Nice to see the DOJ carrying water for Hollywood. Surely there are more pressing matters. Our tax dollars at work.
Plus ca change
Alex Tabarrok takes us back to the future, via 1900:
There is a widespread prejudice against the newspapers, based on the belief that they cannot be trusted to report truly the current events in the world’s life on account of incompetence or venality. But in spite of this distrust we are almost altogether dependent on them for our knowledge of widely interesting events….The function of the newspaper in a well-ordered society is to control the state through the authority of facts, not to drive nations and social classes headlong into war through the power of passion and prejudice.
The source? The American Newspaper: A Study in Social Psychology (JSTOR) by one Delos Wilcox writing in the Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science…. July 1900.
The GPS Watch
Learn more about the GPS Watch here $129.00.
What makes America Great!
PUNTA GORDA, Fla. (AP) – Hundreds of local residents and some from across the nation have turned out to provide a vast array of free aid since Hurricane Charley ravaged the area on Aug. 13.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency said that as of Friday 77,000 households had registered for disaster relief in Florida. The Red Cross is preparing 125,000 meals a day and says an estimated 2,200 families have been housed in shelters.
But it is the unofficial aid stations that have become a lifeline for many people.
Hurricane victims need travel only a few blocks on some major thoroughfares before seeing hand-lettered signs offering free water, ice, sandwiches, diapers, blankets and toiletries. Many Good Samaritans just pull up at the first big intersection they see to distribute their aid.
Passing on a Kidney Transplant
I thought it would be more difficult, or maybe more complicated, but it was neither. A transplant surgeon called from the University of Minnesota this morning to tell me they had a cadaver kidney for me (I?ve been on the transplant list for four-and-a-half years). ?I?ll pass,? I said in a quiet but steady voice. ?Call the next person on the list.? The physician wanted a reason. ?I?m still working out some ethical issues with the whole transplant business.? There. It was out before I had a chance to even think about censoring myself.
Hippie Bus
Spud Hilton takes us on a journey with the Hippie Bus:
It’s 5 a.m. and my left leg is wedged irretrievably between a couple of Brits, who are spooning in somnolent bliss as our strangely loaded bus trundles through the Sierra foothills.
Everywhere are bodies on mattresses — a tangle of blurry-eyed Brits, shaggy-headed Germans, curled-up Kiwis — languorously sprawled as if acting out a page of an Abercrombie and Fitch catalog, only with more clothes.
Politics & Data Mining
If such a scenario sounds far-fetched, it shouldn’t. With the presidential election less than three months away, such tactics are gaining momentum, as organizations attempting to influence the election are betting the necessary votes are hidden within consumer databases.
Activist groups including MoveOn.org, along with the major political parties, are spending unprecedented amounts of money to find out where you shop before trying to sell you on their candidate
Biodiesel
Dan Neil’s review of the new Toureg SUV Diesel version provides some useful background on Rudolph Diesel’s invention, along with a discussion of biodiesel fuel.
100 Black Men Back to School Picnic 8.28
Johnny Winston, Jr. sent a note today about a wonderful event that the 100 Black Men of Madison are holding:
The 100 Black Men of Madison’s 8th Annual Back To School Picnic will be held on Saturday August 28th from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Demetral Park on Commercial and Packers Ave. This event will be held rain or shine.This year?s picnic will feature the distribution of over 1,600 backpacks filled with school supplies to help needy elementary and middle school students get off to a great start.
Children must be in attendance to receive a backpack and they are distributed in a ?first come, first served? basis. In addition, hamburgers, hot dogs and other treats will be served. The Oscar Mayer Wienermobile and the Madison Fire Trucks will also be there.
For the first time, The 100 will work in conjunction with the Madison
Department of Public Health to provide toothbrushes and well child clinic
information.
The 100 Black Men of Madison, Inc. is a 501 (c) (3) not for profit service
organization. The Back to School Picnic is sponsored by include Oscar
Mayer, Kraft, Target, Office Depot, Famous Footwear, Anchor Bank and
Jansport.
For more information please contact Wayne Canty 608-285-6753, Darrell
Bazzell 608-263-2509 or Micheal Boulden 608-285-6036.
2014
Robert Sawyer takes a look at our lives in 2014:
Your cubicle will have a smart wall of its own, giving every worker the appearance of having a window; yours might show real-time footage of Lake Louise, assuming that global warming hasn?t melted the adjacent glaciers and flooded everything. And no matter which office chair you sit on, it will adjust automatically to your body?s proportions.
Of course, we?ll all live in an enhanced reality. Today?s bulky virtual-reality goggles will have been replaced by contact lenses that overlay textual information on your vision; the lens will be in constant communication with the computing powerhouse in your wristband. You?ll never be in the embarrassing situation of not remembering the name of an acquaintance you happen to run into; facial-recognition technology will identify the person, and provide you with all pertinent details instantaneously.