Twitter for Dogs

Image via CrunchBase

http://www.ohgizmo.com/2010/01/27/mattels-puppy-tweets-is-a-sure-sign-its-time-to-bail-on-twitter/

Oh, so THAT's what Twitter is good for!

When I first saw it I though, oh maybe it has a GPS and it could broadcast the location of your dog. That would be cool...

Nope.

Ok, maybe it has senors you can install here and there that trigger a Twitter message when the dog goes by?

Nope.

In fact it pretty much does nothing. Just like Twitter; utterly useless 140 characters at a time.

The End of the World

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/01/01/BA8V1AV589.DTL

"Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.
"That date has not one stitch of biblical authority," Camping says from the Oakland office where he runs Family Radio, an evangelical station that reaches listeners around the world. "It's like a fairy tale."
The real date for the end of times, he says, is in 2011."

Wow, is that funny or just sad?
People have been talking about the end of the world, and predicting it, for as long as there have been people. I always wonder if people like this are disappointed when the world doesn't end.

Mud

http://www.mediaaccess.org/articles/comments-of-keynote-speaker-mark-lloyd-at-social-media-net-neutrality-and-future-of-journalism-event

"Allow me to clear away some mud: I am not a Czar appointed by President Obama. I am not at the FCC to restore the Fairness Doctrine through the front door or the back door, or to carry out a secret plot funded by George Soros to get rid of Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck or any other conservative talk show host. I am not at the FCC to remove anybody, whatever their color, from power. I am not a supporter of Hugo Chavez. The right wing smear campaign has been, in a word – incredible, generating hate mail and death threats. It is the price we pay for freedom of speech. And I do support free speech."

-- Mark Lloyd, Chief Diversity Officer, Federal Communication Commission

It's a shame that public servants have to actually say things like this.

Climate Change Rant

Image by United Nations Photo via Flickr

Here's another thing to rant about:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2009/dec/18/copenhagen-draft-treaty-meltdown

I have news for the world.

Humanity WILL DO NOTHING to save itself. I absolutely guarantee that our civilization will eventually collapse under the weight of a disrupted environment. There is no doubt what so ever about this. It is a fundamental principle of biology that every species eventually destroys its environment, period. The only thing about humans, is that we will do it on a massive scale.

All this urgency... Speeches about how we must act now before it is irreversible... Well, news flash - it is already too late. Scientists and few politicians that seriously follow this know it. It
is too late. Global ice is melting fast. The oceans are rising already, and weather patterns are already altered. Permanently. Here's the scary bit, we have no idea what all will really happen as a result. And our science isn't close to able to make those predictions. The Pentagon is issuing a report citing climate change as a threat to global stability, and thus now a military issue.

That thinking is where the action is now. Not in Copenhagen.

Hard Times in Moscow

Image by ZedZap(Nick) via Flickr

http://www.reuters.com/article/oddlyEnoughNews/idUSTRE5AF4W320091116

"Russian police have arrested three homeless people suspected of eating a 25-year-old man they had butchered and selling other bits of the corpse to a local kebab house."

Meanwhile, In Oklahoma

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/33340225/ns/us_news-crime_and_courts/

"The boy, malnourished and covered in bruises and scars, sought help from a security guard at a National Guard armory on Sept. 25. The teen told police he spent most of the last 4 1/2 years locked inside bedroom closets at various apartments where the family lived and never attended school or received medical attention, authorities said."

Even More Christian Baby Killers

Image by According to O'Brien via Flickr

http://news.opb.org/article/5925-clackamas-county-investigating-death-baby/

"The Clackamas County sheriff’s office and district attorney are investigating the death of a baby who died Sunday morning in Oregon City, within hours of being born, Saturday afternoon.

"The Oregonian newspaper is reporting that the family involved belongs to the faith-healing church, Followers of Christ."

Coyotes

Image by Anatoly Kraynikov via Flickr

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/09/28/jeremiah-raymond-berry-pl_n_301757.html

"Jeremiah Berry shot his father in the head, and then dismembered his corpse to feed parts of it to coyotes, according to court documents. Authorities said they also found some of Jack Berry's body parts encased in a bucket with concrete.

"Jeremiah Berry told police he killed his father after his father raped him. He said his father told him that day he had been told by God his son needed a sex change to become his wife."

Just another day in America...

Twits

Image via CrunchBase

http://blogs.wsj.com/deals/2009/09/24/breaking-news-twitter-to-raise-100-million-from-insight-t-rowe-price-other-investors/

"Twitter, the messaging web site that has become an Internet sensation, is nearing a deal to close as much as $100 million of new funding from as many as seven investors, according to people familiar with the deal."

Oh great... So this puts off Twitters eventual demise by pouring more cash into this .com no business model non-business. What is this? 1995?

Wilson's TRICARE

Image via Wikipedia

http://blog.newsweek.com/blogs/thegaggle/archive/2009/09/10/joe-wilson-s-dirty-health-care-secret.aspx

""As a 31-year Army Guard and Reserve veteran, I know the importance of TRICARE," he said in a press release. "The number of individuals who choose to enroll in TRICARE continues to rise because TRICARE is a low cost, comprehensive health plan that is portable and available in some form world-wide." He went on to call TRICARE "world class health care," concluding on a personal note. "I am grateful to have four sons now serving in the military, and I know that their families appreciate the availability of TRICARE," he said."

TRICARE is a single-payer, government run health care plan. All Representative Wilson is all for it.

More Family Values Fun

We hear a lot about nationally known Republicans and their family values, but there's a lot of local stories also that tend to get missed in the chatter.

http://www.portlandtribune.com/news/story_2nd.php?story_id=125254485065097200

"Tony J. Marino, 48, who has worked in broadcasting, marketing and Web development, and is a former board member of the Tigard Chamber of Commerce, will be sentenced Sept. 25 in Pierce County, Wash. He was initially charged with raping his estranged daughter, but the superior court in Pierce County changed the charges to second-degree incest — a class C felony — in exchange for a guilty plea.

"Marino is currently lodged in the Pierce County Jail.

"Marino, who created and ran America Web Works from Tigard, pleaded guilty to sexual contact with his daughter while they were staying at the Emerald Queen Casino and Hotel in Fife, Wash. on Aug. 16, 2008. The daughter reported this incident to Tigard police on Feb. 17, 2009, telling them her father had nonconsensual sexual intercourse with her while she said she was intoxicated."

Meanwhile...

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/27025.html

"“…I will not be muzzled. I will speak up loudly against this risky plan,” Wilson says in the video appeal on his campaign web site."

Ha! That's great news! The dumb people will bury us eventually, but the dumber the dumb people look, the better the chance of keeping this shaky country a float for another few decades.

"Wilson’s appeal for campaign cash capped a day of frenzied political activity, with Wilson’s Democratic opponent, former marine Rob Miller, raising a whopping $700,000 over the course of the day."

D is for Dumb

Image by jmtimages [off] via Flickr

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0909/26744.html

"School districts from Maryland to Texas are fielding angry complaints from parents opposed to President Barack Obama's back-to-school address Tuesday – forcing districts to find ways to shield students from the speech as conservative opposition to Obama spills into the nation's classrooms."

How dare the President of the United States give a speech to children on the value of education!!

"But Democratic strategist Chris Lehane said the protest against the presidential speech "shows at some level how desperate the right is to find an issue to challenge Obama on...They have gotten some traction on health care, but the mere fact that they have jumped on this reflects that this is a party without a voice. Are they going to run in the mid-terms on a 'Presidents shouldn't talk to kids' platform?""