Someone with a lot of time on their hands created this video. And that person’s name is Mr. Awesome. Best part? He has a whole collection of these videos.source
As one way to target the obesity crisis, candy bars and soda cans may come in smaller sizes in the U.K., in hopes that smaller sizes become standard.
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Google and Facebook, among others, could feel the burn. Federal Trade Commission Chairman Jon Leibowitz has brought with him a rep as a reformer, having fought hard against spyware. The latest thing he wants to reform is something that drives the financial engine of the web: Behavioral-targeted advertising. Google uses it. Facebook uses it (sometimes very poorly). Lots of other people do too. And sometimes consumers don’t know when they’re getting targeted. That’s something Leibowitz is working on. Expect heads to roll. source
We have to bring these deficits down very dramatically. That’s going to require some very hard choices.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner • Regarding how they expect to pay for all of those deficits the government’s built up over the last year or so. Expect the teabaggers to freak out even more at this news. • source
That Google Voice thing must not have helped. Google CEO Eric Schmidt is saying “peace out” to Apple’s board, where he was increasingly seen as a weird fit. Between Google Android, Chrome OS and now the Google Voice debacle, the company has been encroaching on some of Apple’s territory. While Schmidt excused himself from discussions pertaining to products that carried “conflict of interest” baggage, there’s only so many of those discussions one can excuse yourself from before it seems weird. Wonder what Fake Steve has to say about this.source
-8.3%decline in local and state spending during the fourth quarter of 2008 – the height of the economic decline. The first quarter of 2009 also saw declines source
Beyond the mail delays and the botched orders, the lack of human interaction is the big problem with Netflix and its cyber-ilk.
Richard Corliss • In an opinion piece on Netflix, and why he doesn’t like it. Despite its huge success (two billion discs served over a decade), it feels hollow and imperfect to him. He specifically brings up the loss of his local video store, Kim’s Video, which closed earlier this year. But more than anything, he criticizes how it makes people shut-ins: “So, O.K., soon there will be no more waiting for DVDs. But it’ll come at a price. You’ll be what the online corporate culture wants you to be: a passive, inert receptacle for its products.” Ouch! • source