Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot.
This week’s post is a classic. Van Halen. Hot For Teacher.
News stories the mainstream media missed 01/23/10
Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.
* Kucinich says democrats have betrayed “the promise of change” and are in deep trouble in November if things don’t get back on track. Wow! Kucinich actually gets it! [RAWSTORY]
* And to emphasize Kucinich’s point, there’s apparently a tax on married couples in the new healthcare plan. So not only are we going to be fined and face possible jail time if we do not get this new mandatory no-public-option government insurance, but now the government says it’s better to not be married to save money. Great message! [MONEYCENTRAL.MSN]
* This did make some of the mainstream news, but it really is important to mention again… “the U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday struck down laws that banned corporations from using their own money to support or oppose candidates for public office.” So now, it’s perfectly legal for there to be attack ads by large corporations against Congressmen who advocate a change they do not agree with. A company with billions of dollars versus nickel and dime donations from the general public. This. Is. Not. Good. [MSNBC]
* Texas college tuition is heading up. Way up. Who needs smart people anyway? [TEXASTRIBUNE]
* The New York Times, bleeding money left and right, has decided to “charge some frequent readers for access to its Web site .” Wow. They’re going to spend serious money to put a web blocker in place that can be bypassed by either (a) deleting the cookie left on a computer or (b) visiting their site through any of the hundreds of free proxy websites out there. Brilliant job, guys! [NYTIMES]
* YouTube is getting into movie rentals! That works. $3.99 for a 48-hours is a bit high, but it’s a start. Plus, since YouTube is part of Google and Google just introduced their own phone, I think this movie rental thing is probably going to lead somewhere bigger in a few months. [MSNBC]
* Finally, some “cute” news… “Baby”, a 13 year old cat who went missing after saving his owners in Chicago from a house fire, just turned up safe and sound. A cat acting for the good of his owners? That’s a strange cat! [MSNBC]
NASA just expanded the world wide web into outer space
Today, NASA announced that “Astronauts aboard the International Space Station received a special software upgrade this week – personal access to the Internet and the World Wide Web via the ultimate wireless connection.”
Wait… this wasn’t in place already? A multi-nation multi-billion dollar project and there was no internet access until 2010? I guess rocket science really is hard work.
The first thing the Astronauts did was set up an official “NASA_Astronauts” Twitter account that you can read here. Now that should be an interesting set of tweets to follow!
It’s not all free and clear for them to surf anywhere they want to, though. “Astronauts will be subject to the same computer use guidelines as government employees on Earth. In addition to this new capability, the crew will continue to have official e-mail, Internet Protocol telephone and limited videoconferencing capabilities.” Also… “the crew will have remote access to the Internet via a ground computer [and be able to] view the desktop of the ground computer using an onboard laptop and interact remotely with their keyboard touchpad.”
I still think Astronaut productivity will fall off just a little bit for the next few months.
WalMart Popcorn prices went up
I was at the WalMart in Rio Grande City yesterday and saw this prominent setup on the main isle display.
WalMart Popcorn
$189 for popcorn?! What’s in there? Little gold flakes?
Recall : Wisconsin Cheeseman’s Cheese Logs and Cheese Balls
According to the FDA, “The Wisconsin Cheeseman announced today that it is recalling cheese log/cheese ball products…[because] some of its food items have the potential to be contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes bacteria.”
The food items recalled are…
Sausage ‘N Cheese Logs – Gift #11
Cheese Logs & Cutting Board – Gift #87
Smorgasbord – Gift #325
Cheese Log Trio – Gift #365
Cheese Logs – Gift #411
Cheese Ball Trio – Gift #441
Cheese Logs – Gift #509
Snacker Pack – Gift #751
Cheese Balls & Sausages – Gift #876
Followup on the man defending his home in the UK
A short time ago, I posted a story about a man and his family came who home from church services in Britain and they were all attacked in their own home by a knife wielding burglar. Long story short, the police arrested the homeowner for beating the burglar and let the real criminals go.
Today, that error was overturned.
“The Lord Chief Justice freed a father jailed for attacking an armed burglar, saying the case demanded mercy in the face of a national outcry.”
The Lord Chief Justice said ‘There are some situations which guidelines cannot and do not cover. This is one of them and today the sentence of the court must address and balance the ancient principles of justice and mercy. In this case the call for a merciful sentence is intense.”
It’s good to see that a focused public outcry still works. And good going Lord Chief Justice! Well done on a sensible interpretation of the law!
Verizon to be the carrier for the upcoming Apple Tablet
Apple’s not-so-secret tablet is about to be unveiled next week. And from the looks of things, Apple has chosen Verizon to be the exclusive carrier for their new product!
Apple Tablet
Hey AT&T! Have you been paying attention? Do you see how things are about to get real ugly for your bottom line?
Instead of upgrading your rusty old network to keep iPhone customers happy, you decided to say things to your paying customers like “You don’t have enough towers to handle the phone”… and to do things like charge your unlimited customers for using the network in an unlimited manner… and even get nailed by Consumer Reports as “the worst carrier in the Unuted States.”
So now that you fumbled the ball for a relatively simple thing, you’re going to be benched for the upcoming big game.
Verizon is not only about to take a huge chunk of AT&Ts iPhone customers away, but is now going to be the only US company to carry Apple’s new tablet.
I can’t wait!
Here’s the exclusive article on The Street about the Verizon / Apple deal.
iPhone – A free application a day website
There’s a new website called “Free App A Day” that has something new and free every day for your iPhone.
Unlike other sites that just promote what is already free, the “Free App A Day” site apparently requires developers to submit their application for the daily giveaway. Plus the website has a decent criteria for featuring an application. The rules say that… “applications must be polished apps to be promoted by FreeAppADay.com… needs to have at least 3 stars with at least 20 reviews from users… [and] always a plus if your application was reviewed by other iPhone websites or featured by Apple.”
Not bad!
The applications are only featured for 24 hours, so if you see something you like, grab it before the price jumps back to what it was before.
Here’s the link to the “Free App A Day” website and here’s a link explaining who they are and their mission statement.
Free Software : AnySoft PDF Password Remover
It looks like AnyBizSoft is giving away a copy of their PDF Password Remover software for free until February 24th!
According to the website,the software will… “remove password(s) from your encrypted PDF file(s)” one by one or in batch mode on the PC. It even works under Windows 7.
PDF Password Remover
All I had to do was click to download the software, then click the GET KEY CODE button next to the download button. After I put in my email address, I got a license key a few seconds later.
Not bad! And free is always good.
I can see where this software could come in handy. There are plenty of online PDF converters, but if you don’t want to go to the trouble of going online to convert a series of locked PDFs, or if you don’t want someone else keeping a copy of your PDF documents, a local application would be much better to work with.
NASA is selling the space shuttles. The main engines are free if you pay shipping.
OK, this is just all sorts of surreal.
NASA is selling the Space Shuttle Atlantis, Endeavour and Enterprise this Fall. For $28.9 million a piece.
This is a perfect example of why I need to be a billionaire. Because if I was a billionaire, I would snatch each one of these shuttles, hire each and every one of the original creators of the space shuttles back, retrofit all the space shuttles with brand new parts and updated computer components, and launch them all again (in tandem) to build a real, habitable and structurally sound space station. Maybe give away three tourist tickets to an engineering or middle school for some kids to come along with every launch.
But some Las Vegas schmuck is probably going to grab them and stick it on top of his casino. Or on top of some restaurant somewhere in Armpit, USA.
As a bonus, NASA is GIVING AWAY the space shuttle’s main engines. All you have to do is pay shipping and handling.
Not kidding.
Decades of engineering miracles so great that they were taken for granted… now available to the general public.
Blasphemy.