darren

Includes some interesting quotes from Salman, like "Tell them to go fuck themselves" and "With the white guy, I know he's stupid. Whereas with the brown guy, he better be fucking brilliant." - Jess Lee via Bookmarklet

This was bad PR, but I've only had good interactions with Salman. - Chris White

Salman's a great guy, and has assembled a great team over there. It's good to inject some pragmatism into the VC world every now and then. =) - darren

"By connecting intimately with computers, we will take the human brain to a new level,” he says. “If we can provide the brain with speedy access to unlimited memory, unlimited calculation ability, and instant wireless communication ability, we will produce a human with unsurpassable intelligence. We fully expect to demonstrate this kind of link between brain and machine.” - darren via Bookmarklet

"It’s that utter power vacuum that gave McCain the opening to pull his potentially catastrophic display of economic “leadership” last week. He may be the first presidential candidate in our history to risk wrecking the country even before being voted into the Oval Office." - darren via Bookmarklet

"Chinese scientists said they were developing a chemical substance that could detect melamine fast and cheaply, and could be used by any dairy farmer, the official Xinhua news agency reported Saturday. Professors at Lanzhou University in northwest China told Xinhua a dose of the reagent could detect traces of melamine in 20 minutes and would only cost 20 yuan (3 dollars), compared to the longer process of laboratory testing." - darren via Bookmarklet

Isn't this a bad thing, to give the farmers a cheap and fast way to test for melamine? Then they'll surely find a way to beat the test.... - darren

"“What, does McCain think the Senate will still be working at 9 p.m. Friday?” Gov. Ed Rendell of Pennsylvania said in an interview, referring to the scheduled start time of the debate. “I think this is all political — I wish McCain had shown the same concern when he didn’t show up in the Senate to vote on the extension of the renewable energy tax credit.”" - darren via Bookmarklet

Killing the loginwindow is also an unacceptable answer. - darren

Best answer thus far for getting around the problem (but not fixing it): /System/Library/CoreServices/Menu\ Extras/User.menu/Contents/Resources/CGSession -suspend - darren

Mine is doing this to me right now! I get around it by going to the login window from the quick user switching menu... - James Polley

"As for McCain, a voice analyst reportedly said that he “often smiles in a manner that commonly conveys sarcasm when addressing controversial statements,” and that his voice analysis profile “looks very much like someone who is clinically depressed.” We’ll let you spin that one however you see fit." - darren via Bookmarklet

Ah, gotta love crazy conservatives (also, people who live in San Francisco *never* call it Frisco): "A local conservative radio personality, Eddie Burke, who had lambasted the organizers as “a bunch of socialist, baby-killing maggots,” was on hand with a sign reading “Alaska is not Frisco.”" - darren via Bookmarklet

"Imagine for a minute that attending the Republican convention in St. Paul, sitting in a skybox overlooking the convention floor, were observers from Russia, Iran and Venezuela. And imagine for a minute what these observers would have been doing when Rudy Giuliani led the delegates in a chant of “drill, baby, drill!” I’ll tell you what they would have been doing: the Russian, Iranian and Venezuelan observers would have been up out of their seats, exchanging high-fives and joining in the chant louder than anyone in the hall — “Yes! Yes! Drill, America, drill!” — because an America that is focused first and foremost on drilling for oil is an America more focused on feeding its oil habit than kicking it. ... it reminds me of someone who, on the eve of the I.T. revolution — on the eve of PCs and the Internet — is pounding the table for America to make more I.B.M. typewriters and carbon paper. “Typewriters, baby, typewriters.”" - Dan Hsiao

"In order to disguise the fact that the core of his campaign is to continue the same Bush policies that have led 80 percent of the country to conclude we’re on the wrong track, McCain has decided to play the culture-war card. Obama may be a bit professorial, but at least he is trying to unite the country to face the real issues rather than divide us over cultural differences." - Dan Hsiao

I wanted to quote over half the column but I'll stop. Just go read it. - Dan Hsiao

Yes, change the broken incentive system, please! "Rewarding. Doctors and hospitals today are paid for performing procedures, not for helping patients. Insurers make money by dumping sick patients, not by keeping people healthy. Mr. Obama proposes to base Medicare and Medicaid reimbursements to hospitals and doctors on patient outcomes (lower cholesterol readings, made and kept follow-up appointments) in a coordinated effort to focus the entire payment system around better health, not just more care." - darren via Bookmarklet

"Every time I nostalgically try to regain my liking of John McCain, he reaches into his sleaze bag and pulls out something malodorous. If there were a prize cake available, McCain’s lowbrow ad attempting to paint Obama as a virtual pornographer and peddler of sex to kindergarteners would take that pastry. Plate and all." - darren via Bookmarklet

"Each universe is real, but each one exists in different dimensions of this Hilbert space. The parallel universes are like different pages in a book, existing independently, simultaneously, and right next to each other. In a way all these infinite level III universes exist right here, right now." - darren via Bookmarklet

"Stephen Hawking once asked it this way: “What is it that breathes fire into the equations and makes a universe for them to describe?” If I am right and the cosmos is just mathematics, then no fire-breathing is required. A mathematical structure doesn’t describe a universe, it is a universe." - darren

"At moments like this, Blaine, aged 35 and nearly as droopy-eyed and lazy-voiced in person as he is on camera, seems a mere crust of cool surrounding a molten core of self-consciousness. He is always wondering what you are thinking; and, often, what you are thinking of him - and trying, with varying degrees of subtlety, but almost unerring effectiveness, to nudge your thoughts in particular directions." - darren via Bookmarklet

"A policy of preemptive strike, as proposed by President George W. Bush. "My pants weren't dirty yet, but I Bush Doctrined them and washed them anyway."" - darren via Bookmarklet

I like the "Three C's". - darren

Nice dig against "Walt Whitman" (the school district, not the poet) too. We used to compete against them in high school gymnastics. - darren

i think that just melted a little bit of my brain. i feel so confused. i want to laugh and cry at the same time. - Mike Massey

"According to aero­dynamics experts, a skydiver without a chute reaches a terminal velocity of about 120 miles per hour after dropping roughly 500 feet. That actually isn’t any faster than the speed you’d reach if you fell from a moderately tall building. “But it’s not falling that kills you; it’s the landing,” Richard says: The abrupt pressure of an impact is likely to break open blood vessels such as your aorta, damage internal organs, and shatter your bones." - darren via Bookmarklet

"A green technology company has created a jet fuel from algae and announced yesterday that the new product meets vigorous aviation standards. The California-based company, Solazyme, said it’s near to creating cost-competitive fuels: “The end goal is to be at or less than the cost of fossil fuel and my best guess is we’ll be at that point within 24 to 36 months,” Jonathan Wolfson, the company’s chief executive, said" - darren via Bookmarklet

This seems too good to be true. What's the catch? Good links in the article too. - Mandi

"For America to make a decision as grave as this one - while the planet boils and with the US fighting two wars - on the trivial basis that a hockey mom is likable and seems down to earth, would be to convey a lack of seriousness, a fleeing from reality, that does indeed suggest a nation in, to quote Weisberg, "historical decline". Let's not forget, McCain's campaign manager boasts that this election is "not about the issues."" - darren via Bookmarklet

Of course many in the US can't believe that Europeans keep electing these secular, elitist "socialists" and then complain about high unemployment… the perspective from the outside is very different. Do you think it's more accurate? - Jim Norris

Maybe not more accurate, but it seems the perspective from outside the US is on average more global and less provincial than the prevailing attitudes inside the US. - darren

""I brought my baby to touch the wall, so that the power of Darwin can purify her genetic makeup of undesirable inherited traits," said Darlene Freiberg, one among a growing crowd assembled here to see the mysterious stain, which appeared last Monday on one side of the Rhea County Courthouse. The building was also the location of the famed "Scopes Monkey Trial" and is widely considered one of Darwinism's holiest sites. "Forgive me, O Charles, for ever doubting your Divine Evolution. After seeing this miracle of limestone pigmentation with my own eyes, my faith in empirical reasoning will never again be tested."" - darren via Bookmarklet

"China’s trade surplus set a record of $28.7 billion in August, the government announced on Wednesday, mainly because of an unexpected slowdown in the growth of imports. Slower growth of imports is a common sign of a weakening economy." - darren via Bookmarklet

Something always smells fishy with respect to the China trade surplus. I bought an American book the other day and paid a 46% markup due to import taxes (VAT, etc.). Why are Chinese goods so cheap in America, but (legal) American goods so ridiculously expensive in China? - darren

Nice comment: "There is no argument. People don't vote based on logic. They choose the logic that supports the emotional decision they've already reached." - torque

I couldn't agree more. I don't understand why Obama's team doesn't understand the basic principles of rhetoric. Rhetoric is not the same as negative attacks. It's a positive affirmation of factual negative characteristics (or at least it can be). - darren

I have to agree; the ad was clever, but using the word "maverick" only reinforces that frame in people's mind. - Jamelle

Obama needs something simple that voters will remember. Maybe every time they mention Obama, it should be within a few words of "leader". And every time they mention McCain, it should be within a few words of "old" or "out-of-touch". - darren

It's relative to Cheney. - Paul Buchheit

Hot for a pit bull? - Jim Norris

wow... there are some seriously tough critics on friendfeed... or, maybe im more attracted to milfs now that im a graying dad? - Rob Reed

"Scientists have for the first time recorded individual brain cells in the act of summoning a spontaneous memory, revealing not only where a remembered experience is registered but also, in part, how the brain is able to recreate it." - darren via Bookmarklet

Byebye, free will: "In fact, the cells became active a second or two before people were conscious of the memory, which signaled to researchers the memory to come." - darren

Convergence of online and reality? - darren via Bookmarklet

I am so losing faith in my country. "She tied oil, a major industry in her home state of Alaska, to foreign policy and national security on a night when convention delegates repeatedly burst into chants of "Drill now, baby, drill now!"" - darren via Bookmarklet

"Japanese photographer Hisaharu Motada [sic] envisions the radioactive and decomposing cityscapes of post-apocalyptic Tokyo in his Neo-Ruins series of photographs." - darren via Bookmarklet

Man, I hate bad editing! Why doesn't nytimes.com proofread their articles before posting them anymore? This one, which will surely get fixed soon, repeats almost a whole page of the article and is littered with word repetitions and other grammatical errors. - darren via Bookmarklet

Well, you have to cut them some slack for fast-breaking, unpredictable news items like this. When rushing hot news to the press, errors will be made. - ⓞnor

LOL. Seriously though, I think the quality of editing on nytimes.com has gone down significantly in the past 5 years. Maybe I'm just a grammar nazi.... - darren