Theo Jansen is an artist and kinetic sculptor living and working in Holland. He builds large works which resemble skeletons of animals which are able to walk using the wind on the beaches of the Netherlands. His animated works are a fusion of art and engineering. In the current BMW commercial Jansen says “The walls between art and engineering exist only in our minds”.

From his website:

Since about ten years Theo Jansen is occupied with the making of a new nature. Not pollen or seeds but plastic yellow tubes are used as the basic matierial of this new nature. He makes skeletons which are able to walk on the wind. Eventualy he wants to put these animals out in herds on the beaches, so they will live their own lives.

Check these detailed and intricate robot sculptures made by Jeremy Mayer.

Mayer builds his amazingly detailed sculptural creations entirely from parts found on old typewriters. His human and animal organic forms give new life to the cold metal of these mechanical relics. The Tahoe City, California artist disassembles old typewriters and then reassembles them without glue, solder or welding. His organic, metallic sculptures are a reflection of his fascination with how scientific progress continues to lead us towards the emulation of nature in technology.

Be sure to head on over to Jeremy Mayer’s online portfolio to see many more photos of his elaborate sculptures. Mayer is next expected to exhibit his works at La Jolla’s Device Gallery in the Summer of 2009.

You won’t hear me say that often, in fact this is the first.

McCain sets a crazy old woman straight about Obama. Probably the most honest, descent thing I’ve heqrd him say.

Legislative panel concludes that Palin abused the power of her office. A Republican-dominated Alaska State Legislative panel voted unanimously this evening to release to the public the results of the investigation into Governor Sarah Palin’s dismissal of Public Safety Commissioner Walt Monegan. (Full report PDF here) Among four key points released in the report, the most significant “concludes that Palin violated the state’s executive branch ethics act, which says that ‘each public officer holds office as a public trust, and any effort to benefit a personal or financial interest through official action is a violation of that trust.’”

Hadn’t seen this in a while and forgot how much I loved this version.

Lindsey Buckingham is the man.

I am so sick and tired of Hanity, Rush, Savage and all the other conservative assholes constantly throwing this Bill Ayers thing in our faces. Here is a piece that NPR just did explaining it in detail. Judge for yourself. THEN go read about the Charles Keating savings and Loan scandal and McCain’s involvement in that.

All Things Considered, October 6, 2008 · Guilt by association is the latest theme of the presidential race. John McCain’s campaign continues to attack Barack Obama for his relationship with Vietnam-era radical Bill Ayers. The Obama campaign fired back Monday with a 13-minute Web video on John McCain’s connection to Charles Keating and the 1980s savings and loan crisis. [ed. Here is a link to it - watch it yourselves]

“Our opponent is someone who sees America as imperfect enough to pal around with terrorists who targeted their own country,” Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin said about Obama on the stump this past weekend.

She was talking about Ayers, a founding member of the radical anti-Vietnam War group known as the Weathermen, and later as the Weather Underground. The group’s goal was to disrupt the war effort by bombing government buildings, such as the Pentagon and the U.S. Capitol.

The FBI labeled the now-defunct group a “domestic terrorist group.” Most of the bombings damaged only buildings; no one was killed or injured in the bombings that the Weather Underground claimed responsibility for at the time. Authorities suspected the group of planting a bomb in San Francisco in 1970, which killed one police officer and seriously injured another, but no charges were ever filed in the case.[ed. Hear that? NO CHARGES]

In the late 1970s, members of the group were linked to a Brink’s armored truck robbery in which two police officers and a security guard were killed, but that was long after Ayers left the group.

The federal government did file charges against Ayers and other members of the group related to their bombing activities.

In the ’70s, Ayers went into hiding with his wife, Weathermen co-founder Bernardine Dohrn, and they left the radical group. They resurfaced in Chicago around 1980, after federal charges against them were dropped.

Ayers became a professor of education at the University of Illinois at Chicago and became involved in the growing effort to reform Chicago’s beleaguered public schools. It was in that capacity that he and Obama first met in early 1995. The two also live close to one another in Chicago’s Hyde Park neighborhood.

Here’s how Obama first described the nature of his relationship with Ayers, when asked about it in a Democratic presidential debate against Sen. Hillary Clinton in April: “This is a guy who lives in my neighborhood, who is a professor of English in Chicago, who I know, and who I have not received some official endorsement from. He is not someone I exchange ideas (with) on a regular basis.”

Obama went onto say Ayers “engaged in despicable acts 40 years ago when I was 8 years old,” and to suggest that “that reflects on me and my values doesn’t make much sense.”

How Well Do They Know Each Other?

But Palin suggests Obama is downplaying how well he knows Ayers.

“Barack Obama said Ayers was just someone in the neighborhood. But that’s less than truthful. His own top adviser said they were ‘certainly friendly.’ In fact, Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers’ home. And they’ve worked together on various projects in Chicago,” Palin said Sunday.

Did Obama “pal around with,” Ayers? And, more importantly, is Ayers still considered a terrorist?

On the first question, there is some evidence to suggest Obama knows Ayers a little better than he acknowledges. They certainly ran in the same liberal Chicago circles in the 1990s and early 2000s. They lived within blocks of each other, and Obama’s two daughters now go to the same school Ayers’ children attended, though they are now grown.

The Obama campaign says he first met Ayers in 1995, when Obama became chair of the board of the Chicago Annenberg Challenge, a $50 million fund that awarded grants to groups trying to implement new programs to improve inner city education in Chicago.

Walter Annenberg, a lifelong Republican and former ambassador who was appointed by Presidents Nixon and Reagan, funded an ambitious program to reform urban education in many cities in the mid 1990s. Ayers was an important member of the group that developed and wrote the grant proposal to the Annenberg Foundation. [ed. Wait, it was funded by a REPUBLICAN?]

Obama and Ayers attended at least six meetings together over six years, Annenberg Challenge records show, and those knowledgeable of the school reform group say it is likely there were other informal sessions of the group that they both attended. But no one on the board or on the Annenberg Challenge staff remembers Obama being any closer to Ayers than to any other member of the board. The Annenberg board also included several civic, business and education leaders, many of them Republicans.

Obama and Ayers also served together on the board of another charity, the Woods Fund of Chicago, an organization that also had conservative members. The two have not served on either board together since 2002.

Later in 1995, Ayers hosted a “getting to know you” gathering at his house as Obama was preparing for his first campaign, a run for the Illinois Senate. The incumbent state senator, Alice Palmer, had announced she would run for Congress.

To help Obama in the Democratic primary race to succeed her, Palmer organized a few informal meetings to introduce Obama to her supporters in the fall of 1995, including the gathering at Ayers’ house. It was not a fundraiser, as some reports have stated. And it was not the meeting that launched Obama’s political career, as other Obama critics have alleged.

Other prominent Hyde Park neighbors don’t remember Obama and Ayers as being particularly close, though Obama’s chief strategist, David Axelrod, did say in February that Obama and Ayers were “certainly friendly.”

Ayers’ Reputation

So, is Ayers such a bad person to be friendly with? Is he still an unapologetic terrorist?

In his memoir, Fugitive Days, Ayers doesn’t directly say which Weather Underground bombings he may have had a role in planning or executing, coyly writing, “some details cannot be told.”

But in a New York Times article on the book, Ayers is quoted as saying, “I don’t regret setting bombs. I feel we didn’t do enough.” Coincidently, that article was published on Sept. 11, 2001. Days later, Ayers complained on his Web site that the quote was taken out of context, saying, “My memoir is from start to finish a condemnation of terrorism, of the indiscriminate murder of human beings, whether driven by fanaticism or official policy.” [ed. I've read it. It's about as anti-terrorist as it comes]

Regardless of his background, it was never a problem for anyone — including Republicans and Chicago’s most powerful business leaders — to work with Ayers on Chicago’s public schools. In fact, Ayers is widely respected in the field of urban education.

“It was never a concern by any of us in the Chicago school reform movement that he had led a fugitive life years earlier,” said former Illinois state Republican Rep. Diana Nelson, who worked with both Obama and Ayers over the years. “It’s ridiculous. There is no reason at all to smear Barack Obama with this association. It’s nonsensical, and it just makes me crazy. It’s so silly.”

Nelson says her fellow Republicans “might snort when they hear the name Bill Ayers, because they know he comes from a wealthy family, they know he became a radical activist early in his life … but beyond just snorting, I don’t think anyone gives it another thought.”

“I don’t remember ever hearing anyone raise concerns or questions or concerns about [Ayers'] background,” says Anne Hallett, who has worked closely with Ayers on the Annenberg Challenge grant and with Obama on education and other community and legislative matters. “And that included everybody I was engaged with,” including prominent Republicans, and corporate and civic leaders in Chicago, Hallett adds.

Hallett calls this attack on Obama’s association with Ayers and the Annenberg Challenge by further association, “a smear campaign. It’s a political diatribe that has no basis in fact. The Chicago Annenberg Challenge was an extremely positive initiative. It was well-vetted, thorough, and the fact that it is now is being used for political purposes is, in my opinion, outrageous.”

So there, suck on that Hannity you fuckwad.

Oh and don’t even get me started on the liberal left wing media shit. last time I checked, television and radio where MEDIA too you asshole.

1. THE MYTH: “She took the luxury jet that was acquired by her predecessor and sold it on eBay. And made a profit!” — John McCain, at a campaign stop in Wisconsin

THE FACTS: No one bought the jet online. It was eventually sold through an aircraft broker — at a loss to taxpayers of nearly $600,000.

2. THE MYTH: “I told the Congress ‘Thanks, but no thanks’ on that Bridge to Nowhere.” — Sarah Palin, convention speech

THE FACTS: Supported the infamous pork project in her 2006 run for governor, even after Congress had killed the bridge; derided its opponents as “spinmeisters.” Reversed her stance a year later — but kept the money, doling out the $223 million in federal funds to other pork projects throughout the state.

3. THE MYTH: “We … championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress.” — Sarah Palin, convention speech

THE FACTS: As mayor, employed a lobbyist who also worked for Jack Abramoff to secure $27 million in pork spending for Wasilla — more than $4,000 per resident. In her two years as governor, requested $453 million in earmarks. Alaska ranks first in the nation for pork, raking in seven times the national average.