When Time magazine was rumored to make the Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg its Person of the Year, Ye 5th’s Editor thought that another Media “Academy Award” was a little too much. But with the revolt in Tunisia and the outbreak of dissent and protests in Egypt, both largely organized and propelled by social media including Facebook on the Web, maybe Facebook, social media and the Web…
In fighting specifically for the Bush Tax Cuts for the wealthy and then Estate Tax Cuts that also accrue to the wealthy , Republicans rebranded themselves yet again as the Banksters’ Boyz. With these moves the Republicans moved back and away from anti-gays [oops, GOP delivered here by ignoring military top brass and saying once again if you are gay you cannot serve openly in…
The NYTimes has done something about the US Budget and its huge deficits that is most commendable - it has made the sprawling size and growth of the US Federal Government budget understandable. Not Business Week, not Forbes, not the Wall Street Journal nor any other of the Titans of the Business Press have done anything close to this. See the screenshot below or go…
Heaven and OpenSecrets.org know the Democrats have succumbed just as whole-souledly as the Republicans to the DarkSide of Money Lords, Campaign Funding and Special Interest Lobbying. For example, the just concluded Midterm elections cost $4B and saw outside spending by Liberal/Democratic groups increasing by 100% and Conservative Republican groups by 700% to a new high of $250 million – with the Democrats raising $1.3B and…
The New York Times has an intriguing story about an major art exhibition in Vienna of over 200 pieces from the North Korea Art Gallery Pyongyang. “North Korea you say … what art do they have ? -Its is all propaganda.” And you would be right as this slideshow demonstrates – the picture above is one of 100 distressingly familiar examples of how art as…
Marketwatch’s Paul Farrel is at it again – speaking his mind. Paul has taken former Ronald Reagan Budget Director David Stockman’s article in the NYTimes and played it back again and has come up with the most popular posting on Dow Jones Marketwatch today. Paul minces no words, just like David Stockman: Stockman is equally damning of the Democrats’ Keynesian policies. But what an indictment…
Will the Creative Disruption that will be taking place in Scrabble this late Spring be gaga-allowed or Lady Gaga – now allowed too. This all comes about as as Mattel, “Makers of Scrabble” [Hasbro is so far saying "no thank you" for its North American edition of the game], changes the rules of the game to allow Proper Nouns into the game. I mean Samoa…
UPDATE2: Washington Post calls decision a watershed, Android is delayed on China Mobile, etc. UPDATE: Google moved its search site to HongKong where it can deliver uncensored searches.What is uncertain is how China will react. China already blocks YouTube will it do the same for Google Maps, Apps, and Voice? What happens with Google Android and ChromeOS? HongKong searches get filtered/censored as they enter China.…
UPDATE: Prime Minister of Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, is not the Mensch the US seeks. Netanyahu declares that Israel would not stop Jewish settlements around Jerusalem. Yet again the New York Times reports of this macabre dance in Israel: Israeli Troops Kill Two Palestinians in West Bank This is the same damned dance of death that gets performed so many times in the past decades –…
Update: NYTimes reports that Prime Minister Netanyahu Offers Apology, but No Shift in Policy This blog has mixed no metaphors in saying that the Jewish Settlement Policy on the West Bank and in Jerusalem has been one of the greatest detriments to US Foreign Policy in the important Islamic World. The current map of Israeli settlements on the West Bank not only undermines the view…
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Captain Jack Aubrey and Spymaster Stephen Maturin are the matching pieces in this historical novel. It is remarkable that English literature has two series, Horatio Hornblower and Aubrey + Maturin both set in the same era and of such great quality. Desolation Island tells you why the era of the dawning Enlightenment, European Wars and Industrial Revolution was so tempestuous... and on a prison ship voyage to Australia. Such drama!