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..." [...]
Mecklenburg County manager Harry Jones forwarded an email from a citizen who criticized a county program to the citizen's employer, Bank of America. Jones has now apologized. I found bank official Betty Turner's craven response to be as creepy as... [...]
ABC News' Brian Ross has a breathtaking record of recklessly inaccurate, overhyped stories that don't live up to the headline. His scoop yesterday about Nidal Malik Hasan's "attempt to reach out to al Qaeda" was one of them. More: "His..." [...]
Top executives at Blackwater Worldwide authorized secret payments of about $1 million to Iraqi officials that were intended to silence their criticism and buy their support after a September 2007 episode in which Blackwater security guards fatally shot 17 Iraqi... [...]
GSO is one of the airports getting free wifi through Jan 15, courtesy of Google. Thanks, Google. Now, could you get us some flights? (Merci à lecteur alerte SJ pour le tip.) [...]
From the Department of Something Else to Worry About: "A Chinese collapse, of course, would have profound effects on the United States, limiting China's ability to buy U.S. debt and provoking unknown political changes inside the Chinese regime." [...]
Hoggard: "One Council member I spoke with yesterday has the impression that Knight will be initially operating as if he has received an electoral mandate to change the Council world." "Mandate" is a loaded word, but Greensboro did vote for... [...]
Access and portability are important areas for healthcare reform. So is cost, but it gets less attention at bill-writing time, although I have heard the hippies muttering about some sort of "public option." [...]
A couple of local runners are blogging their training regimens. I enjoy these sites, because it's not me. I pretty much quit running when we got a dog, because it's easier to walk her than to run her, and because... [...]
"[P]layers in the health care debate including business, labor and the administration are now likely to focus their full attention on Sen. Kay Hagan." N&O also picks up on the anger at Kissell for his blue-doggery. Hagan is considered solid... [...]
If you are lucky enough to get a severance package when you lose your job, don't keep spending as if you were still drawing a salary. "Those affected often have trouble accepting their diminished prospects. Hefty severance packages, while intended...'" [...]
Broadcast emails and reply-to-all buttons are dangerous things. I was one of dozens of people to receive an email, and then a recall request, from a City employee yesterday. I read the joke she had accidentally distributed, decided that it... [...]
Fec deals with the pushy sales staff at a time-share. Same weekend, the epic South Park episode about the pushy sales staff at a time-share runs again on teevee. Coincidence? There are no coincidences. "Asspen" also includes a spoof of... [...]
"The recession may be over but companies that cater to consumers believe people are digging in for a long, frugal winter." The body of the article is behind the WSJ paywall, but you get the point. Left unsaid: mightn't this...' [...]
The context of Reagan's speech may have been more complicated than some remember, but the vision of the wall coming down, of its impermanence rather than its reality, was powerful stuff. It's hard to explain to a teenager what it... [...]
Tall pine, tall magnolia, 16th Street, GSO. For perspective, the fence in the background is just under 6' tall, and behind it to the right is the white wall of the Crash Craddock bridge.' [...]
Standing in Beijing, thinking about Greensboro: I don't expect Rashad Young to spend a lot of time reading blogs -- he's getting paid to manage the city, not surf the Web. But I do want him to pay attention to...' [...]
Much angst at Blue NC over Larry Kissell's performance in office. I can understand the frustration -- these folks feel they made a real contribution to Kissell's election, they believe they were promised something, and his healthcare vote is a... [...]
I've been thinking of starting a regular feature at this blog called "Big old trees." It would consist of photos of trees that are big and old. Joel Gillespie is on the job already. I took the photograph at top...' [...]
"I would compartmentalize the industry for the same reason you compartmentalize ships," Reed said in the interview in his office on Park Avenue in New York. "If you have a leak, the leak doesn’t spread and sink the whole vessel...." [...]
Too bad "Backlash" is already taken, because it would make a swell title for a Malcolm Gladwell book, in which he might address critics who say he fails to deploy "anything so mundane as a logical, well-supported or otherwise sound..." [...]
Cornyn wants the GOP to be a bigger tent. DeMint does not: "He's trying to find candidates who can win. I'm trying to find people who can help me change the Senate." Previously, DeMint said he'd rather have 30 true... [...]
The economy was badly broken. We put a splint on the compound fracture. The economy has not healed. It's really not that complicated. Jobs, stupid. [...]
If for some reason you have not been hitting the refresh button to find out the latest on the turnout numbers for Tuesday's mayoral election -- the possibilities range from "depressing" to "slightly more depressing" -- you can click here... [...]
Jeter is what baseball people call a "can't-miss" prospect. Good call, baseball people! Interesting to look back at the 1993 article by the N&R's Charlie Atkinson on the then-Greensboro Hornet. Is it a stretch to say that Greensboro made Jeter,...' [...]
Elijah reminded me at breakfast that it's Guy Fawkes Day. He's a big fan of V for Vendetta. I remember being very taken with GFD as a first-grader living outside of London. Just the name "Gunpowder Plot" is exciting for... [...]
