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December 18, 2010 04:05 PM UTC

Weekend Open Thread

  • 56 Comments
  • by: Colorado Pols

Don’t wear sandals

Try to avoid the scandals

–Bob Dylan

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56 thoughts on “Weekend Open Thread”

  3. The Colombian army says it has installed a giant Christmas tree in Farc rebel territory, to encourage guerrilla fighters to demobilize.

    Special forces infiltrated the remote Macarena mountain range to dress a 25m (82ft) high tree with 2,000 lights.

    Movement sensors will make the tree light up when guerrillas approach.

    The army says it will put up trees in nine other rebel-held zones to spread the message that Christmas is a good time to abandon armed struggle.

    The Colombian government says more than 2,000 guerrillas demobilized this year under a scheme that gives them amnesty and help to return to civilian life.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/worl…

    I like it – it shows the FARC rebels that Special Ops units can infiltrate their territory at any time, and gives them a reminder of a “normal” life they can have if they just surrender during the Christmas holiday.

    On the flipside, someone who doesn’t have any holiday cheer:

    ‘Bad Santa’ sends message to Harrods

    A disgruntled employee, fired by Harrods from his job as the toy department’s Father Christmas, took revenge last night in spectacular style.

    Gaining access to a maintenance control room, Lloyd Hudson, 35, from Ilford, Essex, was able to locate the chart and corresponding switches for Harrods’ 10,000 external lights.

    http://www.thepoke.co.uk/index…

    4. Perhaps our military should try that over in Afghanistan. It would be interesting to see if the Taliban and al-Qaeda would abandon their armed struggle, throw down their weapons, convert to Presbyterianism, and join the Rotary Club.  

  5. IBM Supercomputer Set for Jeopardy Quiz Show Showdown

    IBM’s Watson supercomputer will be a contestant on Jeopardy on Feb. 14, 2011. The TV quiz show will be an important test for the supercomputer, which will mimic human intelligence by deciphering and answering questions without being connected to the Internet.

    Best Colleges for Women and Minorities in STEM

    Westminster College ranked first for graduating women in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) fields … Other high-ranking colleges and universities for women in STEM included Colby College, SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry, Harvey Mudd College, and Williams College.

    …

    The study found that the best school for minorities in STEM fields is Saint Mary’s University of Minnesota … Other high-ranking schools for minorities in STEM include Westmont College, Colorado College, Christopher Newport University, and the University of Colorado Denver

    1. are among the most expensive in the state.  It seems that, in education at least, you get what you pay for.  I’m sure that, like me, few of you (Democrats) are surprised by this fact.

      So, please, to our Republican polsters (and I’m thinking now in particular of a certain chuckling fellow):  since it apparently takes more money to produce a high-quality post secondary education (than an inadequate one), why isn’t money an issue in your world-view for producing positive results K-12 results?  If cost is a factor for colleges, what is the difference between K-12 and college that obviates funding as a factor for performance and results?

      1. The University of Colorado Denver is a public institution; it’s one of the four campuses of CU. Sounds like you might have mistaken UCD for the University of Denver (which happens a LOT).

          1. I am currently training two young women to be carpenters.  Aces…both of them.

            Their commitment to getting it right is refreshing. I would like to see more female architects.  

            1. I never thought it was my gender standing in the way, rather my religion and our natural ability to not coordinate our hands and eyes.  🙂

              Good for you and good for them, ten fingers!

                1. needs a fall back.

                  Seriously, I left that part of the joke out because I didn’t think we had one on the site.  Kudos to you, DaftPunk!

                  Meanwhile, I put on mascara without jabbing myself in the eye this morning.  I guess we’re all feeling pretty damn good today.  😀

                    1. I mean kudos on the religion thing, too.  Probably half the regular posters are MOT.  Much less unique here than any kind of doctor.  Love Doctors abound, but don’t come to us in an actual bleeding crisis.  Different.

              1. of requirements..but it doesn’t hurt.

                Sorry I missed you…drat.

                I will be leaving for a trip to Texas on Wed. night, back the 30th., so I will hope for a return visit after Jan. 1. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you too.  

  7. After the presiding judge rejected a motion from DA Mark Hurlbert and defense attorney Richard Tegtmeier that sought to bar victim Dr. Steven Milo’s active participation in Thursday’s hearing,  Martin Erzinger was sentenced to a year’s probation and a suspended jail term.

    From the creator of the “Old guys who get fat in winter” racing team comes this rant:

    Remember your Plutarch. In his “Lives,” writing of the Athenian statesman Solon, Plutarch said the philosopher Anacharsis “laughed at him for imagining the dishonesty and covetousness of his countrymen could be restrained by written laws, which were like spiders’ webs, and would catch, it is true, the weak and poor, but easily be broken by the mighty and rich.”

    1. to suffer through a lifetime of  sleep apnea — karma is a bitch.

      Anything more than probation would just be piling on.  Hurlbert is a humanitarian.

    2. Erzinger was ordered by the judge to report that he had been charged in a felony; the felony charge was re-instated before the hearing, and Erzinger was required by law to report it.  As of the hearing, he had not done so.

      That could still result in the loss of his job…

    1. Mad over Dream vote. Fear, hate, bigotry but the greatest of these is fear they will alienate their hate mongering bigots in the GOP.  Where’s the integrity in that?  

      1. that deserves celebration!

        Unfortunately, it’s the only national LGBT legislative victory we will see in the next 2 years of republican control.

        Must make you kind of regret not voting for them Dems this year… certain unnamed Arvada-based pollster. Doesn’t it?

        Matthew Shepard Act and DADT repeal in the first 2 years of his first term? That’s what I call a fierce advocate…

          1. That wasn’t directed at you.

            I just posted it as a reply, because this was where the DADT discussion was happening.

            I’m sure you voted the right way, whichever way that might happen to be. 🙂

  9. from Slate

    For those reasons, older entrepreneurs, most if not all studies find, make better entrepreneurs-better at actualizing their business plans, finding adequate funding, keeping their young companies going, and creating new jobs. Young people might start more companies. But check in a few years later, and it is the older entrepreneurs’ companies that are still around. Age and its attending wisdom-or at least its attending credit score-go along with entrepreneurial success.

    1. David, I think they’re talking about entrepreneurs in their late 20s, as opposed to 18-year-olds skipping college to launch startups. Not so much their grandparents …

      1. Also from the article:

        It found that between 1995 and 2005, when venture capitalists were plentiful in Silicon Valley, the 20-to-34 age bracket produced fewer companies than older age brackets did. The average age of a tech startup founder was not 19 or 27 but a respectable 39. And there were twice as many entrepreneurs older than 50 than younger than 25.

        Personally I’ve found age to not be much of an indicator – the advantages and disadvantages of any age tend to equal out.

  11. But you already knew that, right?

    Why I hate Republican politicians:

    “Rushing it right before Christmas strikes me as trying to jam us,” McConnell said on CNN’s “State of the Union” a few hours before debate on the treaty resumed Sunday, the fifth day of consideration of the pact. “I think that was not the best way to get the support of people like me.”

    Considering that this article:

    With Mitch McConnell in the Room, Clinton Makes Robust Case for New START Ratification

    Clinton made her case with Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) in the room. In fact, McConnell introduced her, and immediately after he did, Clinton lavishly praised his bipartisan credentials – a direct challenge to McConnell, who’s positioned himself as a New START skeptic. The disarmament goals the Obama administration seeks and the treaty pursues, she said, are “not new. They’re not controversial. Leaders of both parties have been working toward these goals for decades.” She listed the long history of 90-plus Senate votes for arms control ratification for the past two decades, calling the treaty “the latest chapter in the history of American nuclear responsibility… co-authored by Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, George W. Bush… I’m confident when senators get a chance to study the treaty, we’ll have the same high levels of bipartisan supports as the ones it builds upon.”

    Was written April 9th!

    Eight and a half months time is “rushing it?”

          1. I’m looking at this week’s final score as well as last week’s and trying to figure out how we’re better off without McDaniels? We were losing games without losing millions in salary with McDaniels as coach.

            The only difference I can see between Tebow and Orton is that Tebow seems more enthusiastic when losing. Oh and fans seem to have a lot of faith Tebow. Especially when you define faith as belief in something without the inconvenience of proof. Bah.

            Sorry but after watching yet another humiliating loss by the Broncs, I’m in no mood to heap praises on the “golden boy”.

            1. Was playcalling that looked like it was being scripted by Joe Paterno.  (And I write that with otherwise deep reverence for Joe.)

              Run, run, pass, punt.

              Over and over and over.  It gets old.

              We’re going to like him, I think, as soon as we get different coaching and surround him with a team that blocks and tackles.

  13. .

    The Denver Ghost ran an editorial today on the Afghanistan “war.” It included this statement:

    … the administration’s Afghan war assessment, called the National Intelligence Estimate …

    Now, if you’re not a war news junkie, you may ask, “so what ?”

    Well, the administration’s Afghan war assessment refers to the Obama announcement this week that we really are succeeding in our war without a mission and without metrics, and urging us to all ignore the news on the Internet that indicates otherwise.  “Trust me,” he concluded.  

    The NIE, on the other hand, came from the Director of National Intelligence, summarized the findings of the CIA and other intelligence agencies, and said that the war is unwinnable, and the President would know that, if he would just establish some concrete objectives.  

    So, the Ghost Editorial writer doesn’t know the difference between black propaganda from the White House and a product from the (now highly politicized) IC.  

    …………..

    Perhaps we should be more concerned that the writer took the pro-war Obama propaganda for Gospel Truth.  Obama said that his excuse for not winning yet was those durn Pakistanis.  Not quite.

    Obama isn’t winning because he has never set objectives for this “war” undertaking.  He has not assigned the military a specific mission there; “Just keep doing whatever you did under my predecessor,” he tells Gates.  “Your mission is to ensure that I’m not blamed for this loss.”

    If the Prez were to set specific war aims, like “pacify every District by occupying it with overwhelming troop presence,” military planners could respond with, “OK, we need 1,250,000 more soldiers in-country.”  He dodges such push-back by never pushing any specifics himself in the first place.

    .

    1. do not support the war.  So, we’re limping along – we’re placeholding, we have a thumb in the dike.  Isn’t it interesting that the entire Congress doesn’t want to deal with this either.  

    2. are to inventory the forces and weapons, make some friends that we can count on to desert us later and to disrupt the opium trade for awhile.

      Success!

      Come home.

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