Author: Matthew G. Saroff

UK Per Capita GDP Exceeds the US

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Interestingly enough, the Times of London screws up the hed, titling it UK Living Standards Outstrip US, which is inaccurate.

In terms of standard of living, when you look at things like health care costs, university costs, decent transit alternatives to autos, and a social safety net, western Europe has been ahead of the US for well over a decade.

A number of people have blown this off as an “artifact” of currency changes, but the fact of the matter is that the $US has been artificially high since at least the end of WWII, because of the US dollar’s preeminent position as the world’s reserve currency.

Quote of the Day: David Brooks

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Overheard in New Hampshire: David Brooks on Bill Kristol

After last night’s debate, New York Times columnist David Brooks was chatting with a group of people. One of them said: “I hear you hired that conservative Bill Kristol.” David Brooks responded: “More like a pseudoconservative.”

I’m not sure where this comes from, but my guess is that Brooks thinks that Bill Kristol is the beneficiary of conservative affirmative action (nepotism).

The GOP’s Primaries as High School Musical

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Michael Scherer of Time Magazind, has Tan analysis of the GOP debates that actually is a good analysis of the election:

  • John Mccain: The coolest kid in school.
  • Mitt Romney: The class do-gooder and overachiever.
  • Mike Huckabee: The class clown whose heart always seems in the right place.

I’m not sure if I’m impressed at this guy’s perception, or terrified that the Republican nominee fits into the memes of hich school cliques.

Warner Brothers Drops HD-DVD

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Well, I made predictions on the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray wars (see here, here, here, here, and here).

Generally, I’ve either bet against Sony, which is generally a safe bet, or against both, the theory that online distribution will render both formats redundant.

Given my previous record, perhaps you want to buy stock in Sony, because Warner Brothers just dropped HD-DVD as a format. They had been using both.

I stand by my predictions, but my record sucks.

Hack0rz to Penetrate 787 Systems in flight

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Well, it appears that one of Boeing’s innovations with the 787 is the ability to wirelessly access maintenance and control systems, and the FAA is demanding that there be more security on these systems.

The entire world of aviation is increasingly looking like the Pilot episode of
The Lone Gunman an X-Files spin off, in which the forces of fascism attempt to take over the computer systems of an airliner and fly it into the Twin Towers.

Heck, the entire world is beginning to seem like an episode of The Lone Gunman.

God is My Guide, With Exact GPS Coordinates

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Well, it appears that someone in Florida has devised a strategy to thwart baby Jesus stealers everywhere, they implanted a GPS tracker.

I expect this to be the beginning of a trend among Nativity scenes in the future.

The woman who oversees the annual display decided to put Global Positioning System trackers on the Jesus, Mary and Joseph figurines.

“I don’t anticipate this will ever happen again,” Dina Cellini said, “but we may need to rely on technology to save our savior.”

First, we lose ice pick murders, and now this.

It appears that technology has gone too far.

Bush and His Evil Minions™: Poor Children Should Die

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Fresh off of denying health care to the children of the working poor, Bush is now doing his level best to make sure that even poorer children die.

They have set impossible criteria, because they believe that people are poor because they are evil, and because they believe that the government helping poor people compounds that evil.

It’s the worst characteristics of 1500s Calvanism with a Texas twang.

Of course it also helps out the health insurance companies, who are big Republican donors. So you get more dead kids and more dirty insurance money, which is a win-win for Republicans.

Mukasey Appoints Patrick Fitzgerald to the Attorney General’s Advisory Committee of U.S. Attorneys

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Honestly, I have no clue as to what this appointment means.

Based on Mukasey’s statements on waterboarding, I was convinced that he was Bush and His Evil Minions&trade bitch, but this would seem to indicate otherwise.

What is the role of this committee? Does this mean anything, or is it just a title and a pat on the head?

He was on the committee before, but was not reappointed by Abu Gonzalez after he started investigating the Plame leak.

The pourpose of the committee appears to be, counseling “the attorney general on law enforcement issues.”

How I’ll Be Tracking the Polls

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As opposed to posting update posts, I’ve put a Google Spreadsheet on the top of my page.

To prevent useless scrollage, I’m going to not show the older results, but you can see the whole spreadsheet here, ready for things like export to excel or other analysis packages.

Anyone who uses these regularly, I have a couple of questions:

  • Is there a way to vary the weight of the borders?
  • Is there a way to automatically bold the leader in a poll (I’ve played around with Google’s conditional formatting, and ti does not yet quite make it there).

Otherwise, consider this an open thread.