May, 2010 archive
Faze Facebook 0
Speak up for your privacy. Sign the ACLU’s petition.
Driving While Brown, Mythbusting Dept. 0
From Fact Check dot org. Follow the link for the analysis; it’s quite extensive and well-footnoted:
But most economists and other experts say there’s little to support the claim. Study after study has shown that immigrants grow the economy, expanding demand for goods and services that the foreign-born workers and their families consume, and thereby creating jobs. There is even broad agreement among economists that while immigrants may push down wages for some, the overall effect is to increase average wages for American-born workers.
Aside: Phrases using “grow” as in the “grow the economy” phrase in the excerpt above irritate the bejesus out of me. One grows vegetables. The economy grows (or it doesn’t), but one doesn’t grow it like a stalk of corn.
It sounds awkward because it is awkward. That phrasing was invented by consultants angling for marks clients with claims like “We will help you grow your business.”
Writing that sounds awkward is not somehow more important than writing that flows easily. It’s simply more additionally pretentious and crappier than writing that flows easily.
Spill Here, Spill Now 0
Shooting junk, the BP way (when I was a young ‘un, “shooting junk” connoted a different type of shot):
It occurs to me that it might be time to reread When the World Screamed.
Via BartBlog.
Technological Wrecksellence 3
BP and Transocean:
The device meant to stop oil leaking from a Gulf of Mexico well after last month’s rig explosion was faulty, US Congressional investigators have said.
The blowout preventer (BOP), a set of huge valves, had a hydraulic leak and a failed battery, they said after studying documents from BP and others.
Oil industry chiefs say it is too early to conclude what caused the disaster.
It may indeed be too early “to conclude what caused the disaster,” if, by “caused,” one means tracking the physical history of the blowout.
On a meta level, though, it’s not too early to conclude that managerial and technological incompetence, greed, and penny-pinching were significant factors, abetted by the Bushie take-down of the United States regulatory apparatus.
Video via Bob Cesca.
I’d As Leaf Not 3
I cannot imagine a more useless device than a leaf blower. I can see some marginal use for them in autumn, but rakes still seem to be for sale and don’t use gas, but the idea that no grass clipping should befoul a pavement seems absurd. The existence of the machine has created new, useless, pointless tasks.
I am not alone:
What I had not realized is that, by kicking up dust, particulates, and those noxious chemicals that Chem-Lawn and its competitors have convinced so many to put on their yards, they also increase pollution. Follow the link for details.
“The Shadow Knows” 2
Listen here.
Get the Smart Cone of Silence 0
So that pick-up lines can be delivered.
From the BBC:
Product design student Elaine McLuskey invented the “social spheres” to enable people to hold a conversation above the background noise.
Follow the line for a cone of picture.
QOTD 1
S. Lendvay:
Testosterone makes people about as stupid as they can get.
Blag Hag has supporting evidence.
I Have Spent Far Too Much Time in Phoenix 0
I’ve been there, and I am no fan of “dry heat.”
Give me 100 Fahrenheits and 95% humidity with no danger of dying from dehydration over 120 Fahrenheits and signs that say “Hydrate or Die” any day of the week.
I’ve been to the Grand Canyon (twice) and I’ve rafted south of Glen Canyon (decidedly not white water).
The countryside, especially up north towards Flag, is lovely, but I won’t be going back, not even to change planes at Sky Harbor, where the cops have mountain bikes for patrolling the concourse.
It seems I’m not alone.
Trouble on Oiled Waters 0
Radio Times looks at what BP’s wild well is doing to the “blue that gives us life.” From the website:
The damage done to the sea is not easily videotaped and does not pictures for television. Hear a detailed analysis of how much damage BP is doing to the sea and why the greatest damage is that done away to the sea from the camera.
Follow the link of click here to listen (mp3).
Not for the faint of heart.
A Kook-Kooky-A-Chooey Musical Interlude 0
Lyrics here.
Excerpt:
I also like to think myself a rather high-browed classisist
And artifacts of history are something I cannot resist
But images of Virtue that expose her breast and mamelon
Are too risqué — they’re apt to turn the concupiscent rabble on.
There’s nothing more erotic than the Iliad or the Odyssey
And so I’ll substitute a pin that manifests more modesty
(One mustn’t risk the chance that some poor lad’s Attic exuberance
Could lend itself to lusty thoughts and some turgid protuberance).
I’m simply trying to keep things clean, I don’t believe in censorship —
But won’t go down in history as the man who let a nipple slip.
In short in matters glandular, lactiferous, and sensual
I am the very model of a mad Attorney General.
Go here to listen or click here to play directly (mp3).
Via Not Larry Sabato.
Walmart in the Wilderness 0
Walmart wants to build one of its Sucky Centers adjacent to the Wilderness Battlefield, where Grant and Lee met on the battlefield for the first time.
In Wally World, the only sacred things are green pieces of paper with presidents’ faces on them.
The local rag has the right take:
Development has crept near the park in recent years, but nothing is on the scale of Wal-Mart’s plans. It’s in the wrong place, . . . .
There are reasons I avoid Walmart.
Fill in the Blanks 0
Andy Borowitz reports:
The anti-Kagan rhetoric was generated last week before Ms. Kagan was nominated, GOP insiders said, by using a new iPhone app called iOppose.
Taking a Toll 0
This is a really bad idea. It is grab for easy money to avoid making choices and it violates the spirit and purpose of the interstate system:
It would be fairer to everyone to increase the gas tax a penny or two. If you want to soak drivers, soak all of us, not just some of us. After all, all of us are helping wear out the roads.
Aside: As a Virginian whose ancestry includes South Carolinians, I understand that persons might be willing to pay to leave North Carolina.
Afterthought: Imposing new taxes and calling them “user fees” is a Republican camouflage tactic that has been around since Reagan. You cannot expect straight government from folks who don’t talk straight.