If there really had been a Mercutio, and if there really were a Paradise, Mercutio might be hanging out with teenage Vietnam draftee casualties now, talking about what it felt like to die for other people's vanity and foolishness.
--Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus p151
New Yorkers Say, "I Do"
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:07 pm EDT, Jul 25, 2011
Gary: “We’ve been together 42 years. We’ve been on so many honeymoons that we aren’t planning another.”
Some good news out of New York. E.Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y. It's the only religion I need.
The repeats will run between midnight and 4 a.m. under the title “The ’90s Are All That,” a reference to one of Nickelodeon’s most popular shows in that decade, “All That.” That sketch comedy show (1994 to 2005) is one of the first to be featured in the block, along with the sitcoms “Clarissa Explains It All” (1991 to 1994) and “Kenan
Ren and Stimpy was on a friend's TV a few years ago, and I was shocked to see that it had a TV-MA rating. Apparently Ren and Stimpy = Southpark.
Borders buyer: Najafi Companies makes $215 million bid for bankrupt bookseller.
Topic: Miscellaneous
4:54 pm EDT, Jul 19, 2011
The U.S.’s second-largest bookstore chain announced Thursday that is has chosen private equity firm Najafi Companies as its so-called “stalking horse bidder,” which means it will open the bidding at the bookseller’s bankruptcy auction on July 19. Any deal would still need to be approved by a bankruptcy court.
Najafi also owns Book-of-the-Month Club, a mail-order book sales club, and Columbia House, which sells DVDs online.
...and I'm sure Najafi is bursting with cutting-edge ideas to save Borders.
3 finalists unveiled for new Ga. license plate �| ajc.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
2:39 pm EDT, Jul 14, 2011
The "In God We Trust" logo featured on the bottom of each plate is an optional sticker, which may be purchased for an additional dollar at county tag offices.
Not only is there not a confederate flag on any of the finalists, but the IGWT sticker is optional! In Georgia, little wins are all we liberals have.
How Digital Detectives Deciphered Stuxnet, the Most Menacing Malware in History
Topic: Miscellaneous
11:18 am EDT, Jul 11, 2011
Early the next morning, a Saturday, he was back in the office digging through the code, focusing on the part that Stuxnet used to spread itself, and testing and documenting his findings. He came up for air midafternoon and passed his notes to Chien, who continued working through the evening. By the end of the weekend, they’d uncovered an astonishing three more zero-days.
Excellent article. One of the best out of Wired. From the comments, "like reading a Tom Clancy novel".
The Myth of Charter Schools by Diane Ravitch | The New York Review of Books
Topic: Miscellaneous
9:52 am EDT, Jul 1, 2011
Some fact-checking is in order, and the place to start is with the film’s quiet acknowledgment that only one in five charter schools is able to get the “amazing results” that it celebrates. Nothing more is said about this astonishing statistic. It is drawn from a national study of charter schools by Stanford economist Margaret Raymond (the wife of Hanushek). Known as the CREDO study, it evaluated student progress on math tests in half the nation’s five thousand charter schools and concluded that 17 percent were superior to a matched traditional public school.
Gay Marriage Approved by New York Senate - NYTimes.com
Topic: Miscellaneous
11:15 pm EDT, Jun 24, 2011
On the streets where police beat gay men in 1969, on Friday crowds cheered, as police quietly stood watch. Bernie Janelle, 53, turned to her partner of 16 years, Cindy Hearing, and said, “I’m going to propose to her on Sunday.”
E-quality. The only "e-" that matters.
Although, as a married person, I have to say...you wanna what?! Don't get married! Stay single and go clubbing!
They’re spending nights in their car, on the run from the same shadowy cabal—“the Hollywood Star Whackers”—who may have killed Heath Ledger, possibly sabotaged Jeremy Piven, and could now be targeting Lindsay Lohan.