2010 archive
Oh Noes 0
From the New York Times:
(snip)
In theory, this group exists to safeguard the integrity of the multitrillion-dollar market. In practice, it also defends the dominance of the big banks.
In other recent discoveries, water is wet and salt is salty.
QOTD 0
Fiorello LaGuardia, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Politics is very much like taxes – everybody is against them, or everybody is for them as long as they don’t apply to him.
Stray Thought 0
It is truly amazing how a few colored lights can brighten up a dwelling.
Dustbiters 0
A little time out to recognize the two pilars of fiscal integrity that vanished over night. These banks are now blanks:
They were too small to be bailed.
Light Bloggery 0
Time to hang the Christmas lights.
0
Ashleigh Brilliant, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
My opinions may have changed, but not the fact that I’m right.
Bah! Humbook! 0
Joan Wickersham, writing in the Boston Globe, deconstructs the fashion for GLCBs (Greedy Little Christmas Books). A nugget:
7. Have your characters come to believe in something. It doesn’t matter what it is. The true meaning of this. The miracle and wonder of that.
8. Insist on the shallowness of materialism and the importance of treating other people with kindness, not contempt.
9. Undercut this insistence by writing the book.
iJobs 0
Sometimes the facts render editorials redundant. Bloomberg:
Foxconn, the largest private employer in China, plans to expand its workforce to as many as 1.3 million by the end of next year, Woo said in an August interview. The Taipei-based company employed about 920,000 workers at that time.
DADT 0
The Republican Party’s fascination with the sex lives of American military personnel is downright creepy.
Rudolph Roped and Returned 0
From the San Jose Mercury-News:
Rancher Bob Acquistapace, riding a horse and wearing a cowboy hat, boots and spurs, finally got a rope over the reindeer’s head at about noon and tied the exhausted animal to a lamppost. The reindeer was eventually loaded into a trailer.
Prepare for Your Financial Future 0
Listen to Klaatu explain urban camping.
QOTD 0
Noam Chomsky, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Either you repeat the same conventional doctrines everybody is saying, or else you say something true, and it will sound like it’s from Neptune.
Stray Thought 0
A bad movie in 3D is a bad movie times three.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Starting to look like a trend:
Applications for jobless benefits decreased to 421,000, less than the median forecast of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News, from a revised 438,000 the prior week, Labor Department figures showed today. The four-week moving average, a less-volatile measure, dropped to the lowest level in more than two years.
What It Was, Was Football 0
The Philadelphia Inquirer has a fascinating article on John Heisman, the Penn alumnus for whom the Heisman trophy of college football is named. A nugget:
Heisman also once used a hidden team trick, in 1902, when he coached Clemson to a victory over Georgia Tech, two years before he switched schools. Wilkinson wrote how Clemson got off the train the night before the game, “checked into a hotel and proceeded to party until dawn.” Tech fans saw all this and bet heavily on the home team. Except the Clemson partyers were decoy scrubs. The varsity showed up well-rested the next morning and annihilated Georgia Tech, 44-5.
Gaming Gamers 0
Smurfberries?
So where does the money come from? Kelly Rummelhart of Gridley, Calif., has part of the answer. Her 4-year-old son was using her iPad to play the game and racked up $66.88 in charges on her credit card without knowing what he was doing.
Follow the link for details, especially if you suspect your portable device is gaming you. It’s a long a detailed article.
Also, stick to poker. At least in poker you know when you are losing money.
QOTD 0
James Thurber, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Early to rise and early to bed makes a male healthy, wealthy and dead.