Trevor Carpenter

Does anyone believe that Canada and the United States *won't* be politically related at some time? No, I don't, either. - Chris Baskind

I would SO love this. Write in campaign? - Abby Martin

I thought Canada was already socialistic, how would that be change for them? - Jeff Quinton

@Jeff .. socialistic?? ya .. okay .. and you probably think the permafrost line starts at the 49th parallel and our winter form of transportation is all by dog sled. - Steven Hodson

true, the US has gotten too socialistic as well since FDR.... - Jeff Quinton

Looks like Canadians like Kool Aid too - Peter Simard

Cecily, are you proposing that we share him? I could live with that. :0 - ha3rvey (That One)

since when is obama a socialist? lol. neocon nutjobs - Cee Bee

@Peter if you knew the lemonade we were being forced to drink come our election in October you'd been running for any damn kool aid you could find - Steven Hodson

If we can't get Obama, Layton and NDP will do. - Andrew Smith

globalists! sovereign nations should create their own rock-star politicians... and drink their own kool aid. canada, find your own half-black, half-white guy to ogle. lolz - .LAG

Unsweetened lemonade Steven. Bitter stuff. Layton may be the best option. Not saying much there though. (and Cee Bee :)) - Abby Martin

@Abby .. as much as Layton might actually be the most palatable person to see as Prime Minister the Canadian people won't elect an NDP government .. not even in a minority position. - Steven Hodson

If it was so.. I'd move in a heart beat. - Christopher Welle

I took one look at the picture and though, he's coming over to the UK? ;-) - Kol Tregaskes

Once Obama wins, maybe Canadians can have a referendum to be annexed to the U.S.. How many extra states would that make? :-) - Sean O'Brien

@Steven- I know. But a girl can dream. (And according to the polls at least the NDP is tied with the Liberals for second!) - Abby Martin

"Illinois has a very narrow maritime border between a foreign country, Canada, and on our other side, the land boundary that we have with Kentucky, which is almost a foreign country. It's very important when you consider even national security issues with Canada, especially in the non-English speaking parts. And when Canadians rear their head and comes into the air space of the United States of America, where do they go? It's Illinois." - Karim

"It's right over the border. It is from Illinois that we send those out to make sure that an eye is kept on this very powerful nation, Canada, because they are right next to, right next to our state." - Karim

+1 .LAG - Mavericks of Troy, NV!

+10 Karim - ☺ Cecily ☺

Name calling: the epitome of learned political debate. :-) I've found the unfollow/unsubscribe button keeps me blood pressure where it belongs. I've also given up on trying to convince people that my political views are correct. There seems to be little chance of success. The best I can do is attempt to keep an open mind and realize there's a chance *I* could be wrong. Heated arguments take two idiots -- I refuse to participate. - Brent Logan

Oh, geez. Just unsubscribe if you don't like what someone else is saying that much. We all have the power here to create our own FriendFeed. If that's how you react to a little criticism, though, maybe Winer is right... - Robert Scoble

Thanks, Alex & Brent. I think both sides bring strengths and weaknesses to the debate. I can understand his passion for his cause, but his essay really rubbed me the wrong way. I did unsubscribe from him, but it showed up in my feed anyway. I'm better now. Thank you! - Bill Miranda

Agreed 100% -- that breed of politics is not for me - Shey

then again, there's how Winer responds to a little criticism - which may also prove his point - Jeff Quinton

I'm sorry about the rant. I'd just rather be wrong about the economy, foreign policy, etc without being called stupid. - Bill Miranda

Sad but true :) - Mike Reynolds

Hah! - Kate

Nail on head. - Steve Spalding

It's just that most of the second one can be done in the one search box. - Daniel Schildt

so true - Paulo via twhirl

*hugs his beloved faceted navigation* - Steven Kaye

*sigh* Sad but true, especially of my last company, and of most library database interfaces. - ☺ Cecily ☺

Semi True. While funny, sometimes you NEED to limit the results found and then the google answer is an obscure text search syntax that 99% of users will never use, instead of "cluttering" stuff with a checkbox. - Soulhuntre

To be fair... your app may need to do more than search ;) - Dion Almaer

Just saw these in a presentation at KM World. There's another one for an Apple product. - Hutch Carpenter

They used these in a presentation? :O I found them cleaning out my external so I decided to post. And please don't ask why I have random images on my HD. I don't even know haha. Brb, gonna Google for the Apple one! - Mona N.

funny, sad, and oh so true. - Alan

That's just because Google (Big Brother) already has all that information about you. - David Cook

I don't know how to legislate business ethics and morals, but I'm afraid that the result we're going to end up with (especially if Obama is elected) may swing the pendulum so far back into burdensome regulation that we'll end up causing a lot more harm than good. The Free Market *needs* to be as free as possible. What's happening now isn't because the market is too free, it's because of small-minded greedy people doing bad things. How do we regulate that away? - Tad - the Meme Maker

Yup, you need regulations to deal with those who don't follow the rules...just like you need firewalls and other security mechanisms to protect your networks for the same reason. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble

Just browsing FF. The problem is that the free market assumes rational economic behaviour, and people simply don't behave rationally, hence overbearing regulation. Perhaps the remedy is not to have too much regulation, but to strictly enforce rules against bad behaviour. - Andrea See

Being in the financial sector, I can say that there are some parts that are over-regulated and that's not helping things. But without regulation, comes greed and foolishness and for that, I think there should be an occasional thinning of the herd aka S&L. - Mike Lewis

There's no way to regulate greed out of the greedy. It's why Communism is so hard to implement on a grand scale: everyone wants a bigger pile of whatever than their neighbor. Since there's no way to stop greedy people from being greedy, the best we can hope for is legislation/oversight that will keep keep the greed in check. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

Let's just go ahead and create AIs and let them run our financial sector. - Tad - the Meme Maker

The other problem is it's not just a few people. The entire culture of Wall Street has an ethics problem - profit and greed rule the roost. I would argue the majority of the American population is in the same boat - taking on an interest only mortgage with no money down, using debt to finance the american dream. There's a cultural problem. and it's destroying this nation. We lost fiscal responsibility. hard work and thrift decades ago. - Jason Kaneshiro

I disagree about the hard work part, Jason. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble

Jason, I agree on the point re: a culture of greed in the financial sector. The focus is too intent upon immediate/short term gains with little to no thought for sustainability, stability, and future profits. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

I agree with that Tina. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble

I don't know if I agree with the "culture of greed" concept. Or at least, it isn't the underlying problem. Fact is, markets function through the mechanism of utility maximization. We assume, too often, that utility is maximized by some kind of maximized revenue over an infinite time period. Of course, thats not how it works for almost any person or even organization. I find it hard to blame people or organizations for maximizing their utility, even if it hurts the market when done en masse. - Zach Landes

Regulations need to be designed so that in those situations where utility maximizing actions of individuals hurt society, we change the incentives so that it doesn't occur. There is a collective action problem in passing such legislation since those who are harmed by regulation have much more incentive to fight it than any single individual who mildly benefits. - Zach Landes

You're going to have a very hard time finding a way to incentivize getting *less* cash. Just look at all the yammering about the taxes situation... I really do think this is a situation where negative reinforcement of bad behavior is going to be much more effective than positive reinforcement of good behavior. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

@Alex - what I meant by "hard work" is that "buy something only when you have saved up the money," vs. there's no question of a whole materialistic culture that just buys stuff now and figures they'll pay for it later - interest be damned. That whole "as long as you can make the payments, buy it" mentality is very dangerous. And obviously based on the foreclosure rate, many folks couldn't even make the payments. - Jason Kaneshiro

Jason, I think you'll find that the cash vs credit mentality ebbs and flows. Just about anyone who lived through the depression lived on a cash only basis: I see this fact still in my relatives born around that time. The bigger the generational gap, the more the reliance on credit, till we find ourselves here. The only way to make people reliant on cash instead of credit seems to be for *everyone* to learn the hard way. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

The House of Representatives, I believe. See the election of 1800. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Different procedures were used in 1876 and 2000 when various electoral votes were in dispute. - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

I'm pretty sure the House picks the president and the Senate picks the Vice President. It's in the 12th Amendment. (Con law ftw!) - Mattie Kenny

15000 lawyers. - Jay Tannenbaum

The Florida Supreme Court. - Mike Lewis via twhirl

Take a look at http://www.huffingtonpost.com/... It's a little more complicated than a house vote. It's actually a house vote, but each state only gets one vote (which is determined by an intra-state house vote). It's also determined by the incoming congress, not the outgoing congress. - Mark Trapp

and there's no guarantee this will work. it's a blank check for printing scrip that buys worthless paper now (at pennies on the dollar) from failing institutions in hopes that it will turn into valuable paper later and then we can sell it back to the same institutions (at a profit?) in the future. sheesh! - MikeAmundsen

Is this really a Republican administration doing this? So much for fiscal conservativism forever. - Tad - the Meme Maker

Simply makes my blood boil. These type of 'soft cushion' bailouts make it seem like Americans are too fragile to accept real consequences. Americans, as a whole, would be *a lot* more invested in the process if they actually *felt* the consequences of just letting things go. In my mind, this simply inoculates the public to being prudent and being a watchdog on government and corporations. - AJ Kohn

So would you rather the economy collapses? What's your solution? - Mark Trapp

We should make the CEOs of these corporations give back most of their salaries for one thing. 40 million dollars to run a company into the ground? That's ludicrous. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble

While we're socializing industries, I can haz healthcare and college educashun too? - Jason Carreira

Alex: Well that solves 0.02% of the problem. Have any ideas for the other 99.98%? - Mark Trapp

@Mark: I think the economy has to correct which means it will be bad. It will be ugly. There will be pain. It will be uncomfortable. Will the economy collapse? No. But I do think it needs a severe reset. We should do everything we can to help those least able to absorb the correction. - AJ Kohn

@Mark, we need to rollback the rollbacks of financial regulations that McCain's buddy Phil Gramm pushed through. Never underestimate the capacity for rationalization amongst accountants when they're left to their own devices. - Jason Carreira

AJ: so what leads you to believe that the government isn't doing exactly that? Looks to me that the banks are the ones least able to absorb the correction: they're dropping like flies. - Mark Trapp

Do we really think there aren't other companies, other solutions that can help fill the void these greedy, mismanaged companies will vacate? - AJ Kohn

We also need to strengthen our oversight and enforcement capabilities. The problem is probably not mostly a lack of regulations, but that those regulations aren't very well enforced. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble

AJ: what happens to trillions of dollars worth of accounts when a bank has to suddenly and immediately liquidate all of their assets due to bankruptcy laws? - Mark Trapp

No, it's not banks who would be least able to absorb it. It's those who count on the bank. It's you and me. And hey, guess what, my bank - Wells Fargo - is doing okay. Why, they weren't nearly as stupid. Banks fail, we use FDIC to get back some of our money. It won't be all, but that's the price we all pay for letting this get so far. We then put our money in new institutions who we scrutinize more than we did previously. - AJ Kohn

@Alex, no it's a lack of regulation. Phil Gramm pushed through legislation to keep regulator's hands off credit swaps, which became a market 3 times bigger than the stock market. See here: http://beta.friendfeed.com/e/9... - Jason Carreira

AJ, that's all well and good, however the FDIC is running a wee bit short on funds right now... If some banks start to fail and there's a cash run elsewhere, things could easily go from bad to worse. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

@Mark: Let's use the taxpayer money to bail *us* out - and not 100% - rather than those who have proven to be poor stewards of our money and trust. - AJ Kohn

Yeah, if you start seeing a bunch of banks fail, you'll see a national run on banks and the FDIC doesn't have the funds to cover trillions in depositors funds. - Jason Carreira

@Tina: and? I get that. It won't be fun. But are we just too soft to take the reality of what's going on? - AJ Kohn

I guess I'm saying that America needs a wake up call - because if they don't actually feel this - and I mean *really* feel this. Then it'll just happen again - and soon. I know that's not popular, but I don't like seeing millions of Americans enslaved to debt in it's many forms. - AJ Kohn

AJ: so you're advocating a depression so we can all get a taste of the hard knock life? That doesn't seem very citizenly. - Mark Trapp

AJ, it was the run on banks that really snowballed the great depression. It's why the FDIC was created in the first place, to give people the confidence to keep their money in banks again. If that confidence is shaken enough, people will start to pull their cash. Not saying that's not recoverable: the depression was recoverable too... But it was still damn ugly. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

Financial collapse is a lot closer than many think. If depositors start pulling cash out of banks the entire system is FUBARed. So this option is proactive and will hopefully restore confidence in the short term to avert disaster. Yes, it's depressing to know that long term this is an expensive solution, but when there's a gun pointed at your head and the robber wants money you have to think short term - it's too late to debate gun ownership laws and whether you should have carried less cash. - Jason Kaneshiro

No, I'm not advocating a depression, but what happens if we artificially avert a crash? I believe that parts of the rest of our economy are strong enough to avert a full on depression. - AJ Kohn

LOL, good way to put it, Jason. - "Awesomesauce!" Scoble

Honestly, I'd like to spend 200 billion dollars now than try to bail out trillions of dollars worth of accounts when all these banks fail. Heck, if just one of the major ones fail, like AIG, that'd be over a trillion dollars of accounts. 85 billion dollars now, or a trillion dollars in a couple of weeks? One in four were out of a job and in poverty in the Great Depression. If you like those odds, by all means, bring on the depression! - Mark Trapp

@Jason: I get that. The problem is we're essentially saying we're going to magically keep that cash in your wallet which gives us no real incentive to think about whether we should have carried less in the first place. - AJ Kohn

Suze orman says: "I get that the taxpayers are going to have to pay for it but do you have any idea -- do they have an idea -- what would have happened if that institution had gone down? That was a massive institution within 130 countries with about 113,000 employees in every aspect all over the world, so I don't know. I'm personally grateful that they bailed them out. It was a deal. The government is going to make a serious sum of money on that. The taxpayers will, in the end, make money -80 percent of this company for $85 billion for one of the biggest insurance company out there. Again, I have to say that was one of the best business deals I've ever seen in my life - ωαřмaiden

@AJ - I think that's a key difference. I don't think this economy is strong enough to take a financial collapse. Consider how savings rates have plummeted and how many live paycheck to paycheck - without credit, a huge swath of Americans would be absolutely screwed, and the economy would grind to a halt (and just so you know, I'm firmly in that "screwed" middle class). ... So getting back to the robber analogy - better to give the robber an IOU and run like hell than get shot in the head today :| - Jason Kaneshiro

But WarMaiden: the tax payers AREN'T making that money. The Federal Reserve is, and it's not a gov't entity (only subject to gov't oversight). They bought their piece of the pie with money they make charging interest to banks for loans. If the deal goes bad, the only way to recoup is a hike in interest rates across the board... - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

@WarMaiden: So, the thinking is we're going to bank on the business savvy of an institution that needed to be bailed out? I'm glad others have so much faith in the prowess of these failed companies to succeed. - AJ Kohn

I do not agree with orman - I think we shouldve let them take their lumps, but I dont see how we could let those entities fail without wrecking the economy even more. I dont have a good solution. Someone come revoke my econ degree... - ωαřмaiden

@Jason: Yes! Too many live paycheck to paycheck. But why? A very large portion of this is due to home values, which would trickle down to rental rates. The ratio of income/home value is still *WAY* off the historic norm. Keeping them high (which is what we're doing in many ways) will only serve to keep more living paycheck to paycheck. And credit ... well, it's not a right. - AJ Kohn

Welcome to the U$ and A. - Dana D

I don't have the answers but ... this just seems shortsighted and destined to simply prolong our problems. - AJ Kohn

@AJ I *hope* - at least from seeing increased "how to save money" type articles in the mainstream news - that the average Joe is getting the message. I'm hopeful the cultural shift of less reliance on credit will happen *without* a depression to inspire it. But maybe that's being naive. - Jason Kaneshiro

@Jason: I hope so too, but I fear that most people don't change their behavior unless they are *really* forced to do so. - AJ Kohn

If it helps the economy straighten back up I think I'm for it. Just have to wait and see. - Mathew Ballard

Jason: if the Great Depression didn't do it, I don't think it's in the cards. - Mark Trapp

Two big whoppers here: 1) the writer assumes they know McCain really isn't interested in reform and change; 2) people not voting for Obama must be doing so because he is black. More rubbish from the dinosaur media. - Charles LePage

i never think of obama as black. mccain is a bit of a mystery to me on reform, he has not repudiated bush enough, and i think he should. bush administration is the argument re experience, look what experience gets you. == not much to say about the dinosaur media. more than being liberal or not, they are dumb. - Gregory Lent

"unless it's race" - what a crock - Peter Simard

Charles Rangel is an interesting conundrum for Obama, right now. If he supports Rangel, some will say it's because he and Rangel are black. If he denounces Rangel, some will say he (Obama) is an elitist and turning against his "own people." Watch for McCain push Obama on this. - Mark VandenBerg

Gregory and Peter: just because you don't think it's race, and just because the Republicans on FF don't think it's race, doesn't mean it's not in some part race. Go to rural Alabama or Mississippi (or even SC where I am) and spend the next few weeks. Let me know if you think race might be an issue in this race after that. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

@Tina 'being in some part race' is entirely different than the argument Cafferty puts forth - that it's all race. - Peter Simard

Fired. - Mona N.

hahahahaha! - WorldofHiglet

:-) - Kyle Lacy

makes me think of Netscape.... - WorldofHiglet

Something seems missing... - Pete Delucchi via fftogo

I love it, photoshop strikes again! - Joe Perrin

haha, I love it - Nicholas Kreidberg

Yeah, old school Netscape. - flammable

right click --->show image - Faboo Mama

^block - Mona N.

^dontcare - l0ckergn0me

cool - equrick

cool - equrick

^idon'tseeyoueither. - Mona N.

pacman car http://www.flickr.com/photos/a... - alphaxion

yummy - johnny rodriguez

Yeah, Flickr has gone from Joyce to Derrida in the past few years. - Mark Trapp

Whatever the algorithm used "Interesting Photos" shows the photos people are seeing the most, and people tend to like same things: sunsets, water drops on leaves or flowers, etc... - João Almeida

+100 Chris . I agree .. too many of those stupid minature dolls ,, :( - johnpiercy

I agree.... the Explore pages have definitely been lacking of late. Cliches have always been prominent there, but it's been noticeably worse recently. - Eric

They're marked interesting by people, who are largely boring and clichéd. - Jason Carreira

Algorithms will always reflect majority likes, i always prefer human intervention. These algorithms are supposed to save us time, but there is no substitute for informed personal choices. That's the reason i follow some photoblogs and not others. I use Flickr for my pictures, but have never used it's "social qualities" that much. Not that i have something against it, i prefer to spend "spare time" on personal projects (that demand lots of work and time). - Mário Pires

a lot of htese are hanzi too, the simplified chinese characters- jie (shrine) "server rack", ming - two server racks- tomorrow or bright, desktop with 2 mirrors is min, or gate - anna awesomesauce

That's all the Japanese I need to know, I am now fluent. - Andrew Trinh

LOL server rack haha can't stop enjoying this post. - Zu aka ElijahBailey

love! lol - Alan Le

I can't stop laughing! HAHAHAHA @Anna: Thanks for the info. :) - Mona N.

this is great!! cool find!! - Susan Beebe

目 mù eye, item, section, list, catalogue, table of contents, order (taxonomy), goal, name, title --- 鈕 [钮] niǔ button, surname Niu --- 器 qì device, tool, utensil --- 明 míng clear, bright, to understand, next, the Ming dynasty (1368-1644), surname Ming --- 員 [员] yuán person, employee, member --- 管 guǎn to take care (of), to control, to manage, to be in charge of, to look after, to run, tube, pipe, surname Guan --- 自 zì from, self, oneself, since --- 開 [开] kāi to open, to start, to turn on, to write out (a medical prescription), to operate (vehicle), abbr. for 開爾文|开尔文 degrees Kelvin (via http://loqu8.com) - torque

Thanks, Torque... I hope I don't offend anyone but I really can't stop laughing. LOL - Mona N.

Mona, it was hilarious. FF Night Crew time on duty already? - torque

Nice Torque! I was wondering. - Zu aka ElijahBailey

@Torque that's brilliant - we need a matrix or chart or something to make this complete - anna awesomesauce

Language or graphic arts?:) - Igor Poltavskiy

Karaoke? - Ontario Emperor via fftogo

Kanji is painful. LOL! But this is funny. LOL! - Randy

Cat Butchery? LOL - Mona N.

yeah! weird huh? freaked me out good! I told him I'll be sure to save the URL for the next time I need to make some cat stew - Susan Beebe

Now to find the one for horses... - Clare Dibble

Noooo... I love cats... hate that site. :'( - Ron

Oh! Is that where the local... ummm, better not say it! - Sally Church

Well, if you're gonna pay for pussy.... (someone had to say it!) - abacab

here pussy cat! - Susan Beebe

no, kitty!!!! - edythe

Did you notice you notice that they also own PuppyBeef? And per the About Us, they are indeed stateside. - Stupid Emoo (aka Tina)

Meowchops? - Outsanity

The stateside locales confirms they are a 'not quite real' site, since this would be illegal stateside. - Michael W. May via twhirl

I love eating pussy, but DAMN. :D - Haggis (Sean)

"I can HAS cheezburger, not I can BE cheezburger" - Karim

"Soylent Whiskas... is... kitties!" - Karim

Reminds me of manbeef.com, years ago... http://museumofhoaxes.com/hoax... - Vincent X

MMMM Kung Pow Kitty..... - Jeff P. Henderson

I know!! But did you maximize the picture? The little stick saying "f*ck" is SO ultra cute haha - Mona N.

I haven't played tetris in so long. I used to play it so much I would dream about it. - Laura Norvig

That would be awesome full size framed on the wall. - Joe Pierce

Way too familiar. - Louis Gray

Hey, LG. :) - Mona N.

That's some old school FAIL. - Larry Kless

Hey - lay off Tetris, Larry! >:( - Mona N.

Hey Mona, Just saying Tetris is old school. Not in a bad way. In a old school rubix cube kinda way. - Larry Kless via twhirl

It's one of the few games I actually play... must look for an iPhone app - Sally Church