Apparently we clicked when we should have clacked this afternoon and briefly munged up the blog template, and the present design is the only one we could make work on short notice. We will try to clean it up tomorrow (let's not rush into this, it might be a whole lot like work). Meanwhile the mobile site seems to be fine.
ADD 9/8: There, I fixed it. A bit of a kludge, and possibly it needs some polishing somewhere down the line, but this'll do for now.
9.07.2013
Noted
Ignore the headlines. This was a very bad jobs report.
The proportion of the U.S. population that had a job in August was 58.6 percent. Six months earlier, the number was a whopping — wait for it — 58.6 percent. The year is nearly three-quarters over, and the economy isn’t growing fast enough to put a higher proportion of its citizens back to work.
Lalalalala we can't hear you
When the US looked the other way at chemical weapons - The Washington Post
Indeed, Syria’s chemical weapons stockpile results from a never-acknowledged gentleman’s agreement in the Middle East that as long as Israel had nuclear weapons, Syria’s pursuit of chemical weapons would not attract much public acknowledgement or criticism.
Can you spell "Wow! I'm so surprised!"
NSA Revelations Cast Doubt on the Entire Tech Industry | Threat Level | Wired.com
“I think that no encryption created by anyone is going to protect you from everyone. The stronger the encryption the harder they are going to work to decrypt it,” he said. “I don’t care what company is selling you encryption software. Whatever they are going to sell you, it can be decrypted. There’s nothing that is infallible.”
9.06.2013
But did she have her own reality show? We think not.
Jane Addams, world's 'best-loved woman,' honored with Google doodle (+video) - CSMonitor.com
“Miss Addams,” the Times wrote, “has been called ‘the greatest woman in the world,’ the ‘mother of social service,’ ‘the greatest woman internationalist’ and the ‘first citizen of Chicago.’ And the Times added its own to the list: “She was, perhaps, the world's best-known and best-loved woman.”
New to our work avoidance list
Ephemeratorium, a sister site to The Institute of Official Cheer. It's 37 percent more serious.
I guess the warranty expired
Undernews: Look where Syria got its chemical weapons
Juan Cole, History News Network - The British government as recently as 2012 licensed its firms to sell chemical agents that can be used as poison gas precursors to the Baath government of Syria.…
Most of Syria’s chemical weapons production technology came from “large chemical brokerage houses in Holland, Switzerland, France, Austria and Germany,” according to security information provider GlobalSecurity.org. Russia may have played a later role.
Is there enough popcorn in the world?
Movie review: ‘Hell Baby’ - Movies - The Boston Globe
This offensive, crass pastiche makes “Grown Ups 2” look like a paragon of wit and good taste.
On staying bought
Committee members who voted to authorize what the resolution called a “limited” strike averaged $72,850 in defense campaign financing from the pot. Committee members who voted against the resolution averaged $39,770, according to the data.
Playing chicken with China
Was Your Chicken Nugget Made In China? It'll Soon Be Hard To Know : The Salt : NPR
For starters, just four Chinese processing plants will be allowed to export cooked chicken products to the U.S.…. Initially, these processors will only be allowed to export chicken products made from birds that were raised in the U.S. and Canada.
I'm not entirely sure what this means but it sounds like we're going to ship chickens to China and they're going to ship us back dead parts. Doesn't it? Something's fishy (oops, sorry — chickeny) with that.
I never thought I would agree with Sarah Palin on much — but this…
Sarah Palin: 'Let Allah sort it out' in Syria | al.com
“So we’re bombing Syria because Syria is bombing Syria? And I’m the idiot?” Palin said in a message posted to her Facebook account.
Lewis Carroll couldn't have put it any better
Predict if Congress will approve Obama’s plans to bomb Syria. - Slate Magazine
Now that President Obama has revealed his intentions toward Syria, the question is whether Congress will grant him the authorization that he says he doesn’t really need anyway.
From a guy who has been stuck on wrong for decades
Donald Rumsfeld lambastes Obama on Syria: 'Take responsibility' (+video) - CSMonitor.com
“This president has tried to blame everybody or anybody, for everything and leadership requires that you stand up, take a position, provide clarity and take responsibility,” Rumsfeld told Fox News’s Greta Van Susteren. “And I can’t imagine him saying that he didn’t draw the red line. But he did draw a red line.… We have ears!”
Job drain
Dollar counterfeiting: Peru is now world No. 1 - CSMonitor.com
With its meticulous criminal craftsmen, cheap labor and, by some accounts, less effective law enforcement, Peru has in the past two years overtaken Colombia as the No. 1 source of counterfeit U.S. dollars, says the U.S. Secret Service, protector of the world's most widely traded currency.
9.05.2013
Can you spell "boondoggle"?
The logistical difficulties of bringing Syria's chemical warfare infrastructure under control stands in stark contrast with the text of a resolution passed Wednesday by a powerful Senate committee, and with assurances Secretary of State John Kerry has given committees in both houses of Congress.
It's not a good idea
We’re apparently positing a dictator who would be perfectly willing to slaughter his own citizens (with CHEMICAL WEAPONS! Which is much worse than using bullets or bombs because something something) but would be unwilling to do so if it resulted in some people and infrastructure in his country would be blown up without threatening his hold on power? “Implausible” is the charitable way of putting it.
We'll probably do it anyway, of course. Get rid of the CHEMICAL WEAPONS and go back to good ol' bombs and bullets (which, as they derive their power from chemical reactions also are CHEMICAL WEAPONS in their own right, but so what). And there is no good outcome in sight.
Godwin lives
Going Hitler: The Importance of John Kerry’s Nazi Reference | TIME.com
Godwin’s Law, an informal theory about online commenting, states that “as an online discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one.” A corollary might be that as armed conflict looms larger, the probability of a politician invoking Hitler also moves in that direction.
What a concept, huh?
The Internet’s next victim: Advertising - Salon.com
Because Adblock Plus’ business model — the way the company plans to generate a profit — is to charge big advertisers a fee to not block some of their ads.
An ad-blocking company that cashes in by letting some ads through? Isn’t that, uh, false advertising?
Here's something new
Well, new to me at least: A trailer for a book.
Bleeding Edge book trailer on Vimeo
Weird. But possibly a good idea, since I learned in three or four minutes it's probably not a book for me.
A day late and a dollar short (maybe two)
The working class needs its next Kurt Vonnegut - Salon.com
The sacrifices, blood, and courage on the part of workers that toiled, often in poor conditions for little to no pay, does not figure into such a paltry imagination and indifferent political understanding of labor movements in the United States.
Reality check re: schools
Everything You've Heard About Failing Schools Is Wrong | Mother Jones
In March, Maria and her teachers were celebrating acceptance letters to five colleges and two prestigious scholarships, including one from Dave Eggers' writing center, 826 Valencia.
But on the big state tests—the days-long multiple-choice exams that students in California take once a year—Maria scored poorly.…
9.04.2013
Try and try again, says State
Kerry Wants 'Trigger' to Deter Syria Chemical Attacks | Goppers
Secretary of State John Kerry told the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Wednesday that the administration wants a “trigger” that would authorize military action for 60 days each time President Bashar al-Assad’s regime uses chemical weapons.
So this means I can stop having birthdays now?
Warner Music Aims to Keep 'Happy Birthday' Away From Public Domain (Exclusive)
With the English language's most recognized song at stake, Warner/Chappell Music is not backing down from a bold challenge. On Friday, the music publisher responded in court for the first time to a lawsuit that claims that "Happy Birthday" is in the public domain.
Imagine our joy
Sheldon Adelson: I Stand With President Obama on Bombing Syria | Mother Jones
The debate over whether to bomb Syrian military facilities and weapons installations is creating some strange bedfellows. Among them: President Obama and Las Vegas casino mogul Sheldon Adelson.
But we need the money for bombs
Across U.S., bridges crumble as repair funds fall short - latimes.com
Some of the most important bridge links in the country are now threatened by age. The longest bridge in New York, the Tappan Zee Bridge over the Hudson River, 25 miles north of Manhattan and a crucial link for the interstate highway system in the New York metropolitan area, is potentially subject to catastrophic failure, engineers say. Yet replacing it will cost at least $5.2 billion — and as much as $16 billion with transit options.
(A bunch of people I know drove over the Tappan Zee bridge twice in the last ten days. Fortunately, no catastrophic failure yet.)
Whoa, why is the Russky right?
10 INTERESTING THINGS RUSSIA'S PUTIN TOLD THE AP
2. RUSSIA WON'T RULE OUT MILITARY ACTION AGAINST SYRIA - IF U.N. SECURITY COUNCIL APPROVES
"I do not exclude this, but I would like to draw your attention to one absolutely key aspect: In line with international law, only the U.N. Security Council can sanction the use of force against a sovereign state. Any other pretext or method which might be used to justify the use of force against an independent sovereign state is inadmissible and can only be interpreted as an aggression."
Whose war is this, anyway?
Bibi’s to Blame for Obama’s Red Line
If he hasn’t done so already, Netanyahu can and should discreetly enlist pro-Israel supporters in Congress to deliver the two-thirds vote Obama so desperately needs to buttress US deterrence and salvage what remains of America’s rapidly diminishing credibility in the Middle East.
Dry days ahead?
The Real Reason Kansas Is Running Out of Water | Mother Jones
Like dot-com moguls in the '90s and real estate gurus in the 2000s, farmers in western Kansas are enjoying the fruits of a bubble: Their crop yields have been boosted by a gusher of soon-to-vanish irrigation water.…
But they're on the verge of essentially sucking dry a large swath of the High Plains Aquifer, one of the United States' greatest water resources.
9.03.2013
Now come geeks
Prankster Calls NSA To Restore Deleted E-mail - Slashdot
"Since the NSA snoops, intercepts and store our e-mails forever, why not use it as a backup service?"
Kerry: Get a grip
The World’s Most Pernicious Analogy Strikes Again
Here’s the thing: for this to be a “Munich moment,” Assad would have to, you know, have both the desire and capacity to conquer most of the region. Since in fact it’s far from obvious that Assad will even be able to maintain power in his own country — let alone have the ability to overrun the Middle East — Assad isn’t a new Hitler and whatever he does Obama won’t be Chamberlain.…
Full sale mode
Kerry: 'Iran Is Hoping You Look The Other Way' On Syria | TPM LiveWire
In his testimony to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday, Secretary of State John Kerry told lawmakers that the Iranian leadership wants them to vote against a military strike in Syria.
This is getting pretty depressing.
Once more into the breach
Op-Ed: Israeli American joint missile wargames in the Med
Never let any person tell you that possible conflict over Syria is all about Sarin Gas and the humanitarian crisis. Oil and Israel have always been at the heart of the matter.
Better late than never, I suppose, TIME…
The Military Importance of the Element of Surprise in Syria | TIME.com
The U.S. military learned the hard way that the element of surprise is a weapon that should be just as much a part of the American arsenal as Tomahawk cruise missiles.
Back in the 1990s…
…but Sun Tzu pretty much nailed it in around 500 BC.
Unclear on the concept
Rand Paul: ‘We should not engage in a war’ in Syria
“If [Obama] launches this little piddly attack with a few cruise missiles…"
"Piddly" and "cruise missiles" are not words one normally sees in the same sentence. Or even paragraph.
We can't wait
Could Tim Tebow cut it in Canada or the Arena league? (+video) - CSMonitor.com
Yes, we have arrived at the point of Tim Tebow's professional football career that many thought inevitable – the point at which he must decide whether to play in Arena Football League or the Canadian Football League. If they'll have him.
Their money or your life
News from The Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Despite a rash of deadly train crashes, the railroad industry's allies in Congress are trying to push back the deadline for installing technology to prevent the most catastrophic types of collisions until at least 2020, half a century after accident investigators first called for such safety measures.…
Let's play "count the people listening to your call"
News from The Associated Press
To keep the program secret, investigators who request searches of the database are instructed to "never refer to Hemisphere in any official document," one of the slides noted. Agents are told that when they obtain information through a Hemisphere program subpoena, they should "wall off" the program by filing a duplicative subpoena directly to target's phone company or by simply writing that the information was obtained through an AT&T subpoena.
But it was only the Mississippi monster — and then another
727-Pound Alligator Smashes State Records
"When we first saw him," she recalls, "I yelled 'oh my gosh we caught the Loch Ness Monster!'"
9.02.2013
And now a few words from your friends in the government
CryptoKids® America's Future Codemakers & Codebreakers
We’re the CryptoKids® and we love cryptology.
What’s cryptology? Cryptology is making and breaking codes. It’s so cool. We make codes so we can send secret messages to our friends. And we try to figure out what other people are writing about by breaking their codes. It’s a lot of fun.
Equal opportunity moronitude
Red Monday | National Review Online
Labor Day, like Obamacare and much else that is distasteful about American public life today, is a product of American liberals’ desire to be Canadians.…
Rank has its privileges
Special License Plates Give State Lawmakers Free Parking « CBS Denver
The plates issued to the 100 state lawmakers and representatives elected to serve Colorado are preventing them not only from receiving photo radar tickets but also collection notices from past due parking tickets.
Here's a really lousy reason for bombing people to death
Kerry says Syria response is key to US credibility - World - The Boston Globe
WASHINGTON — Secretary of State John F. Kerry on Sunday urged lawmakers to approve strikes on Syria to preserve the “core to American credibility in foreign policy,” underlining the gamble President Obama took in putting the question to a wary Congress.(What it means is immaterial; all it has to do is sound important. It barely even does that.)
Meanwhile, not so much we
Quiz: All the Words That Aren't Fit to Print in the New York Times | Mother Jones
The Gray Lady has her standards, at least.…
Running out of things to worry about?
Has the World Reached Peak Chicken? | Mother Jones
Exactly how many chickens does the world have these days? we wondered. The answer, we found, is a whole lot—and it's increasing.
9.01.2013
Just another weekend at the office
 | Michael Fullilove (@mfullilove) |
After announcing decision to ask Congress for permission, Obama & Biden left White House by motorcade to play golf: bigstory.ap.org/article/obama-… | |
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50 States
Here's an interesting but, alas, very poorly drawn map that divides the U. S. into 50 states of equal population.
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