http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/KIbGzgwZzYk/668293

Well, at least a year-long reality is at last confirmed:

WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The U.S. economy entered a recession in December 2007, a committee of economists at the private National Bureau of Economic Research said Monday.

The economy reached a peak of activity in December 2007 and has been declining since, according to the business cycle dating committee of the NBER.

The government, academics and the private sector generally defer to the NBER's judgments about recessions. ...

Democrats on Capitol Hill said the news was hardly surprising and reiterated calls for an economic stimulus package. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said he and other Democrats will send a package to the White House as soon as possible after President-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.

"The announcement simply makes official what we have long known - with rising costs of living, rising unemployment, record foreclosures and depleted savings, we must do more to help families make ends meet," Reid said in a statement. He said a recovery package must create good-paying jobs in the U.S., cut middle class taxes and instill confidence to stabilize the market.

Christine Romer, a member of the NBER board up until last week, is slated to head President-Elect Obama's Council of Economic Advisors.

While the group's report seems to be stating the obvious, it's helpful for Congress and the new president to be armed with an official declaration as they move ahead in building support for a large and effective stimulus package.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/gQMcDPi4bkQ/article.pl

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472697527/setting-free-the-chi.html

On Sunday, I let our chickens out of their coop to run around freely for the first time. I was surprised by how quickly they took to it. They started scratching around in the grass and dirt, grazing on different tree and bush leaves, weeds, blossoms, and blades of grass. They stretched out in the sun, and gave themselves dust baths. How amazing that this behavior was encoded in them from the time they were single-celled eggs a couple of months ago. How do they know which things are good to eat? Jane and I set up a couple of chairs on the lawn and watched them for two hours in the afternoon sun. When the sky turned to dusk, the chickens lined up and walked back into the coop and up the inclined ramp into the cozy closed off section. Videos: Chickens experiencing their first taste of life outside the coop | Jane bugging our chickens

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472697528/web-comic-strip-by-b.html

My friend Barbara Rushkoff writes very witty and moving personal narratives. Her old print 'zine Plotz was a hysterically funny and honest take on Jewish identity. And her book Jewish Holiday Fun For You! is a must-have for irreverent Jews everywhere. Barbara has been away from the keyboard for a while, but she recently wrote a terrific comic strip for Smith magazine's online Webcomix series "Next-Door Neighbor." Titled "Glenna Evans," Barbara's strip is funny, touching, and well-illustrated by Nathan Schreiber. "Glenna Evans" by Barbara Rushkoff & Nathan Schreiber

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472667815/imaginary-foundation-3.html

Our friends at the surrealist clothier Imaginary Foundation have launched a new line of women's dresses and tops. The fabric comes from their men's t-shirts patterned using a dye sublimation process that allows for gorgeous graphics without the thick feeling of most screenprints. The dresses and tops are lined with sustainable cotton. They're $60 each.
Imaginary Foundation dresses and tops

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472667816/arduino-starter-proj.html

Over at the Make blog, Marc de Vinck has a charming video that shows you how to do a simple Arduino project.

Arduino is a tool for making computers that can sense and control more of the physical world than your desktop computer. It's an open-source physical computing platform based on a simple microcontroller board, and a development environment for writing software for the board. Arduino is open source! In addition to the genuine Arduino, resistors, buttons and other goodies, we've also tossed in our best selling Making Things Talkbook.

Arduino starter project

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/V315VSyW5Wc/668474

Bombshell.

Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida said Tuesday he will not seek a second term in 2010, citing a desire to spend time with his family.

“The call to public service is strong but the call to home, family and lifelong friends is even stronger,” Martinez said at a news conference in Orlando.

Martinez said his decision “was not based on re-election prospects” and noted that he has faced difficult elections and adversity in the past. He had been expected to face a strong challenge.

Martinez, already one of the most unpopular senators facing re-election in 2010, was slated for a tough re-election battle. While he claims his approval ratings had nothing to do with his decision, that is doubtful. It's easier to think re-election when people like you and your prospects are bright.

Martinez also seemed ill at ease in his own party. Remember, he was run out of the RNC chairmanship after less than a year because of his relatively pro-immigration views. And no senator owed more of his career to Bush than Martinez -- who appointed him as secretary of Housing and Urban Development in 2001, then got the enthusiastic support of Bush in the 2004 Senate primary (and general election, of course). And, he was appointed by Bush to chair the RNC in his and Rove's ill-fated effort to make their party appear more inclusive. Instead, the party's forceful rejection of Martinez's tenure merely reinforced their xenophobic hostility.

One other big factor is likely in play -- it's no fun playing defense, especially when you're part of an essentially powerless minority and a member of a party that was just repudiated nationwide and in your own state. With Democrats close enough to 60 votes that they can defeat filibusters on an issue-by-issue basis, there's little for Republican lawmakers to do than warm their seats. The GOP is slated for some time in the wilderness, and there are personalities who can't handle sitting around and doing nothing.

Note what else this means: The GOP caucus in the Senate will go back to being 100 percent anglo. There are already no African Americans in their entire congressional delegation, and the only Latinos left will be those three South Florida Republicans in the House.

(turneresq has a diary on the subject.)

After the last two parter disappointed me somewhat because of the Sarah Jane characterisation and the rehash of an old plot - which made it the first SJA story I genuinenly disliked and won't watch again - this one makes up for it by being a good return to form in its first part. Also, well. How can one not love the guest star, I ask you?

( All manner of space thuggery )

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/cwP9q0owLdU/article.pl

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/iG63LTGBITU/article.pl

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/wLiBHWtNgkU/668242

The gods like us.

A former Republican lawmaker who nearly defeated Arlen Specter in a bruising 2004 primary said on Monday that the Pennsylvania senator faces a tougher road to reelection in 2010.

Former Rep. Pat Toomey (R-Pa.), whom Specter defeated by less than two percentage points in 2004, said he hasn't ruled out a 2010 rematch, but has no timetable for a decision.

Toomey, as it happens, is the President of the Club for Growth, having assumed the position after very nearly knocking off Specter in 2004. He lost 51% to 49%.

Lest memory does not serve, the Club for Growth has a sterling record in issuing primary challenges to popular, moderate Republican incumbents. In 2006, the Club ousted Republican Rep. Joe Schwarz of Michigan, and replaced him with far-right Rep. Tim Walberg. After squeaking out a victory against an underfunded Democrat, Walberg lost in 2008 to Democrat Mark Schauer.

Also in 2008, the Club's folks torpedoed moderate Rep. Wayne Gilchrest of Maryland with rabidly conservative State Sen. Andy Harris. The happy result of this was that the seat went to Democrat Frank Kratovil on election day.

Even when they lose, they lose: after a spirited Club challenge to Sen. Lincoln Chafee in 2006, the weakened Republican incumbent lost quite handily in November to liberal Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse.

Given this track record, one would think that the Club wouldn't be mucking about with a U.S. Senate seat in a Democratic-leaning state like Pennsylvania. But that's just what they intend to do:

"He’s significantly more vulnerable now than he was in 2004," Toomey said in an interview.

He argued that Specter’s core constituency in the GOP, which he called "liberal and moderate Republicans," have since left the party and will be unable to vote in Pennsylvania’s closed Republican primary. That will make it more difficult for Specter to prevail against a conservative opponent, Toomey said.

Assuming current trends hold up, if Toomey wins the primary, a Democrat will win in the general. Yes, even MSNBC's Chris Matthews, who is apparently telling everybody and his brother that he's running for the Senate, could beat Toomey (though he trails Specter by 12 points according to current polling).

Democrats Reps. Joe Sestak, Patrick Murphy, and Allyson Schwartz are rumored to be interested in the race. If Toomey does run against Specter, the chance at a Senate seat may be too good for the Democrats to pass up.

Hope everybody had a good Thanksgiving who was having one. My brother, sister-in-law and I went to the Botanical Gardens on Friday to see their train expedition. They have all these buildings from the New York area made out of trees, twigs etc. with trains running through them. Of course Friday was the worst day to go--we had to wait for far over an hour to get in, but all the kids waiting were pretty patient.

I read something yesterday that for some reason I keep thinking about--I guess it's like getting a particularly memorable fortune cookie. And it kind of leads to a "Thankful for Fandom" idea. You wouldn't expect to get that in anything related to ( Left Behind: The Movie )

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472535402/principles-for-open.html

Larry Lessig and friends have founded Open Government, a movement to pressure the Obama administration to dismantle the barriers to free and open access to government and its data. Boing Boing/Happy Mutants are proud signatories to the petition -- I hope you'll sign up, too.

2. No Technological Barrier to Sharing

A merely legal freedom to share and remix, however, can be thwarted by technological constraints. Content made publicly available should also be freely accessible, not blocked by technological barriers. Citizens should be able to download transition-related content in a way that makes it simple to share, excerpt, remix, or redistribute. This is an essential digital freedom.

For example, while content may be posted on a particular site such as YouTube, because YouTube does not authorize videos on its site to be downloaded, transition-created content should also be made available on a site that does permit downloads. Just as it would be unacceptable for government websites to block the copying-and-pasting of publicly accessible text, making video accessible in a manner that does not allow easy or authorized excerpting and reuse blocks access and engagement.

We would therefore strongly encourage the transition to assure that the material it has licensed freely be practically accessible freely as well. There are a host of services — such as blip.tv — which not only enable users to download freely licensed content, but which also explicitly marks the content with freedom it carries. However else the transition chooses to distribute its content, it should assure that at least one channel maintains this essential digital freedom.

Principles for an Open Transition (Thanks, Larry!)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472535403/boing-boing-tv-updat-2.html

Embedded above, and in glorious technicolor downloadable MP4 here: this week's Boing Boing update on Boing Boing tv.

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♦ We begin with a video chat about O'Reilly Media cofounder DALE DOUGHERTY's guestblog post on why television networks, including CNN, seem to be struggling to cover "The Economic Panic." Why is the current "this great-or-not-so great depression" such a difficult story for TV? Dale believes part of the challenge is that it's big, slow-moving, and abstract. There are no videogenic focal points, no crash scenes or hurricanes for which to don yellow jumpers, no perp mugshots (well, okay, there was this, video here.). We're also in the middle of "a peculiar period inbetween an election and an inauguration," Dale says -- more from him in today's video review, and don't miss the comment thread on the post, either.

♦ Next, we speak with JULIE AMERO, the 41-year old Connecticut schoolteacher accused of showing porn to students on a classroom computer when a computer with malware displayed popup windows with sexual content.

Last week, she accepted a misdemeanor plea deal to avoid felony charges, despite proof she was innocent, and that her case was mishandled. The deal allows her to avoid a previously-imposed jail sentence, but means she has to surrender her teaching credentials. A forensic report showed Amero was not responsible for the infection of porn pop-up windows on the PC in question. There is also ample proof that the school district's IT manager, detectives and prosecutors misled the court.

Here's last week's post by Rob at Boing Boing Gadgets about the plea bargain reached in her case, and here are earlier Boing Boing posts by Mark, starting back in 2007: one, two, three, four, five. I'll be posting the full audio and transcript of our phone interview this week on boingboing.net.

♦ Also in today's BB Update: my co-blogger Cory has been posting some HOLIDAY GIFT ROUNDUPS (so far: DVDs and CDs, kids' stuff, fiction, gadgets, comics and nonfiction.)

♦ And finally in today's episode, eyewitness snapshots from the MUMBAI TERRORIST ATTACKS, shot by 27-year-old amateur photographer Vinu Ranganathan. He lives in the Colaba distict, near the attack sites. WIRED's Threat Level blog has an interview up with him. Snip: "For hours [on the day of the attacks], his graphic photos of the destruction wrought by the terrorists in the Colaba district on the photo-sharing site Flickr seemed to be the only relevant ones available online." Related Boing Boing posts: Mumbai Attacks: Day 1, Mumbai Attacks: Day 2.

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Previous Boing Boing updates on BBtv:

* Boing Boing tv Update: Virgin WiFi, Obfuscated Code, Comment Poetry, Downfall Housing Remix
* Boing Boing tv Update: OFFWORLD, YES MEN, and THIS IS THE FIRST.

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/PnzewSsERL0/article.pl

http://rss.slashdot.org/~r/Slashdot/slashdot/to/~3/bkfxTIfCC4k/article.pl

http://feeds.dailykos.com/~r/dailykos/index/~3/vfnGNn1OL3o/668175

Number of references on Mark Halperin's website, thepage.time.com, for each of the following, according to Google:

• Rush Limbaugh: 113
• Sean Hannity: 77
• Matt Drudge: 56
• Bill O'Reilly: 34
• Huffington (Post or Arianna): 23
• Keith Olbermann: 14
• Rachel Maddow: 9
• Daily Kos: 0

Those are the numbers. As for whether this explains why Halperin threw the media under Rush Limbaugh's bus...well, I report. You decide.

(Note: If you click on the links, you'll notice that the initial numbers of hits provided by Google are higher than the numbers I report. That's because Google's first number is only an estimate. If you click through all the pages, you'll see the total number of links is actually smaller than the initial estimate in each case with more than 1 page of links.)

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/12/camouflage-is-s.html

"Daaahling, what do you think?  I was so weary of blending in, and Mr. Rudolfo says the orange highlights are the perfect complement to my bone structure.  When he's right, he's right — I feel faaaaaaabulous!"

Fingers by belgianchocolate

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472493663/pope-benedict-teh-in.html

AKMA sez, "Benedict XVI, whom I actually admire a lot as popes go, has lapsed into the tedious reflex of blaming digital technology for the decadence of youth. Vatican Radio reports that Benedict met with professors and students in Parma, and warned them that because of digital technology, 'students' capacity for concentration and mental application on a personal level are reduced; on the other hand there is a danger that the students isolate themselves in an increasingly virtual reality.' I can understand, to some extent, his resistance to the change in mode-of-attention that accompanies online activity, but it's disappointing to see him falling for the bugaboo of replacement panic."

Pope Benedict on the Nature of University Reform (Thanks, AKMA!)

http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/boingboing/iBag/~3/472493664/haunted-mansion-40th.html

How sez, "California hipster artist Shag has created 13 new art pieces commemorating the 40th Anniversary of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction. I've collected all the details (and art) known to date about the upcoming event in August of 2009 in one post."

What's not to like? Shag's art + the best ride Disney's Imagineers ever built = sheer heaven!

Details are still a little sketchy (pardon the pun) at this time, but it appears that a range of merchandise will be created based on the art: at the very least, Shag will be signing prints on Sunday, August 9th at the park. Buyers, however, will get the first opportunity to buy the prints at a cocktail party the evening of the 8th where Shag will be the guest of honor. Here’s hoping that they hold the event in the Mansion itself — Walt Disney World has done dinners in the stretch rooms in the past — what a blast it would be to party where “candle lights flicker where the air is deathly still.”

Shag Haunted Mansion art event (Thanks, How!)