Category: Informative

Friday stuff

“On Thursday, the Washington Post confirmed it had fired liberal online columnist Dan Froomkin. On Friday, they gave a guest column to Bush war architect Paul Wolfowitz.”

— Raw Story

“In Prof. Chen’s study, although a third of consumers bought extended-service contracts, only 8% used them at least once. She said that many of those who bought the contract but didn’t use it defended their choice by claiming it gave them peace of mind.”

— The Wallet – WSJ

Saving money gives me peace of mind. During my time in retail, I can’t tell you how much pressure was on us to sell extended-service contacts.

Two great links from Elise:

No name-calling

Postcards From Yo Momma

Flight 447’s perfect storm

The gist of the accident appears pretty clear: Air France Flight 447 was victimized by a terrible storm.

How the airplane got into this storm, and what exactly happened once it got there, are two fascinating if perhaps unanswerable questions. The plane’s flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder — the proverbial black boxes — are apparently lodged amid undersea mountains, beneath thousands of feet of water. They may stay there forever.

And so we are left to speculate — as to how an experienced crew, at the controls of a $100 million jetliner, could have found itself in such deadly circumstances.

Pilot Patrick Smith speculates.

Linkage

Karen has a great post on driving in the clutch.

Lifehacker recommends taking notes: “I think the act of taking notes in front of others (especially doctors) entices them to give me more time and better information. Three times lately I have pulled out my moleskine and started taking notes in front of a doctor. Each time I have received tips, web site references, and ideas.”

From the oh-that’s-not-fair department: Rachel Alexandra won’t run in Belmont Stakes

Wall Street Journal music writer Jim Fusilli provided information a few weeks ago to eliminate any regret we might feel over Phil Spector’s 19-year-sentence. Fusilli included this:

Celebrities were treated to similar shenanigans. According to Mr. Brown’s biography, Mr. Spector, weapon in hand, locked the door to his Beverly Hills mansion behind Michelle Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas, refusing to let her leave. Mr. Brown also reports that Mr. Spector was wearing a handgun in 1973 when he attended the Ali-Norton fight at the L.A. Forum in a group that included Bob Dylan, Neil Diamond and James Taylor; later that night, when he was introduced to Frank Sinatra at Trader Vic’s, he was still wearing the gun. Once he pulled a gun in a studio at the Record Plant and accidentally fired it; the bullet somehow missed Lennon. On another occasion, a drunken Mr. Spector pressed the muzzle of a gun against Leonard Cohen’s neck. “Leonard, I love you,” he said. Nudging the barrel aside, Mr. Cohen replied: “I hope you do, Phil.”

And Political Animal cites Alito, O’Connor and Thomas as nominees who’ve claimed that personal background can, does and should play a part in judicial decision-making.

Do Hispanic and Latina mean the same thing?

Hispanic is an English word that originally referred to people from Spain and eventually expanded to include the populations of its colonies in South and Central America. Latino is a Spanish word—hence the feminine form Latina—that refers to people with roots in Latin America and generally excludes the Iberian Peninsula. For many, Hispanic has negative connotations because of its Eurocentrism. Others prefer it because it’s gender-neutral. Latino, meanwhile, is perceived as a more authentic-sounding, Spanish-language alternative. Generally speaking, Democrats use Latino more often than Republicans, who favor Hispanic.

Christopher Beam – Slate Magazine has more.

Lazy blogging

Lazy blogging ‘cuz no links.

Some professor studied news pundits. Seems they are less accurate in their forecasts than chance. That is, they are almost never right.

That took an academic study?

Saw the word meretricious used yesterday describing CNBC (discussing Stewart’s classic takedown). It’s an awesome word and totally apt. It means (I had to look it up to be sure) “apparently attractive but having in reality no value or integrity.”

We live in a meretricious-filled society.

So far, among the few Twittering celebrities that I follow, John Mayer is the most interesting. Shaq likes to eat. Penn Jillette was 54 yesterday, but you knew that. Oh, and John McCain is meretricious.

Happy Square Root Day

Happy Square Root Day! It’s March 3, 2009, or 3/3/09, and three is the square root of nine. These days come around nine times every 100 years — all in a rush at the beginning of the new century, starting with 1/1/01 and 2/2/04, and picking up after today with 4/4/16, 5/5/25, 6/6/36, 7/7/49, 8/8/64 and 9/9/81.

The Numbers Guy has more.

Making the Bad Worse

Jill, official older daughter of NewMexiKen, reports:

Remember how the Smithsonian’s American History Museum always felt like a museum that was fun and interesting in spite of itself? Like, the museum itself was so antiquated and the exhibits were so boring and old-fashioned…yet you still enjoyed visiting simply because the items they had to display were so great?

Well, they closed the museum for more than two years, spent more than $85 million and managed to make it…even worse.

Oh my gosh, we went there today and we were so disappointed. They’ve renovated the building, but they have the same old exhibits, except even smaller and more cramped, with fewer items on display. All the exhibits are like cramped in corners and there is very little to see, and lines everywhere to even get into these tiny rooms.

We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Reid was SO UPSET because we’d promised him he could see Indiana Jones’ hat. Nope. The entire entertainment/music/sports exhibit is now one room about the size of my living room with about three interesting things in it (Kermit, Oscar the Grouch, and the Ruby Slippers).

Yuck. At least the Museum of Natural History never disappoints.