Friday, June 10, 2005
Weekend Reading
Flag Day Edition
Wow, Tuesday June 14th is Flag Day...Yippee. I think we are all now required to report to a public square to recite the pledge that morning and to emphasize the "Under God" part. In fact I think we are now supposed to shout it. Anyway, despite this week's lame theme, here's your weekend reading.
Evolution of the United States Flag
No one knows with absolute certainty who designed the first stars and stripes or who made it. Congressman Francis Hopkinson seems most likely to have designed it, and few historians believe that Besty Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first one.
http://www.usflag.org/history/flagevolution.html
Goodbye GM:
General Motors has announced that it will lay off 25,000 workers in its home market, in an effort to arrest its decline. This will help, but GM may need to pick a more serious fight with its unionised workers if it is to survive as a world-class carmaker
http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4052656
Consumer Vertigo
A new wave of social critics claim that freedom’s just another word for way too much to choose. Here’s why they’re wrong.
http://www.reason.com/0506/cr.vp.consumer.shtml
Pre-9/11 Missteps By FBI Detailed
Report Tells of Missed Chances To Find Hijackers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902000.html
Price remarks by Toyota chief could be illegal
For the second time in about two weeks, the chairman of Toyota Motor in Japan said the automaker is likely to raise U.S. prices and give struggling Detroit car companies room to raise theirs — a comment U.S. antitrust experts say is ill-advised and borders on illegal.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-06-09-toyota-usat_x.htm
Wow, Tuesday June 14th is Flag Day...Yippee. I think we are all now required to report to a public square to recite the pledge that morning and to emphasize the "Under God" part. In fact I think we are now supposed to shout it. Anyway, despite this week's lame theme, here's your weekend reading.
Evolution of the United States Flag
No one knows with absolute certainty who designed the first stars and stripes or who made it. Congressman Francis Hopkinson seems most likely to have designed it, and few historians believe that Besty Ross, a Philadelphia seamstress, made the first one.
http://www.usflag.org/history/flagevolution.html
Goodbye GM:
General Motors has announced that it will lay off 25,000 workers in its home market, in an effort to arrest its decline. This will help, but GM may need to pick a more serious fight with its unionised workers if it is to survive as a world-class carmaker
http://economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?story_id=4052656
Consumer Vertigo
A new wave of social critics claim that freedom’s just another word for way too much to choose. Here’s why they’re wrong.
http://www.reason.com/0506/cr.vp.consumer.shtml
Pre-9/11 Missteps By FBI Detailed
Report Tells of Missed Chances To Find Hijackers
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/06/09/AR2005060902000.html
Price remarks by Toyota chief could be illegal
For the second time in about two weeks, the chairman of Toyota Motor in Japan said the automaker is likely to raise U.S. prices and give struggling Detroit car companies room to raise theirs — a comment U.S. antitrust experts say is ill-advised and borders on illegal.
http://www.usatoday.com/money/autos/2005-06-09-toyota-usat_x.htm
