September 2012 archive

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour a cup of your favorite morning beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

September 2 is the 245th day of the year (246th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 120 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1969, America’s first automatic teller machine (ATM) makes its public debut, dispensing cash to customers at Chemical Bank in Rockville Center, New York. ATMs went on to revolutionize the banking industry, eliminating the need to visit a bank to conduct basic financial transactions. By the 1980s, these money machines had become widely popular and handled many of the functions previously performed by human tellers, such as check deposits and money transfers between accounts. Today, ATMs are as indispensable to most people as cell phones and e-mail.

Several inventors worked on early versions of a cash-dispensing machine, but Don Wetzel, an executive at Docutel, a Dallas company that developed automated baggage-handling equipment, is generally credited as coming up with the idea for the modern ATM. Wetzel reportedly conceived of the concept while waiting on line at a bank. The ATM that debuted in New York in 1969 was only able to give out cash, but in 1971, an ATM that could handle multiple functions, including providing customers’ account balances, was introduced.

ATMs eventually expanded beyond the confines of banks and today can be found everywhere from gas stations to convenience stores to cruise ships. There is even an ATM at McMurdo Station in Antarctica. Non-banks lease the machines (so-called “off premise” ATMs) or own them outright.

Oh how the mighty have fallen, which would be just about everyone after Jenson Button on pole.  Webber and Rosberg (both on Renault) had gearbox problems that dropped them 5 positions and Maldonado had a mix up with Hulkenberg that put him back 3.

Lewis Hamilton put on the wrong wing yesterday and now he’s stuck with it, Vettel and Massa were just slooow.

Tires today are Hards and Mediums.  Button has a set of unused Mediums in the bag over the rest of the field.  The weather is expected to be dry and perfect.  At 4.35 miles it is the longest circuit in Formula One and is considered twisty, hilly, and fast.

• Formula One Official Site
• Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps
• Belgian Gran Prix
• Guardian Interactive Circuit Guide
• Speed Racecast
• F1 2012: Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps Qualifying

Speed coverage starts at 8 am.  Repeat at 12:30 am.  Pretty tables below.

“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

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The Sunday Talking Heads:

Up with Chris Hayes: Joining Chris at 8 AM ET will be: Van Jones (@vanjones68), the former special adviser for green jobs in the Obama White House and co-founder of Rebuild the Dream; Rob Zerban (@robzerban), the Democratic candidate challenging Rep. Paul Ryan in Wisconsin’s first congressional district; Cynthia Dill (@dillesquire), a state senator from Maine and Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by retiring Sen. Olympia Snowe (R); New York State Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries (@TeamJeffries), Democratic congressional candidate in New York’s 8th district; Arizona State Senator Kyrsten Sinema (@kyrstensinema), Democratic congressional candidate in Arizona’s 9th district; Nate Shinagawa (@nateshinagawa), the vice chair of the Tompkins County Legislature in New York and Democratic congressional candidate in New York’s 23rd district; Robert Wolf, former president of UBS Bank, member of President Obama’s Council on Jobs and Competitiveness, and host of the weekly webcast “Impact Players” on the Reuters YouTube channel; John Nichols (@nicholsuprising), Washington correspondent for The Nation and associate editor for The Capital Times in Madison, Wisconsin; Neera Tanden (@neeratanden), president of the Center for American Progress; and Rose Aguilar (@roseaguilar) radio host of “Your Call” on KALW radio in San Francisco and op-ed contributor to Al Jazeera English.

This Week with George Stephanopolis: This Week’s guests is White House senior adviser David Plouffe.

The roundtable debates the Republican and Democratic conventions, with ABC News’ George Will; Priorities USA co-founder Bill Burton; Romney campaign senior adviser and former Massachusetts Lt. Governor Kerry Healey; Democratic strategist and ABC News contributor Donna Brazile; and political strategist and ABC News political analyst Matthew Dowd.

Face the Nation with Bob Schieffer: Mr. Schieffer sits down with key voices for the Democrats, Gov. Martin O’Malley, former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson and Obama Deputy Campaign Manager Stephanie Cutter.

Then, a roundtable with the Washington Post‘s Dan Balz, Bloomberg Television’s Trish Regan, Georgetown University’s Michael Eric Dyson and CBS News political director John Dickerson.

The Chris Matthews Show: This week’s guests are Helene Cooper The New York Times White House Correspondent; Kelly O’Donnell NBC News Capitol Hill Correspondent; Sam Donaldson ABC Reporter; and John Heilemann New York Magazine National Political Correspondent

Meet the Press with David Gregory: MTP’s exclusive guest is former Obama Chief of Staff Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel. The roundtable guests are former GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich; former CEO of Hewlett-Packard and Vice Chair of the National Republican Senatorial Committee Carly Fiorina; presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin; NY Times columnist Tom Friedman; and NBC’s Tom Brokaw.

State of the Union with Candy Crowley: Ms Crowley’s guests are Los Angeles Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, North Carolina Governor Bev Perdue, and Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley; Obama Senior Campaign Adviser Robert Gibbs; CNN’s Chief White House Correspondent Jessica Yellin and The Washington Post‘s Dan Balz.

Training suspended for new Afghan recruits

　

 By Greg Jaffe and Kevin Sieff, Sunday, September 2

KABUL – The senior commander for Special Operations forces in Afghanistan has suspended training for all new Afghan recruits until the more than 27,000 Afghan troops working with his command can be re-vetted for ties to the insurgency.

The move comes as NATO officials struggle to stem the tide of attacks on NATO forces by their Afghan colleagues. The attacks, which have killed 45 troops this year, have forced NATO officials to acknowledge a painful truth: Many of the incidents might have been prevented if existing security measures had been applied correctly.

But numerous military guidelines were not followed – by Afghans or Americans – because of concerns that they might slow the growth of the Afghan army and police, according to NATO officials.

Special Operations officials said that the current process for vetting recruits is effective but that a lack of follow-up has allowed Afghan troops who fell under the sway of the insurgency or grew disillusioned with the Afghan government to remain in the force.

It’s the last holiday weekend of Summer and what better way to celebrate than with a backyard Clambake. So what’s for desert? S’mores are passe but who doesn’t love chocolate and peanut butter. Peanut Butter & Chocolate Lover’s Trifle is really easy to put together with a minimum amount of cooking. It does require a large serving bowl, preferably glass so guests can see the luscious layers.

Peanut Butter & Chocolate Lover’s Trifle

Ingredients:

Either a box of brownie mix, or a homemade batch of brownies. You can also use chocolate cake. Store made is a quick substitute

Whipped cream, about two cups. Canned (use the heavy cream version) or homemade.

Peanut butter sauce (melt one 10 ounce package of peanut butter chips with 1/4 cup of milk, 1/2 cup of heavy cream and 1/4 tsp of vanilla over low heat until combined, let cool).

Reese’s peanut butter cups, chopped

Kit Kat bars, chopped or Reese’s Pieces

2 packages of instant vanilla pudding made according to their directions.

Directions:

Layer the bottom with broken up brownies or cake. Top with vanilla pudding, peanut butter sauce, Reese’s peanut butter cups & Kit Kat bars or Reese’s Pieces, and a layer of whipped cream. Continue building your trifle with these layers until you’ve run out of ingredients or room 🙂

Kari Goodwin who created this recipe for her blog, Minute on the Lips didn’t post how many chocolate lovers this recipe would serve but there was plenty for 8 guests with left overs. As for calories per serving, if you need to ask you probably shouldn’t be eating this. But hey, it’s a holiday, take an extra lap around the track for the next week.

A person who built that (:30)

A person who built that (Full)

Part 1

Part 2- Ann

There are times, however, and this is one of them, when even being right feels wrong. What do you say, for instance, about a generation that has been taught that rain is poison and sex is death? If making love might be fatal and if a cool spring breeze on any summer afternoon can turn a crystal blue lake into a puddle of black poison right in front of your eyes, there is not much left except TV and relentless masturbation. It’s a strange world. Some people get rich and others eat shit and die.

This weekend I’m going to be featuring some of the analysis and interviews from The Daily Show and The Colbert Report related to the Republican National Convention.

You may think it’s odd that an old greezer like me (and at 120, I’m much older than Clint Eastwood) gets his news online from a basic cable comedy show.  Well let me tell you Emily and Richard are so old that they got their news from the Post Office Gazette.

In colonial times overland communications was just beginning to get established and even before Ben Franklin an enterprising man named John Campbell had set up a delivery service from Boston to New York.  Local Postmasters, who were frequently Innkeepers too, would scan the letters before passing them on and print up the juicy bits which they would sell as newspapers.

The sudden popularity of sealing wax led to more formal arrangements for obtaining content, but the tradition was well established.  Indeed one of the onerous (and intended) effects of the Stamp Act was to penalize the publication of information and restrict communication as well as raise revenue.  Fortunately the alternative press had not been forgotten and soon ‘British’ Postmasters were under a serious commercial threat.

Oh and sometimes the boys at the bar would get all liquored up on Sam Adams and bust the place up a bit just for fun.  Our founders were Revolutionaries, dont forget that.

So yeah, I consider it as newsy as anything else on basic cable.

The TV business is uglier than most things. It is normally perceived as some kind of cruel and shallow money trench through the heart of the journalism industry, a long plastic hallway where thieves and pimps run free and good men die like dogs, for no good reason.

Journalism is not a profession or a trade. It is a cheap catch-all for fuckoffs and misfits — a false doorway to the backside of life, a filthy piss-ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector, but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo-cage.

There are 3 basic divisions in content- Interviews, Commentary, and Correspondant Reports.  I’m going to try and highlight some of the web-exclusive material, but I’ll not attempt to be comprehensive.  Visit their sites for complete episodes.

Tampa- The Greatest City In America

Who knows? If there is in fact, a heaven and a hell, all we know for sure is that hell will be a viciously overcrowded version of Phoenix & a clean well lighted place full of sunshine and bromides and fast cars where almost everybody seems vaguely happy, except those who know in their hearts what is missing… And being driven slowly and quietly into the kind of terminal craziness that comes with finally understanding that the one thing you want is not there. Missing. Back-ordered. No tengo. Vaya con dios. Grow up! Small is better. Take what you can get…

I have always believed that a man can fairly be judged by the standards and taste of his choices in matters of high-level plagiarism.- Stockton

Welcome to the Stars Hollow Health and Fitness News weekly diary. It will publish on Saturday afternoon and be open for discussion about health related issues including diet, exercise, health and health care issues, as well as, tips on what you can do when there is a medical emergency. Also an opportunity to share and exchange your favorite healthy recipes.

Questions are encouraged and I will answer to the best of my ability. If I can’t, I will try to steer you in the right direction. Naturally, I cannot give individual medical advice for personal health issues. I can give you information about medical conditions and the current treatments available.

You can now find past Health and Fitness News diaries here and on the right hand side of the Front Page.

Follow us on Twitter @StarsHollowGzt

What we have learned this week is discussed with Up with Chris Hayes guests Josh Barro (@jbarro), writes Bloomberg View‘s “The Ticker“; David Sirota, (@davidsirota) writes a nationally syndicated weekly newspaper column and hosts a radio show, “The Rundown with Sirota and Brown“; Ana Marie Cox (@anamariecox), columnist for “The Guardian” and founder of the political blog Wonkette; and Bob Herbert (@bobherbert), distinguished senior fellow at Demos and former New York Times columnist.

During the RNC Convention, Republican Presidential nominee Mitt Romney partied with millionaire and billionaire donors on a yacht registered in the Cayman Islands.

South Carolina Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told the Washington Post: “The demographics race, we’re losing badly ….

We’re not generating enough angry white guys to stay in business for the long term“

90% of the GOP is white.

Projected US White Population in 2050: 50.1%

NBC/WSJ Poll: Romney has 0 % Of African-American Vote.

Only 2% of the delegates at the RNC Convention were Black.

Federal judges are overturning controversial laws passed by Republican controlled states that discriminate against minority and disenfranchised voting rights.

Texas: Court rejects Texas legislative districts as discriminatory

Federal court overturns Texas law requiring voters to show photo ID

Texas is appealing both of these rulings.

Florida: Federal Court Blocks Florida Early Voting Restrictions

Ohio: Federal court overturns Ohio early voting restrictions

We now know what a gay bar at the RNC Convention looks like: It’s hard to tell who is gay or straight since they’re all dressed like Alex B. Keaton; what really identified it as a Republican Gay Bar was the Go-Go dancers were all wearing t-shirts and long pants.

Oy.