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Sunday, April 30, 2006 |
Controversial Bush judge broke ethics law. A Salon/CIR investigation reveals that Terrence Boyle, a key circuit court nominee touted by the White House and Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, ruled in multiple cases involving corporations in which he held investments. [Salon]
10:37:54 PM 
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Three from Cory: Safety glass ad: double-pane stuffed with cash, left on the street.  3M's ad campaign for its new security glass puts a double-pane window that appears to be stuffed with cash (really only $500 or so on the top, the rest is paper) on a public street in San Francisco. You're welcome to try to kick it in (but not attack it in other ways -- a security guard enforces this) -- though you don't get to keep the money if you managed to crack it. Still, as Gizmodo notes, "glass that can stand a double-footed kick from a man with a 30 foot head start is impressive. Don't you wish your iPod screens were made out of this?" Link (via Gizmodo)
Manuals for hundreds of consumer electronics items. UserManualGuide.com links to hundreds of PDF manuals for consumer electronics from air conditioners to VCRs -- great for lost manuals and garage-sale scores. Link (via Gizmodo)
Firefox plugin lets you download YouTube, Google and other vids. Javi sez, "I've just created this firefox add-on: VideoDownloader. It allows you to download videos from Youtube, Google, Metacafe, iFilm, Dailymotion... and other 60+ video sites ! And all embedded objects on a webpage (movies, mp3s, flash, quicktime, etc)! Directly! Just one click! You don't need to copy&paste URLs any more!" Link (Thanks, Javi!)
[Boing Boing]
11:36:51 AM
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Dan Bricklin: "Instead of making you feel bad for 'only' doing 99%, a well designed system makes you feel good for doing 1%." [Scripting News]
12:06:20 AM
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Don't-miss 1stpeek about Colbert dissing W to his .... Don't-miss 1stpeek about Colbert dissing W to his face (E&P)
[robot wisdom weblog]
A blistering comedy “tribute” to President Bush by Comedy Central’s faux talk show host Stephen Colbert at the White House Correspondent Dinner Saturday night left George and Laura Bush unsmiling at its close.
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Colbert, who spoke in the guise of his talk show character, who ostensibly supports the president strongly, urged the Bush to ignore his low approval ratings, saying they were based on reality, “and reality has a well-known liberal bias.”
Noting those low ratings, Colbert advised, "The glass isn't half empty - it's 68% empty. There's still some fluid in there, but I wouldn't drink it."
He attacked those in the press who claim that the shake-up at the White House was merely re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. “This administration is soaring, not sinking,” he said. “They are re-arranging the deck chairs--on the Hindenburg.”
. . .
Turning to the war, he declared, "I believe that the government that governs best is a government that governs least, and by these standards we have set up a fabulous government in Iraq."
. . .
. . . . Observing that Bush sticks to his principles, he said, "When the president decides something on Monday, he still believes it on Wednesday - no matter what happened Tuesday."
. . .
As he walked from the podium, the president and First Lady gave Colbert quick nods, unsmiling, and left immediately. E&P's Joe Strupp, in the crowd, observed that quite a few sitting hear him felt the material was, perhaps, uncomfortably biting.
. . .
Among attendees at the black tie event: Morgan Fairchild, quarterback Ben Roethlisberger, Justice Antonin Scalia, and Jeff "Skunk" Baxter of the Doobie Brothers--in a kilt.
12:06:01 AM
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(Some of) Dave Pollard's Links for the Week - April 29/06.
What is 'Leadership'?:
Leadership = Facilitation: Some businesses are finally catching on that the purpose of 'leaders' is to be role models and facilitators that make others more effective, not to make decisions and tell people what to do. The world is too complex for any individual or clique to have more than a random chance of improving things when they 'boss people around'. Today, as Drucker said, everyone's job is unique, and no one is likely to know how to do your job better than you. Steve Davis and Johnnie Moore get it. So does fouro, who sent me this link. Imagine if political 'leaders' figured this out..
Leadership = Authenticity: In a similar vein Alas a Blog suggests that if Al Gore had been more authentic about his feelings and beliefs, instead of relying on media advisors and coming off stiff, he would have won the 2000 election by an even wider margin, and saved us all from grief.
First One In Gets to Be Expert?: Several people have pointed me to Squidoo, which allows people to set up 'lens pages' on subjects about which they presume to have some expertise, or at least interesting stories. But tell me, if you want to learn about something, would you look to the individual who has tried to corner attention on this subject in Squidoo space, or would you look to the top Google result, which tells you who a billion people think merits your attention on this subject?
You Think the End of Oil is Bad, Just Wait for the End of Water: In an interview with Fred Pearce, author of the new book When the Rivers Run Dry, Salon's Katherine Mieszkowski reveals how much water we waste, and how much water scarcity is driving and will drive future political conflict. It's subscription content. Non-subscribers can find an equally illuminating interview by Paul Comstock in the Cal Lit Review free of charge.
Walking Takes No Time at All: An interesting article by Alan Durning explains that for every x minutes you spend walking, you add 3x minutes to your life expectancy, so in effect walking takes no time at all. Thanks to Ran Prieur for the link.
LA's Concrete River: From Geoff Manaugh, a fascinating historical and pictorial review of how engineering has dammed, rerouted and stopped up rivers, with specific focus on the LA River, reduced to a monstrous and massive concrete sculpture. Thanks to Jeremy Heigh for the link.
Horsing Around: Kathy at Creating Passionate Users has some adorable photos and video of a newborn foal. [How to Save the World]
12:02:35 AM
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