July 2008
Revisiting telecom immunity
Everyone’s all up in arms about Obama voting in favor of telecom immunity. The libertarian-tech community is pissed.
I was, too, until I thought about it. This country has a long history of covert COMINT (that’s communications intelligence) programs that have made hugely significant impact on history. Failure to offer immunity to the telecom companies could effect our ability to...
June 2008
Penn Station, NYC, Boarding the Acela Express...
Armed National Guard #1: Go Lakers!
Armed National Guard #2: Man, shut up. 300 angry Boston commuters are going to jump your ass.
Armed National Guard #1: Fuck that. I've got 30 rounds in my clip, and I'll fuck up the first 30 Celtic fans that fuck with me.
"At Phi Kappa Wall Street, most of the frat boys...
katiebakes:
Vanity Fair drops an article by Bryan Burrough (who wrote the outstanding Barbarians at the Gate) about the startling end of Bear Stearns.
Much of the timeline and details of the story was already covered in the Wall Street Journal’s excellent three-part series, but I found this bit about the workings of CNBC to be a juicy little scoop:
From experience, he knew he faced a risk in...
“For those like John McCain who have endured physical torment in service to our...”
– Obama: I will never question others’ patriotism
This man knows how to campaign effectively. You’ve got to love it. Send your surrogates out to attack McCain’s patriotism and qualifications as Commander In Chief, then without prodding compliment him on those same qualities while...
Tumblr caching
It’s obvious that Tumblr is growing extremely quickly. It should be. It’s a fantastic product. Unfortunately, as a result of this growth I’ve noticed dramatic slowdowns — posts take longer to go through, Tumblr blogs take longer to load.
It seems that in response to this Tumblr’s been adding quite a bit of caching. This is also a good thing. It’s the...
“According to Magna, the live median age for CBS is 54; for ABC is 50; for NBC is...”
– Harsh News for Networks, As Well as for People Over 50 - TV Decoder - Media & Television - New York Times Blog
This is extremely meaningful. Look for a continuing flight of ad dollars from the broadcast networks in favor of younger-skewing cable nets and Web properties.
“It’s the state of America now that is the most gripping source of anxiety for...”
– Thomas Friedman - Anxious in America
“According to Matt Richtel of the New York Times, the defense attorney in the...”
– Sexual hypocrisy and the Internet. - Slate
“Thanks to Internet search monitoring, we can now investigate private morals. If...”
– Sexual hypocrisy and the Internet. - Slate
“Yet, likely because of those same values, McCain maintains a strict code of...”
– A not-so-public man: the private character of John McCain
Whatever your politics may be, you have to respect this.
“A lot of people don’t know… that McCain made a propaganda video for the...”
– Some on left target McCain’s war record - Ben Smith - Politico.com
The long knives are coming out. The Democrats have found that they do, after all, have balls. Can you believe it? We’re swiftboating John McCain!
“I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a...”
– Wesley Clark assails McCain’s credentials - International Herald Tribune
“Even if it’s not an orchestrated campaign — as opposed to...”
– Olbermann-O’Reilly feud spreads - Variety
“China’s greatest environmental achievement over the past decade has been the...”
– Elizabeth Economy in China’s Silver Lining
“Experience: that most brutal of teachers. But you learn, my God do you learn.”
– C.S. Lewis, for Mike H., friend and fellow experiential learner. [via misscedar] (via editorlisa)
“Since 1913, the length of the average presidential sentence has fallen from 35...”
– NYMag, on the dumbing-down of speechifying in modern American politics, in an article on the challenge Obama faces in tuning his August DNC oration to juuuust the right note to appeal to both his base of “excitable college-educated liberals” and the people “who are suspicious of all his pretty...
I've Had Enough
jlarchive:
The absolute worst, though, has got to be the attacks for any display of self-confidence. You may conceptualize the Unites States as a great nation. But it’s also a big tribe, with its own irrational taboos. One of them is: don’t talk proudly about your achievements.
But going forward, Jakob Lodwick, the person, is withdrawing from the public web. You will see the results of my...
The other war
It’s becoming cliche. We’re ignoring Afghanistan. It’s not like we can really imply that we’re ignoring it because of Iraq anymore, though. The American public seems to be readily forgetting about Iraq — the death, the destruction, the expense — as the American economy continues to slide.
This is ironic, of course, because the trillions of dollars...
“Residents and government officials in Peshawar said there is growing concern...”
– Pakistan Boosts Military Forces in Peshawar, Khyber Region - washingtonpost.com
“It’s a mouthful, but XBRL stands for eXtensible Business Reporting...”
– Embracing the Internet might salvage the SEC chairman’s legacy.
This is fantastic news for the public markets and for developers everywhere.
Sharing information more efficiently
We’re experimenting here at blip with having every department send a hard-nosed, unvarnished report on their performance to the entire company every Friday. How much money did we make through run of network advertising? How are the key metrics there looking? What was our biggest direct sales disappointment? Biggest triumph?
We’re big enough now that information doesn’t flow...
spiegelman:
One day, in your lifetime, Barack Obama’s face is going to be on money.
“Dutch researchers led by psychologist Ap Dijksterhuis at the University of...”
– Science Journal - WSJ.com
“Fishing in the stream of consciousness, researchers now can detect our...”
– Science Journal - WSJ.com
“Traders said the Fed seemed to be rowing back from rate rises. The effect was to...”
– Barclays warns of a financial storm as Federal Reserve’s credibility crumbles - Telegraph
This is the real story. Oil is the “anti-dollar” — it rises as the dollar falls. All of this talk of speculation is bullshit. There are two factors at work here: we’ve quite...
“Why are politicians so eager to pin the blame for oil prices on speculators?...”
– Op-Ed Columnist - Paul Krugman - Fuels on the Hill - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
“Douthat and Salam argue that the Republicans rode to the majority because of...”
– Op-Ed Columnist - David Brooks - The Sam’s Club Agenda of the G.O.P. - Op-Ed - NYTimes.com
“In a different experiment, a tiny oven heated another sample of the Martian soil...”
– Alkaline Soil Sample From Mars Reveals Presence of Nutrients for Plants to Grow - NYTimes.com
“Stick an asparagus plant in a pot full of Martian soil, and the asparagus might...”
– Alkaline Soil Sample From Mars Reveals Presence of Nutrients for Plants to Grow - NYTimes.com
“What is clear is that Barack Obama is pursuing a course radically different from...”
– How Obama can lessen the intensity of the opposition. - By Jeff Greenfield - Slate Magazine
“As you can imagine, the kindly effect he hoped to have did not come through. No,...”
– How Hard Could It Be?: Lessons I Learned in the Army, Corporate Culture Article - Inc. Article
“But sometimes sorting just isn’t enough. What if you want to focus on just one...”
– danvk.org » dragtable: Visually reorder all your table columns
“It seems unthinkable, but for the first time in human history, ice is on course...”
– Exclusive: No ice at the North Pole - Climate Change, Environment - The Independent
“Think of New York as a high-tech backwater? Well, there are more high-tech jobs...”
– New York: More Geeks Here Than Silicon Valley
We've won
I’m tired of all this handwringing over China. Really, I am. I’m tired about the bitching about their human rights record, about Democracy, about free trade and trade standards.
We’ve won. Western values have won. Capitalism has won. The Chinese are turning their massive ship of state and culture towards the American way. They’re steadily liberalizing. Their...
He's a politician, and a good one
I love all this handwringing about Obama’s “hard turn right.” Most liberal member of the Senate? Bah!
We’re witnessing the emergence of a politician the likes of which we haven’t seen since… well, at least since 1992. Maybe since 1981. Obama is a talent. He’s incredibly charasmatic, smart as a whip, idealistic but willing to bend to the sensibilities...
“As Obama moves rightward and gets tougher, Republicans are desperately trying to...”
– OBAMA SMART AS A PISTOL WITH NEW TOUGH-GUY ACT - New York Post
The Obamacons Who Worry McCain →
election08:
I’ll just jump right to the real headline. Robert Novak is predicting that Colin Powell will endorse Barack Obama. Novak isn’t often right, but if he gets this one right that is a big win for Obama.
Service instability (RESOLVED) →
We’re experiencing some instability at the moment. Our monitoring systems are lit up, and we have all hands working on restoring stability. More news soon. Please feel free to call me on my cell…
Obama Leads McCain In Four More Battlegrounds -... →
election08:
Quinnipiac University released four new polls today that show Obama with a solid lead over McCain in four key states: CO, MI, MN and WI.
Colorado: Obama leads McCain 49 - 44 percent, including 51 - 39 percent among independent voters;
Michigan: Obama tops McCain 48 - 42 percent, with 46 - 38 percent among independents;
Minnesota: Obama buries McCain 54 - 37 percent, and 54 -...
“For the first time in U.S. history, the Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that...”
– Supreme Court finds individual right to own guns | Reuters
While I applaud this decision I find it ironic that Americans now have a definite right to bear arms even as we find our right to have conversations free of the roving eyes and ears of Government.
Nora says: down with handguns, down with the...
This is fundamentally an issue of personal freedom. I find it amazing that people who want to legalize drugs (a strawman in this conversation, I realize) want to ban handguns. In one instance you’re willing to accept that people will act either responsibility or irresponsibly, and it’s their problem. In the other you feel the need to snatch objects out of their hands because they...
“It hurts to find out that what you wanted doesn’t match what you dreamed it...”
– Randy K. Milholland, Something Positive Comic, 09-07-04 (via enquotations)
It never is. Ever. And that’s as it should be. We must always want more. Otherwise nothing will get done.
“[W]ar is no longer the way to control or gain access to energy resources....”
– Asia Times Online :: Asian news and current affairs
“Gasoline demand in the United States may have reached its peak, as rising prices...”
– Peak Oil Debunked