I did say recently that “This will be the most important thing I’ve ever done.” But was I talking about the slate? Or about the fact that I’m about to bone AT&T in the rump with extreme prejudice?
Counting the new Republican Senator Scott Brown from Massachusetts, the 41 Republicans in the Senate come from states representing just over 36.5 percent of the total US population. The 59 others (Democratic plus 2 Independent) represent just under 63.5 percent. (Taking 2009 state populations from here. If you count up the totals and split a state’s population when it has a spit delegation, you end up with about 112.3 million Republican, 194.7 million Democratic + Indep. Before Brown’s election, it was about 198 million Democratic + Ind, 109 million Republican.)
Let’s round the figures to 63/37 and apply them to the health care debate. Senators representing 63 percent of the public vote for the bill; those representing 37 percent vote against it. The bill fails.
House liberals are on the verge of giving the Republicans exactly what they want: another ignominious, disastrous end to the latest in the nearly century-long, one-chance-per-generation series of so far futile attempts to enact something approaching health insurance for everybody.
House Democrats should pass the Senate version of the health care bill, declare success, and spend the next 10 months hammering Republicans for not supporting a bill that bars insurance companies from declining coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, or setting yearly or lifetime benefit limits, or dropping coverage for people when they get sick or when they lose their job.
Voters are angry not because they disagree with the health care bill, but because unemployment is at 10% and the economy “feels” stagnant. With hindsight, it’s clear Democrats should have spent the last year focused on jobs and the economy. But they’ve come so far and have so much of their credibility at stake that they need to find a way to get it done soon. The bill will become popular. They should pass it and use it to their political advantage, instead of running from every fight like little girls.
Google’s declaration that it would stop cooperating with Chinese Internet censorship and consider shutting down its operations in the country ricocheted around the world Wednesday. But in China itself, the news was heavily censored.
That day was a turning point for me. It was the last time I thought that whether or not I was successful depended on my talent or intelligence. It really comes down to hard work people. Ever since then, I have attacked each thing that I do not understand until I understand it.
John Nunemaker – I Have No Talent
Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had “spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork,” Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies.
A Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing
I think there’s a very good chance Apple is going to take the first step toward redefining what a computer is when they introduce their tablet device.
Android doesn’t make sense as a whole. It’s fragmented, poorly executed, the Android Market for apps is a mess, and developers still don’t care about it. There’s not one single good IM program that I could rely on day to day (I don’t use Google Talk), the browser is decent at best. It’s faster now, sure, there’s a 1GHz CPU under its ass, but it’s not intuitive, and there’s always erroneous touch events; when I want to hit something I hit another link, button or app by accident.
The only thing I cannot believe, when it comes to the case of Tiger Woods, is how clueless people are on the subject of men with options and sex … over the entire sweep of history. I’m not saying it’s right, I’m saying it is. Get real, people.
Ideas are in the air. There are lots of people thinking about—and probably working on—the same thing you are. And one of them is Google. Deal with it.
Evan Williams – Ten Rules for Web Startups
We’re still playing catch-up. When Apple came on to the scene a couple of years ago, it threw away the rulebook and reinvented it. We unfortunately don’t have that luxury. It’s true, Apple caught us all napping. It launched something that was very iconic, new and unseen with a very good user interface.
Microsoft UK’s Phil Moore, via Cult of Mac