-
Hi Christopher-
<p>
I got a Google Nexus One (N1)when it first came out. I'll admit to being a Google fan boy, but I also like the idea of an open, Linux-based phone. I don't want to pay for a data plan and in any case, T-mobile has poor coverage in Maine (<i>no</i> coverage on MDI). I use my N1 like an iPod touch – wifi for getting the web. But the Google Droid app store doesn't work unless you have a SIM card in your phone. It turns out that T-mobile has a prepay plan and I can get a prepay SIM card for about $5. So I got one. It only does voice, no data and I still don't have local service, so what's the point.
</p><p>
I still need a cell phone. I've used TracFone for years and I'm perfectly happy with it. As they say in their adds, no hidden charges. Text messages are 3 center. Not that I use them much. If I really want Google I can use Google SMS. I do loose out on Android's turn by turn GPS, but I can live with that for now.
</p><p>
-Michael
</p>
Archive for May, 2010
links for 2010-05-28
May 29, 2010links for 2010-05-26
May 27, 2010links for 2010-05-25
May 26, 2010-
<br />
I heard some of it on Maine Public Radio today.
<br />
<a href="http://www.cityclub.org/Media/Audio/CityClubPodcast-100421.mp3">http://www.cityclub.org/Media/Audio/CityClubPodcast-100421.mp3</a><blockquote>
<pre>
Download Duration: 0055:52
Published: Wed, Apr 21, 2010 12:00:00 -0500
</pre>
<p>
April 16, 2010 featuring Douglas A. Blackmon, Author and Pulitzer Prize Winner.
Douglas A. Blackmon, Author and Winner of the 2009 Pulitzer Prize in
the General Nonfiction category, speaks about his award winning book
"Slavery by Another Name: The Re-Enslavement of Black Americans from
the Civil War to World War II.
</p>
</blockquote>
links for 2010-05-24
May 25, 2010links for 2010-05-17
May 18, 2010-
<blockquote>
Also, historian Gilman points out, international development practices are partially to blame. From 1949 to 1989 the Cold War was played out with the US and USSR trying to create new states like themselves. It mostly failed, and it ended with the end of international Communism. Then came the neoliberal "Washington Consensus" theory of structural adjustment—governments in developing countries must "stabilize, privatize, and liberalize." That sort of worked, but it hollowed out the governments and dismantled their regulatory capacity. People in those countries realized they were on their own, forced to "survival entrepreneurship." In some places like Eastern Europe criminals took over the economy.
</blockquote>
links for 2010-05-16
May 17, 2010-
<pre>
https://www.poptech.org/rinkusen
http://www.accidentalamerican.us/
</pre>
<p>She begins by noting that she wasn't always a "professional person of color," you know, like Pat Buchanan is a professional white person.
She spent her youth trying to figure out how to be an American.</p>
links for 2010-05-11
May 12, 2010-
<blockquote>
<p>
In his new book, Last Call: The Rise and Fall of Prohibition, Daniel Okrent explores how a confluence of political and social trends led to America's dry era. Okrent explains how both the suffrage and anti-immigration movements helped in the shaping and passage of the 18th Amendment and how Prohibition served as a stand-in for several other political issues.
</p><p>
"Prohibition became the same sort of political football that people on either side would use trying to struggle to get it towards their goal, which was control of the country," Okrent tells Terry Gross. "You could find a number of ways that people could come into whatever issue they wanted to use and use Prohibition as their tool."
</p><p>
… In addition to the rise of the mob-run black market, many citizens simply ignored the law. Loopholes — like obtaining a prescription to purchase alcohol from a pharmacy — kept distilleries in business.
</p>
</blockquote>
links for 2010-05-10
May 11, 2010-
<blockquote>
<b>Les Plages d'Agnès</b> (<i>The Beaches of Agnès</i>) is a 2009 French documentary film directed by <a href="/wiki/Agn%C3%A8s_Varda">Agnès Varda</a>.</p><p>The film is an autobiographical essay where Varda revisits places from her past, reminisces about life and celebrates her 80th birthday on camera. She has said that it will most likely be her last film.</p>
<h2><span class="editsection">[<a href="/w/index.php?title=Les_Plages_d%27Agn%C3%A8s&action=edit&section=1" title="Edit section: External links">edit</a>]</span> <span class="mw-headline" id="External_links">External links</span></h2>
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129435/" class="external text" rel="nofollow"><i>Les Plages d'Agnès</i></a> at the <a href="/wiki/Internet_Movie_Database" title="Internet Movie Database">Internet Movie Database</a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.cinemaguild.com/beachesofagnes/" rel="nofollow">http://www.cinemaguild.com/beachesofagnes/</a>
</blockquote>
links for 2010-05-08
May 9, 2010links for 2010-05-07
May 8, 2010-
<blockquote>
<p>
The familiar process of self-selection into extremism is today stimulated by a media-driven political awakening in which jihad is represented portrayed as the only way to resolve global injustice. When this perceived injustice resonates with frustrated personal aspirations, then a way out is given meaning through moral outrage supporting violent action. Al-Qaida and associates do not so much recruit as attract and enlist disaffected souls already embarked on a path to violent extremism.
</p><p><i>
Scott Atran is a research scientist at France's National Centre for Scientific Research, the University of Michigan, and John Jay College of Criminal Justice, New York. He is the author of Talking to the Enemy (Penguin, TBA).</i></p>
</blockquote>
Talkabout 