This sucks. Dov Charney’s gonna freak out. From Boston Globe.

Polaroid Corp., the Massachusetts company that gave the world instant film photography, is shutting down its film manufacturing lines in the state and abandoning the technology that made the company famous.
Polaroid has already quietly halted production of instant cameras. “We stopped making commercial-type cameras about 18 to 24 months ago, and we stopped making consumer cameras about a year ago,” said Beaudoin.
“It’s about time,” said Ron Glaz, director of digital imaging program at IDC Corp. “The fact that they’re getting out of film makes complete sense.”
In the years following World War II, Polaroid’s instant photography products established the company as one of Massachusetts’ leading industrial concerns, and made its brand name famous worldwide. But in the late 1980s the company went deeply into debt to fend off a hostile takeover. It invested heavily in products that failed and was unprepared for the surging popularity of digital cameras. By 2001, Polaroid was forced into bankruptcy; privately held Petters Group Worldwide of Minnetonka, Minn., bought the company’s remaining assets in 2005.

We found this post from 1994 endlessly amusing:

Welcome to CyberDumb…
Cyberspace has to be the most overblown recreational activity to hit America since cocaine. If you read the hot magazines such as Wired, you know that you’re either online or one of the 230 million Americans who are hopelessly behind the times. Well, I’ve been to the information highway and back, and best I can tell the Internet is a collection of morons typing moronic messages back and forth about moronic topics that make you feel like a moron for participating….
Ironically, when us regular folks log on – the ones who visit our grandmother so she won’t die alone, who grow gardens so the birds have a place to rest, who visit the library to help a boy retrieve a book about Thomas Jefferson from a high shelf – we are pushed to the bottom of the Inter Caste. We don’t know enough, we don’t know what we’re doing, we’re asking dumb questions. There’s a Netiquette, as it’s called, that says you shouldn’t ask dumb questions. Of course, a dumb question is anything that’s been asked and answered. READ MORE

Another reason to vote for Obama.

Yet another:

An hilarious spoof on Obama’s “Yes We Can” video:

Hat tip Rumproast

The thing we find amazing about this is Bush and company are going to be begging for this oversight once the GOP is no longer in charge. Oh wait, we almost forgot… he’s insane and fucks pigs. From Raw Story

Buried on page A17 of Wednesday’s Washington Post is a bit of a non-surprise: President George W. Bush has effectively killed a position monitoring compliance with government efforts to release documents.
Late last year, Washington watchdogs won over a reluctant President Bush, who agreed to sign a law enforcing better compliance with the Freedom of Information Act.
“But in his budget request this week,” the Post’s Elizabeth Williamson writes, “Bush proposed shifting a newly created ombudsman’s position from the National Archives and Records Administration to the Department of Justice. Because the ombudsman would be the chief monitor of compliance with the new law, that move is akin to killing the critical function, some members of Congress and watchdog groups say.”
“Justice represents the agencies when they’re sued over FOIA . . . It doesn’t make a lot of sense for them to be the mediator,” staff lawyer for the National Security Archive Kristin Adair told the Post. The group has filed suit against the White House to force it to preserve e-mails relating to Iraq and the outing of CIA officer Valerie Plame Bush’s spokesman says may have been lost. Keep Reading

There ‘s rarely a day that goes by where we don’t receive a call inquiring about hotels in Williamsburg. Well, we finally have one: The Hotel Le Jolie. Rooms are around $180 a night (ouch) and there’s a lovely view of the BQE’s Metropolitan Ave. exit, not to mention those dudes in the skinny jeans heading into Enid’s. Here’s the scoop:

235 Meeker Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11211
Tel -718-625-2100
Toll Free – 866-526- 4097
Fax – 718-625-7100
Email – reservations@hotellejolie.com
Web – www.hotellejolie.com

by Dave Thomas

Aside from a few bright spots, this month looks to be even more of a dumping ground than January. [Note: we've been having server issues and are late getting this up. Sorry Dave.]
February 8
IN BRUGES
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
Two hitmen (Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson) hang out in Bruges, Belgium. Ralph Fiennes hunts them.
WILL IT SUCK?
Early buzz is good. Chosen to open Sundance. From the writer/director of the Oscar-winning short Six Shooter (also with Gleeson).
HOW WELL WILL IT DO?
Pretty good star power for an indie, though audiences are likely tired of the wacky assassin sub-genre. $5mil.
——————————-
WELCOME HOME ROSCOE JENKINS
WHAT’S THE PITCH?
A talk show personality (Martin Lawrence) hath no honor in his hometown.
WILL IT SUCK?
The only reason I’m giving this the time of day is because of writer/director Malcom D. Lee (Undercover Brother, Roll Bounce, The Best Man). Otherwise, I’m running as fast as I can in the other direction.

(more…)

Meanwhile, our trillion dollar war drags on. From HuffPost

Public broadcasting officials vowed Monday to fight drastic cuts President Bush is seeking to make to federal financing for public television and radio, warning that the reductions would seriously impair station operations.
Bush’s proposed 2009 budget, released Monday, would more than halve the federal allocation to public broadcasting over the next two years, the deepest cuts to the system that he’s proposed during his administration.
Under Bush’s plan, the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, a private nonprofit that distributes the funds to local stations, would lose $420 million of the $820 million in federal funds it was set to receive over the next two years. In addition, the White House budget does not include advance funding for the 2011 fiscal year. The corporation is usually financed three years ahead of time to insulate the system from politics.

[thanks Ron]