ninme

A little local action:

Queen Anne News – Hilltop Yarn is hanging up its knitting needles, closing its doors for good March 29

Hill said the decision was not taken lightly. It came after two years of serious consideration–after an electrical fire in their previous location in late 2008 almost burned the shop down and [...]

Categories: Business & Media

More hardware store misery, too. John Stossel, via Mark Steyn:

For 15 years, the B & B Do it Center, a local hardware store in the small California town of Camarillo, has been putting out coffee and doughnuts for its morning customers. Actually longer, says owner Randy Collins; the previous owner did it [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

A new reason to rescue yesterday’s t-shirts from the back of your closet. Once upon a time, it was your statement to the world — a show of school pride, a taste for graphic design, a photo of your favorite singer’s mug shot. These days, it probably sits unworn in [...]

Categories: Business & Media

At Issue Journal – A City Without Billboards

Known as one of the world’s worst billboard jungles, Sao Paolo was rife with illegal billboards and signs. Advertisers had bought up virtually all available street and wall space in the city to hang their gigantic marketing messages. To earn money, some poor residents even sold [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

Another quick post (I swear I meant to do more today but then I got locked out of my bathroom by a bathtub shaped like a whale):

NRO – Kevin Williamson: Against Zimbabwefication

Zimbabwe has for many years been a rich source of black humor for people who are interested in inflation, grotesque misgovernment, and [...]

Categories: Business & Media

Citizens United (Hillary: the Movie) v. Federal Election Commission

I liked this video. I liked this Supreme Court ruling because it’s made my liberal acquaintances heads explode about eeeevil corporations. Apparently the thought is that if you can’t be thrown in jail, you shouldn’t be able to donate money to political parties. No word on whether [...]

Categories: Politics

Google Blogs – A new approach to China

First:

Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it [...]

Categories: Business & Media

I learned two shocking things today!

One! That Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis were born within blocks (in an early 19th century sort of way) of eachother in Kentucky, just one year apart and,

Two! That Steves Jobs and Wozniak gave birth to the first Apple Computer in Steve’s parents’ garage in Los Altos!

You lie, Illinois! You [...]

Categories: History

The Times – Go home and multiply! Bank gives staff an early night to halt Japan’s falling birthrate

With the recovery tenuous, deflation afflicting all levels of commerce and the country at risk of sovereign debt crisis, it seemed an odd time for Japan’s biggest and most austere banking group to be telling its [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

No, because I’ve avoided buying anything that gets delivered by UPS.

UPS’s lawyers won’t let them leave things at our building without a signature because who knows how long ago someone either scammed them or had someone actually steal something and made UPS cover the costs. Fine, fair enough, but in this small collection of starter [...]

Categories: Business & Media

Honestly, I despair sometimes:

Telegraph Blogs – Ceri Radford: Cambridge dons resist commercialisation

Could Cambridge University Library henceforth be known as Cambridge Tesco University Library? This is the concern of worried dons, who have apparently reacted angrily to proposals that the library should accept sponsorship and even flog its name to the highest bidder.

I hear [...]

Categories: Art and Literature

Guess who it is again! China!

The Times – China tightens grip on Africa with $4.4bn lifeline for Guinea junta

While the rest of the world recoiled in horror at recent events in Guinea, where at least 150 pro-democracy supporters were killed and dozens of women publicly raped by government soldiers, China has sensed an [...]

Categories: Geography and Foreign Affairs

The Times – We had flown before; we all know the ropes<br/> Forget the frail or young: they are stuck at the back of the line, by Simon Barnes

The other day the kid that helps run the coffee shop at the corner for his parents was telling a guy in line in front of me about [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

Reason – Where’s the Paying Customer?<br/> Health care reform isn’t serious until the patient is at the center of the picture. By Nick Gillespie

Earlier this year, my coverage changed from a conventional network preferred-provider plan with a standard co-pay for prescription drugs to a high-dollar deductible plan in which I essentially pay the first [...]

Categories: People and Current Events

The Times – Whole Foods boss John Mackey becomes unlikely hero of the US Right

Chris Ayres stands outside a Whole Foods in West Hollywood, catching gun owning, truck-driving ultra-conservatives on their way out. My favourite line:

“What’s funny to me is that John Mackey founded this business by understanding the needs of modern, rich, [...]

Categories: People and Current Events