American Idol attracts over 63 million votes
According to the Associated Press more people voted in last night’s American Idol finale than in the last U.S. presidential election. Seems like a pretty sad statistic to me….
National
19 posts filed under this category.
Denny Hastert blogs
Speaker of the House Denny Hastert is now blogging. Hastert is the #3 politician in Washington D.C., second only to Vice President Dick Cheney in the Presidential line of succession. He hopes to provide “some inside access to the Republican playbook.” The internet is changing the way we share information. My office has been talking a lot about some of the conversations going on in blogosphere. So I thought, hey, I should start one and give you unfiltered updates on Capitol Hill. The journal has no comments, not even a list to a congressional e-mail address. The journal does not…
The history of Labor Day
Today is Labor Day. A day for every man and woman in the United States to take some time off, sip some ice tea, and spend time with friends and family. The tradition began with coordinated unpaid day off of work and became a part of the national scene under political pressure and a mid-term election in 1894. The work environment of the late 19th century heavily favored the employer. The Pullman Palace Car Company company was one example of a company where you assumed not just a job, but a lifestyle. Founder and CEO George Pullman created the town…
Hurricane Katrina on Technorati
I spent my morning summarizing the current happenings around Hurricane Katrina for a new Technorati page on the topic. Some interesting observations with limited citations as I am just braindumping. Bloggers opened their houses to each other sight unseen. Blogs with video and photo coverage quickly exceeded their bandwidth limits and were offline this morning. CNN setup a special citizen journalists page for submissions. Technorati received calls from media outlets this morning in their search of the latest news from the blogosphere. Bloggers lost power and Internet access put kept on blogging through laptops connected to dial-up modems and free…
Newsweek and Time Magazine editors discuss sources and blogging
Mark Whitaker, editor of Newsweek, and Jim Kelly, editor of Time Magazine spoke tonight at Stanford about the current state of journalism. Topics included confidential and anonymous sources, the influence of blogging, and the consolidation of news media. On Mark Cooper and Karl Rove Time Magazine and reporter Matt Cooper were recently criticized for turning over the names of sources after a grand-jury subpoena. Jim Kelly explained that while reporter’s notes and research are their own property Matt Cooper included the names of his sources in company e-mails that were later demanded by the grand-jury investigating the leak of…
Craigslist postings transmitted to space
On May 15, 2005 the Deep Space Communications Network will transmit craigslist postings, a video message from Craig Newmark, and a clip from “24 Hours on craigslist” from Cape Canaveral into space.
Presidential brand association
The Presidential ImagePower study from branding company Landor Associates and research firm Penn, Schoen and Berland revealed the perceptions of George W. Bush and John Kerry by undecided voters. 1,262 Internet survey respondents associated brands with the candidates. George W. Bush was the unanimous choice for Ford, IBM, and Bud Light….
Military perk: free cosmetic surgery
Karen Schaler writes about free cosmetic surgery for members of the United States armed forces in the July 26 issue of the The New Yorker.
Los Alamos National Laboratory shut down
Wired News: ” Los Alamos National Laboratory director Pete Nanos shut down the country’s leading nuclear weapons lab on Friday, after a set of classified computer disks disappeared and a student was hit in the eye with a powerful laser beam — all in the space of a week.”…
W Ketchup
If your choice of ketchup makes you feel like a Democrat buy some patriotic W Ketchup today. Dedicated to Ronald Reagan. Made from the finest California tomatoes using ketchup techniques passed down through American generations. Made in Ohio. “You don’t support Democrats. Why should your ketchup?”…
New York Times on fair use in the digital age
Tom Zeller Jr. of The New York Times writes about copyrights and multimedia in academic institutions. “Many scholars, librarians and legal experts see rich promise for the use of multimedia materials in research and education. But the possibility of litigation over file-sharing and confusion over digital copyright protections have scholars feeling threatened about venturing beyond the more familiar world of printed texts.”…
Ronald Reagan is dead
CNN: “Former President Ronald Reagan died Saturday at his home in Los Angeles. He was 93″…
Seattle Central Library
The Seattle Times has a slideshow of the new Seattle Central Library. Vibrant colors, lots of glass. Hopefully user friendly too! (via Jason Kottke)…
Slate: Our Hidden WMD program
Fred Kaplan of Slate breaks down the United States budget for nuclear weapons. [T]his year’s spending on nuclear activities is equal to what Ronald Reagan spent at the height of the U.S.-Soviet standoff. It exceeds by over 50 percent the average annual sum ($4.2 billion) that the United States spent—again, in real dollars—throughout the four and a half decades of the Cold War….
Conflict Archive on the Internet on Northern Ireland.
The CAIN Web Service provides information and source material on politics, society, and the struggle between Catholics and Protestants in the region since 1968. Sponsored by the University of Ulster, Queen’s University of Belfast, and the Linen Hall Library, among others. (via MetaFilter)…
NY Times: Concerns Raised Over Consultants to Pension Funds
Mary Williams Walsh wrote a long article in today’s New York Times about the relationship between money managers, plan sponsors, and the consulting firms who represent both. Pension consultants sort money managers into asset classes and build databases using their own criteria to help trustees compare and select managers. Some consultants also sell their databases and tracking software to money managers and even sell advice on how to achieve higher rankings. True. Like an Internet search engine, products must be sorted into asset classes and sub-classes. Callan sells its database and tracking software in the form of PEP. Wilshire has…
Selling phone numbers on eBay
With number portability in full effect, eBay has some listings for phone numbers. Would you like to own 212-867-5309? I have thought about wanting this number (in the 415 area code), but you would get so many crap calls it might not be worth it. I would rather have 362-4368 from AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap than a Tommy Tutone song….
FBI Issues Alert Against Almanac Carriers
According the the Associated Press, the FBI is warning police nationwide to be alert for people carrying almanacs, cautioning that they could be used for terrorist planning. What does that say about my copy of Mein Kampf and Art of War?…
Get out the vote
I just sent in my absentee balot for the November 7th elections. Get out and vote! The government is going to take the money from your paycheck anyways, at least play a part in deciding where your money goes and whose salary it helps pay….