Posted 5 days ago
sweet, sweet bacon
in BACON
user:
Jim Cowiename:
Jim Cowieabout me:
I'm a member of the Babbledog development team.
Recent Responses by Jim Cowie
Posted 5 days ago
genius.
in Law Blog - WSJ.com : Covington Partner Demonstrates Treatment of Detainees
Posted 9 days ago
is it just me, or does the trefoil CPF logo make anyone a little nervous? :) it seems like an inappropriate visual joke to be carrying through security
in Checkpoint friendly laptop bags will soon be a reality
Posted 10 days ago
Tanned, rested, and ready! And better qualified than any body.
in Nixon's Head for President in '08
Posted 13 days ago
A classic essay about fake money.
in Why the global financial system is about to collapse
Posted 13 days ago
People watch golf on TV because people put golf on TV. If people put cockroach races on TV, people would watch that too. And they would wear teeny tiny nike swooshes on their carapaces.
in Woods will become world's first billionaire athlete by 2010
Posted 13 days ago
Bloomberg does a better job than anyone at filtering and presenting this kind of news. I hope the recent shakeups in their news organization don't change that.
in Spying on the World's Largest Power Utility
Posted 13 days ago
If you're into constitutional theory, this paper and the recent supreme court decision about habeas corpus rights at gitmo make good reading. Sovereignty is a slippery thing. Good thing we're not about building global empires any more!
in Eleven Months and a Hundred Yards Short of Citizenship
Posted 14 days ago
2008 isn't over yet, but "Thriller" is still a safe choice ;)
in Geeky list time: Pick an album for every year you've been alive | The A.V. Club
Posted 23 days ago
They clearly didn't get Frank Oz to reprise the voice of Yoda. That kills it for me, right there.
in "Star Wars: Clone Wars," trailer 2
Posted 23 days ago
or stealing the dead themselves. or killing people while stealing from them. I think someone hasn't really worked out the full matrix of behaviors here.
in Economic Slump Leads to Resurgence of Grave Robbing
Posted 23 days ago
Second runner-up in the "netflix alternative business plans" competition.
in Rent-a-Dildo.com - How It Works
Posted 24 days ago
backstory: http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/wwdnbackup/2008/06/moon-over-a-rui.html
in Wil Wheaton's Hawaii Vacation photos
Posted 26 days ago
I guess this is why so many great Canadian comedians have felt obliged to come south of the border to enjoy freedom of speech, eh? Also to make money and avoid freezing to death.
in Comic faces human rights hearing in B.C. after lesbian jokes
Posted 26 days ago
the good news: you can live forever. the bad news: we all have to grow a really long beard.
in Aubrey de Grey: Why we age and how we can avoid it
Posted 26 days ago
obama photographed wearing iconic white earbuds == "powerful brand synergy"
in Barack Obama and his iPod: Bob Dylan, Stevie Wonder and Bruce Springsteen
Posted 26 days ago
I love the idea that google's aggregate data is a more accurate guide to what the public believes and does than you can get by asking the public what it believes and does. The slippery slope toward a government panopticon just got a little more slippery.
in Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Orgy : Sexual hypocrisy and the Internet.
Posted 26 days ago
pretty trivial. the regime's engineers have a lot of experience building large concrete edifices :)
in N. Korea destroys nuclear reactor tower
Posted 27 days ago
nice concept, not taken far enough. I'd like to see a book that comes with, say, a sampling of beverages to be enjoyed with each chapter. or maybe a collection of unusual hats. you would wear the appropriate hats as you worked your way through the book. readers would recognize each other on the street. "oh look, three more chapter sevens."
in Neal Stephenson's new book, Anathem, will come with a CD of music.
Posted 29 days ago
"To keep the Nutraloaf test authentic, I mandated that my guests eat with their hands; plus, after sneaking in that taste of Illinois earlier in the day, I was worried someone might stab me if I let them use utensils." heh
in Taste-Testing Nutraloaf : The prison food that just might be unconstitutionally bad.
Posted 30 days ago
Tragedy at the racetrack .. a sport that kills drivers nearly every year, and yet the drivers and fans keep coming back, for all the reasons that xViPiR cited when he posted this video.
in YouTube - Scott Kalitta Fatal Crash 6/21/08
Posted 32 days ago
Cool! I love interactive fiction. It's sad when a literary form is completely dissed because it's not commercially viable.
in 1up.com's Top 5 Introductory Interactive Fiction Games
Posted 32 days ago
in case you havent heard, the dot com industry is very hot right now and its only getting hotter in the future. also, its not like people are going to stop using the telephone, eh? everyone needs a telephone. it's safe as houses.
in Canadian court lets pension fund buy Bell Canada
Posted 33 days ago
The Babbledog team would like some of these. Thanks in advance.
in Lollyphile: the best & most interesting candy in the world!
Posted 33 days ago
Yahoo's imminent demise has become a true internet meme. This one just keeps getting louder.
in Yahoo Reorg Details
Posted 34 days ago
corbou in lego .. ok, fine, whatever. you wanna impress me, i want to see Gaudi work executed in lego.
in LEGO replica of Le Corbusier's Villa Savoye
Posted 35 days ago
watching movies with a font fondler is a terrible experience anyway. it's as if they have typographic tourette's. you're sitting through a quiet scene, and the camera pans across a document, and they snort and yell out "Caslon! CASLON!?"
in Mark Simonson notes that the period typography in the Indiana Jones...
Posted 35 days ago
just elected to congress from maine. hasn't been there enough to learn bad habits.
in Why Obama should pick Hillary Clinton as veep
Posted 36 days ago
just for symmetry
in bSocial Networks Market Lodge Create personalized online stores on social networks
Posted 36 days ago
Seems like a lot of people went out and bought them a big ole television.
in Crazy ways people are spending their stimulus checks
Posted 37 days ago
"A political party built around victimhood will stop at nothing to sabotage its chances of actually achieving its goals." --anon
in Delegate to Democrat Convention: I’m Voting for McCain!
Posted 37 days ago
The miniature golf industry obviously failed to deliver enough lobbying dollars to avoid getting their very own line-item.
in Suggested changes for the Americans with Disabilities Act
Posted 37 days ago
any PR firm who would take this idiot's money in an attempt to boost his visibility to McCain's search team should be taken out behind the barn and killed with a dull axe.
in Brownback: We Depend on Dads
Posted 37 days ago
I got a really cool pair of shorts with a big pocket for my blackberry. My kids all donated blood plasma for six months to save up to buy them, so it counts as a thoughtful gesture. (No, they didn't. I'm joking.)
in What's the best thing to do for Dad on Father's Day?
Posted 40 days ago
I love this press release! It's so authentic! And it makes me hungry!
in McDonald's(R) USA Gives Moms Unprecedented Access to Learn How Chicken McNuggets(R) Are Made
Posted 41 days ago
At first, I thought the Democrat National Convention was being moved from Denver. Wow, thought I, that's change we can believe in! Still, pretty impressive demonstration of executive-leadership-not-washington-politics-as-usual meme-fu.
in Obama moves DNC operations to Chicago
Posted 42 days ago
The grandfather of great american beers only manages to pull a 4% rating (out of 100%).
in Pabst Blue Ribbon [ratebeer.com]
Posted 42 days ago
"As far as the power grid analogy, one of the “Cloud Customers” on the panel, Carolyn Lawson, Chief Information Officer for the California Public Utilities Commission, made a funny quip in her talk about how it might not be the most appropriate and convincing analogy given some of the recent history of California’s power grid." heh
in Enterprise Web 2.0 Conference
Posted 44 days ago
tiny monkey says: ralph wiggum '08! he's younger than mccain, and he can beat obama by a nose.
in May Day Contest: Caption This Photo
Posted 44 days ago
Kinda flat. And apparently the price of sugar and grease is going up.
in Krispy Kreme Doughnut Earnings: Whadya think?
Posted 45 days ago
Neat. Resveratrol may work by draining the body of excess minerals like copper and calcium, triggering the genetic response. So you might be trading longer life for, say, brittle bones and impaired nerve regeneration. What to do!
in Red Wine Straight from Fountain of Youth
Posted 46 days ago
For context, $1.4B is also the average market capitalization of the companies in the Russel 2000 index. Can I make it a little more concrete? Imagine blowing up every Krispy Kreme donut store in America. Six times. Ok, you're getting up towards $1.4B in damages. Please, nobody actually do that.
in B2 Stealth Bomber Crashes Video
Posted 47 days ago
may the best $100 hamburger win!
in Death of the $100 Hamburger (by Jeremy Zawodny)
Posted 48 days ago
"Charity shops are not being charitable nowadays: many are too choosy & turn down slightly soiled items.This is unacceptable & I have ceased to support them on that account."--ian cheese"
in spEak You’re bRanes
Posted 48 days ago
Time to digg asylum's homage to revision3's nod to asylum's bacon pictures? Is the bubble over yet? Can I have some bacon?
in Asylum Gives Props to Rev3 Giving a Shout-Out to Asylum's Collection of Bacon Pictures
Posted 48 days ago
Suddenly this becomes a really interesting experiment. If the Alexa numbers start to break Instapundit's way in the coming weeks, it'll almost certainly be an artifact of this recruitment.
in Left-right asymmetry in the online world?
Posted 50 days ago
i blame it on global warming
in Penguins steal amazing victory from Detroit in triple overtime
Posted 50 days ago
Unless your chocolate tastes exactly mirror those of the other people who share your household, you are still likely to find half-bitten maple cremes at the bottom of the box.
in Only Sheep Enjoy Whitman's Samplers
Posted 50 days ago
Fifteen easy steps... sigh
in Your Privacy Is An Illusion: Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan private pics exposed by Yahoo hack
Posted 51 days ago
The proof itself is kinda elegant. For a congressman :)
in President James Garfield's Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem
Posted 52 days ago
All of the suggestions Earl gives are spot-on. Simple due diligence.
in Renesys Blog: Securing the Root
Posted 52 days ago
She had ultrasounds at regular checkups, according to the article. Either they need a new (slightly less blind) ultrasonographer, or they need a less gullible news editorial staff. It's a small town, maybe they're the same guy!
in Miracle Baby
Posted 55 days ago
My favorite of the rules is #8, designed to frustrate homeschoolers (who dominate the bee, obviously): "The speller must not bypass or circumvent normal school activity to study for spelling bees. The Scripps National Spelling Bee defines normal school activity as adherence to at least four courses of study other than language arts, spelling, Latin, Greek, vocabulary, and etymology for at least four hours per weekday for 34 of the 38 weeks between September 1, 2007, and May 24, 2008."
in Bettors Guide to the Spelling Bee
Posted 55 days ago
It's called "regression to the mean," Tiger. Sorry 'bout that!
in Tiger Woods' Daughter a Bitter, Bitter Disappointment
Posted 56 days ago
The money quote from this article is "I bet that workers in this industry are fairly mobile too."
in Would a Porn Tax Hurt Sales? - Freakonomics
Posted 56 days ago
I love moon pies. Not the banana flavor, though. Chocolate.
in Guns don't Kill people, Moon Pies well they don't either.
Posted 57 days ago
as in, a single, immense work of body art, so large that it exists across the bodies of tens of thousands of military men. multiple generations of british soldiers, each bearing a small piece of the complete work
in RoyalTournament.org
Posted 61 days ago
"Anybody saying the rulers nay risks being tasered and gassed, beaten and jailed, demonized and prosecuted. Folks, that whole bunch in Minneapolis is not worth one Ron Paulian fingernail, let alone a busted skull. Watch the sickening festival on TV, unless you are a delegate or alternate. Even then, you have to be careful. Your enemies are fascists."
in Crashing the Party in Minneapolis
Posted 63 days ago
the guy who came in second is claiming that he actually had the majority of the popular vote. the supreme court has been notified. this ain't over yet.
in David Cook wins American Idol
Posted 63 days ago
Are you talking about the second dot com bubble? :)
in Facebook Is A Privacy Virus
Posted 63 days ago
This is a nice narrative but I think HRC's triangulation side-step to the right (when she thought she was facing McCain in November) will make it hard for her to become the New Voice of Liberalism in the Senate. Stranger reinventions have happened .. this is America after all.
in Rex Nutting: Is Hillary Clinton the new Ted Kennedy?
Posted 63 days ago
illegal interception of private communications by an agent of the state .. hmmmmmm ...
in If you're going to sell weed in high-school...
Posted 63 days ago
"If you pick and choose which tenets of a religion apply to you, is it still a religion?" A universal question.
in A Jihad for Love: A Jihad for Love
Posted 64 days ago
if his tongue has a point, it would actually be interesting.
in You Know What You Can Do With That Tongue? Make Some Art With It!
Posted 65 days ago
Hey, you don't want to be the last kid on the block running his own copy of L root! :)
in Identity Theft Hits the Root Name Servers
Posted 65 days ago
I didn't ask any other country's OK before I did it .. now that I know, I'll be sure to ask first. How rude of me
in Obama: An End to All-You-Can-Eat?
Posted 66 days ago
don't they have ants in canada? seems like insects should be able to reduce most any size mammal to clean bones in a matter of days to months.
in Blue whale, buried since 1987, exhumed in eastern Canada for move to Vancouver museum
Posted 68 days ago
It will be interesting to see how they develop the case. A lot of uncharted territory here, a lot of precedents to be set (for better or for worse).
in Mother indicted for MySpace hoax
Posted 68 days ago
Look on the bright side: she didn't commit suicide.
in Spitzer Still Free, But Hooker Booker Faces 25 Years [Justice]
Posted 68 days ago
Campaign staff line up to perform their own dental x-rays after Blue Cross premium check bounces
in Jay's Caption of the Week Contest
Posted 68 days ago
It would be good for New Hampshire if these folks succeeded in rolling back Massachusett's income tax -- for one thing, many NH folks are driving south in order to make a living and end up paying it anyway. For another, Massachusetts would have to massively increase their sales taxes to compensate -- and we don't have one of those either. More money to our border stores. Finally, it would create a great attraction for high-wage people from all over to migrate to Greater Boston instead of, say, New York (the city so nice they tax you two or three times for the privilege of living there).
in Activists push to repeal Massachusetts state income tax
Posted 68 days ago
This is intriguing, if true. By reciting the entire Quran, of course, you're going to recite this Surah, which is worth reciting a third of the Quran. Deep recursion.
in Reward of reciting Surah Ikhlaas 3 times equal to whole Quran?
Posted 69 days ago
Everything old is new again! (McCain's campaign song)
in Huckabee reenters the race?!?!
Posted 69 days ago
Truly amazing and inspiring demonstration of democratic principals. For a country recovering from a devastating cyclone, where hundreds of thousands of people are dead or missing, and the infrastructure wiped out, to achieve better than 99% voter participation is just literally incredible. You go, Burma!
in Myanmar new constitution ratified - People's Daily Online
Posted 69 days ago
Just when people say the greatest days of our species are behind us .. someone proves him wrong.
in A Bra For Your Bum
Posted 70 days ago
jessica: if you mix a shirley temple with a guinness, you are, in fact, approximating moxie.
in Meet NHPR's Brady Carlson during WebNOB, Tuesday (5/13), Jillian's in Manchester, 6-8 p
Posted 71 days ago
oh oh oh it hurts. so painful.
in T Mobile: Listen To The Most Pointless Customer Service Call Ever
Posted 71 days ago
However, she was eaten shortly after the camera crew left.
in West Virginia Voters Speak Out
Posted 72 days ago
Can anyone doubt at this point that we love in a dictatorship!!? The terrorists have truly won.
in Florida Man Ticketed For Wearing Speedo On Beach
Posted 74 days ago
After you sign the petition, you should also wear the sticker to show your support.
in Urgent Call for Action -- Tell the Bush Administration to Protect the Polar Bear
Posted 74 days ago
Boston! Lilacs! Morris dancing! REFRESHMENTS! What's not to love.
in Arnold Arboretum - Lilac Sunday
Posted 74 days ago
Stickers? Did someone say STICKERS?
in Suicide Cult Phase Reached By Clinton Campaign
Posted 75 days ago
"As an aid to workers in Myanmar, Direct Relief International has released this KML file showing all of the Myanmar Ministry of Health facilities (over 700 sites) using data from the WHO 2002 Global Health Atlas survey. They used the spreadsheet mapper tool to make the collection."
in Many Visualizations of Myanmar Disaster for Google Earth
Posted 75 days ago
Here's a great followup on this thread, noting how close he came, relative to the other polling. Score one for the methodology! http://www.nationaljournal.com/njonline/mp_20080507_8254.php
in Electoral Projections Done Right: North Carolina Prediction: Obama by Double Digits
Posted 75 days ago
Google is also supporting this via Google Checkout, quick and easy: http://www.google.com/myanmarcyclone/
in Support UNICEF's Emergency Programs in Myanmar
Posted 75 days ago
Some day soon, you'll get email from Chevrolet because your tire pressure is low on the driver's side rear. "Just trying to keep you safe, as a valued customer! Here's a $10 coupon for a rotation and inspection." Thanks OnStar.
in ELCO Chevrolet acquires Moore Automotive Cadillac franchise
Posted 75 days ago
See also: http://www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080509/FRONTPAGE/805090316
in How do you fix a broken school district?
Posted 76 days ago
I'm powerfully tempted to trigger Godwin's Law to end this thread.
in Meatless Like Me : Vegetarian Myths, Debunked
Posted 76 days ago
"Sure, I can get you more interviews, but you have to stop referring to your ex-coworkers as 'flying monkeys.'"
in Come up with a caption!!
Posted 77 days ago
"Howard Dean: (yelling and hitting the cage repeatedly) 'ELLO CAMPAIGN!!!!! Testing! Testing! Testing! Testing! This is your Three AM alarm call!"
in Look, matey, I know a dead campaign when I see one, and I'm looking at one right now.
Posted 77 days ago
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB120995103004666569.html
in Dartmouth Prof Sues Students For Being Mean to Her
Posted 78 days ago
she's vanished down the memory hole
in Salon Mothers Who Think | Different hero, different war
Posted 78 days ago
I would have to dig out the mixer, which I never use. I don't have the musclepower to turn out good meringue without one, sadly.
in Meringues: Coconut Meringue Cake | Submitted By: Carol
Posted 78 days ago
Laptops must be intelligence-gathering target number one. doesn't anyone out there know how to use encrypted filesystems?
in Interpol Confirms Authenticity Of Raul Reyes's Computer Files
Posted 79 days ago
I plan to race through the streets of manchester, new hampshire yelling WOOOOOOO with dollar bills in my fists and falling out of my coat pockets, like in the cartoons
in Find Out The Date You'll Get Your Stimulus Refund
Posted 79 days ago
¡sʞuɐɥʇ ˙sʎɐp ǝsǝɥʇ ɟo ǝuo uoıʇɐzılɐuoıʇɐuɹǝʇuı uɐılɐɹʇsnɐ oʇ ʇǝƃ oʇ ʇuɐǝɯ pɐɥ ı
in ˙uʍop ǝpısdn ʇxǝʇ ɹnoʎ dılɟ oʇ ǝʇıs looɔ ɐ sı ǝɹǝɥ
Posted 79 days ago
Prepare for the beatification of Mister Splashypants, Stephen Colbert, and that kid who wants us to leave Brittney alone.
in Foreign Policy: The Top 100 Public Intellectuals
Posted 79 days ago
this thread has been deleted. But there's more over here. And anyone who wants more can always click the box in their profile that says "I hereby agree that I am at least 18 years of age, and that I am willing to receive adult related content."
in NO PORN! -> Redtube.com hacked!
Posted 79 days ago
http://thepage.time.com/2008/05/03/you-cant-make-this-up/
in Filly Eight Belles breaks down after 2nd-place Derby finish
Posted 79 days ago
Yahoo! closed Friday at $28.67. Before Microsoft announced its initial interest, it was trading around $19. Ballmer's final offer was $33. Where do you think it closes today?
in Breaking: Microsoft Withdraws Yahoo Bid; Walks Away From Deal
Posted 79 days ago
Say what you will, it's excellent positioning for HRC, and makes a good deal of sense as such. Economists have been on shakier and shakier ground in recent years. They have the misfortune to aspire to be scientists that practice their art on the evening news, in a domain that regular people hold near and dear. Their predictive powers are notoriously poor, because they're always constructing models to accurately model the past. And they only deliver bad news these days! Slapping the economists in the face is a low-risk strategy for putting daylight between yourself and the elitist chablis-sippers in a hurry.
in Clinton – Economic Reality is Elitist
Posted 83 days ago
The makers of porn will have to be very careful to obscure the fact that the actors are drinking a Coke or driving a Mercedes. It would be terrible if the audience were inspired to drink a Coke, and thereby fooled into objectifying the people on screen in the "wrong way."
in Scandinavian split on sexist ads
Posted 83 days ago
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OLNLYL24qUA&feature=related at 2:25. god bless alton brown.
in Deep fried turkey troubles
Posted 83 days ago
and so is john mccain, apparently. http://www.npr.org/blogs/news/2008/05/senate_mcain_is_absolutely_pos_1.html?ft=1
in Pammie USA
Posted 83 days ago
I paid $4.05 in Greenwich, CT the other day.
in Gas at $5.00 in the U.S. - betting pool open
Posted 84 days ago
On the other hand, some people are taking good advantage of that fact. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiq_xdooaSw
in How We're Wrecking Our Feet With Every Step We Take
Posted 84 days ago
add electrical muscle stimulation while you sleep, and you can have a 24-hour nonstop exercise routine
in The Treadmill Desk: Exercise for the Sake of Hacking
Posted 85 days ago
http://insureblog.blogspot.com/2008/04/finally-transparency-cash.html
in Patients Can Get $100 to Reveal Hospital Bills
Posted 85 days ago
I would have to get some face-tightening plastic surgery before opening it up on the open road, lest my jowls flap and obstruct my vision (see the top gear video at the end of that story for a somewhat unsettling visual demonstration)
in Ariel Atom (want it want it want it)
Posted 86 days ago
I paid $4 at the pump today, for the first time ever. It felt odd, remote. I remembered what it felt like so that I could tell the grandkids what it was like. I was wearing a blue sweater that day. It was raining.
in Good for You, Bad for the Economy
Posted 88 days ago
er, I know it's kool-aide, but I want another cup.
in Gin, Television, and Social Surplus - Here Comes Everybody
Posted 88 days ago
A little creative paperwork, and the workplace will absorb the worst of it.
in Downgrading guests to attendees
Posted 89 days ago
I wonder what the oddsmakers in vegas are giving for this scenario. Intriguing!
in Should Obama drop out now to ensure a win in 2012?
Posted 89 days ago
Any space junkies (like myself) in the Concord NH area shouldn't miss this one.
in Tonight at the Christa McAuliffe Planetarium
Posted 89 days ago
I always go to these movies with a friend, to make sure someone turns my brain back on afterward.
in Bruce Willis is Shooting a Scifi Movie Right Now in Woburn...
Posted 89 days ago
Time to take the cotton our of your ears, perhaps.
in Ballmer: You want XP, we'll keep XP
Posted Apr 23, 2008
reading this article made me wish for a modern-day sequel to "A Confederacy of Dunces." it reads like an excerpt.
in Drunk Darth Vader's Jedi assault
Posted Apr 23, 2008
so far so good it's playing out just as they predict in the video.
in How Hillary can still win
Posted Apr 23, 2008
Now I really feel like making up t-shirts that say "far-left, atheist, elite, pansy Godless snob fraud."
in Andrew Sullivan: Karl Rove Wins the Pennsylvania Primary
Posted Apr 23, 2008
all we know is the number of people who changed party. but the "republicans for hillary" explanation seems plausible as an explanation. so too, to some extent, would "independents for obama." so we can't be sure without better numbers.
in Competitive race in Pennsylvania - CNN.com
Posted Apr 22, 2008
ah, wonkette.
in Five Easy Steps To Predicting Pennsylvania [Pennsylvania Analysis]
Posted Apr 22, 2008
the results won'y be in for .. well, for hours. when do the polls close? 7pm?
in Pennsylvania Registered Dems: By The Numbers
Posted Apr 20, 2008
interesting. anyone else sense this? I guess you don't ask a columnist or PR person what the "right" level of buzz should be. Perhaps the previous level was, in fact, "too much?"
in John Dvorak's Second Opinion: Tech-sector buzz goes silent
Posted Apr 20, 2008
iceberg's descendants hail new discovery; ancestor "completely vindicated"in sinking mystery
in Titanic was a riveting disaster
Posted Apr 20, 2008
wow, wonder who's rolling up sleeper cells
in Man found in Lady Bird Lake was teacher, FBI target
Posted Apr 18, 2008
there's a connection here to the man who had a knife in his back and didn't know it, but I can't figure out what it is
in Robert Reich's Blog
Posted Apr 18, 2008
that may have been what caused the earthquake? http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D904CC980&show_article=1
in That's it! - Economist decides to stop covering Clinton campaign.
Posted Apr 18, 2008
I know, taking the bus is miserable.
in you know, i think you've got a knife in your back.
Posted Apr 18, 2008
fake confirmed by the Yale Office of Public Affairs. http://www.yale.edu/opa
in Senior Project: "I better get an A, is all I'm saying"
Posted Apr 16, 2008
Interesting perspective collision here. Government suit-and-tie intellectuals construct policy targets and add rules to auction to try to bring about the intended results. Google sees the wink-wink, nudge-nudge that's been built into the system, identifies the minimally painful way to exploit the backdoor left by policy wonks, exploits it for the greater good, walks away happy. All happy? Maybe. Someone out there might have paid more (a lot more) and that lost money belongs to the taxpayers. By setting it free, maybe we all gain more than we lost. But then why have an auction at all?
in Google "gamed" spectrum auction? Not that there's anything wrong with that.
Posted Apr 16, 2008
this seems like a real grass-roots cause that people might consider supporting. I wonder what percentage of the electorate orders enough online to get angry about it...
in Tax-free Internet shopping days could be numbered
Posted Apr 16, 2008
overblown. pfft. you know, I know another man who started making zombie movies, and ended up changing the free world. that man's name .. is Nelson Mandela. And now you know ..... the rest ... of the story.
in "The greatest technology in the history of humanity is community."
Posted Apr 15, 2008
I plan to enjoy nutter butters while I can, since apparently I'm going to spend my golden years trapping squirrels and digging up all those root vegetables.
in Alternate sources of food: advice for dealing with a severe food crisis
Posted Apr 14, 2008
The only thing I thought was a little weird was when they offered to walk me through my New Hampshire tax return. Hm, says I. NH has no income tax. If I have to file some kind of weird consulting-income business enterprise tax return or something, I better find out now. So they walk me through the questionnaire, about 2 minutes, and sure enough, I don't have to file anything. But when I'm checking out, there's an extra $29.99 fee for my state return :) They did allow me to simply delete the charge before paying, but it seemed a little weird.
in Finished your taxes?
Posted Apr 14, 2008
Only fitting for two former Democrat presidents to deliver the bad news.
in Carter, Gore Set to Deliver Clinton “Coup de Grace”
Posted Apr 13, 2008
I guess it comes down to 'rudeness' -- the failure to answer tolerance with respect. Rudeness is a visible externality, a symptom of people who enjoy the freedom without consideration for others. By the time your parks are full of sex-in-the-bushes and hippies vomiting up mushrooms, the majority bourgeois with kids and strollers and picnics (guilty as charged) are going to rescind their offer of tolerance.I predict that this will reach a new equilibrium that respects public conservatism -- restricting advertisement and open sale, say, in favor of just-in-time delivery of all your favorite vices to your home for private consumption. The Internet means that we don't have to have public flesh- and hash-markets if we don't feel like tolerating the externalities.
in Is Amsterdam's wild-life going up in smoke and getting bagged for good?
Posted Apr 13, 2008
I, for one, hope that his case causes fatal and expensive crashes in the software of all the hospital administrators and insurance claims processors he comes in contact with during labor and delivery.
in Pregnant man from Oregon to appear on Oprah show
Posted Apr 12, 2008
three people have already told me that they had to do the 'mandingo' thing to get a babbledog invite. which is funny, cause we don't have an invite system.
in Is this level grind?
Posted Apr 11, 2008
"Jenna Schaal-O’Connor, a 20-year-old sophomore who is majoring in cognitive science and linguistics, said philosophy had other perks. She said she found many male philosophy majors interesting and sensitive."
in The life examined
Posted Apr 11, 2008
"glass shards" are missing from mouthfeel after intensive lobbying by boston-area brewers
in Beer Flavor Wheel
Posted Apr 11, 2008
for context about SLAPPs (strategic lawsuits against public participation), see also: http://www.thefirstamendment.org/antislappresourcecenter.html
in neurodiversity: write a blog, earn a subpoena
Posted Apr 10, 2008
get off the couch! not on the couch! Bad dog!
in "Why i deleted my twitter account"
Posted Apr 07, 2008
Well worth listening to. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Word-of-Mouth/29159200256
in Trendspotters
Posted Apr 07, 2008
there are lots of situations in the world where grid power is turned into thermal energy to keep things warm. it might as well do computational work on its way toward max entropy! if someone made clothing out of computational elements, I would wear it happily all winter.
in Diseconomies of Scale -- Condonet
Posted Apr 07, 2008
That's why I recommend Babbledog -- a patented, low-impact intellectual workout that exercises every major mental muscle group without the pain and lethal risks associated with other kinds of online activity. It changed my life! Use only as directed. Consult a physician before using this or any other participatory online community. Results not typical. Some participants have received an honorarium. Neither the FDA nor the FCC has evaluated these claims.
in In Web World of 24/7 Stress, Writers Blog Till They Drop - New York Times
Posted Apr 06, 2008
There's an old saying: "Don't ask the barber if you need a haircut unless you want a haircut." We have an educational establishment that seeks to shed blame for its own massive failures, justify its bloated inefficiencies, and prop up its own "professional, scientific" self-image. No wonder all the kids end up coded.
in A New Trial of Motherhood: Keeping Up With the Diagnoses
Posted Apr 05, 2008
yeah. doesn't have to be that way -- cf Botswana as counterexample. http://newsforums.bbc.co.uk/nol/thread.jspa?forumID=4561&edition=2&ttl=20080406001313
in Navajo Nation likely to lose Internet service
Posted Apr 05, 2008
I was thinking, instead, of the time I wore my osama bin laden tshirt to the airport by mistake. boy, that was a wacky adventure!
in Exclusive: Chinese police kill eight after opening fire on monks and Tibet protesters - Times Online
Posted Apr 05, 2008
The lesson of the late-nineties dot-com bubble: it's ok to take short-term losses in order to build your brand. It pays in the long run, unless you get wiped out by the next generation of viral hotness that nobody had predicted.
in TaxProf Blog: Clinton Releases 2001-2006 Tax Returns
Posted Apr 05, 2008
finally, I think we're bringing this conversation to a deeper, more emotional place
in Marketers Use Hypnosis to Mine Deep Thoughts
Posted Apr 05, 2008
most people know that al gore is credited with inventing the internet. what most people do not realize is that bill clinton actually was the first to say "I CAN HAS CHEEZBURGER?"
in Bill Clinton Goes Crazy With Superdelegates Watching [Ha Ha, His Legacy Is Ruined]
Posted Apr 04, 2008
The smaller banks who lend into particular cities or neighborhoods are going to have to hold these loans on the balance sheet for quite a while -- if they sell them into a downturn, they risk fragging the rest of their loan portfolio (not only other mortgages, but other consumer loans and loans to businesses in the region). So they hold them. And hold them. If the next president decides we need to undertake a Nordic-style nationalization of the banks, the federal government will end up owning huge portfolios of nearly-worthless American housing stock. At that point, somebody better have the courage to get out the bulldozers and make some greenspace, or else prices aren't coming back for a long time.
in As owners default, lenders move in
Posted Apr 02, 2008
get the studded tires, take it out on the lake at the fishing derby
in Snowmobile inspired 3-wheel motorcycle with amazing handling.
Posted Apr 02, 2008
Me, I'm happy to sit at a desk and rearrange symbols for a living. I wouldn't be able to survive the level of stress inherent in this person's job.
in NY Emergency Medicine: A Day in the Life
Posted Apr 02, 2008
http://mistersnitch.blogspot.com/2008/04/avalanche-of-asset-writedowns.html
in Economist's View: Why Are People So Unhappy with the Economy?
Posted Apr 01, 2008
"That's a dog with attitude. He's edgy. He's 'in your face.' You've heard the expression 'let's get busy?' Well, this is a dog who gets 'biz-zay!' Consistently and thoroughly. We're talking about a totally outrageous paradigm."
in Love babbleDog? Want to become a fan? Now you can!
Posted Apr 01, 2008
the april fool's backstory would be "lenovo makes hostile takeover bid for ibm; usgov rattles sabers in response"
in Homeland Security bans IBM indefinitely from US Federal Contracts
Posted Mar 30, 2008
I suspect that Dirk Benedict cured my gout but I can't prove it.
in Mr T brought boy out of coma!
Posted Mar 30, 2008
...But they promised to buy carbon credits to offset the incredible waste, so I don't know what everybody's all het up about.
in Airline 'hires actors' to fill up planes, claim contract bonus
Posted Mar 30, 2008
Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. But please, no touching the happiness, or we'll have to ask you to leave.
in South Carolina: The Nanny State.
Posted Mar 29, 2008
As the world tilts away from broadcast media toward "social media" (people selecting the news for themselves and their friends), it's interesting to think about what it implies for terrorist messaging. Videos of planes crashing and people being beheaded are available on the internet today, but they don't spread virally. That suggests that people (sensibly) have a built-in reluctance to share the content that terrorists would most like to have published. Unless online culture takes a major turn towards desensitization and this stuff becomes "ok to share" .. I would guess that the media shift is very bad for terrorists in the long run. Dare we hope?
in Fitna (فتنة)
Posted Mar 29, 2008
neat!! we've gone to see the manchester version of this, in the verizon arena, and it's super-cool. kind of loud.
in Robotics conference in Boston Friday, 3/28, & Saturday, 3/29
Posted Mar 28, 2008
The Barlaam and Ioasaph legend was the closest thing you're going to find to a viral video in the 1100-1400CE timeperiod. It was immensely popular, and was translated into virtually every language on the continent and beyond (it was very popular in Iceland, for some reason). I love the story of this text, playing out over the millennia, mutating and adapting to local cultures and prejudices as it went.
in Few people realize that the Buddha has been revered as a Christian saint for over 1,000 years.
Posted Mar 28, 2008
Here's a perspective on the (excellent) Obama race speech that I haven't seen before.
in islamicate: Obama, Race, Religion, and Slavery
Posted Mar 28, 2008
And, lest we lose sight of what's important: he's a democrat superdelegate. I hear he's leaning Hillary!
in PR governor, four Philadelphians charged | Philadelphia Inquirer | 03/27/2008
Posted Mar 28, 2008
you're just trying to find a good story to which you can apply that 'tank girl' sticker, right?
in Alert: Nipple Rings a Danger at Airports
Posted Mar 26, 2008
not at all. in the future, the word "housewife" has become entirely decoupled from its origin as a form of gender-identification. today's housewives wear pants, have jobs, and grow beards.
in Life in the Future
Posted Mar 26, 2008
finally, a way to ensure that our internet memes survive the end of civilization
in Mankind's secrets kept in lunar ark
Posted Mar 26, 2008
'Personalization' has traditionally meant 'I set things up just the way I want it, and the machine delivers More Like That.' That's sterile and boring. I count on my circle of friends to shake me up a little bit sometimes. The new personal is interpersonal -- give me more of what my friends and I like. Give me the tools to amaze, entertain, shock, and disgust (by turns) my friends.
in Tom Curley, Associate Press CEO tells it like it is .. in 2004
Posted Mar 26, 2008
see, years of good living pay off.
in Chef Prudhomme takes a bullet, shrugs it off
Posted Mar 25, 2008
and rakes! http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Rake's_Progress
in the myth of buying local?
Posted Mar 25, 2008
Getting caught in an exaggeration of your foreign-policy experience: painful. Getting called out by actor/entertainer Sinbad on your misstatement: priceless
in Hillary Clinton backtracks over 'misleading' Bosnia sniper story
Posted Mar 25, 2008
subtitle: "One Marketing Executive Per Child"
in