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By asking nicely, we got into a sold-out NASCAR race at the new Homestead Racetrack (God had conveniently cleared the area with Hurricane Andrew three years ago). As you may know, this is not highbrow racing. This is Yee-Ha! racing. (Judging by the crowd, you'd be hard pressed to put together one entire set of teeth.) And as such, NASCAR isn't about skill, finesse or, for that matter, hygiene. It's about Budweiser and crashing. A lot.

What your astrological sign says about you: Namely, that you know too much about Astrology.

When I was first introduced to the concept of Astrology as a kid, I was skeptical. After all, believing that the position of the planets and stars could impact your life in any meaningful way, let alone dictate your daily behavior, seemed...what's the word? Oh, yeah, stupid. But the more I learned about this ancient "science," the more I came to feel that people DID seem to reflect the personality traits predicted by their sign. But how? Finally, I read the book that empirically and scientifically explained how and why Astrology really works.

The lights go out in San Francisco.

A while back, one of the geniuses at Pacific Gas & Electric tripped over a wire and plunged most of North Beach into the stone age. We were forced to rub PalmPilot's together for heat and forage for arugula. Cappuccino-makers ceased making that whooshy, foam noise. The silence was deafening. The area was paralyzed for hours. White-collar workers stepped out onto the street and rubbed their eyes as if they were seeing the sun for the first time. Many others, stranded without internet connections or cable TV, committed suicide rather than face a bleak and frightening convenience-less world.

Why normal people should only buy Apple products. And why I've stopped.

If you're a normal person—and by normal, I mean, anyone who doesn't know what the Turing Test is—then you should only ever buy Apple products. Seriously. I mean it. Go sell your PC and your Crackberry or Android phone right now. Then go to an Apple store, buy one of everything and never look back. Why would I recommend that? Because I've been using a Mac since 1984, and I know how great the experience is. Conversely, I've had experience with Windows PCs, Blackberry's and now Android phones. And the one thing those products have in common is, quite frankly, they suck.

Hey AIG, Goldman Sachs, et al, I want my future back, you greedy a-holes.

UPDATE#3: Here's a new disturbing look at how Goldman Sachs all but determines U.S. government financial policy, by hiring "former politicians and civil servants, as readily as it supplies them," especially in the Obama Administration (I'm sure there's no conflict of interest with that arrangement). The New York Times columnist David Brooks noted that "Over the past few years, people from Goldman Sachs have assumed control over large parts of the federal government," Brooks noted grimly. "Over the next few they might just take over the whole darn thing."

BOOKS

I am America (And so can you!), Stephen Colbert—Sage advice for an ailing nation.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens—The case against belief.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, Brian Greene—A mind-bending romp through quantum physics.
Adam's Curse: A Future without Men, Bryan Sykes—It's not MY fault, it's my chromosome's.
1984, George Orwell—Who says no one can predict the future?
Nonzero : The Logic of Human Destiny, Robert Wright—It gives you hope for the future.
The Stranger, Albert Camus—Alienated existentialism at its best.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson—Why aren't textbooks this funny?

POLITICS

Change Congress Help keep Big Money out of politics
Earmark Watch Bringing citizen oversight to congressional spending
Money And Politics Illuminating the connection
Open Congress The real story behind what's happening in Congress
Fortune 535 Find out how wealthy your local politicians are
OpenSecrets Center for responsive politics
Citability Making government accessible, reliable, and transparent
Data.gov Public access to high-value, machine-readable data sets
Public Markup Review and comment on proposed bills before they are even introduced
FedSpending Find out where your tax money is going
The Sunlight Foundation Shining light on money, lobbying, and government
Transparency Int'l. Stop corruption to save lives.
Congresspedia The citizen's encyclopedia of Congress

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