July, 2014 archive
Droning On 0
David Beesmer, 49, was charged with a felony unlawful surveillance count for piloting the drone about 10 to 15 feet from the facility in Ulster, a town 90 miles north of New York City. Beesmer’s drone was recording video, which was seized as evidence by New York State Police troopers.
The “pilot” claims it was an accident, he didn’t see anything, and that he was just droning around to pass the time while his mother saw the doctor.
And this surprises you how?
Suffer the Children 0
Video below the fold in case it autoplays.
Excerpt:
I was taught by my parents to follow the golden rule: Whenever you see kids in trouble, yell at them in a language they can’t understand.
ACA 0
In the Roanoke Times, Randolph Walker expresses his gratitude for the Affordable Care Act. A snippet:
I’m celebrating because I have an appointment with Dr. Ken Tuck.
Dr. Tuck is an ophthalmologist, and a good one. As far as I know, there is nothing wrong with my eyes. However, I’m 53 and have not had a routine eye exam in probably 10 years. I put it off because I had no insurance.
Decoding de Code 0
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette’s Patricia Sabatini explains what credit card numbers mean (other than a quick descent into perpetual debt). It’s fascinating in a mundane sort of way:
American Express cards start with “34” or “37,” while the number “7” is reserved for gasoline cards issued by petroleum companies such as Exxon and Mobil.
The next four or five numbers in the series identify which of the some 13,000 financial institutions in the U.S. issued the card, such as Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase or Citibank.
I knew that the first digit indicated the type of card. I picked up that tidbit early in my career, when I was empowered to issue refunds in response to certain types of customer complaints. Purchases made by card had to be refunded by card, so we were trained in filling out refund slips (this was long before electronic transactions).
Stuff That Just Happens 0
You have all heard non-apology apologies. They commonly contain phrases such as “I am sorry if anyone took offense,” when the speaker knows damned well he or she did offend someone. That’s why he or she is apologizing, for Pete’s sake.
Radley Balko takes on a cousin of the non-apology apology: the non-explanation explanation, specifically police departments’ explanations of police officers shooting innocents. A nugget, after a quotation from a news item about the shooting of a 10-year old boy in Georgia.
What isn’t remotely plausible is that the deputy’s gun jumped out of its holster, walked up to the kid and shot the kid in the leg. . . . Yet the sheriff’s explanation, at least the way the WALB reporter relays it, leaves open just that possibility.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Play politely.
This has been your daily does of politeness.
(Whoops, originally published on the wrong day. I’ll blame computer error, yeah, that’s the ticket, computer error–an error made using a computer.)
Misdirection Play, Fee Hand of the Market Dept. 0
The Gloomy Historian explains how the concept of the “free market” has become a misdirection play. A nugget:
When abstractions are spoken of as real things, we call it reification. Reification is a semantic fallacy, but its use is sometimes necessary when one wants to communicate complex realities with considerably less words. However, a semantic fallacy, if not challenged, can go on to support faulty conceptualizations of reality, especially once it seeps into discourse. The special problem in this case is that the reification complements an ideology, one that rejects the natural and necessary role of the government in the maintenance of the economy
Articles of Faith 0
Steven M. captures the wingnut belief system. Read it.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Another gun becomes self-aware and chooses to be polite all by itself.
During the investigation, it was reported two males had stopped to visit the women at the hotel.
One of the men who was carrying a gun was showing it to the women when it accidentally discharged striking Soape.
