Congress has labored mightily to produce a mountain of legislation that can be called financial reform, but it has produced a molehill relative to the wreckage Wall Street wreaked upon the nation.
link: Robert Reich: The New Finance Bill: A Mountain of Legislative Paper, a Molehill of Reform
[Pelosi]’s turning into Tom DeLay in a skirt.
link: House Democrats: Nancy Pelosi Tricked Us | FDL Action
...pleeease make that picture go away.
On Tuesday morning, workers excavating the site of the underground vehicle security center for the future World Trade Center hit a row of sturdy, upright wood timbers, regularly spaced, sticking out of a briny gray muck flecked with oyster shells....
“They were so perfectly contoured that they were clearly part of a ship,” said A. Michael Pappalardo, an archaeologist with the firm AKRF, which is working for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey to document historical material uncovered during construction.
link: 18th-Century Ship Found at Trade Center Site - City Room Blog - NYTimes.com
Also, parking garage is now vehicle security center.
US Fed says economic outlook worse than expected
link: US Fed says economic outlook worse than expected | Raw Story
WASHINGTON – The White House asserted Wednesday that the $862 billion stimulus law has been even better for the economically-struggling country than previously advertised.
link: New WH report claims more jobs from stimulus bill - Yahoo! News
So says Erik Verlinde, 48, a respected string theorist and professor of physics at the University of Amsterdam, whose contention that gravity is indeed an illusion has caused a continuing ruckus among physicists, or at least among those who profess to understand it.
link: A Scientist Takes On Gravity - NYTimes.com
California May Drop Its Official State Rock
link: California May Drop Its Official State Rock - NYTimes.com
Gov. Pat Quinn today signed an agreement with China to export as much as 30 million pounds of Asian carp a year from the Illinois River, a move aimed at reducing the population of the invasive species downstate.
Flanked by state lawmakers and business leaders from Illinois and China, Quinn said of the Asian carp crisis, "if you can't beat 'em, eat 'em."
link: Quinn: Catch Asian carp, send them to China - Chicago Breaking News
While waffling between official blog entires that first told users there's "no reason not to buy" iPhone 4 related to its antenna issues, and then backtracking to say it "can't recommend" the phone until Apple addresses its antenna issues with a free fix (after also noting that applying a piece of tape solves the signal attenuation issues it found in testing), Consumer Reports has ranked iPhone 4 the best smartphone on the market.
link: AppleInsider | Consumer Reports ranks Apple's iPhone 4 best smartphone available
Right. Emphasis mine.
There's a power struggle going on in the U.S. government right now.
It's about who is in charge of cyber security, and how much control the government will exert over civilian networks. And by beating the drums of war, the military is coming out on top.
link: Schneier on Security: The Threat of Cyberwar Has Been Grossly Exaggerated
It's official. Consumer Reports' engineers have just completed testing the iPhone 4, and have confirmed that there is a problem with its reception. When your finger or hand touches a spot on the phone's lower left side—an easy thing, especially for lefties—the signal can significantly degrade enough to cause you to lose your connection altogether if you're in an area with a weak signal. Due to this problem, we can't recommend the iPhone 4.
link: Consumer Reports Electronics Blog: Lab tests: Why Consumer Reports can't recommend the iPhone 4
Just for the record: The last time I paid any attention at all to a Consumer Reports review I would up with a 70-something Volvo station wagon - without question and beyond all doubt the worst car I ever owned. I can still, nearly 40 years later, correctly identify the sound of miscellaneous parts falling off a Volvo.
So when Consumer Reports doesn't like something I start to get interested.
BP was at the centre of fresh takeover speculation after weekend reports suggested the Obama administration has told ExxonMobil – the world's largest oil firm – that it would not stand in the way of a takeover bid for the stricken British rival.
link: BP faces ExxonMobil takeover bid speculation | Business | The Guardian
Dude! What a fantastic idea! Get Exxon to buy BP and have a Godzillaspilla. And just think how much more too big to fail. And how much bigger campaign contributions.
What's not to like?
