Get Cynical

(via a comment on J-Walk)

HA!

(via Monitor Duty)

Dawkins was interviewed by Huw Edwards on BBC News.

Tristan Lous and Google Blogoscope put together a list of some recent tech acquisitions.

It all began with an afternoon roast of the NEW YORK TIMES drama critic, Alexander Wollcott. A number of writers met up at the Algonquin Hotel on 44th street and had such a good time that the event was repeated the next day, and the day after that, until the lunch table at the Algonquin was established as a ritual. The core group of friends was sometimes joined by others who attended for short periods or drifted about the periphery of the group, including such notables as actress Tallulah Bankhead and playwright Noel Coward. The Round Table was made up of people with a shared admiration for each other’s work. Outspoken and outrageous, they would often quote each other freely in their daily columns.

Round Tabler Edna Ferber, who called them “The Poison Squad,” wrote, “They were actually merciless if they disapproved. I have never encountered a more hard-bitten crew. But if they liked what you had done, they did say so publicly and whole-heartedly.” Their standards were high, their vocabulary fluent, fresh, astringent, and very, very tough. Both casual and incisive, they had a certain terrible integrity about their work and boundless ambition. Some of the most notable members of the Round Table came together to work on significant collaborative projects. George Kaufman teamed up with Edna Ferber and Marc Connelly on some of his best stage comedies, including DULCY and THE ROYAL FAMILY. Harold Ross of THE NEW YORKER hired both Dorothy Parker as a book reviewer and Robert Benchley as a drama critic.

Long but pretty amusing.

I’ve gotta go here next time I’m in town.

An index of Bush’s Signing Statements.

Some background about the video resume of one Aleksey Vayner:

Normally, a college student whose resume makes it to dozens of Wall Street firms would see their interest as great news.

Not so for Aleksey Vayner, a student at Yale University whose resume and motivational video have been forwarded by email to firms all over Wall Street, accompanied by messages like “What NOT to do when looking for a banking job… (Yalies, go figure).”

Vayner, a self-described “CEO and professional athlete,” submitted a cover letter and resume to UBS AG (UBS), describing his “insatiable appetite for peak performance.” By Friday afternoon, both the cover letter and resume – which includes a link to the video, titled “Impossible is Nothing” – had circulated among employees at Lehman Brothers (LEH), Goldman Sachs (GS), J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (JPM), Credit Suisse Group (CS) and Wachovia Corp. (WB), to name a few.
Toward the bottom of his resume – after more than a page of experience, including founding his own non-profit and working at an eponymous investment-management firm – a category called “leadership” includes a reference to a 1,650-pound leg press, along with the video link.

Now posted on YouTube, the video showcases Vayner lifting weights, ballroom dancing, playing tennis, skiing and ultimately, breaking a tower of bricks with his hand. All the while, he discusses his philosophy of success: “If you’re going to work, work. If you’re going to train, train. If you’re going to dance, then DANCE, but do it with PASSION.”

Ivygateblog.com did some research and it seems that just about everything was made up.

(via Metafilter)

From the Great Falls Tribune:

BOZEMAN — A Republican state lawmaker is criticizing Gov. Brian Schweitzer for comments he made to a newspaper here about the lawmaker‘s belief that the planet is not millions of years old.

Rep. Roger Koopman, R-Bozeman, called Schweitzer‘s statement ”incredibly bigoted.”

Speaking to a crowd of school children, parents and teachers in Bozeman on Friday about global warming, Schweitzer asked how many in the crowd thought the Earth was hundreds of millions of years old. Most of the children in the audience raised their hands.

He then asked how many believed the planet was less than a million years old. At least two people, including Koopman, who was in the crowd, raised their hands.

During an interview later with the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, Schweitzer noted Koopman‘s response. He said some people believe the planet is only 4,000 to 6,000 years old, despite geological evidence to the contrary.

Schweitzer said he needs support from a state Legislature that will help move Montana‘s agenda forward, ”not people who think the Earth is 4,000 years old.”

Koopman called the comments insulting.

”He insulted many Christian people and other people of faith that arrived at that position other than the way I arrived at it,” he said.

Schweitzer did not immediately return telephone calls seeking comment Sunday or Monday.

Koopman said his belief in the Earth‘s age is not based on his faith, but on his scientific investigations.