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OK, here’s the question. Can you pass your driver’s license test using this car and this feature? If not, why not?
Reporting from Washington — The chairman of the Republican National Committee said Saturday he was “shocked and appalled” that one of his potential successors had sent a CD this Christmas featuring a 2007 parody song called “Barack the Magic Negro,” sung to the tune of “Puff the Magic Dragon.” Despite RNC Chairman Mike Duncan’s sharply negative reaction, former Tennessee GOP leader Chip Saltsman defended his mailing and said party leaders should too. He earlier had defended the tune as one of several “lighthearted political parodies” that have aired on Rush Limbaugh’s radio show.
Saltsman, who managed former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee’s presidential campaign, is seeking the RNC chairmanship. During the campaign, GOP officials denounced those in the party who criticized or mocked Democratic nominee Barack Obama along racial lines. A spokesman for Obama, now the president-elect, declined to comment.
A sense of humor doesn’t necessarily require common sense.
Here is the 10th conversation I had with money manager Andrew Horowitz…. new insights for anyone who invests in anything. What to do? This chat is not produced and is presented as-is for anyone who wants to listen in. We discuss Bernie Madoff among other topics.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
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Google Translation Here — There have been a couple of stories from the EU newspapers regarding this situation which will not sit well with the flag happy Nordics. At some point this sort of thing will be rejected. The idea is to hide the country of origin since it might make it harder for the competition — known for an inferior product — to compete. This is actually political correctness run amuck.
EU to ban the Finnish flag and other national symbols use of food marketing. State-funded campaigns are no longer next year, may be used for anything to suggest the origin of the word or picture.
EU Commission’s decision to lift the sight of domestic Vegetable known cotyledon logo from next year on. Even the name of the association to be changed.
PETA received a call from governor Sarah Palin’s office this week and Palin’s spokeman Bill McAllister wasn’t in the mood for laughs.
Yesterday morning, PETA President Ingrid Newkirk took a call from someone in Sarah Palin’s office, demanding that we pull down a new online game that involves pelting the Governor with snowballs. When she asked for his name, he yelled into the phone, “Just take the game down or you’ll read my name on the lawsuit.”
Within a few hours of our posting information about the call on our Web site, the Governor’s communication director, Bill McAllister, emailed (he must have been monitoring to see if the call would have the desired effect), and our President had an interesting follow-up exchange with him. I think the threat, exchange, and game would make an interesting item (note just how rude Mr. McAllister becomes).
Sarah Palin is a bully who never saw an animal she didn’t want to kill, so it’s not surprising that her staff would try to intimidate us anonymously and then backtrack when called out. Our game represents a fun way to focus attention on a very serious subject—cruelty to animals supported by Sarah Palin and the other targets of the game—and we have no intention of taking it down in response to these pathetic attempts at intimidation.
Here’s a link to the website for those who would like to lob a few snowballs at her.
Daylife/AP Photo by Matt Rourke
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Despite the country’s economic meltdown, Congress is about to receive an automatic $4,700 pay raise on Thursday — a 2.8 percent increase over the current $169,300 salary for most members.
Rep. Jim Matheson says that is unconscionable, and he’s vowing to renew his annual fight to stop such automatic raises. He says the bad economy might just help him win this year, and a government watchdog group is joining his battle to say the raise is a bad idea in such times.
“In a situation where there aren’t many people in this country who are seeing their salaries go up, and in fact a lot of people are losing their jobs, the notion that Congress should be having an automatic pay raise without even a vote just doesn’t pass the smell test,” Matheson said earlier this month…
Since Matheson entered Congress, he has attempted every year to force Congress to vote on whether to accept a raise rather than receive it automatically. He has always failed on procedural votes that would lead to such a straight up-or-down vote.
Matheson every year gives the amount from his pay raise to charity.
THE ONLY successful Recording Industry Association of America conviction against a file-sharer will go to retrial despite the music industry’s best efforts.
The RIAA appealed an earlier decision to grant a retrial of the copyright infringement case against Jammie Thomas.
[…]
But the RIAA really does not want another trial, particularly if the Judge is going to tell the jury that making a copyrighted file available is not infringement. The RIAA has already admitted that proving that songs have been downloaded from services like Kazaa is nearly impossible.The music industry stands to lose countless cases if it loses this particularly high profile one.
Daylife/AP Photo by Elaine Thompson
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Microsoft has applied for a patent on metered, pay-as-you-go computing. Under the proposal, consumers would receive heavily discounted PCs, then pay fees for usage.
U.S. patent application number 20080319910, published on Christmas Day, details Microsoft’s vision of a situation where a “standard model” of PC is given away or heavily subsidized by someone in the supply chain. The end user then pays to use the computer, with charges based on both the length of usage time and the performance levels utilized, along with a “one-time charge.”
Microsoft notes in the application that the end user could end up paying more for the computer, compared with the one-off cost entailed in the existing PC business model, but argues the user would benefit by having a PC with an extended “useful life.”
According to the application, the issue with the existing PC business model is that it “requires more or less a one chance at the consumer kind of mentality, where elasticity curves are based on the pressure to maximize profits on a one-time-sale, one-shot-at-the-consumer mentality.”
Is there anyone besides beancounters on the Microsoft payroll?
Now that’s capitalism and entrepreneurship at its finest. Create a market for something that has nearly 100% profit and make people feel they’re getting a better product if they spend more.
TEXT messaging is a wonderful business to be in: about 2.5 trillion messages will have been sent from cellphones worldwide this year. The public assumes that the wireless carriers’ costs are far higher than they actually are, and profit margins are concealed by a heavy curtain.
[…]
[T]ext messages are not just tiny; they are also free riders, tucked into what’s called a control channel, space reserved for operation of the wireless network.That’s why a message is so limited in length: it must not exceed the length of the message used for internal communication between tower and handset to set up a call. The channel uses space whether or not a text message is inserted.
[…]
Once one understands that a text message travels wirelessly as a stowaway within a control channel, one sees the carriers’ pricing plans in an entirely new light. The most profitable plan for the carriers will be the one that collects the most revenue from the customer: unlimited messaging, for which AT&T and Sprint charge $20 a month and T-Mobile, $15.Customers with unlimited plans, like diners bringing a healthy appetite to an all-you-can-eat cafeteria, might think they’re getting the best out of the arrangement. But the carriers, unlike the cafeteria owners, can provide unlimited quantities of “food” at virtually no cost to themselves — so long as it is served in bite-sized portions.
On a related note, 42,000 people have been ticketed in California for cell phoning while driving as the new ban on texting while driving is about to take effect.
This one first appeared online in May and has been viewed 3 million times so far. Sorry I missed it when it first appeared.
- Microsoft designs a pay-as-you-go patent.
- Sony PS3 not catching up?
- HP gets PC and MAC server. So?
- Extra second added to the year.
- Windows 7 to come out early, now leaked. Nothing special they say.
- Will websites have to be rated.
- Photo frames have malware. Merry Christmas.
- Verizon wins $33 million from squatter.
- Apple, Google, MS sued over icon previews.
- Govt sets up call center for analog to digital changeover.
- MMO patent emerges.
- Texting while driving finally becoming illegal.
- Seven most under-reported stories of 2008.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
Like davidminzer, I’m Jewish and descendant of holocaust survivors. Moreover, I’ve been a Zionist all of my life. I went to a Zionist school, I was active in Zionist youth groups. I’ve always been a fervent supporter of Israel as a refuge for Jews around the world who seek a place to exercise their traditions and embrace their identity in peace. I sang the Israeli anthem in the train rails of Aushwitz-Birkenau and I pledged to fight every day of my life to make sure the savage crimes that had taken place there would never happen again. Every year I pledged: Never Again. Remember and Never forget.
Well, I haven’t forgotten. And so to honor that pledge, to honor the memory of my family members who died in those death camps and because “there comes a time when silence is betrayal,” today I finally and publicly end my support for the state of Israel.
ENOUGH. I’m done justifying crimes against humanity by a country that claims to be an illuminated western democracy. I’m done defending a country that is unwilling to grant self-determination to a neighboring people because it won’t let go of a few settlements and divide a city. I’m done tolerating the slaughtering of innocent kids, the murderous and barbaric occupation of an impoverished people, the utter disregard for human life.
All these shirts are limited editions and this one goes off sale on Jan. 1. All will be shipped by then.
 The meaning of this should baffle your friends.
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Buy a T-Shirt here. You’ll be doing everyone a favor, especially me and the t-shirt company.
If you missed the big news maybe you felt it in your bones: The Earth’s spin has slowed enough to add a “leap second” to the end of 2008. The Associated Press story linked to above, however, fails to mention why Clock the Earth is spinning down. Turns out it’s all the fault of Al Gore. No wait, it’s Exxon’s fault. Just kidding. It’s really not anyone’s fault. Maybe God’s fault, if you absolutely have to assign blame.
One thing not to blame, for a change, is global warming. Despite the fact that climate changes can cause winds and ocean currents to slow or speed up the spin of the Earth, those are tiny, itty-bitty changes that don’t warrant a leap second. What’s really happening is the same thing that’s been going on for billions of years: The Earth’s spin is very gradually slowing down. It’s just one great big spinning top, after all, in a very low-friction environment that allows it to keep spinning for an extraordinarily long time. But not forever.
Some of my colleagues think this is a pretty depressing bit of news. But I say longer days are a good thing. Let’s have more quality, not quantity of days. Enjoy that extra last second of December 31st by smiling and saying “One Mississippi” then “HAPPY NEW YEAR!”
That reminds me, I need to lose a few pounds… maybe that will help.
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