First Looks category archive

Robert Reich explains what you can do.

Via Joe.

First Son made Captain, 82nd Airborne, United States Army.

I’m staying out of that fuss, other than to point and laugh at the wingnut warmongers, because I don’t know what’s going on over there and, frankly, I think no one else on this side of the Atlantic does either.

But for some good information that’s not in the media or Blogosphere spotlight, check out Poli Blog by political scientist Steven L. Taylor.

I’m not linking to a specific story, just to the front page. It’s a good place to start.

I nominate this as the anthem of the odious Southern Strategy of the Republican Party:

Tuesday, Triumph Brewing Company, 2nd and Chestnut, Philadelphia, Pa, 6 p.

I won’t be there. I’ll be saying good-bye to First Son who’s soon off for his third tour in a war zone.

From El Reg:

The council of Brooksville, Florida, has clamped down on malodorous city employees sporting Spandex halter tops and exotic piercings while further prejudicing the town’s “public image” by turning up for work without underwear.

Which city department will inspect for violations? Fire? Parks and Recreation? Public Works?

From Jamie Sanderson via Facebook.

The surf was nice.

From the UKofGBandNI Daily Mail via the Huffington Post: The formula used to calculate dinosaur size was flawed:

But a mathematical mistake involving logarithms meant that the dinosaur estimates were much too high, according to Dr Packard’s team.

Other dinosaurs were also brought down to size by the new calculations. They included Styracosaurus, reduced by 21% from 4,200 kilograms to 3,300kg, and Diplodocus, which shed 27% of its weight and fell from 5,500kg to 4,000kg.

As for me, at one time I could do logarithms, but I don’t think I ever actually understood them.

Travel day. Going south for the weekend.

Without additional comment:

Police say a man with an Uzi submachine gun has robbed five West Philadelphia businesses this week

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In honor of the odious Southern Strategy and the Republican Party:

Just like my neighbor.

There may be some signs of improvement that it could have been much worse.

Indeed, the number of U.S. workers filing new claims for jobless benefits rose in the latest week, but economists were heartened by the first drop in the number of unemployed people remaining on benefit rolls since January and the biggest decline since November 2001.

This dovetailed well into a Federal Reserve report on manufacturing in the U.S. Mid-Atlantic area, where activity contracted in June for the ninth consecutive month but much less severely than anticipated and far less than the previous month.

The gander doesn’t like it.

Via Delaware Liberal.

Dr. Dan Gottlieb:

Curiosity starts from ignorance.

Off to drink liberally.

Warning: Nature red in tooth and claw.

Read more »

The local rag had an interesting article on a local man who collects old American flags. Very old American flags.

It makes good Flag Day reading. A nugget:

The legislation said the flag must have 13 stripes of red and white, with a blue field containing a constellation of white stars – but never said how those elements should be organized.

The result, in an age before mass communication and mass production, was that seamstresses and flag-makers invented their own odd, often outlandish interpretations.

Some covered half the flag in blue. Others set the stripes vertically. Some put the stars on the stripes. Some added eagles, shields, or political slogans, because, after all, there was no rule against it – and no efficient means to compare one design to another.