November, 2014 archive
A Billing System Based on Balderdash 0
Dan Casey investigates the “Case of the $928 Band-Aid.”
Read it and ask yourself, what can be right about a system that works like that?
Easy Money 0
Taxes are the price of living in a civilized society. State governments have turned to casinos because politicians are too gutless to be honest about taxes, so they resort to trickery:
“Casinos will solve everything,” they say. “Casinos are easy money, not like taxes. Taxes are hard.”
It’s not working out so well. Atlantic City is becoming a wasteland and, increasingly, new casinos, like new sports palaces, don’t live up to developers’ projections. Werner Herzog’s Bear considers why; here’s a bit of the considering:
Casino gambling, like most promises of easy money, is a mug’s game. It’s a mug’s game for the gambler and for the polity. The house always wins; the reverse of that is that, ultimately, the gambler and the polity are always fleeced.
Your Goose Is Cookied 0
Well, this answers a question:
The change by AT&T essentially removes a hidden string of letters and numbers that are passed along to websites that a consumer visits. It can be used to track subscribers across the Internet, a lucrative data-mining opportunity for advertisers that could still reveal users’ identities based on their browsing habits.
Verizon Wireless, the country’s largest mobile firm, said Friday it still uses this type of tracking, known as ‘‘super cookies.’’ Verizon spokeswoman Debra Lewis said business and government customers don’t have the code inserted. There has been no evidence that Sprint and T-Mobile have used such codes.
Now we know which of these venal vendors is the venalest of all.
RICO 0
Really, now, isn’t it about time for a grand jury?
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Get a load of all the politeness:
While in his truck, the subject was attempting to load his gun and shot himself in the thigh and down through his knee, the sheriff said.
Who Could Have Predicted? 0
Something improper happened at a strip joint.
Mercy me, I think I shall have the vapors.
And, in more news of the scantily clad, wage theft.
Illegal Procedures 0
I’m not the only person who’s fed up with Big-Time Football. Lloyd Buzzell is starting to have qualms. Here’s some of them:
Following the game at the college level is a little bit like reading a crime blotter. And last year’s Heisman watch took the cake with Jameis Winston and his school, Florida State, the subject of extensive reporting by the New York Times regarding allegations of a rape and the school’s casual attitude toward the victim and her rights. Everything seemed to be subordinated to Florida State’s bid for the national championship.
Much Ado about Not Much of Anything, ACA Dept. 0
Wingnuttery loves itself its faked-up fusses, as fakery beats reality every day of the week and twice on Sundays.
Droning On 0
Colbert drones on about “self-aware flying Roombas.”
Below the fold in case it autoplays.
