Intelligence, Please…

Today was a bit of a busy day at the office for me – I apologize for not getting an Afternoon Reading post completed. Tonight’s Evening Reading is a bit long – I may break up my “aggregation-plus” and post a new Late Night Reading…we’ll see. Here goes: TWEET OF THE DAY – Honors today go to Jim Geraghty, blogger at the National Review’s Campaign Spot for this little zinger: You can follow Jim on Twitter at @jimgeraghty. Just don’t lap up his pith. HEADLINE OF THE DAY – Some things need no commentary, but I’m guessing that little prank will probably ruffle a few feathers at Reuters. My thanks to a friend (who should probably remain anonymous) for passing that little ditty along. I TOLD YOU IT WAS INCREDIBLE – My phone isn’t the only Android on the market, but that doesn’t matter; smart phones running the Android platform have tripled their market share over the past few months:

Android phone saw the most significant growth in market share in May, up 4.0 percentage points to capture 13.0 percent of smartphone subscribers. Of course, despite Android’s gain, RIM and Apple dominated, with RIM taking 41.7 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.4 percent share. Microsoft saw a 13.2 percent share and Palm rounded the top five out with a 4.8 percent share. In total, 49.1 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in May, up 8.1 percent from the corresponding February period.

IT’S A SIN TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD – Harper Lee’s hometown in Alabama holds a Boo-fest (that’s Boo Radley) to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the publish of To Kill A Mockingbird:

From July 8 to 11 they’ll give tours of the historic downtown, stage a marathon reading, and auction off a signed copy. They’ll do it all cautiously out of respect for (and maybe a little fear of) the town’s most famous resident: Nelle Harper Lee.

MERCY IS FOR THE WEAK…SEMPER FI, KOBRA KAI! – Some really smart people have figured out that human beings are more inclined to trample the weak for fear of losing posture than to challenge the strong for the glory:

The new study contradicts earlier research showing that when faced with a superior opponent in similar creative language tasks, people tend to work harder. But unlike the current study, which involved competition between ranked schools, the earlier studies did not involve a threat to the competitors’ preexisting real-world status. So an other motivating factor for the students in the new study could be the fact that performing worse than people of lower rank can mean a loss of status, says psychologist Naomi Ellemers of Leiden University in the Netherlands, who was not involved in the study.

STOP THE PRESSES – No wait, false alarm. NPR was just hopping on the train that the rest of the universe has been on for awhile:

NPR says it’s abbreviating the name it has used since its debut in 1971 because it’s more than radio these days. Its news, music and informational programming is heard over a variety of digital devices that aren’t radios; it also operates news and music Web sites. Hence: “NPR is more modern, streamlined,” says Vivian Schiller, NPR’s chief executive. She points to other “re-brandings” by media organizations, such as Cable News Network, which has been plain old CNN for years.

AND A STORY FROM NATIONAL PUB-…WAIT, “NPR” – Performance evaluations are bullshit. Maybe not, but I thought it would be funny to make a joke about how stupid NPR’s announcement is:

The problem with the practice, Culbert tells NPR’s Renee Montagne, is that periodic reviews create circumstances that help neither the employee nor the company to improve. As Culbert and his co-author, Larry Rout, write in their book, Get Rid of the Performance Review! annual reviews do not promote candid discussions about problems in the workplace — and their potential solutions. Instead, Culbert says, when workers undergo a review, “They’re going to talk about all their successes — it becomes total baloney.”

CARTOON OF THE DAY – And the public sector ones are the worst: SITTIN’ ON A F_CKIN’ GOLD MINE – “Hot Rod” Blagoevich and Joe F_cking Biden would probably be pals. This, from a reporter covering the trial, recounting the playing of phone tapes:

The governor, clearly on edge this Election Day, unleashes his frustrations toward the Illinois public. “Now is the time to put my f——children and my wife first for a change,” Blagojevich is heard saying. “I f—— busted my a– … I gave your f—— baby health care… What do I get for that? Only 13 percent of you think I’m doing a good job, so f— all of you.”

Seriously, if you’re on Twitter, and you’re not following @joefuckingbiden, you should be. WHAT DO YOU GET WHEN YOU CROSS ROGAINE WITH VIAGRA? – A Florida judge dismisses a defamation suit brought against ESPN by former boxing promoter Don King. If I had to guess, I’d probably say the judge laughed the enigmatic Vegas mogul right out of the court room:

The Court of Appeals affirmed on the basis that Don King had failed to present evidence that a genuine issue of fact existed which would allow a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, that ESPN had broadcast the subject statements about King with actual malice.  Don King Productions, Inc., et al, vs. The Walt Disney Company, et al. (No. 4D08-3704).

CIVICS LESSON OF THE DAY – On this day (July 8) in 1776, the Liberty Bell rang out from the Pennsylvania State House (now called Independence Hall) in Philadelphia to announce that a Declaration of Independence had been written and agreed to by all 13 colonies. The first public reading ensued:

Four days earlier, the historic document had been adopted by delegates to the Continental Congress, but the bell did not ring to announce the issuing of the document until the Declaration of Independence returned from the printer on July 8.

MY DAD IS BETTER THAN YOUR DAD – Because he’s a doctor AND he’s on Twitter AND Facebook:

But the docs at one Irving, Texas, OB-GYN practice have taken that ubiquitous display of cute kids into the 21st century. Their patients can post photos on the MacArthur OB/GYNFacebook page, where the doctors post news about their practice and the medical world at large. It has more than 600 fans. Jeff Livingston, who spearheaded the practice’s venture into social media, also manages the @ macobgynTwitter account, which has about 1,600 followers. He sees Facebook as an educational and, perhaps just as important, marketing tool. “People are looking for information online,” Livingston says. “I wanted them to look at our page.” But few doctors have embraced social media as enthusiastically as he has. Concerns about time and patient privacy have deterred many.

SHE’S A GOOD SHEILA, BRUCE, AND NOT AT ALL STUCK UP * – Queen Elizabeth II defies conventional attitudes about monarch’s privilege, and announces a tightening of the royal belt as the global economy continues to sag:

Financially ailing Britain is dramatically shifting away from an era of big government, entering a new age of austerity to fend off the same kind of fiscal crisis now gripping Greece. With her subjects facing a bare-bones budget and a bevy of higher taxes, Queen Elizabeth II has launched what some here describe as a preemptive strike against those who say this deeply indebted nation can no longer afford the gilded trappings of its monarchy. The queen is freezing salaries for royal servants and aides earning more than $73,500 and reviewing all vacant slots with an eye to reducing her staff of 1,400 — which includes a royal piper who plays under her window in the mornings and an official counter of swans. For the first time in her 58-year reign, the queen has also agreed to regular audits of royal expenditures by the same national agency that reviews education, defense and other types of government spending.

*Once again, bonus points if you get the reference. OBAMA IS GONNA NEED A LOT OF BEER FOR THE SUMMIT HE’LL NEED AFTER THIS – I don’t like Glenn Beck either, but I doubt very much that the Left will make any noise about these violent racists:

Tommy Christopher: What do you think about the rally that Glenn Beck plans to have on August 28, the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I have a dream speech,” at the Lincoln Memorial?…Are you aware of it? Malik Zulu Shabazz: I am aware of it, and that Glenn Beck should not be allowed to have this rally. Glenn Beck is a sneaky little devil, and he does sneaky things, and tries to portray that he’s really not the neo-racist that he really is. And for him to go and to secure the Lincoln Memorial on Dr. King’s birthday will meet not only opposition from civil rights leaders, but it’s going to meet direct opposition from the New Black Panther Party.

WAIT A MINUTE, EGON, I THOUGHT YOU SAID CROSSING THE STREAMS WAS BAD – Twitter’s new business model – using “promoted” tweets to generate revenue – has inadvertently pointed people to rival social media site Facebook:

As you can see when you click on the Promoted Topic, the top tweet is from the PredatorsMovie Twitter account. This promoted tweet reads, “They can hear you, smell you, and see you.#Predators in theaters Friday – http://bit.ly/amt8XE” — that bit.ly link takes you to a Facebook page where the trailer is located. So yes, Twitter is effectively promoting their rival Facebook thanks to this latest ad buy.

THEY’RE PART OF THE PROBLEM, GENIUS – The President has renewed the SAVE Award contest, wherein employees in the Executive branch submit money-saving ideas and then vote on them…somehow, I doubt anyone will say “cut the Federal workforce”:

The second annual SAVE Award will start accepting submissions at http://www.saveaward.gov from Thursday through July 22. Federal employees will be able to rank the submissions submitted by colleagues, and the general public will be able to vote on the top submissions later in the year. The contest winner earns a meeting with President Obama, who will include the winning idea in his fiscal 2012 budget proposal. … “The basic premise here is that many of the best ideas exist on the front line,” said Jeffrey Zients, OMB deputy director. “Those doing the work on the front lines have the best ideas on how to make changes. We want to reach out” to get them.

I’D LIKE TO DEBATE THAT – My friend and former Belmont University philosophy-and-political-science-double-major Ben Bryan doesn’t think debate is valuable:

The problem is that discourse dominated by debate produces people with an insubstantial approach to moral discourse. The deeper trouble is not that debates are shallow and narrow-minded, but that incessant engagement in them produces human beings who are shallow and narrow-minded.

MANUFACTURING ASSENT – Apparently this tactic is growing in popularity among Democrats – holding moderated town halls over the phone instead of meeting constituents face-to-face. It’s gutless, but hey – if I took the drubbing over health care that they did, and I was about to lose my job, I’d probably try it too:

Embattled Rep. Paul Kanjorski (D-Pa.) — last seen suggesting that minorities are not “good American people” — offered a measure of candor on a local radio station in explaining why he was doing “tele-town halls” instead of traditional ones with his constitutents in the flesh: We’re going to do everything we can to get opinions from people, to meet with people, but I’m not going to set myself up for, you know, nuts to hit me with a camera and ask stupid questions.

PLEASE CONTINUE TO USE CONDOMS – Otherwise, Trojan stocks will crash, and I’m not sure the economy can handle that yet:

U.S. government scientists have discovered three powerful antibodies, the strongest of which neutralizes 91% of HIV strains, more than any AIDS antibody yet discovered. Looking closely at the strongest antibody, they have detailed exactly what part of the virus it targets and how it attacks that site. Together with recent research into how to make animals produce antibodies, the new findings constitute a significant step toward an AIDS vaccine.

NO WONDER THEY’RE WORRYING ABOUT SOCCER PHYSICS, WEBSITES, AND VIDEO GAMES – Maybe I’ve been a little tough on NASA over the last couple of days. After all, they do seem to be pretty rudderless:

Where [Obama's] critics have a point is in arguing that NASA lacks a clear mission. Without a directive and funding, talk of visiting Mars or an asteroid is grandiose but empty. Meanwhile, gauzy nostrums about inspiring children and international cooperation are creating political headaches. Last week, NASA administrator Charles Bolden touched off a storm when he told al Jazeera that the agency’s new mission was to “find a way to reach out to the Muslim world” — surely not what anybody had in mind.

BRILLIANT – I defy you to not laugh as hard as I did. See you in the morning – and maybe late night tonight!