Picks of the Week

Because sometimes comedy is the best way to digest current events:




David Faber's "House of Cards" should be required viewing:

Weekly Updates

This seemed like an oddly appropriate site of the week:




This week's video comes via David Letterman. Hat tip to Joaquin Phoenix's mid-life crisis.

Site of the Week

The week's SOW is a site I've used to follow all the truths, half-truths, and out right lies coming out of Washington over the past few months. The site essentially calls Obama's bluff when he uttered the phrase, "I want you to hold our government accountable. I want you to hold me accountable." Politifact promises to do just that.

The site's so called "Obameter" lists all of the campaign promises made over the past year, weighs each one against the proposal sitting in Congress (if there is one), and then places the result in the appropriate bucket listed below. The following picture details how the promises are coming along as of today:




The other great thing about this site is that it provides context to the debate by grading the talking points coming out of Washington. This way, no matter which side of the proverbial aisle you sit, you can at least acknowledge the merits of the opposition's arguments as well as realize that many of the memes we so often repeat are in fact (at best) partial distortions of the truth. Here's a taste:

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• Obama Holds Upper Hand in Stimulus Fight (politicalwire.com)
• 'The normal rules don't apply' (washingtonmonthly.com)
• On handling the stimulus: 67% approval vs. 31% approval (americablog.com)

Blog Updates

So you might have noticed that there have been a few updates to the site recently, most notably perhaps the banner. Thanks to wordle.net you simply type in a site's URL (as long as it has an RSS feed) and it will spit out a word cloud based on the information contained therein. The more often a word is used, the larger it appears. The picture below is the word cloud from your's truly's favorite blog. Notice any words that jump off the page?

Yeah, neither do I, though this exercise did teach me that it is time to do something I've been unable to do until now in regards to the election:




Other Site Updates

Habs Top Tracks of 2008 post back in December resulted in this site getting a link from a pretty popular music blog, and I've just now gotten around to linking back to his site. If you're a music snob or a lover a Kat Perry, I'm sure Largehearted Boy has something that'll tickle your fancy. Check them out.

Additionally, quite often one of the contributors here at the OSS will stumble across a hilarious, unusual, or highly intellectual site that warrants greater exposure. Historically I'd leave about 30 tabs open on my browser (much to Andrea's chagrin), and wait for the perfect moment to reveal my website culling abilities to the readers of this site. Not anymore! Now these magical moments will be funneled through the Random Site of the Week, which will conveniently be located to the right of the most recent post. As you may have already noticed, the first random site should bring back memories from every person born in the early 80's who had to endure a school photo in front of this terrible (or awesome) backdrop. Here's a reminder:


(Note: This is not me)


Take Two

The second RSOTW is "The Big Picture Blog" which links to some incredible photography from all over the world. I am confident that if I had the inclination to spend thousands of dollars on a camera, these are the types of pictures I'd take.