Archive for May, 2009

A MONTHLY CONTRACEPTIVE FOR MEN? Downside — be not the first on whom the new is tried. Upside: Testosterone peed into the water supply may offset the female hormones already peed into the water supply by female birth-control pill users!

GOOD QUESTION: Craigslist CEO asks why SC AG targets his site.

COLUMBIA, S.C. – Craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster pointed out Saturday there are plenty of places in South Carolina other than his Web site to find prostitution ads and obscene photos, saying in a blog that he wants to know why the state’s top prosecutor is targeting his company.

South Carolina Attorney General Henry McMaster has threatened to prosecute Craigslist executives for aiding and abetting prostitution if an ad on the Web site leads to a prostitution case in South Carolina.

In the post on his company’s blog, Buckmaster linked to a publication in Greenville he said has a larger number of adult ads and more explicit content than his Web site. He later updated the post to point out a publication in Charleston that listed 19 adult ads on Friday.

In contrast, Buckmaster said the Greenville “adult services” portion of his site has had one ad for the past three days with a photograph of a completely clothed person, while the recently closed “erotic services” section had eight ads, none of which had obscene texts or nude pictures.

Read the whole thing, especially if you live in South Carolina.

COOL PHOTOS: Stealth bomber breaks sound barrier. Plus, Space Shuttle silhouetted against sun.

UPDATE: A correction from reader Ken Gage: “You will probably get more than a few of these from aerodynamicists like me, but I can assure you that the B-2 bomber did not break the sound barrier. If you look at the linked article closely, you will see that the article, which is actually pretty well written, does not make such a claim. It only says the aircraft is traveling at high subsonic speed. This is yet another example of the headline writer sensationalizing without regard to the facts.” He’s right, and I should have caught that.

WHO RUNS WIKIPEDIA?

TOM VANDERBILT on a technology that’s gotten worse since the 1920s. “I have recently been poring over a number of prewar train timetables—not surprisingly, available on eBay. They are fascinating, filled with evocations of that fabled “golden era” of train travel. “You travel with friends on The Milwaukee Road,” reads an ad in one, showing an avuncular conductor genially conversing with a jaunty, smartly dressed couple, the man on the verge of lighting a pipe. . . . But the most striking aspect of these antiquated documents is found in the tiny agate columns of arrivals and destinations. It is here that one sees the wheels of progress actually running backward. The aforementioned Montreal Limited, for example, circa 1942, would pull out of New York’s Grand Central Station at 11:15 p.m., arriving at Montreal’s (now defunct) Windsor Station at 8:25 a.m., a little more than nine hours later. To make that journey today, from New York’s Penn Station on the Adirondack, requires a nearly 12-hour ride. The trip from Chicago to Minneapolis via the Olympian Hiawatha in the 1950s took about four and a half hours; today, via Amtrak’s Empire Builder, the journey is more than eight hours. Going from Brattleboro, Vt., to New York City on the Boston and Maine Railroad’s Washingtonian took less than five hours in 1938; today, Amtrak’s Vermonter (the only option) takes six hours—if it’s on time, which it isn’t, nearly 75 percent of the time. . . . Obama’s bold vision obscures a simple fact: 220 mph would be phenomenal, but we would also do well to simply get trains back up to the speeds they traveled at during the Harding administration.”

OBAMA IS LIKE BUSH: “I’m laughing at Obama, but I’m also thanking him for doing the right thing and reasonably tolerant of the way he’s tried to save face by pretending he’s not doing exactly the same thing Bush did.”

Plus, “I underestimated his willingness to lie.” Always a mistake!

And this: “Meanwhile, what does it say that the Administration has resurrected or maintained the core elements of so many Bush Administration national security policies while OLC nominee Dawn Johnsen sits in limbo? And would the Administration’s policies be any different were she already confirmed?” That’s already been explained . . . .

CHRIS DODD HOLDS A MEETING — and family and press cameras show up!

Not much of anyone else, though, it appears . . . But note how much more impressive a photo editor can make it look!

Patrick Ruffini notes that the top photo led the story this morning, but by this afternoon it had switched to the bottom photo. But to be fair, the story does refer to “a small group of supporters.” And this is small!

UPDATE: Reader C.J. Burch emails: “I almost feel sorry for Dodd. Almost.”