Weekend Open Thread

said by wvsparkey:

what? you don't think you have not already been doing that all along?

said by wvsparkey:

what? you don't think you have not already been doing that all along? Your kidding right? Man, that is the prob, you expect the 'privacy' that you have never had to start with......

said by Camelot One:

I'm glad they introduced this feature. I've been looking for a more convenient way to let thieves know when I am not at my house.

said by N3OGH:

I committed Facebook "suicide" 2 weeks ago tomorrow. My account should be permanently deleted by Monday.

Best thing I ever did. If I want my friends to know what I'm up to, I'll call them......

said by Camelot One:

I'm glad they introduced this feature. I've been looking for a more convenient way to let thieves know when I am not at my house.

said by squirrel83:

whoa maybe he should be arrested for doing that to the chipmunk just like the girl that made her child hold the bong in Perfect position. . . .

said by Jeffrey:

Great song. I only heard of this song about 10 years ago, only because of Bonnie Rait and Dave Matthews, who had covered it. I had never bothered to look up the original artist. I don't even know who John Prine was 10 minutes ago, but he's got a new fan. Thanks.

A recent study found that 14 percent of U.S. online consumers – or 27 million people – intend to purchase a tablet in the next year.

"[This] is encouraging for Apple's would-be tablet competitors: There's interest in the category that goes beyond the iPad," according to the report.

Hewlett-Packard confirmed plans to build a WebOS-based tablet. Last month, LG also said it is working on an Android-based tablet, and there are reports about a Lenovo Android device and a Chrome OS-based tablet from Google and HTC.

Companies that are looking to compete against the iPad should remember that tablet users "consume media like it's air," Forrester said.

"Apple was smart to focus on media consumption: Tablet buyers really, really care about media,' the report said. "Compared with all U.S. online consumers, they are more likely to use every type of media — from offline radio to online video to Facebook and Skype.

Australia appears to be heading for a hung parliament, with neither of the two main rivals likely to win the 76 seats needed for an outright majority.

ABC Australia is predicting 73 seats for the opposition coalition, 72 for ruling Labor, one for the Greens and four independents.

Australia has not had a hung parliament since 1940..... there may well be some pork barrel politics over the next few days as Ms Gillard and Mr Abbott try to gather some loose coalition or arrangement that will give them power.

That Labor is locked into such a tight election race represents a turnaround in its fortunes since the start of the year.

Missteps by Kevin Rudd on climate change and a controversial mining tax caused his support - previously high - to fall sharply.

Ms Gillard won a leadership race in June but, despite her success, her support has fallen in the two months she has been in office.

Voting is compulsory in Australia, with 14 million registered voters.

With an eye-popping price tag of $578 million, it will mark the inauguration of the nation's most expensive public school ever.

"New buildings are nice, but when they're run by the same people who've given us a 50 percent dropout rate, they're a big waste of taxpayer money," said Ben Austin, executive director of Parent Revolution who sits on the California Board of Education. "Parents aren't fooled."

The RFK complex follows on the heels of two other LA schools among the nation's costliest — the $377 million Edward R. Roybal Learning Center, which opened in 2008, and the $232 million Visual and Performing Arts High School that debuted in 2009.

Nearly 3,000 teachers have been laid off over the past two years, the academic year and programs have been slashed. The district also faces a $640 million shortfall and some schools persistently rank among the nation's lowest performing.

Some of the most expensive schools are found in low-performing districts — New York City has a $235 million campus; New Brunswick, N.J., opened a $185 million high school in January.

Nationwide, dozens of schools have surpassed $100 million with amenities including atriums, orchestra-pit auditoriums, food courts, even bamboo nooks. The extravagance has led some to wonder where the line should be drawn and whether more money should be spent on teachers.

Sohn said LA Unified has reached the end of its Taj Mahal building spree. "These are definitely the exceptions," he said. "We don't anticipate schools costing hundreds of millions of dollars in the future."

said by Linklist:

Problem is:
school boards and school district administrators with no concern for taxpayers;

said by garywk:

A decade later, spent doing nothing but getting high, err, I mean completely wasted, every day of the week, ...

said by garywk:

You, apparently, have no problem with that, but you do with the private sector selling the same snake oil the progressives are selling. To that you object loudly. My answer to that is only one word: Hypocrite!