November, 2009 archive
“It’s All Connections” 0
Stewart does Beck.
| The Daily Show With Jon Stewart | Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c | |||
| The 11/3 Project | ||||
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Creeping Technology 0
The fridge is not cooling properly. It’s stuck in defrost mode.
The tech says it needs a new motherboard.
Sometimes, plain old relay logic beats hell out of computers.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
The Bushonomics Hangover continues. Bloomberg:
One more time, this resulted from Republican policy. It was not an accident.
It was the logical result of persisting in error.
Counterprogramming 0
The last couple of evenings, in search of silliness, we have watched a few reruns of AFV on the ABC Family Channel. Stupid pet tricks always amuse.
In those less than three hours, we have seen approximately three million, two hundred thirty-seven thousand, eight hundred forty-two point three six promos for this.
I have never seen it, will never see it, and can honestly say I have never disliked a movie more.
Republican Health Care Reform Proposal . . . 1
. . . will re-form the status quo into something worse than it already it is:
And it is already pretty bad:
While the United States spends more than twice as much as other developed countries on healthcare, it lags well behind in key measures of quality, the annual survey found.
Here’s what the Congressional Budget Office’s preliminary analysis finds: It won’t cost as much as some other proposals and it pretty much accomplishes nothing.
It will reform the status quo into the status quo antiquated.
But that’s what can be expected from those who think of the 1950s as some kind of golden age.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
Still over half a mil:
The story also reports that productivity is up, but that the pace probably cannot be sustained by the existing workforce, so that hiring may increase. In other news, it doesn’t look like a lot of the hiring will be for Christmas help.
Maybe the two writers should talk to each other.
Carlyfornia 0
Carlymasterplan:
1. Try to destroy Hewlett-Packard.
2. If that fails, on to California to destroy Arnold’s leavings.
Pizza, Cheesesteaks, Oil Changes 0
I’ve dined there several times.
Without the car repairs.
The accident occurred shortly after 9 p.m. at Gallucio’s Restaurant and Pub, . . . .
It’s a pretty cramped parking lot; not much room to get up a good head of steam.
QOTD 0
James Reston, from the Quotemaster:
An election is a bet on the future, not a popularity test of the past.
Some Thoughts on Off-Year Elections 1
For analysis, see the Booman or Balloon Juice.
One thought:
Turnout was very low.
Voting is a duty, not a right. If enough persons fail their duty, bad things happen.
Signs of the Times 0
Creative justice in Bedford, Pa.:
Follow the link for the pictures.
The Entitlement Society 0
Susan Antilla writes at Bloomberg:
Knowing what we do about innovation in finance, we wouldn’t want that to happen.
Are there actually credible people worried that capitalism will be brought to its knees if restrictions on pay, and related reforms in regulation, are imposed on Wall Street?
“Financial innovation” is Wall Street shorthand for “new ways to pull off the wallet drop.”
On the Job Hazards 1
This is kind of scary.
To help accommodate them – and to cut down on the rash of back injuries suffered by paramedics and firefighters trying to lift them – agencies have invested in costly equipment and modified some of their practices.
Portsmouth (Va,) in recent years has replaced its standard gurneys with battery-driven hydraulic “power stretchers,” said Capt. Paul Hoyle, Emergency Medical Services manager. They’re rated to safely hold 700 pounds and lift at the touch of a button, at nearly the cost of a small car: $8,000 apiece.
Virginia Beach rescue squads added electric lifts to fewer than a dozen of their stretchers, said Bruce Nedelka, EMS division chief.
Medical Transport, a private ambulance service, has added eight oversized stretchers to its statewide fleet, four of them in South Hampton Roads, said Elizabeth Beatty, district field supervisor. Her company also operates an oversized ambulance, based in Virginia Beach, that gets requests from across Virginia.
I’m sort of torn here. When I watch the antics of those who want to turn being 10 pounds overweight into a pre-existing condition for health insurance premiums, I scream, “Blaming the victim!”
Nevertheless, 700 pounds plus is slightly more than 10 pounds overweight. Although there can be physiological or genetic causes, they do not seem to explain the explosion of obesity, but in numbers and amount.
All it takes to see that is a walk down the street.
Frankly, I think it has more to do with making Cheetos, Big Macs, and Super-Sizing part of the American Way of Life than with anyone’s personal culpability.
Full Disclosure: I hate Big Macs. I like Cheetos. In fact, I like anything that tastes like cheese, no matter how artificial and no matter how orange it leaves my fingers. I like real cheese even better.
