Americans are increasingly choosing to live among like-minded neighbours. This makes the culture war more bitter and politics harder

SOME folks in Texas recently decided to start a new community “containing 100% Ron Paul supporters”. Mr Paul is a staunch libertarian and, until recently, a Republican presidential candidate. His most ardent fans are invited to build homesteads in “Paulville”, an empty patch of west Texas. Here, they will be free. Free not to pay “for other people's lifestyles [they] may not agree with”. And free from the irksome society of those who do not share their love of liberty.

Cynics chuckle, and even Mr Paul sounds unenthusiastic about the Paulville project, in which he had no hand. But his followers' desire to segregate themselves is not unusual. Americans are increasingly forming like-minded clusters. Conservatives are choosing to live near other conservatives, and liberals near liberals.

Political segregation | The Big Sort | Economist.com

MTV Networks Europe has been fined a total of £255,000 ($484,500) by U.K. media regulator Ofcom for “widespread and persistent” breaches of its broadcasting code by four of its channels.

The Viacom-owned operator will have to pay the following penalties: TMF £80,000 ($152,000), MTV France £35,000 ($66,500), MTV UK £80,000 ($152,000) and MTV Hits £60,000 ($114,000).

The “highly offensive language and material” was broadcast before the 9pm family-viewing watershed.

Wow. Just wow. Even in Europe I'm a bit surprised they played it, but annoyed that they got fined for it.

Meanwhile in the Land of the Free, at current FCC maximums for 500,000 per incident, that video could've cost MTV America over 20 million dollars per viewing... they say "fuck" about 40 or so times, not even to mention everything else.

The Daily Swarm - MTV fined $484K for playing Aphex Twin's Windowlicker video...

Stepping into the 9-foot-tall glass booth, Eileen Reardon of Baltimore looked startled when an electronic glass door slid around the outside of the machine to create the image of her body. "Some of this stuff seems a little crazy," Reardon said, "but in this day and age, you have to go along with it."

Ugh. You stupid bitch, no you don't. Some things *are* more important than comfort and convenience.

We're into SciFi tech now and it's not the progressive, utopian kind of SciFi.

USATODAY.com

Spot fucking on. Yahtzee nails this review.

-k

The Escapist : Video Galleries : Zero Punctuation : Grand Theft Auto IV

Interactive infographic on money spent after x number of years for buying and renting.

Basically, having now bought a house, I move for at least 6-10 years, depending on house appreciation (or depreciation).

-janelane

[Pretty useful. Bolsters the idea that if you're likely to be someplace less than 10 years, rent, unless you really have an angle. -k]

Is It Better to Buy or Rent? - NYTimes.com

Now you can see what gas prices are around the country at a glance. Areas are color coded according to their price for the average price for regular unleaded gasoline.

[ The most striking thing I see here is that the darkest "green", the *lowest* average, displayed on this map is still set at < $3.55!

Growing up in New York, I was accustomed to high gas prices and found the sub $2.00 prices here in GA when I moved (in 2000) to be quite amazing. To think that the lowest average is well over $3 in the US is pretty incredible. -k ]

USA National Gas Temperature Map

Known as the Airborne Laser, the craft will house a multi-megawatt chemical oxygen iodine laser capable of hitting a target many hundreds of miles away. At its core, it's the same basic technology as found in a drugstore laser pointer, only a billion times more powerful. While the craft is scheduled for its first live target test in 2009, the laser and the airplane have yet to be tested together.

"Damn you, Kent! How could you build that mirror!"

The World's Spookiest Weapons | Popular Science

The Vatican's chief astronomer says that believing in aliens does not contradict faith in God.

[ But do they have a soul? -k]

SPACE.com -- Vatican: It's OK to Believe in Aliens

Last week, federal, state, and local police in Tennessee, Mississippi, and Arkansas conducted a massive sweep dubbed "Operation Sudden Impact."

The operation included raids of businesses, homes, and boats; traffic roadblocks; and personal searches. They say they were looking for "terrorists." If they found any, they haven't announced it yet. They did arrest 332 people, 142 of whom they describe as "fugitives." They also issued about 1,300 traffic tickets, and according to one media account, seized "hundreds" of dollars.

...

The FBI along with hundreds of officers said they are looking for anything out of the ordinary. Agents take computers and paperwork from businesses.

What a damn atrocity. This is such bullshit. Way to go, America! Let's all freak out in exactly the way those psychotic fuckers want us to. Good plan.

Also,

"What we have found traditionally is that terrorists are involved in a number of lesser known type crimes," said Mark Luttrell, Shelby County sheriff.

makes me fucking laugh. I'm sure the Shelby County sheriff's got *loads* of counter-terrorism experience. And by "counter-terrorism" i mean "counter-marajuana-dealer". Not that this horseshit would be justifiable even if he has, mind you.

Tennessee Terrorism Sweep nets traffic violators

FedEx blows. Independent contracting is the biggest load of bull. The rest of the article is about how they fired her after she asked for a leave of absence for her third recurrence of cancer.

Yeah, I have my own, entirely customer service related reasons to hate fedex, but this doesn't help me like them any more.

It does make me less surprised that a driver once delivered, without requesting a signature as required, a parcel containing a signed and numbered art print with a 3 inch puncture (v shaped, like the corner of a heavy box would leave) straight through both sides of the large cardboard envelope, the two layers of protective corrugated cardboard within, and, of course, the print sandwiched in the middle of all that.

That is only one of a series of egregious failures. I have sworn to never willingly use FedEx, either actively or by dealing with companies who ship exclusively via FedEx. My only exception is, and will probably remain, Apple Computer, who I can't give up on the basis of my FedEx hatred alone.

Say what you will about the U.S.P.S., I've had excellent luck with them on everything from overnight to parcels.

Fuck FedEx.

Working Life (High and Low) - New York Times