I’m a big Flipboard fan. Yesterday Robert Scoble posted on his Google+ feed that Google is working on a competitor. “My source says that the versions he’s seen so far are mind-blowing good.” Kara Swisher follows up: Google is indeed working on rolling out the new product, which is currently called Propeller. Sources said Propeller is apparently one of a number of new socially focused announcements...

So says Harvey E. Eisenberg, a Maryland Assistant U.S. Attorney, in this moment from Frontline’s new monthly magazine series. Watch: The segment, titled Are We Safer, is reported by the WaPo’s Dana Priest: Priest examines Maryland… Here, Gov. Martin O’Malley tells FRONTLINE how the Department of Homeland Security backed his state’s efforts to track down terrorists, funding the...

Update and correction: Jimmy Leeward, the pilot of the Mustang P51 that crashed in Reno was first reported by media to be 80 years old. He is actually one month shy of being 75. TMV regrets carrying the error forward. Dr.E, M.Ed. Being closer to 80 than to 20 years of age, I bristle when people say ‘old people’ cant, shouldnt, ought not to (fill in the blank with any number of harmless, funny,...

Has the United States been in the midst of a national neurotic episode since the 9-11 attacks? According to this editorial from Japan’s Ibaraki Shimbun, going around the world and “brandishing an ideal” is just as foolish for the United States as it is for al-Qaeda. The Ibaraki Shimbun editorial says in part: Ten years have passed since the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States...

For making iOS accessible to all. At a nightclub appearance in LA last weekend, said Stevie: There is nothing that you can do on the iPhone or iPad that I can’t do. Watch: Via.

“A swirl of fame swept down a dirt road to find Bobby Kirk and his country wisdom,” says the NYTimes in a Most Emailed article from late July. Stephen Colbert parses the piece in a deliciously sarcastic joke that appears at first to be a skewering of small town journalism. The action (or lack thereof) takes place a few miles up the road from me, in Athens, GA, so it got local tongues a-waggin’. Be...

about whether Perry signed the writ to execute Cameron justly… even though it is thought now that Cameron may have been innocent. 234 people executed during Perry’s governorship. That’s equal to more than a third of the small town population where I grew up. I sit here imagining every third house in the northwoods having the hearse pull up. It seem odd that some politicos say they are pro...

“There you go again.” It’s a phrase made famous by Ronald Reagan, first in his campaign against Jimmy Carter and then throughout his Presidency. And it was my first thought upon reading the glowing accolades (mind-blowing!) surrounding Microsoft’s announcement of Windows 8, accolades so bright that it should not be dark here a few miles from Redmond. Get a grip boys. It’s September...

A quixotic and magnetic new film has been made by Dawn Gifford Engle in which Nobel peace Prize awardees such as Dalai Lama and Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Rigoberta Menchu Tum and other notables speak about the actual Mayan meaning of the end of the year 2012. There is a good long film clips here... A few years back, there arose a media-inflated rumor about 2012, rivaling, in my mind, a “barricade the...

The word eugenics was not used in Bachmann/ Perry argument. But, here is the definition. Does the matter they are discussing tilt into this: EUGENICS: the science of improving a human population… by controlled breeding to increase the occurrence of desirable heritable characteristics. Developed largely by Francis Galton as a method of improving the human race, it fell into disfavor only after the perversion...

At a time when America appears lost, and its leadership continues its reckless bid for global supremacy, it is interesting to recall the story of the only American who participated in India’s freedom struggle and was imprisoned by the British-Indian government. He gave up Western clothes and donned home-spun Khadi dress. A highly impressed Mahatma Gandhi wrote in his Young India: “No Indian is giving...

Best not make decisions late in the day: …decision fatigue can make quarterbacks prone to dubious choices late in the game and C.F.O.’s prone to disastrous dalliances late in the evening. It routinely warps the judgment of everyone, executive and nonexecutive, rich and poor — in fact, it can take a special toll on the poor. Yet few people are even aware of it, and researchers are only beginning to...

It’s Twitter all over again. While you were enjoying your Labor Day holiday weekend, Google rolled out a list of 100 or so suggested folks to circle. Erh, follow. Google Rolls Out Suggested Follows If you have already set up a G+ profile, finding these recommendations is not straightforward. For example, it doesn’t show as an option when you visit your Circles tab and click “find people.”...

Olle Johansson, Sweden This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

One of the nicest things about living in a world of grays, where one can change one’s mind when presented with new facts, and when one doesn’t jump to extreme and absolute conclusions based on some article of belief is the one tends to make an ass of one’s self far less often. Case in point, the “peer-reviewed” science paper jumped on by the Usual Suspects just a couple of weeks...

This column is long but, the issues are complex and demand full development Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN) brought a talking point and a sound bite to a real policy discussion again today. The former IRS tax attorney continues to exhibit a complete lack of understanding of how our government works. Additionally, she continues to be fearless when it comes to wading off into complex policy discussions...

The Case for Separation of Church and Weather by Tina Dupuy The Moche lived in northern Peru from about 100-700 A.D. Their molded ceramics are still a highlight in the annals of human accomplishment. If you walk through a museum of pre-Columbian art, it’s easy to spot a Moche piece — the faces are so realistic you expect them to wink at you. Around 500 A.D., the world was experiencing some drastic climate...

The final video version of the presentation I did last month at Florida State University’s Future of the Book conference held at Turnbull Conference Center in Talahassee, FL. Its central idea is that we are in the process of moving from a literal tradition of sharing and passing on culture to a social tradition. I used Prezi, the zooming online presentation program. Thanks to all who contributed with...

Cardow, The Ottawa Citizen This copyrighted cartoon is licensed to run on TMV. Unauthorized reproduction prohibited.

First we had Republican Ron Paul questioning whether FEMA is necessary and now via the Fox News website here’s this piece asking whether we need a National Weather Service. I strongly feel that these kinds of stories and removing the “givens” that most mainstream Americans assumed where there to help is going to hurt the Republican Party with independent voters over the long run. Whoever thought...

Iane Murray of the Competitive Enterprise Institute has demonstrated that he is certainly competitive when it comes to sociopathic idiocy. Do We Really Need a National Weather Service? While Americans ought to prepare for the coming storm (Irene), federal dollars need not subsidize their preparations. Although it might sound outrageous, the truth is that the National Hurricane Center and its parent agency, the...

Couples in bed now apparently are more likely to get a computer virus than a sexual one. The reason: they seem more interested in their laptops than each other. (We always KNEW TMV was irresistible): Couples are spending more time looking at their laptops in the bedroom than they do looking at each other. More and more people are putting their relationships at risk by using laptops in bed, it was reported yesterday....

Hurricane Irene, the storm that sparked fears of a doomsday scenario playing out in New York City and that led to the evacuation of some 2.5 million New Yorkers from the potentially dangerous hurricane damage areas, has punched into North Carolina — but not as strongly as feared. But even so: it remains potentially deadly, extremely dangeroius and can still be catastrophic as it snakes its way up the...

I am a climate change believer and I think that CO2 emissions are in part responsible. I also have a great deal of respect for Bill McKibben.  But this is a mistake: Irene’s got a middle name, and it’s Global Warming,” environmental activist Bill McKibben wrote Thursday night in The Daily Beast. He argued that this year’s hot Atlantic Ocean temperatures and active spree of hurricanes — coupled with...

AP, via the AJC of all places, ‘What am I going to do?’ NYC subways ordered shut. The subways are shutting down??? This has never happened before. (For a storm, that is. The subway system did shut down after 9/11 and for a 2005 strike.) But that’s not all. John F. Kennedy International, Newark Liberty International and LaGuardia airports are shutting down and NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced...