Been there, done that. Advice for America from the Entity Formerly Known as the British Empire.
“On the other hand, let’s say a Hogwarts graduate decides they’d rather not live in a closed society of wizards. Too bad—those poor kids don’t stand a chance of getting into a Muggle college. They’ve never had to analyze a piece of creative writing or solve a basic equation.” •
It is an attempt to loosen the mental blockages to recording information and to scrape away the tartar of convention that handicaps its retrieval. The solution is by nature nonconformist.
It’s actually just a cool app for people – like me – who save/make a lot of text notes.
Not new, by the way. Notational Velocity came out in 2006. I’m just late to the party.
According to Politico this morning, President Obama’s request earlier this week that New York Gov. Paterson abstain from running for reelection in 2010 came at the urging of several U.S. senators and concerned state legislators.
Who? I can’t help but wonder.
Since he took over last year, Paterson’s had a tough time. The extreme highs of being the guy who replaced Eliot Spitzer gave way to the lowest approval ratings in state history as problems piled up.
Like the recession. Because Wall Street has taken some serious hits, so has their taxable revenue. New York is uniquely dependent on a booming Wall Street. The wonderful things that we New Yorkers enjoy – like a large, accessible public university system – are unsustainable in times like these.
And, of course, there’s the Great Senate Stalemate of ’09, in which Democrats briefly lost their tenuous majority because of a couple of unashamed opportunists.1 The ensuing weeks were as close to a breakdown of American government as we have ever seen.
By any metric, Paterson has had a trying term. But, given the circumstances, it’s unclear just what – if anything – that Paterson could have done avoid it. His heart is generally in the right place, as far as Democrats go. He supports gay marriage and wants to institute ‘fat taxes’ on soft drinks. He’s unwilling to raise tax rates on the extraordinarily wealthy.
This latest news just reiterates the fact that Paterson can’t even count on that eternal fallback of any mainstream politician: the support of his own party.
update: Andrew Cuomo? I’m just sayin. It’s not like he needs to resort to underhanded shit to beat Paterson next year, but maybe he feels better with a little insurance.
- To be fair, it’s tough to tell whether that all happened because Paterson was too weak or whether it happened because Sen. Hiram Monserrate and Sen. Pedro Espada, Jr. are extremely easily bribed – Monserrate, after all, was rewarded for his defection with the post of president pro tem. [↑]
Forks, Washington has become a sort of mecca for teenage girls.
Interesting to note that Twilight writer Stephenie Meyer apparently discovered Forks by Googling for icky places in the Pacific Northwest.1
- Google just adds a certain feeling of romance to everything, doesn’t it? [↑]
Playing to your mind’s strengths.
Via Airbag
Join bibliophiles from around the world as we read Bram Stoker’s classic tale of horror and suspense, October 1st through Halloween of 2009.
Dracula is available for free all over the internet. What, do you hate books or something? Pencil it in!
Football statheads, look no further: here’s 700-row spreadsheet full of more numerical roster information than you could ever possibly use.
Painstakingly compiled by ESPN’s Mike Sando.