links for 2009-02-12

Really good and lengthy article talking about the lack of proper risk management controls that caused the mortgage crisis.

Gmail, oh Gmail, what would I do without you?

That's a scary thought.

"The Obama administration plans to realign the United States’ relationship with China by putting more emphasis on climate change, energy and human rights, widening the focus beyond the economic concerns of the Bush years, according to senior administration officials." About time.

Really fair criticism of the stimulus bill working through Congress.

This is so messed up it isn't even funny.

This is so funny.

"That graphic demonstrates why those people going around saying things like "government is the problem" are either complete idiots or, at best, people who don't bother thinking things through with enough effort to avoid sounding like complete idiots. When they say "government is the problem" what they're really saying is "Having a state police force is the problem." Having a justice system is the problem. Having schools is the problem. Providing care for the indigent elderly and the physically or developmentally disabled is the problem. Public transportation is the problem. This is what they're saying, whether or not they care enough to realize that this is what they're saying. And what they're saying is indefensible and abysmally stupid." I totally agree.

Good to know.

I liked this: "Their enemy is progress."

Essentially if you want you log, and why aren't you logging, just log queries that take a long time to run.

"Government-guaranteed home mortgages, especially when a negligible down payment or no down payment whatever is required, inevitably mean more bad loans than otherwise." Duh, that's why those sort of loans are stupid, they should have been created in the first place. The percentage of people owning homes barely increased.

I liked this part of the story: "An effort in Congress to overturn the current ban has had little support, but Representative Walter Jones, a Republican from North Carolina, said Tuesday that he would renew his push for legislation to allow the media access when coffins come home. Mr. Jones voted for the use of force in Iraq and helped lead the effort to rename French fries in the House cafeteria as "freedom fries." But he came to regret his vote after he attended the funeral of a local Marine, and he began writing letters to people who had lost a loved one in the war."

Easy way to further reduce the size of your png's.

Science wins again.

Well that's one good thing about a recession.

Totally agree, Pakistan is realistically a threat to the US and probably causes more harm than anything else. Though at the same time just stopping being allies with them will cause a lot of problems and has the real potential to cause a collapse of the government.

"Printed words are permanent. Electronic words are provisional. The difference is vast and the implications worth pondering." I've played around with this thought and I think for the time being we are ok, also I think a few areas will also remain almost exclusively non-digital, scholarly works which would be the main area where you would worry about version changes. The other possibility is a Wikipedia or CVS system where changes are recorded and re-viewable.

So it passed, oh boy. 35% is tax cuts, which are sure to do basically nothing.

"For more than four straight days, Philip Rizk said, he was blindfolded, handcuffed and interrogated around the clock by Egyptian state security agents who abducted him on Friday after he took part in a march in support of Gaza." I'm so happy to know we support Egypt as such a moderate state.

When can you use all those fun new technologies that you know you want to.

Sorry New York Times, Darwinism isn't dead, yes some of his ideas have changed, but the core ideas are still the same.

"If major policy changes do not happen within Mr Obama's term of office, they will not happen at all, he warned." I have to agree, science has become so deemphasized in the US, that it may only be with Obama that real science has a chance, scary thought.

Afghan commanders have a standing request for three more brigades, and Russia is open to shipping military goods to Afghanistan.

From the article: "Steven Chu, the new secretary of energy, said Wednesday that solving the world’s energy and environment problems would require Nobel-level breakthroughs in three areas: electric batteries, solar power and the development of new crops that can be turned into fuel. "

I enjoy the fact that Republicans will argue that the stimulus will be non-effective while gutting it.

Is Amazon going to be the leader in cloud-computing?

"The document reveals that Facebook’s internal valuation of the company is $3.7 billion" Microsoft got taken.

"More than a quarter of major U.S. TV stations intend to shut down their analog broadcasts on Feb. 17, sticking to the original date despite the wish of the Obama administration that they wait until June." Just saying.

NO hard evidence backing PETA's claim that vegetarian's have better sex.

"The contracts amount to the world’s largest single deal for new solar energy capacity". Kinda cool.

Think Yelp for the iPhone.

What are "real men" in the web2.0 world.

There is a ton of junk in orbit, something is going to have to be done about it.

Dang it another reason to get the iPhone.

It's kinda cool.

Seems odd considering earlier it sounded like most of his staff used Macs.

One data point to consider.

"a Froogle for auto parts" That's all you really need to know.

"Authors, publishers, and other copyright holders will get a one-time payment of $60 per scanned book (or $5 to $15 for partial works). In return, Google will be able to index the books and display snippets in search results, as well as up to 20% of each book in preview mode. Google will also be able to show ads on these pages and make available for sale digital versions of each book. Authors and copyright holders will receive 63 percent of all advertising and e-commerce revenues associated with their works." Seems like a pretty decent deal.

Which are you, optimist, pessimist, or opportunist.

"The House approved a bill creating a whitelist of people who are on the blacklist, but shouldn't be. No word yet about what they're going to do about people who are on the whitelist, but shouldn't be. Perhaps they'll create a second blacklist for them. Then we'll all be safe from terrorists, for sure." I have nothing to add.

Great tool.

"Download the Give Up and Use Tables timer. We've scientifically determined the maximum amount of time that you should need to make a layout work in CSS: it's 47 minutes. When your time is up, we'll even give you the table code you need. Take three minutes to build a table." Really funny.

Find and create a color scheme you like.

Where would you go Europa or Titan.

"The Committee to Protect Journalists called on the Obama administration Tuesday to end the indefinite detention of journalists by the United States military overseas." I just can't believe the US is holding journalists in prison for no good reason.

"Asian investors have given the $1.5 trillion (£1.02 trillion) US bank bail-out plan a muted response, following sharp falls overnight on Wall Street." Well Asia isn't happy.

Well is it?

Oops our mistake killed a firefighter? What would you say?

Generate your own favicon.

"At about four plants per occupant (1200 plants in all), the building’s air freshened considerably, and the health and productivity results were staggering. Eye irritation dropped by 52 percent, lower respiratory symptoms by 34 percent, headaches by 24 percent and asthma by 9 percent. There were fewer sick days, employee productivity increased, and energy costs dropped by 15 percent." Wow, get me some plants in my apartment and work.

Just in case.

More outcry over possible war crimes commited by Israel.

The UN is facing a host of challenges, increase in the number of missions, scope of missions, and majority of it's members particularly those with advanced armies *USA* are unwilling or unable to support with troops or supplies and equipment.

"However, it's important to note that whatever we come up with, Twitter will remain free to use by everyone—individuals, companies, celebrities, etc." Twitter says they will always remain free.

"And the theory says it’s safer to stick to a spending-based stimulus plan." Spending wins.

How do you cover up murder?

Neat idea to pretend to live paycheck to paycheck, by at the start of each pay period put whatever is left in your checking account into savings. Good way to increase your savings too.

Very nice, thank you Google.

This is pretty neat.

Hex encode your email links.

Just what I've always wanted, ads on my phone.

Spend your money on things that save you money on the long run, like CFL's or programmable thermostat.

Gamma-ray flares from SGR J1550-5418 may have arisen when the magnetar's surface suddenly cracked, releasing energy stored within its powerful magnetic field. A magnetar is a neutron star with a super-strong magnetic field. Gamma-rays — the universe's most luminous explosions — create bright afterglows. Their light encodes information about the gas and dust it encounters on its way to Earth.

"save 50% – 75% on being a cunt"

"O’Reilly compared Ms. Thomas to “the Wicked Witch of the East” along with disparaging remarks about her appearance and age." Why Bill, why, it proves nothing but makes you look stupid.

I would love this Kindle.