Dec 23
Flash mob with elves
Flash mob with elves. It’s probably an ad campaign, still fun though:
Flash mob with elves. It’s probably an ad campaign, still fun though:
What a heartwarming sight, take a look at this:
And by the way, YouTube has the worst comments of all time. Hell yeah.
Are things that bad? If you have 10 minutes to spare and are in the mood for reading, read the Guardian article:
Will California become America’s first failed state?
… California is like a patient on life support. At the start of summer the state government was so deeply in debt that it began to issue IOUs instead of wages. Its unemployment rate has soared to more than 12%, the highest figure in 70 years. Desperate to pay off a crippling budget deficit, California is slashing spending in education and healthcare, laying off vast numbers of workers and forcing others to take unpaid leave. In a state made up of sprawling suburbs the collapse of the housing bubble has impoverished millions and kicked tens of thousands of families out of their homes. Its political system is locked in paralysis and the two-term rule of former movie star Arnold Schwarzenegger is seen as a disaster – his approval ratings having sunk to levels that would make George W Bush blush. The crisis is so deep that Professor Kenneth Starr, who has written an acclaimed history of the state, recently declared: “California is on the verge of becoming the first failed state in America.”
… California is currently cutting healthcare, slashing the “Healthy Families” programme that helped an estimated one million of its poorest children. Los Angeles now has a poverty rate of 20%. Other cities across the state, such as Fresno and Modesto, have jobless rates that rival Detroit’s. In order to pass its state budget, California’s government has had to agree to a deal that cuts billions of dollars from education and sacks 60,000 state employees. Some teachers have launched a hunger strike in protest. California’s education system has become so poor so quickly that it is now effectively failing its future workforce. The percentage of 19-year-olds at college in the state dropped from 43% to 30% between 1996 and 2004, one of the highest falls ever recorded for any developed world economy. California’s schools are ranked 47th out of 50 in the nation. Its government-issued bonds have been ranked just above “junk”.
It has this chilling effect for me.
Wow, US government asked Twitter not to do maintenance during the Iran election:
State Department to Twitter: Keep Iranian tweets coming
Senior officials say the State Department is working with Twitter and other social networking sites to ensure Iranians are able to continue to communicate to each other and the outside world.
…they do want to make sure the technology is able to play its sorely-needed role in the crisis, which is why the State Department is advising social networking sites to make sure their networks stay up and running for Iranians to use them and helping them stay ahead of anyone who would try to shut them down.
For example, senior officials say the State Department asked Twitter to refrain for going down for periodic scheduled maintenance at this critical time to ensure the site continues to operate. Bureau’s and offices across the State Department, they say, are paying very close attention to Twitter and other sites to get information on the situation in Iran.
[From CNN blog]
Amy and David Goodman talks about standing up for the Patriot Act.
Summary
The longtime host of the award-winning Pacifica Radio’s Democracy Now!, Amy Goodman has steadfastly covered grassroots activism, the political process, and government accountability. She has co-authored many books with her brother and fellow journalist, David Goodman.
Their collaborations include investigations into the mercenary aspects of war, media culpability, freedom of information, and international human rights, and seek not only to expose endemic corruption, but also to affect change.
Their bestselling book, The Exception to the Rulers: Exposing Oily Politicians, War Profiteers, and the Media That Love Them, examines the full political spectrum, from The Washington Post to Bill Clinton, in an effort to bring genuine accountability into public discourse. The Goodmans’ latest project is Standing Up to the Madness: Ordinary Heroes in Extraordinary Times. Standing Up to the Madness celebrates grassroots activists across America and the power of the individual to bring change on a local and national level.
Some of the smokers I know are in denial. They made the claim that increasing cigarette tax doesn’t work (of course, they have a stake in this) and they’re generally rather upset when cigarette prices increase. But fact is, statistically, increasing cigarette tax has shown some results – people do quit. Washington Post explains:
Cigarette Tax Boost Prods Some to Quit
The 62-cent tax increase was adopted this year as a way to fund the expansion of the State Children’s Health Insurance Program. On Wednesday, the day the increase took effect, the District’s quit line got 131 calls, a record. The same day a week earlier, it had 44 calls; a month earlier, 19.
“I’m in shock, quite frankly,” said Debra Annand, director of health education services for the American Lung Association’s District of Columbia office, which contracts with the local health department to provide smoking-cessation services.
“Obviously something happened to drive that call volume up,” Annand said. “Lots of research has shown the number one thing that helps people quit is increasing the price.”
“Several measures are proven to reduce tobacco use. Foremost is taxation,” wrote the author of a report two years ago in the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, a publication of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A national telephone number, 1-800-QUITNOW, connects callers to programs in all 50 states and the District. In March, it registered 203,374 calls, more than twice February’s 91,316. In January, it got 76,685.
Normally, February and March have about the same number of calls, and fewer than January, which is a big month for quitting, said Linda A. Bailey, president of the North American Quitline Consortium.
Various forces are at play in addition to the tax increase.
Virginia recently enacted a law that will ban smoking in most restaurants starting in December. “That may be contributing to some of this,” Phil Giaramita, spokesman for the Virginia Department of Health, said yesterday.
But the price of cigarettes appears to be the main driver of the recent rise in people seeking help. (Source: Washington Post)
I won’t call this a surprise at all. But at least now there’s something I can show to people who insist increasing cigarette tax doesn’t make people quit. It does, it’s just not obvious.
Rachel Maddow explains why to save the economy is to spend money and not to provide tax cuts and so on. Rachel Maddow Show – “…get out of the way of people who are actually trying to save the country.”
USA dropped a stimulus package that is worth some 800 billion. Now I’m actually wondering what’s “bullpucky”, turns out it is a more polite way to say “bullshit”. Hmm… Then don’t say it! It ruins the whole point of using the word “bullshit”, if you can’t say it, don’t.