December 2010
livefastdieyounggg asked: I’m so glad I found this blog. I was so tired of these other blogs with pictures of sprinkled donuts and intoxicated kids that I thought thats what Tumblr basically is, which is kind of true. Anyways, I like to know the things going around plus I want to be a comedian and these issues posted here are sometimes potential stage materials for me. I have not been on stage but I’m still...
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More context for the DADT numbers we just posted
yakmascara said: The opinions on gays serving in the military are also significantly better among people who’ve served with someone gay before.
» We say: You got it, and to me that seems blatantly clear from the categories listed. I have an ex-Marine brother and this EXACTLY how I would predict the trends based on my experiences with people in the military.
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Most soldiers OK with gays openly serving, but...
30% of military think gay soldiers will make it harder to work
43% of Marines think that openly gay soldiers could be a distraction
48% of Army combat units think it’ll have a negative effect on their job
58% of Marine combat units feel the same way about the thang source
pressplayonlife-deactivated2012 asked: I want to make it in the magazine world. Any suggestions? I am currently a junior at Cal State Northridge. I will be doing my practicum next semester.
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Why Marinette school officials didn't notice the...
one The lights were off in the classroom at the time the hostage crisis started, so it didn’t look like anyone was in there.
two A sign was posted on the door telling seventh period students to go to the library, which was common at the school.
three While administrators were suspicious, they didn’t check until a parent said something – two hours later. source
» About the shooter:...
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AT&T wants to know who's stealing their copper...
$3,000 AT&T’s reward for info (in pennies!) source
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Obama's bipartisan deficit panel not currently...
18 number of members of the Obama’s bipartisan deficit panel
14 number of votes the panel needs to send their findings to Congress
no they don’t have 14 votes yet, but they hope they will by Friday source
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“At the moment, for example, we are sitting on 5GB from Bank of America, one of...”
– Wikileaks’ Julian Assange • Explaining how they leak material to the press, but dropping the fact that they have a bunch of stuff from Bank of America ready to leak. This was completely ignored by the press (and even we didn’t make much of it when we posted about it a few months back)....
November 2010
WALL ST. JOURNAL: Mozilla, makers of popular... →
Yeah, that’s great and all … now how about they work on the browser’s awful memory management? It’s barely usable on the Mac.
icelandwantstobeyourfriend.tumblr.com →
markcoatney:
andrew:
Halló, I am Iceland and this is my Tumblr. I am an island and I would like to be your friend. You can visit me one day, if you are not too busy and important.
Neither important or too busy.. time to visit!
This is fascinating. I had no idea Bjork was now Iceland’s Tourism Minister.
If you think that’s good, wait until you hear about the one where a popular...
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Lame-duck Senate passes food-safety bill with...
good A food-safety regulation bill, made necessary in the wake of multiple salmonella crises, passed the Senate with bipartisan support.
bad The bill may not benefit organic or small-scale farmers, who could be treated to similar levels of scrutiny to the agricultural giants.
worse The bill was held up for months by GOP Senator Tom Coburn, who apparently thinks you should eat contaminated...
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After recent gains, home prices see depressing,...
2% decline in home prices in the third quarter; double-dip? source
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“This action by Comcast threatens the open Internet and is a clear abuse of the...”
– Level 3 Communications Chief Legal Officer Thomas Stortz • Expressing anger with Comcast’s added bandwidth fees on the internet middleman, which Netflix uses for its uber-popular streaming services. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Whoa. Did you hear that? Yeah, we think we did. That’s the sound of the...
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“The teacher was nothing short of heroic. She kept a very cool head and kept the...”
– Marinette, Wisconsin Police Chief Jeff Skorik • Describing how the teacher involved in last night’s high school hostage situation ensured that things didn’t get worse. The 15-year-old student, who has not been named, was carrying two types of guns and a duffel bag loaded ammunition when...
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European Union targets its frickin' laser beam at...
Is Google acting anti-competitively? Does it use its search-engine prowess to favor its own services over those of competitors? Does the company’s market share (66 percent in the U.S., 80 percent in Europe) constitute a monopoly? Do sites like Foundem, eJustice.fr and Ciao (the latter owned by Microsoft) have bad luck with Google because of crappy information-thin design that completely...
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Office Hours closed! Thanks for the questions! You... →
good We had a lot of fun answering questions tonight, and can’t wait to do it again. We also hope that our insight into the history of the site offered a little context for you guys.
bad Sadly, Tumblr’s message system is jacked, causing issues. We’ll owe an answer or two later. Meanwhile, it’s Tumblr Tuesday! Recommend us for the Politics category!
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If you keep rubber bands in your car, you might...
standard Cops in Pennsylvania pulled a guy over because a GPS unit was blocking the driver’s view. No big deal, right?
unusual Upon searching his car, the officers found 26 pounds of cocaine (!), worth $1.2 million, hiding in a secret compartment.
dubious The probable cause for the search was…the presence of rubber bands (often used to stack money). source
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Tons of new Picasso artwork found in some guy's...
271 previously unknown Picasso works unearthed in France source
» Picasso’s electrician just tore the art world a new one. Pierre Le Guennec used to install burglar alarms for Pablo Picasso. Last September, he approached the Picasso estate with an astonishing revelation: for the past several decades, he’d had been keeping 271 previously unreleased Picasso originals in a trunk in his...
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On Globalization – both culturally and...
kahzaa answered: Issues with globilization?
» We say: Our thought is that there’s more good about a globalized culture than bad, though obviously it isn’t perfect. Westernized culture has taken over the world in a lot of ways, but the results haven’t whitewashed other cultures entirely. Our favorite way of thinking about this is how things like cell phones, Facebook and Twitter...
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TARP: Not as expensive as we'd thought it was
$109
billlion estimated losses of the TARP program, as of last March, according to CBO
$66 billion that same estimate, revised five months later by CBO
$25 billion the most recent estimate of TARP’s losses, as of today source
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On North Korea and their inevitable downfall
050458 answered: Do you see the (what I see as) inevitable collapse of North Korea as an outside event, such as war with the US and the South, or an implosion
» We say: It’s inevitable, yes (and something the U.S. suggests in their own diplomatic cables), but they’re such loose cannons that we can’t see them collapsing under the weight of their own hubris. The scary thing is that...
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“It could take down a bank or two.”
– Wikileaks founder Julian Assange • Discussing an upcoming “megaleak” to be released early next year. Assange is being characteristically tight-lipped about this, but he says it will expose both “the ecosystem of corruption” and “the regular decision making that turns a...
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Marinette, Wisconsin hostage situation ends;...
good The high school hostage crisis is over in Marinette, Wisconsin and only the gunman was hurt. The situation lasted about five hours.
bad The coverage was still very scarce for hours, though Green Bay finally has some photos. Can anyone explain why this happened? source
» There’s a lesson here: In the past few years, newspaper companies have cut their resources very thin, especially at...
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The L.A. Times can't get rid of their Bridge...
60 number of phone calls the paper’s reader’s representative got over removing the Bridge column, a stodgy tradition that predates everyone
31 number of e-mails they got; who are these people and why do they actually play Bridge? And how do we get them to stop? source
theonlyplfrmat asked: Who are you people?
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Alright, our Office Hours start now. What have you... →
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Some more morsels from the Marinette, Wisconsin...
24 people are being held hostage – 23 students and one teacher; noone has been injured
yes the situation started during the school day, but other students were unaware of the situation
no the student doesn’t have a criminal record, nor do any media sources have photos yet source
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“She’s become the issue. She’ll never be an effective negotiator with...”
– Slate’s Jack Shafer • Arguing that the Wikileaks report on the diplomatic cables may be enough to do her in as Secretary of State. Why? Because, according to Wikileaks documents, she ordered her diplomats to spy on the people they were talking to. Even if she did nothing illegal, it’s...
A follow to that last post; here's how the local... →
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What happens if there's a school hostage...
Well, that’s what appears to be happening in Marinette, Wisconsin. Granted, the town of around 11,000 isn’t big or anything, but it’s within shouting distance of Green Bay, and police have been on the scene for somewhere around three hours, yet this is all the coverage we appear to have. Small-town Wisconsin is small-town Wisconsin, but it’s weird that a hostage situation...
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Office Hours tonight: What's on your mind?
We had some good questions and answers during last week’s Office Hours. So we’re doing it again. Tonight, from roughly 9-12, we’ll be taking your questions on news and politics. This week, the topic du jour is Wikileaks. There’s also a lame-duck session of Congress, so something might come out of that. Let us know what you got – either reply here or ask us a question....
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A federal pay freeze might halt out-of-whack wage...
3% the yearly increase in pay rates above inflation for public-sector workers
0.8% the increase of the same measure for private-sector workers source
» Also worth noting: As of 2010, 82,000 federal workers make over $150,000 – a huge leap from even five years earlier. And had Obama not ordered the pay freeze, federal pay would’ve gone up by 1.4 percent across the board. Federal workers are...
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RIAA lawsuits' last stand: SCOTUS won't hear...
good The recording industry has moved away from suing the crap out of copyright infringers. About time; who did that help, anyway?
bad One of the people sued in such a fashion, Whitney Harper, lost her case – and the Supreme Court wouldn’t hear her appeal. source
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Massmart deal: Wal-Mart looks to buy way into...
51% the amount of Massmart Wal-Mart wants to make its own
$2.3B the amount they’re willing to pay for the South African chain
no the unions aren’t quite on board with this decision as of yet source
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Obama announcing federal employee pay freeze
This is gonna hurt federal workers en masse. Obama will offer details in a press conference in a little while, but expect DC residents to feel the hurt, as 600,000 federal workers reside in this little out-of-the-way villa. Hey, Obama, could we make a suggestion for you, as outside observers? Cut the pay of the highest-paid federal workers – the bureaucrats with random non-public-facing jobs, but...
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Rogue Afghan police officer plays turncoat, kills...
6 NATO troops killed by an Afghan policeman who went rogue source
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Spider-Man musical: Big budget, rocky production,...
$65
million the amount the “Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark” cost to produce – easily the biggest ever for a Broadway show
$4
million the cost of a two-week delay in getting things up and running; it finally got a performance in last night
five number of times the play had to stop during due to technical problems that still plagued it
10’ number of feet Spidey was hanging above the...
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“Is it a natural part of diplomatic activity to have diplomats collecting...”
– Wikileaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson • Expressing the organization’s level of surprise at the extent of the espionage they found. The State Department claimed that its diplomats were in fact not spying. ”Contrary to some Wikileaks’ reporting,” wrote State Department... 