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"Getting around Baghdad, or speaking to people on the streets, became incredibly dangerous...."

Sun, 11 May 2008 15:13:05 -0400

“Getting around Baghdad, or speaking to people on the streets, became incredibly dangerous. It’s now almost impossible unless you are surrounded by armed bodyguards or you observe “the 20-minute rule” - that you allow yourself no more than 20 minutes to get out of a car, speak to Iraqis and then leave. Any longer and onlookers will phone local militia to say they’ve seen westerners on the street.”

- Rageh Omaar

cagle.com

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:17:40 -0400

cagle.com

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:16:55 -0400

The Gettysburg Powerpoint Presentation

"With the vast new set of consumption choices flowing through the network, the issue of gluttony..."

Sun, 11 May 2008 10:01:35 -0400

“With the vast new set of consumption choices flowing through the network, the issue of gluttony arises. You can’t just eat everything. Human beings don’t scale, and human attention doesn’t obey Moore’s law. What happens when our total number of waking hours, and not just for today, but for the rest of our lives, can be filled with high quality “content” programmed by the best curators and editors on the planet? Fill out a profile, push a button, and the entire sequence can be put into a feed ready for your attention. As material is consumed, and new material becomes available, a constant recalculation of your feed will occur assuring that you will always have the highest quality and most appropriate “content” available. Philip K. Dick is smiling somewhere.”

- Learning what else you can do with a Juniper Berry

cagle.com

Sun, 11 May 2008 09:55:51 -0400

cagle.com

The cost of mailing a letter goes up a penny to 42 cents on Monday, the latest in what are expected to be annual price adjustments by the Postal Service

Sun, 11 May 2008 09:30:33 -0400

The cost of mailing a letter goes up a penny to 42 cents on Monday, the latest in what are expected to be annual price adjustments by the Postal Service

"…send your mom a corsage. Send a dozen roses to a Gold Star mother. Send a check to Code Pink. Send..."

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:32:52 -0400

“…send your mom a corsage. Send a dozen roses to a Gold Star mother. Send a check to Code Pink. Send Julia Ward Howe’s proclamation to every mother you know.”

- Reclaiming Mother’s Day

cagle.com

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:29:22 -0400

cagle.com

"Let me be clear: though the Kindle has some advantages over traditional books, for the moment, I’d..."

Sun, 11 May 2008 01:27:39 -0400

“Let me be clear: though the Kindle has some advantages over traditional books, for the moment, I’d stick with the low-tech option. The problem is that the Kindle tries to compete too directly with paper. It attempts to electronically mimic the experience of reading a book. But the book is very, very good at providing the experience of reading a book. In this way, the Kindle occasionally comes off as if Ford, failing to make the conceptual leap to the car, had instead built a motorized horse. Sure, there would be some advantages: the robo-steed would never grow tired, and could be outfitted with more plush seating. But horses are pretty good at being horses. And books, like horses, have evolved to maximize their advantages.”

- The Future of Reading

"Whitford and Schiff both recalled how McCain had conveyed his opposition to Bush just days before..."

Sat, 10 May 2008 16:14:00 -0400

“Whitford and Schiff both recalled how McCain had conveyed his opposition to Bush just days before the inauguration. “He was going on and on about how horribly unqualified and untested Bush was, how the campaign had attacked his family,” said Whitford, a registered Democrat. “Someone said, ‘If he’s so terrible, why did you support him?’ ” According to Whitford, McCain replied that, as a member of the GOP, he always intended to back the party’s nominee. Then, the actor said, someone asked McCain whether he had voted for Bush. “He put his finger up to his lips, shook his head and mouthed, ‘No way,’ ” Whitford said. Schiff remembered the conversation the same way. “My memory was he said pretty clearly, no, he did not vote for him,” he said. “I discussed it with others afterwards. It was clear to everyone he said no. Did he shout it from the rooftops? No.” Schiff, a registered independent, said he was discussing the exchange, which he had considered private, only because Huffington already had made it public.”

- McCain is such a hypocrite

"Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public — lies that have..."

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:55:00 -0400

“Bush and his administration knowingly lied to Congress and to the American public — lies that have cost the lives of more than 4,000 young American soldiers and close to $1 trillion.”

- Vincent Bugliosi

FontStruct is a free font-building tool

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:51:05 -0400

FontStruct is a free font-building tool

"The public has long been inculcated with the notion that we have a “liberal media” that..."

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:47:32 -0400

“The public has long been inculcated with the notion that we have a “liberal media” that opposes and undermines whatever Republicans do, etc. etc. Yet here is mountains of evidence as conclusive as can be as to how the Government/media cartel actually functions — media outlets and their corporate parents rely on the Government for all sorts of favors and access and, in return, do nothing to displease them. To the contrary, the Bush administration itself here is proudly touting its ability to control media content and ensure the presence only of pro-Government voices with regard to war and military matters.”

- Glenn Greenwald

"Adam Smith saw corporations, as much as governments, as instruments for suppressing the competitive..."

Sat, 10 May 2008 11:45:48 -0400

“Adam Smith saw corporations, as much as governments, as instruments for suppressing the competitive forces of the market, and his condemnation of them was uncompromising. He makes specific mention of corporations twelve times in his classic thesis, and not once does he attribute any favorable quality to them. Typical is his observation: ‘It is to prevent this reduction in price, and consequently of wages and profit, by restraining that free competition which would most certainly occasion it, that all corporations, and the greater part of corporation laws, have been established.”

- David Korten

How I Built a Working Poker Bot, Part 1

Sat, 10 May 2008 02:31:19 -0400

How I Built a Working Poker Bot, Part 1

"The intricate networks that tightly connect us together - and move people, materials, information,..."

Sat, 10 May 2008 00:27:06 -0400

“The intricate networks that tightly connect us together - and move people, materials, information, money and energy - amplify and transmit any shock. A financial crisis, a terrorist attack or a disease outbreak has almost instant destabilising effects, from one side of the world to the other.”

- Thomas Homer-Dixon

benson

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:54:37 -0400

benson

Ten Differences between Mathematicians and Writers

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:51:33 -0400

Ten Differences between Mathematicians and Writers

Why Richard Dawkins is Wrong About Religion

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:50:25 -0400

Why Richard Dawkins is Wrong About Religion

"I’d like to know what the Internet is going to look like in 2050. Thinking about it makes me..."

Fri, 09 May 2008 22:48:52 -0400

“I’d like to know what the Internet is going to look like in 2050. Thinking about it makes me wish I were eight years old.”

- Vint Cerf