Microsoft and Mayor Bloomberg are teaming up to create the surveillance network in Person of Interest.
A look at Newark’s attempts to help ex-cons get back on their feet. Texas (of all states) is taking a second look at incarceration.
Apparently, The Champ is the saddest movie in the world. Or, at least, it’s used in experiments on sadness to get people all teary (or not).
Blatant partisanship, but I can’t resist: The Retina MacBook Pro is apparently a nightmare to try to repair. Truth be told, though, don’t we more or less replace laptops when they die? Related: David Carnoy regrets buying an iMac because, even though it’s great, it ceases being great when something goes wrong.
According to Charles Lane of the Washington Post, the money we’re spending on clean energy is being wasted.
London is working on better handicap-accessible cabs that we can’t have over here… because of the ADA.
Apparently, while you’re reading your ebook, it’s also reading you. My inability to get upset at things like this separates me from a lot of people I know. I’m mostly interested in how they can use this information for our mutual benefit (ie sell me stuff I might want). I think stuff like this is great.
Bakadesuyo: Having committed murder, what do you do next?
Advertisers apparently had to convince us that we smell bad.
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Well….. It’s a reasonable bet that a lot of government bets — small business loans, etc.– on specific energy-related firms such as Solyndra are going to go ka-plooey! since the success rate of small begining businesses is rather low. If the government could invest without risk, the way conservatives would like, no doubt it would be happy to do so. And venture capitalists would dry up and shrivel away and vanish like dust because no one would see a point to their existence anymore, and conservatives would probably take offense at that also.
In the meanwhile, solar cells are improving but are still far from perfect at absorbing sunlight, and it’d be really nice if someone could figure out how to increase energy storage in batteries by a factor of ten, or maybe a factor of a couple hundred. There’s much work still to be done.
‘The Champ’ – aargh.
I saw it only once, and that was enough. Overall, I found it miserable and tedious.
Worst of all, though, was where I saw it – the first night at summer camp way back in 1982 when I was 10.
And, yes, at film’s end there were very few dry eyes in the hall, mine included. And, yes, next morning there was the usual adolescent macho-nonsense claims and counter-claims of “I saw you crying!” and “No, I wasn’t!” (I claimed that my eyes only brimmed a little).
Who was the mental giant that decided ‘The Champ’ was a good film to screen in such an environment? Or maybe the counsellors just wanted a cheap laugh at our expense.
Mike-yeah. Most small businesses fail, period. The point is that the people who fund conservative magazines don’t want clean energy because they have investments in the old dirty forms and the people who write for conservative magazines need to make a living. This is why you run into conservatives denying global warming after the companies have admitted it.
You could say the same about liberal magazines and their tiptoeing around the race-and-crime issue. The rich say what’s good for them, the writers say what they have to, and the people believe it. The cognitive dissonance among middle- and upper-middle-class liberals over why they want to live in a ‘good neighborhood’ is rather amusing.
Mike, I’d probably not be all that worried about it if it weren’t for the potential adverse effects. There are also some real questions about… if these were worthwhile investments, why aren’t investors investing? It’s not one I have a clear answer to. The right-winger in me has a bit more trust in investors than in the government determining fairly and without undue influence which line of investment is best.
I’ve felt a lurch to the right on environmental issues. That being said, I’m not too, too bothered by throwing some money at it and seeing what happens.
BABM, great to see you again, man! I haven’t seen that movie and I don’t think I am going to from what I am hearing about it.
Newark
Since this was in the WSJ, you can just imagine what the comments section looks like.
From a pragmatic standpoint, isn’t it better to help someone become a productive member of society rather than be a burden in prison? The counterpoint is that society spent a lot of money already over 13 years trying to turn a child into a productive adult. Eventually you are throwing good money after bad.
My inability to get upset at things like this separates me from a lot of people I know.
LOL I admit I lean more toward the tinfoil-hat brigade when it comes to things like this. The companies say that it is in their user agreements, so it shouldn’t be a suprise. This is ignores the fact that 1) no one reads those things 2) even if someone did and objected to it, a company isn’t going to make an exception just for you. This is why we need governmental intervention in such matters. Remember, the first thing you law in contract law is that a contract is supposed to represent a meeting of the minds. A take-it-or-leave-it situation hardly qualifies.
Advertisers
They did a fantastic job. People are supposed to have a smell. If everyone unilaterally decided not to use deodorant, we would all have the same social standing, relatively speaking. They also did a good job convincing people that bad breath was a social malady. Once upon a time, bad breath was just called breath. There was no need for mouthwash. Taken to an extreme, and to borrow from a cliche, next will be a pill that makes your BM smell like roses.
Advertisers apparently had to convince us that we smell bad.
Well, that’s what the headline says, but in the body of the article:
Instead, most people’s solution to body odor was to wash regularly and then to overwhelm any emerging stink with perfume.
Sounds like they figured it out on their own.
Also, when I copied that excerpt from the article, it appended this automatically:
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history-archaeology/How-Advertisers-Convinced-Americans-They-Smelled-Bad-164779646.html#ixzz24nUXdD5v
I’ve never seen that before.
Sounds like they figured it out on their own.
I get the sense that we’re talking about two different levels of bad.
Also, when I copied that excerpt from the article, it appended this automatically:
It must have been a while since you have blogged regularly. A lot of sites do that now. Sometimes it’s annoying, but sometimes it’s quite helpful. Much better than the ones that say “YOU FRIGGIN PLAGIARIST THIEF DON’T COPY FROM OUR WEBSITE” instead of supplying the link.
Re: Newark
I am kinda liberal on a lot of crime and punishment issues, but I have to confess a part of me is attracted to Alaska as a (mostly) prison colony. For those we can’t rehabilitate, of course.
Re: Privacy
I wasn’t sure which side of this you would fall on, but I did figure you would fall strongly.
Re: Advertisers
Coincidentally enough, this (smelling bad, the natural state of smelling bad, etc.) just came up five minutes ago between my wife and her sister.
I wasn’t sure which side of this you would fall on, but I did figure you would fall strongly.
Well I am a little embarrassed, as my tinfoil-hat comment indicates. I just wish companies were more upfront about these sorts of things. If the benefits were that good, they should be trumpeting it.
this just came up five minutes ago between my wife and her sister
What were the sides and the resolution?
Sister-in-law and I said that too much attention is paid to the matter. Clancy disagreed. Zoey likes sweating and refuses to shower once a day, I have a diminished sense of smell, and Clancy hates sweating passionately (there’s a reason we will not be returning to the Gulf Coast) and has a strong sense of smell. Predictable party lines.
Zoey likes sweating and refuses to shower once a day
She must be VERY pretty.
Oops, that should have said refuses to shower more than once a day. Which is ordinarily fine, though I am willing to shower more than once if I am smelly.
refuses to shower more than once a day
LOL oh ok, that is much more reasonable for a girl, although from what you have said about Zoey in the past the original statement didn’t seem totally out of reach.
I am willing to shower more than once if I am smelly
I do as well in the summer, but not for hygenic reasons. Since I have no pool, a quick shower is the best way to cool down quickly after being out-and-about in the humidity.
What does your wife think about your formerly smelly past? Is she horrified?
What does your wife think about your formerly smelly past? Is she horrified?
Not really. She’s just glad that I have reformed. Me, too. Julie and her Mom physically forced my head under a sink once.
I used to be particularly bad for my hair, because unclean hair is actually easier to manage than clean hair. I finally figured out how to accomplish both clean and managed.