Archive for 2010
September 13, 2010
MARKDOWNS ON camera and photo gear.
MICROSOFT’S RESPONSE TO THE RUSSIAN SCANDAL: “Clever and nimble aren’t the first words you think of in connection with Microsoft, but the company’s decision to grant blanket IP licenses to targeted Russian human rights groups strikes me as both. It took less than 24 hours, and it doesn’t mumble about reducing its cooperation with the authorities — it takes the Microsoft weapon out of authorities’ hands.”
Great job, Microsoft. If only other tech companies did as well.
TOO MANY VEGETABLES? “DeKalb County is suing a local farmer for growing too many vegetables, but he said he will fight the charges in the ongoing battle neighbors call ‘Cabbagegate.’ . . . In January, Dekalb County code enforcement officers began ticketing him for growing too many crops for the zoning and having unpermitted employees on site.”
THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.
DOG PARK LIT BY DOG POOP. “A methane digester called ‘Park Spark’ has been installed in a dog park in Cambridge, Massachusetts. The device produces methane by bacterial digestion of the dog excrement, and the methane is used to light a gas-burning street lamp.”
BUILDING A safer bomb.
POOR, UNDERAPPRECIATED applesauce.
COLLEGE RANKINGS BASED ON A SURVEY OF EMPLOYERS. Very different from U.S. News. And note this: “Recruiters say graduates of top public universities are often among the most prepared and well-rounded academically, and companies have found they fit well into their corporate cultures and over time have the best track record in their firms.” Less sense of entitlement, maybe?
STEREOTYPES CRUMBLE: Japanese not as long-lived as thought. French sex lives worse than thought.
THE EXPERT CONSENSUS WAS WRONG: Disinfecting hand gels don’t affect swine flu infection rate. “The regular use of alcohol-based disinfecting hand gels authorities recommended during the A(H1N1) pandemic has little effect on the disease’s infection rate, according to a study published Sunday. The findings suggest that the pandemic virus and similar strains may be most effectively transmitted in the air, rather than by contact with infected surfaces, the authors of the study said.”
ADDRESSING gender discrimination in Islam.
EXTREME MAKEOVER: Tata Motors to revive Land Rover lineup by downsizing, reducing weight, adding hybrids. What they really need to do is to improve reliability.
UPDATE: Reader Andrew Simpson emails: “I don’t see ‘Come on down and test drive our new, down-sized ta-tas’ as being the best advertising campaign. And I damn sure don’t want hybrid ta-tas. Give me the real thing, no matter what the size.” Duly noted.
CELLULOSIC ETHANOL, $2.35 a gallon.
MILITARIZED SKATEBOARDS perfect for hipster invasions. Kind of reminds me of Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash.
IN THE MAIL: From P.C. Hodgell, Seeker’s Bane.
WHAT WAS BOEHNER THINKING? He wasn’t thinking, he was squishing.
Plus, Eric Cantor weighs in.
A VOTER IN WASHINGTON STATE WRITES ABOUT PATTY MURRAY: “Patty Murray’s television ads are great. But after listening to the people in the ads, I realized that she has bought their votes with my tax money.”
WIND POWER PROBLEMS FOR TEXAS: “If Texas were its own country, it would generate more wind power than all but five nations — the United States, China, Germany, Spain and India. . . . But after a decade of rampant growth, wind is running into a significant constraint: There are too few transmission lines to carry the power. The wind turbines have mostly gone up in the western part of the state — hundreds of miles from the big cities in central and eastern Texas that need the power. The result is that on windy days, some turbines must shut down because there are not enough wires to transport the electricity they produce.”
A HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE? Tell It To The Zombies!
WELCOME TO THE 21ST CENTURY? New York under attack as bed bugs make unwanted comeback. Some people are calling them “Bloombugs.”