Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 63 of 153).

Iceland put bankers in jail rather than bailing them out — and it worked – Vox

Yesterday, Iceland’s prime minister, Sigmundur Gunnlaugsson, announced a plan that will essentially close the books on his country’s approach to handling the financial crisis — an approach that deviated greatly from the preferences of global financial elites and succeeded quite well. Instead of embracing the orthodoxy of bank bailouts, austerity, and low inflation, Iceland did just the opposite. And even though its economy was hammered by the banking crisis perhaps harder than any other in the world, its labor didn’t deteriorate all that much, and it had a great recovery.

Source: Iceland put bankers in jail rather than bailing them out — and it worked – Vox

How Joe Biden learned to work with Jesse Helms, who should’ve been his nemesis – Quartz

This May 17, vice-president Joe Biden address the graduates of Yale University at their Class Day. He spoke about the personal tragedies in his life, losing his wife and daughter to a car accident at age 30, which has been covered following the news of his son Beau’s death less than two weeks later. Beau and his brother survived the crash, and Biden almost resigned his newly won Senate seat before being talked out of it by Ted Kennedy, among others. Biden instead turned into an Amtrak commuter, coming home from Washington to Delaware every night to care for his sons as they recovered, and then to raise a family with his new wife, Jill.

But Biden also spoke about how he learned to work with someone who should have been his nemesis, the conservative senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

Source: How Joe Biden learned to work with Jesse Helms, who should’ve been his nemesis – Quartz

Travis leaves elementary school

Travis gets emotional at his fifth grade graduation

Travis gets emotional at his fifth grade graduation


Yesterday was Travis’s 5th grade graduation ceremony. True to form, it was emotional for me and Kelly. Conn has been the only school he has known. He walked the halls long before he was enrolled there, tagging along with Hallie to and from school. Somehow time flew by and he has just one day left before he’s a middle schooler.

The ceremony included singing, photos from the students as babies, speeches, and plenty of awards. Travis took home a haul of these certificates. Indeed, we laughed when we looked at the “activities” page of the school yearbook and Travis’s face was in all but two pictures!
Continue reading →

Business Proposal—

Looks like I’ve struck it rich! I am so quitting my job! Easy street, here I come!!!11!

Reply-To: johnwan998789@yahoo.com.hk
From: “JOHN WAN” johnwan663@yahoo.com.hk
Subject: Business Proposal—
Date: Sat, 6 Jun 2015 15:32:09 +0200

Dear friend,

I am John Wan from the bank of China, I have a business proposal involving the sum of $8,370,000.00 which is unclaimed as the deceased depositor died in testate with no surviving next of kin.

I will like you to work with me in total trust and partnership to enable me transfer the estate to you We will share the estate in the ratio 50% each.

I advise that you keep this email confidential and respond to me via my private email address: johnwan998789@yahoo.com.hk , I shall await your swift response to enable me inform you in details about this business.

Regards,

John.

Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game

Here’s a fascinating account of the creation of the first commercially-successful video game, Computer Space, and of the men who created it, Ted Dabney and Nolan Bushnell. Bushnell would go on to create Atari and, by extension, modern Silicon Valley.

Computer Space pitted a player-controlled rocket ship against two machine-controlled flying saucers in a space simulation set before a two-dimensional star field. The player controlled the rocket with four buttons: one for fire, which shoots a missile from the front of the rocket ship; two directional rotation buttons (to rotate the ship orientation clockwise or counterclockwise); and one for thrust, which propelled the ship in whichever direction it happened to be pointing. Think of Asteroids without the asteroids, and you should get the picture.

During play, two saucers would appear on the screen and shoot at the player while flying in a zig-zag formation.The player’s goal was to dodge the saucer fire and shoot the saucers.

Considering a game of this complexity playing out on a TV set, you might think that it was created as a sophisticated piece of software running on a computer. You’d think it, but you’d be wrong–and Bushnell wouldn’t blame you for the mistake. How he and Dabney managed to pull it off is a story of audacity, tenacity, and sheer force-of-will worthy of tech legend. This is how it happened.

Source: Computer Space and the Dawn of the Arcade Video Game

Aeon: Why broken sleep is a golden time for creativity

Modern technology might have muddied the channels that connect us to our dreams and encouraged routines that are out of synch with our natural patterns, yet it can also lead us back. The industrial revolution flooded us with light, but the digital revolution might turn out to be far more sympathetic to the segmented sleeper.

NC lawmakers move to make graffiti a felony

State lawmakers are moving to make repeat graffiti charges a felony. I have reported more graffiti in Raleigh than probably anyone (I am on a first-name basis with Raleigh’s graffiti team), however making graffiti a felony will not put the brakes on graffiti. It will, however, put more people in prison that honestly don’t need to be there.

As annoying as graffiti is, we do not need to make felons out of people for such a simple crime. A better approach would be to increase funding to the NCDOT and to municipalities to fund anti-graffiti efforts. That’s not seen as being “tough on crime,” though, and it also costs money. But hey, effective solutions sometimes require spending some money.

Graffiti vandals could land in prison under a bill, which received preliminary approve in the NC Senate, that would make repeatedly marking up buildings a felony.The state Senate gave preliminary approval in a 42-7 vote to a proposed law that expands and toughens graffiti penalties. A final vote is expected Wednesday in the Senate.

Current law covers statues, monuments and public buildings. Tagging public property is a Class 2 misdemeanor, with the stiffest penalty for five or more convictions two months in jail.

House Bill 552 would extend the protection to any property. The severity of the offense is stepped up to a Class 1 misdemeanor, with a minimum $500 mandatory fine.

Source: NC lawmakers move to make graffiti a felony

Keeping Secrets — STANFORD magazine — Medium

WHAT IF your research could help solve a looming national problem, but government officials thought publishing it would be tantamount to treason? A Stanford professor and his graduate students found themselves in that situation 37 years ago, when their visionary work on computer privacy issues ran afoul of the National Security Agency. At the time, knowledge of how to encrypt and decrypt information was the domain of government; the NSA feared that making the secrets of cryptography public would severely hamper intelligence operations. But as the researchers saw it, society’s growing dependence on computers meant that the private sector would also need effective measures to safeguard information. Both sides’ concerns proved prescient; their conflict foreshadowed what would become a universal tug-of-war between privacy-conscious technologists and security-conscious government officials.

Source: Keeping Secrets — STANFORD magazine — Medium

Underwater Test-fire of Korean-style Powerful Strategic Submarine Ballistic Missile | 38 North: Informed Analysis of North Korea

The imagery and information released by KCNA would lead an observer to conclude that this recent test was conducted from the SINPO-class experimental ballistic missile submarine based at the Sinpo South Shipyard. This, however, may be incorrect … It would appear to be more reasonably in line with assessed North Korean capabilities, however, that the test launch was conducted from a submerged barge—possibly the one seen at the Sinpo South Naval Shipyard.

Source: Underwater Test-fire of Korean-style Powerful Strategic Submarine Ballistic Missile | 38 North: Informed Analysis of North Korea

Seymour M. Hersh · The Killing of Osama bin Laden · LRB 21 May 2015

On Sunday, Investigative journalist Seymour Hersh published an account of the bin Laden SEAL raid that differs markedly from the official account. Hersh insists that Pakistan knew of the raid and that the Obama administration’s is a “lie.” Hersh’s reporting is now being called into question as he relies heavily on a single anonymous source.

I’ve been a fan of Hersh’s work, but these are extraordinary claims which demand convincing evidence. Unless Hersh can provide stronger sources I will have to wonder whether his account is trustworthy.

It’s been four years since a group of US Navy Seals assassinated Osama bin Laden in a night raid on a high-walled compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. The killing was the high point of Obama’s first term, and a major factor in his re-election. The White House still maintains that the mission was an all-American affair, and that the senior generals of Pakistan’s army and Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI) were not told of the raid in advance. This is false, as are many other elements of the Obama administration’s account.

Source: Seymour M. Hersh · The Killing of Osama bin Laden · LRB 21 May 2015