A super swell, baby-faced Harvard drop-out, Zuckerberg is constantly balancing on the edge of controversy, whether it be college hacking, the murky origins of Facebook, or the implementation of new privacy invading features on his fancy website. Yet, for a venture that is barely four years old, Zuckerberg has garnered billion dollar buyout bids, household name status and a probable place in the history books....

But what if attitudes and religious memeplexes aren’t changing because adapting to social pressure is necessary? What if the new millenarianism, instead of crashing computers, will be a fight to the death with a Frankenstein version of Mother Nature? What if environmentalism is becoming the new faith? What if responsible consumerism is the new moral ethic? What if recycling, dear Green God, is the new ritual of absolution?...

Will Wynn renewed calls for an Austin streetcar at today's Downtown Austin Association Annual Luncheon. Moving forward would require two votes in the 2008 election - one to allow the project and another for bonds to finance it. The new plan would include connections to the airport (along Riverside), downtown, UT, the Triangle and Mueller. We are generally fans of mass transit, rail especially, and naive optimism is our default position, so a streetcar sounds......

Austin’s rising population and stagnant housing supply have resulted in increased housing prices. Even though there are a lot of condos under construction, few have hit the market. Our pal Wells Dunbar over at the Chronicle has a nice article discussing the complicated answers to the problem of affordable housing. One undiscussed simple answer would be to get people to stop moving to Austin. Despite our commenters efforts, that plan isn't working [ed: isn't......

Patterson Hood is best-known for his work with the Drive-By Truckers, but the Alabama native, whose father was a member of the Muscle Shoals Rhythm Section, has a musical career stretching nearly 20 years. He's been through near-hits and near-misses aplenty. In one particularly tumultuous season, he put together an album of solo material, Killers and Stars, which became an unofficial release passed out at shows and circulated amongst fans. Now, as he's wrapping......

Researchers at the University of Texas have found that umpires are more likely to call strikes for pitchers of the same race or ethnicity, according to an article at LiveScience. The study analyzed every pitch from the 2004 through 2006 major league baseball seasons in an effort to determine whether racial discrimination figured into an umpire's decision to call a strike or a ball. “Umpires judge the performance of players every game, deciding whether......

With the cycling world in a mess after widespread doping allegations, the Discovery Channel team officially disbands Boating bans on Lady Bird Lake and Lake Austin are extended yet again Officials at a Christian boot camp are in hot water after allegedly tying a girl to a van and forcing her to "participate" in a morning run A man posing as a police officer attempts to kidnap an 8-year-old boy in Round Rock Arlington......

Back on November 7, 2006, Austin voters approved Proposition 5, the issuance of $55 million in "tax supported General Obligation Bonds and Notes for constructing, renovating, improving, and equipping affordable housing facilities for low income persons and families, and acquiring land and interests in land and property necessary to do so, and funding affordable housing programs as may be permitted by law; and the levy of a tax sufficient to pay for the bonds and......

As most of us know, the Copyright Royalty Board (CRB) is making it harder and harder for Internet radio producers to finance their stations. Retroactive royalty fees and increased future fees are forcing webcasters into a corner: the fees increase both per-listener and per-song rates, and are based on audience size, increasing as listeners do. This proposed scheme would put public radio stations that stream their broadcasts and web-based radio programming at a great disadvantage......

Earlier this month, Hays County voters rejected a $172 million bond proposal for road expansion. Voters probably aren't concerned about the cost - TXDOT had promised to reimburse the county for $133 million of the $172 million. Instead, Hays County voters appear to be rightfully concerned about induced traffic and a bunch of giant roads mucking up their countryside (both directly and through the strip malls, tract-home suburbs and office parks that are attracted to......

A prominent official at the Austin Museum of Art (AMOA) and his wife were arrested this weekend, after the two were caught trying to make off with paintings from the Fine Arts Festival. Austin Police Commander Michael Jung was on patrol near Republic Square Park early Sunday morning when he found a suspicious-looking Alexandra Sheppard, wife of former AMOA finance and operations director Nathan Sheppard, wandering around the Fine Arts Festival tents. In the process......

Authorities at the University of Texas have launched an investigation into alleged illegal dealings that UT associate vice president and financial aid director Lawrence W. Burt may have had with education finance provider Student Loan Xpress Inc. According to the office of New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, Burt was issued stock from Student Loan Xpress, a glaring conflict of interest given the company's status as one of UT's "preferred lenders." "It is important that......

Starting next fall, Stubb's is to undergo a massive renovation project that will nearly double the venue's overall capacity. Michael Corcoran writes in today's Statesman that the club's five co-owners, including local music mogul Charles Attal, plan to personally finance the estimated $5 million cost of upgrades. The former home of Oak Farms at Ninth Street and Red River, now dilapidated and used as little more than a bulletin board for concert flyers, will be......

Ever wonder where all of that campaign money comes form each year? Who’s really running this state/country/etc? Well, to find out who’s got some of those most pull among politicians, you have to look no further than Texas’ own Bob Perry. The Houston homebuilder gave more money to candidates in the last election cycle than any other individual, according to a report issued by Texans for Public Justice. The non-profit group, which believes campaign......

Shinya Tsukamoto made his first film using grainy black-and-white 16mm filmstock, a few thousand dollars and a bunch of stuff he found in a junkyard. Now credited as the seminal “cyberpunk” movie, Tetsuo:The Iron Man sent a shock wave through the Japanese film industry and soon became a worldwide cult sensation. Since his debut, Tsukamoto has become one of the Japanese film industry’s few true independents, occasionally working as a director-for-hire in order to......

The new Luca Cambiaso exhibit at the Blanton Museum is like a stimulating, well-rounded bottle of red wine -- one made with hard-won grapes. Officially uncorked today, the show features the works of Luca Cambiaso (1527-1585), an Italian Renaissance painter celebrated in his day, yet unknown to most modern art lovers. Such a show could more easily have been launched by the likes of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, but similarly great institutions, whether owing to fashion, finance, or a combination of the two, often shy away from under-the-radar subject matter. ...

It's getting pretty damn difficult to be a smoker these days. First the city kicks us out of our beloved bars to enjoy our filthy habit, now the state is grabbing into our back pocket without even the courtesy of a reach around. Self--righteous jerk-offs. As Bill Hicks once said, "I'd quit smokin if I didn't think I'd become one of them." The legislature finally passed bills to finance the state's schools. The legislation......

A proposal to extend summer break by one week has survived tentative approval in the legislature. The bill also proposes a $2,000 raise for Texas teachers. As of now school can not legally begin before August 21st, and the new bill proposes a start on the fourth Monday of August. We still remember the days when school started after Labor Day (we think). At least the kids will now get a three-day weekend after......

Austin - The city's proposal to build $227 million water plant on 30 acres of the Roy G. Guerrero River Park is heading for the scrap heap. A majority of the Austin City Council members who opposed the plan, will now begin to look at other alternatives such as stricter water conservation rules and drawing from other water sources. The city has said that it will need more drinking water by the year 2011.......

Texas - Texas Independent Gubernatorial Candidate Carole Keeton Strayhorn sued Texas Secretary of State Roger Williams, a Perry appointee, last Friday, claiming Williams' plan to manually examine her petition signature by signature instead of using a statistical sampling method violated her constitutional rights. Williams also refused Strayhorn's request to be allowed to turn in an initial batch of signatures and then add to that before May 11. Carole Strayhorn and Kinky Friedman have until......

Daily Texan writer Eric Seufert has a bone to pick with the liberal media. And hipsters. And Democrats. Seufert is a senior at UT majoring in finance, with an apparent minor in either satire or unsubstantiated hate. Or so it seems. We were on the Dillo riding to work this morning when we came across his Opinion piece in the Daily Texan. The headline: SXSW: Liberal menace. The piece goes off on several tangents,......

The AISD School Board voted unanimously Monday to name five new schools after Austin heroes. The schools will bear the names of Lance Cpl. Nicholas Valdez Perez, the first U.S. soldier form Austin to be killed in Iraq; frmr Austin Mayor Gus Garcia, the first Hispanic to serve on the school board; activist Volma Overton, who helped to desegregate Austin schools in 1971; longtime volunteer John Blazier and former school board member Nan Clayton.......

Perry stopped in 12 cities last week in his push for re-election. At each stop he delivered his "proud of Texas" speech which usually consists of him reciting his past "accomplishments." I wonder how much the taxpayers were charged for three regular sessions and six special sessions to fix our still-broken, and unconstitutional school finance system. Come on people he doesn't even have an action figure made of him! In other news, it will......

Scoop Jackson was kind enough to point this out to us: for those of you residing in House District 48, today's your chance to vote for Todd Baxter's replacement in the Texas House. Baxter resigned last Fall, leaving his seat open to four contenders: Republican Ben Bentzin, Libertarian Ben Easton and Democrats Donna Howard and Kathy Rider. A run-off election will be held later if no one candidate receives a strong majority; the winner......

The financing for Texas’ schools just got a little clearer, or is it murkier? From the Statesman: The Texas Supreme Court declared the state's school finance system unconstitutional today because of the lack of control that school districts have over their tax rates. School districts currently cannot set their operational tax rates higher than $1.50 per $100 in property value. But, in a 7 to 1 ruling, the court found that the system has......

-Police in the UK are trying to figure out the true identity of the fake Earl of Buckingham, who "married under the false name, passed it to his children, laid claim to the Buckingham crest and promised his teenage son that the peerage would one day be his." Sounds almost too awesome to be true. -The crazy woman in Houston who drowned her five children back in 2001 has had her murder convictions thrown......

School Finance, Take 47 The state government has been trying and trying to come up with ideas as to how Texas might, you know, start paying for public schools. They keep convening and reconvening and yet, Texas public school ratings keep getting worse. No one can understand it. It's a mystery, like pyramids. Aaaand We Have a Record! The obesity epidemic in America has now extended right into one Austin woman’s womb. Why wait......

By Special, They Must Mean "Ineffective" Texas legislators have been called to yet another special session to resolve school finance reform. They were going to vote on a compromise that had been reached in the 11th hour of the last "special" session, but this has been delayed 'till the end of the week so that everyone can ponder the intricacies of raising sales tax and lowering property tax. Again. It's never going to be......

Everyone has a pretty good idea that House Majority Leader Tom DeLay is a real piece of crap who has used dirty politics to get where he is and has allowed private business to bribe him. This is not news. However, now, for the first time, ">a private company has publicly confirmed that it paid DeLay's political action committe in exchange for a meeting and possible legislative help. Westar Energy of Topeka, Kansas has......

In The News Today: Leisure Tax? Governor Rick Perry has announced his idea of how to resolve the school finance problem that brought Texas legislators back for a special session. His idea: raise sales tax from 6.25% to nearly 7%, tax cigarettes ($1 extra a pack), cosmetic surgery (huh?), car maintenance and repairs (who told him that was fun??), and porn (just kidding). The plan would also lower property tax. Dems are skeptical and......