2019 archive
Facebook Frolics 0
Molly Baker reports on the phenomenon that I might dub “Facebook blinders,” in which persons confuse their Facebook feeds with the Big Wide World. Here’s a bit:
And there’s the disconnect.
Liz Duffy of Radnor recently used the site to let friends know her 92-year-old father had died. “It was very helpful in getting the word out to a lot of people quickly,” she says. “But there were people I would have heard from and didn’t. And that’s when I realized I never told them.”
“An Armed Society Is a Polite Society” 0
Raise your children to be polite.
Thus passeth another day in the playgrounds of NRA Paradise.
The Seltzer King 0
David gets a telephone call from a fake IRS scammer during his show and decides to return the call.
Afterthought:
At a computer forum where I have participated for years, one of the regulars told of stringing along a phone scammer for about half an hour, and then revealing said stringathon. To his surprise, the caller responded, “But this was the only job I could find!”
A Pre-Existing Condition 0
Paul Krugman and Dick Polman differ on what precisely said pre-existing condition may be. Read them both and decide which one is correct.
Afterthought:
Their two diagnoses are not mutually exclusive.
Make TWUUG Your LUG 0
Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source. Use computers to do what you want, not what someone else wants you to do. Learn how to use GNU/Linux and its plethora of free and open source software to get stuff done with computers.
It’s not hard; it’s just different.
When: Monthly TWUUG meeting at 7:30 p. m. on the first Thursday of the month (April 4, 2019). Pre-meeting dinner at Chicago Uno, JANAF shopping center, 6:00 p. m. (map)
Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome.
Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk Training Room (map). (Wireless and wired internet connection available.) Turn right upon entering, then left at the last corridor and look for the open meeting room.
Chartering a Course of Disaster 0
The charter school movement originated out of good will as an attempt to fix struggling public schools on the cheap by allowing charter school operators to try new things.
That was the rationale, at least. Of course, it hasn’t fixed anything. Fixes cost money and “on the cheap” is never a good strategy; you do get what you pay for.
Instead, this “movement” has mutated from a hopeful fix into a con and a scam. In the course of a longer article about legal obstacles facing Pennsylvania school districts who want to fix failing charters (in a fix over fixing the fix), Lisa Haver tells the story of such charter gone bad:
Several Philadelphia Daily News stories reported that Aspira had filed phony receipts for contractors and diverted funds from the Renaissance schools to their other charters, a clear misuse of taxpayer funds.
To ice the cake, Pennsylvania’s charter school law makes shutting down the charter cons almost impossible.
Do please read the rest.
Skirting Disaster 0
Honest to Betsy, you can’t make this stuff up.
Raising the Barr, Reprise 0
Shaun Mullen argues that Attoadey-General William Barr is holding a brush and a bucket of whitewash.
Still Rising Again after All These Years 0
David Atkins looks behind Donald Trump’s “nationalism” and sees America’s original sin. An excerpt:
Life in the Bubble 0
Phil Reed reviews recent research as to whether “social” media promotes “digital bubbles” and political polarization.
He finds that the research to be inconclusive but tends towards a yes. Here’s a bit; follow the link for the rest, including summaries of several studies.
“An Armed Society” Meets “Tales of the Trumpling” 0
Politeness in the time of Trump:
WSB reports that Banks was Facetiming with his girlfriend when he knocked on the wrong door.
He then walked away and was confronted by 32-year-old Darryl Bynes out on the balcony.
Police said not long after, he shot the teen.
“I heard him say, ‘Sorry, I’m at the wrong house.’ Then the man said, ‘No you’re not. N****, you at the right house.’ And he shot two more times,” Banks’ girlfriend told WSB in an interview.
WSB reports that Bynes initially claimed he shot Banks in self-defense, but officers said he shot the teen from his balcony as Banks was coming down the stairs and trying to get away.