The Issaquah Press ran this story about the Unincorporated Area Councils, including the 4-Creeks Council between Renton and issaquah. As expected, county budget cuts are high on everyone’s worry list right now. In the city we are a bit more insulated in some areas (local services), but the county budget still affects many regional services we depend on.

The Heaviest Element Known to Science

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratories has discovered the heaviest element yet known to science.

The new element, Governmentium (Gv), has one neutron, 25 assistant neutrons, 88 deputy neutrons, and 198 assistant deputy neutrons, giving it an atomic mass of 312.

These 312 particles are held together by forces called morons, which are surrounded by vast quantities of lepton-like particles called peons.

Since Governmentium has no electrons, it is inert; however, it can be detected, because it impedes every reaction with which it comes into contact. A tiny amount of Governmentium can cause a reaction that would normally take less than a second, to take from 4 days to 4 years to complete.

Governmentium has a normal half-life of 2- 6 years. It does not decay, but instead undergoes a reorganization in which a portion of the assistant neutrons and deputy neutrons exchange places.

In fact, Governmentium’s mass will actually increase over time, since each reorganization will cause more morons to become neutrons, forming isodopes.

This characteristic of morons promotion leads some scientists to believe that Governmentium is formed whenever morons reach a critical concentration. This hypothetical quantity is referred to as critical morass.

When catalysed with money, Governmentium becomes Administratium, an element that radiates just as much energy as Governmentium since it has half as many peons but twice as many morons.

At last night’s council meeting, a speaker presented us with a letter and photographs documenting her concerns about graphic, shocking images being displayed on  large (aproximately 3′ by 5′) signs on 180th near Valley Hopital.  The images consist of dead and partially dismembered fetuses, a severed head of a seemingly close-to-term baby, and other images.

The speaker acknowledged that the pro-life activists have a right to present such images to adults in an effort to illustrate the controversy of abortion, but that the use of the street corner also exposed the images to children who could be confused, stunned, and/or traumatized by such pictures.

The speaker asked the city to look into options for protecting kids from the images.  The council referred the topic to the administration (mayor, city attorney, and staff) for a recommedation.

The speaker chose not to show the images to the public last night (because kids may be watching the TV broadcast, but the images can easily be found on the internet with a google Image search on the term “anti-abortion”.  Here is a link to such a search, but before you click be prepared that the images might upset you.  (link )

I think the city may be able to partially manage the size and placement of the signs, to the degree that they are an obstruction or a traffic hazzard, but we are unlikely to be able to do anything about the content  because of first ammendment protections.

What do you readers think about this?

To get you thinking, here is an article from the Redwood City Daily News, about the City of San Mateo California mulling this issue.

America’s spy agencies are introducing a top secret social networking site called A-Space, fashioned after MySpace, to encourage agencies and spies to share informal information with each other. There is high-hope that such a network could prevent the type of information failure that allowed the September 11 attack even while various agencies had a variety of clues beforehand (but no one agency was able to put the whole picture together in advance).

MySpace users and other bloggers have figured out that the social networking is a great way to expose and share all pieces to a puzzle, and I’m encouraged that our nation’s security experts realize there is real value in the this type of networking.

Your friends (and maybe even your kids) on MySpace are a lot more in-the-know than you may realize…if you are not familiar with social networking, you probably need a tutorial to fully comprehend the way information spreads through the medium.

I’m sure this information-spread is why Rupert Murdock, arguably America’s shrewdest and most forward-looking news media icon, has purchased MySpace, in addition to the Wall Street Journal, FOX, and hundreds of other major media properties he (and his company News Corp) owns.

Closer to home, I have been enjoying both MySpace and it’s competitor LiveJournal to share information with thousands of Renton citizens over the last couple years. (Right now Renton Myspace is getting ‘happy birthday’ comments from the many readers that are aware that the city’s birthday is September 6; bloggers are sharing candid inputs about the Mayor’s race; and residents are commenting about whether we should pursue a plaque or statue at Kennydale Beach Park to inform people about Clint Eastwood’s Lifeguard service there)

Click here to see the Renton WA MySpace Page

Here is the story about America’s spy agencies in today’s New York Times

Good advice to us today, especially coming from the man who kept our nation intact…

“Discourage litigation. Persuade your neighbors to compromise whenever you can. Point out to them how the nominal winner is often a real loser – in fees, expenses, and waste of time. As a peacemaker the lawyer has a superior opportunity of being a good man. There will still be business enough.” The Collected Works of Abraham Lincoln edited by Roy P. Basler, Volume II, “Notes for a Law Lecture” (July 1, 1850), p. 81.