Redefining abortion

According to this essay, I would be pro-baby, but are there any pro-spermers who'd like to speak up?

The Uses of Scare-Talk

Such is the title of a recent Economist article, highlighting the strategy of national Republicans in the face of poor prospects in this fall's Congressional elections.

We're making progress?

The image says it all.

John Lennon and National Security

If you're looking for a reason why John Lennon's FBI files are considered key to national security, you better ask the Bush administration. According to this story, several of the documents in his file are being kept classified long past the date that documents usually enter the public record. Perhaps it had to do with his fervent opposition to the Vietnam War, though I wouldn't put it past some Bush administration bureaucrat who's nervous about Lennon's wife's foreign name.

Stop whining about gas prices

Courtesy of a blog I've taken up reading, Energista, is an argument about why "hunting around for cheap gas is possibly the dumbest way [to save money]." Analysis originally from Omninerd.

Can one state stop global warming?

California might not be solving the problem all by itself, but it's "gambling" (as the NY Times describes it) that by being a leader in improving energy efficiency and reducing greenhouse gases, it will create a following among other American states in the task of fighting global warming. The Times article also discusses the federal lawsuit resulting from the new California law, as the Bush administration argues that regulating carbon dioxide emissions in cars (as the legislation calls for) is equivalent to regulating fuel efficiency, the sole purview of the Federal Government.

It will require some good science to make that case to the court for the Bush Administration - nice to see that they'll use science when it suits them.

Dear Sprint mobile phone users

Please use the following instructions to save me valuable minutes when I call your phone. First, turn off the option to let me send a numeric page, that is so 1990s. Call voicemail, select (3) for personal options, (1) for notification options, and (2) to turn off the numeric page.

To skip the annoying digitized voice providing instructions as to how to "leave a message after the beep," do the following:
Once you're logged into your voicemail, the sequence is: Personal Options (3), Greetings (3), Personal Greetings (1), Caller Instructions (3). It'll demonstrate the message for you and you'll press (2) to turn it off forever. Once you've disabled the caller instructions, it will go directly from your outgoing message to the beep.

You've now returned the simplicity of an answering machine to your iPhone or ePod or RAZR...

Thank you

P.S. You can learn how to skip to the beep in voicemail hell on a stock phone here.