Seeing Problems Where We Might See Solutions

The future is coming at us like a freight train, which terrifies a certain slice of the NY Times demographic:

A Wi-Fi Barbie Doll With the Soul of Siri

Ever since Siri appeared as a regular feature on the iPhone, certain young children — and, let’s face it, some of their parents — have spent hours chatting up the virtual assistant, curious about the details of her humanoid back story.

Siri, where do you live? Siri, do you have a boyfriend? Siri, how old are you?

Which means there is a toy in your future grandchild's future:

Founded in 2011, ToyTalk already produces popular animated conversational apps — among them the Winston Show and SpeakaZoo — that encourage young children to engage in complex dialogue with a menagerie of make-believe characters. Now the company’s technology, originally designed for two-dimensional characters on-screen, is poised to power tangible playthings that children hold in their hands.

This fall, Mattel plans to introduce Hello Barbie, a Wi-Fi enabled version of the iconic doll, which uses ToyTalk’s system to analyze a child’s speech and produce relevant responses.

“She’s a huge character with an enormous back story,” Mr. Jacob says of Barbie. “We hope that when she’s ready, she will have thousands and thousands of things to say and you can speak to her for hours and hours.”

I know what you might be thinking - this could lead to a cultural shift that revolutionizes education and moves the needle on an important aspect of the Two Americas problem. Let's cut to The Economist on America's growing and seemingly intractable class divide:

Upbringing affects opportunity. Upper-middle-class homes are not only richer (with two professional incomes) and more stable; they are also more nurturing. In the 1970s there were practically no class differences in the amount of time that parents spent talking, reading and playing with toddlers. Now the children of college-educated parents receive 50% more of what Mr Putnam calls “Goodnight Moon” time (after a popular book for infants).

Educated parents engage in a non-stop Socratic dialogue with their children, helping them to make up their own minds about right and wrong, true and false, wise and foolish. This is exhausting, so it helps to have a reliable spouse with whom to share the burden, not to mention cleaners, nannies and cash for trips to the theatre.

Working-class parents, who have less spare capacity, are more likely to demand that their kids simply obey them. In the short run this saves time; in the long run it prevents the kids from learning to organise their own lives or think for themselves. Poor parenting is thus a barrier to social mobility, and is becoming more so as the world grows more complex and the rewards for superior cognitive skills increase.

That appeared in a review of Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis by Robert Putnam, but they also cite "Coming Apart" by Charles Murray.

It may seem obvious that a Siri-type doll might be able to read to and engage with a youngster in a way that represented an upgrade from the harried single mother working two jobs (or even the harried Super Mom grappling with kids, work and life.) And maybe that intellectual stimulation would level the class divide a bit. Maybe!

But that is not where the Times is headed. Spoiler Alert - their focus is on privacy and gender stereotyping:

It was probably inevitable that the so-called Internet of Things — those Web-connected thermostats and bathroom scales and coffee makers and whatnot — would beget the Internet of Toys. And just like Web-connected consumer gizmos that can amass details about their owners and transmit that data for remote analysis, Internet-connected toys hold out the tantalizing promise of personalized services and the risk of privacy perils.

“Is this going to be some creepy doll that records what is going on in your home without you knowing it?” asks Nicole A. Ozer, the director of technology and civil liberties at the American Civil Liberties Union of Northern California. “What is being recorded? How long is it being stored? Who is it being shared with?”

They do note the educational opportunities:

The advent of connected toys that can record and talk back to children is likely to deepen this debate over the Internet of Things because of the potential for these intelligent toys to powerfully affect children’s imagination, learning and social development.

...

Sandra L. Calvert, the director of the Children’s Digital Media Center at Georgetown and the lead author of the study, said that toys able to personalize their responses to children in real time could have an even greater effect on them.

“These could be real cutting-edge approaches to facilitate children’s learning,” Dr. Calvert told me. But, she added, the toys’ impact would depend largely on the depth and breadth of their conversational abilities. “It’s only as good as the programmer,” she said.

It could be great but it might not be. Thank heaven for experts! 

And then we are back to privacy and other concerns:

But the notion of this technology, originally designed for mobile screens, incarnated in the body of Barbie is already generating controversy, even before the toy has been introduced.

ToyTalk and Mattel executives are fully aware that children’s advocates and feminists will be watching closely to see whether Hello Barbie challenges girls to think deeply or perpetuates beauty and gender stereotypes. Last fall, for instance, Mattel faced withering scorn when critics discovered that a children’s book titled “Barbie: I Can Be a Computer Engineer” showed the character seeking help from male friends to code a game.

“Everybody involved is very aware of how carefully this content needs to be crafted,” Michael Shore, head of consumer insights at Mattel, told me earlier this week about Hello Barbie. “With this powerful a technology, this is something we need to be hypervigilant about.”

Hmm. The PC police will make monitoring interactive toys a full time job. Of course, pitch this as a new means of indoctrination (Islamic Barbie is your friend!) and the libs will be stampeding to get on board.

Comments

[glasater]

Thanks to SBW and Narciso for the Furby answer. That was the toy.

JOM has become my brain :-)

Computer is still running like a slug and will have to take some stronger measures. Ugh!

[narciso]

that's from a 1998 review of the book, written in 1980 by the late Arnaud de Borchgrave and Robert Moss,

[Johns_Creek_Bill]

Does anybody remember the guy that berated the Chick Fil A employee over the Cathy's support of traditional marriage? A little update on the db:

http://www.ijreview.com/2015/03/281770-3-years-after-bullying-this-chick-fil-a-employee-mans-life-has-taken-a-surprising-turn/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=organic&utm_content=conservativedaily&utm_campaign=Culture

I actually felt sorry for him until I read the summary of his book.

The problem with libtards is that everything is political.

"And there's always a place for the angry young man. With his fist in the air and his head in the sand. He's never been able to learn from mistakes, he can't understand why his heart always breaks. His honor is pure, and his courage as well, he's fair and he's true, and he's boring as hell."

[narciso]

if they fall for this, they deserve Mill's derisive phrase:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11501248/David-Cameron-My-plan-to-win-back-disgruntled-Tories.html

[Johns_Creek_Bill]

Narc,

"The Spike" is one of my favorite thrillers.

Would have made a helluva movie.

As I remember the new VP was pretty much Daniel Patrick Moynahan.

[narciso]

what is it with Etonian McKinsey men, if he had convictions, instead of blanc mange, he would know not to partner with the LDs, he wouldn't need to,

[exdemocrat]

Cameron is everything about my birth country that I detest, narc

[narciso]

it's a little hard to consider that back then, between Moynihan and Scoop Jackson, they employed
the heart of the neocons, which has become such an shibboleth, this last decade,

[narciso]

there was a time when Robert Putnam, made a lick of sense, that is not this day, the preconditions for a Socratic dialogue is wisdom, the likelihood this would be present among the Eloi is a null set,

[DrJ]

It is late, so I'll leave you with a classic Solti/Chicago recording of Meistersinger von Nürnberg:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vAglfDoMWjM

Enjoy!

[jimmyk]

classic Solti/Chicago recording of Meistersinger von Nürnberg

DrJ, I saw the full production at the Met this year, totally enthralling.

Trying to get caught up, but in the meantime, via Tim Blair:

Check your privilege

(A quick test to see how privileged you are.) I got 250. Good luck.

[daddy]

Over here Singapore today is saying their official good bye to their beloved leader Lee Kuan Yew. The streets currently are jam packed with thousands of citizens lining the route his casket is taking to burial. It has unfortunately been raining hard off and on all morning, but that hasn't appeared to affect the crowds, and there are thousands of umbrellas and plastic rain cloaks along the way. Obviously he was loved and respected here.

The TV channels have been running his life story and TV interviews of him over and over all weekend. Right now his casket is shown passing a Sihk section of the City, and as his casket drives thru the different districts of the city the News Anchors describe the ethnicity of the section, and then describe how and when Lew created whatever type of housing and infrastructure the people in that particular section enjoy. It is very well done, and you can hear the crowds shouting out his name and "We Love You." It is as if the City itself is his autobiography.

A very impressive farewell. Singapore is doing itself proud.

[rich@gmu]

ex dem

not sure anyone got to this but the defector Amir Hossein Motaghi gave the interview on Iranefarda TV based in London. I looked at the Iranefarda website but it is in farsi and nothing on the front page looked like the interview. MEMRI might get the clip of the broadcast though, but I checked and didn't see it.

http://www.memri.org/

[exdemocrat]

Thanks, Rich, I'll keep a look out.
Amazing, isn't it, how the Telegraph publishes that column without providing the actual source. As well as the msm's execrable politics, its presumption to paraphrase reality for us rubes is almost as sickening.

[rich@gmu]

of course narciso got to it ...

>>>what is so intolerable - to the US - about the status quo, that a deal with the mullahs - of any kind - is so urgently required??

Posted by: exdemocrat | March 28, 2015 at 11:23 PM<<<

the question in my mind as well ... if he was really thinking the regime would moderate he would have supported the 09 uprising but I don't think he stirred himself to say much of anything regarding it.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timeline_of_the_2009_Iranian_election_protests

a WT take on his response at the time

http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/jun/17/obama-reaction-stirs-debate/

it is all very odd ... Iran doesn't need nuclear power, they are sitting on an ocean of oil and nat gas.

sanctions to date have failed to dissuade them pursuing nuclear weapons and the Europeans have country based sanctions in addition to EU sanctions. iirc Iran's biggest European customers were Italy and Spain. China is their largest customer by far and they were able to pick up some of the slack when the EU started their sanctions regimes.

What's changed so dramatically in the last few months that the administration is panicked for a deal-before-a-deal which might not even include a piece of paper?

[rich@gmu]

exdem-

it would have been better for them to have included it but suspect it is in farsi and that his comments might have some nuance. Or maybe I am just suspecting that the Iranians are going to blow up a deal just for the sake of blowing it up and sending a few false defectors just might do it. The Iranians then get all bent out of shape and storm out the meetings leaving the American delegates just sitting in stunned disbelief.

The Iranians are obviously buying time for something nefarious, but say, invading Saudi Arabia wouldn't make sense (although I am starting to believe based on nothing at all that ISIS, nominally Sunni, is actually an Iranian front and that launching them into KSA was the ultimate goal).

or maybe they just want to see the world burn and they finally think they have their chance.

[Mudak]

RFE/ RL interviews a Russian who worked as a paid internet troll. Seems manpower intensive in the era of Siri & talking Barbi's, no? http://www.rferl.org/content/how-to-guide-russian-trolling-trolls/26919999.html

[Danube on iPad]

9:26 a.m. sounds about right.

[rich@gmu]

you know the drill:

http://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2015/03/obamas_one_fine_mess_of_potage.html

read it all.

[rich@gmu]

>>>When he keeps aloof and tries to provoke a battle, he is anxious for the other side to advance.<<<

>>>If his place of encampment is easy of access, he is tendering a bait.<<<

>>>Peace proposals unaccompanied by a sworn covenant indicate a plot.<<<

[glasater]

Rich-

Have you read The Looming Tower? I'll send it to you if you haven't.

These bozos are looking for the the 12th Imam and the end of the world.

[rich@gmu]

that is from sun tzu ... i'll thumb through the prince later this morning ...

[rich@gmu]

thanks for the offer glasater. read it a while back.

[rich@gmu]

and not sure you mean the Iranians or the Obama regime

yikes!!!

[glasater]

I hear you, Rich.

[Danube on iPad]

N.D. ended Oklahoma's 47-game winning streak in football in 1957. They ended UCLA's 88-gamer in hoops in the early 70's. Both streaks are records.

[pagar]

Clarice, your Pieces are great today!

The fact that 26% of whoever answered the CBS poll can say they still see Clinton in a favorable light is insane, IMO.

[Dublindave]

Indiana's 'hate the gays' law isn't going to last long;and THAT will be one of the most significant victories for the LGBT community in the last few years.

Pence going down .....Pence going down...whooooo whoooooo.....mayday mayday......

Pence says he's going to introduce an anti-discrimination addendum to his "Hate the gays" bill.ROFLMAO..

[pagar]

Who wrote The Spike?

[James D.]

what is so intolerable - to the US - about the status quo, that a deal with the mullahs - of any kind - is so urgently required??

The most charitable possible motivation I can attribute to Kerry et al is that they view getting a treaty signed as a goal in and of itself. The point of a treaty is not to advance our interests; it's the treaty itself, regardless of what it says, or whether it's enforceable.

They don't understand that diplomacy is a tool, not a goal. It's one item in the foreign relations toolbox, along with trade policy, and intelligence gathering, and economic sanctions and military force.

I don't think Kerry (let alone Obama) deserves the benefit of the doubt, though.

[clarice]

Thanks. Yes, James D--they see this as a legacy--kind of like Obamacare..

[henry]

With a privilege score of 270, I get to have my lentil soup and keep my birthright. Fewer progs, more like me in charge will fix things.

[maryrose]

How ironic Obamacare and this phony treaty will not stand the test of timeI look t Husseins legacy His group got Bin Laden. Big deal
Like Hillary Obama has no real accomplishments

[Cecil Turner]

Who wrote The Spike?

Arnaud de Borchgrave and Robert Moss. I'd add my vote to those who thought it an outstanding read (similar to some of Clancy's early work, both plausible and realistic). The follow-on Monimbo was also good, but not as.

[pagar]

Thanks Cecil, I found it.

[sbw]

What does privilege mean? Your privilege is your social status so to speak, it is a special right, advantage or immunity granted to a person / certain groups of people

Horsesh*t! “Privilege” is an illogical, derogatory label contrived to miss–classify an individual or individuals by other individuals to gain special right, advantage or immunity for themselves.

It is a classic post-modern tactic practiced by Foucault and Derrida that proposes style as a substitute for substance.

[Danube on iPad]

"they view getting a treaty signed as a goal in and of itself."

It's not a treaty unless and until it is ratified by the Senate. It won't be. In the absence of ratification it can be repudiated by any succeeding president. It is in any event unenforceable, whatever it may say.

It is nothing other than any empty gesture for this very strange man to tack up on the wall.

Unimaginably disgraceful.

[Miss Marple]

Danube,

I just can't figure it out. Is he so stupid that he cannot see what the Iranians are doing? Is it that he WANTS them to have a nuclear bomb? Do the Iranians have something on him that is forcing him to kowtow to their wishes?

It's all very mysterious and upsetting.

[Extraneus]

They don't understand that diplomacy is a tool, not a goal.

That's one possibility. Another is that they want to help Iran get the bomb.

Jimmy, can we have an Occam's Razor ruling?

[Cecil Turner]

Is it that he WANTS them to have a nuclear bomb?

Yes. It's an article of faith amongst the Vietnam peacenik crowd that the US is too powerful and needs to be humbled. And one of the main methods to disperse international power is nuclear proliferation. The fact that these morons can't seem to extrapolate the obvious sequelae is either a profound failure of imagination or a lack of concern. (And I strongly suspect the latter.)

Insty put it pretty well: not anti-war, just on the other side.

[Jeff Dobbs]

Extraneus:
That's one possibility. Another is that they want to help Iran get the bomb.

Jimmy, can we have an Occam's Razor ruling?

And we can imagine the deployment of another jimmyk favorite - the Fox Butterfield - in the not too distant future....NYT headline:

"Despite Obama's Diplomatic Efforts and Historic Agreement with the Iranian Regime, Iran Now Has Nuclear Weapons"

[Janet]

Rich's post at 1:53

"what is so intolerable - to the US - about the status quo, that a deal with the mullahs - of any kind - is so urgently required??" ~ exdemocrat

"What's changed so dramatically in the last few months that the administration is panicked for a deal-before-a-deal which might not even include a piece of paper?" ~ Rich

I love basic, foundational questions like these. I wish we had a press that would ask them.

Iran & nukes makes me think of this old Lileks post from 2006 (I've posted it before, sorry) -

"Everyone has already accepted the idea of Iranian nukes. I think it’s been factored into our subconscious calculations, where they lie as great red glowing things whose threat is somehow still abstract. They won’t use them. They just want them. The way we all want a big-screen TV, and would keep it in the box once we bought it.

I frequently hear people remark that Iran would not be stupid enough to use a nuke, since they know it would bring about retaliation. But MAD only works if the other guy’s SANE. If the Administration regularly made remarks like Ahmadinejad and the other top-tier leaders, critics in the West would have long ago been dissolved in a puddle of corrosive urine. Imagine the President of the United States addressing a group of supporters and leading them in a chant of “Death to Iran.” Imagine what that might mean.

If it helps clarify things, imagine a flash of lightning."

http://www.lileks.com/bleats/archive/06/0906/092006.html

Leftist chants:
out - No Nukes!!
in - Nukes For Iran! Nukes For Iran!!

[Extraneus]

Imagine a new AG who sicced the dogs on Reid, Hillary, McAuliffe...

You may say I'm a dreamer.

[Miss Marple]

http://triblive.com/opinion/salena/8054490-74/democrats-politics-republicans#axzz3VmL6nPSd

Millenial female Republican wins legislature seat in Philadelphia. This is a good article, and here is her picture:

[jimmyk]

can we have an Occam's Razor ruling?

Heh, since neither requires even a Rosemary Woods stretch, I'll say, why not both?

[jimmyk]

"Despite Obama's Diplomatic Efforts and Historic Agreement with the Iranian Regime, Iran Now Has Nuclear Weapons"

And don't forget the Nobel Peace Prize.

[DebinNC]

Wonderful piece today, clarice. BOzo certainly inspires great writing by others. Speaking of which, another JOM author (JJ Minor) posted on last thread:

http://justoneminute.typepad.com/main/2015/03/tcfab.html?cid=6a00d83451b2aa69e201b8d0f7688e970c#comment-6a00d83451b2aa69e201b8d0f7688e970c

[James D.]

Ext @ 8:39

I did say that it was the most charitable interpretation I could think of...

[Extraneus]

O'Keefe is planning to unload on another college tomorrow.

[Jim Eagle]

Great PIeces, Clarice.

Happy Palm Sunday to all.

Very Sunny on the First Coast but colder than a well digger's deriere.

[DebinNC]

FWIW, after reading more, I fully subscribe to MM's anger at Pence. I also cancelled my Angie's List membership, because of the CEO's needlessly divisive statements in response to Pence.

[Miss Marple]

DebnNc,

Thanks. Pence was on This Week. Then George went to Josh Earnest for a reaction.

I am beginning to think that the White House is using this opportunity to gin up reaction so that everyone will be accusing the GOP and Indiana of being bigots on gays while the administration makes a deal with Iran, who kill gays routinely.

Pence made a rookie mistake in not understanding how this law would be viewed by the gay community and those sympathetic to them. It is SO unnecessary!

[Miss Marple]

By the way, Angie's List's expansion was going to cost taxpayers in subsidies. The company had an $18.5 million loss last year, and they are based here anyway.

I am cancelling my membership as well.

[pagar]

I must not understand something.

"The company had an $18.5 million loss last year,"

And they are expanding? Is this a joke?
What do they spend their money on?

Sound like the guy who was raising watermelons and losing money so he decided to buy a bigger truck?

[Extraneus]

Boycott Angie's List!

Another exploding cigar for the gaytriots?

[jimmyk]

I fully subscribe to MM's anger at Pence

I was only lurking yesterday but wanted to put my $.02 in about Pence: It's not a matter of soft-pedaling it or being "polite." On the contrary it's about having the courage and confidence to be blunt and accurate, and standing tough against the thugs. I missed whatever Pence did that Miss M and now Deb object to. I've only heard him emphasize that the bill is about religious freedom, which is the right thing to do. I hope he doesn't backtrack. That would just energize the bullies.

[Miss Marple]

pagar,

That was the question a lot of us asked last year. I think they got the deal for the expansion (to move into larger headquarters in a building downtown) before the loss was made public.

I personally think they were going to use some of the subsidy money to offset losses. I think the company is being hit by competition and poor management.

[Joan]

DebinNC and Janet:
Goodness, that was sweet of you both. :)
Thanks,
Joan

[Jim Eagle]

Another Airbus 320 crashes.

This time an Air Canada flight from Toronto to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Hit power lines and belly flopped. 25 minor injuries out of 135 pax. It all comes in 3's and I am nervous as hell since Mrs. JiB flies from Brussels to Munich on the 31st on GermanWings A-320. Praying 24/7.

[Jane]

Hey my privilege score was 30. What's my problem?

[Buckeye]

Took the white priveldge test that jimmyk linked last night at 12:54.

Was very disappointed that I only scored 296. But if I convert to Judaism will put me over 300.

Off to see the rabbi:)

[Miss Marple]

jimmyk,

It is that he failed to appreciate how the gay community and their supporters would react to the interpretation put out by the papers, failed to explain it ahead of time, allowed a very outspoken Christian activist who is a big Pence supporter to give HIS interpretation (which sounded very anti-gay)) without contradicting him and let the guy be present in the signing ceremony, which was closed doors.

Now said activist is trumpeting this like it's a big win against the Forces of Darkness. Pence didn't do that much good on This Week, from what I read.

I do not like unnecessary controversy, and this is a prime example. It's divisive and for no good reason plays into the culture wars and could all have been avoided.

But then, Pence wouldn't have gotten on This Week to take his "principled stand," which will turn out to be like his "principled stand" against Common Core, which really ended up simply being a renaming of it.

[MarkO]

Can one still legally refuse to bake an Obama cake for a Democrat? Or refuse to take pictures at a Democrat wedding?

Is being a Dem a choice or is one born that way?

Freedom can be frightening.

[Beasts of England]

Basketball Jones,
I got a Basketball Jones,
I got a Basketball Jones, oh baby, ooo-eee-ooo...

h/t: Tyrone Shoelaces

[Buckeye]

JiB

Will lift up a prayer for safe travels for Mrs. JiB.

Airbus fleet give me the willies.

[Extraneus]

So what if they gays are hysterical? I don't get why that's a problem, except maybe for Yelp and Angie's List.

[Jane]

Why the hell did I get 30? Is it because I'm a chick?

[clarice]

I never did see how a bakery became a public accommodation required to serve all, but then I don't understand how Minneapolis airport cabdrivers were not considered public accommodation workers required to carry passengers with liquor, ham or dogs. I guess I missed that addendum to constitutional law.

[clarice]

Great, Joan!

[exdemocrat]

"I love basic, foundational questions like these. I wish we had a press that would ask them."

- or Congresscritters who will do so.

Has the administration even attempted to answer this question? If not, is its failure to do so not a refusal to do so? Is its refusal to do so explicable? If so, how? If not, is that refusal an impeachable offense?

[henry]

Jane, tall hetero male is the privilege trifecta. If missing on any of those, victim privilege overrides other considerations.

[Miss Marple]

Here's the article on Angie's list:

http://www.indystar.com/story/news/politics/2015/01/26/amid-losses-angies-list-asks-taxpayers-double/22243105/

[pagar]

"Total operating expenses that year far outpaced its $155.8 million in sales. The result was a $52.9 million loss. " for 2012.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/why-angies-list-is-getting-a-rash-of-bad-reviews/

How does a a company lose 52 million dollars and stay in business?

IMO, there is something wrong somewhere.

[Buckeye]

Beasts

At least you only have to go cold turkey until 2:20 this afternoon. You could probably even get a Pro ball fix earlier.

[Miss Marple]

pagar,

Their primary income is memberships, which is around $150 per household.

To me, the flaw in their business plan is once you get a reliable plumber, electrician, window guy, landscaper, etc. you KEEP them. You don't need to go back and look for one again.

Plus, it's an expense justified if only 1. You are going to pay for home improvements and 2. You don't already know someone reliable.

Hence drop in revenue.

Now a couple of other sites have risen up which don't charge for membership (getting revenue from referrals to businesses and advertising) so it is further draining their revenue, plus their market share is declining.

In order to gain customers they undertook a massive television ad campaign (which you have probably seen) and have been offering special deals on certain services. More expense.

[Buckeye]

pagar

Interesting that in the last year or so I have seen lots of TV ads for Angie's List.

Financial statements would probably tell the story, but either they were already sitting on lots of cash, friendly banker, selling lots of paper or a combination of these.

[henry]

Pagar, it is common in technology. It appears to be a SV & GS business model of some sort. Then again they make money on capital gains, interest, and management fees not the underlying business. SalesForce.com's CEO claims social responsibilty is more important than profit. Other firms say they will make it up in volume, especially cloud software like NetSuite or Workday -- but never seem to have the volume needed for profit. (I think they are nuts, and profit at any volume is not only possible, but the point of the exercise).

[Janet]

Imagine a new AG who sicced the dogs on Reid, Hillary, McAuliffe...

Terry McAuliffe was just a businessman when this was going on. Do all American citizens get to call the #2 at DHS & yell at them?

"...Mayorkas described McAuliffe as persistent and even belligerent as he objected to actions taken by lower level staff in the department, who balked at requests to approve some visas.

“I recall that over the course of many months I received several voice messages from Mr. McAuliffe complaining about USCIS’s handling of the . . . case. The messages were caustic. I remember in particular one voice message that I played, as it was laced with expletives at a high volume. I recall one occasion on which Mr. McAuliffe complained to me directly over the telephone."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/report-mcauliffe-asked-for-and-got-favors-at-homeland-security/2015/03/24/00f62514-d24e-11e4-a62f-ee745911a4ff_story.html

[Buckeye]

MM hits the nail on the head as far as why their membership is shrinking. Only option is to shed bodies, borrow and recast the business plan.

[jimmyk on iPad]

Henry, according to Blair, being Jewish helps too. Because Jews have obviously had all sorts of advantages, like having survived the holocaust. (Many of the most successful Jews I know were survivors, or children of survivors.)

I didn't even look to see if the test was intended as a joke or not. The fact that it's not clear tells you all you need to know about the left today.

[Buckeye]

jimmyk

My thought the test was snarky. And the fact that being Jewish puts you at the top is a reflection of lefty anti-semitism.

[jimmyk on iPad]

"How does a a company lose 52 million dollars and stay in business?"

Happens all the time if it's a temporary setback or if its a startup with huge growth potential. Neither seems to be the case here, so you can stick a fork in it. Getting involved in RFRA issue is a Hail Mary for publicity, aka jumping the shark.

[henry]

Jimmyk, I forgot about the sneaky control of the banking system. ;)

[Buckeye]

So FNS is highlighting the new Teddy Kennedy institute horseshit in Boston.

Won't be complete until they park the Chappaquiddick bridge in the front yard.

[Janet]

Carr: Editing Ted Kennedy World: Some facts didn’t make ‘Institute’ cut

"Liberals are, after all, so generous — they’ll always give you the shirt off somebody else’s back."

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2015/03/carr_editing_ted_kennedy_world_some_facts_didn_t_make

[exdemocrat]

http://www.breitbart.com/national-security/2015/03/29/afp-iran-deal-reached-in-switzerland/

"The terms were not released."

Why not?

[Buckeye]

""The term were not released."

Why not?"

Because then they would have to kill us.

[Jim Eagle]

You can increase your base "privilege" score by 1) moving the "attractiveness" scale all the way to the right limit, and 2) scoring the highest income node.

I think that is how henry got to 270:)

[Buckeye]

Yes I cheated on the attractiveness scale, but Mrs. Buckeye says I am!

[Miss Marple]

Off to an auction and then mass this evening.

Have a good day, all! Happy Palm Sunday!

[henry]

JiB, if I selected "tall" instead of "normal" it went to 290. I did not push attractiveness all the way to the right... I think a mustache is required for such an extreme.

[Janet]

Am I supposed to fill that out as life is now?...or when I was younger & up-n-coming (when "privilege" made a difference)?

My attractiveness score dropped a point just while I was taking the damn test!

...seriously, the years have not been kind to me. :)

[Jane]

Janet's link above is a great read. Here is the first sentence:

When Ted Kennedy wrote his initial account of Chappaquiddick for the Edgartown police in 1969, after he scrawled the words “Mary Jo” in the first sentence he left a blank space — because he had no idea what his victim’s last name was.

http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/columnists/howie_carr/2015/03/carr_editing_ted_kennedy_world_some_facts_didn_t_make

[iqvoice]

Stephenson's novel "The Diamond Age" touched quite a bit on the idea of technology intervening in the lives of children. Like most of his books, a pretty good read.

[Captain Hate on the iPad]

The comments for Howie's article are pretty funny. Only one hapless dunce tries to defend the fat slob and gets roundly ridiculed.

[Rick Ballard]

The pathetic idiocy of the Economist piece is revealed in the subhead Social mobility depends on what happens in the first years of life

The premise implies that providing stalls for Clydesdale foals in the thoroughbred barn will increase the probability of a Clydesdale running in the Derby with a chance of winning. The truly amusing aspect of the fantasy is that it directly contradicts Darwin's beloved theory as expressed in his Descent of Man particularly with the sack full of anecdotes he used regarding dog and horse breeding in England.

"Social mobility" depends far more on your draw in the genetic lottery than it does upon "the first years of life". Genetic reversion to mean among the thoroughbreds coupled with decisions to produce one or two offspring who achieve Very Precious Snowflake status due to the absence of siblings guarantees slower thoroughbreds without the strength to bull a beer wagon.

[Jim Eagle]

Talking about White Privilege, meet the Weather Underground bomb maker who ended up spending 25 years as a NYC school teacher.

http://nypost.com/2015/03/29/weatherman-underground-bomber-unmasked-as-city-schoolteacher/

Never spent a day in jail. And, like Ayers, is unremorseful.

[pagar]

Several people answered my question on Angie's list.

"Financial statements would probably tell the story, but either they were already sitting on lots of cash, friendly banker, selling lots of paper or a combination of these."

It appears that Bill Oesterle was a venture capitalist who started Angie's list with Angela Hicks. Ok, the source for that is Fortune Magazine (which just a few days ago declared that the two individuals who kept the riots going in Ferguson were leaders of the free World). http://fortune.com/2013/08/19/meet-the-duo-who-created-angies-list/

The company was founded in 1995 and has never made a profit. So who has been absorbing all these losses? Is it Bill Oesterle? If so and he is losing his own money I guess He can do what he wants to with his money.
My guess is it is other people's money.
I can't imagine finding enough people willing to lose 52 million dollars in one year?

If I were in Indiana and cared, I think I would like to know a lot more about who make the deal to spend public money on behalf of Angie's list?

Nothing about the deal that I have heard makes any sense. Who has made any guarantees that the public is going to get their money back or any future benefit from a company hemorrhaging cash
with a record of losses over 20 years?
I just don't get it.

[henry]

Pagar, it is like the dot coms, they cash out by going public or selling to a bigger fool in the private equity game. Spending $1.30 to get $1.00 in revenue for trendy high growth things (with crony subsidies from the govt for the in crowd) gets Goldman Sachs to shill it for the IPO crowd who flip it to the investor equivalent of LIVs. The key is to kiss the correct butts en route (dumping on Indiana is a small price when there are billions at the end of the rainbow), and to get your chair (cash out) before the music stops.

[DebinNC]

Angie's List site: "Annual memberships are backed by our 110% satisfaction guarantee. This guarantee ensures that you can try Angie's List risk-free. During your current member term, if you decide the service isn't working out for you, we can refund your purchase and provide an extra 10% as a thank-you for giving us a try."

Sounds good, but the kicker is memberships automatically renew for another year the moment they expire. As I learned when I "cancelled" my AL yesterday, it stays in effect until Oct. 22, my enrolling date; i.e. there's no money-returned for unused months option. Most members probably have no idea when they enrolled and don't notice they've signed on for other year until they see the credit card charge afterward.