RelentlesslyOptimistic

How do you get down off a duck?

Mo Life Today, a blog from Jefferson City, Missouri, had this wonderful photo of a young duck learning....to fly?...to hop? Whatever, the expression on the young duck's face is terrific.

Funding restored to renewables organization to rehire audience staff before Bush visit

Bush visited the Colorado-based National Renewable Energy Research Lab on Tuesday to highlight his new commitment to renewable energy. According to the Denver Post, 32 people were laid off two weeks ago after $28 million was diverted from the lab's budget. $5 million of that funding was restored over the weekend before Bush's visit, part of $20 million that has been restored since Bush's State of the Union speech.

Matt Baker, director of Environment Colorado said that "If President Bush comes here and is able to restore about $20 million, I figure we need six or seven more visits from the president to just to get us back up to where we were before his presidency."

Social Campaigns

Houtlust is a blog that chronicles advertisements for causes. Below is one of several  from makepovertyhistory.org.

Quails 1, America 0

As only Jon Stewart can: onegoodmove: Cheney's Got A Gun

"In a post-911 world, the American people expect their leaders to be decisive. To not have shot his friend  in the face would have sent a message to the quail that America is weak."

"The mere fact that we're even talking about how the Vice President drives up with his rich friends in cars to shoot farm raised wingless quailtards is letting the quail know how we're hunting them."

Also  Ten Ways Dick Cheney Can Kill You from BoingBoing. Via GMSV.

You can swim as fast in snot as in water. If you want to.

Isaac Newton argued with other scientists in the 17th century about whether a person swimming in syrup would be slower than a swimmer in water. University of Minnesota scientists have finally answered the question.

They filled a swimming pool with guar gum, which the lead scientist Edward Cussler said "looked like snot," and then timed 19 swimmers using a variety of strokes in both water and the snot syrup. The result: "you experience more 'viscous drag'...as the water gets thicker, [but] generate more forward force from every stroke." They won an IgNobel Prize in 2005 for their efforts. More photos (big page).

via Digg

Censorship in action: Image search for tiananmen illustrates effect

Stay Free! Daily did a Google Images search for the word "tiananmen" using the US and the China versions of Google, with startlingly different results.

Taking casual to a new level

this gem of a quote comes from Dvorak Uncensored

Do you feel safer?

Newsweek reports that the Justice Department believes that the President can order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States.

In the latest twist in the debate over presidential powers, a Justice Department official suggested that in certain circumstances, the president might have the power to order the killing of terrorist suspects inside the United States.

Rep. Charles Rangel on the State of the Union speech

"I really think that he shatters the myth of white supremacy once and for all"

Via Majikthise

Extreme Crochet

Patricia Waller's unique knitted masterpieces

Via Retro Thing

Because his lips are moving: He didn't really mean cutting oil imports from the mideast by 75% by 2025 literally. It was a metaphor.

Administration backs off Bush's vow to reduce Mideast oil imports.

One day after President Bush vowed to reduce America's dependence on Middle East oil by cutting imports from there 75 percent by 2025, his energy secretary and national economic adviser said Wednesday that the president didn't mean it literally.

Thanks Terry!