RICK MORAN REPORTS from the Chicago climate conference.
Archive for 2012
May 21, 2012
A SHAKESPEARE PASSAGE THAT I HAD TO MEMORIZE IN HIGH SCHOOL SEEMS MORE APPROPRIATE FOR OBAMA THAN ANTONY’S ORATION:
But ’tis a common proof
that lowliness is young ambition’s ladder
whereto the climber upward turns his faceBut when he once attains the utmost round,
he then unto the ladder turns his back
looks in the clouds, scorning the base degrees
by which he did ascend. So Caesar may.
DOMESTIC TERRORISM UPDATE: Sterling Hall bomber Armstrong arrested after $800,000 cash found in vehicle. “Armstrong, 65, was one of three men arrested for their roles in the Aug. 24, 1970, bombing that targeted the Army Math Research Center in Sterling Hall on the UW-Madison campus as a protest of Vietnam War. A fourth man wanted in the case, Leo Burt, has never been found. Researcher Robert Fassnacht was killed in the blast. Armstrong was sentenced to 23 years in prison, but his term was later reduced, and he was released in January 1980 after serving seven years.”
Funny how little time these lefty domestic terrorists did.
LIST: Essential Family Survival Kit For Under $300.
Compare my post on low-budget disaster prep.
NOW, HEADLINES LIKE THIS MAKE ME FEEL LIKE I’M REALLY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: European Physicists Smash Chinese Teleportation Record: The battle over distance records sets up a fascinating race to be the first to teleport to an orbiting satellite.
On the other hand, the Euro-Chinese rivalry leads to this conclusion: “The contrast with the US couldn’t be clearer.” Ouch.
THIS YEAR IN TECH: May 21, 1927: Lucky Lindy Flies His Way Into the Celebrity Ranks.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Loan Bubble Putting Hundreds of Colleges at Risk. “207 colleges and universities—31% of the 678 institutions in the database— have, under at least some circumstances, more debts than cash and marketable investments. In the model these 207 inadequate-capital institutions have projected net financial asset balances ranging from a negative few hundred thousand dollars to nearly a negative $400,000,000. More than half of the 205 had negative projections from ($10,000,000) to ($100,000,000).”
Related: Chester College Will Close. “The economic downturn that started in 2008 has been particularly tough on very small private colleges that lack much in endowment income or national name recognition. Dana College shut down in 2010. Mississippi’s Wesley College closed that same year. Lambuth University, in Tennessee, closed last year after losing accreditation.”
All I can say is, I told you so. I also have some thoughts on what comes next.
CHANGE: Post-Facebook Social Networking:
According to a recent poll by the Associated Press and CNBC, 46 percent of respondents think Facebook will “fade away as new things come along.” That’s an ominous data point for a company whose IPO dominated the news cycle last week, and claims some 900 million worldwide users.
Facebook seems to be infiltrating every facet of our lives. “Like” buttons appear on every website. “Like us on Facebook!” shouts at us during TV commercials. And more and more apps rely on Facebook to simply log in. It’s starting to feel more than a little oppressive — it’s like we’re living in a blue-and-white-painted jail cell.
And all this IPO madness is just foul icing on the cake.
So where do you turn when the world’s been stricken with Facebook fever? We rounded up seven apps that could satisfy your social networking needs should Facebook go down the tubes — or you just can’t take it anymore.
Facebook has two main problems: (1) People don’t trust them on privacy; and (2) Each successive “improvement” in the platform seems to make it worse.
READER BOOK PLUG: Tom Elia writes to ask me to plug his When Lobsters Take Flight.
The title is taken from a quote by Chicago newspaperman and humorist Finley Peter Dunne, who, channeling through his famous character, Chicago South Side saloon keeper Martin J. Dooley, wrote this:
“A man that’d expict to thrain lobsters to fly in a year is called a loonytic, but a man that thinks men can be tu-rrned into angels be an iliction is called a rayformer an’ remains at large.”
The quote is used to introduce the chapter on Barack Obama.
So buy it!
HEH: BOOKERMANIA!
BRETT KIMBERLIN UPDATE: Stacy McCain’s involuntary roadtrip.
Really? Really? Can this be what it sounds like? Somebody is trying to out-crazy Stacy McCain? That’s not going to end well . . . .
UPDATE: If Kimberlin was trying to stop negative Internet attention, it’s not working.
See, I’ve warned people about this kind of thing. More than once.
THIS WEEK IN THE FUTURE.
POPULAR MECHANICS: 16 Great Tools from the 2012 National Hardware Show.
AT AMAZON, warehouse deals on baby stuff.
FACIAL RECOGNITION CAMERAS peering into San Francisco nightspots. “On Friday, a company called SceneTap flipped the on switch enabling cameras installed in around 20 bars to monitor how full the venues are, the mix of men and women, their ages — and to make all this information available live via an iPhone or Android app. Privacy advocates are unimpressed, though, as the only hint that people are being monitored is via tiny stickers on the windows.”
The one man convicted of the Lockerbie bombing has died, three years after being released by the Scottish Nationalist government for what was advertised as his last few weeks of life.
Evidently determined never to apologize, SNP leader Alex Salmond defended that release today, saying that “regardless of people’s views they can have complete confidence that it was taken on the basis of the due process of Scots Law.”
The application of Scots law instead of British law is the result of what the Scots call devolution. A remarkably apt name that, when you think about it.
Ouch. Not sure about the Scottish law, but I think he should have been drawn and quartered, as suggested in the comments.
On the other hand, there’s this observation in another comment: “It’s not like he committed self-defense, or used a firearm.”
THE FRENCH don’t really get this autism thing.
I SAW A SEA TURTLE ON CAYMAN A COUPLE OF WEEKS AGO THAT LOOKED AS BIG AS A VOLKSWAGEN: Car-Sized Giant Turtle Discovered in Colombia Ate Alligators for Breakfast. “Paleontologists have discovered a car-sized turtle in a Colombian coalmine that may have eaten alligators and ruled a large swath of land and fresh water.” It was probably 6 feet long, but I don’t think it would have eaten an alligator.
THE CHRONICLE OF HIGHER EDUCATION’S DIVERSITY PROBLEM:
As you can see from this link, the Chronicle hosts twenty families of blogs, of which Brainstorm is only one. Brainstorm contains twelve bloggers now that Riley is gone. Now there is no visible right-wing female voice in the entire publication.
Keep in mind that the Chronicle lacks not only ideological diversity. Browse through the blogs and you will see a parade of old, white, liberal faces, all of whom have the dainty air of Elizabeth Warren, our purportedly Cherokee darling from Harvard. I have nothing against old white people, but the Chronicle is far worse than the Republican Party at fostering racial class diversity. At least we have Nikki Haley.
Diversity is the most important thing there is, but it’s not nearly important enough for old white men to surrender their cushy jobs for. It is, however, important enough to deny young white men similar access to those cushy jobs.
I DUNNO, A ROBOT BODY DOESN’T SOUND SO BAD TO ME: The Difference Between Inspiring and Creepy Human-Robot Technology.
But then, I’m married to a cyborg. And you know what they say about cyborgs — once you’ve gone metal, you’ll never settle!
SCIENCE: Buying Organic Food Makes You A Jerk, Study Says. The science is settled. You don’t want to argue with the science. If you do, you’re a “jerk denier.”