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Now Virgin to offer trips to space: “British entrepreneur Richard Branson has announced his company has signed a deal to offer the world’s first commercial flights to space under the branding ‘Virgin Galactic.’

“Branson, head of the Virgin Atlantic airline, said Monday that passengers in groups of five could be sent into orbit by 2008 at around £110,000 ($200,000) a trip.

“The licensing deal could be worth millions over the next 15 years depending on the number of spaceships built by Virgin.

“Prices for each seat are expected to start at £110,000, including three days’ flight training. Virgin says that up to 3,000 astronauts could be flying high in space over a five-year period.”

This past Thursday marked the two-year anniversary celebration of the driverscrew, the drink James and I invented on September 23, 2002. Unfortunately, the commute for James from California would have been too much for him to help us celebrate in person, so Jen, Justin, and I marked the occasion appropriately. We did manage to get James on conference call (he’s on the phone in this picture).

The Chronicle has an interesting piece that debunks the pillar of the Bush campaign — Kerry’s alleged flip-flopping.

Flip-flopping charge unsupported by facts / Kerry always pushed global cooperation, war as last resort:

“No argument is more central to the Republican attack on Sen. John Kerry than the assertion that the Democrat has flip-flopped on Iraq.

“President Bush, seated beside Iraqi Prime Minister Ayad Allawi, said Tuesday: ‘My opponent has taken so many different positions on Iraq that his statements are hardly credible at all.’

“The allegation is the basis of a new Bush campaign TV ad that shows the Democratic senator from Massachusetts windsurfing to the strains of a Strauss waltz as a narrator intones: ‘Kerry voted for the Iraq war, opposed it, supported it and now opposes it again.’

“Yet an examination of Kerry’s words in more than 200 speeches and statements, comments during candidate forums and answers to reporters’ questions does not support the accusation.”

(Thanks, Glenn, for the link.)

Last night after walking the dogs, Jen and I took another bike ride to the local brewery. We chatted for a while with a father of two who encouraged us to “get wasted, then go home and make babies.” The most poignant thing he said on the topic was that having kids is your contribution to the future. There are always going to be screwed up people in the world, so when we leave it behind, we should replace ourselves with at least two more good people. So that was cool.

After a pint, we refilled the growler, then pedaled home.

We watched Sunday’s episode of Family Bonds on the DVR, and half of Matchstick Men before hitting the sack.

When I first looked at this electoral polling map last night, Kerry was ahead based on current poll results. Today’s polling puts Bush slightly ahead. I don’t put a whole lot of weight in the polls, but it’s interesting to keep tabs on the latest numbers, see the specifics in each state, etc.

(Thanks, Jane, for the link.)

Body Shots: “It’s a typically raucous Saturday night inside the Baja Beach Club, a wildly popular discotheque in Barcelona, Spain. House music blares. Ecstatic partygoers grope blindly on the dance floor. Voluptuous waitresses in pink bikinis and grass skirts crisscross the crowd delivering overpriced mai tais. A miasma of cigarette smoke lingers just above the fray.

“It’s wall-to-wall flesh, so 18-year-old Katia Fe lowers her shoulder and elbows past pie-eyed patrons on her way to the bar. She bares her tricep to the bartender who throws Katia a kiss before waving an RFID (radio frequency identification device) scanner over her arm. ‘Sea Breeze, señorita?’ he asks, glancing at a display screen on the scanner. ‘Si, gracias,’ she replies. He returns moments later with her red cocktail. No money is exchanged. Just a wink.”

More…

This is very cool, but I don’t know that I’m ready for one of these to be embedded in my person. Way too Minority Report.

(Thanks, James, for the link.)

For those of you who are dismayed or frustrated or fear that Bush will win in November (my wife), this is for you: “The polls are wrong. They are all over the map like diarrhea. On Friday, one poll had Bush 13 points ahead — and another poll had them both tied. There are three reasons why the polls are b.s.: One, they are polling ‘likely voters.’ ‘Likely’ means those who have consistently voted in the past few elections. So that cuts out young people who are voting for the first time and a ton of non-voters who are definitely going to vote in THIS election. Second, they are not polling people who use their cell phone as their primary phone. Again, that means they are not talking to young people. Finally, most of the polls are weighted with too many Republicans, as pollster John Zogby revealed last week. You are being snookered if you believe any of these polls.”

“The Presidential debates — the single most important electoral event in the process of selecting a President — should provide voters with an opportunity to see the popular candidates discussing important issues in an unscripted manner. But the Presidential debates fail to do so, because the major party candidates secretly control them.

“Presidential debates were run by the civic-minded and non-partisan League of Women Voters until 1988, when the national Republican and Democratic parties seized control of the debates by establishing the bi-partisan, corporate-sponsored Commission on Presidential Debates (CPD). Posing as a nonpartisan institution committed to voter education, the CPD has continually and deceptively run the debates in the interest of the national Republican and Democratic parties, not the American people. The CPD, co-chaired by the former heads of the Republican and Democratic parties, secretly submits to the demands of the Republican and Democratic candidates. Accordingly, the CPD insulates the major party candidates from challenging questions, difficult issues, and popular third party and independent candidates. As a result, under the CPD’s control, the debates have been reduced to ‘glorified bi-partisan news conferences,’ where the major party candidates merely recite prepackaged soundbites and avoid discussing many important issues.”

(Bold mine.)

More.

Sounds a lot like Bush’s news conferences, right?

Read all about Open Debates, then join the 13,240 of us who have already signed the petition to reform the presidential debate process. There are also other ways to take action.

It’s really starting to feel like an early winter here. The thermometer showed a chilly 44 this morning, and I’m wearing a hat for the first time since last winter. It’s going to be a cold one!

We got the weekend off to an early start on Thursday when we hit the town with Justin. We hit the usual places — Nine Maple, Gaffney’s, DA’s — and topped off the night with some glow-in-the-dark bocce ball in the yard. A super-fun school night out.

Since we did that partying on Thursday, we took it easy Friday night, chillin’ the night away at home.

Yesterday was non-stop action. Justin and I saw Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, an interesting movie, if nothing else, with countless visual allusions to other classics, including Jurassic Park, The Matrix, Wizard of Oz, Star Wars, Lord of the Rings, etc.

I took the WRX to the dealer for a couple minor recalls (cruise control switch and driver’s seat rail), then Jen and I rode our bikes to the local brewery (first time we’ve ever ridden together and what’s our first stop?), where we’ve been a number of times but hadn’t gone on the tour until yesterday. Our local brewery is a contract brewer for California-based Mendocino Brewery. We got to sample Black Dog ale right out of the giant fermenting tank. Mmm mmm good. We saw the Laverne and Shirley style conveyor belts and bottling equipment.

Then we went to a MoveOn.org fundraiser at the home of some people here in Saratoga. We were the youngest folks there, but had a good time meeting everyone, including the former mayor of Saratoga Springs, which is one of the cool things about living in a small town (we never met Willie Brown at any party in San Francisco); we talked to him for quite a while. He served two two-year terms, ended in 2003 with a loss to our current Republican mayor by a mere 80 votes, many of those likely the result of Republican intimidation at the Skidmore College polling place, where Republicans placed a suit to tell out-of-state students that they had no right to vote in New York state (of course they did).

Last night we then hung out with Justin at Ken’s place, where we chilled for a while and watched Kill Bill in the background.

This morning we went for the first time to the monthly Doughnuts and Democracy in the Driveway brekfast meeting at our neighbor’s place, and had a really good time. We met some cool people, including another San Francisco transplant. (I’m telling you, people, Saratoga Springs is a great alternative to San Francisco!)

Today the air is crisp and the sky is blue. Jen is on the porch doing the Sunday crossword with a Sam Adams Octoberfest brew. And now I shall replace my OJ with a brew and join her.