Wow

Government In Action

BLADE RUNNER: THE FINAL CUT

... is playing at the plaza theater on Ponce!

Atlanta BladeRunner Fans Rejoice!

To help reduce the risk of fires, air travelers will no longer be able to pack loose lithium batteries in checked luggage beginning Jan. 1, the Transportation Department said Friday.

TSA ban on checked batteries begins

Bhutto said at the time that the assassins could have come from "a gang from the Afganistan warlord Baitullah Mehsud, or Hamza bin Laden the son of Osama bin Laden, or the Pakistani Taliban in Islamabad, or by a group in Karachi."

This should put conspiracy theories to rest, although I frankly don't understand why the Taliban would want her dead. She used to finance them.

In a Prescient Interview, Bhutto Fingered Assassination Suspects | Threat Level from Wired.com

Pakistani former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated in a suicide attack.

BBC NEWS | World | South Asia | Benazir Bhutto killed in attack

TORONTO (AP) — Oscar Peterson, whose flying fingers, hard-driving swing and melodic improvisations made him one of the world's most famous and influential jazz pianists in a career that spanned seven decades, has died. He was 82.

Oscar Peterson's Christmas Album was recommended by Barry Ritholtz in a post I memed earlier in the month. I bought it and I've been enjoying it this season. I was saddened to hear this news.

The Associated Press: Jazz Piano Legend Oscar Peterson Dies

York professor Peter Spencer, chief economist for the ITEM Club, says the global authorities have just weeks to get this right, or trigger disaster.advertisement"The central banks are rapidly losing control. By not cutting interest rates nearly far enough or fast enough, they are allowing the money markets to dictate policy. We are long past worrying about moral hazard," he says.

Merry Christmas!

Crisis may make 1929 look a 'walk in the park' - Telegraph

This is for everyone who’s wondered why their packages don’t come out looking as nice as their sister-in-law’s.

I suck at wrapping Christmas presents. I really need to find this next year.

Making Light: How to wrap a package

A Globe survey of the presidential candidates about the limits of executive power. The study is the most comprehensive effort to date to get the candidates to declare in specific terms what checks and balances they would respect, and whether they would reverse the Bush administration's legacy of expanded presidential powers.

This is an important survey, in particular in terms of what it says about Democratic Party Candidate.

Survey reveals candidates' views on scope of executive power - The Boston Globe

My wife handed me a large, very heavy flat box. Inside was a silver Zero Halliburton briefcase.

Now, if you missed the ’80s, let me explain what this was. It was the ultimate briefcase. It was the one you saw in the movies, carried by Feds, moguls, guys in sports cars, drug dealers. It was the kind that was filled with rows of hundreds and then handcuffed to somebody’s wrist. I had admired one in a window at the mall. My wife had clocked that and delivered. It cost $300. Our rent was $800 a month.
It was so extravagant, so ridiculous, so desired. I was speechless. My wife knew what I wanted. I wanted to feel successful. I wanted to go somewhere everyday with my papers in that gleaming hand-held Learjet.

When I saw that gift, I knew that no matter what I felt like, she somehow saw me as the kind of person who carried that thing. She somehow saw me as a success.

These used to come with a laptop anti-theft program that I designed...

One hell of a briefcase...