April 2009
39 posts
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“There’s class warfare, all right. But it’s my class, the rich class,...”
– Warren Buffett, multi-billionaire, in Asymmetrical Class Warfare (Media Matters for America)
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“Could… Wall Street executives have made other, less risky choices? Of...”
– William D. Cohan, author, in A Tsunami of Excuses (N.Y. Times)
Our Pigs, Our Food, Our Health →
Nick Kristof’s prescient editorial (from March 11) on the high price of industrial pig farming. (N.Y. Times)
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'X-Men Origins: Wolverine' - 2 stars →
Damn! I so wanted to like this movie! The Trib gives it a scathing review and only two stars. (Chicago Tribune)
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What Financial Panics Could Learn from the Swine... →
There is a lot that economists and politicians could be doing better to address financial panics. (N.Y. Times)
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Is Rape Serious? →
Frustratingly, many jurisdictions treat rape like it isn’t serious. They let rape evidence pile up — some of it isn’t tested for 10 years — long after the statute of limitations has expired. (N.Y. Times)
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The Banality of Bush White House Evil →
‘Evil’ is a harsh word, but consider this. Bush’s administration clearly endorsed torture and the conditions that led to the murder of detainees (26 cases of homicide have been opened against prison guards). Think of the destruction that happened to New Orleans after Katrina left our shores. Think of stealing from the poor to give to the rich through taxes and deregulation....
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End the ‘Widow Penalty’ →
Yet another reason to reform immigration law: Immigrants married to U.S. citizens are deported if their spouse dies before the green card paperwork is processed. This ends in a double bereavement for the parents, the loss of a child and child-in-law. (N.Y. Times)
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End the University as We Know It →
It’s time to reform the university. (N.Y. Times)
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“More than 100 detainees died in U.S. custody in Iraq and Afghanistan, with up to...”
– Thomas L. Friedman in A Torturous Compromise (N.Y. Times)
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Most Distant Object Ever Spotted →
Astronomers managed to find the most distant object ever seen in the universe - a titanic burst of energy from a dying star 13 billion light years away. It burst relatively soon after the creation of the universe — only some 640 million years later. (Mail Online via Towleroad)
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Mmm... Milky Way Tastes of Raspberries →
Astronomers searching for the building blocks of life in a giant dust cloud at the heart of the Milky Way have concluded that they taste vaguely of raspberries and rum — if one were to eat them. I’m still waiting for caramel. (Stock & Land)
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Gay Man Forced Out of Dying Partner's Hospital... →
A gay man was forced out of his apparently dying partner’s hospital room despite their domestic partnership. This discrimination is disgusting. Luckily the man’s partner survived, and he was let back into the room but only after many hours and threatening legal action. (KGW Portland via Towleroad)
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Media Drumbeat Amplifies Coverage of Flu Outbreak →
Listen people, it’s to the advantage of the media to get you to panic about the flu because it increases their business. The truth is there are lots of diseases that break out all the time around us. Don’t panic. It won’t make you any safer. Just wash your hands. If you’re really worried, start using that alcohol gel (like Purell Hand Sanitizer) to wash your hands when away...
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Oprah Shines Light On Great Pacific Garbage Patch →
Oprah’s green episode for Earth Day started with chilling footage and description of a giant island of trash — “The Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” (Huffington Post)
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“Research has shown that racial and ethnic stereotypes are easier to change over...”
– Susan Fiske, professor of psychology and neuroscience at Princeton, in Yes, Looks Do Matter (N.Y. Times)
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Microsoft Surface: Poor Usability During Set-Up →
It figures that Microsoft would sell touch screen hardware that, by design, initializes with the touch screen turned off…. And I usually love Microsoft hardware like their keyboards and mice. (Momentum by FD Kinesis via Daring Fireball)
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WatchLisa Simpson is depressed when she considers all the problems the world faces. Her parents take her to the psychiatrist who prescribes Ignorital, the happy pills. (Hulu)
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Abercrombie & Fitch Losing Its Cool at the Mall →
Revenue at Abercrombie & Fitch is down. Maybe the trend will finally end. Yay! (N.Y. Times)
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An Effort to Save Flint, Michigan, by Shrinking It →
This might work for New Orleans as well. (N.Y. Times)
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“We need to make the social norms clear: Twitter is where you talk about the...”
– Saul Hansell in What Annoys Me About Twitter (N.Y. Times)
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Swimming Without a Suit →
In terms of secondary education, we are a nation in decline, and that has real effects on our economy. It may cause a potential loss of $400 billion to $670 billion per year in G.D.P. (N.Y. Times)
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Sleep Types: Larks, Owls and Hummingbirds →
Sleep is fascinating to me. Our modern world needs to do something to accommodate people’s real sleep patterns.
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Obama Open to Inquiry in Interrogation Abuses →
Let the Bush lawyers pay for their participation in justifying torture. Disbarment seems just (if a bit light). (N.Y. Times)
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“Left to themselves, millions of people will borrow imprudently (and drive...”
– Randy Cohen, The Ethicist, on why we need better regulation for home loans in Thy Neighbor’s Mortgage. (N.Y. Times)
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Scrap the Air Force →
Interesting arguments on how to improve and reform our military (N.Y. Times)
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More Wii Warriors Are Playing Hurt →
Some players of Nintendo’s Wii are getting stress injuries. The problem with this article (besides that a few injuries do not make a trend) is that people get much worse injuries sitting around doing nothing. Humans are biased to think much more about the risks of positive action and ignore the risks of inaction. (N.Y. Times)
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Waterboarding Used 266 Times on 2 Suspects →
Disgusting. (N.Y. Times)
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Regulate Me, Please →
The CEO of Allstate calls for federal regulation of insurance companies. Today, only states regulate insurance. (A hidden motivation may be to unify a hodgepodge of state regulations.) (N.Y. Times)
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Home Is Where the Train Is →
250 people live year round on one of two Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus trains. (N.Y. Times)
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The Quest to Shrink the S.L.R. →
David Pogue reviews two new “prosumer” cameras. The Nikon D5000 sounds like a winner. (N.Y. Times)
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Trojan Forms First Mac-Based Botnet →
A very small number of Macs were infected by a trojan horse hidden in bootlegged copies of Photoshop and iWork ‘09 illegally downloaded from the Internet in January. The trojan horse silently commandeered the infected computers to form the first-ever Mac-based robot network or “botnet” that is likely to be used to blackmail web sites in denial-of-service attacks. The lesson is...
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Flying Healthy →
Ways to take care of yourself when you travel by airplane (N.Y. Times)
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When All You Have Left Is Your Pride →
If you’re out of work, it might be a good idea to continue your daily commute — just change the destination to a coffee shop or whatever. (N.Y. Times)
Chinese Hunger for Sons Fuels Boys’ Abductions →
As an unintended consequence of China’s one child policy, hundreds, perhaps thousands, of very young boys are kidnapped and never recovered. The police and government resist some measures to stop it. (N.Y. Times)