worship the glitch
This is Eric Mortensen's blog. He works @ Blip and lives in Brooklyn.
Chromium lets you select DuckDuckGo as your search engine when you first install it.
From Season 1 of The West Wing, Sam Seaborn talking about the importance of privacy, and how it’s going to be the “next big issue.” This is from 12 years ago, and I’m always surprised and amazed at how prescient this show was on so many issues.
Yep.
Moe: That’s it, Homer. I’m taking your caricature down from Mount Lushmore, and I’m pulling your favorite song out of the jukebox.
Homer: “It’s Raining Men”?
Moe: Yeah, not no more it ain’t.
(via fuckyeahspringfield)
If you’re an art nerd and you don’t watch VernissageTV, you’re missing out.
Here are some the Blip staff’s favorite episodes:
Use Google? Time to Get Real About Protecting Your Digital Self - Sara Marie Watson - Technology - The Atlantic (via wreckandsalvage)
I dumped Chrome today and switched to DuckDuckGo as my search engine. I’m going to drop my (shitty, free) Chromebook off of a cliff and I will never buy an Android phone.
These are all things I was planning to do anyway, but they’ve taken on additional urgency. I’m still neck deep in plenty of other Google stuff.
(via wreckandsalvage)
OK. That’s weird.
(via fuckyeahthrobbingristle)
Earlier, I noted that Mr. Buffett’s secretary only makes $60,000 a year—not a bad living, but pretty meager when compared to her boss’ $50 billion net worth. As the chart above shows, the average CEO secretary makes more than this; indeed, $60,000 would place Buffett’s secretary around the 25th percentile. And I think we all know that Buffett is not the average CEO—he’s the richest CEO in the United States.
Isn’t there something fundamentally weird about a man who is willing to use his secretary’s economic situation to make a political point without any embarrassment whatsoever about his responsibility for her income? Again, she’s been his secretary for two decades; she’s been at the company for 38 years. Instead of crusading for his own taxes to be higher, maybe Buffett could try to pay his employees a little bit more.
Someone should start a petition.
The irony of a Libertarian stating that anyone other than the individual is ultimately responsible for their own income is too rich too pass up. Seriously? She’s a secretary in Omaha who clearly likes her gig enough to remain there for nearly 4 decades. He must be doing something right by his employees. She can walk anytime she wants. Hell, if she played her cards right she could walk into any other high-profile CEO’s office and ask for 5x that salary, probably.
Should the pay for a given position be based on, or evaluated in light of, the personal wealth of the person doing the hiring (or even the overall financial health of the company itself)? Or should it be based chiefly on the task for which the employee is being hired and the comparative wages in the workplace for similar positions while being considered alongside the relative value the company places on the tasks it needs performed?
Also, I bet the employee stock plan is killer.
- Barack Obama: We should use the milk line.
- Jon Favreau: No, we should not. It's a terrible pun and everyone will make fun of me.
- Barack Obama: But it worked for Bartlet.
- Jon Favreau: You do know The West Wing is fictional, right?
- Barack Obama: So it's settled. We're using the milk line.
- Jon Favreau: ...
- Joe Biden: DON'T FORGET TRAINS.
“You may think it’s ethical to kill a child in the womb. But the question now before us is: is it ethical to then use that aborted child for research and development to enhance flavors in food?”
- NY Times: You’ve long argued for the decriminalization of marijuana. Do you smoke weed?
- Barney Frank: No.
- NY Times: Why not?
- Barney Frank: Why do you ask a question, then act surprised when I give an answer? Do you think I lie to people?
- NY Times: I thought you might explain why you support decriminalizing it but don’t smoke it.
- Barney Frank: Do you think I’ve ever had an abortion? I don’t play poker on the Internet, either.
Obama said he would not go back to the days when Wall Street was allowed to play by its own set of rules or allow financial institutions to make risky bets with customers’ deposits… unless they happen to be your “Wall Street guy” who bundled over $500,000 for your campaign.
Hey Republican National Committee! It’s nice to know that you’re giving the whole Tumblr thing a go—though it doesn’t look like you’re getting much love. I think you may want to work on your brand. Tumblr is full of leftists and libertarians—and if you’re going to reach any of them, you’ll want to make it clear what your selling and why anybody would want to buy it.
You’re on to something with the whole, “Look! Obama’s gotten a lot of support from Wall Street and it sure looks like some of that support has compromised his ability to effectively regulate Wall Street.”
But merely raising questions about whether Obama’s stated desire to regulate Wall Street meshes with the desires of some of his financial backers isn’t enough. The leftists and libertarians do that all the time. The niche is crowded. Set yourself apart. If Obama is a poor choice for those who want to ensure Wall Street plays by the rules, explain why the Republicans are a better option. What safeguards do they support?
When it comes to regulation of financial markets, Obama’s sort of offered us a stale cookie with a bite taken out of it. It wouldn’t be hard to top—so long as you’re in the business of doing something constructive. But “Give us all the cookies!” is not constructive.
I understand that you’re upset that the Republicans aren’t in complete control of the country. But … the country has serious problems—and fiddling gleefully while Rome burns is not patriotic, even if you’re fiddling the National Anthem.
