After the filly Eight Belles suffered a fatal breakdown following her strong second-place finish in the Kentucky Derby, there are plenty of questions floating around. Since when do racehorses break down after the race? (Never before, in anyone’s memory, by the way.) Could something have prevented this? Some folks are just asking themselves why they watched the race, or why we race horses to begin with. Is it moral to ask them to try so hard that they kill themselves doing it?
Horses and riders risk their lives in every equestrian sport. If you’ve ever signed the waivers at a guest ranch or riding stable, you understand this. There are injuries, horrors and abuses in all sorts of horse industries. (Many of them blogged about most excellently at Fugly Horse of the Day.) That said,... Read more
These bother me.
The jobs that full-time students can get during the school year are usually low-paying, part-time retail or food-service positions. Many colleges are in small towns where nothing else is available even if students did have time to devote to them — but they don’t. And many students don’t work paying jobs at all during the school... Read more
Third-party applications created with the iPhone SDK will be available for sale in June. Apple has created an incredible platform here — how much will these applications cost?
From a developer’s point of view, let’s see how much potential the market holds. This will determine what a developer needs to charge to make the effort worthwhile.
As of... Read more
Politicians can be myopic. Under current party rules, my state’s delegation will not be seated at the Democratic National Convention in Denver. All of Michigan is disenfranchised. Prominent Democrats are franticly searching for a way to seat these delegates in a way that doesn’t appear to compromise the ongoing primary process. They worry that... Read more
I just read that Hillary Clinton might be winning in “the only count that matters.” Really? And what innovative accounting method is this? Apparently, Hillary would be ahead if we were counting the electoral votes in states she has won. This winner-take-all system is now the system that “makes sense” and Hillary should be winning. Let’s do... Read more
We all know that climate change is a problem. We know it is caused in large part by greenhouse gasses like carbon dioxide being released into the atmosphere and trapping heat. If we can’t find a solution to global warming, we’re in all sorts of trouble. That solution will involve cutting carbon dioxide emissions. So far, most of us are in... Read more
This is a good one. The US Department of Justice approved the much-needed merger between XM and Sirius yesterday, leaving the final decision in the hands of the FCC.
Clear Channel wrote to the FCC, claiming that the only fair way to proceed would be to apply the same “decency” regulations to satellite radio that have always applied to AM and... Read more
Dawn makes bad coffee. At least she realizes it. That’s the first step to overcoming this terrible affliction.
Here’s roughly how to make good coffee:
Start with fresh beans. They should have a strong smell and look slightly oily.
I cancelled my cable TV service in January. Nearly all of the time, we don’t notice.
I didn’t have anything to do this weekend. Tiff was out of town. Nothing was happening on the internet. When I had cable, I would have watched a lot of TV.
TV is the easy way out. When you have nothing to do, it’s the default. But without cable, we’re... Read more
Tonight between 02:30 and 05:00 UTC (6:30 PM and 9:00 PM central time), the US Navy will fire a series of SM3 (standard missile 3) interceptors at a disabled National Reconnaissance Office satellite. The satellite went out of control several weeks ago, and is currently spiraling down into the atmosphere. Without any intervention, it will re-enter... Read more
In the past week, Obama has won eight consecutive landslide victories. The closest contest was Maine, where he beat Clinton by a mere 19% of the vote. In terms of pledged delegates (the ones determined by the actual voters), Obama is now ahead by about 120 delegates, depending on which news source is projecting and how they do their math. The... Read more
Every election year, we see articles on how the Internet might change the political race. Thus far, it hasn’t happened—at least not in the paradigm-shattering way people hope it will. Sure, bloggers blog about the candidates—but the largest audience is other bloggers. Unfortunately, internet literacy seems to be inversely proportional to voter... Read more
Good evening, ladies and gentlemen of the United States of America. Our union is in its weakest state in history.
Policy is decided more through campaign contributions than merit. Campaign finance reform is as unlikely to happen as Congress voting to give themselves a pay cut, because they’re effectively equivalent.
FCC deregulation has enabled... Read more
Engadget benchmarked the MacBook Air and declared it the slowest machine Apple makes. Most performance complaints have been about the 1.6 GHz CPU, a 20% clock-speed reduction from the 2.0 GHz CPU offered in the lowest-end MacBook. But that’s irrelevant in practice.
Most people, even those technically inclined, don’t understand some... Read more
I posted last week about Sony BMG’s upcoming move to drop DRM, but I had no idea it would take this form.
Sony BMG’s Bizarre Approach to Selling DRM-Free Music:
Rather than sell individual tracks over the Web like iTunes or Amazon, Sony BMG will be selling plastic cards at retail stores like Best Buy and Target that represent the... Read more
