February 2012
99 posts
“Candidate Obama: “No more ignoring the law when it’s inconvenient. That is not...”
– Those weak losers who care about “law” - Salon.com
President Obama: j/k lol!
“You want aggressive journalism abroad; you just don’t want it in the United...”
– Jake Tapper via Gleen Greenwald
“American consumers can’t wait any longer for clear rules of the road that...”
– Google and Facebook in White House web privacy sights
Nice to see this happening to our electrons.
Wonder why it doesn’t also exist in the atoms world.
“a loose fiber optic cable was causing one of the atomic clocks used to time the...”
– Faster-than-light neutrino result reportedly a mistake caused by loose cable
exactly.
“The hallmark of a Surveillance State is that police agencies monitor and keep...”
– NYPD spying program aimed at Muslims - Salon.com
“First, Muslims generally — and, increasingly, American Muslims — are branded...”
– NYPD spying program aimed at Muslims - Salon.com
“diving into the rite of exorcism”
McFadden, the former NCIS counterterrorist, has a lot of respect for his FBI colleagues, who he believes are ill-served by these Islam briefings. “These are earnest special agents and police officers who want to know how do their job better,” McFadden says.
Too often, McFadden says, counterterrorism training becomes simultaneously over-broad and ignorant. “Instead of looking for indicators of...
“Among [FBI Director Robert Mueller] major points: the FBI needs cooperation from...”
– FBI Teaches Agents: ‘Mainstream’ Muslims Are ‘Violent, Radical’ | Danger Room | Wired.com
“responsible spending for todays threat”
– The United States should and will be the strongest country in the world. But it can achieve that status for significantly less than it is now spending. An early withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan over the next six months would save hundreds of billions of dollars. In addition, we could reach...
an old old wooden ship
It brings hope that, properly protected, other beleaguered populations of birds and mammals can swiftly regain not just their numbers but also their genetic diversity – which is vital to long-term survival.
penguins are back from the brink - New Scientist
“We’re saying the science has shown that individuality - consciousness,...”
– Dolphins deserve same rights as humans, say scientists
I very much support this.
“It is very important … to think about the morning after. What can really...”
– Is Israel fuelling fear not facts over Iran? - Inside Story Americas - Al Jazeera English
Shouldn't we understand this?
The protesters’ message was that Afghans respect the other religions of troops inside Afghanistan, so why have they failed to respect Islam and the Koran?
…Kabul resident, Farhad Raza, said abusing Islam would prolong the war in Afghanistan.
“These kind of actions [abusing Islam] create a gap between Afghans and Nato forces, and make people hate Nato forces, which will make...
“if Israel and the US, the former actively and the latter passively, are willing...”
– War with Iran: Focusing on the end-game - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
(Robert Grenier is a retired, 27-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He was Director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2006.)
“the war between Israel and Iran is already underway, even if the methods...”
– War with Iran: Focusing on the end-game - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
(Robert Grenier is a retired, 27-year veteran of the CIA’s Clandestine Service. He was Director of the CIA’s Counter-Terrorism Center from 2004 to 2006.)
How not to act not-guilty
The company immediately denied that the behavior was intentional and disabled the code that allowed it to install the tracking cookies in Safari.
Google now facing class-action suit over Safari cookie circumvention
reminded me of this when the cross-hairs graphic was removed day of.
Pre-emptive Pre-emption
“Our strategy now is that if we feel our enemies want to endanger Iran’s national interests, and want to decide to do that, we will act without waiting for their actions,” Mr Hejazi told Fars.
BBC News - Iran says pre-emptive strike on ‘enemies’ possible
GJ 1214b →
so cool
“GoDaddy Body Painting. Never failing to disappoint, GoDaddy goes as low-brow as...”
– 2012 Ad Bowl: more of the same « Observatory
“Samsung: Galaxy Tablet. Apparently they made enough of a splash with their first...”
– Observatory - 2012 Ad Bowl: more of the same
“The idea is that in a complicated world, nothing stands out like Simplicity.”
– And now, a different kind of Apple book « Observatory
“Anthony died as he lived — determined to bear witness to the transformation...”
– Anthony Shadid, a New York Times Reporter, Dies in Syria
A parable of the Church #emergence
“You have to trust kids more than you’ve ever trusted them,” he said. “Your teachers have to be willing to give up control.”
That was the primary concern that the 60 visitors expressed during their daylong sojourn to Mooresville in November. “I’m not sure our kids can be trusted the way these are,” one teacher from the Midwest said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to avoid trouble back...
“You have to trust kids more than you’ve ever trusted them,” he said. “Your...”
– Mooresville School District, a Laptop Success Story - NYTimes.com
Save Us from the Liberal Hawks - By David Rieff |... →
The religious quality to the support for “responsibility to protect” (R2P) doctrine that helps account for the odd reaction among those who believe that something must be done to stop the Assad regime’s war against much of its own people despite the Russian and Chinese vetoes. Obviously, some of this is purely political posturing. But it is not only spin. The moral outrage,...
Fixing “Previous Track”
Stop making the “Previous Track” button behave like it does on CD players, where tapping it first brings you to the beginning of the current track, and tapping it again within a short time goes to the previous track. Even on CD players, that was often annoying.
Instead, make it behave just like the “Next Track” button in reverse: always just seek to the previous track. If the previous track is...
“It’s my eating diplomacy,” Clinton said. “I figure, you eat...”
– Clinton: We need Assad’s consent to put troops in Syria | The Cable
… ask my wife, this has ALWAYS been my solution for world peace:
If every country invited every other country over for a meal, if we dined in each other’s homes and ate each others food, there is no way we could...
“The people of Syria deserve better. With the number of dead rapidly climbing...”
– Arab revolutions: How to set Syria free | The Economist
“Facebook doesn’t organise, people do. Twitter won’t govern, people...”
– The miracle generation - Opinion - Al Jazeera English
Media clichés
Shortly after the beginning of the Arab revolution, the media began to fixate on the role of social media, ignoring other social and political factors. While important, there is no need to sensationalise the role social media played, treating it as if it were a silver bullet.
Namedropping social media networks became a cliché that reduced the totality of the transformation into revolutionary...
“Poverty has risen in Nigeria, with almost 100 million people living on less than...”
– BBC News - Nigerians living in poverty rise to nearly 61%
Walls
There’s an old joke about a man who is being shown around heaven for the first time, by St. Peter, who walks around pointing out the various glories where people of all colors and ethnic persuasions live — grassy hills, green meadows, still waters, symphony halls, silent spaces, steep hillsides for people who want to hike to the mountaintops or the ponds, and so on. Then they come upon a...
“But Salafists, representatives of a more hardline interpretation of Islam, are...”
– The battle over religion heats up in Egypt | Transitions
If you’re a Christian in the US, this should feel familiar.
“Does it take an Islamist to catch an Islamist? In other words, had the speaker...”
– The battle over religion heats up in Egypt | Transitions
Great Question
“I view my actions as part of a process toward freedom. I was demanding my right...”
– Saudi Writer Hamza Kashgari Detained in Malaysia Over Muhammad Tweets - The Daily Beast
“Everyone who tried to objectively deal with this case was immediately...”
– Saudi Writer Hamza Kashgari Detained in Malaysia Over Muhammad Tweets - The Daily Beast
Dangerous tweets:
The UK isn’t the only government not sure how to handle tweets. Two weeks ago, British tabloid The Sun interviewed a man and woman who had been sent back home after long flights to California, where Homeland Security agents pointed to a recent tweet from the man saying, “Free this week, for quick gossip/prep before I go and destroy America.”
Arrested, fined in 140 characters or...
The problem is China. The solution is not pulling...
“I compared Apple with other cell phone companies, such as Nokia, and the conditions in those factories are worse than the ones of Apple.”
In fact, Foxconn, which has taken a public relations beating over a rash of worker suicides and recent explosions that killed four employees and injured another 77, is reportedly one of the better places to work. According to China Labor Watch...
“The ability to trace the subtle interplay of light on various surfaces is also...”
– How close are we to truly photorealistic, real-time games?
““There’s a huge amount of anger in this country that the banks got a...”
– US banks to pay in $25bn mortgage settlement - Americas - Al Jazeera English
