I GUESS THIS MEANS I DON’T HAVE TO GO SCUBA-DIVING ANY MORE: Google Maps Launches 3-D Snorkel View Of The World’s Greatest Reefs. Thanks, Google!
Hey, wait . . .
Archive for 2012
September 27, 2012
PHOTOSHOP OF THE DAY: Netanyahu simplified.
AT AMAZON, Warehouse Deals in TV & Video.
CLAIRE MCCASKILL’S SIX SECONDS.
AT THE SMOKING GUN: Feds Arrest Producer Of Controversial Anti-Islam Film On Probation Violation Charge:
Investigators have not yet provided details about how Nakoula allegedly violated probation, but it seems clear that his involvement in the “Innocence of Muslim” production is central to the government’s claim.
Ya think?
RELATED: “Brazilian court bans ‘Innocence of Muslims,'” AP reports. “The lawsuit against the controversial film was brought by a Brazilian Muslim group, the National Islamic Union, against YouTube owner Google Inc for posting on the Internet a film it said was offensive and a violation of the constitutional right to freedom of religion.”
MORE: From Allahpundit, paraphrasing the takeaway quote from Obama’s recent speech to the UN: “The future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. And if we occasionally have to haul a guy in on a probation violation to ensure that the future doesn’t belong to him, hey.”
And from Jim Geraghty, “Attention media: Protests, sometimes violent, are still going on outside our embassies and consulates.”
AND THAT’S AN INVITATION, TO MAKE A RESERVATION: Hop on the bus, as Americans for Prosperity lead ‘Obama’s Failing Agenda Tour’ across Ohio. Photos at Stacy McCain’s blog.
CHARLIE MARTIN: The Truth About Polling: Yes, Romney Is Probably Tied or Winning. I certainly hope this is right.
TAKING TELECOMMUTING TO THE NEXT LEVEL: Beam Yourself to Work in a Remote-Controlled Body.
The tech boom in the San Francisco Bay Area has created intense competition for software engineers. Kids straight out of college can start salary negotiations at six figures, and rents are rocketing.
Scott Hassan, an early Google engineer and now an investor and entrepreneur, thinks he has the solution for companies that think they’re wasting time and money chasing new hires: make it more practical for engineers living in cheaper places to telecommute to work. His company, Suitable Technologies, has developed a roving telepresence system that is five feet, two inches tall, placing its 17-inch screen at roughly the right height for a hallway conversation. It is not the first mobile telepresence system to hit the market, but Hassan says it has features that will make it more practical and less awkward to use than previous systems.
Like Sheldon Cooper’s robot-surrogate, however, it lacks hands.
ED MORRISSEY ON Presidential Attack Ads.
REMEMBER WHEN JIMMY CARTER WAS BLOWING REAGAN OUT OF THE WATER? Powerline’s John Hinderaker offers a timely reminder that something very similar to what is happening now with the Gallup Poll and President Obama occurred at a similar point in the 1980 campaign. “Americans are by no means infallible, but are they really dumb enough, or self-destructive enough, to want another four years of Barack Obama’s failures,” Hinderaker asks. Me, neither.
LOWER EDUCATION BUBBLE: From blogger “Captain Capitalism:”
St. Paul public schools spend $17,000 per pupil per year. This translates into $221,000 per pupil over the course of their k-12 career, and that does not include baby-sitting school…er…I mean “pre-school.”
This got me thinking.
“What if we just gave the kids the $221,000 instead of educated them? Wouldn’t they be better off? I mean, I never had $221,000 in my name in my LIFE. But by the age of 18, you could buy a house FOR CASH and never have to pay rent again.”
So I looked up the median price of a home in St. Paul. $197,607 (though this may change of course).
It’s actually CHEAPER to BUY A HOUSE in St. Paul than educate one of their precious chllllllldrnnnnnnn. You could buy 1.1 houses per pupil instead of sending them to school.
Or to put it another way, things that can’t go on forever, won’t.
IS THERE ANYTHING IT CAN’T DO? Chocolate makes snails smarter.
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Experts: Alcohol enemas ‘extremely dangerous.’
A GOP CIVIL WAR?: Clarence Page at the Chicago Tribune argues that there is a “civil war” among the GOP “moderates” and their more conservative Tea Party cohorts. Page is right that there are two factions in the GOP, but it’s not between “moderate” and “conservatives.” It’s between the old-school GOP elites and the newer generation of Republicans — many of whom are Tea Partiers, but certainly not all — who are more adamant than their predecessors about sticking to conservative principles and eschewing political compromises that abandon those principles.
This newer generation — exemplified by Paul Ryan, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Ted Cruz — is more libertarian in persuasion and hence, more concerned about preserving the Constitution, balancing budgets and reducing the size of government than they are about social issues such as gay marriage, abortion, etc.
HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): New Justice Department Documents Show Huge Increase in Warrantless Electronic Surveillance. “The documents, handed over by the government only after months of litigation, are the attorney general’s 2010 and 2011 reports on the use of ‘pen register’ and “trap and trace” surveillance powers. The reports show a dramatic increase in the use of these surveillance tools, which are used to gather information about telephone, email, and other Internet communications.
UNEXPECTEDLY! As this latest example highlights, with Bloomberg News, always expect the unexpectedly.
Meanwhile, from lefty blogger and JournoList member Greg Sargent at the Washington Post, another “unexpectedly” today, this time involving “An unexpectedly ideological presidential election.”
UPDATE: For those who’d prefer a swanky Continental version of the same theme, Bloomberg is happy to oblige as well today: “Euro-Area Economic Confidence Unexpectedly Fell in September.”
THEY WOULDN’T BUILD THAT BUSINESS: “55 percent of small business owners would not start company today, blame Obama.”
COMPETENCE: Military’s Own Report Card Gives Afghan Surge an F. “The U.S. troop surge in Afghanistan ended last week. Conditions in Afghanistan are mostly worse than before it began.”
REVIEW: Top Radar Detectors.
“COME ON HONEY, BRING YOUR MORTARS, WE’RE GOING TO A SPONTANEOUS DEMONSTRATION.”
SPRINGTIME FOR THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: “Of the hundreds of professional photos taken”at Netanyahu’s speech to the UN, “the AP and Reuters decided to push these onto the wire.”
RELATED: “Obama WILL speak to Netanyahu but only on the phone and a day AFTER Hillary Clinton meets him in New York,” according to the London Daily Mail.
How far we’ve traveled in the last four years…
CALL OFF THE ELECTION, OBAMA HAS ALREADY WON: University of Virginia’s Center for Politics declares the presidential race all but over, with President Obama sure to win at least 290 electoral votes, leaving Republican Mitt Romney gasping for air with six weeks left before election day. We’re not sure but it appears Professor Larry Sabato and colleagues aren’t breathing a sign of relief in noting Democrats will likely keep the Senate and “claw closer” but not quite retake the House majority.