Umbilitical

[umbilitical-blog]

This sounds disgusting, but as much as I dislike the Obama Administration I feel like people are going to zealous lengths to come up with these "scandals"

[obamawhitehouse]

You’ve probably heard of The Great Gatsby. But what about The Great Gatsby Curve?

It’s a pretty wonky chart that illustrates how rising inequality is jeopardizing our tradition of economic mobility for future generations.

So what does this mean? Kids of wealthy parents already have more opportunities to succeed than children of poor families—and this is likely to get worse unless we take steps to ensure that all children have access to quality education, health care, and other opportunities that give them a fair shot at economic success.

Learn more.

[umbilitical-blog]

One of the easiest things to do would be to DO SOMETHING ABOUT THE COLLEGE BOARD and their ridiculous profit levels despite being "non-profit"

[umbilitical-blog]

Not saying that I have anything for hybrid cars, but this has to be one of the more ridiculous things I've ever seen.

[ukinusa]

The British Embassy in Washington is participating in the 2013 Capital Pride Festival today to support the UK’s LGBT policy and commitment to human rights.

[pubhealth]

Why Finnish babies sleep in cardboard boxes

For 75 years, Finland’s expectant mothers have been given a box by the state. It’s like a starter kit of clothes, sheets and toys that can even be used as a bed. And some say it helped Finland achieve one of the world’s lowest infant mortality rates.

It’s a tradition that dates back to the 1930s and it’s designed to give all children in Finland, no matter what background they’re from, an equal start in life.

The maternity package - a gift from the government - is available to all expectant mothers.

It contains bodysuits, a sleeping bag, outdoor gear, bathing products for the baby, as well as nappies, bedding and a small mattress.

With the mattress in the bottom, the box becomes a baby’s first bed. Many children, from all social backgrounds, have their first naps within the safety of the box’s four cardboard walls.

Mothers have a choice between taking the box, or a cash grant, currently set at 140 euros, but 95% opt for the box as it’s worth much more.

The tradition dates back to 1938. To begin with, the scheme was only available to families on low incomes, but that changed in 1949.

(From BBC)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-22751415

[estradoll]

Socialism at work.

[mia-the-wonder-slut-blog]

I would rather my tax money pay for this than drone missiles.

[transhumanisticpanspermia]

I bet you there’s even a reduction in deaths from the cardboard box itself. (Cribs really are bad news for infants.)

[umbilitical-blog]

First, I'll start with the pedantic.  They aren't "drone missiles," they're missiles fired by drones during drone strikes. I'm not going to bash on the idea itself because it is a really cute idea, but no, it's not an example of "socialism at work" fixing all our problems.  There is no proof that they box is what's responsible for reduced infant mortality (although it very well may help), but since 1935 infant mortality has dropped precipitously throughout all modernized countries due to advances in medicine and I don't see any proof of the box rather than medicine keeping infants alive into childhood.  While it's certainly a captivating idea, my only (but small) problem with it itself besides the fact if we implemented it, it would add to our nice little pile of debt is the fact that it's possible to accept a cash grant instead which, to my knowledge has no limitation, making it possible to spend it on say, meth.  Now to what I actually wanted to say before I went on a little tangent about the program itself.  The idea that we should spend our money on this rather than drone strikes while being , is an implausible idea.  During the drone era (Obama and Bush), Obama has implemented many more drone strikes than Bush, obviously spending much more money on them.  Meanwhile, Obama would be many times more likely to implement such a program than Bush at  the same time as spending MUCH more on drones.  If the parties continue to hold the philosophies that they do today (hopefully they won't), money will either be going to MANY drone strikes as well as these programs, or a few drone strikes as well a ground forces, and no such programs.

[umbilitical-blog]

Because you know, there's no way to have a secure nation without monitoring everyone's everything is there?

[umbilitical-blog]

I like offending people because I think [that] people who get offended should be offended

Linus Torvalds (Founder of Linux)

[umbilitical-blog]

+/- 3% doesn't seem like a serious problem to me, but if we can have more accurate polls, why not?

[umbilitical-blog]

Oh SNAP!

[umbilitical-blog]

[obamawhitehouse]

Stop trolling American innovators. Patent trolls hurt everyone.

Learn more: http://wh.gov/patenttrolls

[umbilitical-blog]

Is this really from the official whitehouse page? -_-

[mermaids-andswallows]

do you have a problem with people who have a problem with patent trolls umbilitical???

i just know about it because public radio educates me. however public radio does have a vested interest in fighting patent trolls because there are currently patent trolls going after them.

[umbilitical-blog]

No, it's just an incredibly silly cartoon for an official page to be posting.  I was surprised by it.

[obamawhitehouse]

Stop trolling American innovators. Patent trolls hurt everyone.

Learn more: http://wh.gov/patenttrolls

[umbilitical-blog]

Is this really from the official whitehouse page? -_-

[transhumanisticpanspermia]

The 7 O'Clock Edition of the News

I’m starting a blog devoted to sharing and preserving the variety of ways news is (and is not) reported.

Basically, every day at 7 o’clock PM, I’ll take screenshots of a set of major news agencies, and publish them in a photoset, with a timestamp, presented without comment.

In the future, there may be the addition of original articles on metajournalism, i.e. how the news is reported, how style affects it, etc.

Currently, the sites I have lined up are BBC, NBC, CNN, and Fox. I’d love to hear suggestions.

[umbilitical-blog]

Not enough depth to be of any interest.  It's completely predictable to any semi-intelligent person what a news source will be reporting on and what it will be saying about that. Anyway, there's no use in dedicating an entire blog to just the side-to-side comparison that anyone could look at at any time.  It would, however, be somewhat interesting if you included why you thought the results were as they were and started a constructive debate.

[umbilitical-blog]

Whoops.

[umbilitical-blog]

[umbilitical-blog]

To get it you have to understand the lame duck period as well as duck dynasty. Ha.

[umbilitical-blog]

In all honestly though, most presidents have no idea what's going on inside their administration.