Cabinet Members, Gone. Lost City of Atlantis, Found?

Resignation Mania has taken hold in the nation's capital, which explains why outgoing Secretary of State Colin Powell is Monday's leading personality in blogs, joined on the bursty people list by outgoing Bush Cabinet members Spencer Abraham (Energy), Ann Veneman (Agriculture) and Rod Paige (Education).

Resignations of another kind are taking place at the CIA, although a top-linked article in Newsday calls it more of a "purging" than a rash of resignations at the intelligence agency.

On the flip side, researchers think they've discovered the ancient lost city of Atlantis, based on sonar maps of the ocean floor near the island of Cyprus (and descriptions of the city in Plato's writings).

Speaking of finding things, the blog Buzz Machine has an interesting report about findings from a Freedom of Information Act filing it pursued. Blogger Jeff Jarvis wanted to find out how many complaints were filed with the Federal Communications Commission that ultimately led to a $1.2 million fine against Fox for "suggestive" material in its Married by America TV show. The origianl claim of 159 complaints boiled down to 3 actual letters (the rest were copies/photocopies of other complainers' letters).

Today's noted passing: Geff Rushton, founder of the musical group Coil.

Today's interesting political find is this essay called The Urban Archipelago, which offers yet another red-blue map and theory about why the Democrats lost this month's election. The authors argue that most of the blue state are, indeed, blue -- but only by virtue of the large cities that dominate them. And the only way Democrats can win is to continue to cater to and grow the urban base, where the voters who agree with traditional Democratic values -- tolerance, working wages, universal health care, mass transit, etc. -- live.

TREND OF THE DAY: Open the iPod bay doors, Hal....