Because they get paid millions of dollars for failing.
FOR FREAKIN' FAILING!
Great Adam Smith's ghost, the free market should operate to reward success, not those who fail ignominiously. Will add more to this manana once outrage subsides.
[Elevenmilliondollars? What the hell world are you inhabiting? Eleven million dollars for two departing executives because things didn't work out? I'm sorry, but were these two executives of Derek Jeter and Alex Rodriguez-level importance for your organization? Is that why there are severance deals like this in place? Or are you just completely psychotic?
It's not that this isn't your prerogative as a private company - it is. But seriously, numbers like these at a time when you're instituting added fees on customer accounts just sound farcical, almost like you're making these payments to get a reaction out people.
You look completely ridiculous with news like this at a time when thousands of people are massing in every major city in the country to make the case that you don't deserve to exist.]
http://www.thereformedbroker.com/2011/10/09/this-is-why-they-hate-you-and-want-you-to-die/
http://money.cnn.com/2011/10/11/news/economy/unemployment_benefits/index.htm
http://blogs.computerworld.com/19023/leo_apotheker_gets_23m_handshake_how_much
Tuesday, October 11, 2011
Torture is as American as Cherry Pie
USA!!! USA!!! USA!!!
Torture makes me proud to live as an American, a citizen in a country where my fellows have gone mad cheering for most barbaric tortures of fellow humans in vain hope of stopping "THEM" from killing "US."
Got news, folks, we all gonna die.
In the end it doesn't matter where or how but only why.
At my time, I want to hold the Constitution high.
Human rights for all!
[...Gareth Porter, an American investigative journalist who writes on US foreign and military policy, told Al Jazeera that, for years, international troops routinely handed detainees over to Afghan intelligence and security forces specifically to be interrogated harshly.
Pointing to a report he had published earlier this year, Porter said this practice went back to 2005 and 2006 when US and Canadian forces were conducting large-scale sweeps.
"They were picking up hundreds of young Afghans without really knowing who they were and trying to interrogate them to get information from them, but not very successfully," he said.
"What they did was to turn to the Afghan intelligence service and have them interrogated by the Afghans..."
Some detainees interviewed for the report described being hung by the wrists from the wall or ceiling. Others gave accounts of being beaten, especially with rubber hoses, electric cables or wires or wooden sticks, on the soles of the feet, the report said.
Electric shock, stress positions including forced standing, removal of toenails and threats of sexual abuse were among other forms of torture that detainees reported, it added.]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/10/20111010184857567176.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Rap_Brown
Torture makes me proud to live as an American, a citizen in a country where my fellows have gone mad cheering for most barbaric tortures of fellow humans in vain hope of stopping "THEM" from killing "US."
Got news, folks, we all gonna die.
In the end it doesn't matter where or how but only why.
At my time, I want to hold the Constitution high.
Human rights for all!
[...Gareth Porter, an American investigative journalist who writes on US foreign and military policy, told Al Jazeera that, for years, international troops routinely handed detainees over to Afghan intelligence and security forces specifically to be interrogated harshly.
Pointing to a report he had published earlier this year, Porter said this practice went back to 2005 and 2006 when US and Canadian forces were conducting large-scale sweeps.
"They were picking up hundreds of young Afghans without really knowing who they were and trying to interrogate them to get information from them, but not very successfully," he said.
"What they did was to turn to the Afghan intelligence service and have them interrogated by the Afghans..."
Some detainees interviewed for the report described being hung by the wrists from the wall or ceiling. Others gave accounts of being beaten, especially with rubber hoses, electric cables or wires or wooden sticks, on the soles of the feet, the report said.
Electric shock, stress positions including forced standing, removal of toenails and threats of sexual abuse were among other forms of torture that detainees reported, it added.]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/10/20111010184857567176.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H._Rap_Brown
Monday, October 10, 2011
Galaxy Farthest Away
[That pale red dot in the middle of the Hubble image {below} is what astronomers say is the furthest and earliest galaxy ever seen in the Universe. This is the deepest infrared image taken of the Universe. Based on the object’s colour, astronomers believe that its light has taken 13.2 billion years to reach us. The current known age of the Universe is 13.7 billion years.
“These observations provide us with our best insights yet into the likely nature of the earlier generation of primeval objects that we are yet to find,” said Rychard Bouwens of Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Spectroscopic confirmation that this is indeed the most distant galaxy ever seen is expected to come from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, which is planned for launch later this decade.
The dim object, called UDFj-39546284, is likely to be a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the Big Bang, only four percent of the Universe’s current age. It is tiny. Over one hundred such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our own galaxy, the Milky Way.]
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/hubbles-image-of-oldest-galaxy-in-the-observable-universe-.html#more
“These observations provide us with our best insights yet into the likely nature of the earlier generation of primeval objects that we are yet to find,” said Rychard Bouwens of Leiden University in the Netherlands.
Spectroscopic confirmation that this is indeed the most distant galaxy ever seen is expected to come from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, which is planned for launch later this decade.
The dim object, called UDFj-39546284, is likely to be a compact galaxy of blue stars that existed 480 million years after the Big Bang, only four percent of the Universe’s current age. It is tiny. Over one hundred such mini-galaxies would be needed to make up our own galaxy, the Milky Way.]
http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2011/10/hubbles-image-of-oldest-galaxy-in-the-observable-universe-.html#more
WTF?: Inmates Staffing Fire Stations
Remember when we thought satire difficult to come by? Me neither.
[ST MARYS, Ga. — Camden County officials are considering a money-saving program that would put inmates in fire stations.
The Florida Times-Union reports (http://bit.ly/nZbutT) that the program would put two inmates in each of three existing firehouses in the south Georgia county.
Officials say the inmates would respond to all emergencies — including residential fires — alongside traditional firefighters.
The inmates would have no guard, but would be monitored by a surveillance system and by the traditional firefighters, who would undergo training to guard the inmates. Authorities say one traditional firefighter with correctional training can supervise up to three inmates.
Authorities say the inmate firefighter program could save the county more than $500,000 a year by some estimates. Inmates charged with crimes such as drug offenses and thefts would be eligible.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/ap/georgia/inmates-could-staff-fire-stations-in-ga-county/nD89K/
[ST MARYS, Ga. — Camden County officials are considering a money-saving program that would put inmates in fire stations.
The Florida Times-Union reports (http://bit.ly/nZbutT) that the program would put two inmates in each of three existing firehouses in the south Georgia county.
Officials say the inmates would respond to all emergencies — including residential fires — alongside traditional firefighters.
The inmates would have no guard, but would be monitored by a surveillance system and by the traditional firefighters, who would undergo training to guard the inmates. Authorities say one traditional firefighter with correctional training can supervise up to three inmates.
Authorities say the inmate firefighter program could save the county more than $500,000 a year by some estimates. Inmates charged with crimes such as drug offenses and thefts would be eligible.]
http://www.wftv.com/news/ap/georgia/inmates-could-staff-fire-stations-in-ga-county/nD89K/
Unpaid Interns of the World Unite!
[Famous high street businesses, including Topshop and the recruitment specialist Reed, are being named and shamed by an internet campaign targeting the rise of unpaid and very low paid internships that, it is claimed, is undermining the link between pay and work.
Topshop, the star performer in Sir Philip Green's £2.7bn Arcadia retail empire, is exposed for paying graduates on month-long work experience secondments just £3.50 a day plus limited travel expenses.
Urban Outfitters, the American clothier with stores in a dozen cities around the UK, has been attacked for advertising a nine-month unpaid internship in their merchandising department for people who are "hardworking, organised [and] able to multi-task".
And Reed, one of the country's largest job agencies, has been nicknamed "Greedy Reed" for having advertised 46 unpaid internships within its company, variously described as "intern receptionist", "intern executive assistant" and "secretarial admin internship". The adverts were recently taken down after the company was reminded by the campaign of the obligations of the national minimum wage legislation introduced in 1999. There is no legal definition of an "intern", and the law says that anybody who qualifies as a worker must be paid at least £6.08 an hour if aged 21.
These big corporations, and others, are featuring on the web pages of Graduate Fog, a site dedicated to the travails of young people emerging into the jobs market during what the Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King said last week might be the country's worst ever economic crisis. The site says unpaid labour is the "big issue" facing people in their late teens and early 20s and the problem may get worse before it gets better.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/oct/09/young-unpaid-angry-interns-campaign-for-wage
Topshop, the star performer in Sir Philip Green's £2.7bn Arcadia retail empire, is exposed for paying graduates on month-long work experience secondments just £3.50 a day plus limited travel expenses.
Urban Outfitters, the American clothier with stores in a dozen cities around the UK, has been attacked for advertising a nine-month unpaid internship in their merchandising department for people who are "hardworking, organised [and] able to multi-task".
And Reed, one of the country's largest job agencies, has been nicknamed "Greedy Reed" for having advertised 46 unpaid internships within its company, variously described as "intern receptionist", "intern executive assistant" and "secretarial admin internship". The adverts were recently taken down after the company was reminded by the campaign of the obligations of the national minimum wage legislation introduced in 1999. There is no legal definition of an "intern", and the law says that anybody who qualifies as a worker must be paid at least £6.08 an hour if aged 21.
These big corporations, and others, are featuring on the web pages of Graduate Fog, a site dedicated to the travails of young people emerging into the jobs market during what the Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King said last week might be the country's worst ever economic crisis. The site says unpaid labour is the "big issue" facing people in their late teens and early 20s and the problem may get worse before it gets better.]
http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/2011/oct/09/young-unpaid-angry-interns-campaign-for-wage
Occupy TV
Occupy Wall St gets own Youtube channel: http://www.youtube.com/occupytv.
Sorry, Gil Scott Heron, in this case we will televise the revolution, sans commercials.
Sorry, Gil Scott Heron, in this case we will televise the revolution, sans commercials.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Turn on, Tune in, Invent I Pad
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/g/a/2011/10/05/notes100511.DTL
[Days before Apple founder Steve Jobs died, the New York Times ran an op-ed proclaiming that "You Love Your iPhone. Literally." Our infatuation with our iPhones is not mere addiction, but genuine love, the piece asserted, because brain scans proved it. There's no doubt that Jobs' computers were the first of their kind to engender such widespread and ardent passion. So why did 45 neuroscientists write an angry letter to the Times disputing the science behind the contention?
The paradoxes of love have perhaps never been clearer than in our relationships with Apple products — the warm, fleshy desire we feel for such cold, hard, glassy objects. But Jobs knew how to inspire material lust. He knew that consumers want something that not only sparkles and awes, but also feels accessible, easy to use, an object with which we want to merge and to feel one and the same.
Not coincidentally, that's how people describe the experience of taking psychedelic drugs. It feels profoundly artificial yet deeply real, both high-tech and earthy-crunchy, human and mystically divine — in a word, transcendent. Jobs had this experience. He said that taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he'd ever done. "He said there were things about him that people who had not tried psychedelics — even people who knew him well, including his wife — could never understand," John Markoff reported for the Times.
As attested by the nearly spiritual devotion so many consumers have to Jobs' creations, the former Apple chief (and indeed many other top technology pioneers) appeared to have found enduring inspiration in LSD. Research shows that the psychedelic experience is, in fact, long lasting: a new study published last week found that people who took magic mushrooms (psilocybin) had long-term personality changes, becoming more open, more curious, more intellectually engaged and more creative. These personality shifts persisted more than a year after taking the drugs.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out
[Days before Apple founder Steve Jobs died, the New York Times ran an op-ed proclaiming that "You Love Your iPhone. Literally." Our infatuation with our iPhones is not mere addiction, but genuine love, the piece asserted, because brain scans proved it. There's no doubt that Jobs' computers were the first of their kind to engender such widespread and ardent passion. So why did 45 neuroscientists write an angry letter to the Times disputing the science behind the contention?
The paradoxes of love have perhaps never been clearer than in our relationships with Apple products — the warm, fleshy desire we feel for such cold, hard, glassy objects. But Jobs knew how to inspire material lust. He knew that consumers want something that not only sparkles and awes, but also feels accessible, easy to use, an object with which we want to merge and to feel one and the same.
Not coincidentally, that's how people describe the experience of taking psychedelic drugs. It feels profoundly artificial yet deeply real, both high-tech and earthy-crunchy, human and mystically divine — in a word, transcendent. Jobs had this experience. He said that taking LSD was one of the two or three most important things he'd ever done. "He said there were things about him that people who had not tried psychedelics — even people who knew him well, including his wife — could never understand," John Markoff reported for the Times.
As attested by the nearly spiritual devotion so many consumers have to Jobs' creations, the former Apple chief (and indeed many other top technology pioneers) appeared to have found enduring inspiration in LSD. Research shows that the psychedelic experience is, in fact, long lasting: a new study published last week found that people who took magic mushrooms (psilocybin) had long-term personality changes, becoming more open, more curious, more intellectually engaged and more creative. These personality shifts persisted more than a year after taking the drugs.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turn_on,_tune_in,_drop_out
Friday, October 7, 2011
Reverend Fred Shuttlesworth: "If things need doing, be about them."
[BIRMINGHAM, Ala. — The Rev. Fred Shuttlesworth, once described by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. as the most courageous civil rights fighter in the South, died Wednesday at age 89.
Shuttlesworth, who had been in declining health, died at Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Dodd said.
A major leader in the civil rights movement, Shuttlesworth was beaten, bombed and set upon by fire hoses for his public stances against segregation in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s.]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/news/sc-nw-shuttlesworth-1006-20111006,0,1384310.story
Shuttlesworth, who had been in declining health, died at Princeton Baptist Medical Center in Birmingham, hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Dodd said.
A major leader in the civil rights movement, Shuttlesworth was beaten, bombed and set upon by fire hoses for his public stances against segregation in Birmingham in the 1950s and 1960s.]
http://www.chicagotribune.com/site/newspaper/news/sc-nw-shuttlesworth-1006-20111006,0,1384310.story
"I Will Pick No More of Your Bitter Fruit."
In another endless series of examples showing how ideology trumps reality for "modern" RepubliKKKans, the new draconian anti-immigrant law in AL has driven farm workers out of the state and, this threatens ruin to farmers, who watch their tomatoes wither on the vine.
Of course absent of any logic or facts, teabagging fools will blame the Kenyan Muslim socialist occupier of the White House for the consequences of RepubliKKKan's insanity when produce prices predictably rise..
Also predictable, migrant workers sreaming to FL to work, support their families, and buy stuff which will help the economy in FL.
Never thought I'd say it, but thanks GA and AL.
[STEELE, Ala. -- A sponsor of Alabama's tough new immigration law told desperate tomato farmers Monday that he won't change the law, even though they told him that their crops are rotting in the field and they are at risk of losing their farms.
Republican state Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale met with about 50 growers, workers, brokers and business people Monday at a tomato packing shed on Chandler Mountain in northeast Alabama. They complained that the new law, which went into effect Thursday, scared off many of their migrant workers at harvest time.
"The tomatoes are rotting on the vine, and there is very little we can do," said Chad Smith, who farms tomatoes with his uncle, father and brother...
"There won't be no next growing season," farmer Wayne Smith said.
"Does America know how much this is going to affect them? They'll find out when they go to the grocery store. Prices on produce will double," he said.] emphasis added
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/10/04/business-us-alabama-immigration-law_8715848.html
[Tougher immigration laws in Alabama and Georgia may be forcing more illegal immigrants into Florida. Farmers in Alabama say their migrant pickers have been abandonoing the state, since the new immigration law went into effect last week.
That may be just one effect of the new law. Farmers are also saying you can expect higher produce prices at your grocery stores.
Georgia, which passed it's tougher immigration measure last year, is already experiencing the drawbacks. Parts of Alabama and Georgia are harvesting tomatoes right now and many farmers say they don't have enough workers to pick the crops. They're having to hire legal workers, if they can find any to work. Since legal workers cost more than the illegal immigrants, you can expect prices to go up.
"This is the biggest mess personally we think we have ever seen in the life of our farm" says local tomato farmer John Alpin.]
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/131117688.html
Of course absent of any logic or facts, teabagging fools will blame the Kenyan Muslim socialist occupier of the White House for the consequences of RepubliKKKan's insanity when produce prices predictably rise..
Also predictable, migrant workers sreaming to FL to work, support their families, and buy stuff which will help the economy in FL.
Never thought I'd say it, but thanks GA and AL.
[STEELE, Ala. -- A sponsor of Alabama's tough new immigration law told desperate tomato farmers Monday that he won't change the law, even though they told him that their crops are rotting in the field and they are at risk of losing their farms.
Republican state Sen. Scott Beason of Gardendale met with about 50 growers, workers, brokers and business people Monday at a tomato packing shed on Chandler Mountain in northeast Alabama. They complained that the new law, which went into effect Thursday, scared off many of their migrant workers at harvest time.
"The tomatoes are rotting on the vine, and there is very little we can do," said Chad Smith, who farms tomatoes with his uncle, father and brother...
"There won't be no next growing season," farmer Wayne Smith said.
"Does America know how much this is going to affect them? They'll find out when they go to the grocery store. Prices on produce will double," he said.] emphasis added
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2011/10/04/business-us-alabama-immigration-law_8715848.html
[Tougher immigration laws in Alabama and Georgia may be forcing more illegal immigrants into Florida. Farmers in Alabama say their migrant pickers have been abandonoing the state, since the new immigration law went into effect last week.
That may be just one effect of the new law. Farmers are also saying you can expect higher produce prices at your grocery stores.
Georgia, which passed it's tougher immigration measure last year, is already experiencing the drawbacks. Parts of Alabama and Georgia are harvesting tomatoes right now and many farmers say they don't have enough workers to pick the crops. They're having to hire legal workers, if they can find any to work. Since legal workers cost more than the illegal immigrants, you can expect prices to go up.
"This is the biggest mess personally we think we have ever seen in the life of our farm" says local tomato farmer John Alpin.]
http://www.wjhg.com/home/headlines/131117688.html
Afghans Protest US Occupation
10 years of war in Afghanistan should teach policy makers he US cannot win in any military sense; all the bullets and bombs and drones will no defeat an idea for after all the Taliban comprise a religious ideal with an armed guerrilla movement attached.
[Hundreds of Afghans have marched through the capital, Kabul, on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, condemning the US as occupiers and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops.
About 300 men and women gathered early in the morning on Thursday with placards and banners accusing the US of "massacring" civilians while denouncing President Hamid Karzai as a puppet subservient to Washington.
"Occupation - atrocities - brutality," read one sign held aloft by two women.]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/10/201110610856316105.html
[Hundreds of Afghans have marched through the capital, Kabul, on the eve of the 10-year anniversary of the invasion of Afghanistan, condemning the US as occupiers and demanding the immediate withdrawal of all foreign troops.
About 300 men and women gathered early in the morning on Thursday with placards and banners accusing the US of "massacring" civilians while denouncing President Hamid Karzai as a puppet subservient to Washington.
"Occupation - atrocities - brutality," read one sign held aloft by two women.]
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia/2011/10/201110610856316105.html
Yankees Lose! Yankees Lose! Yankees Lose!
Insert mocking A-ROD chant here. Know should not mock the man, but as a Cubs fan, what do I havve left for the post season?
[NEW YORK — The Detroit Tigers survived a tense trip back to Bronx, with Jose Valverde and the bullpen holding on time and time again to beat the New York Yankees 3-2 Thursday night to win the deciding Game 5 of their AL playoff series.
Don Kelly and Delmon Young hit consecutive home runs in the first inning, then the Tigers spent the rest of a tense game trying to preserve their lead...
Valverde pitched the ninth for his second save of the series, remaining perfect in 51 chances this year. After Valverde struck out Alex Rodriguez to end it, the Tigers' closer crouched and pumped both arms as his teammates ran out to celebrate.] emphasis added
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/tigers-defeat-yankees-fister-mlb-alds_n_999421.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=100711&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief
[NEW YORK — The Detroit Tigers survived a tense trip back to Bronx, with Jose Valverde and the bullpen holding on time and time again to beat the New York Yankees 3-2 Thursday night to win the deciding Game 5 of their AL playoff series.
Don Kelly and Delmon Young hit consecutive home runs in the first inning, then the Tigers spent the rest of a tense game trying to preserve their lead...
Valverde pitched the ninth for his second save of the series, remaining perfect in 51 chances this year. After Valverde struck out Alex Rodriguez to end it, the Tigers' closer crouched and pumped both arms as his teammates ran out to celebrate.] emphasis added
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/10/06/tigers-defeat-yankees-fister-mlb-alds_n_999421.html?utm_source=DailyBrief&utm_campaign=100711&utm_medium=email&utm_content=NewsEntry&utm_term=Daily%20Brief
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