2012 archive
Stray Thought 0
The surest sign of being a Hollywood has-been is an appearance in a Super Bowl half-time show.
Great Moments in Supply and Demand (Updated) 2
TPM Muckraker:
I guess somebody had to buy that turkey.
Addendum, the Next Day:
Perhaps shoring up her almost-non-existent book sales wasn’t the best use for the funds. My ex-local rag reports:
She has nearly exhausted her leftover funds, has reportedly had lackluster book sales and is being sued by a longtime supporter who claims she’s trying to stiff him out of pay for political consulting and legal research. Her political action committee, ChristinePAC, and Senate campaign had a combined $36,100 left in the bank at the end of 2011, according to reports filed last week.
At this rate, she’ll have to look for honest work.
The story does point out that the her PAC purchased the book at the “non-royalty” rate.
Facebook Frolics 0
Yahoo News considers how Facebook puts you on sale. Remember, users are not the customers; they are the product.
A snippet:
That may seem like a reasonable trade until we get to the IPO. “If this thing goes public at the price they’re expecting (Facebook) will get $120 per user,” Matt Nesto notes. Said another way, Facebook is going to sell you for 120 bucks. Wall Street bankers will get a cut of this figure, with Facebook getting the bulk of the money. FB users get nothing.
Via LXer.
Turnabout 3
Though I do think that much of what Anonymous does is the internet equivalent of toilet-papering someone’s yard, it is difficult not to take a perverse delight in their eavesdropping on the eavesdroppers.
Unfortunately for the cybersleuths, the hackers were in on the call too — and now so is the rest of the world.
Anonymous published the roughly 15-minute-long recording of the Jan. 17 call on the Internet on Friday, gloating in a Twitter message that “the FBI might be curious how we’re able to continuously read their internal comms for some time now.”
Say Anything Mitt 0
When you believe nothing, it’s easy to say anything.
Facebook Frolics 0
At Psychology Today, Jeff Wise speculates that Facebook is on its way to being another MySpace, which itself is on its way to being another AOL.
He believes that Facebook’s “cultural moment has passed.”
A nugget:
Once upon a time, Facebook felt like this. But the longer I use it, the less savvy it seems. Most of the information that crawls down my home page is about people I don’t even know. The information they’re conveying is stuff I wouldn’t care about, even if I did know them. Someone read an article; someone joined a group; someone commented on her own photo. The signal to noise ratio is too low. Facebook has gone from being the village yenta to the village idiot.
And Now for Something Completely Different 0
Sure, it’s commercialized, but it’s still a chuckle.
I am in now way endorsing Denny’s.
The Politics of Dumb and Dumber 0
Are Republican candidates spreading the stupid?
“Instant On” 0
Philly dot com has some hints for saving money and waste caused by appliances, mostly electronic gear, sopping up stand-by power:
An informed and aggressive approach can cut standby use about 30 percent.
Mitt the Flip the Bird to the Poor Those Who Not Lucky Enough To Be Children of a Rich Person
0
True colors.
From Bloomberg (hardly a font of leftie propaganda):
Click to read the rest.
Playing the Trump Card 0
Heh.
Vitamin S, Reprise 0
Under arrest for contributing to public health by spreading vitamin S.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Quash Court Dept. 0
Stephanie Grace, writing at the New Orleans Times-Picayune, considers efforts by Buccaneer Petroleum to keep depositions from Tony Hayward, chief buccaneer at the time of BP’s wild well, out of court.
A snippet:
“Do you think that BP bore any responsibility, operation or otherwise, for the performance of this blowout preventer?” And “do you think BP had any responsibility, given its position that the BOP was the last line of defense, to follow up to ensure that any maintenance and repair that needed to be done, got done?”
While BP argues that responsibility is a legal term, the plaintiffs say it’s also a lay term that “everyone understands.” Hayward’s concept of his company’s responsibility, of course, is also central to how the events unfolded and who should be held at fault.
Apparently, the plain light of day is no friend of buccaneers.
Click to read the rest.
Pork Chopped 0
About three miles from where I grew up:
Virginia State Police Sgt. Michelle Anaya said the accident was reported around 4 a.m. and 41,000 pounds of frozen pork spilled onto the roadway.
Picture at the link.
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*It’s pronounced exactly as it’s spelled.
Not WYSIWYG 0
A skin-grease cosmetics ad. Photoshopped?
Oh noes.
(snip)
The watchdog was responding to a complaint from MP Jo Swinson, who “challenged whether the ad was misleading, because she believed that the image of Rachel Weisz had been digitally manipulated and therefore misrepresented the results that the product could achieve”.