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Hear ye! From this day forward, any monument or landmark unknown to Cultural Significance Minister Kalarius will have its status removed and any physical marker shall be decommissioned as soon as is logistically convenient. All current or future restoration projects are now cancelled to repair or renovate all monuments or landmarks that have been determined to look "worn and kinda crappy."

• Restoration Exchange Omaha
• Bishop Hill building
• Stone Slide at Murphy Field

We must never change anything lest we trample all over someone's nostalgia! In any case, your examples could be (or are being) renovated and refurbished so that future generations can enjoy them, this is a bloody sign for a business that isn't even at that location anymore, I think the vast majority of people that drive on 101 aren't going to miss it. If it's so culturally significant, why doesn't someone pay to fix it up and move it to a museum?

Also, I kinda like the title, maybe I'll add it to my sig ;)

• Restoration Exchange Omaha
• Bishop Hill building
• Stone Slide at Murphy Field

I'm from the Quad Cities

The stores in question are a local chain of BP Gas Stations with the store fronts "re-branded" to QC Mart. I've only been to a couple of the stores and will never go back. They seem to be overpriced even for a convenience store and the employees all seemed to have that "can't do, don't care" attitude. The latter makes much more sense now that this story has come out.

Here is the article that appeared in our local paper http://qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=563769. Admittedly it isn't as well written as the one from the Register

The bill cuts $850 Billion over 10 years. That's $85 billion per year, on average. http://www.qconline.com/archives/qco/display.php?id=554954

While the National Review article might be news to most Slashdotters, this is not news for those who have been following the ongoing space policy review by the Bush Administration. In late October SpaceRef.com first reported that a likely outcome of the policy review would be a call for resuming human flights to the Moon, with a Presidential statement on the issue coming as early as the Wright Brothers centennial speech at Kitty Hawk. On Monday SpaceRef.com followed up that original report with a new one, stating that "the return to the Moon by U.S. astronauts possibly by the end of the next decade" had become the "default" position of those planning the new policy. The National Review article doesn't add anything these two SpaceRef reports already provided.

There is no guarantee, though, that these reports are accurate. On Sunday the Orlando Sentinel reported (alternate link) that any new national space policy would differ little from current plans. This report was based on an analysis of internal NASA documents obtained by the newspaper along with interviews with those in the know. This report is actually not necessarily contradictory with the new SpaceRef report: if you're not planning to send people back to the Moon until the end of the next decade, there's little you need to do differently in the near term.

If you're curious about the current interest (or obsession) some have with crafting a new "vision" for NASA, I recommend the articles "The vision thing" and "Vision revision" at The Space Review. (Disclaimer: I'm the author. :-) This should give you an idea that while many in Washington believe there needs to be a new national space policy or vision, there is little consensus about what that should be. Thus, don't expect any major changes soon.

Well, the Orlando Sentinel shares your pessimism.

November 30, 2003 11:03 PM

New NASA looks like the old one

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. -- The ``bold agenda for space exploration'' that the Bush administration has been crafting since August is expected to be long on rhetoric, but short on new goals and money.

Internal NASA documents obtained by The Orlando Sentinel, and interviews with those close to the policy-making process, indicate the new vision being drafted for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration looks a lot like the old one.

No final decisions have been reached. However, closed-door meetings of administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney, appear to be developing plans committed to the status quo, with no major new programs or specific destinations, no timetables and, most importantly, no significant spending increases...

Keep you hand up if you buy more music because of it"

Hmmm... heard Funker Vogt on shoutcast a few weeks ago.

Enjoyed it. Downloaded a few tracks via gnutella. Yup, this definitely is a group I like.

Went to Best Buy. WTF? No Funker Vogt. Went to CD Warehouse. Nope. Never even heard of them, let alone my fav Apoptygma Bezerk, VNV Nation, Front Line Assembly, etc. "Sure we have industrial..." as the salescritter points at the rap section (ugh... where do they hire these people from?).

So Ms. Rosen, how am I supposed to be a complying RIAA citizen when you won't even sell me the music?

As usual, it was off to cdnow.com, buy one of everything Funker Vogt, and wait for the UPS guy.

Conclusion:

1. I'm waiving money in your face but you won't sell product to me.
2. You can't seem to figure out how to distribute music worth a damn.
3. You keep signing a few worthless artists and pumping their music (while we still don't buy it), rather than understanding the market changed on you.
4. You and the radio broadcasters sign deals trying to limit airplay to the same crap you signed, but now the radio broadcasters can't find listeners and had to destroy Internet broadcasting before it destroyed them.

So, maybe there's another problem that explains why your sales numbers suck?

*scoove*