Linkee-poo is running for the tape

I know some of you are on Linked-In (so am I), if so you might want to opt-out of "we can use you for advertising" policy. (Grokked from John Scalzi)

If Romney actually wins the nomination, I expect this will be the first attack ad. (Late update, the DNC already started last night with thead) Complete disconnect. Also, no, the money isn't going to "people", it's sitting on the corporation's balance sheets.

Some context on how the economic downturn and all the "reforms" are working for America's working poor. Once you see these things first hand, it hard to reconcile some people's world view with reality. (Grokked from Absolute Write)

While I think most of the various conspiracy theories about government suppressing information or trying to control us are tin-foil hat worthy, there are some exceptions. While the focus of that article is "processed meats" are bad for you, it's mostly what happens while that meat is being processed that's the problem (the addition of nitrates, mostly), not the chopping of meat. When it comes to food and safety issues, the government tends to forget it has some studies that shows there are problems (arsenic in the water, anybody?). Things like processed foods, food additives, food processing, and types of food are often found to have dire effects (hot dogs? 10% increase in colorectal cancers, 10% is a large difference when it comes to health studies, most are 5% or less). You can also add in here the research on artificial sweeteners (really bad for you, Stevia is about the only exception), as well as processed sugars (refined sugar is the wrong form for your body to use), not to mention the various "plastic" foods out there. The major problem? One is regulation (try and regulate Nutra-sweet/aspartame, they tried) as in "we don't need the Nanny State telling us what to eat" (when in reality they already do because…). Two, back in the 70s the nation was facing a dire crisis, inflation on food was skyrocketing and "economic" starvation was becoming a reality. So Nixon set his HHS Secretary to fix the problem. Corn and corn subsidies were a major part of that solution to get "cheap calories." Fast food took off. Other "cheap calories" were found (snacks, highly processed foods with additives and fillers). And now we have epidemic obesity and health problems. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

Augmented reality gets closer to "good". With a cool video. (Grokked from Jay Lake)

It looks like the tactic of forming a company only to funnel money to a (particular in this case) candidate is becoming a trend.

While some specialized information can't really be learned until your in a position, at least you could grasp the basics. But then, there have been politicians and those willing to fleece the masses who have lied for so long about cutting spending and taxes. So now we have a class of a certain age who don't quit understand how their government works, it isn't all that surprising.