Golf, a big business that takes itself too seriously and the press not seriously enough, has a problem: "The traditionally conservative golf media and Tour are, not surprisingly, skittish about reporting this story...Golf Digest, one of the largest golf publications..." [...]
The legitimate question of the day is, "Is a 0% funds rate creating the next financial bubble, and if so, will the Fed and other central banks raise rates proactively – even in the face of double-digit unemployment?" No, replies... [...]
If you apply the famous Kübler-Ross model (aka the five stages of grief: denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance) to public perceptions of the economy, where are we now? I still see a fair amount of denial, at least about... [...]
"The cracks in Dubai’s property sector were showing long before last week...The most conservative estimates put the supply of new houses coming onto the market over the next two years at 40,000. According to other estimates, up to 25 per..." [...]
Something I learned while reading the chart in the preceding post: there is a Wade Hampton County in Alaska. Growing up in North Carolina, I've known people and places named for the Confederate general, but Alaska? I know you're all... [...]
I'm sure the deep thinkers at the Cato Locke Heartland Enterprise Institute are picking apart these numbers even as you read this post, and writing policy papers pointing out that many of those implicated deserve to be poor anyhow, but...' [...]
NYT follows yesterday's article on the ethanol glut with an op-ed against raising ethanol mandates: Allowing a higher percentage of ethanol in gasoline will not make us less dependent on such foreign energy sources. It will not help the environment.... [...]
"This is what is commonly referred to as default." Overhyped, overbuilt...who woulda thunk it? This guy, who adds: "This is not a garden-variety recession and recovery. It is a recession within a longer-term depression. And while we are in a..." [...]
"The City of Pittsburgh has agreed to pay $50,000 to a man who sued after being issued a disorderly conduct citation for gesturing offensively at a police officer." More: "[C]itizens of a free country are not required by law to..." [...]
Allegedly concerned about the deficit, but unwilling to do something about it: "Most have not been aggressively pushing cost containment proposals." More: A cynic may suggest they were never as fiscally conservative as they let on. Some have preferred repeating... [...]
"SECURE OUR U.S. BOARDERS," shouts the George Hutchins Meetup page. Regardless of your stance on other issues, surely we can agree that Americans who abide by the terms of rental agreements deserve a measure of security. Hutchins is featured prominently... [...]
Despite repeated claims to that effect, I'm guessing that George Hutchins is not the Republican who can beat David Price in 2010. Atrios: "Geocities called. They want their website from 1997 back." That design critique, while accurate, doesn't begin to... [...]
"It's your birthday!" announces that #34 is to receive a random strip-down and cavity search to be performed by a leering, rotund officer. Tweets allegedly from imprisoned Pulp Fiction screenwriter Roger Avary. [...]
Has it really come to this? Your dog is not a person, it is a dog, and that is a good thing. As previously noted, "to anthropomorphize her would be to waste an opportunity." Your child is a person, but... [...]
"Florida real estate" was synonymous with "scam" by the 1920s, I think. We are not always a nation of fast learners. [N]egative equity "is an outstanding risk hanging over the mortgage market," said Mark Fleming, chief economist of First American... [...]
What the people who are flipping out about the treatment of Palin should be asking themselves is what it means when it's not just jerks like us but everybody piling on against Palin. For those of you who can't connect...' [...]
"The Online Media Legal Network (OMLN) is a network of law firms, law school clinics, in-house counsel, and individual lawyers throughout the United States willing to provide pro bono legal assistance to qualifying online journalism ventures and other digital media..." [...]
Guy can't even hike the Appalachian Trail without getting in trouble. Our former governor has serious, if more prosaic, air travel issues of his own.' [...]
Reader M got a rate increase on her latest bill from Time Warner Cable: As I received no prior notice, I called FCC, who told me they do not regulate Time Warner, I should call the Franchising Authority listed on... [...]
Church-state separation is a common metaphor in journalism, where it refers to the wall between editorial and publishing concerns. I wonder how that worked at the Washington Times, which allegedly got more than half its operating budget directly from Rev.... [...]
Zynga has created a 'Cash Cow' in FarmVille! Even viewed through a "may be valued" filter, and with a skeptical eye to the "66,841,884 monthly active users" claim on FB, the growth is pretty startling. Thnx to alert reader G... [...]
Even as Treasury officials are racing to lock in today's low rates by exchanging short-term borrowings for long-term bonds, the government faces a payment shock similar to those that sent legions of overstretched homeowners into default on their mortgages. The... [...]
"People generally have this idea that the wisdom of crowds is a pixie dust that you sprinkle on a system and magical things happen," says Aniket Kittur, an assistant professor of human-computer interaction at Carnegie Mellon University who has studied... [...]
Just to clarify after yesterday's cryptic post about disgusting leakage: I am one of the few North Carolinians who does not have syphilis. I just have a cold. [...]
In this episode, Matlocke uses his folksy wisdom to control the federal judiciary. Hagan had just been elected to the Senate. That Saturday morning, Clifford walked into her living room and told her that the 15-seat 4th Circuit Court of... [...]
My newspaper column continues the occasional Thanksgiving tradition of listing, alphabetically, things and people for which I give thanks. Reasons to be thankful Edward Cone News & Record 11-22-09 Hard times give us perspective on the things that matter most... [...]
I'd set the exemption a little higher than the $2 million proposed here, but the larger ideas work pretty well. There is a big difference between wealth acquired through hard work and creativity and wealth bestowed as an accident of...' [...]
What I actually went to China to do: look serious during the simultaneous translation while waiting to use that mic in my hand. Only conference I've attended where speakers got boutonnières, and my speaker pass read "Distinguished Guest."' [...]
"I needed to sort through the lives of these men I loved, to follow the trails of their daily lives." Joe Killian eulogizes his grandfather and his uncle, fishermen lost at sea. UPDATED link now open to everyone. [...]
I was grateful for "Damn the Torpedoes" when it came out, both for the music and the message that rock was not yet dead, and I'd put this on my list of best-ever videos, and Benmont Tench is a great...' [...]
Just a bad plan all the way 'round: "Arnholt said that banning the media would not only be illegal, but it would not solve concerns about a political incident because so many people have personal blogs, post video to YouTube...'" [...]
Kay Hagan, in a statement released today: "We have taken a critical step forward in the process of getting a bill to the President's desk." Full statement after the jump. UPDATE: Richard Burr is less enthusiastic. Apparently the Democrats and... [...]
Guitarist in the backing band is Jimi Hendrix, 1965; allegedly the oldest known footage of him performing. What a difference two years can make. Thnx to PLN for the link. [...]
File footage, the propagandist's best friend, again. Left, a huge pro-Palin crowd prepares a human sacrifice in protest of the recent Newsweek cover. [...]
"It's going to be a holy war," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday evening. Wow. I thought it was going to be a debate over health care legislation. I am totally underdressed. [...]
"Mr. Griffin expressed exasperation at investors' desire to keep dissecting last year's disaster, comparing their fascination with people's inability to look away from a car crash." So a hedge fund blows up. It happens! And it wasn't even their fault:... [...]
More on the rise of outside-in technology, from Google CIO Ben Fried: "My bet was that some of these fast movers will sit on a rocket to the C-suite. Some of the people from that generation are going to be..." [...]
Smelly from the get-go, ripening as we go along, and I'm not sure we've really had an honest conversation about operating and maintenance costs. I like the idea of a swimming facility for Greensboro, and I don't have a problem...' [...]
UPDATE: A commenter says preservationists have tried to put money behind their efforts, but have been rebuffed by the developers. City Council vote for rezoning at Elm and Cornwallis fails to meet the margin dictated by protest petition law. Another... [...]
"Time management isn’t my forte. As I’ve said before, I’m naturally lazy, a time-waster, someone easily distracted by opportunities for fun and inactivity." More evidence: She could have just written "I'm a journalist" and gotten on with her day...' [...]
Situation getting weirder at the troubled Washington Times, where long-standing claims of independence from its controversial owner are being challenged: The former editorial page editor of the Washington Times has filed a discrimination complaint against the paper, saying he was... [...]
LNC posts a profit, assisted by an asset sale. Dennis Glass is talking about repaying $950 million in TARP funds as early as next year. Meanwhile, other life insurers face big problems with commercial real estate. [...]
Sexist coverage of Palin? I'm flummoxed by the idea that Democrats (or liberals, or non-supporters of Palin) fear her. They may fear the idea of Palin in the White House, but I'd guess most prospective opponents would welcome her as... [...]
Saw these guys near Beijing's Fourth Ring Road last month, asked if we could take a picture. I like the simple shot at left, but dude really wanted to pose for one, too (click images to enlarge). [...]
Prime plus 21.99%? That's a lot of interest rate. Maybe they don't want people using their cards. I've been paying more often with cash during the Great Recession, even though I always clear my Visa balance each month. It just... [...]
The Greensboro Urban Ministry needs help to help those in need -- and the needs this year are pressing. Attending Thursday night's Feast of Caring fundraiser at First Baptist Church on Friendly is one way to support the organization. [...]
"Now it becomes an issue of, all things being equal, the will to win, a level of stability in the brain to be able to counter and not give up, and frankly, if you watched this game, luck." Page head... [...]
The financial crisis started with Americans buying homes they couldn't afford. It is ending with the government struggling to sell buildings it never wanted... ...Taxpayers will be grappling with this flotsam for years to come, one example of how the...' [...]
Buy something at Barnes & Noble through Thursday, tell the cashier in Greensboro it's for Christ Community Preschool or enter the Bookfair # 10022275 online, and the school gets a share of the proceeds. [...]
My standard caveat with this guy: hope he's wrong, notice he's been right a lot. The jobs just are not coming back. There's really just one hope for our leaders to turn things around: a bold prescription that increases the... [...]
O'Reilly: "We're heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it's more than that, it's a war against the web as an interoperable platform." Related: Zittrain on the generative web. [...]
Second thoughts on effigy burning, or maybe first ones: "The chairman of the Danville TEA Party Patriots said Sunday he was unsure about whether the group will continue with its planned effigy burning of Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, and..." [...]
I was just talking about this to a group in Las Vegas, along with the expectation by younger workers that companies will function according to the rules of their own tech-centric lives: "This is the double life many people lead:..." [...]
"One of the most provocative statements Obama made -- about the importance of opening up the Internet -- was posted on Chinese news sites at first, but then was deleted." More: "In a country with 350 million Internet users and..." [...]
I often need to live with a new piece of furniture or artwork for a while before I'm really comfortable with it, but I liked the new banner hanging in the Dean Dome as soon as I saw it. Roy...' [...]
N&R covers library filtering story. One issue raised: "[A] large part of objectionable material derives from popular social networking sites such as YouTube or Facebook, or even attachments to e-mail, which would not be practical for the library to block."... [...]
Scripting the healthare debate: Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies... ...Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche,... [...]
A mysterious burning disk has appeared in the sky above our city, displacing the weeping clouds to which we have become accustomed. I shall go outside to investigate. [...]
In Glenwood, "I guess I lived in the make-believe world of those who didn't believe their home would be a target for a burglary." And in College Hill, "I was here. Heard the first kick from the kitchen, but it...'" [...]
Coincidence is not causality, but the whole camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle phenomenon is interesting: Demographically, the growth of the prosperity gospel tracks fairly closely to the pattern of foreclosure hot spots. Both spread in two particular kinds of communities—the exurban middle class and... [...]
"[Harrison] Barnes is the type of rare prospect that many -- including Scout.com’s National Recruiting Director Dave Telep – believe has the talent to impact a championship caliber team his freshman season." Whatever, he'll be doing it in light blue....' [...]
"[T]he Danville TEA Party will close their 'Fired Up for Freedom' rally by burning Rep. Tom Perriello and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in effigy." Tomorrow afternoon at 5:30, should you wish to make the short drive up 29. [...]
A local mom is upset because she saw a man sitting at a computer in a Greensboro public library branch, looking at "an unclothed woman in a pornographic image." She says in an email, distributed to dozens of people, that... [...]
Why is Jerry Bledsoe bringing race into the seemingly minor flap over a misdirected email by a GPD employee? One clear difference between the two emails he compares is that the first was sent within the department, and the second... [...]
UPDATE: This report (PDF) from the Guilford County Health Department, dated yesterday, concludes, "there is no health risk to residents living near the EH Glass property and that further investigation [...] is unwarranted." Is that the last word? Probably not.... [...]
Let your freak flag fly. UPDATE: Mike Baron sent in this artifact of the time (click to enlarge). He told the Winston-Salem Journal this summer, "The peace and love really didn't follow our generation...We kind of grew up not exemplifying...'" [...]
Making Dell look like a friend of the taxpayer, and Clarence Thomas sound like a sage: Pfizer bails on the project behind the Kelo case. "Look what they did," Mr. Cristofaro said on Thursday. "They stole our home for economic..." [...]
Joe Killian, via Facebook: "My uncle and grandfather, who are commercial fishermen, are missing tonight after their boat went down in a storm off of Cape May, New Jersey." More here. UPDATE: The news as of now is not encouraging.... [...]
Taking on water: "[I]n Europe, where banks hold over $350 billion of increasingly dubious shipping industry loans, the inability of Eastwind, which is based in New York,to handle its debt of more than $300 million set off an anxiety attack..." [...]
Turning up the heat on Kissell: "Not that Mr. Kissell seems to care, but for those on his staff who track such things, many people throughout the state who worked for him are more than a little pissed." [...]
My initial reaction, upon receiving a copy of The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs: How to Be Insanely Great in Front of Any Audience, was, eh, it helps to be introducing really cool products and to be a mysterious billionaire... [...]
American consumers "may be settling into new low-spending habits." Seems like a natural reaction to low-earning habits, low job-security habits, and low borrowing habits. [...]
"He says his actions were proper." And he may have convinced himself that they were. "Mr. Galbraith [...] stands to earn perhaps a hundred million or more dollars as a result of his closeness to the Kurds, his relations with..." [...]
"It must be pointed out that the entire level is wholly optional. At the very beginning the game asks if you want to skip a potentially offensive scene." Ima let you finish, but: bullshit. Yes, players can opt out, or... [...]
Tar Heel game on computer via justin.tv, for those of us w/o ESPNU. It's kind of over at halftime vs NCCU, still fun to watch the freshmen. Lots of work to do, but UNC could be a pretty decent team... [...]
Many Twitter and Facebook updates on what passes for big media news. Runner-up goes to Jon Henke: "Lou Dobbs resigning to spend more time on fist-shaking and lawn protection." Anil Dash for the win: "Does this mean Lou Dobbs is..." [...]
There are many rational reasons for not walking in the rain, but if you are compelled to do so by, say, an insistent dog, the experience really can be very nice, especially if it's not too cold and the fall... [...]
"Things seem to be going from bad to worse at the Washington Times. And the continued operation of the newspaper, which is owned Rev. Sun Myung Moon's Unification Church, seems to be in serious doubt." The turmoil may be driven... [...]
I wrote a couple of articles for Playboy (pre-internet, sorry no link), and I didn't have qualms about it, especially given the writers who had contributed to the magazine over the years. Not everyone was impressed. "Haven't we come up..." [...]
