen!

Oklahoma suddenly a much much cooler state, after all

Why? Because their official state rock song (how many states are even cool enough to have one of those?) is "Do You Realize?" by the Flaming Lips, one of my all-time favorite bands! If you don't feel the coolness yet, read more about the epic legislative battle and internets vote that lead to this triumphant outcome.

Or you could just listen to some of the song and get the idea of what a Flaming Lips show is like below!

Weren't they going to secede already?

Wow... Texas produces another of its wonderful turdblossoms in the form of this amazing exchange that took place in the house of representatives on the pressing subject of where oil comes from.



Wow, it's frightening to think this guy helps write/decide on our laws. What a dingbat.

Friday Turkish Um... You know... thing, with music and craziness

Wonkette posted this, and I couldn't resist passing it along.

Happy Friday folks! It's getting up to the 70's here in CT today! Wahoo!

R.I.P. Harry, Voice of the Phillies and the summers of my childhood.

I've been waiting for the right video to post about this, and since Jayson Stark, who is now a baseball commentator for ESPN wrote about sports and baseball in Philly for many years I think this one, narrated by Jason is the right one:



... from a description of yesterday's game:

After Victorino homered in the third, he crossed himself and then pointed up to the booth at Nationals Park where Kalas was supposed to be working.

The day was full of tributes to a man who will be dearly missed.

UPDATE:
From a story on Phillies.com about tributes to Harry:

...But to properly honor Kalas throughout the remainder of the 2009 season, players, coaches and manager Charlie Manuel will wear "HK" patches on their uniforms. The black circular patch will be located on the front of the jersey near the heart.

It seems a fitting tribute for a man who Phillies fans loved for 39 years.

Will your job be outsourced to Dr. Roboto?

Yahoo News reported yesterday that scientists have created robot scientists, capable of reasoning about scientific data and drawing conclusions, planning subsequent experiments, etc.

At Aberystwyth University in Wales, Ross King and colleagues have created a robot called Adam that can not only carry out experiments on yeast metabolism but also reason about the results and plan the next experiment.

It is the world's first example of a machine that has made an independent scientific discovery -- in this case, new facts about the genetic make-up of baker's yeast.

"On its own it can think of hypotheses and then do the experiments, and we've checked that it's got the results correct," King said in an interview.

Watchout! It's only a matter of time until they advance so that the robot scientists are made of liquid metal and can shift into any shape or form they like, then we're all doomed!!!

TPM TV's Thursday in 100 Seconds

This is a fun bit of editing wonderment, put together by the folks over at Talkingpointsmemo.com. This is a regular feature of their site, but yesterday's antics up on Capitol Hill made for an entertaining barrage of rhetoric... so enjoy! I have now watched the Stephen Colbert clip you'll see late in this video a handful of times, and I continue to be amazed by Meredith Viera conceding that she, like Stephen has "twatted."

A Shatterproof Wooden Baseball Bat?

The resiliency of popular maple bats was a hot topic in the major leagues last year as several people were grievously injured by shattered pieces of the nontraditional wood. In an article on the recovery of a Pittsburgh Pirates coach who was injured by a broken bat, an ESPN article linked to the interesting story of a guy in New Jersey who quit his consulting job to start a company that makes "shatterproof" bats out of wedges of wood using glue and pressure. The bats won't be appearing in MLB games anytime soon but as somebody who always liked the feel of wood a bit better than that of an aluminum bat, I was really intrigued by the idea.

Photo Galleries

I like pictures. I like them quite a bit, actually, so I enjoy the way the web has become a fun place to view strange collections of photos. Huffington Post often collects little slideshows to accompany the main news stories of the day, or even to illustrate something smaller... say, Michelle Obama's hugs. Yup, that's right. Today I found a gallery of photos of the first lady hugging people on HuffPo. Wow. I really don't quite know what more to say about this 'cept, um... wow.

Now, don't get me wrong, it looks like Michelle gives out a good hug, and who doesn't like a good hug, after all? But... well... bah, what do I know. I looked at it, and now you can too.

So, aside from hug slideshows, what else is fun out there this Friday? How about Sesame Street explaining the Bernie Madoff Scandal?



Have a good day, don't get ripped off out there, and hug someone you love this Friday, the 13th!