4.20.2013

Oh go ahead, tell us what you really think

On top of everything else, this: Fox has renewed Glee for not one, but two more seasons. Two more seasond! Of Glee! Which ran out of storylines like three years ago! That is absolutely outrageous.…Just when you think things can't get worse, there's more Glee. Two more years' worth of Glee.
Atlantic Wire

Wait a minute. Who thought things could not get worse? On TV?

City locked down, 10,000 cops need donuts


Dunkin’ Donuts kept the lights on during chaos
At officials’ request, coffee chain stayed open during lockdown to aid police, emergency responders… 
Boston Globe

4.19.2013

Done and done

Boston (and everyone else who helped) wins.

Work avoidance takes a giant step forward


The privately funded Digital Public Library of America was launched Thursday and provides users with access to the digital archives of institutions ranging from national the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution to local historical societies. 
Among 2.4 million works, visitors to the site, dp.la, can find a Boston Public Library picture of Babe Ruth in a Red Sox jersey taken in 1915 or more than32,000 maps from collector David Rumsey in San Francisco. 
Boston.com
(And now on our work avoidance list.)

Boston is completely shut down

Boston.com News (@BostonDotCom)
RT @debkotz2: Boston hospitals in lockdown. Patients discharged can't leave; others can't come in unless via ambulance. MD's can't go or...

Also all public transportation – buses and subways – shut down. Taxi services shut down. Schools and businesses closed. Some Amtrak service canceled; airport under tight security. No cars in or out of certain areas. Even in no-fly zone over part of the city. Citywide, people told to stay indoors with doors locked.

We don't do breaking news here (too much work)…

…but everyone else is this morning. Here's a link to the CBS all-news radio station in Boston. Although as far as I can see, just about every radio and TV station, everywhere, is covering the manhunt in Boston live this morning.

Because it worked so well last time


The alchemists of Wall Street are at it again. 
  The banks that created risky amalgams of mortgages and loans during the boom — the kind that went so wrong during the bust — are busily reviving the same types of investments that many thought were gone for good. Once more, arcane-sounding financial products like collateralized debt obligations are being minted on Wall Street. …
    “All of this seems like a fairly quick round trip,” said Manus Clancy, a managing director at Trepp, a research firm that focuses on commercial real estate. “You are seeing a fair number of sins being forgiven.” 
New York Times

4.18.2013

Okay wait, now that's just crazy talk

Remember the good old days, when the good men and women of America got into politics to help serve their country, and not for the money?
21st Century Wire

Our nomination for Least Enthusiastic Book Review

In an email from Readmill, this:
"The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared" sounds like the whole story, but it isn't. We love how it spirals a little bit out of control, and lands on more funny moments than we care to recall.
Thanks for the warning, dude.
Face
iPhone photo: Phil Compton



And speaking of awesome…

…read a review of the 1996 movie, "Cannibal! The Musical"

Geocities (oh, forget it, you're too young) redux

Internet Archaeology now added to our work avoidance list.

Happy birthday, Superman

Superman is 75 years old today. Looks pretty good for such an old guy. He's even older than I am – by just a few weeks.

Mortgage relief checks bounce: Insufficient funds


It is unclear how many of the 1.4 million homeowners who were mailed the first round of payments covered under the foreclosure settlement have had problems with their checks. But housing advocates from California to New York and even regulators say that in recent days frustrated homeowners have bombarded them with complaints and questions.

New York Times
It's never too late to get screwed that one more time.

4.17.2013

From UNDERNEWS


Obama decleares himself a terrorist

Anytime bombs are used to target innocent civilians, it's an act of terror - Barack Obama [Ex-D]

Oh suck it up, Oil


Brent crude dropped towards $98 per barrel on Wednesday, weighed by the prospect of sluggish fuel demand in top consumers the United States and China.
More bleak economic news came courtesy of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which trimmed projections for this year and next - implying limited upside for oil demand growth. 
Reuters

Limited upside for demand growth? Really? My heart goes out.

Meanwhile, in the US freaking so-called Senate…

Senate Democrats are trying desperately to round up a bipartisan coalition in advance of a critical round of gun-control votes Wednesday afternoon, as fence-sitting Republicans began to peel away and new polling showed ebbing public support for tightening gun laws. 
Fox News

While the New York Times reports…
The want ads posted by the anonymous buyer on Armslist.com, a sprawling free classified ads Web site for guns, telegraphed urgency.…

Too bad, so sad

Bank of America called "sluggish" after earning a first-quarter profit of only 2.6 billion.

Alas.

4.16.2013

Imagine our surprise


President Obama’s offer to trim Social Security benefits has perplexed and angered Democrats, but GOP leaders are embracing the proposal and rushing to jump-start a debate that will delve even more deeply into the touchy topic of federal spending on the elderly.
Washington Post

4.15.2013

Boston Marathon Twitter feed (Experimental)

#BostonMarathon

And Yahoo News story.

Get on the stick, Obama


From USA Today
Though Obama cautioned against jumping to conclusions about the motive for the attack, a senior administration official said it was "clearly an act of terror and will be approached as act of terror."…
House Homeland Security Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, spoke to reporters outside the House chamber late Monday.
"It has all the hallmarks of an act of terrorism," he said. "The White House is not calling it an act of terrorism yet. I am. We just don't know if it's foreign or domestic."
Exactly.

(Emphasis mine.)

Money Wash?

Money Wash? by Ted Compton
Money Wash?, a photo by Ted Compton on Flickr.

Republicans, foes of government intervention, complain there wasn't enough

The Washington Post, in an article about a congressional investigation of compounding pharmacies like the one in Massachusetts that kicked off a meningitis of break last fall:
Republicans are expected to question FDA Commissioner Margaret Hamburg about why the agency didn’t take more forceful action against NECC before the outbreak. 
(Democrats, as usual, blame lobbyists.)

4.14.2013

And how was your day?

XKCD

And when was the last time you worried about a wind spill?


Wind power in the U.S. is doing well, and the country has only just begun to tap its massive potential…with a year-over-year growth in capacity of 28% coming from 6,700 new wind turbines, bringing the country's total to about 45,100.
Treehugger

What, me worry?


MANY Americans assume that the chemicals in their shampoos, detergents and other consumer products have been thoroughly tested and proved to be safe.
This assumption is wrong.…
New York Times
One Day

iPhone Photo: Phil Compton