More than 40 percent of Obama’s top fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, according to a new report by USA Today.

In New Jersey or Virginia, there are two gubernatorial races of various levels of excitement. In far northern New York, there is  a very contentious House race. If you live in Atlanta, New York City, Boston, or any number of other cities, you have mayoral and city council races in which to vote. And, perhaps most interestingly, in Maine, voters will decide whether or not to uphold the recent decision to allow gay marriage. So,…

A few days ago, we told you about the burgeoning controversy about a chapter in the new Freakonomics sequel, SuperFreakonomics. Well, Steven Levitt appeared on The Daily Show to defend his position. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t speak fully to the controversy. But in this clip, Levitt’s argument—that we should be trying to drastically innovate our way out of climate change in addition to trying to conserve our way out of it—seems quite reasonable.

Ray Nagin, a nationally known but locally detested figure since Katrina, cannot run again in the mayoral race of 2010. But as of now, no inspiring candidates have stepped forward to throw their hat into the race, according to this Times article.

Post-Katrina New Orleans—with so much rebuilding and reshaping left to do, and government money flowing in to pay for it—represents an amazing opportunity for innovative urban projects on almost every level. Can it be that…

At its most basic level, the map is a utilitarian device that clearly explains a given geography. At its most adventurous, the map embodies our innately human desire to know what is over the next hill, and the hill after that one, and it tells the stories of how we relate to each other. In that spirit, cartographers both amateur and professional have been embellishing the form over the years, creating all varieties of interesting, artistic,…

Harry Reid announced yesterday that the current health care bill will include an “opt-out public option.” In other words, there will be a government-run plan in which every citizen will be enrolled for which every citizen will be eligible if they don’t already have health care, unless their state government chooses to opt their entire state out of the program by 2014. At that point, barring any changes to the law, every state that hasn’t opted out…

I don’t want to give away the twist to this ad, so all I’ll say is kudos to this boundary pushing German lingerie company. Apparently, European ad agencies are much more high-minded than us about their sexy undergarments; this is a long way from the Lingerie Bowl.

Via The Corner, via AdFreak

UPDATE: The old video has been replaced. Thanks JSSK.

The Guardian (via Kottke) has assembled a slide show of some of the animals and plants that have been lost to the world over the last 10 years. They range from the adorable golden toads to majestic black rhinoceroses to nearly blind Chinese river dolphins to less-than-memorable snails, but none of them exist in the wild any longer, and we are all a little poorer because of that. Some images below, go here for the full slide show.

Photos: Frog: U.S.…

More than 40 percent of Obama’s top fundraisers have secured posts in his administration, according to a new report by USA Today.

In New Jersey or Virginia, there are two gubernatorial races of various levels of excitement. In far northern New York, there is  a very contentious House race. If you live in Atlanta, New York City, Boston, or any number of other cities, you have mayoral and city council races in which to vote. And, perhaps most interestingly, in Maine, voters will decide whether or not to uphold the recent decision to allow gay marriage. So,…

A few days ago, we told you about the burgeoning controversy about a chapter in the new Freakonomics sequel, SuperFreakonomics. Well, Steven Levitt appeared on The Daily Show to defend his position. I haven’t read the book, so I can’t speak fully to the controversy. But in this clip, Levitt’s argument—that we should be trying to drastically innovate our way out of climate change in addition to trying to conserve our way out of it—seems quite reasonable.

Ray Nagin, a nationally known but locally detested figure since Katrina, cannot run again in the mayoral race of 2010. But as of now, no inspiring candidates have stepped forward to throw their hat into the race, according to this Times article.

Post-Katrina New Orleans—with so much rebuilding and reshaping left to do, and government money flowing in to pay for it—represents an amazing opportunity for innovative urban projects on almost every level. Can it be that…

At its most basic level, the map is a utilitarian device that clearly explains a given geography. At its most adventurous, the map embodies our innately human desire to know what is over the next hill, and the hill after that one, and it tells the stories of how we relate to each other. In that spirit, cartographers both amateur and professional have been embellishing the form over the years, creating all varieties of interesting, artistic,…

Harry Reid announced yesterday that the current health care bill will include an “opt-out public option.” In other words, there will be a government-run plan in which every citizen will be enrolled for which every citizen will be eligible if they don’t already have health care, unless their state government chooses to opt their entire state out of the program by 2014. At that point, barring any changes to the law, every state that hasn’t opted out…

I don’t want to give away the twist to this ad, so all I’ll say is kudos to this boundary pushing German lingerie company. Apparently, European ad agencies are much more high-minded than us about their sexy undergarments; this is a long way from the Lingerie Bowl.

Via The Corner, via AdFreak

UPDATE: The old video has been replaced. Thanks JSSK.

The Guardian (via Kottke) has assembled a slide show of some of the animals and plants that have been lost to the world over the last 10 years. They range from the adorable golden toads to majestic black rhinoceroses to nearly blind Chinese river dolphins to less-than-memorable snails, but none of them exist in the wild any longer, and we are all a little poorer because of that. Some images below, go here for the full slide show.

Photos: Frog: U.S.…

A group of musicians today endorsed a Freedom of Information Act request to find out what songs were used in torture at Guantanamo Bay. There is ample evidence that the constant playing of loud music was used to break down prisoners. Detainees say that:

“the music they most often described hearing was heavy metal, rap and country. Specific songs mentioned include Queen’s “We Are the Champions” and “March of the Pigs” by industrial rockers Nine Inch Nails.…

Yesterday we were briefly punked by, and then really amused, by the Yes Men’s latest stunt in which they pretended that the Chamber of Commerce was strongly supporting climate change legislation (they are not doing that). Below is a video of Eric Wohlschlegel, a Chamber of Commerce representative, breaking up the fake press conference, which leads to the amazing interaction of Wohlschlegel and the Yes Man both demanding eachothers’ Chamber of Commerce business cards: