Tara Sue Grubb for Congress: "What about a twenty-six year old female running against an aged, eighteen year career politician? We are polar opposites in many ways. Despite the odds, whatever they be, I am as serious as a heart attack. You don't have to be a senior politician to understand the concepts of liberty, laissez-faire and justice. You don't have to be a mastermind to see the people of this nation have been pushed into estrangement. Finally, you don't have to be a suit to change the way things are."

Forever Young: "As Woody Allen once put it, 'I don't want to achieve immortality through my work. I want to achieve it through not dying."

Internet addicts surf on work time: "One in four employees has a serious Web habit, spending more than one entire workday each week surfing non-work-related Web sites while at their desks."

Today I was a plumber sans crack.

Happy August 24th.

Half a billion Americans? "America's census in 2000 contained a shock. The population turned out to be rising faster than anyone had expected when the 1990 census was taken. There are disputes about exactly why this was (more on that shortly). What is not in doubt is that a gap is beginning to open with Europe. America's fertility rate is rising. Europe's is falling. America's immigration outstrips Europe's and its immigrant population is reproducing faster than native-born Americans. America's population will soon be getting younger. Europe's is ageing."

Oil companies settle for $28 million in Tahoe MTBE case: "Oil companies have agreed to pay $28 million to settle a case involving pollution of Lake Tahoe groundwater with the gasoline additive MTBE. Shell Oil Co., Shell Products Co., Equilon Enterprises LLC and Texaco Inc. agreed to settle with the South Tahoe Public Utilities District and formalized their deal in San Francisco Superior Court"

Revenge of the Tweezer People: "As one Israeli security expert said, America doesn't have a system for air security, it has a system for bothering people."

The Google Quiz: "Knowledge may be its own reward, but wouldn't it be great if it also came with fabulous prizes? Now it does."

Turning the dead into diamonds: "A company based in the Chicago suburb of Elk Grove Village has accepted its first deposit for manufactured diamonds made from carbon captured during the cremation process so that loved ones -- family members or even pets -- could be mounted into a ring, pendant or other jewelry."