society

What's so polarizing about Net Neutrality.

“Traffic Shaping” sounds innocuous enough, right? It's just an Internet Service Provider's attempt ...to control computer network traffic in order to optimize or guarantee performance, low latency, and/or bandwidth by delaying data packets.

Dead McMuffin walking: Is this the end of fast-food breakfast sandwiches?

McDonald's should be worried. And not just because of the movie "Food, Inc." No, they should be worried because there's a new device out there that could make a bigger dent in their breakfast traffic than telling people the real, nutritional content of a single Egg McMuffin. An invention so radical, you'll never again have to get up before 10:30am after a Friday night bender.

Advertising: It kills democracy dead.

Surprisingly, the problems our country has been experiencing since the 1980s aren't the result of Republican over-spending, military build-ups, religiousity, blatant hypocrisy or rampant marital infidelity. They also aren't the result of Democratic homo-friendly amorality, Pro-Education elitism or “We know best” over-regulation. No, the reason that this once-proud, Capitalistic country is melting down can be traced directly back to one insidious evil: advertising. And I should know, after all, I work in the business.

Namesake's restaurant lives up to namesake's name

On a lark, I took my wife out to Bing Crosby's Restaurant and Piano Lounge way the hell over in Walnut Creek. It's a grueling 40 minute trek across the bridge and into the wilds of the East Bay, but I was overcome by curiosity about this establishment that bore my surname.

Shocking proof that I can read.

(Yes, I can, albeit slowly.) First, I highly recommend that my ad friends read "What's the big idea?," by George Lois. It is a riveting look into the mind of the kind of egotistical bore we are all destined to become. Unfortunately, while his stories are fascinating, the work is miserable and very dated.

Blog | 03.24.09 | By thecroz

Blog | 02.01.10 | By thecroz

Blog | 01.20.10 | By thecroz

Blog | 05.21.09 | By thecroz

Blog | 04.15.09 | By thecroz

Blog | 03.17.09 | By thecroz

Blog | 01.15.09 | By thecroz

BOOKS

I am America (And so can you!), Stephen Colbert—Sage advice for an ailing nation.
God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, Christopher Hitchens—The case against belief.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality, Brian Greene—A mind-bending romp through quantum physics.
Adam's Curse: A Future without Men, Bryan Sykes—It's not MY fault, it's my chromosome's.
1984, George Orwell—Who says no one can predict the future?
Nonzero : The Logic of Human Destiny, Robert Wright—It gives you hope for the future.
The Stranger, Albert Camus—Alienated existentialism at its best.
A Short History of Nearly Everything, Bill Bryson—Why aren't textbooks this funny?

POLITICS

Change Congress Help keep Big Money out of politics
Earmark Watch Bringing citizen oversight to congressional spending
Money And Politics Illuminating the connection
Open Congress The real story behind what's happening in Congress
Fortune 535 Find out how wealthy your local politicians are
OpenSecrets Center for responsive politics
Citability Making government accessible, reliable, and transparent
Data.gov Public access to high-value, machine-readable data sets
Public Markup Review and comment on proposed bills before they are even introduced
FedSpending Find out where your tax money is going
The Sunlight Foundation Shining light on money, lobbying, and government
Transparency Int'l. Stop corruption to save lives.
Congresspedia The citizen's encyclopedia of Congress

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