November, 2018 archive
Scooflaws 0
My local rag reports that Bird, the outfit that’s randomly dropping scooters all over the country, holds itself above the law (that’s my words, not theirs). Here’s a bit:
Bird now owes $362,800 to the University of Georgia and $32,000 to Santa Cruz, California. Virginia Beach has impounded 205 scooters and is owed $1,700, as of Oct. 31.
And that’s just the beginning. Bird scooters have been reported in the cities of Nashville, Cleveland, Denver, Salt Lake City, Ann Arbor and Greensboro, North Carolina, just to name a few, according to news reports. . . .
“I think it’s very difficult to look at one locality and see the big picture,” he (Graham Henshaw, executive director of the Alan B. Miller Entrepreneurship Center at the College of William & Mary–ed.) said. “What they’re trying to do is blanket the entire country in scooters.”
The story goes on to report that Bird does not respond to inquiries from government agencies and doesn’t seem interested in getting its scooters out of impound.
I’m not quite sure how the characterize this, but the phrase, “arrogant, greedy SOBs” comes to mind.
Russian Impulses 0
Shaun Mullen admits that he is an optimist.
Disinformation Society 0
David argues that high voter turnout is good, even if many of the voters are uninformed. He makes some interesting points.
Hactivist 0
Jay Bookman suggests that, as regards his selecting Mark Whitaker as “acting Attorney-General,” Donald Trump knew exactly what he was doing. A nugget:
Follow the link for the rest.
Upgrade 0
I upgraded my Debian box from Stretch to Buster this evening.
Next stop, Sid, aka Debian unstable. AFIC, Debian unstable is more stable than most distros’ stable.
Later the Next Day:
When I went to update the software today (Debian Testing issues frequent updates because, well, it’s testing stuff), I ran into a little problem. Some directories were missing from root’s (that’s the “Administrator” in Linux) path and apt-get complained, then rolled over and played dead.
I was able to fix the problem thanks to this article. I sent the webmaster a thank you email, as I was unable to add a comment to the article.
As an aside, updating Linux is a lot easier than updating Windows. The process is generally transparent to the user and does not require a reboot unless a new kernel has been installed.
Unquestionable 0
Leonard Pitts, Jr., notes Donald Trump’s fear of being asked questions. A snippet (emphasis added):
(snip)
But Trump is different. And perhaps that’s no surprise, given that he’s a con artist who has spent decades shucking, jiving, deflecting and blustering his way past every moment of accountability. The man with no answers naturally fears the man asking questions.
The Fact Factor 0
David and his caller discuss the end of facts as a factor in elections.
Wasting the Franchise 0
Shorter Daniel Ruth: Vote in the real world.
Stray Thought, Literary Dept. 0
Americans write the best detective stories, but Brits write the best mystery stories.