Not logged in
Click here for instructions on how to embed "One Stop Thought Shop" into an external webpage.
•
Used and abused
by Tyler Ohlew
at
Pressing Buttons
•
Gearbox better not be in trouble, or YOU'RE in trouble
by Tyler Ohlew
at
Pressing Buttons
•
My baby will have PC gamer blood in it
by Tyler Ohlew
at
Pressing Buttons
•
The crybaby's take on Mirror's Edge
by Tyler Ohlew
at
Pressing Buttons
•
Not Practising Dignity, or a terrible way to start off a post about NPD Chart discussion
by Tyler Ohlew
at
Pressing Buttons
•
Phoenix Down is provided, Tyler lives again
by Tyler Ohlew
at
Pressing Buttons
•
aaahhhhh!
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
at
The Loud Music of the Sky
•
Celebrating One Year of Tamboril
by brian@clintonhillfoodie.com (Brian)
at
Clinton Hill Foodie
•
(Untitled)
by Brian R. Belida
at
appropriately[untitled]
From The Loud Music of the Sky:
•
aaahhhhh!
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
OH MY BOSH
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
Handful of zoo photos
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
Miracle at St. Anna
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
Boris
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
Sketchbook
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
Yes We Can
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
Walk Hard
by noreply@blogger.com (JD)
•
MSPaint Rembrandt II
by JD
Warning: Datafall has been unable to access this particular feed since 2008-12-02 16:00:29.
Page 1 of 47 >>
Here's Steve Schmidt, "the driving force behind John McCain" - the Los Angeles Times."If J. P. Morgan wanted a boat made out of papier-mâché, they would have made him a boat out of papier-mâché." 
Newsweek:
To date, experts have amassed enough evidence to demonstrate that the ship broke into three pieces, not two—before sinking, not after—and she went down faster and at a much lower angle than James Cameron would have ever guessed—all thanks to skimpy rivets and a flimsy hull.
... the problem was not just one of incompetence and poor construction.
...U.S. and British governments were throwing money at an industry that was virtually unregulated.
...the ship's builders suspected that the ship's hull was too flimsy, but overrode engineer.
Making the hull plating a quarter of an inch thinner and the rivets an eighth of an inch thinner than the original designs called for would reduce the ship's weight by 2,500 tons, enabling her to cross the English Channel faster than the competition.
An investigation held after the ship sank was not made public; the heads of Harland and Wolff allowed two formal government inquiries to lay blame for the wreck on the shoulders of the ship's captain. The lawsuits of so many victims would have bankrupted the Titanic's owners—J. P. Morgan among them.
Nov 23rd 1929 - The Economist
It's an ill wind that blows nobody any good.The slump on the New York Stock Exchange, which has resulted in this great change in the monetary outlook, is one of the spectacular episodes of financial history. A prolonged upward movement, the extent of which is illustrated by some graphs which we print in a later column, has been built up over a series of years on the amazing and unexampled prosperity of America. But some two years ago the speculative movement seemed to lose all touch with reality; and in spite of occasionally vigorous but more often half-hearted, measures by the banking authorities of the United States, speculative fever spread throughout the nation and carried prices, mainly with the aid of borrowed money, to fantastic heights.
The fall of Bank rate on Thursday by another half per cent is an outward and visible sign that the dramatic and precipitous slump of the last three weeks in Wall Street has definitely relieved the pressure on the world's money markets which the New York situation has been exerting so continuously for the last two years.Very few could have dared to hope...
A Black Church?
Sharing her pulpit with a witch-hunter, does Sarah realize that Pentecostalism is a flow of African Christianity to Europe and North America?
Have Pentecostalism, Will Travel,
How Sarah Palin's religion continues to evolve around the world, by David Martin, Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the London School of Economics.
Pentecostalism becomes what local people make of it, whether bureaucrats or charisma, goods or spirit, and is shaped in any way the local authorities want.
The Economy Crap Explained
How Wall Street went from helping people trade stocks into a bunch of cowboy hedge fund traders who didn't even realize what they were trading, but knew they were making tons of money -- so they kept borrowing to do more of it.
World stock markets have plunged after government bank bail-outs in the US and Europe failed to stem fears of slower global economic growth.
London's key UK share index lost 7.85% - its biggest percentage fall since 1987.
Paris Cac-40 suffered its largest fall on record.
The Dow Jones fell below 10,000 points for the first time since 2004.
The BBC Business Editor says it's the "the messy response of the authorities that's to blame."
Founder of Quadrangle investment firm, Steven Rattner points to the NYT series The Reckoning as "amongst the best stuff I’ve read on the meltdown situation. They shed important light on how we got into this mess without a lot of the hyperbole, hyperventilating and simply wrong headed notions that have diminished much of the coverage of this.
The Money Meltdown is a comprehensive site with 'everything you need to know about the global money crisis' - simple articles as well as extensive analysis of previous banking crises.
International Monetary Fund economists give a dry but surprisingly readable comparison of the current banking crisis to 42 previous crises, including an overview of past government interventions and their effects.
You are bought!
To cater to voters, "Republican presidents have been remarkably successful in timing income growth..."
Unequal Democracy debunks many myths about politics in contemporary America, using the widening gap between the rich and the poor to shed disturbing light on the workings of American democracy.
Larry Bartels - director of the Center for the Study of Democratic Politics at Princeton University - shows that increasing inequality is not simply the result of economic forces, but the product of broad-reaching policy choices in a political system dominated by partisan ideologies and the interests of the wealthy.
...elected officials respond to the views of affluent constituents but ignore the views of poor people.
...Republican presidents in particular have consistently produced much less income growth for middle-class and working-poor families than for affluent families, greatly increasing inequality.
He provides revealing case studies of key policy shifts contributing to inequality, including the massive Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 and the erosion of the minimum wage.
He challenges conventional explanations for why many voters seem to vote against their own economic interests, contending that working-class voters have not been lured into the Republican camp by "values issues" like abortion and gay marriage, as commonly believed, but that Republican presidents have been remarkably successful in timing income growth.
Unequal Democracy is social science at its very best. It provides a deep and searching analysis of the political causes and consequences of America's growing income gap, and a sobering assessment of the capacity of the American political system to live up to its democratic ideals.
Michael Heller's Gridlock Economy (about hoarding resources), David M. Smick's The World Is Curved (why things could get much worse), and Larry M. Bartel's Unequal Democracy (on how partisanship has hurt the poor). Especially at this time every thoughtful American needs to learn as much as possible about the relationship of politics to economics.
John McCain's campaign has been tapped to transfer its political technology to cattle ranchers.
William M. Welch, USA TODAY
Dean Anderson, an animal science researcher with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is working on a system that will allow remote control of herds by singing commands and whispering - singing jingles, sharp commands, or mimicking bees or snakes - via radio and satellite tracking and computer data analysis.
Anderson and others involved in researching the concept of "virtual fencing" say it is getting close.
The AP's Washington bureau scorned McCain as being un-American by inserting racism into this election. Mainstream media is seldom so straightforward even if this editorial is politely obscure.
Although well-known for being polite, Ann Lander's daughter Margo Howard, who has written advice columns for years, is more direct. She says Sarah Palin is a 'loud mouth'.
Sarah Palin's son?? "...to publicize the fact that Track, the kid who joined the Army, did so because a judge told him it was that or jail due to his dealing drugs." Dealing??I really thought I was done talking about Sarah Palin, but life is what happens when you’re making other plans. I wish there were a word that was a cross between "appalled" and "nauseated," because that’s what the lady’s latest outburst has me feeling. Saturday evening Drudge picked up a Breitbart story where the headline was: "Palin says Obama ‘palling around’ with terrorists." As if this weren’t bad enough, she went on to tell whatever group she was addressing: "This is not a man who sees America as you see America and as I see America." Well, I’ll tell you what I see: a loud-mouth, loose-lipped nobody who is drunk on media attention and a quart low in the judgment department. I think both she and her aged "maverick" buddy owe Mr. Obama an apology for this one.
To live on the same street and to have served on a board with Billy Ayers, part of the Weather Underground when Obama was in grade school and now a professor, is not my idea of "palling around with." I think this hockey mom/moose skinner fits perfectly into the class war she is helping perpetuate, even though she has none.
It would have far more factual validity for Obama, or a surrogate, to publicize the fact that Track, the kid who joined the Army, did so because a judge told him it was that or jail due to his dealing drugs. I have a strong hunch, however, the Obama people would never get into that. Up until now the lady has annoyed me because of her ignorance and arrogance, but now I am furious, especially when her headline-making remark from yesterday was that Obama was not "fit" to be commander-in chief. I think the McCain people better lock the lady up again and tell her to zip it, because she is not fit to even ad-lib.
"I support my son's independence, and I am proud of his decision because he made it for the right reasons -- to serve his country," Palin said in the Anchorage Daily.The Rolling Stone says in Mad Dog Palin, the scariest thing about John McCain's running mate isn't how unqualified she is - it's what her candidacy says about America.
"Here's the thing about Americans. You can send their kids off by the thousands to get their balls blown off in foreign lands for no reason at all, saddle them with billions in debt year after congressional year while they spend their winters cheerfully watching game shows and football, pull the rug out from under their mortgages, and leave them living off their credit cards and their Wal-Mart salaries while you move their jobs to China and Bangalore.In early 1980, John McCain was a man in transition -- and in a hurry.
Nine months earlier, at a cocktail reception in Hawaii, he met a glamorous young heiress named Cindy Lou Hensley and, by all accounts, fell instantly in love. McCain spent months flying from Washington to Arizona pursuing this new relationship. Soon, the 43-year-old naval attache and his 25-year-old sweetheart were engaged.
There was only one complication: McCain was still married.
A President watching out for us!
Dear Chairman Bernanke and Secretary Paulson,March 2007.
We cannot sit on the sidelines while increasing numbers of American families face the risk of losing their homes.
And while neither the government nor the private sector acting alone is capable of quickly balancing the important interests in widespread access to credit and responsible lending, both must act and act quickly...
[A] consortium of industry-related service providers and public interest advocates may be able to bring quick and efficient relief to millions of at-risk homeowners and neighborhoods, even before Congress has had an opportunity to act. There is an opportunity here to bring different interests together in the best interests of American homeowners and the American economy.
Please don't let this opportunity pass us by.
Breast cancer vaccine 'within reach'
New study confirms disease is associated with childbirth.
Professor Valerie Beral of Oxford University, who leads the Million Women's Study into the causes of the disease, told the Guardian the study had put beyond doubt what had long been guessed - that many breast cancers are caused by the absence of hormonal changes connected with childbirth.
Beral challenged the scientific community to turn its efforts to preventing breast cancer. While money and effort is poured into better drug treatments, hardly anyone is working on prevention.
Speaking to the Guardian, she said that while death rates have been slashed by new drugs and earlier diagnosis, the number of women getting breast cancer and having to go through traumatic surgery and chemotherapy was rising.
Genes played a part in only a very small number of cancers. The processes of giving birth and breastfeeding protected a woman from breast cancer more than anything else.
The more children a woman had and the longer she breastfed, the lower her risk was of later contracting breast cancer. Women in developed countries where small families are the norm have six times the breast cancer risk of those in rural parts of Asia with large families.
We must all be bananas!
Observer, Monday morning in London:
Sources indicated banks might choose not to participate in the bail-out as there is a growing view on Wall Street that the market may be bottoming out.
This is a story from the Norwegian newspaper VG.
This is the link to the translation of this story.
ÅSGÅRDSTRAND (VG): Mary was a newlywed and ready to move to Norway, but was stopped at the airport because she didn’t have enough money for the trip. Then a stranger turned up and paid for her.
I started to cry, tears were pouring down my face and I had no idea what to do. Then I heard a gentle and friendly voice behind me saying, That’s OK, I’ll pay for her.
Mary turned around to see a tall man whom she had never seen before.
He had a gentle and kind voice that was still firm and decisive. The first thing I thought was, Who is this man?
Although this happened 20 years ago, Mary still remembers the authority that radiated from the man.
He was nicely dressed, fashionably dressed with brown leather shoes, a cotton shirt open at the throat and khaki pants, says Mary.
She was thrilled to be able to bring both her suitcases to Norway and assured the stranger that he would get his money back. The man wrote his name and address on a piece of paper that he gave to Mary. She thanked him repeatedly. When she finally walked off towards the security checkpoint, he waved goodbye to her.
The piece of paper said ‘Barack Obama’
MI5 intelligence service to monitor the chat, e-mail, browsing and telephone of every person in Britain. Three billion e-mails every day!
every call
every text
every email
If any question why we died,
Tell them, because our fathers lied.
Rudyard Kipling:
As it will be in the future, it was at the birth of Man -
There are only four things certain since Social Progress began -
That the Dog return to his Vomit and the Sow returns to her Mire,
And the burnt Fool's bandaged finger goes wabbling back to the Fire;
And that after this is accomplished, and the brave new world begins
When all men are paid for existing and no man must pay for his sins,
As surely as Water will wet us, as surely as Fire will burn,
The Gods of ... terror and slaughter return!
Roger Cohen is looking at the terrible requirement to be serious, asking us why we tolerate tiny politics in a continuing danger.
The United States is often an unwelcoming place these days. But as Bill Clinton said last week, the country is more inspiring with the "power of our example" than with "the example of our power."Roger Cohen explores another important question too: How home became homeland.
She is only on the ticket as a result of the scheming ideas of rich old white men, being no more worthy to them than the cocktail waitress who just brought over the latest round of drinks. She's a political pet to men and nature, unconsciously spitting out her lines about being a proud American and how evil her opponent is because that's what she's to do. When you see her speak you realize she could do no other.The author studies George W. Bush. His thesis as a PhD student at the University of Canberra was "based around attempting to understand how he envisaged the idea of freedom a word you find in just about every speech he's given as president since 9/11".
Bush always represented to me a uniquely American Story. A puzzle to try and figure out. A tragic tale unfolding before our eyes. Palin's story is simple farce. Hers is not an American Story. America's real story is one of self-creation. Of making and remaking onself, that is why the opportunity, freedom, and independence matter. Because they allow for people to make and remake something of themselves in spite the circumstances. Bush did, Palin never has and probably never will. Hers is not an American story.
Is this the first mainstream media piece to stop carrying water for McCain?
Douglass K. Daniel is an editor at the Washington bureau of The Associated Press.
John McCain occasionally looks back on decisions with regret. He has apologized for opposing a holiday to honor Martin Luther King Jr. He has apologized for refusing to call for the removal of a Confederate flag from South Carolina's Capitol.
Whether intended or not by the McCain campaign, portraying Obama as "not like us" is another potential appeal to racism. It suggests that the Hawaiian-born Christian is, at heart, un-American.
Most troubling, however, is how allowing racism to creep into the discussion serves McCain's purpose so well.
As the fallout from Wright's sermons showed earlier this year, forcing Obama to abandon issues to talk about race leads to unresolved arguments about America's promise to treat all people equally.
This person Sarah Palin has no restraint of honor and our press is failing to put a liar down.
She said in the TV debate' "When I and others in the legislature found out that we had some millions of dollars in Sudan, we called for divestment through legislation of those dollars."
She did not. In fact she opposed leaving Sudan. Her office sent this statement to quash the vote in Alaska, "The legislation is well-intended, and the desire to make a difference is noble, but mixing moral and political agendas at the expense of our citizens' financial security is not a good combination." [Daily Dish]