Layoffs

The Foggy Monocle’s take:

“When a gentleman is cut off from employment, his schedule opens up considerably, allowing him to accomplish time-consuming tasks that were heretofore constantly put on the back burner. Suddenly, building that fireside den he’s always coveted, outfitting his Bentley with nitrous boosters for illegal street racing, perfecting his air guitar skills and devoting more time to drinking the most delicious of canned Mexican beers all enter the realm of possibility.”

At least there is some upside to being laid-off.

Two Unemployed Gentlemen Go Rogue – The Foggy Monocle

This

is awesome:

Facebook turns governance decisions over to users; institutes cyber-democracy

Holy Peace Process Batman!

In talks hosted by Cairo, Hamas and Fatah have agreed to form a national unity government by the end of March!

Preace process, +1pt.

Towards a Palestinian accord – Foreign Policy

Sean Connery and Chris Brown are BFFs

In all of the fuss regarding Chris Brown hitting Rihanna, I’ve heard quite a few instances of people defending Brown. Their reasoning is that nobody knows exactly what went down between the two stars, and we don’t know how far Rihanna went in provoking the violence against her. Rihanna apparently ripped the keys out of Brown’s Lamborghini and threw them out of the car in an effort to infuriate him — that surely wasn’t helpful.

Sean Connery would probably side with Brown:

I certainly don’t side with Chris Brown, but I do agree that we shouldn’t pass judgment until we know the full story. It’s quite possible that both contributed fuel to the fire.

Dilbert: Bailout Hearings

Via Dilbert.

Unfortunately Ordered

Individual photos in an album don’t usually seem to fit together (like a diptych). This one does, strangely:

Nas – Surviving The Times (Original Cool & Dre Version)

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Sane People Do Exist!

I’m not alone.

MFDoom – That’s That

Nervous strings for sure:

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Via Kanye West.

Jefferson on Myths

“The day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus by the Supreme Being as his father, in the womb of a virgin, will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter.”

-Thomas Jefferson, 1823.

Faith

“Faith means making a virtue out of not thinking. It’s nothing to brag about. And those who preach faith and enable and elevate it are intellectual slave holders, keeping mankind in a bondage to fantasy and nonsense that has spawned and justified so much lunacy and destruction.”

-Bill Maher, in Religulous

Dedicated to Ryan, and his quixotic quest to inject religion into public discourse.

Suleman Experiences Karma

Nadya Suleman’s reckless behavior is finally taking its toll. The home she resides in is being foreclosed upon.

No payments have been made since May 2008 — she’s behind $23,224.98.

Here’s the notice of foreclosure: .pdf.

OctoMom Could Lose Her Crib – TMZ

Free Speech In Society

In a piece in the New York Times, (Enforcing Manners, Tumblr Shuts Down 5 Blogs) Robert Mackey details the recent actions of Tumblr, a microblogging platform, which has shut down 5 Tumblelogs that were critical or downright negative toward other members of that publishing community.

This freedom of speech business makes for an interesting quandary, and one that I personally debate often. Should we allow freedom of speech to those who choose to use that freedom in a solely negative manner? Should we allow the KKK, Neo-Nazis, ignorant religions, and Ann Coulter the right to spread their infectious, anti-social drivel? I think that the knee-jerk answer to that is that we should selectively censor, especially when confronted with such notorious examples as the ones above.

However, the issue requires much more than a simple gut reaction. After all, censorship — in any degree, invites increasing censorship, potentially with questionable and wavering standards.

I’m glad to live in the United States, where my freedom of speech is relatively protected, as opposed to Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Vietnam, where I could be jailed for expressing my beliefs.

Still, I with there was some fair way to bar those hateful souls (Ann Coulter, et al.) from making their views heard. Alas, I think that’s a dream that will never come true.

What I’m Reading: Monday

The G-1 Pool Table ($29,000) features a Vitrik playing surface that replicates the physics of felt:

Via Uncrate.

The North Face Mercurial Jacket ($350):

It has a baffled silver side made from Scholler fabric designed to reflect sunlight and vent heat out of the jacket, and because it’s reversible, you can have the smooth black side hold heat in and absorb sunlight to warm you.

The Sony-Ericsson Idou:

A 12MP cameraphone. Hot.

Cool HP PC concept:

Founding Father, Entrepreneur: The overlooked business career of George Washington

Laid-Off Foreigners Flee as Dubai Spirals Down – NYT

The Economic Stimulus Bill:

Via LoSC.

Smartphones pay off in schools – Seattle Times

Glaser’s Old Pad

RealNetworks CEO Rob Glaser just sold his 4,663 square foot penthouse at Cristalla in Belltown for just under $10 million.

It features an infinity pool (on the far left in the first shot, featured in the second) overlooking the city and a fabulous view of Mt. Rainier:

Baller.

Via TechFlash.