November, 2011 archive
Facebook Frolics, In Perpetuity Dept. 0
A reader writes to “Ask Amy”:
This was decades before the Internet existed. Now, that we have Facebook, it turns out she was right! How prophetic.
Big Brother Is Watching 0
From El Reg:
Having a “bad day at work” is henceforth verboten.
The Bottom of the Fox for Kindle 0
Shaun Mullen’s The Bottom of the Fox, which I reviewed here, is now available for your Kindle.
If you Kindle, Kindle that.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Corporate Chutzpah Dept. 0
This could only have been an attempt to muddy the waters (or oily the waters), then escape before the mud cleared.
“The U.S. has sovereign immunity here,” U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier said today at a hearing in New Orleans in dismissing a claim brought by Transocean in a lawsuit. The company can still present evidence of such allegations at trial in an effort to limit any damages against it, Barbier said.
It’s like Willy Sutton suing the banks.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Mourn your friends politely.
(snip)
Police say the detective later admitted to the shooting, saying it was a celebration toward Frey.
er, yeah.
We Need Single Payer 0
Sam Seder interviews Wendell Potter on tactics used by health insurance companies to keep customers in the dark about coverage and costs.
What they are most desirous of insuring is the executives’ country club memberships.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Duran’s interim report now alleges that 104 voters — about one for every 10,577 on the rolls — were illegally registered to vote. Of that group, just 19 — or approximately one for every 57,894 registered voters — actually allegedly cast a ballot they shouldn’t have.
The real voter fraud happens in the counting room (and, occasionally, in the Supreme Court).
The underlying Republican definition of voter fraud is a catch-22: Republicans have decided that no legitimate voter could possibly disagree with them, thus persons who might disagree with Republicans must be kept from voting, thus the Republican keep-out-the-vote effort.
Share Your Opinion 0
Pick the next film star:
Driving while Brown 0
Alabama’s fear of persons who look different is playing out with unintended (by Alabama), but not unexpected (except by Alabama) consequences:
The Booman assesses Alabama’s attempt once again to enshrine bigotry in law.
More about the video here.
Dustbiters 0
Two more banks disappeared from view yesterday.
The Fee Hand of the Market 0
Bill Shein surveys the new fees banks are considering instituting to replace the old fees that they are now prohibited from collecting.
Here’s a sample. Follow the link to see the rest.
ISO Brains 0
I have finally figured out the current fascination with zombies.
It was preparation for the Republican face for the nomination.
Via Raw Story.
Newt Gingrich, Man of Principal (with Compound Interest) 0
In the Chicago Trib, Steve Chapman considers the ascendency of Newt Gingrich. Mr. Chapman does not believe that Newtmentum has staying power.
A nugget:
Aside from style, there is the problem of substance. Some Republicans are turning to him out of aversion to Romney’s notorious flip-flopping, forgetting Gingrich’s own amazing flexibility.
At Kiko’s Place, Shaun Mullen quotes John McWhorter (my emphasis; follow the link and read the entire piece):
And, now, a blast from the past:
Facebook Frolics, Creepy Stalker Dept. 0
The ACLU seems to have had enough.
We shouldn’t have to choose between browsing the Web and keeping Facebook from tracking everything we do online. That’s why we’ve asked the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to look into Facebook’s practice of tracking your web activity even if you never click on a Like button or log into Facebook at all, and why we encourage you to tell Congress to take steps to protect our privacy by creating a “Do Not Track” mechanism with legal force. And, Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.V.), chairman of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, has pledged to hold a hearing to investigate these reports.
I seldom visit Facebook and, when I do, I do so in a private browser session; cookies dropped in private session are deleted when that session is ended.
I’ve also set my browser to “delete new cookies” upon exit.
That took a teeny little bit of work.
I set the preferences to the default of retaining cookies. I then deleted all the cookies except for the two or three I wanted and exited the program.
I then restarted the browser and changed the cookie setting to “delete new cookies,” so that the ones I wanted would be retained, since they were no longer “new.”
No Facebook creepy stalker cookies on my computer.
