January 2008
17 posts
Oh, just some Saturday night antics. Fun times. Three Young Men Try Waterboarding And Tell the Tale By YOCHI J. DREAZEN January 31, 2008; Page A1  RIO RANCHO, N.M. — One night last month, Jean-Pierre Larroque drove into the desert here, lay down in the road and waited for one of his best friends to waterboard him. Just a few hours earlier, the 26-year-old Peace Corps volunteer had...
Jan 31st
vegetarian macrobiotic detox diet be damned
Someone buy me a hamburger.
Jan 31st
"loathing for the Corps continues unabated"
A federal judge threw out a key class-action lawsuit Wednesday against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers over levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina, saying that the agency failed to protect the city but that his hands were tied by the law. The final graf sums it up, though: James Ackerson, 36, is nearly done repairing his home several blocks from the 17th Street Canal. He filed a claim with the...
Jan 30th
whitebread, default memory
Further reading related to the previous post on Wikipedia in the newsroom, please see the following: What did I do before Google and Wikipedia? Can I even remember? I’ve tried to hearken back to those dark days, looking at some “before” and “after” scenes from my life — in the areas of knowledge acquisition and daily tasks, what I mostly use the Internet for — and...
Jan 30th
don't be lazy
AJR article on the use of Wikipedia in the newsroom. I do not want “according to Wikipedia” showing up in news articles. I don’t mind that people use it as a jumping off point. It’s a great one. But please. Sure, my standards have lowered as to the so-called practice of journalism over the years due to increasing cynicism and to the fact that I, besides all suggestions to...
Jan 30th
"super-Influencers" are overrated
Clive Thompson has a long feature in Fast Company about Duncan Watts, a researcher who disputes Malcolm Gladwell’s vaunted “Tipping Point” model of how social ideas spread in society. His experiments and computer models suggest that the spread of ideas is a lot less linear than good ideas in the hands of influential people: Watts wanted to find out whether the success of a hot...
Jan 30th
Post Fla.
So, will it be McCain/Guiliani now on the Rep. side? Yay. Warmongering galore. Great, “straight” talk/authoritarian express.
Jan 29th
Ron Paul. Really?
I’ve recently learned that a friend of mine has some sort of leanings toward Ron Paul. That’s crazy. To all you misguided Paul supporters who can get past —(1) the lifting of a ban on assault weapons (I can see that. Maybe. We do need the ability to protect ourselves with superpowerful machine guns, right?) —(2) eliminating taxes (well, sure, it sucks to pay taxes,...
Jan 29th
Go Eli!
A perfect season might not be perfect for investors, if you believe one of the stock market’s quirkiest — but most accurate — indicators. Yes, it is time for the Super Bowl Predictor of stocks, and it has called the right direction of the Dow Jones Industrial Average for the year following 33 of the 41 bowls, or an astonishing 81% success rate. In short, whenever an...
Jan 29th
So, FEMA continues to suck: FEMA covered up cancer risks to Katrina victims
Jan 29th
Drink it
It’s not going to go away, so here’s, perhaps, a little something to help us out from NY Mag: ‘I DRINK YOUR MILKSHAKE!’: A Guide to Proper Usage plus, IDrinkYourMilkshake.com (listen to it over and over)
Jan 29th
On getting back in it
Short boring disclosure about my getting back on the internet: It seeems that everyone is getting back into the game (or at least a couple of old school people I used to follow and know back in the day, circa 2002-03). So I figured, why not me? I moved to Tumblr this blogging go around. It’s easy. The designs seemed pretty crisp. I don’t have to fool around with blogger or wordpress...
Jan 28th
“A hospital patient in Finland found a mouse head among the steamed vegetables on his plate. “Understandably, he lost his appetite,” said Sakari Kela, chief administrator at the Northern Karelia Central Hospital.
Jan 28th
Reflecting on my earlier hedge, I’d rather 1992 than 1984.
Jan 28th
“It’s starting to feel a bit like 1992 again. A Bush is in the White House, the economy is a mess, and there’s a candidate who, in the view of a number of observers, is running on a message of hope, of moving past partisan differences…” - Krugman Not sure that I really want it to be 1992 again. -db 
Jan 28th
“A duck tagged in Japan eight years ago was shot this month by a man hunting in the Mississippi Delta.”
Jan 28th
Might as well
Figured I might as well start blogging again. -db Link shortlist: cursor.org talkingpointsmemo.com 12apostrophes.net  maudnewton.com centrepedal.blogspot.com matthewtobey.com/blog lindsayism.com benbrown.com  
Jan 28th