March, 2010 archive
No Trash Talking 0
While paying his sewer bill at the county building:
The cashier gave him 98 cents in change, which he promptly threw back at her, saying, “I guess you need the money more than me,” according to court records.
Before leaving the building, Spayd was overheard saying, “maybe somebody should fly a plane into this building.”
The county got sort of a PFA: he’s not allowed at the country building at least for now.
All seriousness aside, he said something stupid and the county overreacted. They even called in the FBI. Everyone is wrong in this farce.
Pretty soon it will be illegal to blow off steam. Unless, I guess, you are packing heat exercising your Second Amendment rights.
News from the Hood 0
Philadelphia School DIstrict considers banning “hoodies”:
The word hoodie was used five times in his 31-page report, which suggested outlawing the apparel because it hides kids’ faces, making it hard to identify them. Philadelphia School Superintendent Arlene Ackerman later said she agreed with the suggestion, and would consider banning the hooded sweatshirts districtwide.
The article goes on to describe students puling up their hoods to escape surveillance cameras, even when the students aren’t doing anything questionable.
When I was a young ‘un, there were no surveillance cameras (or metal detectors or web spycams) in schools and we had hooded sweatshirts, not “hoodies.” The hoods on hooded sweatshirts fit the head; they didn’t cascade loosely over the face.
Supporters of surveillance cameras claim that they deter misbehavior; the evidence of that is inconclusive, at best. Others argue that they lead to faster capture of malefactors; that also appears questionable, despite what you might see on shows such as NCIS.
I suspect it’s another case of treating a symptom rather than fixing the cause.
Words Fail Me 0
What Shaun Mullen said.
We Need Single Payer 0
Suit:
(snip)
Medical records at Underwood indicate that at 10:54 p.m., Penn said it would take Murray and began to arrange for a helicopter to transport him, according to the complaint. Then at 11:50 p.m., an Underwood nurse wrote that Y. Joseph Woo, a heart surgeon at Penn, called and said they would not take Murray “due to no medical insurance,” the suit alleges.
Ripple Effects 0
After the earthquake in Chile:
“The weird thing about this one was we saw it in wells we normally don’t see response in,” he said, looking over water level charts called hydrographs. “There’s one out in Clarke County that we’ve never seen anything like this in, but there’s a little blip up.”
Business Week quotes Richard Gross, a geophysicist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California, as reporting that the whole thing was earthshaking:
Business Week story via GNC.
QOTD 0
Dr. Seuss, from the Quotemaster:
You know you’re in love when you can’t fall asleep because reality is finally better than your dreams.
Dumb Is Good 0
Tom Levinson explicates the “GOP War on Knowledge” which seeks to discredit opponents by claiming that they are too smart, too knowledgeable, too grounded in reality:
Read the whole thing.
(Aside: Hofstadter was right.)
I Miss Slackware Linux 1
My laptop, which is my primary computer for daily use, is a Dell 1545 which came with Ubuntu. It works fine, and I’m a believer in “if it ain’t broke etc.”
Linux can be especially dicey as regard wireless, because many makers of wireless devices do not make Linux drivers or, if they do, they do not make good Linux drivers.
And the wireless in this thing works great, so I’m not touching it.
For a long time, I’ve wanted to write some posts on Geekazine about installing and using Slackware (you can read them here: Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, and Part 6). As part of doing that, I upgraded one of my old inherited desktops to Slackware Linux 13.0 and configured it up.
We Need Single Payer 0
It’s all about the executives’ country club memberships:
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
With proper instruction.
Climate Change Strikes Homes 0
From the BBC:
There is growing fear in Australian coastal areas about storm surges and possible inundation from rising oceans.
The Victoria state government’s decision was based on a projection that sea levels will rise by 80cm (11.8 inches) over the next century.
We Need Single Payer, Reprise 0
Warren Buffet, via Reuters:
“If it was a choice today between Plan A, which is what we’ve got, or Plan B, which is the Senate bill, I would vote for the Senate bill,” he said. “But I would much rather see a Plan C that really attacks costs, and I think that’s what the American public wants to see.”