July 2008
65 posts
I’m one minute into using the new delicious.com (no more del.icio.us) and it looks pretty good. It takes some getting used to, obviously, but the simplicity that makes it great is still there. But where is the “links for you” link?
Update: No more “links for you” terminology, it’s just “inbox” now.
Judge Rules White House Aides Can Be Subpoenaed →
“According to Jeremiah’s Vanishing, the 21 year-old bagel shop and go-to...”
– Eater: Shutter Announcements: David’s Bagels Pushed Out By Hot & Crusty Chain. This is the worst news I’ve heard in a long time.
“It’s very difficult to define what is a man and what is a woman at this point.”
– Christine McGinn. A Lab Is Set to Test the Gender of Some Female Athletes
“Faced with the prospect of dangerously high levels of air pollution during the...”
– China’s Olympic Nightmare by Elizabeth C. Economy and Adam Segal in Foreign Affairs. Thank you to Mike Smith for the pointer to this great summary of the issues surrounding the Beijing Games, as well as to WSJ’s pollution graph (with pictures for some of the days).
Math Is Harder for Girls
. . . and also, it... →
Frank Rich: How Obama Became Acting President →
There’s a ton of good stuff in here:
It was laughable to watch journalists stamp their feet last week to try to push Mr. Obama into saying he was “wrong” about the surge. More than five years and 4,100 American fatalities later, they’re still not demanding that Mr. McCain admit he was wrong when he assured us that our adventure in Iraq would be fast, produce little American...
WatchThe Daily Show’s Larry Wilmore wonders if a black president would be bad for black Americans.
Do we really want black kids thinking they can grow up to be president? I mean, what’s that going to do to the talent pool for aspiring rappers and NBA players? No, Jon, if our next generation are all trying to be president, you’re looking at an all Slavic San Antonio Spurs.
“We have a World Health Organisation, two global food agencies, the Bretton Woods...”
– Mohamed ElBaradei, the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, who says the world needs a global energy organization and that the time is now
A Social History of the Surge →
An incredible analysis and history of the surge by Juan Cole, in which he describes the post hoc ergo propter hoc fallacy that McCain (and most of the media) are pushing these days.
I’d suggest some comparisons. The Sri Lankan civil war between Sinhalese and Tamils has killed an average of 233 persons a month since 1983 and is considered one of the world’s major ongoing trouble spots....
“A look at Freddie Mac’s own accounting statements shows that using the...”
– The Fannie and Freddie Follies by Lawrence Lindsey. This is the best summary of the GSE (and US taxpayer) crisis I have seen so far (although he does try to put as much blame as possible on Democrats - it is the Weekly Standard).
“The Bush administration’s replacement of ‘timeline’ with ‘time...”
– Steve Henry Herman in a letter to the editor of the New York Times.
“I must say that it was sometimes somewhat embarrassing for me to return to EPA...”
– Former EPA official Jason Burnett in Senate testimony, via Think Progress: Bush Cronies Tried To Redefine ‘Carbon Dioxide’ To Save Power Plants From Emissions Regulations which includes the video.
Marco's Instapaper Mentioned In Today's WSJ →
marco:
boutofcontext:
“A handy way to store Web pages on your iPhone or Touch for reading when you’re offline. While on your computer, an Instapaper button added to the Web browser can snag Web pages for your personal Instapaper database. Then, when your iPhone or iPod Touch is online, it synchronizes with the Web-based Instapaper database. Later, when you’re offline, the pages are still there...
Is McCain a no-shot? →
Emory University’s Alan Abramowitz has concocted a formula that has predicted the popular vote winner in 14 of the last 15 elections; it missed in 1968 but got the razor-thin margin right…. McCain’s score is the worst since Jimmy Carter’s in 1980.
…
The media will try to preserve the illusion of a toss-up; you’ll keep seeing “Obama Leads, But Voters...
“I cannot imagine the future, but I care about it. I know I am a part of a story...”
– Danny Hillis, 1995. Some really good stuff in there. (via Slashdot’s mention of Neal Stephenson’s new book, Anathem, due in September)
“It would be terrific to have an article from Senator McCain that mirrors Senator...”
– David Shipley, New York Times Op-Ed Editor
It would be easier to say this was a bad decision if Shipley wasn’t right. The Drudge Report has the McCain piece, which will now get more attention than if it had been in the Times.
July 21, 1925: Evolution Teacher Found Guilty →
If only this wasn’t still relevant.
Informed Comment: Obama in Iraq →
Despite all the talk about Iraq being “calm,” I’d like to point out that the month just before the last visit Barack Obama made to Iraq (he went in January, 2006), there were 537 civilian and ISF Iraqi casualties. In June of this year, 2008, there were 554 according to AP. These are official statistics gathered passively that probably only capture about 10 percent of the true...
Do You Believe in Evolution? →
Concentrate on the believe in: no, I don’t believe in evolution. Think of how that phrase is often applied. Little kids believe in Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny. We often judge their maturity by finding out which things they still believe in and which they have “grown out of” (“Aren’t you a little old to still believe in the Tooth Fairy?”).
Dear Staten Island Yankees,
What kind of baseball stadium runs out of hot dogs? In the sixth inning? Weak.
Sincerely,
Concerned Patron
P.S. That stunt you pulled with the fake third baseman who the mascot convinced to break dance on the field between innings was hysterical and genius.
“Sarbanes-Oxley is often presented as the bane of corporate executives but for...”
– John Carney in today’s PE Week Wire.
“Now the Fed wants to be the systemic risk regulator. But the Fed is the systemic...”
– Senator Jim Bunning, Kentucky in his remarks to Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and the Senate Banking Committee on the Federal Reserve Monetary Policy Report. This is the same statement you might have seen mentioned because of his “When I picked up my newspaper yesterday, I thought I...
Two Questions
What percentage of restaurants in your neighborhood do you think would be open to you bringing your own containers for takeout?
What percentage of your Facebook friends do you think you’ll ever see again in person?
I’m guessing about 70% for both but that might be optimistic (yes, I’m bored).
“When asked which of the items were made with post-consumer recycled material or...”
– Your guide to the WALL-E controversy. So good.
“Politics is just, uh, choking good sense.”
– George W. Bush
“The next email had just a number (‘37’) in the subject - and no...”
– Marissa Mayer, theOfficial Google Blog: What comes next in this series? 13, 33, 53, 61, 37, 28… Somebody deserves some credit for the continued simplicity of the Google homepage.
“We’re hoping he picks an idiot as vice president.”
– Mike Sweeney, the head writer for Conan O’Brien, quoted in an article about the trouble the late-night TV hosts are having getting laughs about Obama. Here’s more:
Mr. Colbert said in a telephone interview that a running joke on his show has been that Mr. Obama is a “secret Muslim”; the New...
“[H]ere’s the thing: Fannie and Freddie had nothing to do with the explosion of...”
– Paul Krugman: Fannie, Freddie and You
Bush Lifts Drilling Moratorium, Prodding Congress →
This, like invading Iraq to get their oil, is a short term solution to a long term problem. I don’t blame Bush for that; it’s the natural response to the short election cycles we have. It is sad though.
“And so we’re back where we started in the summer of 2001, with even shark...”
– Frank Rich: The Real-Life ‘24’ of Summer 2008 on why Bush’s crimes are much worse than Nixon’s.
“Let’s hope we are all wealthy and retired by the time this house of cards...”
– From one of the two million emails and instant messages from credit rating agency analysts being reviewed by the SEC. This one is from December 2006 and refers to the CDO market.
Let New York State legislators know that we don't... →
“Based on the criteria in place a quarter century ago, today’s U.S. unemployment...”
– Kevin P. Phillips in his Harper’s article “Numbers racket: Why the economy is worse than we know.” I have read bits and pieces about this over the years but this is a great summary.
Rescue Sought for Fannie and Freddie →
Motivating the change was the central role of the two institutions and the depth of ownership in the paper they have issued. Every major bank, and many mutual funds and pension funds and foreign governments, hold significant amounts of securities issued by Fannie and Freddie, which have been viewed over the years as being almost as safe as treasury securities. A default by either one of the...
I’ve never heard so many abbreviations in my life. -Ryan after ending an uncomfortable conversation with a douche from “Bear Stearns”
the end
zwsop:
its been a fun ride. On the last hand I moved my last 100k in with pocket 2s and I was up against AK and QQ. The AK guy flopped the nut flush and that was all she wrote. Its been fun and I really appreciate everyone following me. Next year hopefully I’ll take it down!!
FYI I finished in 339th place for a cash of $32,166.
Mirza
Good work. I can’t wait to hear about some of the...
The driver for my 9am bus never showed and someone just put us on a different bus. I don’t even care if he’s really a bus driver; I’m just happy to get out of Port Authority, which is just as bad as you remember it if you haven’t been in a while. He’s now telling us to switch to our original bus because this one doesn’t have a reliable a/c. I miss Amtrak.
