Links of our Lives: Hello 2009 Edition
Welcome to the first northslope blog post of the New Year! I thought I’d start things off with a “Links of our Lives” entry, giving you a sneak peak into some of the websites that I’ve been reading and thinking about after reading over the past few weeks.
Its not too often that the Juror of a fairly large, public trial decides to tell about their experiences in a way that doesn’t include writing a book, or sit-down Barbra Walters interview. Senator Ted Stevens, the longest serving republican senator in history was recently found guilty of seven felony counts and shortly thereafter lost reelection for the first time in 50 years. The trial contained some pretty interesting characters on the witness stand, on each side of the case, and even in the jury box – according the Juror #11 who has started a blog detailing their experiences in a high profile political and legal case.
Classic Card Game “Pit” sees resurgence with economic troubles
I guess there is no better way to take control of your finances during tough times than to pretend you have finances in the first place! Stacy Downs of the Seattle Times shares this fun article that breaks down the ins and outs of this 100 year old, but surprisingly relevant game that brings the market to you as you trade commodities with other players. I would be interested to see a new version of “pit” that replaces Corn, Flax, and Barley with updated commodities like Crude Oil, Natural Gas, Gold, and Copper.
What will George W. Bush miss the most about being president? Probably his rug.
A meeting of all the living Presidents last week in the Oval Office, along with President-Elect Obama was a pretty unprecedented event. The offhand comment “I just love that rug” made by Bill Clinton took me to Google trying to figure out what type of amazing design could inspire such a non-partisan compliment. Each sitting president re-designs the Oval Office to their own personal tastes, and apparently the rug that Clinton was admiring is a favorite conversation starter of President Bush. This 2006 Washington Post article pokes fun at President Bush’s constant mentioning of the tapestry, even when out of the country and not in the office itself.
Barack Obama can’t imagine a life without txt-ing – regardless if it only might be days away
Speaking of Presidents our next President, Barack Obama has been saying for a while now that the hardest part of becoming the leader of the free world is that his precious Blackberry cell phone might have to go. The Secret Service, along with dozens of lawyers are strongly encouraging the President-Elect to ditch his handheld messaging device because of the security and legal hurdles it would pose to his administration. Did you know that Presidents don’t use email? Every message a president would send from a computer or pocket device would be subject to the freedom of information act and the 978 Presidential Records Act. On January 8th, just under two weeks before being sworn in, Obama is still trying to find a way to keep this addicting part of his former life. (Extra: Peter Scheer of the SF Gate thinks it would be a mistake to get rid of the device)
Palm Lives! – Introduces the most reveloutionarry phone on the market
Well, its been a year and a half since the iPhone was released by Apple – and its competitors have finally been able to put a new device on the market that properly rivals, and surpasses the iPhone technology. Palm was a company two feet away from the grave, the operating system running on most of their Smartphones was barely unchanged since my first Palm Pilot back in high school. The introduction of the “Palm Pre” gives new hope and life to a company that practically invented mobile computing in the first place. It will be fun to see how Google (Android, G1) Apple (iPhone) and Microsoft (Windows Mobile) respond to this new challenge. I still think if Google or Apple do it right, they could still walk away in a few years as the market leader, but this amazing Palm device finally unseated Apple as the developer of the most groundbreaking phone on the market…
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