More auto stuff
Wednesday, December 10, 2008
Hell yeah, put them all in bankruptcy, cause they are
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
A Bridge Loan? U.S. Should Guide G.M. in a Chapter 11
First, let’s recognize that G.M. doesn’t need life support. What it needs is Chapter 11. The bankruptcy process is not a bad thing — indeed, it should be embraced. Bankruptcy allows companies to do tough things they could never do in the normal course of business.
What i like, 2008
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Let’s see.
- Big Bang Theory, pure rubbish sitcom television but i can’t stop watching it. Kaley Cuoco’s performance is very subtle – lots of little looks and silences to make us suspect what she’s thinking of her new nerd friends, to contrast with the ebullience of said nerds – not just an ingenue but an avatar of the Feminine Mystique. Also, the siblings Darlene and David from Roseanne, veteran comedians, are getting it on intermittently, and Jim Parsons is the comedy find of the decade.
- Weeds is just over the top crazy. Great satire of the drug war and Yankee society in general.
- Man On Wire, a breathtaking documentary about the man and the team who tightroped between the World Trade Towers. Courtesy of MUN Cinema, to which i give my highest recommendation for anyone who is as picky about movies as i am.
- My new coat, a cheap Misty Mountain thing, light and warm. Courtesy of Wm. Chafe’s Ltd. i’d had a similar Columbia but it was stolen from a skeet downtown bar that shall remain unnamed (and unpatronized by me).
- Best book i’ve read in recent months is still Ash, a Secret History by Mary Gentle. It’s truly unique. Not merely a science fiction book set in the past, but a speculative fiction work about history rather than science.
- A People’s History of the United States is also a great great book, eye-opening – if half what it says is true, America has been a scam from the beginning.
- Warhammer Online, it’s just better and the developers have yet to show the sheer arrogance of WoW’s Kalgan.
- Working in R&D again and doing master’s courses at last. (Assignments are tough though.)
- Barack Obama, who will save us all. Gotta hope for something…
Barry Goldwater, the Last Smart Republican
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Daily Kos: State of the Nation
” […] Then something happened. Nixon played to it of course but it really came into play in the 1990’s and even more this past decade. Republicans turned their backs on smart people. Just like that, being smart was less important than being ‘real’. Being qualified was about being ordinary.
[…]
He stopped for a moment and took another sip from his mug. “The Republican party is the party of the bowling alley. It’s the party of the poker game. It’s the party of pseudo patriotism and talking points masquerading as a platform. It’s the party of shrillness and fear and I couldn’t in good conscience be a part of that smoke and mirrors any longer.”
New political AI technology
Monday, September 29, 2008
Can’t get an interview with Sarah Palin? We’ve got you covered.
Q: What is the role of the US in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Iraq that John McCain has done, that has to be wired in a way of being so committed to the mission, the mission that we’re on, reform of government and these regulatory agencies back on the anniversary, in this nation, at this time. It is for no more politics as usual, the cronyism that has to exercise all options out there on the side of the U.S. domestic supply of energy, that I can help the ticket, if you ask that question until somebody answers for me what is it exactly that the lobbyists play in an issue that we see the United States of America, where where do they go? It’s Alaska.
Gee.
Thursday, August 28, 2008
[…]
He said he was then banned from changing it back or to another password of “Barclays is better”.
The bank apologised and said the staff member no longer worked there.
TV is out, Web 2.0 is in
Friday, August 22, 2008
GIN, TELEVISION, AND COGNITIVE SURPLUS:
A Talk By Clay Shirky
[…] People asking, “Where do they find the time?” when they’re looking at things like Wikipedia don’t understand how tiny that entire project is, as a carve-out of the cognitive surplus that’s finally being dragged into what Tim O’Reilly calls an architecture of participation.
Now, the interesting thing about a surplus like that is that society doesn’t know what to do with it at first—hence the gin, hence the sitcoms. Because if people knew what to do with a surplus with reference to the existing social institutions, it wouldn’t be a surplus, would it? It’s precisely when no one has any idea how to deploy something that people have to start experimenting with it, in order for the surplus to get integrated, and the course of that integration can transform society.
Outstanding essay and video presentation. The movement of society from passive consumption to active participation that Shirky describes gives me hope for the future.
