My long-time friend and business partner, Billy McCue, is running for Pennsylvania Lieutenant Governor on the Republican ticket.

Check out his web site to learn about his powerful program of RESPECT - for old Pennsylvanians, for our Precious Freedoms, for Openness and Transparency, and - especially! - for YOU!

www.billymccue.com

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Earthtunnel.com is a virtual project aimed at the creation of a 3D tunnel whose ends meet at the end of a 35,500 km journey (switch to miles if target is American market), the approximate distance of one trip around the world.

The tunnel is constructed thanks to images embedded in its walls.

Participation in the Earthtunnel.com experience is completely free.

It will no longer be possible to participate once the tunnel has competed its 35,500 km journey.

The objective of the Earthtunnel is to allow anyone to participate on the evolution of internet history.

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The creators of amazing.com have unleashed a new creation, Tea Party News, a site with news of the Tea Party movement and related issues. From the budget and the latest on health care reform efforts, we carry the news on the issues you care about, with reporting from a both sides of the aisle.

Check it out and let us know what you think!

http://www.teapartynews.us

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President Obama tells us health care is too expensive, and puts cutting costs at the top of the agenda. It's interesting that in principle he believes in universal coverage, and yet he's not pitching things in those terms, he is saying national healthcare will save us money.

Conservative analysts say that his form of cost cutting is likely to make our health care worse, limiting options and eliminating more expensive forms of treatment. Here's a good article on that topic:

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/06/08/downgrading-american-medical-c/

It may seem sensible to eliminate expensive treatments, but remember how technology normally works: Initial stabs at it are very expensive, and then costs go down to the extent that mere mortals can afford them. For example, cellphones were $1,500 bricks when they first came on, and we now have the iPhone that fits in our palms and does just about anything one could want from a gadget.

Likewise, laser eye surgery started prohibitively expensive and now anyone who can save up $1,000 or so can get it.

Why have heart operations not followed the same trajectory?

Why does an uncomfortable hospital room that's not even private cost $680 a night base rate?

I still want to understand why hospitals are, at base, bad hotels, and yet they charge about 10x more than bad hotels in the same general area.

When government takes something over, from education to public transportation, it tends to fix present institutions in place, eliminate innovation, and consider change more in terms of advances for employees ("Jobs for the Boys") than improvement in quality or cost.

National healthcare will institutionalize bad hotels and prevent any kind of innovation that gives us better care. Certainly time and time again, government has shown that it's great at creating really expensive institutions, like public schools, and horrible at making them work, like public schools.

Hospital employees are clearly hard-working and dedicated, but patients get only a tiny sliver of their attention. I would think I could install a hospital bed in my house and hire dedicated, round the clock nursing, for less than what a hospital charges.

Much of the problem would seem to be that we are not advised on cost of hospital services while we are getting them. We are not asked to pick and choose on an informed basis. We're in there and in their power and as a result massive bills can be run up in the blink of an eye.

It seems like because third parties are generally paying, nobody cares how expensive things are.

I think it would be far better if we did know, and if we had to pay for our health care. If we did, we could make our own choices instead of letting insurance companies or the government control our lives. This is the approach used by medical savings accounts, and it seems far wiser than what most of us are doing.

One example of what might happen when patients are in control is the "Minute Clinics" in some drug stores that charge $59 for you to see a doctor. They are cost-effective but provide better service than hospitals. I think we need a lot more like this. A Wal*Mart Hospital might not seem ideal but I wonder if it wouldn't be a lot better than what we have now.

One thing for sure: ObamaCare is going to take us away from even the vague possibility of that kind of reform, and for that reason it must be opposed by anyone who cares about the future of health.

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Massive crowds filled the main government plaza in West Palm Beach, and even heavy tropical rain failed to dampen the protesters' enthusiasm to get the word out about their firm opposition to President Obama and his destructive policies. People are mad, furious, but still capable of having fun and staying positive despite our trying times.

There was no good news for President Obama. While the event was technically non-partisian, I saw little evidence of Democrats. While many quite reasonably said the two parties shared the blame for our current mess, agreement was unanimous that President Obama was seriously messing up the situation.

The usual single issue groups, on abortion, guns and the like, showed up, but the crowd stayed focused on the theme of the incompetent Obama administration and its alarming drift towards socialism.

Waving posters, placards and even sporting a pirate ship, the protest featured colorful and imaginative signs and slogans.

There were also speeches by various political leaders, mostly Republican, and the anti-tax, anti-spending theme was received enthusiastically from the crowd.

People are mad, furious, at the current course the Obama Administration is taking in its attempts to right our economic ship through massive overspending and social programs.

At the same time, the mood was anything but glum. It was in many ways a showcase of what makes America great - the cleverness and ingeneuity of its people. People worked very hard to outdo the rest with the most creative signs. Those who had pre-printed signs from their favorite pressure groups were lost in a colorful maze of original signs, all different.

While many expected disruptions from ACORN and the like, the protest went completely smoothly. I only saw one Obama supporter. He talked in a spooky, almost robotic tone, as though he was shocked at the passionate level of opposition to The One and his policies.

While people are angry, what is really impressive is the fun and fellowship when conservatives protest. It was a great, creative way to blow off some steam and send our government officials a vital mission: We are watching them closely, and ready to wreak revenge for their sins come election time.

Click here for more Tea Party Photos!

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Welcome! amazing.com is your place for pictures of the West Palm Beach Tea Party!

I just got home and I am importing all 419 pictures into Aperture, Apple's photo management program. I will be picking the best and putting them up as the night progresses.

I expect to be done by about 10:30-11:00pm so you may want to return then.

Thanks!

David

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Have you ever wanted fresh tomatoes from your garden, without the fuss or muss of actually gardening? Help could be close at hand, with robot gardeners tending MIT's vegetable gardens!

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Have you ever been annoyed by a mouse in your house, but not wanted to pull the trigger on the poor creature?

The link shows an alternative approach: Photograph him in the act, and then ... catch and keep him as a pet?

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and it comes and goes so suddenly nowadays I hardly even notice it! But still, a little Christmas spirit today comes courtesy of the Century III mall, said to be a dying place devastated by vacant stores and lack of business. This Christmas season, the bungee jumping station and merry go round were still doing good business, so maybe there is life in the old place yet -- and the promise of renewal.

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It's not often nowadays that you see a product that really makes you wonder about the sanity of its creators.

Meet Rinspeed Squba, an electric Lotus Elise that goes up to 75 mph on land ... up to 5mph on water and up to 2mph submerged.

This is one item where you really have to see the video to be impressed. Check out the second one where the intrepid Top Gear magazine reporter takes a drive ... and a dive.

Like the Tesla Roadster it's based on the versatile Lotus Elise. An open model. If they closed the cockpit it would have to weigh tons to offset the bouyancy of the cabin!

Practicality factor about zero, cool factor off the charts. 750,000 British pounds (about $1,250,000) buys you one.

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Tesla Motors has the venture funding and the chic beautiful Roadster ... but GM is trying to fight back with the Volt. We talk to both Elon Musk of Tesla and Bob Lutz of GM and get a good idea of what's going on in Silicon Valley, Detroit and elsewhere in the race for the electric car.

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We go to a lot of unhospitable regions, like Alaska, to get our energy today, so how about the warm, welcoming waters of Australia?

This is a story about a company that's switching from oil to energy from the sea ... because it's infinite, completely renewable and nonpolluting. Every scrap of energy is going to be needed, says the company's founder .. including that from the oddest places.

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Constance Steinkuehler has an interesting job: She researches how kids approach video games.

She found that if they were given a challenging task like managing raids on tough targets, they would spontaneously collaborate, collecting data about the targets, finding out their strong and weak spots, and use that information to attack. They even plotted this information using an Excel spreadsheet and created mathematical models to predict what would happen.

They were learning the scientific method, in a setting that gave tangible rewards for learning.

Intriguingly to the researcher, these were the same students that shunned traditional, boring science courses. She believes schools should embrace games as a way to teach people about science in a way that makes them motivated to learn.

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Is this a solar car ... or a UFO?

Some drivers thought the latter was a sure bet ... and reported it to police!

But it was just Canadian Marcelo da Luz striking his own blow for a solar powered, carbon free future.

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After a major storm or earthquake or other disaster, trees keep standing when even our strongest structures fall. So why not make a house out of trees?

Certain trees have bendable roots which can be grown in air, forming into shapes roughly resembling a house. The roots are then guided into soil and harden to create a solid structure. This can be supplemented by metal framing to create architectural spaces.

Looks like a cool idea, but I wonder if you lose the advantages of the tree once you add metal. And the tree bends, does it not? Not sure if you want a bending house.

At the very least, the park bench with built in shade from its included tree is a pretty cool idea.

But if you do ... this link's for you.

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