July, 2012 archive
Facebook Frolics 1
Your “news feed” is for sale:
These ads, designed to join the normal streams on members’ news feeds and status updates, are already generating about $1 million per day in revenue in limited testing.
What You Don’t Know Can’t Hurt Them 0
Following in the footsteps of the tobacco industry . . . .
It can’t possibly be because they fear facts, now, can it? A nugget from Dan Morain in the Sacramento Bee:
“This is a deliberate effort to keep evidence from being collected,” said Dr. Garen Wintemute, a UC Davis Medical School professor and one of the few researchers in the nation who focuses on guns and gun violence. “It is one more way to prevent policy reform. It’s a brilliant strategy.”
Everybody Must Get Fracked 0
Alyona explains how Mitt the Flip off the Brits distracted from real news about real Frackers.
The Fireboat Next Time 0
The Bensalem, Pennsylvania, volunteer fire department chose to use a gazillion-dollar Homeland Security grant for a fireboat, even though Bensalem has no approachable riverfront, no marianas, no shipping, and no port.
Apparently, they just wanted a boat that spurts. A nugget from a long article by Monica Yant Kinney:
Just before midnight on Jan. 14, a guard patrolling the desolate Neshaminy State Marina called 911. The only boat docked there – “Marine 37” – was sinking.
Earlier that day, firefighters struck something while training with an employee of the Canadian manufacturer, MetalCraft Marine.
“A series of failures,” explains then-chief Jerri, “led to us not noticing there was a hole in the boat.”
The “Bear” took on 2,000 gallons and had to be lifted out of the water, drained, and repaired. Union paid the marina $500 for the use of a crane, but MetalCraft took the blame and ate the cost of the weeks-long repair.
On their own a month later, Union members destroyed a dock box and paid $600 for a replacement. Pulling in and out of the marina, they repeatedly damaged rub rails.
On April Fools’ Day, the “Bear” struck and sank a $25,000 hydraulic lift. The Pennsylvania Fish and Boat Commission investigated but filed no charges. Union covered the $500 repair.
That’s just since they took delivery in January.
Hope they do a better job driving their fire engines.
Gaming the Games 0
The spirit of international cooperation corporation is manifest at the quadrennial athletic marketing fest:
It isn’t just about the Olympics clearing the way for its biggest sponsors to indulge in an orgy of marketing and promotion unfettered by rivals. In the U.K., media reports said that an 81 year-old woman who wanted to sell a doll at a fundraiser for $1.60 was told to think again after authorities found out the doll wore sportswear featuring the Games’ logo and Olympic rings; at the University of Derby, a banner that stated “supporting the London Olympics” had to be taken down.
Pursuit of excellence indeed.
Pursuit of excrescence which dishonors the athletes.
I’m so fed up with the hype and the tripe that I resent even seeing the headlines in the local rag.
The Voter Fraud Fraud 0
Tony Norman points out the underlying hypocrisy of the gut out the vote movement. After citing Pennsylvania’s legal stipulation that no cases or prosecutions for voter fraud are known to exist in Pennsylvania, he observes:
Now, imagine if this was a debate about gun control. Wouldn’t conservatives be the first to scream that enforcing existing gun laws is all we need to do to stem the tide of death and violence and that adding new laws would only threaten Second Amendment rights?
A. P. Ticker Steps Up To Bat, Man 0
Warning: Mild language.
Cantor’s Cant (Updated) 1
Virginia is no stranger to the politics of bigotry, starting with the Red Letter Year (as it was called in my third grade history book) through the Civil War, Jim Crow, Massive Resistance, and beyond.
Now comes Eric Cantor in that grand tradition to support Michelle Bachmann’s mongering of religious hatred, ignorance, and fear.
Details at C&L.
Addendum:
Be sure to read George Smith’s comment to this and follow his link to learn more about the merchants of hate.
Facebook Frolics 0
Facebook ’em, Dano.
According to an affidavit for a search warrant, one of the Facebook messages on Hicks’ page contained a threat to assault Underwood. “Underwood spoke with Norfolk investigators and indicated he took the threat to be serious,” the warrant says.
I suspect that overreaction is involved in this, but fighting words are fighting words, whether in person, in ink, or in electrons.
Dustbitters 0
Banking continues to reach new heights of FAIL, starting with (surprise, surprise) another Georgia bank:
Shipwrights 0
Radio Times investigates the builder and the building of the S. S. United States. From the website:
Follow the link to listen or listen here (MP3).
See pictures of the liner as it is today at my boating site.
Mitt the Flip Off the Brits 3
The Guardian is keeping a running total of Mitt the Flip’s diplomatic triumphs on the other side of the Big Pond.
Really, no one could have predicted(TM).
Image via Balloon Juice.
Home on the (Firing) Range 0
Dick Polman imagines Father Knows Best as told by the full-metal-jacket Viagra crowd.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Rear your children with politeness.
It happened in a car parked in the 14800 block of Empire Street in Dale City about 3:25 p.m. Wednesday, Prince William police spokesman Jonathan Perok said in a news release.
A female family member called 911 and told police the boy, now identified as Kyrell Kyyon McNeill of the 14800 block of Empire Street, accidentally shot himself in the head, Perok said.
No doubt that, if all the neighbors had been packing heat, this would not have happened.
Or something like that.
