Random noise, incoherent thoughts, whatever.
Looks like local governments around the country are racing to seize as much private property as they possibly can to build hotels, marinas and shopping malls now that they feel the Supreme Court decision in favor of the city of New London, CT gave them the green light to do so.
Who’s the first property owner to use lethal force to protect their property?
-TPP
Someone tell CNN they’re off by about a decade, mmm’kay?
-TPP
The Supreme Court ruling today on a case against the city of New London, CT greatly expanded local government’s “rights” to seize private property under eminent domain.
Originally the use of eminent domain was restricted only for public use (roads and other public infrastructure) or to get rid blighted property. Today’s ruling allow local governments to seize ANY property if they can demonstrate the planned use for the land would generate more tax revenue for the city.
The reaction to the ruling has been a big “wtf”. A quick Internet search reveals widespread opposition to the ruling from the American Farm Bureau Federation to small business owners across the country. Several local newspapers have written about local residents’ and business owners’ concerns about specific projects (New York Nets stadium in Brooklyn, a shopping center in DC targeted for demolition so that another shopping center operator could take it over, etc.).
It seems to me that The Supreme Court just abolished private property rights in the US. I am puzzled as to why.
-TPP
“Conservatives saw the savagery of 9/11 in the attacks and prepared for war; liberals saw the savagery of the 9/11 attacks and wanted to prepare indictments and offer therapy and understanding for our attackers.”
Fuck you Karl Rove.
-TPP
A hacker gains access to a payment processing system and installed a trojan in the system that listened to credit card transactions. MasterCard reports “More than 40 million credit cards may have been breached.”
Good thing the financial institutions are keeping our financial information secure these days, though. It’s not like this sort of thing happens every week…oh, wait, but it does.
-TPP
Barack Obama, once again, delivered an awe inspiring speech during his Commencement Address at the Knox College in Galesburg, Illinois.
Audio and video replays of the webcast as well as a transcript of the address can be found at the Knox College website.
The speech touches on the unique challenges the global economy imposes on Americans, what can we do about it and what we should not do about it. In particular he very eloquently dismantles and exposes the problems of the Ownership Society currently championed by our puppet leaders.
-TPP
Check out the 33MB video clip on how the data tiles work. I don’t know if I can explain the coolness of this technology in words, you are going to really have to see it yourself.
The tiles will interactively display information like weather maps, time, photos, live video or any other information they’re configured to display. That’s nothing new.
BUT…the tiles can interact with each other. For example, you put a time machine tile next to a weather map, and you can display weather maps corresponding to the time displayed in the time machine tile. You change the time, and the weather map will change accordingly. They have some more complex examples of the interactions in the video. You can then move the time machine tile next to another type of tile and the same tile will now interact with that other data tile switching its time.
Apparently they’ve also created a tile that acts as a proxy for a real computer. The video shows up an example where the user is manipulating an image on one tile and then drags-and-drops the modified image into the “computer tile”. The video cuts into a view where you see the same image being transferred into a real computer. Drag-and-drop from virtual to physical world.
-TPP – coooooooooooool!
Two Washington Post journalists are traveling in Finland for three weeks and writing a blog about their travels.
The first article posted before their actual trip has an excellent introduction to Finland and Finns. The article has some background information on Finland and a somewhat interesting email interview with a noted Finnish philosopher, Mr. Pekka Himanen.
While Mr. Himanen is, understandably, overstating the importance of “the three pillars” of modern Finland (Nokia, Linux and HIM), his answers are interesting and on point, mostly. They certainly are more interesting and accurate than some of the writings I’ve read about Finland, especially in travel guides.
-TPP – yes, our president is a red-headed, middle aged housewoman
I really, really wanted to like this movie. I really did.
I honestly don’t know who this movie was made for. It was more violent than pretty much any of the preceding movies making it unsuitable for kids. The plot, storytelling and dialogue was so bad it wasn’t suitable for adults. So maybe the only people who will enjoy it are adults who’ve left their mental development at the preschool level.
Every scene with Padme and Anakin was just bad, in a way a film student’s first “great” movie is bad. But this movie wasn’t made by a first year film student, but supposedly a genius filmmaker worth billions. Every scene with Anakin and Chancellor Palpatine were bad in exactly the same way. Every scene with Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi that didn’t include fighting was also bad for the same reasons.
The dialogue in all those scenes was simple, even child-like, the plot/character development transparent and minimal and it just plain old didn’t work.
Some of the fight scenes were kinda cool, but then I’ve been spoiled by so many excellent and truly great action and kung-fu movies lately (Sin City, Kill Bill, etc.) that the action scenes in SW III didn’t quite make it either.
For me the only great moment of the movie was the Birth of Darth Vader. The scene where Anakin gets Darth Vader getup on him and Darth Vader breathes his first signature breath was truly remarkable. Very Frankensteinian. Nicely done Lucas! That was the only time in the movie where I had any kind of emotional reaction to what was happening on the screen. I expect more from movies I see.
-TPP
The Donald revealed his plans for rebuilding the World Trade Center site this morning with his usual theatrics.
He’s been trumpeting in the media the Freedom Tower designs are eggheaded and have no place in New York City or anywhere in the world for that matter. His new plan is, of course, much better.
His innovative and bold plans would erect two towers in pretty much the same place, the same height, the same width and at the same depth than the World Trade Center towers used to be before 9/11. Wow! Great! Let’s Do It!
One wonders if The Donald’s financial condition is much worse than he lets us believe and he’s resorted to recycling other people’s architectural plans from the 1960s [1].
-TPP
1. The original World Trade Center was designed in the 1960s. Construction began at August 5th, 1966.