Learn why you can't retweet certain tweets.
8.07.2010
See, here's the problem: Every time I think maybe I might give Twitter one more try I wind up reading something like this
In a vault? Really?
Secret vault of words rejected by the Oxford English Dictionary uncovered - Telegraph
Millions of "non words" which failed to make the dictionary lie
unused in a vault owned by the Oxford University Press.
"Wurfing" means surfing the internet at work, while "polkadodge"
describes the strange little dance two passing people do when they try to
avoid each other but move in the same direction, and "nonversation"
denotes a pointless chat.
And I like "nonversation" - what's wrong with that?
Next: A run on tonic
Petermann Glacier: Giant Ice Island Breaks Off Greenland
WASHINGTON — A giant ice island has broken off the Petermann Glacier in northern Greenland.
A University of Delaware researcher says the floating ice sheet covers 100 square miles – more than four times the size of New York's Manhattan Island.
8.06.2010
Jobs
Health reform's bureaucratic spawn - Gloria Park and Fred Barbash - POLITICO.com
Don’t bother trying to count up the number of agencies, boards and commissions created under the new health care law. Estimating the number is “impossible,” a recent Congressional Research Service report says, and a true count “unknowable.”
Naked senator on the wrong side again
Without Scott Brown’s support, Elena Kagan confirmed to Supreme Court - BostonHerald.com
By a lopsided 63-37 vote, the U.S. Senate yesterday confirmed former Harvard Law School dean Elena Kagan as the next Supreme Court justice, but U.S. Sen. Scott Brown stuck with the Republican minority in opposing his fellow Bay Stater, citing her lack of judicial experience.
"Anemic" is the best word you can think of here, Reuters?
Economy sheds 131,000 jobs in July - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Employment fell for a second straight month in July as more temporary census jobs ended while private hiring rose less than expected, pointing to an anemic economic recovery....
One reason certain of the geezer persuasion don't get all giggly over twits
During one frenzied weekend in 1986, Eric Thomas, an engineering student in Paris, invented what would become one of the most important things on the Internet: the listserv....
8.05.2010
"The government is corrupt" is setting a pretty low bar for irony, but still...
SEC's Freedom of Information Act exemption should be repealed. - chicagotribune.com
Isn't it ironic that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which is making lots of noise about forcing more transparency on business, wants to keep its own secrets?
Congress went along like a lapdog in the new financial reform law.
That law specifies that the SEC need not disclose records it gets when it examines businesses that register with the agency. The law is written so broadly that it could exempt almost all the agency's work from the Freedom of Information Act.
How far the mighty Halliburton has fallen: Sued by a Florida real estate developer
Fla. developer sues Halliburton over Gulf spill | Raw Story
Florida real estate developer St. Joe Co. is suing Halliburton Co. over its role in the rig explosion that led to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
Only Carl Hiaasen could think of something that wacky. Oh, wait! I just finished reading a book by Carl Hiaasen - Star Island - which is without question the book of the summer, the very book I've been looking for since June, the book you do want with you the next time you're on the beach. Hiaasen's books are always hilarious and it's been a while since a new one's shown up.
Commie bicycles, yikes! Do these guys never go away? Is there some kind of spray or something we could use?
In this case, a leading Republican gubernatorial candidate [in Colorado] -- and Tea Party favorite -- was completely serious. Maes went on to tell the Denver Post that efforts to promote bicycling and related programs seem like "warm, fuzzy ideas," but they're really "very specific strategies that are dictated to us by this United Nations program." He added, "This is bigger than it looks like on the surface, and it could threaten our personal freedoms."
(Outstanding red color mine)
Surprise!
Surprise rise in jobless claims casts pall on economy - Yahoo! News
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – New claims for unemployment benefits unexpectedly rose last week, government data showed on Thursday, underscoring a weak labor market and the fragile economic recovery.
A bad day for the naked senator
Federal aid bill contains $655m for Mass. - The Boston Globe
WASHINGTON — Massachusetts stands to receive $655 million in federal Medicaid and education money under an aid package that narrowly cleared a key congressional hurdle yesterday despite opposition from the Bay State’s Republican senator, Scott Brown.
NYTimes declares net neutrality "once sacred"
Google and Verizon in Talks on Selling Internet Priority - NYTimes.com
WASHINGTON — Google and Verizon, two leading players in Internet service and content, are nearing an agreement that could allow Verizon to speed some online content to Internet users more quickly if the content’s creators are willing to pay for the privilege....
Such an agreement could overthrow a once-sacred tenet of Internet policy known as net neutrality...
[UPDATE] Plus, for bonus points, the Associated Press calls Google's and Verizon's play to trash net neutrality "a proposal for so-called 'network neutrality' rules":
WASHINGTON – Google Inc. and Verizon Communications Inc. are close to finalizing a proposal for so-called "network neutrality" rules, which would dictate how broadband providers treat Internet traffic flowing over their lines, according to a person briefed on the negotiations.
The NYTimes and the AP are so-called idiots.
8.04.2010
We are shocked, shocked!
CNET - For the last few years, federal agencies have defended body scanning by insisting that all images will be discarded as soon as they're viewed. The Transportation Security Administration claimed last summer, for instance, that "scanned images cannot be stored or recorded."
Now it turns out that some police agencies are storing the controversial images after all. The U.S. Marshals Service admitted this week that it had surreptitiously saved tens of thousands of images recorded with a millimeter wave system at the security checkpoint of a single Florida courthouse....
8.03.2010
Yes, it's come to this
Democrats declare swamp of corruption drained - BostonHerald.com
WASHINGTON — Democratic leaders say they’ve emptied the swamp of congressional corruption. Never mind the ethics trials to come for two longtime party members.
"Drain the swamp we did, because this was a terrible place," Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week of the Republican rule in the House that ended in January 2007.
I suppose there may be some people who actually believe what these guys say, or at least they think there are, or maybe they're just pretending to think there are - I don't know, it makes no sense at all to me.
Early August on the phonecam
We've been living in the air conditioned valley for the last few days - clear, sunny daytime temps in the low 80's, nights in the bracing low 60's or even high 50's. (The kind of weather I was impatient with in March seems perfect now. It must age, like cheese.)
The wars
Bob Herbert: The Lunatic’s Manual - NYTimes.com
Trillions of dollars are being squandered. George W. (“Mission Accomplished”) Bush took the unprecedented step of cutting taxes while waging the wars. And Barack Obama has set a deadline for withdrawing troops from Afghanistan without having any idea how that war might be going when the deadline arrives.
This is warfare as it might have been waged by Laurel & Hardy. Absent the bloodshed, it would be hilarious.
8.02.2010
The saga of the purple fingers plays out
A Benchmark of Progress, Electrical Grid Fails Iraqis - NYTimes.com
“Democracy didn’t bring us anything,” Mr. Farhan said in his newly darkened shop. Then he corrected himself. “Democracy brought us a can of Coke and a beer.”
The overall legacy of the American invasion today, like that of the war itself, remains a matter of dispute...
The fishers are the heros in all this
La. fishermen wrinkle their noses at 'smell tests' - Yahoo! News
ON THE GULF OF MEXICO – Even the people who make their living off the seafood-rich waters of Louisiana's St. Bernard Parish have a hard time swallowing the government's assurances that fish harvested in the shallow, muddy waters just offshore must be safe to eat because they don't smell too bad.
8.01.2010
Some people are just never happy I guess
Police: Wendy's robber complains about skimpy haul - Yahoo! News
ATLANTA – Police say a man who robbed a fast-food restaurant with a gun was so mad about the amount of loot that he called back twice to complain.
Extra-judicial assassination, you could say...
Targeted Killing Is New U.S. Focus in Afghanistan - NYTimes.com
Faced with that reality, and the pressure of a self-imposed deadline to begin withdrawing troops by July 2011, the Obama administration is starting to count more heavily on the strategy of hunting down insurgents.
...if you didn't want to just say murder. Possibly all is fair in love and war, so as long as you're willing to call what's going on in Afghanistan war then maybe there's nothing wrong with shooting people just because you think they're bad. It just doesn't sound, you know, right.
Eventually you do
Eventually you have to consider the possibility that we are living under the policy regime the controlling factions of the Democratic party prefer.
Whoa, here's one
Hey, I have very mixed feelings about this whole WikiLeaks thing, for various reasons that may or not be relevant at all, but this, Bunky, goes way past the line: Here's Robert Gates, Secretary of Defense, Attack, and Dropping The Occasional Bomb on People in Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Wherever Else We Want to Drop Bombs. accusing WikiLeaks of moral culpability.
WikiLeaks guilty, at least morally: Robert Gates - Yahoo! News
"But there's also a moral culpability. And that's where I think the verdict is 'guilty' on WikiLeaks. They have put this out without any regard whatsoever for the consequences."
Except, of course, the consequences to people who are getting the random bombs dropped on their heads.
Finally, an upward trend
When Double Dippers become economic party poopers - Boston.com
"There is a clear long-term upward trend in the economic insecurity of American families," said Yale professor Jacob Hacker...
Oh.
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