November, 2010 archive
QOTD 0
Jan L. A. van de Snepscheut, from the Quotemaster (subscribe here):
In theory, there is no difference between theory and practice. But, in practice, there is.
Spill Here, Spill Now, Eyes Wide Shut Dept. 0
Surprise, surprise.
In a 28-page report released late Tuesday night, an independent panel convened by the National Academy of Engineering said that the companies failed to learn from “near misses” and that neither BP, its contractors nor federal regulators caught or corrected flawed decisions that contributed to the blowout.
Those failures would be unacceptable in companies that work with nuclear power or aviation, said Donald Winter, a professor of engineering practice at the University of Michigan and chairman of the 15-member study committee.
In other news, the sun rises in the east.
Facebook Frolics 0
As murder mystery writers are fond of pointing out just before the Great Detective solves the case, a crime requires means, motive, and opportunity.
All Facebook provides is opportunty.
Miller, senior pastor at Living Word Christian Fellowship Church, the popular interdenominational and evangelical church on Route 35 (in Neptune, N. J.–ed.), said a large percentage of his counseling over the past year and a half has been for marital problems, including infidelity, stemming from Facebook.
Facebook Frolics 0
For the short-attention-span generation. From MarketWatch:
What a bunch of incoherent geekledygoop.
Afterthought: Frankly, the thought of an archive of all of everyone’s conversations from the past five years is rather appalling.
Let’s Just Strip Search Everyone 2
From MarketWatch:
We Need Single Payer 0
Anti-health care reform wingnut Congressman throws fit because it’s going to be a month before his government health care benefits kick in.
Meanwhile, back in the real world, The Chicago Tribune reminds us that the American health care insurance industry has cake, eats it too. From the Chicago Tribune:
The findings are similar to those of a 2009 report by the National Women’s Law Center that examined 3,600 individual policies across the country and found that only 13 percent provided maternity coverage.
The problems don’t stop there. If a woman is pregnant and applies for coverage in the individual market, insurers generally consider her pregnancy a preexisting medical condition and deny coverage.
Figs 0
In an ideal world, this would have happened in Newton.
Surgical Sledgehammers 0
In the Guardian, Patrick Porter considers the likely effects of trying to be the MPs for the world. He writes from a UK perspective, but his thoughts are worth considering.
Part of the mythology that feeds the idea of being using, or “projecting,” as its proponents like to say, military around the world to control what persons in other countries do, is the myth of the “surgical strike.”
Mr. Porter argues that both the costs and the likely effects of these projects are frequently misstated:
And there are other dangers. What if, in appointing ourselves as world police, we are agents of chaos rather than order? Our activism will probably have perverse results, unintended consequences and blowback. It could create accidental guerrillas. It could drive neighbouring countries into new confrontations with us. Democracy promotion can promote communal violence or unwelcome new regimes. Evidence of these dangers litters the decade.
Confident activism carries an added danger of moral hazards. Adroit armed groups can exploit and escalate conflicts to draw us in, using their victimhood strategically to wag the dog.
The column is worth a read.
A drone is not a scalpel. It is a flying bomb, and all the false analogies in the world will not make it anything other than a flying bomb.
And war is not a game. Unlike in games, players in wars get only one life.
Let’s Just Strip Search Everyone 0
Barry R. comments on TSA’s security theatre.
Twits on Twitter 0
On the rampage edition.
When Good Computers Go Bad 0
Actual portion of actual envelope delivered in actual mail by actual uniformed employee of the Federal government driving a marked vehicle. The occasion is the impending lapse of the first year of a two-year subscription:
Virginia Beach Democratic Committee Third Thursday Dinner 0
- What: Virginia Beach Democratic Committee Third Thursday Dinner
- When: November 18th, 6:00 PM
- Where: Kelly’s Hilltop Tavern, 1936 Laskin Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23454 (map), in the nonsmoking section.
Show up, order off the menu (separate checks), socialize, and talk politics–or whatever else interests you.
I have attended several of these. They tend to be smaller gatherings, highly informal, and a lot of fun.
For more information, email VaBeachBoy@aol.com
The World Is Going to Pot 0
The Philadelphia Inquirer reports on World Toilet Day.
Meta: Weekend Break 0
The kitchen floor is cleaner than it has been in a month and I’ve finished some computer tweaks I’ve been considering for some time but which required some Googling research.
My timing was pretty good; yesterday, the power was out for six hours, from 9:00 a. till 3:03 p.
Whatever it was, it was a power company thing, not a storm (it was a beautiful day) nor a rogue vehicle.
One amusing side effect: when the power came back on, it reset the sprinklers, which normally go off at midnight. They went off at three and did it again today. (If I had my druthers, there wouldn’t be any sprinklers–they just encourage the grass to want cut.)
Ignoring the idiocy for a few days was relaxing, but it occurs to me that John Cole was correct. If you don’t pay attention to what’s going on as it happens, you will find yourself susceptible to the spit and spin and toxic spills that pass for the political process these days when it comes to decision time–and politics ain’t just a game, though a lot of folks try to game the polity.
It’s stuff that affect lives, such as Wall Street’s three card monte and the Great and Glorious Patriotic War for a Lie in Iraq.
Light Bloggery 0
Taking the weekend off. See you Monday.
