On Tech Billionaire Selflessly Launches Political Group To Help His Company
@Sean Lai The original Bay Area robber barons did things that were contrary to their interests, in the sense that they spent money on things that had no tangible return on investment: Opening a beautiful college, to use Leland Stanford's example, was a bet on the area's future economy, but what he got from that in life was admiration, not a legal doorway to directly improve the bottom line at his railroad.
I agree, politically, with Steve Jobs' idea, which is already the reality for many North American and European "knowledge workers." Work visas for talented workers should be plentiful and evenly distributed so that clever people can go where they're most needed and best rewarded. But it's just comical how the Facebook guy can't come up with anything to do "politically" but personally lobby for his company's HR practices.
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On Whatever Happened To The Camgirls? An Internet History With Tony Pierce
@BadUncle I agree, there are many stories to tell about the early Internet. This is one of them.
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On 45 Years Ago, The iPad Was First Used By Astronauts Before Another Computer Tried To Kill Them All
@whizz_dumb Why, that's exactly what I'm suggesting. In fact, that rectangular black monolith was the first flat-screen teevee, too: http://www.pajiba.com/assets_c/2012/05/museroom1-thumb-550x250-44305.jpg
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On New Bird Flu Claims First Human Victims, Blogs Blame It On Dead River Pigs
@kneetoe You have to admit it is about as close to a weird old cat than any other known animal that's not legally a cat.
It's true that "civet cat," while widely used by humans, is not technically correct. The civet is only "broadly cat-like in appearance." But it is actually a kind of demon.
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On In Praise Of Editors, Or In This Case, Editor
You know how when you write something and people on Twitter are all, "Oh that was awesome, such a good writer?" Those were the pieces Carrie fixed up.
And the ones where people are all, "Jesus christ, is this supposed to be funny, or is it just stupid, or what? UNFOLLOW." Alex and Choire edited those. JUST KIDDING NOBODY EDITED THOSE AT ALL DID THEY?
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On Terribly Disfigured Smokers Are TV's Fresh New Stars
@IBentMyWookie We can't have that kind of violence on television, though, because it might make the kids violent.
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On Wealthy Drug Dealers and Vulture Capitalists Will Soon Have the Housing Market To Themselves
@scrooge Ha ha this *was* East Bay. Oakland is nutty. And new conforming Fannie loans with 780+ credit and a 20% down are (in reality) averaging 3.55. But if you cross the loan amount of $625K on a first, you either pony up the rest in cash (from where?! they immediately suggest you raid your 401K) or get the profit-heavy HELOC they're always pushing, since it's a variable.
And for the many many people with stained credit and maybe student loans or an underwater mortgage that went to short sale, etc., you can in theory get an FHA with 3.5% down, but the sellers won't take the offer. Add PMI to a sub-20% down and it's another $500 a month. And because home inspections are apparently out of style, you end up with busted sewer pipes and a rotten roof and mold and termites and a meth lab in the basement along with a dozen recent immigrants in bunk beds paying $800 apiece to an absentee owner hiding under a trust ... oh it's a wonderful time to live in your van by the river.
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On Here's Where You Don't Want To Move If You're Already Feeling Lousy
@dinosaur_senior I cannot say. It's the most common security question for password resets! (But I also lie on security questions. My first car was NOT an alive pelican strapped to a skateboard, for example. Probably shouldn't have said that ....)
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On You Are Making Your Baby Fat By Feeding Your Baby Food
My wife and I somehow raised two kids to school age without killing them or giving them diseases, despite ignoring all weekly/contradictory advice about all of this, and based on my anecdotal science you should never read the news about babies and just try to use some common sense like "do not let the baby play with your pet Great White Shark in the pool."
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On How Will You Let Google Handle Your Impending Death?
You people *save* porn? After it's already used up?