Links of the Day

Obameter - A very cool website found via Net@nite that keeps a scorecard of the 500 or so promises Barack Obama made on the campaign trail. So far, in just one week he has kept 6, compromised on 1, has 17 of them in motion and broke 1. Ironically, the one he broke 1 promise to keep 1 by signing the equal pay act without a five day grace period.

$18.4 Billion in Wall Street Bonuses - If your high enough on the Wall Street food chain you might have enjoyed an average bonus of $112,000, despite a horrible year and continued layoffs. It never ceases to amaze me how the upper echelon of corporate America rewards itself for a job horribly done while it refuses to even give a simple standard of living raise to their workers, opting to instead lay them off...to justify their bonuses. If helping the economy is so important, it seems to me to use that bonus money to keep people employed would be a better use of it.

Fox Takes Over Narnia - Fox has decided to pony up part of the now agreed $140 million budget to allow Chronicles of Narnia: Voyage of the Dawn Treader to continue production. I can't decide if this is good news or not as Fox has a tendency to over manage their properties but then again without them something like the X-Men movies may not have been made.

Obama-Limbaugh Stimulus Plan? - In a change of pace, rather then just bash Obama, Limbaugh proposed a plan where 54% would go to infrastructure spending and 46% would go to tax cuts as a means to get Republicans on board (that percentage matches the voting split for the election). At this point it is pretty clear that Rush Limbaugh leads the Republican Party and its base at this moment. It goes so far as Republican's calling his show and apologizing for suggesting otherwise. Why waste time on the appeasement hoops with 100's of Republicans in Congress when can do it with one man, quickly realize it is a waste of time and move on. The main problem I have with such an idea is it simply doesn't work. Bush tried it for 8 years and it only made things worse. The reality is people getting an extra $5 or $10 (which is all those tax cuts would mean for non-rich Americans) is not going to effect consumer spending habits at all. What is needed isn't more money in our pockets (even though that is always nice), its job security and stability. We are cutting back because we don't know how long we will be employed not because taxes are too high. If I know I am employed for the next year I am willing to do and spend a lot more then when I don't know I will have a job day to day. Limbaugh and Republicans don't get this because all of them are rich and simply don't have to worry about remaining employed from day to day.

Final Fantasy XIII Trailer - New trailer for the game coming out in Japan sometime this year and in the US sometime next. The game is pretty but it seems a lot of screen real estate is wasted for commands for no particular reason.


iPhone CubeCheater - Click the link for a demo video of a slick new app that helps you cheat at solving a Rubik's cube. The slick part is that you can take pictures of each side of the cube and the program will analyze what the colors are for each face.