EdCone.com

What I actually went to China to do: look serious during the simultaneous translation while waiting to use that mic in my hand. Only conference I've attended where speakers got boutonnières, and my speaker pass read "Distinguished Guest."

"I needed to sort through the lives of these men I loved, to follow the trails of their daily lives."

Joe Killian eulogizes his grandfather and his uncle, fishermen lost at sea.

UPDATED link now open to everyone.

I was grateful for "Damn the Torpedoes" when it came out, both for the music and the message that rock was not yet dead, and I'd put this on my list of best-ever videos, and Benmont Tench is a great name, and in general I just like Tom Petty without really worrying about his place in the critical pantheon -- his image, at least, is antipantheonistic.

But "Better Than Bruce?" is a decent enough barroom argument, although I think that after one has teased out all the meanings of "better" it's a pretty clear "no" in this case.

Just a bad plan all the way 'round: "Arnholt said that banning the media would not only be illegal, but it would not solve concerns about a political incident because so many people have personal blogs, post video to YouTube and pass information and pictures on social Web sites."

"The degree of venom aimed at Mr. Geithner is also unusual, as was his willingness to fire back." Article, video.

Kay Hagan, in a statement released today: "We have taken a critical step forward in the process of getting a bill to the President's desk."

Full statement after the jump.

UPDATE: Richard Burr is less enthusiastic. Apparently the Democrats and their bureaucratic henchmen are going to ruin healthcare. His statement after the jump, too.

Guitarist in the backing band is Jimi Hendrix, 1965; allegedly the oldest known footage of him performing. What a difference two years can make. Thnx to PLN for the link.

File footage, the propagandist's best friend, again.

Left, a huge pro-Palin crowd prepares a human sacrifice in protest of the recent Newsweek cover.

"It's going to be a holy war," Sen. Orrin G. Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday evening.

Wow. I thought it was going to be a debate over health care legislation. I am totally underdressed.

"Mr. Griffin expressed exasperation at investors' desire to keep dissecting last year's disaster, comparing their fascination with people's inability to look away from a car crash."

So a hedge fund blows up. It happens!

And it wasn't even their fault: "Citadel's biggest mistake last year, Mr. Griffin said, was putting too much faith in regulators' ability to deal with the global meltdown."

Please send more money, now.

More on the rise of outside-in technology, from Google CIO Ben Fried: "My bet was that some of these fast movers will sit on a rocket to the C-suite. Some of the people from that generation are going to be the CIO's bosses. And they'll say, 'What do you do? I've never used any of your services or respected any of them.'"

Smelly from the get-go, ripening as we go along, and I'm not sure we've really had an honest conversation about operating and maintenance costs.

I like the idea of a swimming facility for Greensboro, and I don't have a problem putting it at the Coliseum, but this has been a sorry process.

UPDATE: A commenter says preservationists have tried to put money behind their efforts, but have been rebuffed by the developers.

City Council vote for rezoning at Elm and Cornwallis fails to meet the margin dictated by protest petition law. Another vote may happen soon. Briggs has the historic preservation angle; another group that had been opposed rezoning was ready to accept the revised Stratton plan as the best deal they were going to get, but let it be known they would fight further encroachment on the neighborhood.

At what point do proponents of preserving the Commencement House have some obligation to do more than fight the current property-owner's plan, i.e., put some money and plans of their own on the table?

"Time management isn’t my forte. As I’ve said before, I’m naturally lazy, a time-waster, someone easily distracted by opportunities for fun and inactivity."

More evidence: She could have just written "I'm a journalist" and gotten on with her day...

Situation getting weirder at the troubled Washington Times, where long-standing claims of independence from its controversial owner are being challenged:

The former editorial page editor of the Washington Times has filed a discrimination complaint against the paper, saying he was "coerced" into attending a Unification Church religious ceremony that culminated in a mass wedding conducted by the church's leader, the Rev. Sun Myung Moon...

...[E]xecutives "gave me examples of people whose careers at the Times had grown after they converted" to the Unification Church.

LNC posts a profit, assisted by an asset sale. Dennis Glass is talking about repaying $950 million in TARP funds as early as next year.

Meanwhile, other life insurers face big problems with commercial real estate.

Sexist coverage of Palin?

I'm flummoxed by the idea that Democrats (or liberals, or non-supporters of Palin) fear her. They may fear the idea of Palin in the White House, but I'd guess most prospective opponents would welcome her as a candidate, because they honestly believe her campaign would be a disaster. So I pretty much agree with the tagline, that she's a problem for the GOP.

But is that kind of cover image any way to represent a woman in politics?

Here's Newsweek's defense of the cover: "We apply the same test to photographs of any public figure, male or female: does the image convey what we are saying?"

What are they saying?

That she's "duping the hicks."

And, "Let's admit that Sarah Palin is more attractive—some might even want to say more appealing—than much of her enraged core constituency. But then all we are considering is a point of packaging and marketing, where charm is supposed to make up for what education and experience have failed thus far to supply. We are further obliged to consider the question: exactly how charming is the Joan of Arc of the New Right, who also hears voices speaking to her of 'spiritual warfare'?"

So they set out to trash her as an exploiter of her own attractiveness, and ran a cover image that shouts that message.

Is that sexist?

Saw these guys near Beijing's Fourth Ring Road last month, asked if we could take a picture. I like the simple shot at left, but dude really wanted to pose for one, too (click images to enlarge).

Prime plus 21.99%? That's a lot of interest rate. Maybe they don't want people using their cards.

I've been paying more often with cash during the Great Recession, even though I always clear my Visa balance each month. It just seems to help me keep track of the outflow.

The Greensboro Urban Ministry needs help to help those in need -- and the needs this year are pressing.

Attending Thursday night's Feast of Caring fundraiser at First Baptist Church on Friendly is one way to support the organization.

Lessons for bankers from the financial crisis: Roll the dice, your rich uncle will cover any losses.

"Now it becomes an issue of, all things being equal, the will to win, a level of stability in the brain to be able to counter and not give up, and frankly, if you watched this game, luck." Page head coach Mohamed Jaziri on playoff soccer, after last night's 1-0 win over Charlotte Myers Park.

The financial crisis started with Americans buying homes they couldn't afford. It is ending with the government struggling to sell buildings it never wanted...

...Taxpayers will be grappling with this flotsam for years to come, one example of how the crisis will linger long after the economy begins to revive.

Tom Wolfe couldn't improve on the centerpiece of the article, a failed condo development called Dresden Heights, hard by a freeway ramp and a pest-control business, financed by Alpha Bank & Trust of Alpharetta. Too bad about those oak trees.

Buy something at Barnes & Noble through Thursday, tell the cashier in Greensboro it's for Christ Community Preschool or enter the Bookfair # 10022275 online, and the school gets a share of the proceeds.

I did not know Ty Lawson could do this. According to a source who was there, "a great game...but that was by far the best play."

Welcome to North Carolina, now please go away.

Beijing, last month.

My standard caveat with this guy: hope he's wrong, notice he's been right a lot.

The jobs just are not coming back.

There's really just one hope for our leaders to turn things around: a bold prescription that increases the fiscal stimulus with another round of labor-intensive, shovel-ready infrastructure projects, helps fiscally strapped state and local governments and provides a temporary tax credit to the private sector to hire more workers.

O'Reilly: "We're heading into a war for control of the web. And in the end, it's more than that, it's a war against the web as an interoperable platform."

Related: Zittrain on the generative web.

Second thoughts on effigy burning, or maybe first ones: "The chairman of the Danville TEA Party Patriots said Sunday he was unsure about whether the group will continue with its planned effigy burning of Rep. Tom Perriello, D-5th District, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a bonfire rally Saturday in Blairs."

I was just talking about this to a group in Las Vegas, along with the expectation by younger workers that companies will function according to the rules of their own tech-centric lives: "This is the double life many people lead: yesterday's technology for work, today's technology for everything else. The past decade has brought awesome innovations to the marketplace—Internet search, the iPhone, Twitter and so on—but consumers, not companies, embrace them first and with the most gusto."

Not so long ago, Charlie Crist was a rising star. Then the purges began.

"One of the most provocative statements Obama made -- about the importance of opening up the Internet -- was posted on Chinese news sites at first, but then was deleted."

More: "In a country with 350 million Internet users and 60 million bloggers, do you know of the firewall?" the question began, referring to the Chinese government's practice of blocking sites it dislikes, a system of internet censorship known as the Great Firewall. The question also asked "should we be able to use Twitter freely?"

Previously: "[T]he authoritarian regime, which understands a thing or two about the tools of power, doesn't dismiss the personal Web sites as Young does -- it fears them."

Not unrelated: "What are our community standards? What should we allow, and on which computers? Who decides?"

I often need to live with a new piece of furniture or artwork for a while before I'm really comfortable with it, but I liked the new banner hanging in the Dean Dome as soon as I saw it.

Roy was unhappy with the second-half lapses against Valpo, but I saw plenty of promise, too; if he'd stuck with his starters instead of experimenting with every possible lineup, he might have held on to that 20 point lead instead of eking out a double-digit win. Henson can play. FWIW, last year's national champions didn't figure out defense until February.

N&R covers library filtering story. One issue raised: "[A] large part of objectionable material derives from popular social networking sites such as YouTube or Facebook, or even attachments to e-mail, which would not be practical for the library to block."

I'm going to close comments at this post to keep the conversation concentrated here, where the current question is: "What are our community standards? What should we allow, and on which computers? Who decides?" To which I would add, should we block Facebook?

Scripting the healthare debate:

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies...

...Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points — 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats.

Joe Killian, via Facebook: "Writing obits for my grandfather and uncle." Previously.

Do 'em proud, Joe. I know you will. 

A mysterious burning disk has appeared in the sky above our city, displacing the weeping clouds to which we have become accustomed.

I shall go outside to investigate.

In Glenwood, "I guess I lived in the make-believe world of those who didn't believe their home would be a target for a burglary."

And in College Hill, "I was here. Heard the first kick from the kitchen, but it didn't register what it was."

This town's in tatters.

Coincidence is not causality, but the whole camel-through-the-eye-of-a-needle phenomenon is interesting:

Demographically, the growth of the prosperity gospel tracks fairly closely to the pattern of foreclosure hot spots. Both spread in two particular kinds of communities—the exurban middle class and the urban poor. Many newer prosperity churches popped up around fringe suburban developments built in the 1990s and 2000s...