Best cartoon to describe RIM changes

RIM co-CEOs stepping down in a “surprise exit”
[Via Marco.org]

“Someone else can take it from here.”

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This is just classic. The only thing that could save them is if they ran out of gas – the last 90 seconds of the video are relevant.

Bringing the corruption of our government to the light – Investigate Chris Dodd

by Ancient Art

Petition: investigate Chris Dodd for fraud
[Via Boing Boing]

A petition to the White House asks for an official investigation of former senator and now-MPAA CEO Chris Dodd, who strongly implied that he believes his members’ contributions to election campaigns are bribes.

“This is an open admission of bribery and a threat designed to provoke a specific policy goal. This is a brazen flouting of the ‘above the law’ status people of Dodd’s position and wealth enjoy,” the petition reads.

“We demand justice. Investigate this blatant bribery and indict every person, especially government officials and lawmakers, who is involved.”

In just a few hours the petition amassed more than 5,000 [ed: now 6,000] votes and this number is increasing rapidly. As a former Senator, Chris Dodd has many friends in Washington so it’s unclear whether the petition will accomplish anything, but if the numbers grow big enough the White House won’t be able to ignore it either.

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Here is the petition, which already has over 18,000 signatures,needing about 6000 more in order to qualify for a reply.

I certainly do not expect Obama’s White House to agree with the term bribery since they, along with virtually every other politician, is part of this corrupt system – where money is provided by lobbyists to politicians with the expectation that the money will influence the actions or judgements of the politician.

Which is the dictionary definition of bribe.  It is a bribe; Dodd makes this explicit – that the money he provided should have resulted in certain legislation no matter what the politicians constituents wanted.

This is actually a bipartisan issue, with people on both sides disgusted by the bribery that is corrupting our system. I expect that cleaning up that corruption will be the work of a generation. Making all Federal election publicly financed would be a good start.

As for this petition – it is a nice referendum on how people feel but I do not see that most elected officials really care about that, especially during election season. I signed it anyway.

Symbols matter.

All classical music should be portrayed as amusement park rides

Classical music visualized as a roller coaster ride
[Via Boing Boing]

This great short film by the Zurich Chamber Orchestra illustrates the intensity behind a lot of classical pieces by turning the first violin part on the fourth movement of Ferdinand Ries’ second symphony into a looping, whirling roller coaster ride.

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That was a lot of fun. Nice way to wake up in the morning.

I’d hate to see the roller coaster created for some of Beethoven’s work.