Drudge Report Italian Style

Did you know there is an Italian version of the Drudge Report? From About.com:

In Required Reading: Italy’s ‘Big Gossip’ the International Herald Tribune asks: “Where do Italian lawmakers, captains of industry and society ladies go when they want to check on the competition or see whether they have made the news themselves?”

Dagospia.com, a “blend of prurient gossip and fly-on-the-wall accounts of boardroom machinations and political shenanigans, [which] has become a daily must-read for many Italians. The site is the brainchild of the journalist and author Roberto D’Agostino, or Big Gossip, as he is known in Italian.”

Glad to see Matt Drudge is spreading his theme worldwide.

Spending 2.6 Trillion Dollars

A brief story came across the AP newswire this afternoon detailing the differences in the ongoing U.S. budget discussions/debates currently happening in Washington. Essentially, there are three schools of thought as to who owns the purse strings – the President, the House, or the Senate. All three are in fairly close agreement with how to spend nearly $2.6 trillion this year alone, but, for the third year in a row, all three neglect addressing the incredible deficits that are being created in the process.

The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) projects that if current laws and policies remained the same, the federal government would run budget deficits of $368 billion in 2005 and $295 billion in 2006. However, because of the statutory rules that govern such baseline projections, those estimates omit a significant amount of spending that will occur this year–and conceivably for some time in the future–for U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and for other efforts in the war on terrorism. And, those estimates are on top of the record $412 billion deficit set for 2004.

The following chart from the CBO shows the total revenues and outlays as a percentage of GDP from 1962 to 2015. Notice the pattern within the past three years, and how the budget gap doesn’t appear to be narrowing. When will the elected powers-that-be attend a simple finance course?

Total revenues and outlays as a percentage of GDP from 1962 to 2015

Nice Throw, Anne!

Anne Baker Throwing Like Crazy In support of my alma mater and to give a friend good press, I wanted to post this little blurb about long-time friend and fellow MASA member, Anne Baker, and her track and field performance this past weekend. Way to go, Anne!

The following blurb is taken from the news post about the event on the UR Athletics home page:

Senior Anne Baker finished fifth in her qualifying round at the NCAA Division III Track and Field Championships at Illinois Wesleyan Univesity.

Baker threw the weight 15.59 meters, 51 ft., 1.75 inches. The distance was just short of qualifying for a spot in the finals.

And the background information to help clarify what the heck I’m talking about:

Senior weight thrower Anne Baker has been selected to compete in the NCAA Division III Indoor Track and Field Championships this week.

Baker will compete on the campus of Illinois Wesleyan University. The meet is being conducted on Friday and Saturday, March 11-12, 2005. This is her first NCAA appearance.

She is seeded eighth in a field of 13 individuals. Her qualifying performance of 16.20 meters (53 ft., 1.75 in.) is a Rochester event record and tied the New York State Collegiate Track Conference (NYSCTC) record. Baker won the State title on February 25 with that 16.20 meter throw.

Either way, don’t cross her path. She’ll toss something very heavy at you, and hit you up to 53 feet away.

Venti Skinny Harmless Mocha Latte

Another FoxTrot comic strip from today’s paper by the talented Bill Amend:

FoxTrot: Venti Skinny Harmless Mocha Latte