February 2010
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Iran so far away. →
Leaders of Iranian opposition are calling for a protest on the upcoming anniversary of the 1979 overthrow of the Shah of Iran. In other news, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has warned that Iran will strike a blow against “global arrogance” the same day. Whatever that means it sounds like War on Drugs, an awesome idea which can never be truly fulfilled. Either way February 11th is promising to be...
January 2010
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Russia announces Libya arms deal worth $1.8... →
Once again Putin reinforces my dislike of him. This is a really bad idea. The last thing anybody needs is Libya with $1.8 billion of Russian weapons.
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Iran tries 16 people over Ashura Day protests. →
Only in a completely religiously totalitarian country like Iran can people be charged with “waging war against God.” The absurdity of this charge is so mind-boggling that I can’t even think of anything else to write.
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Learning in 3D.
Dr. Karl Kapp is a professor, consultant, speaker, scholar, author, and expert on the convergence of learning, technology and business operations. Dr Kapp is on a blog book tour promoting his latest book, Learning in 3D. He agreed to write a guest post to discuss his writing process. His own blog, Kapp Notes, is an invaluable resource for anybody in the instructional industry.
To write...
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Bin Laden deplores climate change. →
If my computer didn’t inform me that it’s January 29th, I would have thought that it is April Fools Day because of this story. Osama Bin Laden is concerned about climate change. Let me repeat that, Osama Bin Laden is concerned about climate change. The man who wants to destroy the Western world is worried that it might get warm in whatever hole in the ground he has been hiding in all...
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No giant leap for mankind. →
Next week’s budget will have in it money for NASA to keep the International Space Station in orbit until 2020 but there will be no funding to go back to the Moon. I know that the state of the economy prohibits such frivolity as going back to the Moon, but the space buff in me is very disappointed by this development.
I am fine with mankind not landing on Mars in my lifetime, but I would...
CNN reports that J.D. Salinger, author of “The Catcher in the Rye” has died, according to his literary agent. I wish he’d written more books.
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Republican State Of The Union Response. →
I didn’t watch the State Of The Union address last night because my wife, daughter, and I were grocery shopping. As much as I cared about what President Obama was going to say, I cared about what I was going to eat a lot more. So, in this case, the desire for bread overruled the desire for circuses.
This morning I discovered a link on BreakingNews.com to a story on HuffingtonPost.com with...
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The Political Compass →
This site administers a test which helps you determine where you lie politically. I have seen a smaller version of this test and my results for both of these were the same: I am smack dab in the middle of the Libertarian Left quadrant.
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Airlines suffered record drop in traffic in 2009. →
It’s not surprising considering that airlines have been passing the cost of fuel to the passengers and charging for baggage. What is surprising is that the decline is the lowest since World War II because the modern aviation industry didn’t fully emerge until the 1950s.
CNN reports that Saddam Hussein’s cousin Ali Hassan al-Majeed, also known as Chemical Ali, has been executed. Will this make Iraq stable now?
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Tweets in Space. →
Astronaut T.J. Creamer, Expedition 22 Flight Engineer, made Web 2.0 history today when he posted to his Twitter account from the International Space Station via a new system which allows astronauts to browse the Web. His previous posts had to be emailed to Houston where support staff would upload his tweets for him.
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Air America goes off the air. →
Air America which launched in 2004 and served as the pulpit for the likes of Saturday Night Live alumnus Al Franken is no more. Their ratings have been dropping steadily for a few years and finally hit rock bottom.
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Calif. high court strikes down medical pot limits. →
Smoke them if you got them! This is big huge. Things are really going to be interesting in the Republic of California.
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Senate for sale.
CNN reports that Supreme Court ruled 5-4 to ease restrictions on spending by corporations and unions in political campaigns. Now we are going to have to vote for politicians based on what company instead of what party they represent. Maybe now campaign commercials will improve.
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Russian journalist dies after police beating.
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It appears that the Soviet Union lives on in the minds and actions of its former citizens. Police in the Russian city of Tomsk decided to relive the not-so-good old days and show their fellow countryman that seeking answers in the Post Soviet Russia is a very dangerous proposition.
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Israel deports American employed by Palestinian... →
With the long history of Israeli-American relations, you would think that an American would be the last person to be deported. However, he was working for a Palestinian news agency which coincidentally receives funding from the US government.
“Describe your day so far in terms of what has gone right for you. Start with I...”
– online counselling on how to deal with change
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New York Times to Charge Frequent Readers of Web... →
This is just the dumbest idea I have heard this week. There is no better, or faster, way to turn your readers away from your site then by charging them for your content. Or as my friend Leather Penguin would put it: “another bullet in the Old Gray Lady’s ass.”
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1.5 million strollers recalled by Graco. →
The hinges on the recalled stroller can cut off children’s fingertips. These traveling guillotines sell for around $80 for a stroller and around $150 for a travel system.
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Live coverage of the US Senate race. →
Republican Scott Brown has won the Massachusetts Senate seat previously occupied by Ted Kennedy. As it is customary in such cases, he declared that the people have spoken. It seems to me that the people are not interested in fixing the problems that are facing this country and would rather hold on to the status quo.
This situation reminds me of the Titanic after it struck an iceberg because...
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U.S. helicopters land at presidential palace. →
5,500 Americans are reportedly missing in Haiti. It’s been a week since the 7.0 magnitude earthquake and the count of those missing or dead remains inaccurate. It will be a long time before everybody is accounted for.
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Quake creates thousands of new orphans. →
The numbers of orphaned children in Haiti is astounding. According to the United Nations Children’s Fund there are 380,000 children living in orphanages and group homes. And that was before the quake that turned most of the country to rubble. Now that number could increase to 1 million.
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Change Management.
The customer service course I have been working on is done. So I am starting work on my next challenge - a change management course.
This is going to be a very interesting course because of its abstract nature. The client wants a workshop instead of a traditional course so we are a little vague on exactly how to evaluate the participant’s progress.
My attempts at finding an online change...
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France and Germany warn against using IE. →
The governments of France and Germany have issued warnings that flaws in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer allow hackers to access computers running various versions of Windows. And this entire time I thought that not using IE was just a good idea.
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Your Mobile Giving by State. →
This is a blog post from the Red Cross site about the money that Red Cross has raised for Haiti Earthquake victims via text messaging. So far over $3 million has been raised by people texting “Haiti” to 90999. It’s a $10 donation that will be billed on your cell phone bill.
CNN Exclusive: President Rene Preval tells CNN that Haiti lacks capacity to hospitalize quake victims, asks for medical aid.
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CNN reports that hundreds of thousands of people have died in Haiti’s earthquake, according to Jean-Max Bellerive, Prime Minister of Haiti. Update: It seems that the Prime Minister’s claim of the number of victims could not be verified.
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Haiti Earthquake. →
This is the BreakingNews Twitter stream focussing on the aftermath of the Haiti earthquake. The devastation is mind-boggling. There have been 32 aftershocks so far.
As a stipulation of his deal to replace Simon Cowell on American Idol, Mark McGwire admitted to using steroids during the 1998 season. :-)
CNN reports that former Cardinals slugger Mark McGwire admited to using steroids in 1998 when he broke Roger Maris’ home run mark. Asterisk!
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Gurkha veterans lose pensions test case battle... →
This is just wrong. Gurkhas are some of the most fierce fighters in the UK forces. And they have been serving in the British Army for a very long time. In fact, when they started serving, England was still an empire and India was one of its colonies.
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AT&T, Verizon Wireless crux of FEMA’s telecom... →
This story written last February by Gary Salazar for RCR Wireless News perfectly illustrates the absurdity of AT&T’s claims of superiority to Verizon’s network. If that were true, FEMA would have chosen AT&T to provide services for day-to-day operations as well as services in an emergency. In reality, Verizon was chosen to provide the services in emergencies which is when...
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NBC Decides Leno Not Ready For Prime Time. →
It’s official. The Jay Leno show will stop airing at its current 10:00 PM time slot after the 2010 Winter Olympics and will instead air at 11:35 PM and last half an hour. Then it will be followed by the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien at 12:05 AM.
What I don’t get is why call the show hosted by Conan O’Brien The Tonight Show? After the schedule reshuffle, his show will...
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Up In The Air. →
This is post by Duncan Roy, who recently appeared on Sex Rehab with Dr. Drew. about life in America and how Americans behave toward each other. I agree with a lot of what Duncan has to say because, as a fellow foreigner, he sees this country without blinders.
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Eureka Earthquake: Twitter Pics Tell the Story. →
We live in an age when live coverage of a 6.5 magnitude earthquake is possible because of things like Twitter. When Miracle on the Hudson happened, the first image of the plane was a twitpic posted by a woman on a NY ferry dispatched to pick up the passengers.
This is another perfect example of how detailed and rapid citizen news coverage has become. Before Twitter, traditional news sources would...
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There's an app for that.
An AT&T commercial that keeps interrupting House claims that AT&T’s 3G network, unlike Verizon’s network, allows you to browse the web while talking on the phone.
What I find laughable about this statement is that this is a cell phone feature and not a network feature. Now if they advertised that having a cell phone on their network will make you a better person or more...
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Oh, the inhumanity!
BreakingNews reports that Muslims and Christians set fire to each others homes and shops in southern Egypt 3 days after 6 Christians were killed in a drive-by shooting. Nothing brings people together like mutual hatred.
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