2013 archive
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Etiquette training.
Theft of Services 0
Chartering a new course in education:
When you turn a public trust into a private profit center, you ask for trouble.
Details of his trappings of wealth purchased with the public’s nickels at the link.
Twits on Twitter 0
Well, I guess they had to be good for something.
In a crafty attempt to help its students learn in a modern, engaging way, the Red Balloon English language school, which has branches in several Brazilian cities, has been getting its pupils to critique celebrities’ badly written tweets. The “Celeb Grammar Cops” are a team of children aged between eight and 13 who respond with the grammatically correct edits to celebrity solecisms.
The Lost Cause 0
F. T. Rea seems to have had the same text book that I had.
Carolina Mooning . . . 0
. . . its own polity.
I’m so old, I can remember with North Carolina was considered the beacon of the New South.
Driving while Brown 0
In divining bigotry, actions, or, in this case, words, speak louder than words.
Or something (emphasis added):
(snip)
“The defendants are entitled to have twelve — not eleven, but twelve — jurors make [a] decision impartially based upon all the evidence and based upon deliberations among them,” U.S. District Judge D. Brock Hornby wrote in his 23-page decision. “I conclude that these defendants were denied that right, no matter how much this juror believes that he has no discriminatory feelings toward Mexicans.”
Dustbiters 0
Mastering the universe no more: bank no more on
and the sun has set on
The Surveillance Failed State 0
Writing in Lebanon’s Daily Star, former CIA officer and author Robert Baer opines that we have been sold a bill of goods about the effectiveness of vacuum-cleaner surveillance. In the process, he demolishes the claims of success that are commonly used by the surveillance cadre to trumpet their effectiveness.
My suspicion throughout has been that
- they surveil because they can;
- because they can, they want to;
- because they want to, they need a cover story;
- because they need a cover story, “surveillance works”;
- because “surveillance works,” they can;
- because they can, they want to . . . .
It’s the best catch there is.
A nugget from the article. Consider the rest your weekend assignment.
Spywear 0
You will be assimilated.
CMPD says the cameras are better than traditional dashboard cameras because they can go where the officer goes.
Speaking of Science 4
Instead of her normal sermon on Sunday, Eagle Mountain International Church Pastor Terri Copeland Pearsons was forced to spend the majority of her time explaining how the congregation should react to the news that all of the 11 measles cases in Tarrant County had been linked to members or visitors of the church.
If God didn’t believe in medicine, He wouldn’t have given us doctors.
Video at the link.
Theft of Services 0
More on Republican efforts to gut public education in Philly.
Again, it’s not just in Philly, pholks.
Reverse Midas 0
Everyone who has been following Windows 8 saw this coming.
Pretty much everything Ballmer has touched from the Windows phone on has failed miserably, not just as technology, but as a commodity on the marketplace.
The world’s biggest software company did not name a successor.
Microsoft Corp.’s stock shot up 9 percent in premarket trading following the news.
Dulcet Tones 0
In which I talk to my LUG about HPR.
It’s the Data, Stupid 2
Interviewed on Radio Times, writer Mark Bowden says that what distinguishes today’s drones from yesterday’s model airplanes is not radio-controlled flight; it’s the data pipe.
From the website:
Follow the link to listen.
Whether or not you agree with some of his opinions, if you care about robotic death raining from the sky, you will find the discussion worth your while.