Linkee-poo will sing you a song about spinning, that was a good trade in our time

I've been letting this one stew a little, and in it's way I've been hoarding a precious gem. Elizabeth Bear on social relevance, timeliness, and the exquisite lie that science fiction shows us the future. A best, it can show us how we are. There's a meme out there in the zeitgeist that SF has a place because it gives us a road map to the next thing. And in service of this myth we talk about Clarke's satellites, or that cell flip phones are our communicators. It's bullshit. My cell phone can not call a space ship, and communicators weren't much more than encrypted (at best) radios. The broken promises of SF that can never be salt the ground of our imaginations. But that doesn't mean SF has no value. It is a pearl of great price.

"Yes, you see, a giant retail chain being legally required to provide health insurance even for lady parts is exactly like the death-by-stoning of St. Stephen." Hubris, and the political "evangelicals" are full of it.

Hide-a-Pod. Hahahahahaha. Okay, they would have gotten extra points if they could have made the Zune-camo actually drive your iPod/iPhone, but still. (Pointed to by Dan)

And if you ever wondered why I use Apple products over Microsoft, there is this. See, thieves decided to raid Microsoft's Mount View campus, but only took Apple iPads and left all the Microsoft products alone. This is like a friend who had their car broken into and their stereo taken but none of their tapes. As they said later, "That's kind of insulting when you think of it. Like the thieves are telling you that your taste in equipment is good but you taste in music sucks." (Pointed to by Dan)

Also, you know how most tech gurus like to bag on Apple, especially with its newfound hegemony in the tablet market with the iPad? Well, if Apple spun off it's iPad business it alone would be the 11th largest tech company and #98 on the Fortune 500. How's that for having such a poor product.

Have you ever wanted to see robots play metal? Sure you have. (Grokked from Mer Haskell)

USB 3.0 to to get a speed bump to 10gig throughput. When I was a kid, 10gig seemed unreasonably high and even getting to 10meg speed throughput was an amazing leap forward. I feel like I'm saying, "we used to be able to buy two pieces a bubblegum for a penny." And thus I stamp both my geek and geezer card for the quarter. (Pointed to by John)

With some alternatives to hitting the debt ceiling being floated again, GOP Leaders are showing they understand just how tenuous their threats about going over the next cliff are. Gee, ya think? Even the architect of the last time the government had to close down is saying, "Bad idea, guys." But here is the reality, while the GOP leadership may still contain a brain and memory, their rank and file have lost both of theirs. So what it might come down is that Boehner will need to strike a deal with Congressional Democrats and abandon his "majority of the majority" policy all together (like he did last week). Before the Republicans could play this card and strike a blow at an Obama Second Term (after all, an economy in the toilet, even if laid at the proper feet, would have drained a lot of votes from him). Well, they no longer have that bullet, and it's looking like that was their major play. Obama has already signaled that he won't deal for this (what he actually does may be different). But my guess is a call was made to the White House to schedule a meeting and was rebuffed, which sent the message that the President may be willing to either pull one of the two nuclear scenarios, or let Congress damn themselves.

Lookie here, one Congresswoman gets sworn in sans Bible. She used a bound copy of the Constitution. Queue the social conservatives over at Fox to start up the spittle flecking machines. Well, at least it wasn't being sworn in on Jefferson's Koran. I mean, that would have been horrible. I can see the Tea Party getting thrown into an endless loop over this one, "But it wasn't the Bible, but it was the Constitution, but it wasn't… Norman, coordinate!" (Grokked from Tobias Buckell)

Pointing to this video about Social Media's influence because I may need it later. Yeah, it's an ad, go figure. I do dispute some of their numbers (or at the very least the implications they're trying to draw). But, yeah, a company really can't ignore social media any more if they want to thrive. (Grokked from Cat Rambo)

Alligator Quotient: Today they're being contrary cusses.