September, 2013 archive
Digital Divides 0
Right here in River City.
Well, just down the road a piece:
Unable to get high-speed Internet or cable TV or reliable phone service, about a dozen residents have banded together to press local communications companies and the city government to come to their aid.
Cox Cable and Verizon say it’s outside their service areas.
More properly, it’s inside their service areas, completely surrounded by folks with access to home broadband, an island of dialup in a sea of speed.
It’s been almost a decade since I used dial-up. I have no idea how long it would take to have one of today’s heavy, graphics intensive, script-laden web pages full of embedded video to load over a 28.8 modem. Days, I imagine. Long enough that, when residents of Land of Fortune Road need to use the internet to do such things as, say, fill out college applications or check their course assignments, it’s easier for them to drive to Starbucks than wait for the download.
At the rate my cable and phone bills go up annually with no improvement of service (which is, I must say to be fair, pretty reliable), one would think a bit of them could be used to lay some cable for Land of Fortune’s unfortunates.
What Goeth before a Fall? (HInt: It’s Not Pride) 0
Follow the link.
This trap opened with the Iranian Revolution and continued with the defeat of the Soviet Union in Afghanistan. That historical event contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union but created a psychological trap for the West, that of invincibility. That led to the first Gulf War and insidiously and cumulatively developed into a direct threat to the West slowly dragging us into a vortex of barbarity, self-deception and degradation of political life.
And the answer to the question is
(Junk) Bonding with the News 0
I remember when employees first were given the right to shift their funds about in their IRAs.
Something would happen and, the next day, some folks would be on the phone moving money from “high-risk” to “low-risk” funds or vicey versey.
It was silly, stupid, and often self-defeating. Closing the barn door after the horse etc.
At MarketWatch, George Sisti explains to whom to turn:
More from his expert at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” (Updated) 0
Another random act of politeness.
“We can characterize this young women’s death, as unintended and extremely tragic,” said Cmdr. Jeff Satur, Longmont police spokesman.
Addendum, the Next Day:
She was shot by one of those good guys with a gun.
Update from the Foreclosure-Based Economy 0
The thug life.
Sustaining Supremacy 0
Learn how it takes place; go here and listen to the podcast.
This Is Not Right 0
What’s really sad about this column is not its purported point (that, by how they might look or dress, women don’t “ask for” being raped).
It is the casual, tacit acceptance by the writer, a young college student, that women
Memory Lane 0
I remember these days very well.
Some would bring them back.
In fact, some would be quite happy to bring back these days:
Video via Contradict Me.
Business Models 0
Daniel Ruth puts it in a nutshell.
The Rocket’s Red Glare 0
My local rag tells how you can watch tonight’s launch. It should be visible from several hundred miles away.
I grew up about 50 miles south of Wallops Island. I remember the family all going into the side yard (the left in the picture above, the darkest portion of the yard) to watch early satellite and space probes being launched from Wallops.
Tonight I shall probably sleep through it.
The Next Big Thing 0
I’m torn.
Should this be classified “too stupid for words” or “one born every minute”?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Politeness begins at home.
Yes, I know that it’s tiresome. Old news. Happens every day. And, according to the NRA, more guns in more hands and homes will make everyone safer and keep this from happening.
Also, have you noticed it’s almost always the husbands or boyfriends? There’s a pathology there that bears investigation.
Not Retreating v. 2.0 0
Pre-emptive strike.
Florida Today reported on Wednesday that attorney’s for William T. Woodward had filed a motion asking for charges against him to be dismissed under Florida’s Stand Your Ground law, which says that gun owners do not have a duty to retreat in the face of an “imminent” threat.
He circled around behind them in the bushes and offed them while they were having a barbecue because, says he, he was a-skeert of them.
Gun Nut Paradise approacheth apace.