January 2012
6 posts
A floating pool in the river →
Everything about this is incredible.
A pool that sits in the river and filters the water through it’s own walls - like a giant strainer dropped into the river.
Incredible? Check.
A website platform that enables crowdfunding, or micropatronage, to fund all sorts of creative projects while protecting donors’ money by setting all or nothing fundraising goals.
Incredible? Check.
...
Watchtherealsaisai:
930club:
CONTEST: Death Cab For Cutie are hitting the road this winter accompanied by The Magik*Magik Orchestra (who recently joined them on their VH1 Storytellers performance) as well as up and coming indie act Youth Lagoon for a show that should be just as impressive as it is unique. For those of you who missed DCFC’s intimate performance at the club with an extremely crowd...
I think this is the first really terrible article... →
I’m the first to admit that I too readily defend my favorite president. But I also have a relatively blind faith in the wisdom of my favorite magazine, and this article is seemingly calculated to make me question that faith. Sir, you’ve gone too far.
Sure, trying to bring manufacturing jobs back to the US is at best misguided policy, but I suspect this is more pep-rallying fluff than...
In response to Mr Williams’ quixotic second attempt to coax the former speaker of the House into acknowledging that insistently calling Barack Obama “the food-stamp president” smacks of racial politics, Mr Gingrich rejoined: “First of all, Juan, more people have been put on food stamps by Barack Obama than any president in history.” This incredibly misleading claim...
December 2011
2 posts
Newt the dictator?
” … [Newt Gingrich] says as president he would ignore U.S. Supreme Court rulings he dislikes.”
And,
“Gingrich says judges who issue ‘anti-American’ decisions should have to defend themselves before Congress — or face arrest if they fail to appear to do so. He says he would impeach those judges and potentially abolish their courts.”
From Bloomberg...
5 tags
So, recent polling by the Kaiser Family Foundation show that popular support for the Affordable Care Act is waning. The percentage of those with a favorable view of the reform law has basically sunk to a low of 37%, compared with around 44% holding an unfavorable view.
Obviously, health care reform isn’t the only issue that’s important to voters. But, it’s still really ironic...
November 2011
6 posts
“Does the number of warships we have and are building really put America at risk...”
– Robert Gates
Losing the Working Class. As Ohio goes ... ? By... →
So it begins. →
The Supreme Court today agreed to hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act.
“Most but not all Supreme Court experts predict — some very confidently, some cautiously — that the Court will uphold the law. The Supreme Court’s four liberals are certain to uphold the law. They would need only one more vote to prevail. While Justice Clarence Thomas seems a sure vote to...
Last night on the radio I listened to several Herman Cain supporters sharing their views on the sexual harassment allegations. Most said that they would wait until the scandal plays out before donating money, or more money, to his campaign. About three supporters’ comments in, I got the feeling that their concern wasn’t as much with finding out the truth about the allegations, but...
Today's inspirational must read →
” … That was also why Myhrvold had wanted to take his crew to St. Louis to meet with the surgeons. He likes to say that the only time a physicist and a brain surgeon meet is when the physicist is about to be cut open—and to his mind that made no sense. Surgeons had all kinds of problems that they didn’t realize had solutions, and physicists had all kinds of solutions to things that...
October 2011
7 posts
Can 17-Year-Olds Vote in Mississippi? →
“The long war in Iraq will come to an end this year.”
– President Obama
3 tags
August 2011
2 posts
Google music is amazing. →
3 tags
Why This Crisis Differs From the 2008 Version →
therealsaisai:
There are three fundamental differences between the financial crisis of three years ago and today’s events.
Starting from the most obvious: The two crises had completely different origins.
The older one spread from the bottom up. It began among over-optimistic home buyers, rose through the Wall Street securitization machine, with more than a little help from credit-rating...
July 2011
8 posts
One interesting aspect of this whole debt circus is that the ceiling needs to be raised to pay for policies that Congress has already voted for and approved. Doesn’t it seem a bit undemocratic to hold the nation’s (and possibly the world’s) economic future hostage in order to force feed us what is essentially a minority’s vision in the House? Even worse is that it...
Test Your Vocabulary →
It’s 24,600 for me. Damn you and your 200 word advantage!
therealsaisai:
…and contribute to science while you’re at it!
I know 24,800 words. Beat that, ragamuffins.
[Via @TheEconomist]
Q: Worst Congress ever? A: Yes. →
“If you doubt that politics in Congress has become more partisan, consider this: For the first time ever, in the 111th Congress that convened during the first two years of the Obama presidency, the National Journal’s vote ratings showed that the most conservative Democratic senator was to the left of the most liberal Republican. There is now no overlap ideologically at all between the...
“As former Senator Phil Gramm is purported to have said, you should never take a...”
– The same place I read all of my favorite things, The Economist
“Remember the Republicans’ rage when the Democrats, then in charge of both...”
– Lexington
June 2011
4 posts
WatchFree rock n’ roll at the Fete de la Musique. They’re called the Black Widows Project. Yep.
“You get to the point where you evolve in your life where everything isn’t black...”
– Republican N.Y. state senator Roy McDonald, reversing his stand against same-sex marriage, quoted in The NY Daily News. (via washingtonpoststyle)
[“The bill also specifies that no clergy would be forced to perform gay marriage ceremonies.” Hey, religious right, it’s time to STFU already. THIS...
It’s Saturday in Geneva. I just abandoned plans for a trip with recently acquainted friends to the celebrity frequenting and Italian-speaking beach town of Lugano, also known as the “Monte Carlo of Switzerland”, in want of a much-needed day of respite and isolation. This might sound crazy, but today I would much rather do some laundry, spend some hours studying my French, grab a coffee (or beer,...
May 2011
5 posts
Song of the week: Take It Easy My Brother Charlie
...
Trump that
Obama’s announcement that the US military had killed bin Laden perfectly interrupted the climax of last night’s Celebrity Apprentice. Just one more irreverent but clear reminder that “The Donald” as a presidential candidate is a fucking joke.
April 2011
5 posts
“You cannot reason a person out of something they were not reasoned into.”
– Jonathan Swift
We will hate everything you do
” … Mr Obama does not claim to have invented anything he calls a “doctrine”. The worst you can say about his approach is that it is merely commonsensical: decide the issues case-by-case while holding some idea of values and interests in mind. Many who say they want more consistency than this (typically by asking some variant of “What about Zimbabwe?”) do so not because they really...
March 2011
7 posts
List of inventors killed by their own inventions →
§ 18.2-368. Placing or leaving wife for...
Just happened to come across this extremely weird law while browsing through Virginia’s codes and statutes…
Any person who, by force, fraud, intimidation or threats, places or leaves, or procures any other person to place or leave his wife in a bawdy place for the purpose of prostitution or unlawful sexual intercourse, shall be guilty of pandering, punishable as a Class 4 felony.
...