DOT: Vehicle Miles Fell 4.3% in March

Looks like gas prices might finally be making a difference, that is until people adjust to the new prices, that is.

McCain ... said God sent Adolf Hitler to help Jews reach the promised land.

you won't see that scrolling across fox news.

Bill O no!

See more funny videos at CollegeHumor

google street view

Top 10 Questions for 2008…

Fifteen hundred people in 39 countries participated in suggesting and selecting the following ten questions as the most important ones in the world today. These are our concerns expressed not as demands but as the questions we must all consider at every level of life to meet the challenges of our times.

1. How can we best prepare our children for the future? (Our Children, Our Future)
What knowledge, skills and values and will our children need to flourish in their lifetimes? Do you know an especially gifted parent, caregiver or educator? What can we learn from them? Who are the children in your life and how are you preparing them?

2. What does sustainability look like to you? How do we get there? (Making Sustainability Real)
How can humanity both continue to provide lives of dignity for its billions while concurrently living within the resource-means of the planet? What does sustainability look like in different cultural contexts? What are your most hopeful images of sustainability? What changes can we make, and what must our leaders make?

3. How do humans need to adapt to survive the changes predicted for this century? (Survival in the 21st Century)
Humans survive because we are so good at adapting to changing circumstances. What changes are you predicting? What changes do you hope for? Will the adaptations be technological, social, spiritual, economic – or all of the above? What are the best adaptations you’ve heard of? Where do you see good adaptations happening in your community?

4. How do we shift from “Me” to “We” on both the local and global levels? (From “me” to “we”)
Where do you see a need to shift from “me” to “we”? What can a “we” approach give us that a “me” approach doesn’t, and vice versa? What needs to change to have people used to “me” engaged in “we” solutions? In your family and community, where have you seen collaboration work wonders when competition and confrontation failed? How can 6.6 billion people work together?

5. How can you, as Gandhi said, be the change that you want to see in the world? (Being the change)
Does fighting for peace or making war on terror make sense - or do our goals and means have to match? How have you tried to “be the change” in your work and life? Who inspires you by “walking their talk”? What gaps do you notice between your “walk” and “talk” and what steps can you take towards “being the change”?

6. What kind of economic structures can best support a shift to sustainable living? (A healthy economy)
What’s the economy for, anyway? How does “the economy” make it hard to make choices for sustainability – a healthy balance between material, social and ecological needs? Where have you seen economic structures that actually contribute to greater sustainability? In a sustainable economy, how would you and your community meet your needs for the basics and also for those things that make life worth living?

7. How should we re-invent the political process so that people feel that they have a voice? (Having a political voice)
When have you felt that your voice mattered in a political process? What contributed to that? Where do you want your voice to matter that it doesn’t, and how has that impacted your political participation? What re-inventions in the political process would inspire you to participate more than you do now? What one change would matter most?

8. What kind of leadership does the world need now? (Who leads now?)
What does leadership mean to you? When has a leader moved, inspired or motivated you and what did you do in response? Is there a new kind of leadership emerging in response to new challenges? What gives this new leadership the power to lead? Are there different kinds of leadership for different times?

9. How can we balance our personal needs with the most pressing needs of our community and the larger world? (Personal Balance in Demanding Times)
How are you doing this balancing act? What would help you balance better? Who do you know who seems to balance well – and what do they know? How does your life touch the life of the larger world and what would allow you to feed your soul and relationships while making a difference “out there”? How can you feel satisfied you’ve given enough – to yourself, your family and your community? If our world is really looking down the barrel of an environmental catastrophe, how do I live my life right now?

10. What can we do to reduce or eliminate violence in the world? (Ending violence everywhere)
What incites people to violence and how can those conditions change? When have you experienced a potentially violent situation transform into a more peaceful resolution and what can we learn from that? Where is violence happening in your community and what would you like to see in its stead? What will it take to not just end violence and war, but wage peace?

I especially like #4.

Running on Empty

Cars That Never Need Gas

Nothing new, just stories of people who bought electric cars and charge them with solar panels. Still, that set-up would be pretty sweet.

SuperMedia

Saving journalism so it can save the world

SuperMedia is a passionate and controversial defence of the social value of journalism. But it argues that the news media must be transformed in to 'Networked Journalism' that allows the public much more power and participation. It outlines how forces such as new technology are destroying old media forms around the world. And it gives international examples of how new media will change the way that we report on the big issues such as politics, terror, Development and climate change.

Sounds like an interesting book.

Poppa Bear droppin the f-bomb in past life

Colbert commiserates

The Neural Buddhists

By David Brooks

Obama in 30 secs

Looks like MoveOn had another ad competition. I wonder how many Bush=hitler comparisons there were in the rejected and quickly removed ads.

The winner:


Others:

Proof of a left wing media bias

Fox fires intern for admitting McCain bias

Winning in the tough districts

She's rough

McCain-Bush Challenge

Whose policy is whose?

A natural experiment

The first legalised home computers have gone on sale in Cuba, but a ban remains on internet access.

This is the latest in a series of restrictions on daily life which President Raul Castro has lifted in recent weeks.

Crowds formed at the Carlos III shopping centre in Havana, though most had come just to look.

The desktop computers cost almost $800 (£400), in a country where the average wage is under $20 (£10) a month.

But some Cubans do have access to extra income, much of it from money sent by relatives living abroad.

Since taking over the presidency in February, Raul Castro has ended a range of restrictions and allowed Cubans access to previously banned consumer goods.

In recent weeks thousands of Cubans have snapped up mobile phones and DVD players.

But only now have the first computer stocks arrived.

Internet access remains restricted to certain workplaces, schools and universities on the island.

The government says it is unable to connect to the giant undersea fibre-optic cables because of the US trade embargo. All online connections today are via satellite which has limited bandwidth and is expensive to use.

How about a nice natural experiment to see the impact of computers on peoples lives...

AI

Pursuing the Next Level of Artificial Intelligence

Jill Bolte Taylor: My stroke of insight

DNC Ad on John McCain and Iraq: "100"

Blah blah blah... whatever..

Food shortages... stage 1

Here we go

Already feeling the pinch from soaring wheat and flour prices, U.S. bakers are now beginning to experience some supply shortages.

Rye flour stocks have been depleted in the United States, and by June or July there will be no more U.S. rye flour to purchase, said Lee Sanders, senior vice president for government relations and public affairs at the American Bakers Association.

"Those that are purchasing it now are having to purchase it from Germany and the Netherlands, and that's very concerning," Sanders said.

She attributed the shortage to high demand for rye flour, which is used to make rye bread, and less acreage devoted to rye grain than in the past.

Grain prices have been soaring worldwide while stocks have been dwindling, causing riots in some poor countries.

In the United States concern is also growing over food costs. The chief executive of Costco Wholesale Corp (COST.O: Quote, Profile, Research), James Sinegal, told Reuters that the company is seeing some unusual buying with consumers stocking up as they fret shortages.

From the WSJ

Food-related protests have been occurring worldwide, and in the U.S. now major discounters are seeing runs on products, particularly rice, as both Sam’s Club, the Wal-Mart Stores Inc. operated discounter, and Costco Wholesale Corp. have seen shelves cleaned out of rice as consumers worry about higher prices. “It is just unreal what can happen when we get fear being spread as it is now, and when the general populace goes out and starts doing idiotic things like lining up at the Sam’s Club and the Costco and not buying one bag but buying 10 bags just because they might run out,” says Neauman Coleman, introducing broker at Neauman Coleman & Co. in Brinkley, Ark. Sam’s Club has decided to put limits (or rations, if you will) on the amount of 20-pound bags customers can purchase every week, and Costco earlier this week said it was considering such limits as well, which in a way is just as panicky a response. Even though July rough rice futures closed up 62 cents to $24.82 per hundredweight on the Chicago Board of Trade, Mr. Coleman says inventory figures show that the U.S. still has plenty of rice (this country exports a good deal of its rice), so the bubble-nature of this grain will recede over time. “It’s fear and panic and pandemonium,” he says.

Pennsylvania polls

Pollster.com: Pennsylvania Wrap Up