January, 2013 archive
How To Protect Your Windows Surface 0
Store in a room full of iJunk.
The thieves made away with five iPads worth more than $3,000 (£1,865) from Microsoft’s research and development centre in Mountain View, California, over Christmas.
Microsoft’s flagship collection of smartphones and tablet computers remained untouched in the raid, according to Mountain View police who spoke to The Register.
Citizens Benighted, HOV Dept. 0
The incorporated was his co-pilot.
Instead, Frieman admitted that he had reached onto the passenger’s seat and handed the officer papers of incorporation connected to his family’s charity foundation.
I give him points for creativity. Details at the link.
Drinking Liberally Norfolk Thursday 0
Fun and fellowship for liberals. Join us tomorrow and enjoy the afterglow.
When: Thursday, January 10, 6 p.
Where:
Croc’s 19 Street Bistro
620 19th Street (Map)
More here.
Ryan’s Hoke 0
Football uber Alles 0
Now that the season is over, Pederasty U. is still with us.
At Philly dot com, Joseph Zimmerman looks at Pennsylvania Governor Corbett’s suit against the NCAA’s sanctions against Penn State and finds that it’s all bad:
What the complaint does suggest is something much darker: that a Sandusky-style atrocity could have occurred at any number of football-worshipping universities that make coaches into idols. In an attempt to exculpate Penn State, Corbett has actually indicted us all.
Do read the rest, especially if football means a damn to you.
You find that, as it exists today, it means “damned” to you.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Viewed historically, it’s all about the white to bear arms.
Tony Norman explains:
They were an orderly militia of black people, both men and women, demanding recognition of their Second Amendment rights. They wanted to protect themselves against what they called a racist white establishment and police state.
(snip)
It didn’t take long for the Gipper to become a believer in the kind of selective gun control that would keep guns in those pre-semi-automatic days out of the hands of black folks already partial to leather jackets and black shades.
Read the rest.
History matters, folks. It illuminates the present.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Emphasis added:
Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Wells Fargo and seven other mortgage-servicing firms have agreed to give borrowers $3.3 billion in direct payments and $5.2 billion in loan modifications and other assistance to settle allegations that they wrongly foreclosed on homeowners in 2009 and 2010. The other lenders are Citibank, MetLife Bank, PNC, Sovereign, SunTrust, U.S. Bank and Aurora.
I like that “might.”
Past experience (as opposed to future experience, I guess) indicates that it is more likely to be “might not.”
The Naked City 0
In a landmark traffic study, Caltrans and MIT have discovered that too many cars on the same road heading in the same direction result in traffic jams.
The story also included this little creepy detail:
Beneath the Surface 3
(Embed fixed.)
An experienced computer user tries Windows 8. Chaos occurs. (Warning: Mild language.)
Excerpt: “Less user-friendly than DOS.”
Via SMLR.
Fox News Ratings Explained 0
It fits right in with what Paul Thagard says about “motivated ignorance.” A nugget:
Read the rest.
Orange Ade 2
Notre Dame got beat so badly in the Orange Bowl that the band wanted to leave at the end of the third quarter.
Also, commercials are getting dumber (yeah, I didn’t think it was possible either). Compared to Verizon’s welcome-to-the-Matrix Droid ads, Speedy Alka-Seltzer was blankety-blank War and Peace and M&Ms in the swimming pool was the bleedin’ Bolshoi.
Lost in the Land of Oz 0
A doctor began to wonder where his patients were getting their outlandish ideas about supplements and miracle cures.
He dared to look behind the curtain and found himself in a TV wonderland.
Much more at the link.
A Speed Bump on the Road to Gun Nut Paradise 0
The Supreme Court refuses to hear a case to overturn a Georgia law against guns in churches.
Gun nuts will have to leave their graven images at home.
Mythological Mythical Staying Power 0
One reason that advertisers pay attention to “image” and “branding” is that image often trumps reality.
American car makers are still tagged with the reputation for poor quality that they so justly earned in the 1970s and 1980s, even though it is most emphatically no longer valid.
One of the images with the strongest staying power is that of the Republican Party’s somehow being full of responsible fiscals. Even the most cursory look at the last thirty years shows that it just ain’t so.
At Philly dot com, Cynthia Tucker wonders at the magickal mythological majesty of the “image” of that “brand.”
It’s flat-out wrong. It’s a convenient myth that Republicans have sold the taxpayers – clever marketing that covers a multitude of sins. There is nothing in the GOP’s record over the last two decades showing it to be sincere about balancing the budget, ferreting out waste, or reining in excessive government spending.
Image via Bob Cesca’s Awesome Blog.
G. I. Billed 0
(Link fixed–not the orginal link, but it will do.)
Since he enlisted, First Son has lived in Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia, in addition to Iraq and Afghanistan, all places he was sent by him employer and I forget where else.
What, exactly, is his state of residence (emphasis added)? (More at the link.)
And if that person is deemed a nonresident, the veteran often must pay the difference out of pocket.
This is not right.
Full Disclosure:
This dooesn’t affect First Son. He has a degree.
It’s still not right.
Tuskegee Airmen: Their Own Words 0
Barbara Hamm Lee interviews several surviving “Tuskegee airmen” about their experiences in the military and in the air. Life under Jim Crow forms an undercurrent to their experiences, though they do not talk about it directly.
Follow the link to listen and learn.