Keurig, those coffee-pod people, have somehow created a market full of people who are willing to pay $60 for a pound of coffee. But that’s not enough for Keurig: Now they’re working on some sort of a digital rights management scheme involving coffee makers that would only use Keurig-branded coffee pods. Karl Bode at Techdirt […]
Paul Constant
Posted inTech
Government Trying to Spy on Citizens Annoyed Because People Are Masturbating on Camera All the Time
The Guardian‘s latest scoop is at once horrifying and kind of funny. Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ, with aid from the US National Security Agency, intercepted and stored the webcam images of millions of internet users not suspected of wrongdoing, secret documents reveal. GCHQ files dating between 2008 and 2010 explicitly state that a surveillance program […]
Posted inLGBTQIA+
Mitt Romney Urges Governor Brewer to Veto Anti-Gay Bill
This is significant: .@GovBrewer: veto of #SB1062 is right.— Mitt Romney (@MittRomney) February 25, 2014 I appreciate that Romney (or Romney’s Twitter-monkey, or whoever) called it the “right” choice to make. Not the financially smart decision, due to the boycott threats, but the right choice. I don’t know if we would have seen that kind […]
Posted inReligion
Tom DeLay Says God “Wrote the Constitution”
RawStory’s David Edwards writes: Former House Majority Leader Tom DeLay (R-TX) this week warned Americans to remember that God “wrote the Constitution” based on the Bible.…“I think we got off the track when we allowed our government to become a secular government,” DeLay explained. “When we stopped realizing that God created this nation, that he […]
Posted inMovies & TV
Here’s Why the Oscars Have Nothing to Do with Quality
I know that Oscar predictions are fun. But it’s important to remember that Oscar winners are rarely the best movies. To illustrate the thinking behind the voting process, Michael Musto at the Daily Beast interviewed an anonymous Academy voter using the fake name “Pat.” It’s a totally disheartening piece, if you think Oscars are supposed […]
Posted inPolitics
Kansas Wants to Return to the Good Old Days of Teachers Spanking Kids
Remember that gay-segregation bill that almost became a law in Kansas? Well, the Kansas legislature is at it again: A Kansas state representative has introduced a bill that would allow teachers and caregivers to spank children up to 10 times, hard enough to cause redness and bruising, according to a report. House member Gail Finney, […]
Posted inMovies & TV
An Uncomfortable Conversation About Her
Director/writer Spike Jonze and BBC Newsnight‘s Emily Maitlis have a very uncomfortable conversation about Her. Maitlis later calls Her a “Sad, male fetish fantasy of disembodied female who does his bidding.” I think she missed the point of it, but then I’m a sad male. What about you?
Posted inPolitics
Did Edward Snowden Steal His Coworker’s Password to Get NSA Info? It Doesn’t Matter!
Denver Nicks at Swampland writes: An internal National Security Agency memo offers the most detailed public account yet of how former contractor Edward Snowden obtained access to the agency’s vast database of secrets. The memo, provided to members of Congress and obtained by NBC News, lends support to reports that Snowden stole a colleague’s password, […]
Posted inTV
Inside the Secret Conservative Agenda of…PBS?
I urge you to read David Sirota’s Pando Daily story “The Wolf of Sesame Street: Revealing the secret corruption inside PBS’s news division.” Here are the first two paragraphs: On December 18th, the Public Broadcasting Service’s flagship station WNET issued a press release announcing the launch of a new two-year news series entitled “Pension Peril.” […]
Posted inBooks
Amazon Crushes Barnes & Noble Under Its Heel, with Help from the Department of Justice
Jay Yarow at Business Insider writes: Barnes & Noble laid off its Nook hardware engineers, according to a source that tipped Business Insider. The engineers were let go last Thursday, according to our source. Barnes & Noble’s e-book sales were reportedly improving a few years ago, but now they’ve all but bottomed out, and Barnes […]
Posted inPolitics
James Carville Is Finally Where He Belongs
James Carville is everything that is wrong with the Democratic party. He’s a conventional wisdom-spouting, don’t-rock-the-boat court jester for the mainstream Democratic establishment. When it comes to politics, he’s more interested in scoring points than helping people. His predictions don’t pan out, his opinions don’t matter, and over the course of three decades, he’s transitioned […]
Posted inFood and Drink
Coke’s Getting Into the Soda-at-Home Business
Yesterday’s announced partnership between Coca-Cola and Green Mountain Coffee Roasters will soon pay off in one dramatic way: As part of the strategic collaboration, [Green Mountain] will be The Coca-Cola Company’s exclusive partner for the production and sale of The Coca-Cola Company-branded single-serve, pod-based cold beverages. I stopped drinking Coke products about six months ago—I […]