March 2009
23 posts
Republicans try to take back the word "universal." →
Since when do Republicans use the word universal to describe their health care policies? And what—if not government-sponsored, single-payer, socialist health coverage—do they mean by it?
“It is a truism that almost any sect, cult, or religion will legislate its creed...”
– Robert A. Heinlein (via Brigno) (via shadowfirebird)
It's time to kill the idea that newspapers are... →
slateinbrief:
Most newspaper stories aren’t about government, and other organizations will step in to fill the investigative role.
The Magic Behind Amazon's 2.7 Billion Dollar... →
In 2008, Amazon brought in $19 billion, of which 70% came from media products, such as books, movies, and music. It’s not an accident that these products also make the best use of the reviews feature. As we’ve watched Amazon customers make purchases on the site, we can clearly see that promoting the most helpful reviews has increased sales in these categories by 20%.(One out of every five...
“It is individuals who have rights, not religions.”
– Canada’s representantive to the Human Rights Council, in response to a non-binding resolution condemning “defamation of religion” as a human rights violation.
(reblogged from dailymeh)
Would Immigration Solve Housing Crisis? →
“Here is what I don’t understand about twitter. When blogs came out and started...”
– You Kids Get Off My Lawn! The Trouble With Twitter
Despair over financial policy →
The Obama administration is now completely wedded to the idea that there’s nothing fundamentally wrong with the financial system — that what we’re facing is the equivalent of a run on an essentially sound bank. As Tim Duy put it, there are no bad assets, only misunderstood assets. And if we get investors to understand that toxic waste is really, truly worth much more than anyone is willing to pay...
Chrome only browser left standing after day one of... →
These contests contribute to the growing culture of commercialism that surrounds the art of exploitation. In an interview with ZDNet, Miller said that the vulnerability he used in the contest was one that he had originally found while preparing for the contest last year. Instead of disclosing it at that time, he decided to save it for the contest this year, because the contest only pays for one...
Userfly Review « Usability Post →
Userfly, a startup that launched about 3 months ago, is a new way to study user behavior on your site. The service lets you record your site’s users’ actions and then play them back in your own browser. You are able to see exactly what people are doing, which includes mouse clicks, keystrokes (except for those in password fields for obvious security reasons), page scrolling and navigation across...
“So as far as I am concerned, the big contradiction has not been on the right....”
– Van Jones (via azspot)
“I’m listening to the “market analyst” on CNN, and she assured me the market is...”
– John Cole
Paul Krugman: I'm concerned about Europe →
Why is Europe falling short? Poor leadership is part of the story. European banking officials, who completely missed the depth of the crisis, still seem weirdly complacent. And to hear anything in America comparable to the know-nothing diatribes of Germany’s finance minister you have to listen to, well, Republicans.
Obama's "enemy combatant" policy: following a... →
After many years of anger and complaint and outrage directed at the Bush administration for its civil liberties assaults and executive power abuses, the last thing most people want to do is conclude that the Obama administration is continuing the core of that extremism
…..
But it’s becoming increasingly difficult for honest commentators to do anything else but conclude that. After...
“That is what real revolutions are like. The old stuff gets broken faster than...”
– Newspapers and Thinking the Unthinkable « Clay Shirky
The Reversal That Isn’t | Lean Left →
Yes, certainly the Dickey-Wicker ban is stupid, anti-science and anti-intellectual, and annoying. But it does not undo the policy that Obama overturned, and which Bush had previously implemented.
Slate - War on the Rich? →
The bogus GOP claim that Obama is trying to bleed wealthy Americans.
Toilet-Trained Cats Threaten Environment →
So yeah, don’t let Fluffy flush anything.
(via azspot)
Idea #9036: "Provide aspect ratio in screen... →
This idea was marked as implemented the 29 January 09. Available starting Ubuntu 8.10 Intrepid Ibex.
Aspect ratio information seems to be available in the resolution chooser in the new Ubuntu. I will now go on and pretend that this was caused by my Brainstorm suggestion.
Was approached in the library by two young reporters working for the dutch radio station FunX, asking me “evolution or creation?”. They were slightly surprised when I answered “both. These don’t rule eachother out.”. Our society’s so dualistic.
Due to my oh so innovative answer i’ll be on radio somewhere on sunday afternoon. If they don’t edit me...
February 2009
19 posts
Fox News "war games" the coming civil war - Glenn... →
Major exhibit in proving american political discourse is fucked.
“The Obama DOJ’s embrace of Bush’s state secrets privilege in the...”
– Glenn Greenwald - Salon.com
Bad Reactors - Mariah Blake →
Nuclear power may have some unsavory side effects, like radioactive waste and the risk of meltdowns. But no other energy source can deliver vast quantities of low- or zero-carbon energy at a price that rivals natural gas and coal, as the industry has promised the new breed of reactors will do. With this in mind, many people who once dismissed atomic power out of hand have come to view it as a...
Matthew Yglesias » The Trouble With State... →
So I wind up being skeptical that you could really improve much of anything even in those areas when I think the libertarian perspective is broadly correct by devolving more authority downward.
Matthew Yglesias on the problems with the subsidiarity principe / moving more political power to the states.
Counter-cyclical asset of the day →
Sales of Ayn Rand’s “Atlas Shrugged” have almost tripled over the first seven weeks of this year compared with sales for the same period in 2008. This continues a strong trend after bookstore sales reached an all-time annual high in 2008 of about 200,000 copies sold.
Anecdotal evidence from the Netherlands: I’ve recently seen several dutch people reading Atlas Shrugged during their train...
"Nudge" by Richard Thaler and Cass R. Sunstein →
Thaler and Sunstein invite us to enter an alternative world, one that takes our humanness as a given. They show that by knowing how people think, we can design choice environments that make it easier for people to choose what is best for themselves, their families, and their society. Thaler and Sunstein demonstrate how thoughtful choice architecture can be established to nudge us in beneficial...
Managed to use a network printer to print a document in Word 2007 running under WINE. *Very* impressed. It just works.
How to Present While People are Twittering →
As a presenter, the idea of presenting while people are talking about you is disconcerting. But to balance that, there are huge benefits to the individual members of the audience and to the overall output of a conference or meeting.
Nice article about utilizing modern technologies such as twitter to make conferences more interactive. Hype or useful?
There’s some quotes about twittering...
