January, 2016 archive
Nor Any Drop To Drink 0
One of the biggest scams in the United States is bottled water. I don’t mean the big bottles in your office water cooler.
I mean the little bottles in your grocery bag.
In a country with the safest tap water in the world (unless Republicans get their way), corporations have convinced persons to buy water in plastic bottles because, well, it’s in plastic bottles with pretty pictures on the labels.
Indeed, many times, that water is simple tap water, put in plastic bottles, loaded on a train, then a truck, taken to a store, and sold to some bozo who thinks it’s somehow safer than his own damn tap water because it’s, well, in a plastic bottle.
In other words, you are drinking from what is little more than a store-bought disposable canteen (don’t forget the “disposable” part–more “disposables” means a stronger recycling industry!) with bonus extra packaging and transportation costs.
Have you ever wondered where the water in that store-bought disposable canteen comes from?
It comes from somebody else’s well.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Be polite to your fellow cinema patrons.
“According to him, he said he dropped the gun and it went off. We have witnesses that say he came into the theater and appeared intoxicated. He went in and took a seat in theater number nine and was fumbling with a pistol when it went off and struck someone sitting in front of him,” said David Leibman with the Renton Police Department.
Just another day in NRA Paradise . . . .
No Place To Hide 0
We are being assimilated.
The technology, which has been available for the last couple of years in some form, is capable of tracking a smartphone using the unique identifier that it broadcasts via Wi-Fi. It is the same as that used by beacons which track smartphones using the unique Bluetooth identifiers every smartphone puts out when the wireless communications service is switched on.
I keep the GPS on my phone turned up when I’m not actively using it. Think I’ll start doing the same with the Wi-Fi.
It may not do much, but at least I don’t have to help our mercantile Big Brothers.
A Night at the Improv 0
David Hadju offers grudging admiration for Donald Trump’s ability to make stuff up on the fly. A snippet:
The audience oohed and aahed, clearly impressed by Fortner’s creative ingenuity, and the drama of the moment got me thinking about Donald Trump. I should make clear here that I am anything but a Trump supporter. In fact, I find his wild and volatile, xenophobic, hate-fueled rhetoric loathsome and terrifying. I have never understood any aspect of his appeal—until the night at the Appel Room, when it struck me that the very wildness and volatility of Trump’s performances in campaign rallies, debates, and television interviews do not look to everyone like liabilities. They come across as strengths to his admirers. Like Sullivan Fortner and every other musician skilled in the art of extemporaneous invention, Donald Trump is, in his way, an improviser—in a perverse sense, a jazz candidate.
Words without End 0
In related news, Reg Henry decides to recant his previous statements and praise Donald Trump:
Of course, I meant this comparison in the nicest possible way. It was my way of saying that Mr. Trump always looks sharp and dressed for success.
He really is the smartest man on the planet, but don’t take my word for it — ask him. In fact, you don’t have to ask him because he regularly volunteers the information.
Nothing To Do, Nowhere To Go 0
A little worse, but still under 300k.
The number of applications last week was the most since the period ended July 4. The median forecast in a Bloomberg survey of economists called for claims of 278,000.
Four-Week AverageThe four-week moving average, a less volatile measure than the weekly figures, increased to 285,000 from 278,500.
How Stuff Works, Pickpocket Dept. 0
Keep in mind that every lawyer’s a crook until you need one.
Return of Beyond the Palin 0
Will Bunch is fed up with the political-entertainment complex. A bit from his article:
There may come a day, a couple of years from now, when our national parks are ringed with oil wells and America is embroiled in a war in the Middle East that’s even more pointless than the wars that came before it, when all the laughter will die in sorrow and folks will wonder what the hell just happened.
Follow the link for more.
Also, be sure to read Jim Wright’s take. Here’s a bit from it:
Sarah Palin’s Donald Trump endorsement speech was in fact a brilliant summation of the modern GOP.
“Attack of the Giant Goldfish” 0
“Lake effect” takes on a new meaning:
Piscatorial pictures at the link.
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
The polite can be cocky (emphasis added).
According to deputies, Bolton told them he was raking leaves at a relative’s house when the cocked .22 Magnum revolver in his pocket accidentally discharged, shooting him in his upper left thigh.
Maybe he was afraid he’d be attacked by a rogue pine cone or a ravenous squirrel.
Now, about those intelligence tests for buying a gu–oh, never mind.
Vim with Vigor 0
I have a new podcast up at HPR about how to check your spelling in Vim.
You too can podcast at HPR. Do you have something to say? Say it.
