New Yorkers are loving the (pear?) tree blossoms all over the city. It's been a mild winter, but we welcome these heralds of spring. http://instagr.am/p/IefYXuDHUi/

We're bummed out by the slow degradation of the sport into something refined and controlled as ballroom dancing. Coach Sean Payton and that other guy shouldn't be suspended for encouraging their team to hit opponents so hard they are knocked out of the game; they should be rewarded! We're Americans! We want raw destruction! (It's embarrassing enough we require helmets when those crazy rugby players run around with craniums fully exposed.) via NYTimes http://nyti.ms/GKmJq9

Kudos to NPR! Last month they released updated journalistic guidelines that state "if the balance of evidence in a matter of controversy weighs heavily on one side, we acknowledge it in our reports." It does not serve the public good for the media simply to be enslaved as an amplifier for voices of manipulation. Any kindergartner is capable of repeating someone else's words. And it's time journalists stopped fearing the worst, most hypocritical offender and manipulator of media markets: Fox News Channel. One giant leap for journalist kind... one small step for American political awareness.

"All red meat is bad for you, new study says," as in any amount you eat increases your chance of early death. We hope this will be enough for the FDA to create responsible, healthy dietary guidelines, not another colorful pictograph that incorporates top American processed food corporations, as well as drive a stake (no pun intended) through the heart of the less-than-ethical cattle industry! http://www.latimes.com/health/la-he-red-meat-20...

"U.S. soldier in Afghanistan goes on a shooting rampage." If anything is surprising about this, it's that it took so long to happen. We have a culture that glorifies violence, and praises aggression as the American way to solve problems. Our educational system is completely devoid of tolerance and diversity instruction, has failed to equip students with adequate job skills, and completely down-plays the greatest of American traits, a overriding respect for the content of one's character. And then we fill the frontlines of our military, literally the faces of our nation to those countries who are at greatest ideological odds with us, with the most extreme personifications of these problems. We weren't surprised 10 years ago, and we're not surprised today. It's time we re-learned what it means to be American.

Talk about cheap commodity hardware! $35 700MHz Arm processor with 256MB memory. We'd love to build a Hadoop cluster out of a ton of those bad boys! http://www.alliedelec.com/raspberrypi/?gclid=CNrEuPbx164CFUZN4Aod-WA3cA

Yesterday President Obama lambasted Republican presidential candidates for their vague, amorphous criticisms of weakness in his handling of Iran. While it's reckless, premature, and dangerous for these candidates to imply the need for war, they force the President into a sticky situation. While we support his desire for a diplomatic resolution, we do feel the President must take care to balance his political desire to point out the flaws in the Republicans' rehetoric, with the nation's strategic need to be extremely assertive with Iran. Specifically, he must craft his statements about Republicans not to signal to Iran that military force is completely out of the question. Otherwise, he can embolden Iran and ironically bring us closer to war. More: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/07/world/middlee...

Kudos to the Russian people for not going down under Putin's rule without a fight. The only way Putin can hope to be re-elected (a whopping six years from now due to constitutional changes in 2008) without resorting to all out fraud, will be to incite fears of "the West". It's now in his interest to drive relations with the U.S. into the ground, which won't help our ability to militarily confront terror threats. While on the one hand that is scary, on the other hand it may hopefully force U.S. foreign policy to be more bilateral.

We're not as excited about tomorrow's rumored iPad 3 announcement by Apple as we are about the AppleTV! 24/7 Siri! (If only they could make her sound like the computer from Star Trek The Next Generation!)