From Pine View Farm

Toddlers of Industry category archive

Twits Who Would Own Twitter 0

Above the Law’s Joe Patrice looks at the latest twist in Elon Musk’s attempt to weasel out of his deal to buy Twitter.

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Twits on Twitter 0

A rules-don’t-apply-to-me twit.

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Over-Rated 0

Electrons are cheap, and email is easy, but Iskra Fileva has had it with “customer service” surveys (and so too I suspect have many of us). A nugget:

Though peevishness is not my style, on one occasion, I got flustered by the flood of requests to rate a company, and I wrote back saying that my experience had been a 5-star one before I started getting multiple emails asking me to rate my experience. I said I’d take 2 stars off for that.

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What Do Twits on Twitter and Facebook Frolickers Have in Common? 0

Phony twits and ersatz frolickers.

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The Snaring Economy 0

Philadelphia takes Silicon valley scofflaws to court.

Plus the New York Times Sunday business section had an interesting exploration of Uber, the aforementioned scofflaw, its history of questionable workplace conduct which led to its dumping its CEO and founder, and its IPO.

Aside:

This fits right in with the Bret Stephens column that I cited earlier today.

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Facebook Frolics 0

Bret Stephens has qualms. An excerpt:

The issue is much simpler: Do you trust Mark Zuckerberg and the other young lords of Silicon Valley to be good stewards of the world’s digital speech?

(snip)

The deeper problem is the overwhelming concentration of technical, financial and moral power in the hands of people who lack the training, experience, wisdom, trustworthiness, humility and incentives to exercise that power responsibly.

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Twits on Twitter 0

What Atrios said.

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Flip Joints 0

It seems that most of the waiting rooms I visit–the ones with televisions, that is–have reached a consensus that HGTV is the least offensive channel to set their TV dials to (remember dials?). Accordingly, I see far more home renovation and house flipping shows than I would willingly submit to.

I have, however, seen enough that I found this New York Times article on real-life house flippers and how their experiences differ from the HGTV narratives an interesting read.

It illustrates again that “reality TV” and reality are in no way related, just as “Fox” and “News” ar–oh, never mind.

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Getting the Wind Up 0

Wind power is safe. Full stop.

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Rounding Error 0

Is this legal?

Inquiring minds want to know.

(I also want to know the name of the restaurant, so I can avoid it.)

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Under the Bus 0

The evul fedrul guvmint shut him down.

The limo company’s owner claims he is a victim of harassment by the proverbial “disgruntled employee.”

Public safety had nothing to do with it. Nope, not at all.

The company was cited for about two dozen violations during several inspections throughout the year, according to records from the Motor Carrier Safety Administration.

The company was cited in early November for allowing a driver to operate a bus with a suspended or revoked commercial driver’s license, according to federal safety records.

Between February and October, inspectors discovered drivers operating beyond acceptable hours of service and who failed to maintain logs. Drivers can’t be on the road more than 10 hours straight. Drivers also had been cited by police for traffic violations at least three times, including once for failing to obey a traffic control device, the records say.

Bus inspections found tires with little tread left, inoperable lights and turn signals and one with a damaged windshield.

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Battery Misdemeanor 0

This was under a cover behind the engine against the firewall. I had to pry the cover loose with a screwdriver.

Battery with corrosion

My friend’s battery would not have gotten like this if Toyota did not like to hide components from view, like some kind of mechanic’s Rubik’s cube. (I had a friend who told me of having to remove the battery from a Toyota so he could replace a headlamp. I’ve heard even worse about changing spark plugs.)

If she could have seen the battery, she would have kept it clean.

Yesterday, I cleaned it up and jumped the car, but the battery is over five years old and didn’t hold a charge through the night, so I trotted out to get a new one this morning. At the store, the clerk dragged out the battery and started to ring it up, along with something else.

“What’s that?” asked I.

“That’s your replacement kit.” (What means this “replacement kit”? The battery is the replacement.)

“What’s in it?”

Turned out that it was two flat rubber washers to fit on the terminals between the leads and the battery case and a packet of brake grease for coating the terminals against corrosion.

Now Vaseline works as well as brake grease and is a damned sight cheaper and the two rubber washers–well, given that the terminals are slightly flared at the base, the leads won’t touch the battery case in any event.

She was trying to sell me about a two bit’s worth of useless stuff, over-priced to 18 bits, as if it were a goes-without-saying necessity.

And I bet they get away with it more often than not.

I waved her off. “I don’t need that.”

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It’s Kind of Like Running into a Cop Car 0

Going from running into the dock to being in the dock:

Fish and wildlife agents said the three had been out fishing in an 18-foot boat near Roosevelt Inlet on Wednesday and decided to move closer to the Coast Guard station, where they collided with the Lewes fire boat docked there.

Charges have been filed.

And justly so. It’s dangerous enough out there without adding stupid to the mix.

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Spill Here, Spill Now, Menu Choices Dept. 0

Antoine's Oily Menu

Meanwhile, Republicans continue to fluff big oil. They figure that, as long as keep whining, no one will notice that they are ultimately irrational.

Image via BartBlog.

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Spill Here, Spill Now 0

Bill Shein reviews the timeline of BP’s wild well. A nugget:

May 19 – With options dwindling, the world turns once again to the one man who can save the day. He is contacted by a talking holographic image of Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, beamed from a small, beeping robot: “Help us, Kevin Costner. You’re our only hope!” Costner responds by (a) providing technology that filters oil from seawater, and (b) apologizing, yet again, for “Message in a Bottle.”

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Oil on the Water, Fire in the Sky 0

With apologies to Deep Purple, I commend this post by Rude to your attention (warning: language).

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