alex chan's posterous

Important Question.. only thing that disappointed me though was that only 1 candidate named a Marvel character.....

The GOP From Abroad

Der Spiegel says what few US outlets are prepared to say:

"Africa is a country. The Taliban rule in Libya. Muslims are terrorists. Immigrants are mostly criminals, Occupy Wall Street protesters are always dirty. And women who claim to have been sexually molested should kindly keep quiet." Welcome to the wonderful world of the Republican Party. Or rather: to the distorted world of its presidential campaign.

For months it has coiled through the country like a traveling circus, from debate to debate, from scandal to scandal, contesting the mightiest office in the world — and nothing is ever too unfathomable for them… These eight presidential wannabes are happy enough not only to demolish their own reputations but also that of their party, the once worthy party of Abraham Lincoln. They are also ruining the reputation of the United States. They lie, deceive, scuffle and speak every manner of idiocy. And they expose a political, economic, geographic and historical ignorance compared to which George W. Bush sounds like a scholar. Even the party’s boosters are horrified by the spectacle…

Platitudes in lieu of programs: in serious times that demand the smartest, these clowns offer blather that is an insult to the intelligence of all Americans. But as with all freak shows, it would be impossible without a stage, the U.S. media, which has been neutered by the demands of political correctness, and a welcoming audience, a party base that seems to have been lobotomized overnight. Notwithstanding the subterranean depths of the primary process, the press and broadcasters proclaim one clown after the next to be the new frontrunner, in predictable news cycles of forty-five days.

for all the unix geeks out there..

amazing video...

I don't know who invented the phrase "Turn in your man card," but whoever it is should be taken out in the street and have his balls stomped on by a fucking marching band. Every Sunday, I'm now subjected to some goddamn Miller Lite ad where the guys in it are like, "ZOMG! You're drinking a generic light beer? YOU'RE SUCH A FAG! Turn in your man card, faggity fag fag!"

As if drinking Miller goddamn Lite is somehow a manly endeavor. This shit needs to stop. There's no such thing as a man card. If there were, it would be the single most douchetastic thing in the history of the world. Darren Rovell would keep 12 of them in his money clip. Advertisers and film studios love to exploit the whole supposed male identity crisis they think America is suffering through right now. What's that? You won't drink Miller Lite? DURRRRR THEN I GUESS YOU'RE JUST A WALKING VAGINA DURRRRR BUY OUR SHIT.

No. Fuck you. If I want to drink some piss warm generic light beer, I'll do it. If I want to take a tandem bike ride with Peter King and enjoy a citrusy Shock Top while watching the sun set, I'll do it. You want my man card? Take it. COLLECT ALL OF THEM. You get enough man cards and I bet they'll give you a $10 rebate at the Ed Hardy Shop. I don't need it. I'm not a real man. I listen to Snow Patrol. I drink rum and Diet Cokes. I like a good number of Hugh Grant movies. I don't give a shit. I do what I fucking want, which should be the first and last stupid retarded "man law" ever. Everything else is superficial bullshit.

Next time someone tells you to turn in your man card, reward them with a boot to the teeth and a shit on their porch. And never drink Miller Lite. It's dogshit.

A Great Rant from Drew Magary..   this type of stuff is just stupid..

really cool

Why isn't the economy better yet?

In part because recovering from financial crises is a long, painful process.

Carmen Reinhart and Ken Rogoff have been making this point in a very compelling, detailed way for a while now. This week, some Oregon economists used the latest U.S. data to update a Reinhart/Rogoff analysis from a few years back.

The bottom line: The U.S. economy looks a lot like other developed economies looked a few years after they went through their own financial crises over the past few decades. That's true for declines in home values, stock prices and GDP, as well as the rise in national debt. The Oregon Office of Economic Analysis has the details.

The decline and eventual rebound in employment following crises varies pretty widely; the U.S. experience so far is a bit better than average. The U.S. is the thick red line in this graph:

Enlarge Oregon Office Of Economic Analysis

Oregon Office Of Economic Analysis

What To Do About It: Rogoff has been arguing recently that higher inflation would help speed America's economic recovery. Here's our post on the subject; here's Rogoff making the case; and here are rebuttals from Paul Volcker and Raghu Rajan.

interesting blog post on this financial crisis and the recession.

hmm odd. and funny...

jbrodkin writes with an interesting article in Ars Technica about virtualization and phones. From the article: "VMware's mission to bring virtualization to the mobile market gained a major supporter last week when Samsung pledged to use VMware software to build business-friendly smartphones and tablets. The project known as Horizon Mobile will let Android phones use virtual machine technology to run a second instance of Android, in much the same way virtualization works on servers and desktops. The user essentially has two completely separate phones running on one device, and can switch from the personal one to the corporate one by clicking a 'work phone' icon." There are others pushing alternative approaches to virtualization on mobile devices.

This is so crazy it might just work...