May 2011
29 posts
1 tag
Sweater Vest Exit
Jim Tressel tenders resignation
Jim Tressel, who guided Ohio State to its first national title in 34 years, resigned Monday amid NCAA violations from a tattoo-parlor scandal that sullied the image of one of the country’s top football programs.
Seemed enevitable. I’m not sure the NCAA was buying the “I didn’t know I was supposed to forward this email to our department...
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begun, the mobile payment war, has
Yesterday:
Google Unveils Wallet And Offers: An Open Platform For Mobile Payments
Right off the bat, Google Wallet will work with Mastercard Paypass. This means right now 300,000 merchants around the world and 120,000 in the U.S. are technically ready (though it’s not rolling out everywhere yet). It will initially work with “Gcard” a Google pre-paid card set up by Mastercard.
The other...
1% of 1%
Welcome to the Anthropocene
To think that the workings of so vast an entity could be lastingly changed by a species that has been scampering across its surface for less than 1% of 1% of its history seems, on the face of it, absurd. But it is not.
It is one of those moments where a scientific realisation, like Copernicus grasping that the Earth goes round the sun, could fundamentally change...
Autopen
Senators Say Patriot Act Is Being Misinterpreted
In an unusual move, a White House spokesman said that President Obama, who was in Europe, would “direct the use” of an autopen machine to sign the bill into law without delay.
Par for the course.
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it hard to say that his view of budget deficits is...
Dick Cheney 2011: “I worship the ground Paul Ryan walks on”…
Dick Cheney 2002: “You know, Paul, Reagan proved deficits don’t matter”
The Weekly Standard was on the right track in 2005
The housing market remains strong; the unemployment rate is a low 5.2 percent; over two million new jobs have been created in the past year; the service sector is growing;...
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Half Century of History, 10 Years of Progress
50 years ago JFK challenged this country to go to the moon. I may have just been a cause to fight the Soviets with peaceful means, but it still proves to be one of the most inspiring acts of all mankind.
Now, that dream is all but dead. It died slowly, painfully, unmercifully. It died when the Apollo program was cut back to 17 missions instead of 20. It died when Nixon opted to go with a Space...
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Messi
Lionel Messi: Boy Genius
He is 23, with a grown-up’s income reported to exceed $43 million this year. Yet Messi still has a boy’s floppy bangs, a boy’s slight build and a boy’s nickname, the Flea. Even the ball stays on his feet like a shy child clinging to his father’s legs.
It is a boy’s fearlessness, enthusiasm, calm and humility, too, that help explain why Messi is already considered one of...
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Team America Named for Gold Cup
Coach Bob Bradley has announced the team that will face World Cup Champions Spain in early June and then take part in The 2011 CONCACAF Gold Cup, hosted by the United States, for regional supremacy. The winner of this Tournament plays in the Confederations Cup in 2013 against the other regional winners. The United States won the 2007 Gold Cup and had a magical run to the finals of the 2009...
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Milking It
Pirates Of The Caribbean: On Stranger Tides, AV Club Review
Captain Jack Sparrow is essentially the Fonzie of the Pirates Of The Caribbean films: the swaggering, one-note flavor character who proved to be the series’ most popular element, and quickly took over.
I think we now have a new example of the perils of “letting it ride.” To have one mega hit movie based on a theme ride...
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Apollo Plus 50
Apollo plus 50
To many Americans, neglecting human space flight this way looks like a sorry end to the glorious chapter Kennedy opened half a century ago. He set out to make America’s achievements in space an emblem of national greatness, and the project succeeded. Yet it did not escape the notice of critics even at the time that this entailed an irony. The Apollo programme, which was summoned...
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Microsoft Stevenote
Microsoft Professional Developers Conference 1996 Keynote Speaker: Steve Jobs
15 years ago: when dynamic web publishing was novel, and Steve Jobs spoke at Microsoft developer conferences.
Moderate by Averages
Fiscally I’m A Right-Wing Nutjob, But On Social Issues I’m Fucking Insanely Liberal
The world is a complicated place, and in this day and age, you just can’t expect a person to fall on the same political side of every issue he is confronted with. Things are more nuanced than that, and the average American might think one way about one topic, and a completely different way about...
The Difference Between Parody and Tragedy is the...
In The Onion this week:
Planned Parenthood Opens $8 Billion Abortionplex
TOPEKA, KS—Planned Parenthood announced Tuesday the grand opening of its long-planned $8 billion Abortionplex, a sprawling abortion facility that will allow the organization to terminate unborn lives with an efficiency never before thought possible.
“Although we’ve traditionally dedicated 97 percent of our...
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The College Jobless
The New York Times apparently is realizing that college grads from the past few years are screwed. Mind you this is the 4th time I’ve seen this article in the Times so I guess they must exist in some sort of Christopher Nolan work of leaving breadcrumbs for themselves…or more likely every year now the kid of a Times higher-up can’t find work after leaving Yale so it suddenly...
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Baseball & the CONCACAF Champions League
One of the greatest things I love about soccer is something utterly unfamiliar in American sports, simultaneous multi-level competitions. In North America there is the tridition of only holding only league games followed by a playoff for top teams teams. One dimension, one unified climax, similar stakes for everyone, if you suck out of the gate you just finish out your slate of games and be happy....
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The Great Depression in Color
Is this a window to the past or a glimps of the future? Makes the 1930s more real all the same, can’t wait to look back on the 3D 2000s.
In the bleak light of the Depression: Rare colour photographs of the era that defined a generation
Near the end of the 1930s the country was beginning to recover from the crash, but many in small towns and rural areas were still poverty-stricken. These...
What is Apple Planning this Week?
Repent now…Seems like the end of the world on May 21st isn’t the only reason to look forward to with baited apprehension this week. Apple rumor mills are going ape over “something” happening this Thursday at Apple Stores nationwide to coincide with the 10th anniversary of the first Apple Store opening in 2001. According to the Boy Genius Report:
There’s an overnight shift...
Bye, Newt
Gingrich Apologizes To Ryan
Caught in a tumult of criticism after criticizing Rep. Paul Ryan’s (R-Wis.) budget proposal, Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Tuesday afternoon called to apologize to the House Budget chairman, Ryan’s office and a campaign spokesman confirm to National Journal.
Gingrich spokesman Rick Tyler said his boss “apologized for his...
My Childhood Job is Almost Over
Endeavour Lifts Off on Its Final Flight
The space shuttle Endeavour blasted off successfully on Monday morning on a mission to the International Space Station.
The mission, which is expected to last 16 days, will be the 134th and next to last in the 30-year shuttle program, with only a flight by the Atlantis, scheduled for this summer, remaining.
My dream job when I was in 4th Grade was to be...
Why We Fight
Overall accounting of the modern military industrial complex. Also is called “a documentary made in 2005 so lets talk about Iraq for 45 minutes.” Because of this the overall message of the film, and the perspective it can add, is lost by rehashing every specific about the run up to the war. When the film was made this was of course the issue of the day, but has since faded from memory...
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How The Mighty Have Fallen
Did the Microsoft Case Change the World?
Remember when Microsoft ruled the PC industry? In the 1990s, its Windows operating system became so dominant that government trust-busters took it to court. They spent four years and millions of dollars making the case that Microsoft was unduly using its power to wipe out rivals in the Web browser business and other domains.
The settlement to that case,...
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The States' Rights Solution to Universal...
Vermont Passes Universal Healthcare Plan
WASHINGTON — The Vermont legislature has passed a bill to create a publicly funded healthcare system that aims to provide coverage to every Vermont resident by 2017.
The measure — which was originally touted as a single-payer plan, but has since been renamed a “universal and unified health system” — passed the Vermont House...
On RomneyCare
So it seems Mitt has a problem. Let me see if I can help.
Romney: As first act, out with ObamaCare
Health care in the United States has made remarkable advances in our lifetimes. Dramatic improvements in medical technology have expanded both the length and quality of life. And the U.S. health care system continues to provide consumers with many choices.
US ranks #37 in the world, just below...
Justice, American Style
Justice, American Style: Was Bin Laden’s Killing Legal? - SPIEGEL ONLINE - News - International:
Claus Kress, an international law professor at the University of Cologne, argues that achieving retributive justice for crimes, difficult as that may be, is “not achieved through summary executions, but through a punishment that is meted out at the end of a trial.” Kress says the...
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Decision Time for MLS
Real Salt Lake came up one goal short last week. Their team is stout, in all competitions they’re currently playing. They entered last night’s home leg of the series tied 2-2 with Mexican Champions Monterrey who was also missing several key pieces and playing poor of late. RSL owned their home ground, possessed the one of the longest active home undefeated streak in the world. 37 games...
On the Death of Bin Laden
Originally Published May 2nd, 2011
The day that every American has been waiting for since 9/11/2001 is here, Osama is dead and we killed him. This is a day to remember the lives lost on that terrible day, and the wake of anquish it has caused American families ever since. 10 years on, Twitter was our Time Square, and throngs of people took to the streets who were in grade school when the towers...
I can't put enough ROFLs in this headline, so I...
Microsoft Near Deal to Acquire Skype
Microsoft Corp. is close to a deal to buy Internet phone company Skype Technologies SA for between $7 billion and $8 billion—the most aggressive move yet by Microsoft to play in the increasingly-converged worlds of communication, information and entertainment.
A deal could be announced as early as Tuesday, people familiar with the matter said, though they...
