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Will voters buy the idea that GOP is sabotaging economy?
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Steve Benen flags what seems to be a first: A poll gauging whether voters are prepared to believe that Republicans are deliberately sabotaging the recovery in order to take back the White House. With the Obama campaign and Democrats signaling that this argument will be central in 2012, this seems like a relevant question.The poll, which surveyed Florida voters, was conducted by Suffolk University. I tracked down the poll’s internals, and here’s the relevant question:
Do you think the Republicans are intentionally stalling efforts to jumpstart the economy to insure that Barack Obama is not reelected?
Yes 49
No 39
Undecided 12
Windows Phone Is Back, Full of Great Tricks
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Windows Phone 7.5 is gorgeous, classy, satisfying, fast and coherent. The design is intelligent, clean and uncluttered. Never in a million years would you guess that it came from the same company that cooked up the bloated spaghetti that is Windows and Office.
Most impressively, Windows Phone is not a feeble-minded copycat. Microsoft came up with completely fresh metaphors that generally steer clear of the iPhone/Android design (grid-spaced icons that scroll across home pages).
Cartoons
The sods must be crazy: OLPC to drop tablets from helicopters to isolated villages
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The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) project has devised a bizarre plan for deploying its new XO-3 tablet. The organization plans to drop the touchscreen computers from helicopters near remote villages in developing countries. The devices will then be abandoned and left for the villagers to find, distribute, support, and use on their own.
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“We’ll take tablets and drop them out of helicopters into villages that have no electricity and school, then go aback a year later and see if the kids can read,” Negroponte told The Register.
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G20: Bill Gates adds his weight to calls for Robin Hood tax
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Bill Gates will tell the G20 group of developed and developing countries on Thursday that they could raise an extra $48bn (£30bn) a year to fight global poverty by levying a small tax on share and bond trading.
Despite hostility from Britain and the US, the Microsoft founder will add weight to the growing campaign for a so-called Robin Hood tax when he tells the two-day summit in Cannes that a levy on finance would help hard-pressed rich nations to meet their aid pledges to the poor.
Gates will acknowledge the lack of G20 unanimity for a financial transaction tax when he presents a report – Innovation with Impact – commissioned by Nicolas Sarkozy in a 75-minute session on development on Thursday afternoon.But the study concludes that aid budgets would be boosted by $9bn even were the FTT limited to the larger European economies, such as Germany and France, which back the idea.
Speaking to the Guardian on the eve of the summit, Gates said: "It is very plausible that certain kinds of FTTs could work. I am lending some credibility to that. This money could be well spent and make a difference. An FTT is more possible now than it was a year ago, but it won’t be at rates that magically raise gigantic sums of money."
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We had one in 2008 and 2009 (not sure about exact dates). It was an 8% tax on the income of companies working in the energy industry. Both producers and vendors – oil companies, gas companies, petrol stations, etc.
Why the Mac App Sandbox makes me sad | Naming Things
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Apple announced today that, starting in March 2012, all apps on the Mac App Store will be required to run in the so-called “App Sandbox”.
The sandbox is an environment that locks down the Mac in ways that match (and exceed) the limitations found on iOS. A sandboxed app doesn’t have direct access to any files or frameworks on the system. It can’t access the network or any devices.
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It is tragic that Americans, so many Americans, do not understand that you go to college to learn and develop critical thinking that can, yes, help you get and do higher paying jobs, but that is only part of why one needs to expand their mind and develop the skills necessary to understand complex things. The mindset that it is just about getting a job and making money shows how far along our society is to the flock of sheep the 1% and their police are seeking.
Although the cartoon is probably meant to be ironic, the education industry is just as guilty of pushing excessive loans on naive individuals as banks on homeowners during the worst excesses of the U.S. housing bubble.