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All sorts of things to be done, of course, but it’s nice being able to take a weekend off. I’m still missing a lot of things, and probably need to buy furniture for others, but when those things get here, we’ll get around to that. If there were some strange entries by your friends today, it might have been because of Rabbit Hole Day. In the spirit of that, I present a regular news post, which often trumps the fiction of my mind when it comes to Bizarro World adventures.
Round and round the falling satellite goes, where it stops, nobody knows, or isn’t saying, at least. There are probably pools in Vegas already set up on this matter.
Over the weekend, there were some more presidential primaries. Both sides still seem to be in flux in determining a frontrunner - Senator Obama won the Democratic side, Mr. McCain the Republican. This matter may very well go all the way to the convention before anyone is actually determined to be the winner.
The economic stimulus plan passed by the House of Representatives composed of tax breaks has had additional riders attached to it in the Senate. This may end up killing said plan, and while that might mean less money in my pocket in a rebate check, it’s probably much better for everyone, fiscally. After all, as Austin Cline details, there are a lot better things Mr. Bush could do to try and stimulate the economy or help the people in the direst of straits. Propping up a housing bubble isn't one of them.
This is really after-the-fact. The FCC is considering imposing a $1.4 million USD fine on the 52 ABC stations that broadcast a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue featuring a woman's unclothed butt. This episode aired... four years and some ago, and now there’s a fine? Unless the appeals process took that long, there’s a serious time gap in between broadcast and fine. Considering how fast the FCC moved on a wardrobe malfunction, what’s taken them so long here?
Papers, please. The latest Homeland Security regs are just one in a series of new methods for the government to prevent the people from traveling where they want, unless they have government papers. Perhaps in this rapdily-approaching dystopia, our cellular phones will keep track of where we are most times. Assuming they don’t do so already. And then, when we protest the loss of our rights, the taser glove will come out and remind us of our position.
Canadian is the new black? As someone who’s grown up near the Canadians, and continues to leave near them, I would have thought Canadian would have been shorthand for socialists or something, but no. Apparently, “Canadian” may be a code word for blacks, to be used in contexts much like “nigger” was. I haven’t heard anything like this, but then again, I’m close to the Canadians. (See what I mean about truth being stranger than fiction?)
Misinterpretation Theatre, over the prayer a Muslim gave to open the Iowa Legislature's session. Apparently, the Christians who heard the prayer didn’t hear a fellow monotheist asking YHWH to grant the believers victory over the nonbelievers (which probably cheesed off all the non-Abrahamic types), but an idolater asking for the victory of his religion over the One True Faith.
Cherry-picked statistics, however, accompany Larry Elder's declaration that liberals are less open-minded than conservatives, based on the average opinion of self-described “extreme conservatives” of Bill Clinton and Al Gore versus the average opinion of self-described “extreme liberals” of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Apples, meet oranges. I don’t think Bill Clinton had people saying that he was destroying the country, and the Democratic party, and that he was leading the country into unjustified wars, spending well beyond his budget, and insisting that his way was the only way. If you looked at straight opinion polls of the time, Slick Willie had a much better approval rating than The Decider does now. I don’t think it’s anywhere near fair to try and compare the two as a way of saying that liberals aren’t as open-minded as conservatives.
And in our “correlation is not causation” department, and probably set up just to show off one book in the sea of 100, Books That Make You Dumb, which is really showing a correlation between favorite book (of the 100 most popular ones on facebook) and average SAT/ACT score. See if you can spot the book the whole graph was probably constructed for.
Free DRM'd songs, compatible with iPods, all from QTrax. Supposedly, they’ve found a way to get onto an iPod without using FairPlay, Apple’s DRM scheme. The downloads scour file-sharing networks, can be stored indefinitely, but supposedly can’t be burnt to CD. Well, good luck to them. Someone will probably break their DRM scheme at some point, but it’s a nice thought.
Medical science has good news for us - an influenza vaccine that works against all "A" strains of influenza has successfully passed phase I trials on humans. This vaccine would need to be administered once in a long while for complete protection against that particular strain. We’ll see whether the vaccine passes through the rest of its trials.
Last for tonight, the medicinal marijuana vending machine. For quick and easy dispensing of product to those who have been authorized to use it.
And that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow, more news, more opinion, more potentially true tales of my life.
Round and round the falling satellite goes, where it stops, nobody knows, or isn’t saying, at least. There are probably pools in Vegas already set up on this matter.
Over the weekend, there were some more presidential primaries. Both sides still seem to be in flux in determining a frontrunner - Senator Obama won the Democratic side, Mr. McCain the Republican. This matter may very well go all the way to the convention before anyone is actually determined to be the winner.
The economic stimulus plan passed by the House of Representatives composed of tax breaks has had additional riders attached to it in the Senate. This may end up killing said plan, and while that might mean less money in my pocket in a rebate check, it’s probably much better for everyone, fiscally. After all, as Austin Cline details, there are a lot better things Mr. Bush could do to try and stimulate the economy or help the people in the direst of straits. Propping up a housing bubble isn't one of them.
This is really after-the-fact. The FCC is considering imposing a $1.4 million USD fine on the 52 ABC stations that broadcast a 2003 episode of NYPD Blue featuring a woman's unclothed butt. This episode aired... four years and some ago, and now there’s a fine? Unless the appeals process took that long, there’s a serious time gap in between broadcast and fine. Considering how fast the FCC moved on a wardrobe malfunction, what’s taken them so long here?
Papers, please. The latest Homeland Security regs are just one in a series of new methods for the government to prevent the people from traveling where they want, unless they have government papers. Perhaps in this rapdily-approaching dystopia, our cellular phones will keep track of where we are most times. Assuming they don’t do so already. And then, when we protest the loss of our rights, the taser glove will come out and remind us of our position.
Canadian is the new black? As someone who’s grown up near the Canadians, and continues to leave near them, I would have thought Canadian would have been shorthand for socialists or something, but no. Apparently, “Canadian” may be a code word for blacks, to be used in contexts much like “nigger” was. I haven’t heard anything like this, but then again, I’m close to the Canadians. (See what I mean about truth being stranger than fiction?)
Misinterpretation Theatre, over the prayer a Muslim gave to open the Iowa Legislature's session. Apparently, the Christians who heard the prayer didn’t hear a fellow monotheist asking YHWH to grant the believers victory over the nonbelievers (which probably cheesed off all the non-Abrahamic types), but an idolater asking for the victory of his religion over the One True Faith.
Cherry-picked statistics, however, accompany Larry Elder's declaration that liberals are less open-minded than conservatives, based on the average opinion of self-described “extreme conservatives” of Bill Clinton and Al Gore versus the average opinion of self-described “extreme liberals” of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Apples, meet oranges. I don’t think Bill Clinton had people saying that he was destroying the country, and the Democratic party, and that he was leading the country into unjustified wars, spending well beyond his budget, and insisting that his way was the only way. If you looked at straight opinion polls of the time, Slick Willie had a much better approval rating than The Decider does now. I don’t think it’s anywhere near fair to try and compare the two as a way of saying that liberals aren’t as open-minded as conservatives.
And in our “correlation is not causation” department, and probably set up just to show off one book in the sea of 100, Books That Make You Dumb, which is really showing a correlation between favorite book (of the 100 most popular ones on facebook) and average SAT/ACT score. See if you can spot the book the whole graph was probably constructed for.
Free DRM'd songs, compatible with iPods, all from QTrax. Supposedly, they’ve found a way to get onto an iPod without using FairPlay, Apple’s DRM scheme. The downloads scour file-sharing networks, can be stored indefinitely, but supposedly can’t be burnt to CD. Well, good luck to them. Someone will probably break their DRM scheme at some point, but it’s a nice thought.
Medical science has good news for us - an influenza vaccine that works against all "A" strains of influenza has successfully passed phase I trials on humans. This vaccine would need to be administered once in a long while for complete protection against that particular strain. We’ll see whether the vaccine passes through the rest of its trials.
Last for tonight, the medicinal marijuana vending machine. For quick and easy dispensing of product to those who have been authorized to use it.
And that’s it for tonight. Tomorrow, more news, more opinion, more potentially true tales of my life.
