Links (most recent first) that caught my eye, but did not warrant full-blown blog entries ….
- Happiness is a warm gun : Pharyngula – But will they get in trouble if they bring one to school?
- Taking taxes off the table? – The only question in my mind is, do these GOP “leaders” actually believe it (that taxes are an absolute evil), are they appealing to their base (who they think believe taxes are an absolute evil), or are they appealing to their contributors (who believe taxes on
themare an absolute evil)? - Going Critical – Interesting. “There are no ideal solutions. Every energy technology carries a cost; so does the absence of energy technologies. Atomic energy has just been subjected to one of the harshest of possible tests, and the impact on people and the planet has been small. The crisis at Fukushima has converted me to the cause of nuclear power.”
- At War with Itself – Biblical literalism is a mook’s game, and to treat the Bible as perfect, inerrant, and literally true requires more contortion and word-parsing and logic twists and intellectual dishonesty (or else simple or willful ignorance) than honestly engaging with the text as it is and figuring out for oneself what it means and how to apply it to one’s life. But folks who are (ironically) obsessed with the Law just can’t see that.
- Internet explodes with snark, anger, despair over T-Mobile’s sale – When’s the last time the FCC or DoJ or any other government agency with regulatory authority over such a merger actually blocked one or made substantive (not window-dressing) conditions on it. Ma Bell will indeed be back, count on it.
- This is not even a coherent response. – “Liberals who defend the rights of gay people are not necessarily ‘pro-gay,’ they are pro-rights for gay people. One can even dislike gays personally and still be supportive of equality of rights. Just because I don’t want Victoria Jackson taken out and stoned to death for wearing ridiculous headgear doesn’t mean I’m pro-Jackson. I am not pro-Jackson at all. I think she is a mentally dense moron who doesn’t have a clue about the facts of life. But I want her rights defended even if I dislike her personally.” Amen.
- Japan earthquake has implications for Moore’s Law, too – While the human toll is the most significant, the impact of the disaster in Japan on the computing industry will also have long-term effects.
- Evangelicals Break With Conservative Approach to Deficit – “We have not amassed our national debt by spending too much on the world’s poor.”
- Japan’s Wind Turbines Survive 1,000 Year Earthquake Unscathed : TreeHugger – Windmails fail “gracefully” — and don’t require any infrastructure to send them fuel, just a grid to pump power to. They’re not the final answer to everything, but surely they are part of the answer.
- Japan’s Wind Turbines Survive 1,000 Year Earthquake Unscathed : TreeHugger – Windmails fail “gracefully” — and don’t require any infrastructure to send them fuel, just a grid to pump power to. They’re not the final answer to everything, but surely they are part of the answer.
- 2 Alabama Community Colleges Drop Athletics – Physical fitness and education are great, but faced with major budget cutbacks (right, wrong, or indifferent), fielding sports teams seems to be a straightforward place for colleges of all sizes to save signficant money.
- Finicky iOS Users Rebelling Over Rovio’s Angry Birds “Ads” – Okay, I can appreciate the sentiment of folks irked over ads (even ones for AB swag) in a game they’ve paid (a trivial amount) for. But this kind of “OMG ADS I AM CHANGING YOU FROM 5 STARS TO 1 STAR YOU SUXX0R!!!!” sentiment is just childish. Might as well have a one-star system (“Rocks or Sucks?”) if that’s how people are going to be.
- In AT&T & T-Mobile Merger, Everybody Loses – "It doesn’t matter how you look at it; this is just bad for wireless innovation, which means bad news for consumers. T-Mobile has been pretty experimental and innovative: It has experimented with newer technologies such as UMA, built its own handsets and has generally been a more consumer-centric company. AT&T, on the other hand, has the innovation of a lead pencil and has the mentality more suited to a monopoly: a position it wants to regain."
32 view(s)
12. Interesting, the discontinuity between attitudes toward games vs. other media. I don’t recall ever hearing anybody say, “Why does this magazine have ads when I had to pay for it?” If the ads are for Rovio products, we can extend the metaphor: “Why is this pay cable station advertising its other shows that I don’t care about?”
Companies need to make money from their products, and ads help keep costs low. Would you pay $30 for Angry Birds on your phone to keep it ad-free? I doubt that enough people would for Rovio to remain profitable.