Matt Lehrer: Archive

The Israelis are pretty used to international condemnation. They weathered the storms over the attack on the Gaza strip in 2009 and the invasion of southern Lebanon in 2006. The Israelis will not be enjoying the current wave of international condemnation, unleashed by their deadly assault on the blockade-busting ships bound for Gaza - but they will assume that it too will pass. Are they right?

There are three particular angles for the Israelis to worry about. First, that there will be some sort of new intifada. Second, the continued deterioration in their relationship with Turkey. Third, their fraying ties with the Obama administration.

“The Exxon Valdez is 31st in the world ranking of all time oil spills, and since it happened it’s become the ‘Library of Congress’ to which all other spills are inevitably compared. This is quite useful because frankly there’s too many units available for talking about oil and it seems like every news source uses a different one. Wikipedia has tonnage but the American media generally prefers gallons, and the oil industry itself uses barrels. It’s difficult to compare and contrast the horror without converting to a common base. One ‘Exxon Valdez’ is reasonable shorthand for ‘enough oil to fuck shit up.’” —

JSTN

May 31, 201075 notes

#deepwater horizon #oil #energy #environment

May 31, 201038 notes

#nyc #new york #coney island #photography

May 29, 20103 notes

#technology #web #microsoft #internet explorer #ie6

crazynutjob:

Believing that a moon base is essential for exploration of the solar system, Japan has recently announced plans to send humanoid robots to the moon to construct a robot lunar base. As part of the $2.2 billion project, the robots will begin surveying the moon around 2015, and then build the unmanned base near the moon’s South Pole by 2020.

Why is the Japanese future so much better than ours? 10 to 1 they get some sweet silver jumpsuits and flying cars before us. Sadly, they’ll also be ground zero for the robot uprising.

May 28, 201011 notes

#technology #japan #moon #space

Play

May 27, 20105 notes

“So, raise your hand if you’ve spent the past three days obsessing over what was purgatory, what was real-life, for the past six years on Lost. No doubt, for many of you, a big part of your understanding has included an interpretation of the series’ final scenes of plane wreckage strewn across an empty beach, nothing but the white noise of crashing waves cutting through the deadly silence. Well, turns out ABC just threw those final scenes in there as a “visual aid,” and they didn’t actually have anything to do with the show’s plot. ABC told the LA Times that the network – and not executive producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse — added those shots of the beach simply to soften the transition from the emotional ending of the series finale to the 11 p.m. news and didn’t realize that viewers who had been obsessing over every detail of every scene of every episode might have considered the series’ final images as having some meaning.” —

‘Lost’: ABC says final images of wreckage ‘not part of the final story’

Amazing.

Play

“BP wants Twitter to shut down a fake BP account that is mocking the oil company. In response, Twitter wants BP to shut down the oil leak that’s ruining the ocean.” —

JIMMY FALLON, Late Night

(via the New York Times)

(via inothernews)

(via palahniukandchocolate)

(via jayparkinsonmd)

May 26, 20102,637 notes

May 26, 201028 notes

May 25, 2010119 notes

#hahahahaha #facebook

May 23, 201087 notes

#brilliant #lighting #led #energy

#best google logo ever #pac man #google

BP contracted Schlumberger (SLB) to run the Cement Bond Log (CBL) test that was the final test on the plug that was skipped. The people testifying have been very coy about mentioning this, and you’ll see why.

SLB is an extremely highly regarded (and incredibly expensive) service company. They place a high standard on safety and train their workers to shut down unsafe operations.

SLB gets out to the Deepwater Horizon to run the CBL, and they find the well still kicking heavily, which it should not be that late in the operation. SLB orders the “company man” (BP’s man on the scene that runs the operation) to dump kill fluid down the well and shut-in the well. The company man refuses. SLB in the very next sentence asks for a helo to take all SLB personel back to shore. The company man says there are no more helo’s scheduled for the rest of the week (translation: you’re here to do a job, now do it). SLB gets on the horn to shore, calls SLB’s corporate HQ, and gets a helo flown out there at SLB’s expense and takes all SLB personel to shore.

6 hours later, the platform explodes.

Via @felixsalmon and Thom Hartmann.

May 20, 201031 notes

#bp is so dumb #energy #oil #deepwater horizon #environment

Play

May 20, 20106 notes

#technology #google #boxee

“I’ve never used an ATM, so I don’t know what the fees are,” [Senator Ben] Nelson [D-NE] said, adding that he gets his cash from bank tellers, just not automatic ones. “It’s true, I don’t know how to use one.

“But I could learn how to do it just like I’ve … I swipe to get my own gas, buy groceries. I know about the holograms.”

By “holograms,” Nelson clarified that he meant the bar codes on products read by automatic scanners in the checkout lanes at stores such as Lowe’s and Menard’s.

“I go and get my own seating assignment on an airplane,” Nelson said. “I mean, I’m not without some skills. I just haven’t had the need to use an ATM.”