Obama’s Secret to Surviving the White House Years: Books

Books: they’re like TV for smart people.

by Paul on January 16, 2017 at 6:30am | Permalink
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Eugene Cernan, last man on the moon, dies

R.I.P. Gene Cernan, Apollo 17 Commander and the last man to make a footprint on the surface of the moon.

by Paul on January 16, 2017 at 3:14am | Permalink
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Tommy Allsup, guitarist who avoided Buddy Holly plane crash, dies at 85

R.I.P. Tommy Allsup.

by Paul on January 13, 2017 at 12:25pm | Permalink
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10 ways the iPhone has changed our world in the last 10 years

For me, a guy who used to carry around a flip phone, a palm PDA, a DSLR, and an iPod, nearly everywhere I went, the greatest initial change was simply convergence:

The iPhone hasn’t just created new technologies – in expanding the definition of what a phone could be, it’s incorporated so many other devices we’d usually own. It’s a camera, it’s an iPod, it’s a portable video player – and you probably wouldn’t buy those things separately today.

by Paul on January 9, 2017 at 9:19am | Permalink
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iPhone announced 10 years ago today

Steve Jobs at Macworld San Francisco, January 9, 2007:

This is a day I’ve been looking forward to for two-and-a-half years. Every once in a while, a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything. And, Apple has been—well, first of all, one’s very fortunate if you get to work on just one of these in your career. Apple’s been very fortunate. It’s been able to introduce a few of these into the world. In 1984, we introduced the Macintosh. It didn’t just change Apple, it changed the whole computer industry. In 2001, we introduced the first iPod, and, it didn’t just—it didn’t just change the way we all listen to music, it changed the entire music industry. Well, today, we’re introducing three revolutionary products of this class. The first one is a widescreen iPod with touch controls. The second is a revolutionary mobile phone. And the third is a breakthrough Internet communications device. So, three things: a widescreen iPod with touch controls; a revolutionary mobile phone; and a breakthrough Internet communications device. An iPod, a phone, and an Internet communicator. An iPod, a phone—are you getting it? These are not three separate devices—this is one device, and we are calling it iPhone. Today—today Apple is going to reinvent the phone, and here it is.

by Paul on January 9, 2017 at 9:12am | Permalink
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Police Union Head Wonders Why Everybody Suddenly Wants Them to Stop Stealing People’s Stuff

If you want to get a sense of how poorly police unions grasp why the citizenry have grown more and more upset with them, check out this absolutely awful commentary by Chuck Canterbury, president of the Fraternal Order of Police, over at The Daily Caller.

Canterbury’s here to defend civil asset forfeiture, the process by which police seize and keep the money and assets of citizens who are suspected of crimes. This type of forfeiture is facing bipartisan calls for reform because the police are seizing property on the basis of just suspicion, not conviction. The consequence has been the creation of massive “civil” bureaucratic process designed to grab and keep the property of people who are ultimately never even charged with criminal behavior. It is legalized theft.

by Paul on January 5, 2017 at 10:08am | Permalink
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When Astronauts ‘Saved’ the Worst Year in American History (Not 2016)

It really wasn’t until we came back that we suddenly realized what the flight had accomplished as to the attitude of the Americans,” Lovell said in 2014. “We got so many telegrams, and one I remember distinctly, all it said was ‘You saved 1968’.

by Paul on January 4, 2017 at 10:24am | Permalink
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A Skeptical Response to Science Denial

So, study after study confirms an overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change. But what does the average person think about the consensus? A Yale survey of Americans found that on average, people think that 67 percent of climate scientists agree that humans are causing global warming. That already sounds disturbingly low, but it’s even worse when you consider that only 12 percent of Americans are aware that the consensus is over 90 percent. There is a gaping chasm between public perception of consensus and the actual 97 percent consensus.

How do we explain this “consensus gap”? One contributor is misinformation. An analysis of opinion pieces about climate change by conservative columnists found that their most common argument was “there is no scientific consensus” (Elsasser and Dunlap 2012). Long before social scientists had identified perceived consensus as a gateway belief, opponents of climate action had pinpointed consensus as a key target of attack. A 2002 memo by Frank Luntz recommended that Republican politicians cast doubt on the scientific consensus in order to win the public debate on climate change.

Politicians follow this advice to this day. Former presidential hopeful Senator Ted Cruz argues that there is no consensus on climate change, claiming that the 97 percent consensus is based on “one bogus study.” He ignores, of course, that the 97 percent consensus is in fact based on a multitude of independent studies.

by Paul on January 4, 2017 at 9:58am | Permalink
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30 Memorable Quotes from Carrie Fisher

At a certain point in my early twenties, my mother started to become worried about my obviously ever-increasing drug ingestion. So she ended up doing what any concerned parent would do. She called Cary Grant.

by Paul on December 27, 2016 at 3:52pm | Permalink
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R.I.P. Carrie Fisher

Carrie Fisher, a.k.a. Princess/General Leia Organa, has died.

“It is with a very deep sadness that Billie Lourd confirms that her beloved mother Carrie Fisher passed away at 8:55 this morning,” reads the statement.

“She was loved by the world and she will be missed profoundly,” says Lourd, 24. “Our entire family thanks you for your thoughts and prayers.”

This has been a goddamned rough year…

by Paul on December 27, 2016 at 11:56am | Permalink
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