Brad Templeton has what he claims may be the first spam e-mail, from 1978. Bump around and you’ll find other interesting stuff at his site.
Via Musings of a Philosophical Scrivener.

Gregg Easterbrook links to this chart chart and reminds us that if prices are adjusted for inflation, gasoline is $1.00/gallon below its all-time high:

Another comparison: The average price of gasoline during the 1950s was about $1.80 in today’s money–meaning that during the period enshrined in our collective political nostalgia as Energy Heaven, gasoline cost slightly more in real dollars than the amount now being theatrically bemoaned as a “record” price. But wait; in the 1950s, per-capita real income was less than half what it is today. That means that for the typical American in the 1950s, gasoline cost twice as much, in terms of buying power, as today’s gasoline. Adjusted for inflation and for buying power, the purported “record”-priced gasoline at your pumps now is substantially cheaper than the gasoline your parents bought.

I was flipping through the TV news quite a bit last night. The big story, of course, was the Madrid train bombings. Once the newsies got through details of the carnage, almost invariably the next story was: Could it happen here?
Good question. I directed it to my crack Resonance staff to the mystery. After hours of intensive digging, we came up with the following complex formula:

Thousands of travelers + pouring in and out of + cramped train cars + with unchecked baggage, which could contain explosives = Yep, it could happen here.

Ooops. I didn’t make that very dramatic, did I? Nor did I have a terrorism/security expert from X university pontificating on the foreign chatter. Darn it. Guess that’s why I’m here, and not making the big bucks on TV news.
I pick up one thing, however, from watching several of those reports. In the last couple years the U.S. has spend approximately $100 million shoring up train security, as opposed to $11.8 billion for airline security. Granted, much of Al Qaeda’s attention has reportedly been on airplanes, but still that ratio seems quite imbalanced.

South Knox Bubba has this disclaimer:

Anything on this site could be real, or it could be parody or satire, or it could be just made up. Sometimes SKB can’t even tell.

It’s getting to the point where I similarly can’t tell when I read stories about this White House. Jimmy Breslin has a column on Bush’s visit to a 9/11 memorial in Nassau County. I’d like to think he made this up, but it sounds as if it actually happened:

For days now, the job at Eisenhower Park in Nassau County has been to follow the order from the White House through the Secret Service and down to the park workers:
“The president’s feet are not to touch the dirt.”
So all yesterday, large crews drawn from all county parks worked to ensure that, as always in his life, George Bush’s feet do not touch the ground when he appears in the big park today.
Bush arrives for a fund-raiser at a restaurant in the park. That is indoors and he doesn’t have to worry about his feet there. But he has to go over ground to an administration building where he is to meet with families of 9/11 victims. After that, he has to go over more ground to get to the site of a memorial to the victims.
. . .
Bush was to move to a couple of locations on dirty parkland. Last Thursday, the bureaucrats in charge of the park heard from the Secret Service. The word immediately ran through the halls of local government.
Not a foot touches the earth.
And the workers went to work. First, there was the ground from a parking lot to a wood building used for special activities. This probably will be where Bush meets with the families.
“We’re not even sure he will use this,” a foreman said. “They just tell us he is going to meet with families. We ask, ‘Where?’ They won’t tell us. So we went ahead, anyway.”
They put up a concrete sidewalk from the parking lot to a ramp leading into a side entrance to the building.
The rain and sleet made it impossible for the concrete to dry. So they changed from concrete to the asphalt used on streets. They hoped the president wouldn’t mind this. After all, it would protect his feet from touching the earth. Gravel and hot steaming asphalt.
When they finally had it done, a full-fledged asphalt path, a Secret Service agent put his foot through the steam and left a large footprint in the walk that was to keep the president’s feet off the ground.
The Secret Service man walked on blithely. He gave no indication that he knew where he was. The workmen muttered and had to go back and fix the walk.

Priorities, priorities. We don’t want to get the president’s feet dirty on a little service for some dead people; he’s got important fund raisers to attend.

As you can probably tell from glancing at this page, I’m more political junkie than your average Joe. But even I’m not sure how well my interest will hold up during this eight more month long presidential campaign. You watch a show like “Hardball” and they’ve got on political analysts going at it as if the election is next week.
The favorite prop for these gurus is the latest polls. I suppose it’s interesting to see a poll every week or two to gauge the mood of the nation. But by and large these surveys will be meaningless until the fall. The election isn’t held today; there’s a host of unforeseeable things that can happen between now and November.
My favorite has been the primary exit polls I’ve seen on MSNBC. Look! Sixty percent of New York Democrats are “angry” at President Bush, and fifty-five percent of Louisiana Democrats are “angry” at Bush. Duh. Maybe that’s why they are voting in the Democratic primary–they don’t like Bush.
That being said, the latest Tennessee poll has Bush leading Kerry 48% to 44%. I think this shows that Bush’s new commercial with the waving flag has been particularly effective in convincing senior Hispanic women that his educational program has improved the safety of American dairy products.
Okay, okay–you’re right; it doesn’t mean anything.