The Facebook Frolics Files 0
Fed app with it all.
The FBI is seeking to develop an early-warning system based on material “scraped” from social networks.
It says the application should provide information about possible domestic and global threats superimposed onto maps “using mash-up technology”.
Absolutely nothing could go wrong with this.
Also, pigs, wings.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
Foreclosures continue to work their magic.
(snip)
A key reason for the dismal 2011 sales is that builders must compete with foreclosures and short sales—when lenders accept less for a house than what is owed on the mortgage.
Goo-Goo-Googling Eyes on You 0
The ACLU takes a look at Google’s new privacy policy.
If you ever log in to Google (Gmail, Docs, Calendar, Plus, YouTube, or anything else Googly), you should read it.
Kudos to Google for explaining in plain English that you can check in, but you can never leave.
The Global Mitt the Flip 0
Bank accounts all over the world, tonight, 
all over the world the sound of money in banks . . .
Meta: Color Me CSS 0
As my two or three regular readers will see, I played around with the CSS a bit yesterday, changing the
- font size of posts,
- color of links,
- padding, margins, and background color of blockquotes.
Anyone who was watching while I was testing would have seen thing change with every page refresh.
I leaned towards green rather than blue for links because of the whole pine tree thing.
Feedback welcome.
A Newt Is a Small Lizard 0
Ahem. And some may have questioned that. Larry Van Meter explains:
Newt Gingrich has spent the past 17 years in a box.
It’s an aquarium, actually, and a modest one. It measures about 500 cubic inches, which makes it a pretty small place to spend 17 years.
Newt Gingrich is a fire belly newt.
Newt is named after Newt. Follow the link for his tail tale.
When I started the article, I was wondering whether “aquarium” would turn out to be an analogy for Washington, which is also a hothouse environment with glass walls protecting unusual lifeforms and in need of frequent cleaning.
QOTD 0
George Orwell, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
Political language … is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind.
Naming Frights 0
Well-timed in view of the Regent’s desire to sell (what remains of) Virginia’s dignity for a few pieces of silver comes Daniel Ruth’s evaluation of a similar proposal in Florida:
Now that would be truth in advertising.
Follow the link, then write your delegate.
Decode De Code 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., decodes the dogwhistles. A snippet:
In this, Gingrich joins a line of Republicans stretching back at least to Richard Nixon. From that president’s trumpeting of “law and order” (i.e., “I will get these black demonstrators off the streets.”) to Ronald Reagan’s denunciation of “welfare queens” (i.e., “I will stop these lazy black women from living high on your tax dollars.”) to George H.W. Bush’s use of Willie Horton (i.e., “Elect me or this scary black man will get you..”) the GOP long ago mastered the craft of using nonracial language to say racial things.
(snip)
One of my students shared this parable: A rich white man sits with a poor white man and poor black man at a table laden with cookies. The rich white man snatches all the cookies but one, then turns to the poor white man and says, “Watch out for that darky. I think he wants to take your cookie.”
I’m a Southern white boy. I know the damned code.
So does Mr. Pitts.
Click to read the rest.
Taking Fat Chances for Darwin Awards 2
Around noon each day, motorists waiting to place orders at the McDonald’s drive-thru window back up into the roadway north of Fairfax, holding up traffic in the right lane and forcing drivers behind them to brake for the fast-food line.
The story goes on to report that there have been accidents and even more near-misses and that the line blocks entrances to other businesses in the block. The McDonald’s has hired extra staff for lunches and posted warning signs, which are ignored.
This stretch of the Concord Pike (which columnist Ralph Moyed used to call the “Conquered Pike”) is a six-lane wide (sometimes 10 with turning lanes) suburban shopping strip with small businesses, some medium-sized shopping centers, a couple of hotels, and a mall, all packed closely together.
If I recall correctly, the speed limit is mostly 45 with a stretch of 35, limits most drivers wave to on the way to 60.
Savvy locals learn quickly the streets to use to avoid 202 (my favorite was Shipley).
The McDonald’s sits on a small lot in the middle of the block. It serves the same cookie-cutter garbage as every other McDonald’s.
There is no accounting for taste.
No Way To Teach (Updated) 0
Once again, a Georgia school comes up with the wrong way to address slavery in school. This time it was in Gwinnet County, a wealthy suburb north of Atlanta.
Ericka Lasley told Channel 2 that her 8-year-old daughter said she was a slave and other students were slave catchers during a game similar to tag. The third-grade student said the teacher proposed the game based on what the class is learning.
“She would sit on the bench and the slave catchers would come up to the door and ask did she have any slaves,” the girl said.
Addendum, Later That Same Day:
ABL explains what should have happened:
TOMMY: Hey you wanna play slave/slave catcher?
SUZIE: Gee ok.
TEACHER: ::blows whistle:: HEY! KNOCK IT OFF!
SOPA/PIPA 0
What’s up is ACTA.
More here.
These things have little to do with “intellectual property” and everything to do with subjugating the internet to Hollywood.
Via Contradict Me.
Where It Hurts 0
When it hits them in the semi-pro college football, maybe the anti-immigration bigots will start to wonder whether they are a have a problem:
Chester Brown, a 6-foot-5, 340-pound offensive lineman from Hinesville, committed to the Bulldogs in July, but he confirmed to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and several other media outlets late Monday night that he was withdrawing his UGA commitment “for personal reasons,” declining to elaborate.
Much more at the link. The precise cause of the problem is still unclear.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still holding under 400k.
(snip)
The four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, fell to 377,500 last week from 380,000.
A Wealth of Misdirection Plays 0
Marc Lamont Hill contemplates Mitt the Flip’s tax returns. A snippet:
Sadly, we live in a moment when the rich are let off the hook. By constantly crying wolf that another penny in taxes will prevent them from spending, investing or risk taking, the wealthy have pump-faked us into passing the tax burden to the middle class and working poor. Any attempt to fix the system is declared “class warfare” or “wealth envy.”