Seriously Conflicted

Read this Boing Boing article.

The use of laptops by school children has become a hot topic because of the hugely talked about case of school administrators spying on kids at home using laptop webcams. I think the Boing Boing article really tries to draw parallels between the recent spying case and this story from last year which I think is completely unfair.

The Philadelphia school was spying on kids using webcams on school provided computers WHILE THE KIDS WERE AT HOME. The Bronx school is using laptops IN THE CLASS ROOM. Those children could be directly observed in a public space so there is no reasonable expectation of privacy in that situation. A teacher could watch them in person just as easily as over a webcam...that is completely different than watching them in their homes.

Something else that should be considered. The school as had great success in using those laptops and views it as a way to prepare those children for their future in the workplace which is dominated by the literate use of computers. Having worked in a corporate environment I would say that making sure that these kids KNOW that their computer activity is being monitored is extremely important. I assure you it will be monitored in the workplace and the consequences of their actions in that case could result in loosing their job. They need to learn accepted and appropriate uses of their computer, there is a time and place for everything.

Break it down.

Wow. Watch at least the last five minutes of this video for Maddow's summation of the health care system in this country. The truth hurts, better make sure that you stay healthy.

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It's even got Shep Smith up in arms!!!



I hope that Obama can inspire the Democrats to ram this bill through "reconciliation" because the GOP really is just blindly sticking to the party line on this.

Now that has to burn.

Check out this Huffington Post story and be sure to watch the video.

Now that is the Congressional equivalent of putting your balls in someone's mouth after running a 5k.

This made me sad

Sad....because it's true.

Not sad enough for you? Try this one on tough guy..... better get some fucking tissues.



RIP, man in black.

Lazy or incompetent?

So is Apple lazy or incompetent? It is obvious that Apple seems unwilling or is unable to make serious and needed changes to the App Store for their mobile devices. Their latest change is that they have gone through the App Store and removed any "adult" content including apps that feature "women and men in bikinis." How progressive of them, FYI; this is one of those reasons that Europeans think we Americans are so fucked up.

Now, I empathize with Apple in that they don't want to have to field angry complaints from parents about their children looking at boobies on their Apple Device. But how hard would it be for Apple to institute a rating system or some kind of age verification setup within the iTunes store. Your iTunes account could easily be configured to allow/disallow "adult" purchases.

To make things more confusing there is no consistency across all of Apple's media offerings. For example, I can download an explicit Lil' Wayne song about eating pussy from the iTunes music store but I can't have an app that shows me a pussy? WTF! So there are no parents complaining about their kids downloading and listening to explicit music that has been available from iTunes since 2003? Must not be because explicit music is still available today. I call bullshit.

What happens when the iPad launches with it's iBook store, is Apple going to play parent again and ban books for their "adult" content? Will they bend to the will of angry parents that wish to keep growing their mushroom children in the dark?

FOX News FAIL!

Yet another example of of Fox News caring more about making up their own reality rather than reporting the actual news.

Why does Fox News not like Ron Paul....because he's not as crazy or "dynamic" as someone like Sarah Palin.


How sad.

Cubestormer

No matter how many times I watch this video is never gets boring. This thing is bad ass.

She's up...she's Downs....

Yet another example of how Sarah Palin should just keep her mouth shut. She claims to have grown the thick skin required these days to live in the public yet she continues to take things way to personal.

She sure has the temperament for high public office doesn't she....

Liar, Liar Pants on fire.

Glenn Beck may be a blithering idiot living in the center his own reality vortex while it continues to consume the minds of the disenfranchised right but he does have balls. Check out this little slap fight that he started with Rachel Maddow.

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I was seriously concerned that at some point during that piece Maddow was going to have an aneurysm. You have to admire the balls on Beck to do a hack job on Maddow with no remorse. Of course none of his worshipers would bother to watch MSNBC for a response let alone actually care so it's all upside for him.

Too fat to fly.

Talk about fantastic PR nightmares. Director Kevin Smith was ejected from a Southwest flight for some very nebulous reasons but basically because he was considered too large for a single seat as per Southwest's policy. The mainstream media is starting to take Smith to task since he decided to pursue, in his words, "a scorched earth policy" regarding his treatment by Southwest. Smith has a significant online footprint with nearly 1.6 million Twitter followers so when he started seriously trashing Southwest it really got their attention. There has been a lot of inaccurate information out there about the event which could be considered character assassination of Smith. I suggest you listen to his account on his Smodcast podcast #106. The whole thing really is a tale of customer service gone completely awry. Smith clearly was not in violation of Southwest's policy which is intentionally vague to protect them from being at fault for some kind of discrimination.

Southwest should be ashamed of themselves for forcing their employees into a situation where they are basically publicly shaming people. Allowing someone to board a plan, stow their luggage, and sit in a seat before telling them that they are too fat to sit in that seat is just wrong. What choice is left for that person but to be led off the plane in shame? You can't argue with an employee of the airline because you'll end up in some TSA hurt locker wondering why your asshole is so sore.

Bayh Bayh

I never really liked Evan Bayh that much but today he's gone up a few ticks in my book. He's not seeking re-election and drawing attention to how broken the Legislative Branch of our Government.

Despite my dislike of Bayh, I have to admit that he's a pretty smart and decent guy. If he thinks that Congress is to broken to fix from the inside then that is a pretty scary thing to think about.

Great Read

Read this article about a personal experience with today's broken health insurance industry. What so good about it? It was written by Robert Reich, a guy that knows a thing or two about government regulation.

Still think health care reform is a bad idea? Good luck when your premiums go up 39% in on shot.

Out of my way

Move over Humvee, hello M-ATV. The Humvee had a twenty year run as the US Military's primary light troop vehicle but it's weaknesses became hugely apparent in today's urban warfare environment. The M-ATV is the answer and man does it look badass!

Still crazy after all this year....

Wow....when Chris Mathews thinks you're crazy.



Even better is Stephen Colbert's hilarious bit about Palin.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Sarah Palin Uses a Hand-O-Prompter
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And of course The Daily Show.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
AmeriGasm
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Hopey...changey...fuck you Sarah Palin. If you actually get elected on the "I'm stupid like you so what could possibly go wrong" platform then I'm moving to Canada.

All for one and one for me...

Great story about the amazing amount of vitriol that was spewed at this past weekend's "Tea Party" convention. Everyone was welcome as long as you were white, christian, heterosexual and afraid of anyone that isn't one of those things.

The crazy line really does form to the right these days.

Once a douchebag....

Always a douchebag. Comcast has left such a bad taste in everyone's mouths with their terrible reputation and shit-tastic customer service that they are changing their name.

They will soon be known as.....Xfinitiy. Seriously.

I love it when company's do this shit. It's like a convicted Pedophile trying to change his name so you don't know he rapes children.

Sweet

The young ladies of the war torn French countryside were never the same.

WTF!

Check out this 5 second film.....freaking hilarious.

Who's the Innovator now?

Steve Jobs may not like Google, in fact he most likely hates them due to their lack of elegance much like Microsoft. But you have to admit that when Google does shit like this it makes them look light years ahead of Apple and their vaunted reputation of being on the cutting edge.

HAHA

One day someone will invent a car that runs on the tears of drunk girls. It will break down a lot and cost a fortune but it will be awesome.

Cayenne Pepper Prank - Watch more Funny Videos

Geek boner

I cannot wait for Kick-Ass....this movie looks awesome.

NSFW for naughty language.

Crap in my hand

This is hilarious but maybe a bit obscure. Here is some context.

Steve Jobs is an egomaniacal genius that runs Apple like some kind of corporate extension of his imposing personality. He is also convinced that every one else's idea of user interfaces, media consumption and use cases is clearly wrong. The saying "I reject your reality and substitute my own" should be carved into his headstone upon his passing.

Walt Mossberg is a journalist (or at least what passes for one these days) for the Wall Street Journal. When not writing above his love of Apple products he spends his time inside a small capsule that rests just above Steve Jobs colon. He is generally derided by "real" technology journalists and serious nerds as a total wingnut that has no clue about the subject in which he is supposedly an expert. Mossberg is Jobs go to media guy mainly because Mossberg doesn't ask hard questions like "Why the fuck does the iPad not have multitasking when it clearly should?" He was voted "Most Likely To Live Up Someone's Ass" by his peers*.

*That's probably NOT true.

No longer Lost.

This has to be the single best review of where Lost is to now. It's really cool.

Sigh...

It looks like Obama is taking the ax to NASA's Constellation program and thus killing the chances of returning to the Moon in the next decade. I've blogged about the nightmare the Ares rocket program has become so this decision is bittersweet for me. I had hoped that Obama would task NASA with rethinking Constellation and finding a cheaper manned flight system but it looks like that's just not in the budget of these trying times.

What this article doesn't mention is that when the Space Shuttle stops flying (there are only five flights left) there will be no manned space flight in this country. NASA has been flying continuous manned space flight with the Space Shuttle since 1981. Think about that, the Shuttle will have flown for nearly 30 years which is nothing short of amazing considering the Apollo program "only" ran for a total of 14 years. There was a six year gap between Apollo and the Shuttle (1975-1981) which were considered pretty dark days for NASA due to the development issues the Shuttle had. The entire Shuttle program up to 2005 was estimated to have cost $145 billion....that's for the entire program from 1981 to 2005. That number shocked me because it is about 10% of what we've spent so far on the Iraq/Afghanistan war.

While it is admirable to think that private enterprise may fill the gap; these industries are still very much in their infancy. Considering how difficult it is to raise venture capital in this economy there's little chance that a high risk investment like privatized space exploration is going to be attractive to many investors. There are going to be a lot of Aerospace and Mechanical engineers looking for jobs once NASA realizes they have no projects for them to work on. The ones that can't find jobs in the private sector may be ripe for the picking of other up and coming space faring nations like China and India.