Rapidpost - 28 February 2008
Feb. 29th, 2008 12:42 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
silveradeptGoing to be away all day tomorrow, learning my game stuffs. Probably no entries this weekend, unless something really catches my eye. Want to get this one in before too late, so let’s get started.
Our bureau chief of Unabashed Feminism,![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ldragoon read about crowhen‘s several tens of thousands of dollars dental plight. I used it as an excellent example as to why good universal coverage should be done in the United States. Coming form Jinnayah’s realm, how private insurance would not have necessarily been any help in making this procedure any cheaper. And furthermore, some rather useless trolls appeared and attempted to say that the full-time webcomic artist that manages to make enough to pay the bills (unlike a large amount of webcartoonists or webcomic artists) should have been able to save up sufficiently for this procedure or cut back on her expenses to make it happen. It’s a tired line of “those who ask for help obviously don’t deserve it and are lazy. If they just worked harder and lived on as little money as they could, they’d be flush with cash to pay for this”. She’s younger than I am, which means she hasn’t exactly had time to build any sort of cash reserves, and certainly not a reserve that large. At my current savings rate, it would take me almost to the point of paying off my loans before I started approaching that amount. Her family would help if they could, but not everyone has parents or relatives that can spare that kind of money. As things are, remarkably, through the generosity of people, she’s raised close to a tenth of the funds already. So if you have some money to toss her way and feel that it’s good to do so, I’m sure she’d appreciate it.
Here’s a problem with the way Israel is handing things, at least if the following account is true in the particulars. Rockets killing a college student should not beget a rocket shelling of Hamas's offices. It just convinces more people that Israel is an occupier, cruel, and uninterested in anything but genocide.
More photos of torture at Abu Ghraib have surfaced. And they look just as good as the previous set.
After mentioning it in an earlier entry, the virtual fence is suffering technical difficulties. Now, I would be fibbing to say that I wasn’t grinning ear-to-ear from the revelation. That may be because I take a perverse sort of pleasure in watching certain government departments fail. But that’s just me.
Barack Obama refuses the boxers or briefs question, and makes smart replies to pretty airheaded softball questions asked by Us Weekly. I like it. Keeps the political discussions serious. Like OpinionJournal's distaste for Barack Obama's plans to reward businesses that employ at home and punish those who outsource. Or Victor Davis Hanson implying that the world will challenge Barack Obama to be a leader and be tough on terror.
And it hopefully stops publications from putting digital ink on things like image manipulation contests designed to create a perfectly beautiful celebrity by amalgamating features of current celebrities.
The University of Washington is trying to see what a future where everything is RFID'd is like. The participants in the study have pretty fine-grained control over their information, which is unlike the likely future with lots of RFID. RFID may not even be needed, if projects like the Air Force's tracking of social interactions in an attempt to ferret out whistleblowers or possible malefactors are successful.
Other tracking options include roads and cars that will talk to each other to make themselves more efficient.
Riffing on the odd brick note story reported on earlier in the week, American Samidzat has eleven other notes that could be attached to bank window-smashing bricks.
As an effective piece of satire, and because the message presented is too good and useful to pass up, our “Ha, ha, that’s serious!” department presents abstinence-only driver's education.
A concept car that found no traction in the automotive world has returned as a piece of art for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit. Reading the specs on the car, it’s a wonder that it wasn’t put into production - I guess someone thought the fuel efficiency just couldn’t make up for problems with the aesthetics.
Speaking of oil and gas, Exxon is still arguing over the punishment it should receive for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Which happened nineteen years ago. The damages can’t be such that they would seriously hurt the company. They’re only three week’s worth of profits to them. But Exxon continues on trying to not have to pay anything.
Last for tonight, how to build a cardboard spaceship. And a peek into the lives of Consumer Reports' secret shoppers. And my brain fuses them together in some sort of unholy fashion when confronted with the Echo Park Time Travel Mart.
Anyway, bedtime.
Our bureau chief of Unabashed Feminism,
ldragoon read about crowhen‘s several tens of thousands of dollars dental plight. I used it as an excellent example as to why good universal coverage should be done in the United States. Coming form Jinnayah’s realm, how private insurance would not have necessarily been any help in making this procedure any cheaper. And furthermore, some rather useless trolls appeared and attempted to say that the full-time webcomic artist that manages to make enough to pay the bills (unlike a large amount of webcartoonists or webcomic artists) should have been able to save up sufficiently for this procedure or cut back on her expenses to make it happen. It’s a tired line of “those who ask for help obviously don’t deserve it and are lazy. If they just worked harder and lived on as little money as they could, they’d be flush with cash to pay for this”. She’s younger than I am, which means she hasn’t exactly had time to build any sort of cash reserves, and certainly not a reserve that large. At my current savings rate, it would take me almost to the point of paying off my loans before I started approaching that amount. Her family would help if they could, but not everyone has parents or relatives that can spare that kind of money. As things are, remarkably, through the generosity of people, she’s raised close to a tenth of the funds already. So if you have some money to toss her way and feel that it’s good to do so, I’m sure she’d appreciate it. Here’s a problem with the way Israel is handing things, at least if the following account is true in the particulars. Rockets killing a college student should not beget a rocket shelling of Hamas's offices. It just convinces more people that Israel is an occupier, cruel, and uninterested in anything but genocide.
More photos of torture at Abu Ghraib have surfaced. And they look just as good as the previous set.
After mentioning it in an earlier entry, the virtual fence is suffering technical difficulties. Now, I would be fibbing to say that I wasn’t grinning ear-to-ear from the revelation. That may be because I take a perverse sort of pleasure in watching certain government departments fail. But that’s just me.
Barack Obama refuses the boxers or briefs question, and makes smart replies to pretty airheaded softball questions asked by Us Weekly. I like it. Keeps the political discussions serious. Like OpinionJournal's distaste for Barack Obama's plans to reward businesses that employ at home and punish those who outsource. Or Victor Davis Hanson implying that the world will challenge Barack Obama to be a leader and be tough on terror.
And it hopefully stops publications from putting digital ink on things like image manipulation contests designed to create a perfectly beautiful celebrity by amalgamating features of current celebrities.
The University of Washington is trying to see what a future where everything is RFID'd is like. The participants in the study have pretty fine-grained control over their information, which is unlike the likely future with lots of RFID. RFID may not even be needed, if projects like the Air Force's tracking of social interactions in an attempt to ferret out whistleblowers or possible malefactors are successful.
Other tracking options include roads and cars that will talk to each other to make themselves more efficient.
Riffing on the odd brick note story reported on earlier in the week, American Samidzat has eleven other notes that could be attached to bank window-smashing bricks.
As an effective piece of satire, and because the message presented is too good and useful to pass up, our “Ha, ha, that’s serious!” department presents abstinence-only driver's education.
A concept car that found no traction in the automotive world has returned as a piece of art for the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibit. Reading the specs on the car, it’s a wonder that it wasn’t put into production - I guess someone thought the fuel efficiency just couldn’t make up for problems with the aesthetics.
Speaking of oil and gas, Exxon is still arguing over the punishment it should receive for the Exxon Valdez oil spill. Which happened nineteen years ago. The damages can’t be such that they would seriously hurt the company. They’re only three week’s worth of profits to them. But Exxon continues on trying to not have to pay anything.
Last for tonight, how to build a cardboard spaceship. And a peek into the lives of Consumer Reports' secret shoppers. And my brain fuses them together in some sort of unholy fashion when confronted with the Echo Park Time Travel Mart.
Anyway, bedtime.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 12:07 pm (UTC)i despise that sort of logic (and i realize that you're not putting forth the idea, and that you're decrying the logic of it). i don't understand where this reasoning came from. people are often already ashamed to ask for help, and when they finally get the nerve to ask, they're criticized for being weak or lectured on lacking foresight to plan for emergencies.
we're still not quite out of the woods financially, so i know what it's like to feel that the wolves are at the door.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 02:13 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 03:44 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 10:28 pm (UTC)Still controversial, though, and I'm ambivalent about the net impact.
no subject
Date: 2008-02-29 04:13 pm (UTC)I heart the abstinence-only driver's education bit. Although I did get a bit creeped out about Grandpa taking you out to the field to teach you how to shift. But hilarious nonetheless.
Happy Leap Day dOOd!