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2009-07-04T16:54:05Z

DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE

IN CONGRESS, JULY 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their

exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

— John Hancock

New Hampshire:

Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts:

John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island:

Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut:

Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York:

William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey:

Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania:

Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware:

Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland:

Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia:

George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina:

William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina:

Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia:

Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Iranian Revolution Day 22: Crushing the Movement - 29 More to be Hanged Tomorrow

2009-07-04T18:51:32Z

Names of women dead/arrested (English via Google Translator)

6:11 pm: Judiciary has ordered Iranian ISPs and Web based service providers to give them info (including IPs) of users.

Evil assclown of the day: Incoming IAEA chief: No evidence Iran seeking nuclear weapons. Those perverse lilliputians over at the Nobel Foundation in Stockholm, Sweden, must be polishing up their next award for this tool (it will stand next to El Baradei's, Yaser Arafat's, Dhimmi Carter's and Al Whore's).

5:26 pm: 20 PEOPLE WERE EXECUTED IN TEHRAN TODAY JULY 4
4 July 2009

Iran Human Rights, July 4: According to the state run Iranian news agency Fars, 20 people were hanged in the Rajaee shahr prison of Karaj (west of Tehran) early this morning July 4.

On July 3., Iran Human Rights warned that 29 prisoners were scheduled to be executed in Tehran today July 4.
Iran Human Rights is investigating whether among those (...)

2:55 pm: Execution Update: 20-Tehran; 14-Shiraz; 6-Qom; 6-Evin Prison. 14-scheduled in Qom. More tomorrow.................

I have one vote, I give it to no one. I have one life, I give it to free Iran. (Twitter)

While the Obama administration continues to vigorously pursue the criminalization of Bush and Bush officials for defending the American people against Islamic jihad, Obama abets the mullahs in Iran. Iran will execute another 20 people tomorrow. Obama? Silent.

Another 29 people will be hanged for peacefully marching for one man one vote, and Obama will block sanctions against these bloodthirsty murderers at the coming G8 summit.

At the same time, John Yoo, an ex-Justice Department attorney who wrote memos justifying harsh interrogations of terrorism detainees, lost his bid to dismiss a lawsuit blaming him for alleged violations of a detainee’s rights: Yoo, Bush Administration Lawyer, Must Face a "Torture Lawsuit". Jose Padilla, a Muslim terrorist who planned a nuclear attack in America, claims that Yoo’s memos led to a system under which he was subject to coercive interrogations and cruel and unusual punishment while being denied his right to an attorney, access to courts, freedom of religion and due process. Yoo, his colleagues, and those brave men at GITMO (who get feces and urine thrown at them daily) saved thousands (perhaps millions) of American lives. Obama says, respect Islamic jihad!

Yoo argued that, as a government official, he was immune to such lawsuits. He didn’t personally participate in Padilla’s treatment and decisions about the government’s conduct during war should be decided by the president and Congress, he said.

Obama's silence speaks volumes. The man never shuts up. Who else is sick and tired of his daily seizing of the airwaves for his dose of dear leader propaganda?

The Wall Street Journal opined, "Here's a political thought experiment: Imagine that terrorists stage an attack on U.S. soil in the next four years. In the recriminations afterward, Administration officials are sued by families of the victims for having advised in legal memos that Guantanamo be closed and that interrogations of al Qaeda detainees be limited.

Should those officials be personally liable for the advice they gave President Obama?

We'd say no, but that's exactly the kind of lawsuit that the political left, including State Department nominee Harold Koh, has encouraged against Bush Administration officials. This month a federal judge in San Francisco ruled that a civil suit filed by convicted terrorist Jose Padilla can proceed against former Justice Department lawyer John Yoo for violating the terrorist's rights. Mr. Yoo is one of those who wrote memos laying out the legal parameters for aggressive interrogation of al Qaeda captives. If Mr. Yoo can be sued, why couldn't Obama officials also be held liable for their advice if there's an attack on their watch?"

29 people to be executed tomorrow in Karaj, Iran!

According to news received by the International Committee against Executions, 29 people are to be executed tomorrow, Saturday, in Ghezal Hesar prison in Karaj. It has been reported that the 29 have been separated from other prisoners. There is no information on their charges.

The executions are being carried out in order to intimidate people and is directed at the protesting people of Iran.

We are calling for people in Iran and everywhere to condemn the executions and exert pressure to stop them.

All Iranian revolution liveblogging archives here.

Twittering from the Tractor

2009-07-03T18:59:00Z

Embedded video from CNN VideoSteve Tucker is a wheat farmer in Nebraska changing the way we interact with the folks who grow our food. Twittering from the tractor: smartphones sprout on the farm is an interesting article at CNN.com about how farmer's like Steve are using Twitter and other tools to bridge the urban-rural divide and get us thinking more about where our food comes from.

The idea of extending the Twitter network into interesting locations around the world via mobile devices is at the core of our thinking and Steve sums it up well when he says, "I can be in the most remote place and just with the power of having a BlackBerry ... I can communicate with anybody at anytime about anything." You can follow @Tykerman1 on Twitter.

p.s. Twitter co-founder and CEO @ev grew up on a farm in Nebraska.

Gmail With Drag & Drop

2009-07-02T11:57:10Z

Drag and drop has come to Gmail: you can now drag a message by its left-hand grid, and move it into a label/ folder to the left side. Also, you can now re-arrange labels via drag & drop.
[Thanks Cookie Lee and Niranjan!]

[By Philipp Lenssen | Origin: Gmail With Drag & Drop | Comments]

[Advertisement] Google books at eBay: background info on Google, AdWords, AdSense, Blogger and more...

Labels: drag and drop, hiding, and more

2009-07-01T16:07:00Z

Posted by Damian Gajda, Software Engineer

A few months ago Gmail got some new buttons and keyboard shortcuts to make labeling easier, especially for those of you accustomed to that familiar folder feel. Now we're making some more changes to Gmail's labeling toolkit.

1) New location for labels
You'll notice your labels in a new location on the left of your inbox (or on the right, for those of you using the Arabic, Hebrew, or Urdu versions of Gmail). Instead of having their own section, your labels are now above your chat list, grouped together with Inbox, Drafts, Chats and other system labels.

2) Label hiding and showing
You now have control over which of your labels show. We've done our best to get you started by automatically showing the labels you use most and hiding the rest. Label hiding is my favorite new feature, since it saves me from having to look through labels I rarely use. If I ever need to reach any of my old labels, I just click the "more" link.

You can show, hide, or delete a label by clicking the down-arrow to the left of that label.

If you want to make a lot of changes at once, go to the Labels tab under Settings where you can edit labels in bulk.

For those of you who created label names like _stuff or ++todo++ to force your most-used labels to the top of the list (come on, you know who you are, I did it too...), you don't have to come up with clever tricks like that anymore ;)

3) Drag and drop
You can now drag messages into labels, just like you can with folders. This does the exact same thing as "Move to" -- it labels and archives in one step.

You can drag labels onto messages too. It's the same thing as using the "Label" button. To label or move many messages at once, first select the messages and then drag and drop the label.

It's also possible to drag labels into the "more" menu to hide them and vice versa. If you only want to move a couple labels around, I've found it quicker than going to Settings.

All of these changes also mean the end of Right-side Labels, an experimental Gmail Labs feature. This is the first Labs feature we're retiring. (The idea behind Labs was always that things could break or disappear at any time or they might work so well that they become regular features. More on that soon...) Now that labels aren't in their own little box and take up much less space, moving them around the screen didn't seem as important. We realize quite a few of you used and liked Right-side Labels, so if you feel strapped for left nav screen real estate without it, try turning on Right-side Chat in Labs instead.

We hope these new changes make labeling even easier and help you stay organized. We'll be rolling out these labeling features for everyone throughout the day, so if you don't see them right away please check later today.

Answers to the Top 10 Twitter Objections

2009-07-01T12:00:07Z

Last week I did an interview with The Tennessean, our local paper here in Nashville, about my use of Twitter. Naomi Snyder, the reporter, asked me to respond to a few of the common objections people have to using Twitter.

After the interview, I realized that there actually are a finite number of objections. I have heard most of them. If you use Twitter, you probably have, too.

Regardless, the first thing I did was “crowd source” my followers on Twitter. I had a list of five objections before I did this. I honestly thought I had captured all of them, but I wanted to make sure. I Twittered this:

Surprisingly, I got seven more objections for a total of twelve.

I then created a poll in SurveyMonkey.com, blogged about it, and then asked my Twitter followers and blog readers to vote for the top three reasons their friends tell them they aren’t Twittering. More than 700 people took the poll.

Unfortunately, I somehow failed to include what I think is the number one thing that most of us hear from our friends. I have listed this one first, because I think it is probably the most prevalent. I have followed this with the other nine.

“That sounds silly.” This is precisely what I said to my friend, Randy Elrod, when he introduced the service to me. He wisely said, “You won’t really understand Twitter until you try it?” I still think that’s right. Therefore, I challenge people to read my post, “12 Reasons to Start Twittering” and then try Twittering for two weeks. If they don’t like it after two weeks, fine. At least they will know first-hand why it didn’t work for them.
“I don’t understand how to do it.”I get this a lot. People may not want to admit it, but they don’t understand how to do it. No problem, that is precisely why I wrote “The Beginner’s Guide to Twitter.” It assumes that they know nothing and walks them through the basics. One of the best things you can do for your friends when they are just starting out is to send them the link to this post.
“It think it would take too much time.” I get this objection frequently, too. In fact, at one point, I heard this objection so many times that I wrote another blog post, documenting how much time I spent on Twitter a day. It’s entitled, “How Much Time Does Twittering Really Take?” As it turns out for me, less than 30 minutes a day—if that.
“It is too narcissistic or self-centered.” Twitter is one of those things that merely amplifies what you already are. If you are narcissistic, then Twitter will give you a way to become even more narcissistic. But you won’t attract many followers. The key to that is being genuinely other-centered and generous. In fact, that is precisely the thing that gets other people’s attention and is rewarded on Twitter. To be successful with Twitter, it can’t be about you. It must be about your followers.
“I prefer Facebook or some other social media service.” Honestly, I am not a big fan of Facebook, but there is no point in arguing it. Different strokes for different folks. However, why chose? You can have your cake and eat it, too. In this post, “How to Update Your Facebook Status with Twitter,” I show you how to kill two birds with one stone. (I think I mixed three different metaphors in one paragraph!)
“It is a poor substitute for real relationships.” That’s what I thought at the beginning. I already have a rich social life. Why do I need more superficial relationships? However, with the exception of one of my daughters, my entire family started Twittering at the same time. This allowed us to stay connected in ways we could never dream of before. Plus, I have met some amazing people on Twitter who eventually became real friends and business associates. I met with one of them yesterday morning.
“I don’t have anything interesting to say.” Don’t sell yourself short. Your life is more interesting than you think. Why do you think reality television is so popular? People crave transparency and authenticity. They long to connect with real people living real lives. It gives them perspective and helps them see that their lives are more normal than they thought.
“I am concerned about my privacy.” I wrote the book on this—literally. In 2001, my book Invasion of Privacy: How to Protect Yourself in the Digital Age. was published by Regnery. Since that time, I have done a one-eighty. For all practical purposes, privacy is dead: get over it. Via Google, people can find out more about you in ten minutes than was possible in a lifetime ten years ago. You might as well intelligently feed the Google search engines with what you want people to know about you. You need to be smart about it, but you are in control.
“I don’t see how it could help my business.” I know so many people now who have almost completely given up traditional marketing. They are doing most of their promotion on Twitter and seeing huge success. Why? Because they have a loyal following of people who trust them—a tribe, to use Seth Godin’s term. At Thomas Nelson, we are seeing some significant success with social media. Twitter is at the heart of our strategy,
“I don’t know how to get started.” This is the easy part. Twitter is profoundly simple. You can sign up for an account and get started in 60 seconds. All you have to do is answer a simple question, “What are you doing?” in 140 charters or less. An even better question is this, “What has your attention right now? You can post an update or two and start following your family or friends. The rest will take care of itself. Trust me on this.

Question: If you are using Twitter, what are your answers to some of these questions? If you are not using Twitter, what other objections do you have?

Middle-Click to Open Firefox Links in a New Foreground Tab [Firefox Tip]

2009-06-30T18:00:00Z

Everybody already knows that middle-clicking or Control-clicking in Firefox opens a link in a new background tab, but reader Raghav points out that you can also open a link in a new foreground tab instead.

It's a tiny, simple tip, but one of those things that you might not have realized: just hold down the Shift key while middle-clicking to open the link in a new tab and switch to it at the same time. He writes:

It is common knowledge that middle-clicking on a link opens it in a new background tab, but pressing shift while middle-clicking opens it in a new foreground tab. This especially comes in handy when you've got dozens of tabs open and don't want to shuffle through all your tabs to find the one you just opened.

For more, learn about a lesser-known feature to slow down the mouse scrolling speed, how to speed up Firefox by limiting history size, or how to quickly jump to text fields in Firefox. Thanks, Raghav!

Got your own tips for dealing with Firefox tab overload? Share them in the comments.

Firefox 3.5 Soars Past A Million Downloads. Approaching 100 Downloads A Second.

2009-06-30T19:16:05Z

Mozilla today released Firefox 3.5 into the wild. Not surprisingly, it’s flying off the virtual shelves. And unlike when Mozilla released Firefox 3.0 last year, its servers are staying up and reliable, so the rate of downloads is pretty incredible. This site, run by Mozilla, shows the download stats for the new browser. Overall downloads are now approaching 1.3 million worldwide, with over 350,000 of those in the U.S. But even more amazing is the number of downloads occurring each second, it’s ranging from 59 to 95 right now. Again, that’s every second.

Outside of the U.S., the browser is moving quickly in Germany, France and the UK. The claim is that it’s much faster than the previous iterations of Firefox, and based on just a quick run-through of my favorite sites, I’d say that is in fact the case. Though, to be fair, it’s hard to know if that has something to do with the fact that just about all my browser plugins are not yet working with this version.

Not surprisingly, the emphasis on speed in this version of Firefox is on its JavaScript performance. Both Google’s Chrome and Apple’s Safari have been making headlines recently claiming to be the fastest browsers in this regard. As you can see in the SunSpider test chart below, it appears that Firefox has made huge strides since the slow days of Firefox 2, and has now more than doubled performance over even Firefox 3. As Apple recently touted in a press release: “Safari quickly loads HTML web pages more than three times faster than IE 8 and three times faster than Firefox 3.”

So how does 1.3 million downloads in a few hours stack up against its rivals? Well, the most recent browser to offer a major upgrade was Safari, which claimed 11 million downloads in 3 days. But those numbers are tricky because Apple includes Safari updates in its regular OS X software updates, so pretty much all OS X users were at least asked to upgrade after its launch. Still, Apple claimed that of the 11 million, some 6 million were users on Windows machines. And Firefox also pings users to do auto-updates when a new version is available.

Despite its launch hiccups, Firefox 3 set the Guinness World Record for software downloads last summer. In just 24 hours, over 8 million people downloaded the browser around the world. We’ll see how this version stacks up.

You can watch the live-updating chart and map for Firefox 3.5 downloads here.

CrunchBase Information

Firefox

Mozilla

Information provided by CrunchBase

Crunch Network: MobileCrunch Mobile Gadgets and Applications, Delivered Daily.

Welcome Firefox 3.5! Join the Party! | Firefox Facts

2009-06-30T12:28:43Z

The day a new Firefox version comes out is always a fun day for me, because right now I feel like a little kid on Christmas, waiting to get to open his

Mozilla Confirms Tuesday Release for Firefox 3.5 [Firefox 3.5]

2009-06-29T18:30:00Z

Firefox 3.5: Earlier today we mentioned that Firefox 3.5 could be pushed out as an official release as soon as Tuesday, June 30. Now PC Magazine is reporting that Mozilla has officially confirmed the Tuesday release. Among other additions, Firefox 3.5 will include a Private Browsing Mode to hide browser activity, a JavaScript engine known as TraceMonkey, new location services, and HTML5 support. Mozilla's Mike Beltzner told the magazine that he expects over one billion downloads ~~of the updated browser~~ total for all Firefox browsers after 3.5 is released. (Update: Beltzner comments on what he calls a PC Mag misquote).

Boom Boom: Guy Snaps Supersonic Picture

2009-06-29T22:15:28Z

Ronald Dejarnett is the U.S. Navy sonar technician that snapped this pic of an F-22 going boom boom over the Gulf of Alaska. Quick shootin', Ronald -- I probably would have peed a little and yelled DECEPTICON! But that could be my special forces training talking. A Picture Is Worth About $138 Million [gizmodo]

30 Exceptional Web Designs

2009-06-29T15:19:50Z

I’ve compiled a list of 30 exceptional web page designs for your inspiration. Most of these are relatively new; so they’ll hopefully give you some ideas for your next project! Enjoy!

1. Alexarts

Alex uses a very simple but modern interface for his site. Click on any of the sections, and a popup displays.

2. Pampaneo

Pampaneo uses excellent graphics and illustrations to tell a story.

3. Juan Diego Velasco

Juan uses a one page layout and vivid colors for his site.

4. Metalab

Metalab Design has a very clean and usable interface, as well as some nice JavaScript effects.

5. Serj

Serj features great graphics and a simple and effective layout. Sometimes, simplicity is key.

6. Peter Pearson

Peter also uses a neat one page layout and some cool image effects.

7. Cactuar.in.the.Phailbucket

Cole uses excellent vector illustrations and a great choice of colors in his design.

8. Fred Maya

Fred focuses on simplicity, colors, and usability for this nice design.

9. Galvin Castleton

This album site uses a one page horizontal layout and excellent photography.

10. Chris Jennings

Readability is key.

11. Guerra Creative

Excellent graphics and easy to read content.

12. 84 Colors

Cristiana’s thinks outside the box with this different layout.

13. Feed Stitch

Feed Stitch’s site is a fun, creative, and super creative!

14. We Bleed Design

We Bleed Design uses images creatively to animate the transition through sections.

15. Motty

Mooty’s site uses a great illustration in the header, and the content’s presentation is excellent.

16. Cerity

Jonathan’s portfolio offers a neat interface for viewing his work.

17. Creative People

CreativePeople’s page has excellent graphics and an interesting layout.

18. Brooklyn Fare

Brooklyn Fare’s site is a wonderful example of how a company’s site should be presented.

19. Tierra Virtual

This agency’s site uses an animated header, and has a modern feel.

20. Merixusa

Cute illustrations — a creative showcase of their work.

21. Food, Inc

Simple and clean site with nice graphics.

22. Inicio

Beautiful choice of colors here.

23. CCSI

CCSI uses clean graphics and a nice scrolling text effect to draw the reader in.

24. Loodo

This website fits a lot of content into a small space — seemingly with ease! It also makes use of a cute and creative navigation section.

25. Guifx

Bells and whistles don’t always get your point across. Sometimes, simplicity and ease of use is key.

26. Vyniknite

All websites mustn’t look identical. Even something as simple as a unique header can make a huge difference.

27. two24studios

Great textures, typography, and navigation in this dark website.

28. Illusiv

Very creative desktop-like interface.

29. Duirwaigh

What a background! Though not appropriate for every site, this one definitely makes an impact.

30. BKWLD

Wonderfully effective, with plenty of white space. What more could you ask for?

Final Words

I hope you found some inspiration here. I know I did! Be sure to leave a comment to share any additional sites with the rest of us. Good luck on your next project!

Global Warming Deniers on the Rise

2009-06-26T21:18:00Z

According to The Wall Street Journal, Australian Senator Steve Fielding recently met with the Obama administration seeking reassurance that human-caused global warming was a real concern. After the meeting, Fielding promptly returned Down Under and announced he would not vote for any climate change legislation.

Apparently, Fielding isn't alone:

It turns out Al Gore and the United Nations (with an assist from the media), did a little too vociferous a job smearing anyone who disagreed with them as "deniers." The backlash has brought the scientific debate roaring back to life in Australia, Europe, Japan and even, if less reported, the U.S.

The number of skeptics, far from shrinking, is swelling. Oklahoma Sen. Jim Inhofe now counts more than 700 scientists who disagree with the U.N.—13 times the number who authored the U.N.'s 2007 climate summary for policymakers.

This possible change in public opinion may be the reason the administration is ramming through cap and trade today (vote any minute!). My suggestion? Every member of the U.S. House should visit with President Obama before casting their vote on any climate legislation.

Read the full article here. Reason global warming coverage here.

Boehner: Climate bill a 'pile of s--t'

2009-06-29T15:27:56Z

Shared by wvpv
h/t @ihatethemedia

Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) had a few choice words about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's (D-Calif.) landmark climate-change bill after its passage Friday. When asked why he read portions of the cap-and-trade bill on the floor Friday night, Boehner told The Hill, "Hey, people deserve to know what's in this pile of s--t."

Firefox 3.5 to be Released Tomorrow?

2009-06-29T12:07:50Z

The word on the street, and by street I mean various online news sources, is that Firefox 3.5 is set to be released tomorrow, June 30th. Version 3.5, codename “Shiretoko”, does bring a lot of new neat features to the browsing platform.

My personal favorite feature I have seen thus far, that shows the most innovation is the support for embeddable video, without the use of any plugins or third party scripts. This multimedia embedding functionality of HTML 5 may not be widely used yet, however this does give it a proverbial first kick in the pants to take off and become successful.

Of course, I wouldn’t be doing the Firefox 3.5 project justice if I didn’t mention the speed boost too. However, I’m not really sure that is something real users will notice. Maybe it is just me but Firefox 3 for me right now is still pretty darn fast. You can check out a full list of features via Mozilla’s web site:

Features List for Firefox 3.5

Seems like this time around Firefox’s newest release has either sneaked up on me, or perhaps isn’t getting as much coverage as the last. What do you think? Are you excited yet?

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Another Blow to Junk Science... Polar Bear Populations Booming

2009-06-28T14:40:00Z

The Battle Between Science and Junk Science Rages On--

As the democrats passed the junk science "pile of sh*t" this past week a new report was released, and suppressed, insisting that polar bear numbers, far from decreasing, are much higher than they were 30 years ago.

It's about time for a cull.

Polar bear numbers in Canada have increased in 11 of 13 regions in recent years.

Another report shows that polar bear encounters on the North Slope oil fields have risen to record levels the last two years. The global warming religionists blame the increase in polar bear sightings on shrinking ice flows. So, now the alarmists are blaming manmade global warming on both increased and decreased polar bear populations.

There are 5 times as many polar bears today as there were 50 years ago:

In August 2008 Alaska Governor Sarah Palin sued the federal government seeking to reverse the decision to put the polar bear on the threatened species list.

Breaking News

2009-06-28T14:00:06Z

Breaking News – Entrance to the “dark side” finally found!

wheerz teh cheezburgerz?

Picture by: dunno source. Caption by: marvicakes via Breaking News Builder

» Recaption This

» See All Captions

Blue Angels Cockpit Cam

2009-06-28T19:17:41Z

[YouTube - Link]

I have always had a fascination with planes and fighter jets ever since my Dad used to take the family and I to the Dubai Airshow when I was really young where we got to watch some of the craziest and most talented pilots showing off their stuff. I remember once seeing the Blue Angels on display and they blew me away! Still to this day their stuff is top notch and gives me thrills to see them fly.

Lucky for us we get to see the view from one of their cockpits as they perform some hair raising maneuvers. I trust I won’t be the only one who gets goosebumps and a few butterflies in their stomachs as you get to see how amazingly close they get to each other and how in tune they are to each others positions. Mind you it’s almost 10 minutes of video!

* Also, if you are prone to motion sickness be careful watching this! Thank you SydneyClaire for reminding me to put a motion sickness warning!

** This is raw footage so the sound will be a little loud so please take care to drop the level just a bit after hitting play! Don’t want to hurt your ears!

Cap-n-Trade T-Shirt

2009-06-28T13:02:26Z

Dear Congress, You cap us, we trade you. Love, Your Boss

Firefox 3.5 coming June 30th, Fennec updated today

2009-06-27T16:40:00Z

Filed under: Windows, Macintosh, Linux, Mozilla, Browsers

It looks like somebody at Mozilla is listening. Just yesterday, we asked when we could get a version of Firefox 3.5 that didn't have the silly "release candidate" next to its name. Now we have an answer: Tuesday.

Webmonkey and Betanews are both reporting that Mozilla has confirmed that's the date it will push out the full version of Firefox 3.5. The latest version of the popular web browser has been available for testing for months, but by removing the beta and/or RC label, Mozilla is essentially saying that the browser is ready for the public to use without fear of encountering major bugs of security flaws. You know, until some major bug of security flaw is discovered and Mozilla pushes out Firefox 3.5.1.

Firefox 3.5 includes a number of changes from Firefox 3.0, including faster Javascript rendering and a private browsing mode which allows you to surf without saving your personal data. It also supports viewing some web video in a browser without any plugins.

In related news, Mozilla's released an update to the mobile version of Firefox today. Fennec Beta 2 for Nokia Internet Tablets and Alpha 2 for Windows Mobile was released today. The latest version of Fennec includes performance tweaks and a new theme.

[via Mozilla Links]

Firefox 3.5 coming June 30th, Fennec updated today originally appeared on Download Squad on Sat, 27 Jun 2009 11:40:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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