Category Archives: Asides

Links for you today.

For Ponytail Guys Everywhere…

From Slate’s How town-hall debates can go very wrong for a candidate.: “Which candidate is hurt more by the negativity? If voters don’t penalize negativity, do they penalize hypocrisy? Will McCain’s tough but fair questions about Obama’s truth-telling and qualifications be overshadowed by the new surge of lower-road attacks on Obama’s character and associations? Normally, [...]

Insert “H.A.L./Dave” Joke Here

From Maximum PC’s “Intelligent” Supercomputers Put to the Turing Test: “The [Turing] test consists of a machine attempting to fool a judge into believing that it could be a human by having a text-based conversation on any subject. If the computer’s responses convince the judge that they are speaking with a human, then it has [...]

A President Who Predicts Problems, Not Reacts To Them

From Sen. Obama’s March 2007 Letter to Paulson and Bernanke: “There is grave concern in low-income communities about a potential coming wave of foreclosures. Because regulators are partly responsible for creating the environment that is leading to rising rates of home foreclosure in the subprime mortgage market, I urge you immediately to convene a homeownership [...]

It’s Always A Good Time When Mike Talks

From Rolling Stone’s How Mike Gordon Got His Groove Back: “Bassist Mike Gordon’s solo album, The Green Sparrow, might not have come to fruition if it wasn’t for some advice from Sting, Twyla Tharp’s self-help book or Phish’s 2004 split. With a possible Phish reunion and a tour with his new band on the horizon, [...]

What People Should Know

From Rolling Stone’s Five Myths About John McCain: “Top gun or spoiled brat? Contributing editor (and this blog’s author) Tim Dickinson separates the facts from the fiction on the Republican presidential candidate.” [VIDEO]

Step 1: Get A Can Opener

From The Money Meltdown: “After much digging, I still couldn’t find a site that clearly and concisely pointed me to good information on our financial crisis. So I’ve attempted to make one. My hope is to provide a good starting point for folks who want to get up to speed on the crisis. I’ve scoured [...]

Main Street? Never heard of it.

From NY Times’ editorial, Meanwhile, in the Economy: “After the Senate approved the $700 billion bank bailout, the majority leader, Harry Reid, tried to persuade his colleagues to address another economic calamity before they left town for the long election recess. He urged them to extend unemployment benefits for 800,000 jobless Americans. In the face [...]

Why We Need The Change We Need

From NY Times’s Tom Davis Gives Up: “The [Gingrich] revolution is over, the thrill is gone and the Republican brand under President Bush has, in Davis’s view, been so tarnished that, as he likes to say, ‘if we were a dog food, they would take us off the shelf.’ These will be [Republican Rep. Tom] [...]

Making The World A Better Place

From Improbable Research’s 2008 Ig Nobel Prize Winners: “The 2008 Ig Nobel Prizes were awarded on Thursday night, October 2, at the 18th First Annual Ig Nobel Prize Ceremony, at Harvard’s Sanders Theatre. [Here's the award given in the NUTRITION cateegory:] Massimiliano Zampini of the University of Trento, Italy and Charles Spence of Oxford University, [...]

Creeping, Creeping…

From the Montepelier Times Argus’s UVM money frozen: “Wall Street’s financial meltdown has hit Vermont’s largest college. The bulk of University of Vermont’s $79 million investment in a short-term fund used to pay day-to-day expenses was frozen this week by Wachovia, the fund’s trustee. UVM is among 1,000 colleges and private schools around the country [...]

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