Link: http://www.ur.umn.edu/FMPro?-db=releases&-lay=web&-format=umnnewsreleases/releasesdetail.html&ID=2816&-Find

...according to this study performed by the University of Minnesota. As follows:

University researchers found that Americans rate atheists below Muslims, recent immigrants, gays and lesbians and other minority groups in “sharing their vision of American society.” Atheists are also the minority group most Americans are least willing to allow their children to marry.
Even though atheists are few in number, not formally organized and relatively hard to publicly identify, they are seen as a threat to the American way of life by a large portion of the American public. “Atheists, who account for about 3 percent of the U.S. population, offer a glaring exception to the rule of increasing social tolerance over the last 30 years,” says Penny Edgell, associate sociology professor and the study’s lead researcher.

Well, it's nice to know that folks like me are regarded so highly by people of other faiths and religious persuasions...now remind me, why did I move to this country? Oh yes. Freedom and tolerance. Hmmm. Better scrap that silly idea then...or maybe some people would benefit from reading this section from the latest article from Harpers by Lewis Lapham (who probably hates America anyway, but even haters can come up with cogent arguments from time to time):

If I’m wary of religious belief in any and all its ardent emissions, it’s because I remember, as did the authors of the American Constitution, the vast numbers of people crucified – also burned, tortured, beheaded, drawn, quartered, imprisoned, and enslaved – on one or another of its ceremonial altars (Protestant, Muslim, Catholic, Aztec) over the course of the last 2,000 years. Nor do I know why I must respect somebody merely for the fact of his or her belief, as if the attachment to a belief, in and of itself, somehow bestows a state of grace. I don’t quarrel with anybody’s right to believe anything that he or she wishes to believe, but passion isn’t a synonym for truth.

Link: http://www.boston.com/news/globe/ideas/articles/2006/03/19/ballpark_figures/

....is that sports teams seldom bring economic benefits to a city sufficient to offset all of the obvious (and sometimes hidden) subsidies paid to the team owners. This report from the Boston Globe asks when this reality is known, why are cities still falling over themselves to throw money at sports franchises?
One of the statements in the article is interesting, if only as the starting point for a question:

Less than two weeks ago, Washington, D.C., agreed to pay an unprecedented $611 million to build the Washington Nationals a baseball stadium.

This is very interesting when you consider that the estimated value of the Washington Nationals franchise is only $450m (and that is supposedly only because they will play in Washington - if they played elsewhere the value is alleged to be as low as $250m). So...if you believe that valuation, D.C. just agreed to spend nearly 150% of the value of the franchise in subsidies...or...the $450m is a lowball figure. Either way, something smells in that deal.
This is merely another example of cities being persuaded to stump up massive subsidies without any real proof of any long-term benefit.
I am watching this play out locally in Arlington, Texas. Having been played once like a fiddle in the 1990's by the Texas Rangers, who extracted hundreds of millions in subsidies from the city to build the Ballpark at Arlington, they have just been played again by Jerry Jones of the Dallas Cowboys, who persuaded the city voters to approve a massive financial incentive package so that the Cowboys can move to Arlington from Texas Stadium, which, although built in the mid-1970's, is now considered to be obsolete (for "obsolete" read "not enough high-dollar corporate suites").
The voting result might conceivably have something to do with the fact that the Cowboys apparently spent many millions of dollars on advertising and the wheeling in of various sports celebrities, whereas the opponents' budgets barely scraped into the tens of thousands of dollars. Also included in the package (wait for this) is a financial instrument described at the time as "The NFL is giving the Cowboys a $100 million dollar loan that they don't have to pay back". (Gee, I want to know where I can get one of those loans. Sign me up!). This article in Reason magazine explains how the whole deal was rapidly assembled in part to allow the (until recently) favorable attitude towards Eminent Domain to be used to remove recalcitrant property owners. The City of Arlington is already pulling out all the stops to remove these, er, um, inconvenient folks so that the construction equipment can move in to start creating the new stadium.
As a resident of Irving, I am pleased that the Cowboys are moving to another local city. That city can then find out what Irving has known for a long time; visitors to most sports stadia do not linger in local restaurants, bars, arts districts and shopping malls before and after the game. Instead, they drive into the stadium car park "moat" area, go inside, watch the game (fuelled by food and drink and concession sales, the profits of which go almost entirely to the team), then pile back into their vehicles and disappear off to their home locale. Next to no money is spent in the local districts. The much-touted "pull through" revenue effect cannot work in practice because the design and location of most sports stadia (next to intersections, with massive surrounding parking areas), makes it all too easy for spectators to both get there quickly and leave quickly without setting foot anywhere in the city except in the stadium car park.

Link: http://www.needlenose.com/node/view/2752

....which makes the point that when the President essentially starts holding public conversations with non-existent people, you can be sure that the rhetorical bag of tricks is just about empty.
Does George W. Bush think that all of us came down from the hillside with the last rainstorm? If he tried this kind of fallacious nonsense in my high school debating society meetings, he would have been slaughtered. Unfortunately, it appears that he and his advisers are adhering to the old saying that nobody ever went wrong by under-estimating the intelligence of the public...

...and it is clear that the new V8 engines are much more fragile compared to their V10 predecessors. We have seen a shoal of engine problems and failures in practice and qualifying (Felipe Massa changed 2 engines), and today there were at least two spectacular blow-ups in the race (first Nico Rosberg, then Nick Heidfeld) where in both cases fragments of the engine internals were seen exiting the rear of the car.
It would not surprise me if a number of teams are prepared to take the 10-place grid penalty and change questionable engines early in the season. As the old saying goes, to finish first you first have to finish.
Oh, the race...well, Renault are looking awfully good right now. They have both reliability and speed. On the basis of today's results, so do Ferrari; both Massa and Schumacher started way down the field because of their engine maladies, but the cars finished 5th and 6th.
Williams and Cosworth clearly have reliability problems (Mark Webber retired with what was officially described as a transmission issue), as do Red Bull. The exact race pace of McLaren today was obscured by the early demise of Kimi Raikkonen. Juan Montoya finished a solid fourth, but had a quiet race. Honda look to be just short of winning pace at present. Rubens Barrichello had an odd race, in that he seemed unable to move forward at any speed, unlike Michael Schumacher and David Coulthard, both of whom moved forward rapidly in the race and ran together outside the top 10, before DC retired with his car stuck in 6th gear. Some key operational aspects of the Red Bull RB02 are not fully sorted at present.
Toyota once again looked very poor in the race; Ralf Schumacher's eighth place finish owed a lot to attrition. The car cannot use its tyres properly, and heads may start to roll at Toyota if the pace of the cars does not improve significantly in the next 2-3 races. With nearly $2bn spent, there has to be a scapegoat, possibly in the form of departed chief designer Gustav Brunner...
Toro Rosso looked fairly good (as mid-field cars go) and Scott Speed seemed to be quicker than Vitantonio Liuzzi all weekend. Unfortunately he had to retire his car with a hydraulics problem. Red Bull and Toro Rosso must be praying that Adrian Newey can come up with some interim fixes for both car packages.
Takuma Sato actually matched the race pace of the Midlands and was scrapping with them for much of the race. Midland may yet find themselves propping up the field by mid-year, since the new Super Aguri car is bound to be quicker than their current interim car (which is based on a 2002 Arrows monocoque, which badly compromises both suspension and aero).

Link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060315/us_nm/billion_dc

It seems that the forger either thought he was in the Weimar Republic or feared that inflation of that level would hit the modern USA, because he attempted to pass a Billion-Dollar bill (see article for photo). However, the idea that somebody would be taken in by a bill bearing the image of Grover Cleveland implies a level of credulity that would limit the guy's marketplace.
Still, it would have made for interesting conversation at the bank...

"I need change for this. I'll take a $500 million and 5 $100 millions, thanks".

Link: http://www.iditarod.com

He arrived at the finish line in Nome just after 01.00 am Alaska Time. The next 3 mushers have also arrived in the order in which they left White Mountain - Doug Swingley was second, Paul Gebhardt third and Dee Dee Jonrowe fourth.
King, at age 50, is the oldest winner, and the latest to join the exclusive "four or more" club of multiple winners.

Link: http://www.cabelasiditarod.com/coverage_2006/cov06_mar14_02.html

...is that leader Jeff King has reached White Mountain, which is less than 100 miles from Nome. He has a 4 hour lead over second-placed Doug Swingley.
The window for tactical moves shuts at White Mountain, because every musher has to take a mandatory 8 hour layover at that location. The chasing mushers have no real chance of catching King unless he or his team suffers a total calamity on the run into Nome.
Second place is still theoretically up for grabs, since Doug Swingley has less than 2 hours lead over Dee Dee Jonrowe and Paul Gebhardt. However, Swingley probably will hold onto second barring a collapse and/or a massive surge by Jonrowe or Gebhardt.

...as I expected, a musher has made a tactical move by not stopping to rest at a checkpoint. Paul Gebhart blew through Shaktoolik, stopping for only 9 minutes and passing Dee Dee Jonrowe to take over third place. He had a good time of 5 hours 21 minutes en route from Unalakleet.
Jeff King and Doug Swingley are still slogging it out at the head of the field, having left Shaktoolik before Gebhart. However, Swingley left only 41 minutes ahead of Gebhart. What happens next may depend on whether Gebhart has to stop on the trail to rest his dogs.

Jeff King and Doug Swingley are into Unalakleet, on the Bering Sea coast, and still almost tied together with string. They took just over 12 hours from Kaltag. Swingley claims he would have been in the lead but for suffering an overturned sled which injured one of his dogs.
Both mushers and their teams struggled through high winds all day. The winds are not forecast to drop until tomorrow.
Dee Dee Jonrowe has just arrived in Kaltag, nearly 3 hours after she was expected to arrive. Since her team normally runs faster than the opposition, she may have stopped out on the trail to rest her dogs. She was only 7 minutes ahead of Aliy Zirkle when they left Kaltag, since Zirkle elected to blow through Kaltag without stopping to rest. It will be interesting to see if Zirkle also stops en route for rest. It is likely that she will, since Kaltag to Unalakleet is a 12 hour run.
Bjornar Andersen has appeared out of nowhere to slot into 6th place in the last 24 hours. He may yet surprise the leaders. The latest report from Unalakleet has a bunch of mushers due to arrive in the evening, include Andersen and Zirkle. Swingley and King will probably head out at the same time that those chasing teams arrive. The open question is whether Jonrowe will head out at the same time, or continue to rest her dogs as she has been doing up to now. With only a little over 200 miles to go to Nome, the time window for bold tactical moves is shrinking.

Link: http://www.dallasobserver.com/Issues/2006-03-09/news/news.html

...courtesy of this week's Dallas Observer, in which we find (surprise surprise) that the local waste of tree products known as the Dallas Morning News, while reporting the findings of an investigation, carefully avoided asking any awkward questions of the City representatives.
The picture printed by the investigative report is a deeply unflattering one. Corruption and abuse of power appear to be endemic within the city council.
As in most cases, the electors will probably simply whine about "lousebound politicians". However, they elected the current incumbents, and they also failed to take the opportunity to help right the ship by voting for the "strong mayor" proposal recently. This would have allowed Laura Miller to actually take action instead of vainly verbally castigating the major players. Until the electorate wakes up, they will continue to get the council that they deserve (i.e. a bunch of dangerous doofuses).
It's just as well that the prevailing wind in Irving is rarely from the East, otherwise the smell from downtown Dallas might make its way into our neighborhood...