CircleCount helps you better understand Google+

2013-05-18 16:42:49 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Now trending in Technology on http://TrendSpottr.com/

2013-05-17 16:24:30 (2 comments, 5 reshares, 8 +1s)

h/t +George Takei who wrote:

"This past March, a number of anti-marriage equality protestors gathered in Washington, and a number of the teenagers expressed their opinions in a slideshow that went viral. Here is my admittedly cheeky response."

2013-05-17 05:59:09 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

"Google and NASA are forming a laboratory to study artificial intelligence by means of computers that use the unusual properties of quantum physics. Their quantum computer, which performs complex calculations thousands of times faster than existing supercomputers, is expected to be in active use in the third quarter of this year."

2013-05-17 05:58:09 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

Some interesting data here.

2013-05-17 05:47:15 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

h/t +George Takei 

"The Daily Beast" asked me for my favorite Star Trek Memes. Here's what I told them.

2013-05-16 23:17:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Some cute ads here, both vintage and new.

2013-05-16 20:57:40 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

"Charlotte and other American cities have not abandoned their cars or their sprawling growth. But people like Mr. Mauney are part of the reason that American driving patterns have downshifted — perhaps for years to come.

For six decades, Americans have tended to drive more every year. But in the middle of the last decade, the number of miles driven — both over all and per capita — began to drop, notes a report to be published on Tuesday by U.S. Pirg, a nonprofit advocacy organization.

People tend to drive less during recessions, since fewer people are working (and commuting), and most are looking for ways to save money. But Phineas Baxandall, an author of the report and senior analyst for U.S. Pirg, said the changes preceded the recent recession and appeared to be part of a structural shift that is largely rooted in changing demographics, especially the rise of so-calledmille... more »

2013-05-16 17:11:31 (10 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

Free Press and Protection of Sources

"Under fire over the Justice Department’s use of a broad subpoena to obtain calling records of Associated Press reporters in connection with a leak investigation, the Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters in keeping their sources and communications confidential.

President Obama’s Senate liaison, Ed Pagano, on Wednesday morning called the office of Senator Charles E. Schumer, Democrat of New York, and asked him to reintroduce a version of a bill that he had pushed in 2009 called the Free Flow of Information Act, a White House official said.

The bill would create a federal media shield law, akin to ones most states already have, giving journalists some protections from penalties for refusing to identify confidential sources in federal lawenf... more »

2013-05-16 16:54:04 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

More wonderful restrictions on the free market, this time in Texas.

2013-05-16 16:48:09 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

2013-05-16 16:44:39 (6 comments, 2 reshares, 8 +1s)

The new layout is certainly pretty, but it takes steps that move G+ even further away from engagement based on substantive content. When you share a link, it used to pick up text from the link/article in question so that a reader would have something more than a headline to go by. Now, there is no text at all. Just the headline and link. I'd rather they had gone with expanding that, or even permitting editing that text (which FB allows).

2013-05-16 16:42:13 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

2013-05-16 03:54:35 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

2013-05-16 03:50:30 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

2013-05-16 03:48:28 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

h/t +Lifehacker 

2013-05-15 19:52:59 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Nobel-prize winning economist Joseph Stiglitz rips bankers, for-profit schools, and the government over student loans that "crush the American dream."

2013-05-14 15:55:54 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

The complete TCM list for May 15-22 - what to watch, what to avoid, what you can't miss.

2013-05-14 15:53:43 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

"I see a lot of pretty amazingly bad global warming denial online. It ranges from mildly cherry-picked data to such baldly transparent garbage that you have to wonder if the person who wrote it can possibly, actually believe what they are saying is true. After reading dozens, hundreds, of such mind-numbing articles, I think we’ve found a winner."

2013-05-14 15:53:32 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

"You have chosen...wisely! See how Indiana Jones and The Last Crusade should have ended."

2013-05-14 15:49:34 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

2013-05-14 15:03:30 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

+Randall Munroe makes an important observation: birds aren't descended from dinosaurs -- by any reasonable definition, birds are dinosaurs. T. Rex is more closely related to a sparrow than it is to a Stegosaurus. Our world has flying dinosaurs in it that eat other dinosaurs. And that's pretty cool.

2013-05-14 15:02:10 (2 comments, 2 reshares, 7 +1s)

Witches you say.  Broomstick flying ban.  No Quidditch in Swaziland that's for sure.

#harrypotter  

2013-05-14 14:58:12 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

"California Governor Edmund G. Brown Jr. yesterday declared this week as 'Wildfire Awareness Week' in recognition of last week's devastating fires northwest of Los Angeles. His proclamation noted, 'In an average year, wildfires burn 900,000 acres of California's timber and grasslands.' Rains that moved into the area on Monday helped extinguish the fires that started last Thursday along US Route 101 near Camarillo Springs and Thousand Oaks, endangering some 4,000 homes."

2013-05-14 14:50:56 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

I agree with Jon Stewart. I know many liberals do today if there were a secret ballot taken on their thoughts. It's hard for progressives to publically condemn the actions of a president they fought so hard to get elected and then reelected. But at some point accountability matters. It's not good enough to say that Bush and other former presidents took some of the same actions Obama is being roasted for at the moment.

 If we expected more from Bush (both of them), and if we expected more from Reagan, then we have to expect more from Obama. The administrations record with regards to Gitmo, civil liberties, targetted killings overseas, and domestic surveillance is absymal. Even a diehard liberal such as myself has to come out and say it.

Pointing fingers at the "tin-foil hats" and the "Wingers" doesn't cut it. Unless we demand more from our side we have... more »

2013-05-14 14:49:23 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

"We all know EL wire... now we have EL PAINT! That's right, this new spray-painted on technology called 'Lumilor' from Darkside Scientific that lights up with a nice battery powered and electronically controlled glow. The paint recently made its debut at the Daytona Bike Week as a painted on glowing dragon bike."

2013-05-14 14:47:30 (1 comments, 2 reshares, 6 +1s)

Now trending in Science on http://TrendSpottr.com/

2013-05-13 22:21:51 (6 comments, 1 reshares, 6 +1s)

2013-05-13 18:04:47 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

Yes, I will be watching this :)

2013-05-13 16:53:32 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 5 +1s)

2013-05-13 14:39:43 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 3 +1s)

2013-05-13 14:33:11 (7 comments, 1 reshares, 17 +1s)

Great clip from Commander Hadfield, who is an innovator at popularizing science and reaching out to students.

2013-05-13 14:28:13 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 6 +1s)

2013-05-13 14:18:55 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

Now trending in Science on http://TrendSpottr.com

2013-05-13 04:40:04 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Now trending in Science on http://TrendSpottr.com/

2013-05-13 04:38:59 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

Now trending in Entertainment on http://TrendSpottr.com/

2013-05-13 00:55:26 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 3 +1s)

"Texting while driving has now replaced drunk driving as the number one cause of teenage deaths on the road in the U.S., new research has found."

How sad.

2013-05-13 00:30:31 (4 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

As if more evidence was needed of the negative influence of extremism in religion.

"The fight over how women pray at one of Judaism’s holiest sites is a singular fault line among many. Friday’s mass demonstration at the wall was widely seen as part of the intensifying culture war that poses a threat, if internal, to Israel’s social cohesion.

“We are looking at a process in which the public disdain with the way religion and state matters have occurred in Israel has reached a peak,” said Rabbi Uri Regev, the founder of Hiddush, a group that advocates for religious freedom and equality.

But Rabbi Israel Eichler, an ultra-Orthodox member of Parliament, warned that “if the state of Israel fights” the ultra-Orthodox, in Hebrew called Haredim, “it may win, but it will be erased from the face of the Earth.”

“There were thousands of seminary girlsthere today,” he sa... more »

2013-05-13 00:27:32 (10 comments, 0 reshares, 4 +1s)

"On Friday, he denied the request by government lawyers to suspend his ruling while they appeal. In the process, he lashed out again at Ms. Sebelius in unusually harsh terms, questioning her credibility and integrity.

“If a stay is granted, it will allow the bad-faith, politically motivated decision of Secretary Sebelius, who lacks any medical or scientific expertise, to prevail — thus justifiably undermining the public’s confidence in the drug approval process,” Judge Korman wrote."

2013-05-13 00:26:19 (0 comments, 1 reshares, 0 +1s)

"On Friday, he denied the request by government lawyers to suspend his ruling while they appeal. In the process, he lashed out again at Ms. Sebelius in unusually harsh terms, questioning her credibility and integrity.

“If a stay is granted, it will allow the bad-faith, politically motivated decision of Secretary Sebelius, who lacks any medical or scientific expertise, to prevail — thus justifiably undermining the public’s confidence in the drug approval process,” Judge Korman wrote."

2013-05-13 00:18:47 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2013-05-13 00:17:59 (2 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

"Ireland and South Korea extracted measures that set aside for their citizens a fixed number of the highly sought special visas for guest workers seeking to come to the United States. Poland got language that would allow it to join the list of nations whose citizens can travel to the United States as tourists without visas. And Canadians successfully pushed for a change that would permit its citizens who are 55 and older and not working to stay in the United States without visas for as much as 240 days each year, up from the current 182."

2013-05-13 00:14:23 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 4 +1s)

2013-05-13 00:04:37 (4 comments, 0 reshares, 13 +1s)

Movies - Exhibitions about filmmaking

Went to the Stanley Kubrick exhibition at LACMA today for Mother's Day with mom, dad, my sister and niece. Fantastic exhibition. Could have spent even more time there (was there for 2 hours).


Out of curiosity, which have been your favorite exhibitions to see in person related to movies?

2013-05-12 23:03:55 (0 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

Sometimes fact checking isn't enough. Given the hyperbole that seems to often emanate from various members of what is considered the far right in the past few years, one starts to wonder if it's just consistent party "spin" and "staying on message" or if in fact we're dealing with a lack of education from the speakers themselves in some cases.

Here's a thoughtful article that contrasts the words of some of the founding fathers (plus Teddy Roosevelt!) with the positions of a number of popular conservatives when interpreting the language (and yes, intent) of the Constitution. 

2013-05-12 16:35:01 (1 comments, 1 reshares, 2 +1s)

"Republicans have objected to the nomination of Gina McCarthy to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, citing what they said were her insufficient responses to their questions. They have also sought to block the labor secretary nominee, Thomas E. Perez, a lawyer in the Justice Department, on the grounds that he is too political."

I find these justifications absurd on their face. A President is entitled to appoint the people he wants to execute his policies. As long as a nominee isn't unqualified, simply disagreeing with the nominees politics isn't sufficient cause to withhold consent. Of course a nominee will be political, these are, of course, political appointments to lead agencies that will carry out the Administrations politics and policies. It's one thing to argue that judicial or prosecutorial positions be as free from partisanship as possible, quite another for... more »

2013-05-12 00:06:34 (3 comments, 0 reshares, 0 +1s)

"All the factions wove their own mythologies at the expense of our deepest national mythology: that if there is anything, no matter how unlikely or difficult, that we can do to try to save the lives of Americans who have volunteered for dangerous assignments, we must do it."

2013-05-11 23:47:27 (6 comments, 0 reshares, 1 +1s)

2013-05-11 04:49:34 (2 comments, 1 reshares, 1 +1s)

"American Christian zealots are fighting back against gay rights—abroad"

2013-05-11 04:44:17 (1 comments, 0 reshares, 2 +1s)

2013-05-10 21:48:26 (0 comments, 3 reshares, 4 +1s)

LOL