Ex Cathedra

He just called from USC to say he successfully defended his dissertation.  He’s now Patrick Douglas Crispen EdD!

My grandfather was the first in our family to work in an office.  He was a timekeeper for the Union Railroad.

My father was the first to have a Bachelor’s degree. He was Comptroller of a company that ran a chain of variety stores.

I was the first to skateboard around Dead Man’s Curve.

Now Patrick is the first in our family to get a Doctorate.

I’m telling my younger son, “Your turn!”

FocusOnTheFamily is anti-choice, anti-birth-control  & anti-gay. When its SuperBowl ad runs, I’ll join @naral & #FocusOn [YOUR ANSWER HERE] http://bit.ly/b9RoSE Pls RT via Focus On… Something Else.

I’ll be focusing on FOTF President Jim Daly while doing proper homage to him in a porcelain receptacle.

I’ll be focusing on all the shows on CBS I’ll never watch again and I’ll be focusing on all the companies that  are competitors of companies that advertise on CBS.

I’ll also  be focusing on Jim Daly’s soft, soft butt.

via Op-Ed Contributor – Microsoft’s Creative Destruction – NYTimes.com. h/t/ GMSV.

Read it. Totally true. I worked with some good and creative people from Microsoft, and their work seldom survived attacks from predatory product managers in their own company.

If you’re dealing with Microsoft on any standards activity, start off with the assumption that they’re dealing in bad faith. The Microsoft people you’re dealing with are usually good people, but sooner or later they’ll get cut off.

Here’s a sign: if somebody you’ve never seen before shows up and acts like a real asshole and proposes a weird, radical change in your consensus spec, as soon as he leaves he’ll be badmouthing your spec and trying to sabotage it. Your best shot is to try to hire the good people away from Microsoft.

Passing on the word from Kelly’s favorite charity and activist organization, Amnesty International

Unite for human rights in Iran on February 11th.

[O]f the many things the NSA can tap, a deep reservoir of public trust is not one. – John Murrell – Good Morning Silicon Valley

This quote is brought to you by the Bush Legacy Project and LTG Michael V. Hayden.

You think the scale-back of the Constellation program was bad news?

Huntsville has built its economy around weapons of war.

According to the Defense.gov – Quadrennial Defense Review, they’re useless weapons for the wrong damn war.

As you sowed, Huntsville, so shall ye reap.

Better get our smart people started on building a sustainable economy.

ACORN: Online Actions.

It’s illegal in California and Maryland to record people without their consent. Which is exactly what O’Keefe did on his ACORN stings.

Sting the stinger. Keep after that little conservative turd. See if we can roll up that whole network,

James O’Keefe – Salon.com. (h/t  Wonkette

This is so beautiful. When the FBI finishes unwinding the connections of all the conservatives  caught in the felony break-in of Sen. Landrieu’s office,  the conservative movement is going to be down to a couple of old White guys in Alabama.

There’s even a Rutgers (Joisey State) connection.

Atoms: wicked entities that refuse to acknowledge that they were created to glorify some god & stubbornly obey the laws of physics instead.

Professors of theological science are hopeful that more exotic forms of matter may be more responsive to invisible spirits and demons.

Budget Statement – Who We Are | The Planetary Society.

This may be temporary bad news for Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, but they’re good at coping, and if they exercise their imaginations toward a more sustainable vision of space flight, Huntsville’s future could be even brighter when it’s freed of the boom and bust cycles of military-industrial economy.

To no one’s surprise, Alabama Republican Congressional candidate Loony Les Phillip called the NASA budget increase a “cut” and called it “un-American.”