Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Thoughtful comment regarding why the media is attacked.
People who say they distrust the media in general are more likely to consume news from partisan outlets, outlets that already agree with them, and this will reinforce their positions, whether those positions are right or wrong. I also find a good deal of evidence that when people who distrust the media confront information attributed to the media in general — a lot of the information we encounter we don’t necessarily get as attributed to a single source, but we know has been reported in the media in general — these people don’t absorb that information very well. They’re more likely to reject new information. They form their beliefs about how the country is going, and what’s going on in the world, based on their partisanship…
…For political leaders who want to maximize their amount of votes and ensure that their base is solidly behind them and won’t be moved by any new developments in the real world, this would be a rational strategy — to inoculate your political base against the information by telling them to distrust information that comes from anything except ideological sources.
 From an interview at Salon with Georgetown political scientist Jonathan Ladd.

Monday, April 23, 2012

How things change after a couple of years... Presidential Power


One Saturday last fall, President Obama interrupted a White House strategy meeting to raise an issue not on the agenda. He declared, aides recalled, that the administration needed to more aggressively use executive power to govern in the face of Congressional obstructionism.

> Read more <

Thanks ATT for Working for Me - Your Customer

Remember me?  I'm your customer...  I send you a payment every month.

Wireless companies are opposing an important new mobile privacy bill in California (SB 1434) because they say they are too busy “working day and night to assist law enforcement,” so it would be too much of a burden to tell their customers how often and why they are turning over location data to law enforcement.

Every moment of every day, our mobile devices track our location, and our cell providers collect and retain this information. Our location data—where we go and what we do—is sensitive information. Wireless companies should be working day and night for us—their customers—not for law enforcement.

... > read more <

Penny Red

A little over a year ago, before Occupy Wall Street began but well after the first wave of student riots had made political resistance more than a storybook fantasy in Britain, I found myself at a gathering of activists and anarchists. The occasion was the opening of a free university in an empty pub in central London, and journalists were strictly forbidden in the space. I had been let in on the condition that I hand in all my recording equipment before I was allowed to drink, which is a cruel thing to do to anyone who writes for a living.

> Click here to read more <

blue dot

File Under - "Know Your Enemy" or "Know Another Culture"

Understanding Muslim Anger at America

Interesting article about perceptions of America in the Muslim world.

Over the last decade, since 9/11, hostility in the Muslim world toward the United States has been the primary focus of US foreign policy. America’s approach to this problem has primarily been military; seeking to eliminate those forces, primarily al Qaeda, who seek to do harm to America, and defending now-friendly governments in Afghanistan and Iraq to ensure that these hostile forces do not find a new base of operations.

However, the problem of hostility toward the United States should not be seen as simply a function of a relatively small band of militants ready to take up arms against America. Such militants arise from a larger society that breeds and in various ways sustains them. Dealing with the problem of Muslim hostility toward the US thus requires addressing the larger problem of hostility toward America in the larger society. The first step is understanding its roots.

> Click to read entire article <

5 Historical Misconceptions


Funny video about 5 common historical misconceptions.

Sunday, April 15, 2012

Underwater Ink Photos

Amazing!
Photos featuring the sensuous curls of ink plumes dispersing underwater. Nobody comes close to the master, Italian photographer Alberto Seveso (previously here and here) who creates impressive underwater landscapes so rich in detail and color it makes one want to swim through your monitor. See more from his new series, a due Colori.
> More Here <

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Work: Go the F#@K home. A life lesson...

We hear a lot about finding a good work/life balance, and a lot of us find it pretty difficult. Developer/designer Pam Selle disagrees, saying that as long as you remember a few key things, it should be pretty easy to stop working at the end of the day and get back to your life. The talk is very short; only about 5 minutes, I highly recommend you watch it right now.

Make it count. - Traveling around the world in 10 days.

Filmmaker Casey Neistat, and his friend & editor Max Joseph, set off on a worldwide trek that blazed through New York, Paris, Rome, Johannesburg, Egypt, Thailand, Japan and more in just 10 days. Neistat's video is that Nike paid him to make a film about its Fuelband and #makeitcount campaign but instead of shooting a straight advertisement for Nike, Neistat took the money, went on a 10-day around the world adventu and created an advertisement for life.

Thursday, April 12, 2012

Sunday, April 8, 2012

Amazing Insights from a Stroke

Jill Bolte Taylor got a research opportunity few brain scientists would wish for: She had a massive stroke, and watched as her brain functions -- motion, speech, self-awareness -- shut down one by one. And then.... Came back to tall us about it.  An astonishing story.

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Friday, April 6, 2012

Quote: Bertrand Russell

Facebook Rant: Should the US Provide Basic Healthcare

The following is my response to a recent thread of comments on Facebook related to the following article:  Europe Baffeled by US Supreme Court

Me:  "I think I am beginning to understand.  Let me try this with something besides healthcare.  If you didn't earn "an education" or can't afford "an education" you don't receive an education.  There is no benefit to our society to pool resources to provide "an education".  I like how that sounds...  So, lets start by getting rid of public k-12 education.  The little brats didn't earn it for sure.  And, of course there is no benefit to our society to provide some basic level education to our population.  This is brilliant!  We can apply this philosophy to so many things.  We can drastically reduce the taxes we pay... Lets do the same with police services, fire department services.  When you call 911 the first thing you will be asked for is a credit card number or bank account number.  Once your ability to pay is verified, services are on their way.  If you can't pay, well, sorry about that but you're on your own.  You can of course contact a charity or church to see if they will help you pay for the services."  <I'm being sarcastic...>

The simple post of the Atlantic Wire article prompted a swarm of responses.  Many of which were like the following:
"screw Europe-that is why we left them-they don't get it. This country is a unique place in the world-it is or was a refuge for people that were willing to take their chances without assistance or intervention-i am sorry but i think it may be gone i repeat screw Europe and their ideas about royalty race class etc-it is all bs- we will be slaves like them next. i don't want to live in a country that resembles a park with a warden to keep me safe.-don't make me quote Patrick Henry"
 Sad...
It has been my experience that many Europeans I've been privileged to meet know much more about US history and current events than many US citizens. 

More random and poorly constructed thoughts from me:
There are models in other countries that seem to be going in the right direction. We could learn from them (I know - WE learn from some foreigner, that'll be the day.) It will take a cultural and social change to make progress on healthcare. We need to think about healthcare in the same way we think (or at least used to think about public education). As a society we recognized that all citizens should at least be provided the opportunity for a basic education because an educated population makes the society stronger and more productive. The same argument can be made about healthcare. Providing basic preventative health care to keep people from getting sick and back to work quicker, or treating minor illnesses before they become severe are basic services we should be able to supply. And, should in the long run lower overall healthcare costs. We need to allow healthcare providers and manufactures to make reasonable profits, but maybe some of the crazy marketing they do to the public could go away. Protect drug patents longer, but force lower prices. There may be services that are not provided unless the patient has 3rd party insurance or can pay out of pocket. (Yes, one might call this rationing.) But I think there are people who would be more than happy to have the basic “standard” services” without an expectation of advanced or experimental treatments. (This seems like the place for charities and churches that some speak of taking up these costs - compassionate conservatism?) (This is a little bit of how it works in the UK. Also, there is a big business where US patients going to India for excellent healthcare at a substantially lower cost (even including travel expenses). Our current system where if you cannot afford it, you don’t get anything is failing. Nightly there are parents in this country debating if the fever will go down tonight so they don’t have to take their child to the emergency room. You tell this to someone from the UK or Ireland and they look at you in disbelief. Or, as previously stated in another post… we’re all going to die anyway. Why don’t we just put a lifetime cap at 60 years. Everybody gets euthanized at 60. Healthcare cost problems pretty much solved. Along with jobs, long term care concerns. Social Security is saved! (I am of course being sarcastic in those last remarks.)

Bend over... Let me check your liberty.

It might seem that in the United States, being pulled over for driving without a seat belt should not end with the government ordering you to take off your clothes and “lift your genitals.” But there is no guarantee that this is the case – not since the Supreme Court ruled this week that the Constitution does not prohibit the government from strip searching people charged with even minor offenses. The court’s 5-4 ruling turns a deeply humiliating procedure – one most Americans would very much like to avoid – into a routine law enforcement tactic.

Give me liberty, and skip the healthcare!

Excellent questions from our European friends.
Give me liberty, AND give me death - because I can't pay for adequate healthcare.
<More Here on the Atlantic Wire.>

Europe is scratching its head over possibility that the U.S. Supreme Court will strike down President Obama's signature legislative achievement. As the judiciary and the Obama administration trade legal barbs over the high court's authority, the idea that health care coverage, largely considered a universal right in Europe, could be deemed an affront to liberty is baffling. 

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Tech: When will these be real!

Google Glasses.  I want now!
Here's what wired had to say.
I can skip the iPhone and go directly to Google Glasses.

Add No Reply All and No Forward to Outlook 2007 / 2010

Here's a handy little tool.  This lightweight add-in for Microsoft Outlook 2010 and Outlook 2007  adds two buttons to your Outlook ribbon. One lets you prevent recipients from forwarding your email. The other stops users from sending a reply to all recipients.
< Click here to download. >

Another funny blog post < here >.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Facebook Rant: Add a Man, All Problems Solved

Recently offered on Facebook:

"A full 85 percent of youths in prison come from fatherless homes, as do 80 percent of rapists, 71 percent of high school dropouts, and 63 percent of teen suicides.

In The Atlantic Monthly, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead wrote that the "relationship (between single-parent families and crime) is so strong that controlling for family configuration erases the relationship between race and crime and between low income and crime . This conclusion shows up time and again in the literature." 

This is either true or it's not. It doesn't demonize single moms. It begs for society to fix the broken family."

Comments:

Let me get this strait - add a man and all problems in society are resolved.

Any chance that "fatherless homes" could be another symptom of root cause(s) and not the root cause?


Why is it that this seems to support a particular family configuration that is defined by some groups as God's preference?


Shouldn't society concentrate on assisting family confirmations of all types raise more ethical and moral children?  Note - I do not believe that ethical and moral based beliefs and behavior are necessarily the result of nor dependent on religion.