What would a carny call this? Or Joe Sixpack?

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Monday March 07, 2011 · 7:51 AM PST

2011/03/07 · 07:51

It's the beginning of the weekend. You've set up your booth in the carnival at the local county fair the night before, it's Saturday mid-morning, the crowd is thin and a little disinterested.

You start your spiel. Again, For the ten thousandth time.

The crowd stands off at a distance, too great a distance.

Suddenly from the back of the crowd a voice is heard. Someone who seems to have seen you before, maybe last year. Talking loudly to whoever will listen, the talker has seen your product, has bought your product, loves your product.

With a carefully measured, mounting enthusiasm, it's almost as if the talker and you are working off a script.

Poll

0 votes Show Results

0 votes Vote Now!

On school bonds, and the New Selfishness(tm)

b00g13p0p

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Friday February 25, 2011 · 6:34 PM PST

2011/02/25 · 18:34

My local school district (very small, 1400 students, one each of an elementary school, a middle school and a high school -- we're on a ferry-only island so we've got to do this all ourselves) has finally managed to pass a $47.7m bond issue to replace some of the high school's existing classroom buildings with one self-contained classroom building.

Poll

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0 votes Vote Now!

Why won't Google News allow personal customizations to remove FOX News?

b00g13p0p

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Monday March 01, 2010 · 3:26 PM PST

2010/03/01 · 15:26

From my just-moments-ago entry at Google News Suggestions:

It's very clear from the number of times that this specific issue has come up, and from the completely worthless "self-help" tips that are too arcane, and too ineffective, that Google News simply does not have the integrity to allow individual users to make personal preferences about which so-called news sites are displayed at news.google.com

Many, many people have expressed the opinion that FOX News and the Wall Street Journal are nothing more than propaganda arms of the Republican party and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp.

Individual people do have the right to hold this opinion.

Individual people should have the opportunity to act upon their opinions, and eliminate any "news" feeds from FOX News and its affiliates, and the Wall Street Journal, if they so choose.

Since Google is entirely unresponsive to the requests of so many people, I for one will take the only action that one person can:

I've closed the browser tab that used to point to news.google.com for good, I'm gone, and I won't be back.

See ya...

Poll

102 votes Show Results

What news aggregation web site (if any) do you like?

102 votes Vote Now!

What news aggregation web site (if any) do you like?

Google news

16 votes

Yahoo! news

6 votes

Bing news

4 votes

HuffPo

17 votes

Talking Points Memo

16 votes

None of the above

30 votes

All of the above

4 votes

I get all the news I need just looking out the window

9 votes

School disciplines student for inappropriate...

b00g13p0p

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Thursday February 18, 2010 · 8:27 AM PST

2010/02/18 · 08:27

...behavior.

OK, you say, what else is new?

What's new here is that the "inappropriate behavior" took place outside of school hours, at home, possibly in the student's bedroom.

Wait! It gets better. Or worse, depending on your perspective.

High schools (at least) in the Lower Merion School District in Pennsylvania have been monitoring their student's behavior at home, often in the privacy of their bedrooms, without anyone's knowledge.

b00g13p0p

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Friday February 12, 2010 · 7:42 AM PST

2010/02/12 · 07:42

The availability of Olympics events on cable is my next big project this morning: I live in Metro Puget Sound, about 175 miles from where the Winter Olympics are taking place, but across the Canada/US border.

I'm assuming that Comcast (sorry :-/ ) will carry Olympics coverage; the only question is which channels Comcast carries will show any Olympics coverage.

Poll

90 votes Show Results

Will you watch NBC's version of the Olympics?

90 votes Vote Now!

Will you watch NBC's version of the Olympics?

Yes! I'm a docile consumer, and there's nothing but skating to watch anyway..

2 votes

Yes! I'm a docile consumer, and willingly submit myself to my corporate overlords!

8 votes

Yes, begrudgingly because the Winter Olympics are 'way cool!

21 votes

Yes, what choice do I have?

14 votes

No! Power to the People(tm)!

42 votes

Yes, but I live in Canada, so HAH!

3 votes

Several data points in the AGW wars...

b00g13p0p

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Tuesday February 09, 2010 · 8:27 PM PST

2010/02/09 · 20:27

First off, I don't "believe in" anthropogenic global warming -- it's not a religion -- and I've become very cautious in using the phrase "believe in" because it's been deliberately co-opted by the right wing and thus has been used out of context way, way too much.

That said, I do believe that scientific theories regarding AGW are reasonably supported by a wide range of scientifically-accumulated data.

Here's a couple random data points that have just popped up.

b00g13p0p

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Monday February 08, 2010 · 8:35 AM PST

2010/02/08 · 08:35

Over at Bloomberg's "Obama Asks Republican Lawmakers to Discuss Health Care Overhaul" a new phrase flitted out of Mitch (R-Corporatism) McConnell's mouth and somehow stuck in my brain.

The new phrase?

"heath-spending" bill

Not Health Care, but Health-Spending. Note the hyphen.

b00g13p0p

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Friday February 05, 2010 · 7:03 AM PST

2010/02/05 · 07:03

...how sick I am of seeing Sarah Palin's vacuous smile?

Poll

38 votes Show Results

Sarah Palin:

38 votes Vote Now!

Sarah Palin:

Makes me want to scream

18 votes

Makes me want to cry

2 votes

Makes me want to vote for her for President

9 votes

Why are you people always persecuting Sarah Palin?

9 votes

Backgrounder: Abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education: a view from the Right

b00g13p0p

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Thursday February 04, 2010 · 6:42 AM PST

2010/02/04 · 06:42

Finishing a three-part [part 1, part 2] narrative about "abstinence-only" sex education, we have seen

a new study that suggests it can work;

a Federal definition of what abstinence-only sex eduction is;

a critique of what that Federal definition and its subsequent policies really intend; and now

a word from the Other Side(tm) about how great this new study really is, and what it really proves.

Poll

13 votes Show Results

Regarding this new study on "abstinence-only" sex education:

13 votes Vote Now!

Regarding this new study on "abstinence-only" sex education:

Yes! The Christian right seems to be looking at a completely different study!

0 votes

No! No! The Christian right is clearly living in an alternate universe!

8 votes

Why are you people always persecuting Christians?

5 votes

Backgrounder: Abstinence-only sex education

b00g13p0p

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Wednesday February 03, 2010 · 12:57 AM PST

2010/02/03 · 00:57

As it would turn out, there's more confusion been added into an already-confusing topic with the recent publication of a study that suggests that abstinence-only sex education can delay sexual activity in young adolescents.

b00g13p0p

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Monday February 01, 2010 · 7:02 PM PST

2010/02/01 · 19:02

A quick parsing of "Study finds focus on abstinence in sex-ed classes can delay sexual activity" shows that we'll see this one spun by the religious right faster than you can say "condom".

b00g13p0p

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Thursday January 14, 2010 · 8:31 AM PST

2010/01/14 · 08:31

Been reading up on Google's tussle with China and the Infosec issues involved, and one particular sentence whizzed by my eyeballs and fortunately stuck in my head.

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What would a carny call this? Or Joe Sixpack?

On school bonds, and the New Selfishness(tm)

Why won't Google News allow personal customizations to remove FOX News?

School disciplines student for inappropriate...

The 2010 Winter Olympics: boycott NBC?

Several data points in the AGW wars...

A new entry in the right's lexicon?

May I just say right here, right now...

Backgrounder: Abstinence-only-until-marriage sex education: a view from the Right

Backgrounder: Abstinence-only sex education

"Study finds focus on abstinence ... can delay sexual activity"

Whoa! Google does what?