"Apple's foray into the social media music scene seemed to fall on deaf ears. The biggest fail? Ping doesn't actually let you see what your friends are listening to, which is largely the point of social media. As some critics put it, Ping could easily have been considered a marketing ploy gone wrong."
"Today, we're taking an important next step. As we move toward a clean energy economy, the White House will lead by example. I'm pleased to announce that, by the end of this spring, there will be solar panels and a solar hot water heater on the roof of the White House."
"For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside."
"August 4, 2010 (Athens GA, office).
Happy August.
My Mom’s Birthday is tomorrow (8/5). Good manners will prevent me from revealing her age, but we can safely say she’s very young to have a son as old as me (my Father also)."
"Drive by truckers, �nico concierto en Europa durante este verano Comenzando al rev�s el domingo 8 el Luna Lunera se ha apuntado un tanto de primer nivel en su programaci�n al hacerse con un concierto exclusivo a nivel europeo para presentar su nuevo trabajo The Big To-Do. El grupo que comenzara su andadura all�por principios de los noventa es uno de los ejemplos de perfecci�n para los amantes del rock americano, no en vano fue el grupo elegido por el mism�simo Tom Petty para acompa�arle en la gira en la que en estos d�as est�n inmersos."
Glossary - Save Your Money for the Weekend from Stewart Copeland on Vimeo.
"As you folks know, we don't normally sell original DBT art unless something really big is afoot - and sadly, it is. Bill Constable, an old high school chum and fellow musician friend of Jyl's has gotten the cancer at a time in his life when, surprise! , he didn't have medical insurance."
"Sure, I'm home alone on a Saturday night. But I did just buy the new Drive-By Truckers album, so at least I'll have aural company."
"Listening to the Drive-By Truckers and feeling like 'Santa Fe' will be on heavy rotation for, say, the next three years."
"@adambonin btw, in philly tomorrow night for drive by truckers show.. just emailed @atrios
"On the heels of an announcement of a sweet Shel Silverstein tribute, one the contributing artists is getting a compilation of his own. John Prine, known for the wry humor of 'Illegal Smile,' the thoughtful protesting 'The Great Comprimise,' and the sweetly sad 'Donald and Lydia,' will be feted by artists such as Justin Vernon of Bon Iver, My Morning Jacket, Conor Oberst, and the Drive-By Truckers. A full track list follows:"
I learned valuable insight last Thursday night at Webster Hall into why people quit their day jobs, sell their homes, buy a camper, and follow their favorite band on tour as a lifestyle.
The Drive-By Truckers played for just over two hours on April 1, 2010 in support of their new album The Big To-Do. My father and I attended the show and haven't stopped talking, emailing, or texting about what an experience it was.
Q: You guys were ahead of the curve in establishing an online presence, building a fan base without a record label and manager. How did that come to pass?
A: It's true. We were in early. We put the band together in the 1996-98 period when the Internet was kind of taking shape and we had a site manager, Jen Bryant, who was already doing Web design for a living. So we were able to get a really good site together, all on our own, for very little money.
We started to feel the impact immediately. It would be a long time before we were drawing a crowd, but there would always be five people there, no matter where we went, who knew who we were. We weren't just shooting in the dark.
"ExploreMusic chats with Mike Cooley from the Drive-By Truckers on their recording process, the different sound on their new album 'The Big To-Do,' their plans for a new record, and their involvement on social media sites."
"Check out a new interview with Cooley on the Oh Brother Radio podcast: 9686.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)"
"Actor Robert Duvall, left, stands with country singer Billy Joe Shaver during a break in Shaver's trial Thursday, April 8, 2010 in Waco Texas. Shaver, 70, is charged with shooting Billy Bryant Coker outside Papa Joe's Texas Saloon in Lorena, Texas on April 1, 2007."
"In December we posted a story from the Athens Banner-Herald that reported an apartment theft in Athens, GA. In addition to many other valuables, one of the stolen items was a Tom Petty box set."
"His compound, which once belonged to his grandfather, a cotton farmer, is now home to Mr. Anthony; his father, Bishop Anthony, a retired insurance adjuster and occasional restaurateur; and sometimes Mr. Anthony’s partner, Natalie Chanin, and their 4-year-old daughter, Maggie. (She and Maggie come and go “on a part-time basis,” Ms. Chanin said, because her business — producing handmade clothes and soft goods under the Alabama Chanin label, which is sewn by local seamstresses and coveted by fashion world insiders — is run from her own home in Florence, Ala., a five-hour drive away.)"
I'm all for a law to keep coffee and chocolate out of my beer. They need to expand the law to include lemon and lime wedges. ”
"In his first year, President Barack Obama has marshaled the largest infusion of cultural funding in decades — despite a few stumbles.
Though still far less than arts advocates contend is needed, they have high hopes this president could transform cultural policy, funding and arts education for years to come."
"Secular campaigners in the Irish Republic defied a strict new blasphemy law which came into force today by publishing a series of anti-religious quotations online and promising to fight the legislation in court.
The new law, which was passed in July, means that blasphemy in Ireland is now a crime punishable with a fine of up to €25,000 (�22,000).
It defines blasphemy as 'publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted'."
"'I don't think there is one thing wrong with the American health care system it is working just fine, just dandy,' he said."
"Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.
Studies into dolphin behaviour have highlighted how similar their communications are to those of humans and that they are brighter than chimpanzees. These have been backed up by anatomical research showing that dolphin brains have many key features associated with high intelligence.
The researchers argue that their work shows it is morally unacceptable to keep such intelligent animals in amusement parks or to kill them for food or by accident when fishing. Some 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises die in this way each year.
“Many dolphin brains are larger than our own and second in mass only to the human brain when corrected for body size,” said Lori Marino, a zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia, who has used magnetic resonance imaging scans to map the brains of dolphin species and compare them with those of primates."
"In 2004 astronomers found an enormous hole in the southern hemisphere of the Universe, nearly a billion light-years across, empty of both normal matter such as stars, galaxies, and gas, and the mysterious, unseen 'dark matter.' This was a startling finding, since accepted models of the early universe say that the big bang created an initially uniform cosmic landscape, when viewed on large scales. While earlier studies have shown holes, or voids, in the large-scale structure of the Universe, this discovery dwarfed them all. This 'nothing' is an enormous hole in the cosmos that defies standard cosmology and might just be the imprint of another universe bumping against our own while some astronomers suggested the spot could be a supervoid, a remnant of an early phase transition in the universe."
"On Thursday night at a DNC fundraising dinner in San Francisco, President Obama took a new analogy in addressing his critics. 'Another way of putting it is when, you know, I'm busy and [Speaker] Nancy [Pelosi]'s busy with our mop cleaning up somebody else's mess -- we don't want somebody sitting back saying, you're not holding the mop the right way.' Obama paused for applause. 'Why don't you grab a mop, why don't you help clean up.'
Obama continued riffing -- 'You're not mopping fast enough. That's a socialist mop' -- but sobered up quickly. 'Grab a mop -- let's get to work.'"
"Ever wonder why the single most sensible, economical and democratic way to provide health care to every person in the US was never really mentioned in the rhetoric whirlwind of public options, opt-outs, co-ops, triggers and free market embracing?
Part of the reason why is that the media refused to mention it:
The media analysis group Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting (FAIR) issued an action alert September 22 titled 'NYT Slams Single-Payer' that described lopsided reporting in a New York Times article about 'Medicare for all,' a form of a single-payer health care system. FAIR noted that the article, titled 'Medicare for All? ‘Crazy,’ ‘Socialized’ and Unlikely', laid out a list of arguments against single-payer while failing to include any balancing responses from the option's supporters."
"WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Obama administration will not seek to arrest medical marijuana users and suppliers as long as they conform to state laws, under new policy guidelines to be sent to federal prosecutors Monday.
Two Justice Department officials described the new policy to The Associated Press, saying prosecutors will be told it is not a good use of their time to arrest people who use or provide medical marijuana in strict compliance with state laws.
"A little noticed policy at two California airports allows properly qualified passengers to fly the friendly skies carrying up to a half pound of marijuana, news agencies revealed Friday.
'The policy [at Oakland International Airport] is spelled out in a three-page document quietly enacted last year by the Alameda County Sheriff's Office,' Mercury News reported. 'It states that if deputies determine someone is a qualified patient or primary caregiver as defined by California law and has eight ounces or less of the drug, he or she can keep it and board the plane.'"
"New data from U.S. polling firm Gallup shows nearly half of Americans -- a record number -- are in support of legalizing and taxing marijuana for recreational use by adults."
"But instead of starting with no national public option and giving state governments the right to develop their own, the newest compromise approaches the issue from the opposite direction: beginning with a national public option and giving state governments the right not to have one."
"Rarely do the Left and the Right have a head-to-head opportunity to prove out, in real time, the relative superiority of their respective value systems and legislative choices, with real and immediate consequences not only for the partisan legislators involved, but for the legitimacy of a Party's entire ideological underpinnings.
An opt-out system will allow Republicans to use their own psychotic, sociopathic momentum to carry them to their doom. With apologies to the long-suffering citizens of those states who may have to wait a few more years for needed help on healthcare, I say let each state do as it pleases, and let the chips fall where they may.
And within a decade, the writing on the wall will be so clear even in Alabama and Mississippi that not only will we have a national public plan, but we might even see some deep South red states turn blue as a result."
-----------
"With full apologies due to my fellow Democrats in deep red states, I must nevertheless admit that I really love the idea of an opt-out public option.
Not because it's the best idea by any means. A robust single-payer plan would be the best idea. Not because tens of thousands of real Americans won't die and go bankrupt in states with morally bankrupt legislators.
But it would do wonders to completely reframe the entire debate over the public option and healthcare in general by allowing, at long last, those states with Randian ideological pedigrees to truly 'go Galt', in a head to head test of ideologies to see who comes out ahead and why. And if we play our cards right, it might just be the ticket to Democratic victories in the South."
"FRANK: I just want to ask Paul one question. … When did you figure that out? Because apparently for the 12 years that the Republicans were in control — eight of which had a Republican president — that hadn’t occurred to you. So I’m glad you now understand that. Can you tell me at what moment the revelation occurred?
RYAN: First of all, I introduced on this subject about six years ago.
FRANK: You had control of the Congress. Why didn’t the Republican Congress fix it?
RYAN: I will have a moment of bipartisan agreement. We should have fixed this under our watch and I’m frustrated we didn’t."
Unlike the phony ACORN undercover operation -- which only offered for public view a single instance of actual miscreancy, and refused to report the several instances in which they were turned away -- this report is clear that some gun vendors adhered to the law.
But some 19 out of the 30 vendors approached sold to investigators who said they'd probably fail a check. Along the way, they bought semi-automatic handguns and assault rifles. All told, 39 of 51 attempts to buy a gun illegally were successful. Several vendors told their buyers that they probably wouldn't pass a check either.
Only 11 vendors said no.
There were exchanges like this caught on tape:
"I don't need your address."
"No background check?"
"Nothing. Just show me that you're from Ohio."
"That's good about the background check because I probably couldn’t pass one."
"I don't care. All's I got to do is demand you show me your license."
"You don’t care about the background check, right?"
"Nope. Nope. I wouldn't pass either, bud." [grin]
"Is that right?"
This is why some 30 percent of all illegal gun traffic in the United States emanates from gun shows. It's long past time to shut this travesty down.
Ant: Taylor Swift got joewilsoned!
"Let's return to 1,100ad, when tribal warlords called all the shots, and everyone else just starved, or died of illness or injury. When there were no government rules and regulations for safety of the food supply, no attempts to maintain a society of laws and justice, and no public services to take your taxes and 'waste them' by government organizing and operating the most complex factors in society to create a safe and healthy environment. (Oh, wait!! You think you'll be one of the warlords, don't you? Sucker...)"
"A clear line can be drawn from the red-baiting and Muslim-baiting of Obama during the campaign, to the birther movement, to shouting down Democratic members of Congress at town hall meetings to the accusation that the President of the United States was a Nazi because he sought to expand health care to a greater number of Americans to Joe Wilson's behavior last week. Parenthetically, it should be noted that other American presidents who have sought to expand health care coverage to more Americans include Franklin Roosevelt and Harry Truman, two presidents whose anti-Nazi credentials are reasonably strong.
The Republicans, to their credit, have done a remarkable job of lowering the bar for what passes as acceptable political dialog in recent months. It is hard to believe that only a few months ago people were outraged that Rush Limbaugh, the blowhard in chief of the right wing of the Republican Party, suggested that he wanted to see President Obama fail. After what we have seen the last few months, Limbaugh's comments seem positively bipartisan in nature."
"In every region of the country, a majority of physicians supported a combination of public and private options, as did physicians who identified themselves as primary care providers, surgeons, or other medical subspecialists. Among those who identified themselves as members of the American Medical Association, 62.2 percent favored both the public and private options."
"Under the cold logic of the insurance industry, it makes perfect sense: If you are in a marriage with someone who has beaten you in the past, you're more likely to get beaten again than the average person and are therefore more expensive to insure.
In human terms, it's a second punishment for a victim of domestic violence.
In 2006, Democrats tried to end the practice. An amendment introduced by Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), now a member of leadership, split the Health Education Labor & Pensions Committee 10-10. The tie meant that the measure failed.
All ten no votes were Republicans, including Sen. Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming), a member of the 'Gang of Six' on the Finance Committee who are hashing out a bipartisan bill. A spokesman for Enzi didn't immediately return a call from Huffington Post."
"In the garage, the student told police he discovered a man and when the student told the man to get out, the man accosted him, Guglielmi said. The student defended himself with the sword, cutting off the man's hand and causing a severe laceration to his upper body, he said."
"An 11-year-old boy gets high marks in storytelling after staging a hoax to cover up his bad grades. Police said the boy faked his kidnapping Friday to avoid bringing home a bad report card, saying that a man with a pistol snatched him after he left Ed White Middle School. The boy said the man forced him into a 'beat-up car' and threatened to kill him.
The student said he escaped by jumping out of the car but wasn't able to grab his bookbag, which contained the report card."
"Spooner Oldham has spent 50 years in the music business, and in April he will be recognized for his legendary career when he's inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame."
"I'm not a psychologist, but this is really fascinating if you put it all together: It appears that distraught conservative pundits and bloggers are actually in the midst of collectively retreating into the world of fantasy as a psychological defense mechanism. Let's take a look at three recent exhibits that illustrate what I'm talking about."
"A conservative organization is set to launch an all-out effort aimed at beating Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in 2010."
"This morning, 43 Alaskan Natives filed a lawsuit against the Society of Jesus (the Jesuits), claiming a widespread conspiracy to dump pedophile priests in small Alaskan towns and shelter them from exposure."
"A mountain lion apparently is prowling the hills sandwiched between Santa Rosa’s Bennett Valley Golf Course and Annadel State Park, an area filled with dozens of homes.
The remains of a deer were found Friday near in a home’s backyard in the hillside neighborhood, which backs into open space."
"HILO, Hawaii – A Hilo Chevrolet dealer who tried to crush his Asian auto competition found the stunt a little harder to pull off than expected.
Island Chevrolet general sales manager James Severtson arranged for a Chevrolet Suburban SUV outfitted with massive tires costing $5,000 apiece to drive over a Honda Accord.
On the first attempt Friday, the monster truck blew a hydraulic hose and leaked vital fluid while the Honda remained intact and ready for more."
"While other 4-year-olds were off in slumber land, Peter Fitzsimmons was soaking up the music at Jimbo's Bop City, the fabled Fillmore District nightspot where John Coltrane, Ella Fitzgerald or Charlie Parker might stroll in and join the after-hours jam session."
"'Both sources say those in the intelligence community and on Capitol Hill are raising questions about the political intent of this new aggressive stance,'' NPR reports. 'The question is,' said one of the sources, 'Why wasn't this done a year ago?'"
"Cindy McCain's addiction to prescription painkillers emerged into public view 14 years ago with a well-orchestrated PR campaign designed to preserve her husband's political future.
Aside from a lengthy contemporary investigation from Phoenix's alternative weekly and occasional mentions since then, the addiction back-story -- including ample questions about what John McCain knew, when he knew it and questions over whether he was complicit in the cover-up -- has gone largely untold. Until now.
Tom Gosinski, a former employee of the medical-aid charity Cindy McCain used as personal supplier of Percocet and Vicodin, is speaking out publicly for the first time."
"A 60-minute DVD, titled 'Obsession: Radical Islam's War Against the West,' is being distributed in millions of newspapers across the country this week primarily in swing states through an advertising purchase by a shadowy group called the Clarion Fund."
"Mississippi’s governor, Haley Barbour, and its secretary of state have come up with a particularly cynical dirty trick for the November election. Let’s call it: “Where’s the Senate race?”
Defying state law, they have decided to hide a hard-fought race for the United States Senate at the bottom of the ballot, where they clearly are hoping some voters will overlook it. Their proposed design is not only illegal. It shows a deep contempt for Mississippi’s voters.
Republicans have long had a lock on the state’s two Senate seats. But this year, former Gov. Ronnie Musgrove, a Democrat, has been running close to Senator Roger Wicker, a Republican, in the polls. Mr. Wicker was appointed to the seat by Governor Barbour in late December after Trent Lott stepped down."
"Pima County (Tucson), Arizona Election Integrity advocate and expert John Brakey was arrested last night while performing his job as an election supervisor, on behalf of both the Democratic and Libertarian parties, during a post-election hand-count audit of ballots.
Brakey becomes the latest in a growing string of EI advocates to be arrested and/or barred from observing (Brakey was lucky enough to merit both 'honors' apparently) while attempting to assure accuracy, fairness, and transparency in voting and in the reporting of election results on behalf of citizens.
"I think I might be able to explain some of Sarah Palin's appeal. She's the 'American Idol' candidate. Consider. What defines an 'American Idol' finalist? They're good-looking, work well on television, have a sunny personality, are fierce competitors, and so talented, why, they're darned near the real thing. There's a reason 'American Idol' gets such high ratings. People identify with the contestants. They think, Hey, that could be me up there on that show!
My problem is, I don't want to be up there. I don't want a vice president who is darned near good enough. I want a vice president who is better, wiser, well-traveled, has met world leaders, who three months ago had an opinion on Iraq. Someone who doesn't repeat bald- faced lies about earmarks and the Bridge to Nowhere. Someone who doesn't appoint Alaskan politicians to 'study' global warming, because, hello! It has been studied. The returns are convincing enough that John McCain and Barack Obama are darned near in agreement."
"(09-11) 12:29 PDT SAN FRANCISCO -- A car-burglary suspect fell to his death early today after he climbed over a wall on San Francisco's Telegraph Hill while trying to flee from police, apparently unaware that on the other side of the wall was a 200-foot cliff, authorities said."
"Keller's creations can be whimsical but he's also a perfectionist - he insists that fish be stored upright, the way they swim - and he's trained stars such as Grant Achatz at Alinea in Chicago, and four-star chef Ron Siegel at the Dining Room at the Ritz-Carlton in San Francisco."
"Shanes said Fox must have spotted the boy when he was pulling up to the search area, just north of Salem Church of Christ.
'And when I opened the car door, he just took off to check it out and found him,' Shanes said."
"GENEVA (AFP) - A giant inflatable dog turd by American artist Paul McCarthy blew away from an exhibition in the garden of a Swiss museum, bringing down a power line and breaking a greenhouse window before it landed again, the museum said Monday."
"He shook his cell phone off his belt, kicked off one shoe and used his toe to dial 911. Rescuers used a thick metal bar to pry the machinery off his arms."
"A Japanese civil servant was demoted for logging more than 780,000 hits on pornographic Web sites on his office computer over nine months, an official said Friday"
"I-Doser is some program you download and it plays music that synchronizes with your brainwaves or something and makes you feel like your own drugs. I could be completely wrong here, because I didn't actually read anything about it, but I'll post some of their captivating marketing bullshit here:"
"'I don't know what to do anymore,' says Dean's misfit teen character, Jim Stark, 'Except maybe die.'
David Nadelberg created the Mortified experience, including one of the books 'Love Is a Battlefield.'
That's high drama, but it's not so different from the rants, musings and observations that can be seen on getmortified.com, an offshoot of an experimental theater program in which people reveal the most embarrassing moments of their teenage past.
The teenage themes are what you'd expect: sex, insecurity, betrayal and friendships. But the perspectives are hilariously incongruent coming from the mouths of adults.
'She wants it. I want to give it to her. But what is 'it',' says a man at one performance.
'I feel suicidal and sorry but at the same time, Dana is a major [expletive]. I hate life,' says another participant."
"Seven years before The Great Nintendo Wii Drought of 2007 (and, most likely, 2008), gamers faced similar troubles trying to locate units of Sony's unstoppable Playstation 2.
Iraqi strongman Saddam Hussein, however, was able to scoop up a whopping 4,000 PS2s without so much as a pre-order. And according to a report on the website worldnetdaily.com, the dictator wasn't just planning an all-night LAN party: he was securing PS2s in an effort to build a nefarious military supercomputer, since U.S. customs doesn't consider a 'toy' to be a potential military threat."
"-- Don't wake us. Shhh. Be very, very quiet. We are in a dream. Look at us from above. That's us, running in fields of flowers. Jumping, giddily. Oh, the joy on our happy little face. And no doubt you can see why. Those aren't the Cranky Pants we're wearing. None of that hard, scratchy bitterness, the tight, irritable waistband that makes us so very angry at people and their television shows. No - get a better look. We're wearing Gary Coleman's $400,000 pants!"
"'I look at the biggest middle finger in the world all day,' is his more succinct explanation. I ask Razsa if he has a monologue loaded up, in the event that his next encounter was at closer range. To my surprise, the idea doesn't appeal. 'What do you say? 'Thanks for School of the Americas, and Iran-Contra, and NAFTA, and shipping all those jobs overseas, and arming Saddam, and funding the Taliban?' What do you say -- 'You're a jerk?' There's nothing that can be put into a sentence that would capture the lives these people have taken, and the way of life that's been taken.'"
"Phil Hansen stubbornly adheres to one artistic cliche. He's willing to suffer for his art. Asked to provide a photo for Yahoo! News, Phil Hansen couldn't resist creating a composite image. Take the giant portrait he made of North Korean leader Kim Jong Il as a protest against nuclear proliferation. He applied 6,000 adhesive bandages on a plywood backdrop. Then, using a quart-sized bag of his own blood, he painted Kim's face on the exposed gauze. His sister-in-law, a doctor, helped him draw the 500ml he needed."
"WASHINGTON - It sounds like the plot for a scary B-movie: Germs go into space on a rocket and come back stronger and deadlier than ever. Except, it really happened."
"Your brain depends on a variety of nutrients to keep itself balanced. Cheetos and beer are not on the list. The scoop on six snacks that will help kick your mind into gear"
