Awesome.

18 minutes of toe-tapping, hand-clapping, clean fun and music.

check it:

Natalie MacMaster and Donnell Leahy
From TED

DoJ employees failing spam scam test

Seeing if department employees would respond to spam requests, as part of an ongoing evaluation of employees, this email apparently caused some waves outside of the small group it was initially sent to. Even federal employees know how to hit FWD and pass along a juicy ... rumor. Kind of like a lot of stuff that hits my inbox.

Justice did not anticipate response to bogus e-mail

http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090204_2057.php

Report: Justice Department sends hoax e-mail to test workers

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-10153795-83.html

...

Your little piece of knowledge for the day

Rival - from the Latin rivalis, meaning one using the same river as another.

Interesting, eh?

wait for it...

i'm not going to take the time right now to do a proper review of this article. however, you should read it.

i will say something about a phrase that appear part-way through the article:

The [I-won-so-stop-your-whining] exchange arose as top House and Senate Republicans expressed concern to the president about the amount of spending in the package. They also raised red flags about a refundable tax credit that returns money to those who don’t pay income taxes, the sources said.

"Returning" money to someone who never gave it in the first place? That sounds like ... wait for it ...

a handout.

Or, maybe you prefer: freeloading.

Or, maybe you think this is just another part of the socialist trend that our elected leaders seem h3ll-bent on following these days.

Maybe we should only get worried when the bill comes to the floor seeking to change our name to the U.S.S.A.

.

BCS and your tax dollars

I was reading a friend's blog and noticed the following post:

"Sports Wrap on the BCS" by ThinkinHP

NCAA is my client so naturally I've been running around like a chicken with my head cut off at work...but it's been a good time.

One of my co-workers Matt did this amazing "Sports Wrap" mentioning the criticism of the bowl and Ad Dollars spent. I pulled the numbers, yes I'm an amazing number puller... check it out.

Here's a glimpse and the link: http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/sports-wrap-college-football-bowls-over-audiences/

"There’s been no shortage of criticism surrounding the College Football postseason - even the President-elect threw in his two cents - but there’s no denying the bowl season still generates a huge amount of viewer interest.

There is no better bellwether than this year’s BCS National Championship between Oklahoma and Florida. The preliminary metered market data shows last night’s FedEx BCS National Championship received a 15.8 rating, up 16% from last year’s game..."

Interesting post, and an interesting comment. How do you feel about your tax dollars at work on this issue:

http://www.house.gov/abercrombie/pdf/Final_BCS_Letter.pdf

I'm curious...so let me know!

My first foray into "political" blogging

My first foray into "political" blogging
My involvement in the recent presidential race prevented me from writing on the many political blogs that are out there, but I had a thought that I wanted to share and thought someone might appreciate it, so I decided to write it and post it.

I wrote it on a site I just found that was referred to me by a friend. I was impressed with the plan it presented and familiar with several of the individuals who are listed as part of the coalition (including former co-workers).

Not surprisingly, my post was based off something I read in East of Eden. I suppose I'll run out of things to say one day and will have to read something else... If you're interested, you can check out my post HERE.

How Corrupt is your Country?

The Corruption Perceptions Index compares 180 countries according to the degree of public-sector corruption perceived by business leaders and analysts. In the 2008 index, the United States was tied in 18th place with Japan and Belgium. (In 2007, the U.S. came in 20th.)
>

Source: "Harvard Business Publishing: The Daily Stat: January 6, 2009"
See Also:
"2008 Corruption Perceptions Index"