When something funny happens....

When something interesting or funny happens in the real world, I can often blog or Twitter about it because usually (at least for me) the people involved don't read my blog and don't follow me on Twitter. It is somewhat therapeutic to share a story.

When something funny or interesting happens in the facebook, blog, Twitter world you can't really share it there because the people involved are using those tools. I guess then I need to do the old fashioned thing and tell someone about it face to face.

The Real Demi Moore?

I am embarrassed to admit that I am one of the thousands of people following Demi Moore on Twitter. Why does a rich very famous celeb want to put part of her life up for the world to see? It is not like Britney Spears trying to market her brand with her people, I don't think that is what this is about.

In some ways it seems that she tweets for the same reason other people blog and tweet and facebook, they are seeking some connections or community. I think that many people turn to these tools to reach out to friends, make new friends and have conversations because they are somewhat lacking in their regular life. I bet that Demi Moore has trouble just having regular conversations about regular stuff with regular people in the real world (they all want to suck up and leach off you) and it using Twitter in a way to do that. I suspect that this will end because of the growing followers, she must get 1000s of replies to every post and that has got to be too much. I bet they liked it more when they only had a few 1000 followers. If I were a big celeb I would randomly only allow a limited number of people to follow you so you can control the traffic.

I am not sure how long this photo will still be up there but I am really stuck by the "real" aspect of this photo of her with her big glasseson her trip in France. Maybe it was taken by her daughter? No makeup, not smiling and she looks her age (46). You can actually see her age lines/ wrinkles and even a bit of a pimple/ blemish. This photo was not air brushed and digitally enhanced by someone like this one. I am not sure what to make of it but I will keep watching, it is a lot more real than any reality tv show I have seen.

When the cats away....

....the mouse will paint a large penis on the roof. (from Althouse)

Will Joe Six Pack Ever Be "Content" Again

Josh Marshall has a good piece titled "Social Contract Under Strain" in Talking Points Memo about the broad outrage over the AIG bonuses. I like this part:

In ordinary times, most people seem more or less content with people in finance making vast sums of money. But when the companies that provide these salaries come to the government with hat in hand or when they're credibly charged (in the loose, not the legal sense) with creating vast harm to the whole economy, the whole calculus changes.

Part of it now is the government money but there are also two things going on, this story reminded us how much fracking money these wall street type make. Many of us in flyover land are happy until the read that some dude in NYC received a $1 million bonus, how much is his actual salary and how much has he made in previous years when times were good. Also, not only is AIG taking government money but they have significantly contributed to collapsing our economy and many people have lost jobs and savings as a result. Even if they were not taking government money I think many of us would be outraged at this compensation level. It is not really just a "private" company when they are so large and have some many arms that reach across the globe. Unless the economy really increase a lot I don't expect anyone to really be ok with this elephant compensation for these business "leaders".

His point about shareholders is important too. We need shareholders to demand better corporate governance and management. How can a board rubber stamp management anymore after this?

I am not really in favor of Washington telling the firms who took taxpayer money how to run their business. I think complete transparency would go along way to solve these problems. We own the companies, we should be able to know everything about their costs and revenues. Who gets paid what including names, what lobbyists they pay and what groups they give money to, everything. Then let the media do it's job.

I keep thinking about the letter in the NY Times from Jake DeSantis from AIG explaining why he quit the finanical services group. At first I was sympathetic to his case and felt bad for picking up the pitchfork but then when I saw that Mr. DeSantis got a $700,000 bonus I was less so. Yes he was only getting $1 a year but that is a big bonus. What was he making in past years when the cash was rolling into AIGs bank account? I see his point and for his hard work he may have made millions for AIG. If you are reading this, I would be love to hear your take on all this and DeSantis situation.

Up In Smoke

It is pretty funny that Obama had a town hall meeting and he allowed questions to be submitted on-line. They said they would answer questions with the top votes and guess what got the most votes? AIG, the budget, health care? Nope.... it was Dope, Mary Jane, Weed. Obama did briefly address the topic but I don't think that is what people wanted to hear. Come on man, we need something to help us get through this depression.

Another Downtown Hotel in Madison?

There is talk about building another hotel in Madison across from Monona Terrace next to the post office/ municipal building to make the convention center better able to attract large conventions.

This good article points out that some are starting to question whether this is a good move. I don't think this is a good move given the economic climate. Conventions business will be reduced nationwide for years and years, everyone is tightening their belts. There are 3 nice downtown hotels and one more nice one is being built. While not next door, the others would certainly be able to accommodate any conference that could fit in the MT. The 151-room Hyatt Place Hotel is currently under construction and is only around 5 blocks away. A shuttle could easily be provided to 3 that are not next doo to serve the conferences.

There is no way that a town this size could fill up 5 upscale hotels most of the year and I don't see how a hotel could survive if they only fill up at graduation, football games, Art Fair on the Square and during the 8 days they are able to attract a large conference. The taxpayers should not be on the hook for this in any way if such an endeavor is undertaken. These new hotels will be very expensive for a room and most travelers be it for business or personal don't want to pay the high cost for rooms.

Pulp Fiction Playmobile

Watch these awsome short films made by a high school friend of mine. Mr. Happy is your friend.

Althouse to tie knot

Wow, Ann Althouse a UW law professor and busy blogger apparently is getting married. I have been reading her blog since an article about her appeared in Isthmus; she shares news, commentary on news, music, movies and some personal stuff. Re: her personal life, all I know is that she has been divorced for a while and had adult kids.

She made the announcement on the blog in an odd way. First is that she went to Ohio and took a lot of photos and did not do much blogging on the news of the world, very atypical. She included this post of photos including one with her trying on a ring but the photo looks odd in that it is on the wrong finger and did not look like a normal ring. Then she had to clarify the confusion here which includes an odd snap of AA from a blogging heads where she talks about being happy being alone.

The great part of this story is that the lucky guy, Meade, met her because he was a commenter on her blog! That would make a good movie. Congrats to them both! It someways it seems that the whole blog and years of blogging was just a way to solicit suitors who would be witty and poetic enough for her. I did a little searching though the blog to find times where he commented on stuff she posted to put together the romance but need to get back go work. One thing I found from Google is that he has commented on her blog 2,530 time! I don't read it that much but I would be curious to see if regular readers knew this was coming. Also, big question, who did Meade vote for in the last election?

I did a search to on Althouse and Meade and discovered they have been in business together for a while in California providing "biological and environmental services"?!

What every kid wants for their birthday...

here is a book that you should definatly get for your child, nephew, etc.


I know it may be helpful but gross.

I think I know all these guys

Funny stuff.....

Old Jews Telling Jokes

Rath on Falk vs Mistele

Interesting Isthmus piece by Jay Rath about the County board ex race. Kathleen Falk lies low as Nancy Mistele attacks He seems to be irked that Falk has not responded to the low blow attacks by Mistele but I think she is right to run a positive campaign and focus on getting out the vote. Most voters are not following the attacks from the Mistele camp and don't care.

I really can't believe that Falk is at risk of losing her office to a republican in Dane County. While she is not perfect, she has done a very good job of managing the County, keeping taxes low and not made any big mistakes. It seems clear that Mistele has little relevant experience and for an executive manager job like this experience matters, a lot. Also, it is easy for Mistele to take low blow pot shots at Falk for errors or prime targets. It is easy to be a candidate and not very easy to run a huge bureaucratic government effectively.

To me the 911 thing is not Falk's fault. I am sure that no county exec. in the country (especially Mistele) knows anything about how to effectively manage a 911 center and the unfortunate event that happened could happen anywhere and probably does often in large cities. Government is not perfect and mistakes happen and Falk has been and will continue to make every effort to improve our already very good system of public safety. Why would anyone think that Mistele could do it any better?

I think Falk can win if voters in Dane county get out to vote and they better because there 3 very imporant and too close races.

tea time rant

I really should be working but I wanted to share my thoughts on tea. I like tea and don't drink coffee. I need caffeine and many years ago a friend named Jenny had a friend of hers from England over and I was over and he served us all tea, English style with milk and sugar. I have been sold on that ever since. This way to prepare tea only works with black tea like English Breakfast or Irish Breakfast team. Earl Grey too but I don't like Bergamot at all and will never drink EG unless the only other choice is motor oil. Who was Earl Grey and how could he stomach that vile stuff. I hate it when I go somewhere and order tea I ask for English breakfast and they offer me Early Grey like it is the same thing.

Generally people are clueless about team even in coffee shops.

Teas I like, Tazo Awake from Starbucks, Stash Irish or English breakfast and, of course, Twinings is also good. I used to enjoy Price of Wales from Twinings but have not had it in years.

Local coffee houses have loose tea and they don't have one I really like. Both Ancora and Barriques don't really have a good English breakfast and they make their tea wrong. They use way too much loose tea, they put like 3 or 4 tea spoons worth of tea in the bag or infuser. Way too much, that is why they call them tea spoons. Too much tea leaves makes the tea to bitter and taste funny. Ancora has an Assam which is ok and an English Breakfast that I don't care for, I don't know why. Barriques has only a China breakfast which I don't really like either. I feel like a jerk telling the person at the cafe how to make the tea but one scoop would be much better that a bag of loose team almost as big as my fist (it would also save them $).

Oh yea Starbucks, if you get a medium or a large, they give you 2 tea bags, WTF? One is just fine for even a large tea. Wasteful and it makes it taste too strong and a bit bitter. Also, they give you two cups at Starbucks, why? just to stick the little tag in or because the hot H20 is sooooo hot, a java jacket is just fine. But if you do get two cups, keep in mind that one is clean - unused. I have done my part for the planet to use the clean cup for something again some time. Handy for H2O at work (I know I should just use a reusable mug).

The point of this whole rant is that while I was recovering from surgery my friend was nice to do some shopping for me and she brought me over some tea at my request and bought Harney & Son's English Breakfast which they say is Chinese Keemun Black Tea. This tea is not really that good and does not seem like a real English breakfast blend. I am sure some person much smarter than me understands the differences between Assam, Ceylon and Keemun black teas but I feel that a Ceylon and Assam blend like Stash seems perfect for a traditional British tea. I don't want to totally down talk Harney and Sons because their website makes it seem they are the Rolls Royce of teas and perhaps they have another blend that is more like something I would like, all I know is that their English Breakfast does not taste like other's I have had and enjoyed and it is much more expensive. I thought from the cool packaging I was getting some awesome tea but I was disappointed.



If you have never had a good tea prepared the british way, please do try it and don't use skim milk.

Share the Road

Great link to a Milwaukee local TV news story about bike safety. Emily Mills at The Lost Albatross blogged about this amazing story of a guy named Jeff Frings, who is an avid biker and how he attached a camera to his helmet and bike and recorded cases when driver almost hit him while passing his bike on the road. Seeing the scary near misses really helps remind both bikers and drives of real danger when a car passes a bike unsafely. It is a long story (more than 5 minutes, maybe a world record for local TV news) and it includes a telling story of a case from Brookfield. The Brookfield police told Frings that he can't be in the active traffic lane with his bike unless he is going the speed limit which is contrary to state law.

One part of the bike safety story that I think bikers, drivers and police need to better communicate is if a driver of a car is behind a bike and they can't pass him safely they need to SLOW DOWN and may need to wait a while. All the cars in the video seem to feel they are entitled to keep up at full speed regardless of the bike. I bet most of the drivers would say, I was trying to pass the bike but there was on-coming traffic and I did not want to go into that lane. Of course cars should not move into dangerous on-coming traffic. Everyone is in such a g-d damn hurry they can't just slow down safely behind the bike for a few minutes, oh no.

I am glad I live where I do in Madison because it allows me to bike safely on quiet roads and bike paths to many places, including work, but others are not so lucky and have to take their bikes on busy roads from time to time. People should not have to risk their lives to do their part to keep healthy, reduce pollution, etc.

Watch the video.

Bridget Maniaci vs Alder Brenda Konkel - The Left vs the Far Left

Quite an interest in this Madison Alderman race. News today said that 3 Madison Mayors have endorsed Maniaci over Brenda Konkel. I don't live in the district (Downtown District 2) and have not followed city politics that closely but this effort to unseat an incumbent alder is remarkable.

While I am not sure how effective she always is, but I am amazed by the hard work that Brenda puts in and the amazing amount of time she puts into communicating with people about what is going on in the city. I have never seen any politician at any level be as engaged in dialogue on issues as she is. She is on the Isthmus forum all the time, has an active blog, and engaged elsewhere I am sure. Most politicians seem so reserved and limited in their free communication because they don't want to say the wrong thing, they want to control a public face but not Brenda. She knows how she feels and wants to engage in a dialogue with people in Madison. She seems so engaged at city council meetings and really works hard to make what is, in her mind, good public policy.

EXTRA: For an example of Brenda's extraordanary communication, check out this post after the city council meeting. Not only is it extra long it was posted at 5 AM!

to make it better

PB & J

Wow, story on ABC News "Is There a Cure for Peanut Allergies?
Young Participants in a University Study Lost Their Sensitivity to Peanuts After Food Was Slowly Introduced to Their Daily Diets". It seems too good to be true. The problem is a huge for 1.8 millions of people who are allergic to peanuts. The story seems clear but has no qualifiers or information about next steps. It doesn't say, it only worked on some people, who was selected for the study, should parents try this at home, etc.

Tommy K the Pandora DJ

So I wrote to Pandora about a frustration I've been having in that some stations keep playing the same 5-10 songs over and over almost every time I listen. I was not sure I'd even get a response but I did get one from the one and only Irish DJ Tommy Kavanagh. No not the Saw Doctors Tommy K but Tom K from Pandora did provide a useful reply:

We're aware of an issue with repetition in certain stations and we're working on it. In the meantime, I would recommend putting certain songs to sleep. You can put a song to sleep for a month if you are tired of it. Just click on the menu button while the song is playing and select 'Don't play this song for a month.'

Also, to add more variety to stations you can additional artist and song seeds. You can add multiple songs or artists to a station by clicking the triangle next to the station name and selecting "Add Variety to this station".

You might also try adding some of the songs you've Thumbed-up as song seeds. This would likely increase the variety of the station pretty quickly.

Hope this helps. Thanks for listening!

How Did I Get Here?

Great NPR piece on one of the best rock songs of all time, Once in a Lifetime by Talking Heads. Great unique sound and lyrics. While I have always lived the musical mix I found out that the sound is a mix of Afro Pop + Hip Hop + Velvet Underground.

These lyrics may seem simple but they perfectly capture the mid-life crisis examination which men feel as they travel through the game of life. I actually run these lyrics in my head as I sit behind the wheel of a large automobile.

Demi and Ashton Make Their Own Reality Show

So, how many Americans are watching the lives of Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore on Twitter? I find the whole thing strange but fun. I was not sure if these celeb twitters are real or not or if things are put up by staff. These seem real and somewhat interesting and personal.

I am surprised how much they write, they are on all the time. They have 1000s of followers (Demi had 125K at last look and AK had 300K) but they only follow a few folks, some odd celebs and a few folks they probably really know. Why would these celebs with lots of real friends want to be friendly and personal with the world of fans? They must get lots of replies to their twitter postings, they can't read them all. I am sure people try to get in on them somehow, you should try this product, come to this club, etc. As this grows it could become unmanageable for them.

OK I hate to say this but A and D seem nice and real.

Then you have these two videos (DM vid and AK vid) which came up in the last few days. The story A tells is a bit confusing but sweet. Why are they doing this? They are huge stars and don't need to promote themselves. Most famous people want their privacy. I will keep watching.

Call the TV News!

I guess if something makes me laugh out loud, I should share it. A website called Communist Dance Party had a bunch of bloopers from local TV news. If you want to smile watch these.

Mean, Sad and LOL

This website is very good. Sorry I missed your party. They find random, silly, embarrassing photos from Flickr and put them up.

While it is sort of mean, keep in mind that someone thought the photo and the subject was interesting and nice enough to put up for the world to see.

I have been toying with a similar idea where you could do an Onion/ Flickr webpage where you could put news headlines or photo captions on Flickr photos resulting in hilarious laughter: like this one.

I thought babies say goo goo ga ga

Fisher Price Doll Promotes Islam in the US. (must See) - video powered by Metacafe

The "Little Mommy Real Loving Baby Cuddle & Coo" doll is at the center of a silly controversy because some of its coos sound a little bit like "Islam is the light". Is this for real?

BoA on Bank Myths

George Stephanopoulos linked to a useful reality check in the WSJ from Ken Lewis from Bank of America about how banks are doing in our financial mess. I agree with most of his points and they seem reasonable, even the one that nationalization of banks is a bad idea, except one.

Mr. Lewis includes this "myth" -

"the banks that caused this mess must be held accountable. In fact, while all banks participated in the bubble economy to some degree, the companies that did the most to cause this mess are gone. The managers and shareholders of those institutions have been held accountable by the toughest, most unforgiving master of all: the free market."

Not all large banks got so heavily involved with these mortgage backed securities and gambled so much of their money in these risky questionable schemes. Many of the big wall street banks supported this system that led to the problems we have been facing and there are people at those firms who approved these deals and they should be held accountable.

We can not say whether Mr. Lewis or his counterparts at Citi, Bears Sterns, etc. should be held accountable and there are many ways to hold them accountable, loosing their jobs, civil and criminal legal action, and more. Employees, share holders and many others have lost their life savings and jobs as a result of reckless greed and I am not ready to let these folks off the hook. I hope that some of the shareholders suit these firms and their officers and I hope congress calls for hearings into this to expose where the responsibilities lie, but I don't think the banks can get off as innocent passersby, not yet.

I Don't Care What They Say, the Violent Femmes and Quiet Riot are Right!

New study by the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographics Trends Project looks at people's satisfaction in their communities and compares the how people feel in urban, suburban and rural communities. A Reuters piece by Robert Macmillan I found in the Globe and Mail concludes that contrary to popular belief, most people in the burbs really like it, "Satisfaction in the suburbs - Contrary to a parade of films and books demonizing life in the 'burbs, those who live there love it".

Suburban angst makes for good novels and films, but people who live between the country and the city in the United States like their lawns and driveways.

Suburbanites are significantly more satisfied with their communities than people who live in cities, small towns or rural areas, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center's Social & Demographics Trends Project.

"Ever since there have been suburbs, there have been harsh critiques of suburbs - a common one being that they are suffocating places where people live lives of quiet desperation. Well, most suburbanites apparently never got that memo," said Richard Morin and Paul Taylor, the authors of the study.

More than 40 per cent of suburban residents rated their communities as satisfying places to live, compared with 34 per cent of urban dwellers, 29 per cent of people living in the countryside and 25 per cent of people living in small towns.

The study is a bit interesting (you can find more data here with more diverse conclusions) but you can't really measure whether this anti-suburban angst and loneliness really exists through such a survey. Just because 40% of suburban residents rate their communities as satisfying places to live does not mean they are great for everyone. Sixty percent of the suburban folks are NOT all that pleased with their Utopian green lawn neighborhoods. The movies and books (and blogs) that describe the anti-suburban feeling are true for those who wrote them and many of the writers are likely people who grew up in the 'burbs and now moved into cities.

Also, to compare happiness levels between community types is not totally fair because many of the urban and rural folks are low income and probably feel less happy about their communities than the suburban folks who could move to a different place if they wanted to. The data suggests that folks in public housing or those on the Dirty Boulevard in the city probably don't like their communities as much as the yuppies in condos.

Pre-April Fools B-Ball Punk

Revenge Best Served As $500K B-Ball Shot Prank from David Shuster twitter.

Very good prank put on by CollegeHumor website folks.

Shake it in the cube

I really like this booty shaking tune from Eminem that I found from Sammanthia who I found on twitter: http://twitter.com/Sammanthia
It is offensive, funny and you can dance to it.....
http://blip.fm/~2lbet

The Lost Albatross: Walker hates government, wants to be governor

The Lost Albatross: Walker hates government, wants to be governor Emily Mills has a good post with some good links about the scary idiot that may be running for Governor. God help us if this guy were to run the state. Hopefully this information can get out sooner rather than later so he can realize that he has no chance at winning when the intelligent voters in WI know the facts about him.

Froggy is All Over the Cheesehead State

While sitting at home alone recovering from surgery, I was listening to the radio and I called into the Ben Merens show on Monday March 2. I got on the air and I just realized that you can hear the archive of the show on the web and here my brilliant question. If you go to this page, go to the show and I am 33 minutes into the show. He sort of answered my question and gave an intersting point, that bailing our the Citibank and the other big wall street banks will not likely free up credit, but he did not really answer my core question. What I was trying to say is why can't businesses (and regular people) get credit from another bank even if these big banks are having trouble due to the toxic assets. Are there not local banks who are willing to lend to credit worthy businesses?

Monday
3/2/2009
4:00 PM

At Issue with Ben Merens - 090302L
The Dow Jones Industrial fell to new lows today, falling to its lowest levels since 1997, and AIG will receive another thirty billion dollars in funds. After four, Ben Merens and his guest discuss the spiraling economic downturn in the stock market and preventing AIG from collapse.

GUEST: Nigel Gault is Chief US Economist at Global Insight.

Call 911

I am watching the Police concert on PBS, they are great. I have been enjoying listening to some of their less popular songs on Pandora lately. The have this perfect balance and lyrical poetry that is like no other popular rock artists. I don't know why but I never liked Sting's post Police stuff. Zenyatta Mondatta is a great album.

Jim 'Mad Idiot' Cramer

I just caught a clip of Jim Cramer the crazy Mad Money guy who yells a lot that they played on The Daily Show. Cramer was going off on Obama.

Here is a quote from Mr. Cramer:

I wish I could hold your hand… but until the Obama administration starts listening… until they start paying attention to what you are watching, to the stock market… until they realize that their agenda is destroying the life savings of millions of American… then all I can give you is caution… I am not asking for the Feds to give us a plunge protection team to stop declines… as we always thought to be the case under Greenspan… I am not saying Mr. President go stare at the Bloomberg quote machine and come to your senses… I just want some sign that Obama realizes the market is totally falling apart… and that his agenda has a big part in that happening...

What burns me about this is two things:
1. he, and others, are saying that the markets have tanked as a result of Obama being in office. That is ridiculous. The market has been dropping big time since May of 2008 long before Obama was even packing to move to 1600 Penn.

2. What else does Mr. Cramer really want the federal government to do to help the situation. You can't lower interest rates any more? Does he want the Obama crew to let all the financial companies fail? He is really saying that Obama doesn't care about they financial crisis in this country and how it is impacting families and that Bush cared more?

Talking Points Pretty Boy

I watched a bit of Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Representative, on Fox morning news show today. He is very handsome, young and smiles a lot. He is very good at delivering the Obama attack talking points.

One problem emerging in the debate between the Democrats and the Republicans is that any Republican (i.e. Pretty Boy) can attack Obama and the Democrats but only a few folks can actually defend the White House plans. I am now watching Rahm Emmanual on Face the Nation, he is not the most clear articulate speaker and not as charismatic as others and can not get into a deep discussion beyond the talking points, he can't answer some questions directly if he did not talk about the response with the White House team. The White House can't pick a congressperson to defend them because they are not part of the Obama team and can't speak for the President. Axelrod and Emmaual are not the best speakers and cabinet members can only address issues in their area (Geithner on Banking Issues) but not a broad range of issues.

Regarding one of the main attack points that Ryan was making:

Obama's plan to tax those with income over $250,000 will hurt small businesses - who are the engines of the economy; this is not fair for several reasons, one is because it is a tax on INCOME and would only impact small businesses if they are sole proprietorship. It doesn't impact their ability to operate, grow, hire employees and succeed. For those small businesses that are successful, this tax increase only applies to income after they have paid employees, invested in the business, etc.

Also, most small businesses are corporations, partnerships and LLCs. The tax rates for corporations, partnerships or LLCs are more complicated and the proposed increases do not apply to them in the same ways. There are a lot more ways for these type of businesses to avoid claiming a large "income" and still pay the owners a lot of money.

These general point was brought up by McCain during the campaign and factCheck did a good job of point to the flaws in the argument. One thing they show is that there are actually very few small businesses with employees that would be impacted by this tax increase.