George W. Bush has issued an executive order creating “a Center for Faith-Based and Community Initiatives at the Department of Homeland Security.” The Center will be run by a Director appointed by the Secretary of Homeland Security after consultation with the Director of the White House Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. The original Director of WHOFBCI, John DiIulio, who blasted the Bush administration in Esquire magazine in 2002 and then quickly attempted to retract his criticisms. Once again, reality matches The Onion. (UPDATE: This is apparently primarily focused on disaster recovery efforts–but it still seems quite wrong for the government to engage religious organizations via contract or grant to aid in disaster recovery efforts, when these are voluntary charitable organizations. It not only involves taking from the general public to support a particular religious viewpoint, it turns a voluntary charity into a taxpayer-supported service.)

WARNING This blog has been locked by Blogger's spam-prevention robots. You will not be able to publish your posts, but you will be able to save them as drafts. Save your post as a draft or click here for more about what's going on and how to get your blog unlocked. Clicking there yielded: Your blog is locked Blogger's spam-prevention robots have detected that your blog has characteristics of a spam blog. (What's a spam blog?) Since you're an actual person reading this, your blog is probably not a spam blog. Automated spam detection is inherently fuzzy, and we sincerely apologize for this false positive. ...

Sen. Conrad Burns (R-MT) says that Jack Abramoff never influenced him, but Abramoff says in Vanity Fair that he got everything he ever asked for from Burns: “Every appropriation we wanted [from Burns’ committee] we got. Our staffs were as close as they could be. They practically used Signatures [Abramoff’s restaurant] as their cafeteria."Burns’ former staffers have also made millions from going to work for telecom and tech firms that have received funding from Burns earmarks.

Mel Gibson missed the chance for this tie-in promotion…. (Hat tip to Dave Palmer on the SKEPTIC mailing list.)

Google plans to hire about 600 people in the Phoenix area, and they’ve chosen Tempe for a temporary facility of about 100,000 square feet. It looks like their permanent facility will either be in Tempe or South Scottsdale (at ASU’s “SkySong” business park, which used to be the site of Los Arcos mall). Historical Comments Einzige (2006-12-09): I just might apply!

The 35th Carnival of the Godless is here. Historical Comments Solan (2006-12-09): http://infinitewall.blogspot.com/

Now that AT&T has announced that it is acquiring BellSouth, the only original RBOC left today, it’s worth reviewing the history of AT&T’s divestiture and the subsequent recombinations which will leave us with AT&T, Verizon, and Qwest as the three major players for local telephone service (at least, as local analog wireline telephone service continues to exist, which is probably not for very much longer). In 1984, U.S. District Judge Harold Greene issued a decision that led to the divestiture of local telco properties from AT&T and the creation of the seven “Regional Bell Operating Companies” from 22 Bell operating companies. The seven RBOCs and the original Bell companies which made them up were: Pacific Telesis (PacTel): Pacific Telephone & Telegraph Company, Bell Telephone Company of Nevada. Ameritech: Illinois Bell Telephone Company, Indiana Bell Telephone Company, Michigan Bell Telephone Company, The Ohio Bell Telephone Company, Wisconsin Telephone Company. Nynex: The New York Telephone Company, New England Telephone & Telegraph Company. Bell Atlantic: New Jersey Bell Telephone Company, Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company, Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Maryland, Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of Virginia, Chesapeake & Potomac Telephone Company of West Virginia, The Bell Telephone Company of Pennsylvania. Southwestern Bell: Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. BellSouth: South Central Bell Telephone Company, Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company. U.S. West: Mountain States Telephone & Telegraph Company, Northwestern Bell Telephone Company, Pacific Northwest Bell Telephone Company, Diamond State Telephone Company. Nynex merged with Bell Atlantic in 1997. Bell Atlantic merged with GTE in 2000 to become Verizon (spinning off its Internet business–the former Genuity and BBN Planet–as Genuity). Southwestern Bell acquired PacTel in 1997 and started using the name SBC, and then acquired Ameritech in 1999. U.S. West was acquired by Qwest in 2000. SBC acquired AT&T in 2005, and took on its name. Most of this history is recounted in more detail, with maps and logos, here.

See if you can spot the pit bull on this web page. This is from http://www.pitbullsontheweb.com/, a great site to learn more about the American Pit Bull breed. I know a lot about dog breeds, and I only got it right on my third try. (Yes, there are many breeds pictured that are not popular in the U.S.) While many cities/insurance companies are considering breed-specific ordinances/restrictions that penalize pit bulls and their guardians, this web site highlights the fact that most people cannot recognize a pit bull when they see one. I believe any dog breed can be aggressive and a danger to society at large. Breed-specific legislation targets the dogs, not the people who are really the problem. ...

Everybody seems to be doing this one… Kat and I independently ended up with identical top results: the Moya from Farscape as our #1 (both with 88%) and Serenity from Firefly and the Millennium Falcon from Star Wars tied for #2 (both of us with 81% for those). We’ve never seen Farscape, but we suspect our answers about having a “furry friend” (our dogs, not “furries”), willingness to be around eccentric aliens, and reluctance to kill put it above Serenity. ...

Boston Dynamics is building this four-legged robot for the U.S. military (DARPA): A nimble, four-legged robot is so surefooted it can recover its balance even after being given a hefty kick. The machine, which moves like a cross between a goat and a pantomime horse, is being developed as a robotic pack mule for the US military.In this amusing or perhaps creepy video (28MB Windows media file), the robot walks over different types of terrain–including mud, rocky ground, and snow–and is given a few kicks to show how it stabilizes itself. Unlike the photo at left, in the video it looks like a pantomime horse with both people facing each other–sort of the opposite of a pushmipullyu. (Via jwz’s blog.) ...