What got me is that I had almost forgotten about the term "elevator music", which maybe is their problem. I work in a lot of different places these days, and I can't think of the last time I rode an elevator that was playing music. Now, maybe I'm just not hanging around the classiest places, but I remember back when most public elevators in businesses had heart-stoppingly boring music playing, and you'd think that I'd stumble on it now and then if it was still popular. It's almost the same thing with hold music. These days, if there is anything playing at all, it's either some radio station that's local to the business's call center or propaganda from the business itself. Usually, though, it's just stone cold silence, often making me think I've been disconnected. (Since I'm usually on a cell phone these days, I don't even expect a dial tone to clue me in.) Anyway, has this stuff largely disappeared, or am I just frequenting the wrong kind of establishments?
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Showing posts with label news. Show all posts
Tuesday, February 17, 2009
The Day the Muzak Died?
I'm not sure how it happened, but I found out about real news via the Onion, which noted that the Muzak company (elevator and hold music) filed for bankruptcy. Turns out it's true, but that's not the point.
Thursday, March 13, 2008
This dolphin is awesome
This story is just awesome.
Two whales had stranded themselves behind a sandbar along a beach in New Zealand. They repeatedly tried to get over it, but the tide was going out and they were getting ever more distressed and exhausted. It looked bleak enough that conservation authorities were considering euthanasia. Beached whale usually suffocate under their own weight if they're out of the water for very long.
Along comes a white knight, or in this case, a dolphin. It somehow managed to communicate with the whales and got them to follow it down the beach a ways to an opening in the sandbar and back out to sea.
The whales are apparently safe, as there has been no further sign of them. The dolphin was already a popular sight at the beach since he has a history of playing with swimmers, but he's now a hero to boot.
Two whales had stranded themselves behind a sandbar along a beach in New Zealand. They repeatedly tried to get over it, but the tide was going out and they were getting ever more distressed and exhausted. It looked bleak enough that conservation authorities were considering euthanasia. Beached whale usually suffocate under their own weight if they're out of the water for very long.
Along comes a white knight, or in this case, a dolphin. It somehow managed to communicate with the whales and got them to follow it down the beach a ways to an opening in the sandbar and back out to sea.
The whales are apparently safe, as there has been no further sign of them. The dolphin was already a popular sight at the beach since he has a history of playing with swimmers, but he's now a hero to boot.
Wednesday, March 12, 2008
Poor Risk/Benefit Analysis
$1,000 an hour? Seriously??? Actual total cost so far: ~$80,000 plus one rising political career. Still to be counted: legal fees, one wife (I assume), likely fines, and possible jail time. She's attractive, I suppose. Unless I'm missing something though, I guess I'm just not macho enough to think that sounds like good financial decision making.
Way to go Spitzer. I guess they just do scandals bigger in New York than we do out here in Oregon. Our best stuff seems to be garden variety "fact-finding" trips to Hawaii and the like. There was a state representative that was caught with meth after getting in a fight with her ex's new girlfriend or something like that, but I'm pretty sure nobody outside Oregon cared.
What really gets me about this guy is that he spent 8 years as attorney general of New York catching criminals and corrupt politicians using exactly the kind of financial techniques that nabbed him. She must have really been something.
If nothing else, I guess this gives the media something to get excited about besides pretening to care what voters think in otherwise politically irrelevant parts of the country.
(BTW, I can't really vouch for the accuracy of the picture. Yahoo news says it's the right person, but they lifted the picture from MySpace, so who knows?)
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Montana notes
Well, I made it back to civilization, at least compared to Montana. No offense, but there're more people in Portland than in the entire state of Montana. The biggest city in Montana (Billings, I think) still doesn't even have 100,000 people. (I sure hope nobody from Chicago or New York reads this and decides to start spouting statistics at me. I'm guessing that New York probably has more people than the whole Northwest. And don't even get me started on Tokyo and Mumbai and whatnot.)
I actually got back a day earlier than I expected. One of our customers declined service, so I could speed things up a little bit. They never said it explicitly, but I got the idea that money was tight, so they decided to forgo calibration this year. I'm not sure that's such a great plan. It's a little like deciding to do oil changes every 10,000 miles to save a few bucks. You'll probably still spend the money later and then some. It worked out for me though, so whatever.
I make a lot of noise, but I actually like travelling to Montana as far as travelling for work goes. People are friendly. The scenery is beautiful. This time around, there was some winter weather, but nothing that slowed me down. Lots of the rivers and lakes were frozen over, which is always cool. Lots of miles though. I think I put on about 2,400 miles in two weeks and stayed in 8 hotels, which is at least 6 too many. I have to give a shout out to La Quinta Inns though. Their rates are usually decent ($49.00 in Missoula for a single king room), the rooms are equipped well enough, and the beds I've had have always been extremely soft, which is a nice change from the ultra-firm plywood beds of the Super 8's and such.
I did have to be amused with Rock Creek, a little town near Missoula. Much of Montana is ranch land. Part of beef ranching is the annual activity of turning bulls into steers. Long story short -- you drive east from Missoula and see billboards for the Rock Creek Testicle Festival. That's all I'm about to say about that. I'll let the fine folks at TestyFesty.com deal with any further details.
On the way home, I happened to catch a radio story about a barge that hit and damaged the locks at the John Day Dam on the Columbia River last Friday. This is somewhat interesting in its own right, but it struck me because I was driving by the dam when I heard to story not too long after it happened. The lock was actually out of service for a few days, but the Corps of Engineers has since installed a temporary gate to restore passage to vital river traffic. The broken gate is floating on a barge until they can figure out how to make a permanent repair.
If this post sounds little random, it's because it's taken me almost a week to write in tiny bursts. I came back home to a sick toddler and last night was the first real good night's sleep this house has seen since I came home. Fun.
In penance for taking so stinking long, here're some interesting/funny videos that are not remotely related to Montana.
I actually got back a day earlier than I expected. One of our customers declined service, so I could speed things up a little bit. They never said it explicitly, but I got the idea that money was tight, so they decided to forgo calibration this year. I'm not sure that's such a great plan. It's a little like deciding to do oil changes every 10,000 miles to save a few bucks. You'll probably still spend the money later and then some. It worked out for me though, so whatever.
I make a lot of noise, but I actually like travelling to Montana as far as travelling for work goes. People are friendly. The scenery is beautiful. This time around, there was some winter weather, but nothing that slowed me down. Lots of the rivers and lakes were frozen over, which is always cool. Lots of miles though. I think I put on about 2,400 miles in two weeks and stayed in 8 hotels, which is at least 6 too many. I have to give a shout out to La Quinta Inns though. Their rates are usually decent ($49.00 in Missoula for a single king room), the rooms are equipped well enough, and the beds I've had have always been extremely soft, which is a nice change from the ultra-firm plywood beds of the Super 8's and such.
I did have to be amused with Rock Creek, a little town near Missoula. Much of Montana is ranch land. Part of beef ranching is the annual activity of turning bulls into steers. Long story short -- you drive east from Missoula and see billboards for the Rock Creek Testicle Festival. That's all I'm about to say about that. I'll let the fine folks at TestyFesty.com deal with any further details.
On the way home, I happened to catch a radio story about a barge that hit and damaged the locks at the John Day Dam on the Columbia River last Friday. This is somewhat interesting in its own right, but it struck me because I was driving by the dam when I heard to story not too long after it happened. The lock was actually out of service for a few days, but the Corps of Engineers has since installed a temporary gate to restore passage to vital river traffic. The broken gate is floating on a barge until they can figure out how to make a permanent repair.
If this post sounds little random, it's because it's taken me almost a week to write in tiny bursts. I came back home to a sick toddler and last night was the first real good night's sleep this house has seen since I came home. Fun.
In penance for taking so stinking long, here're some interesting/funny videos that are not remotely related to Montana.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Odds and Ends
Here's some more stuff that I've found interesting/amusing, but that for one reason or another, didn't justify immediate mention. You probably won't care about most of this stuff, but that's why it's all lumped together.
Since campaign season is well upon us again, check out FactCheck.org. They are pretty good about cutting through a lot of the political bull, especially where numbers are thrown around.
Anybody heard about Constitution Day? It is on the anniversary of the day of adoption of the U.S. Constitution, September 17th. Specifically it is the day that all high schools and colleges receiving federal money (most schools, certainly all public ones) must teach about the constitution. Don't worry if you don't know about this. Apparently, neither do most students. It is new as of 2004. What ever happened to government class? I remember the Constitution being a pretty important issue back when I was in high school. I don't know anyone in college who wasn't well versed in it. What's happened since? Does Congress assume that since the current administration has apparently never read the Constitution, then probably nobody else is aware of it either. As a fun additional factoid, Constitution Day was proposed by Senator Robert Byrd of WV, who apparently always carries a copy of the document with him.
Google has launched "The Google" for older adults who may or may not be terribly internet-savvy. I originally thought of my parents when I read this article, but that's not really fair. Although they don't know beans about their actual computer, they are pretty good at finding their way around the internet. Which means they're probably reading this and know I'm making fun of them. Crap.
On a related note. For those unaware, RTFM means "Read The Freaking Manual." Or something like that.
Congress is finally standing up to the President and promoting real science again. Yay!
Did you know giraffes do this? I hardly ever even see them as active at all. I saw a film of one running once, but usually they're just slowing rambling around their pen at the zoo munching leaves or whatever.
Lastly, a little debate fodder for Franny's former coworkers.
In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough?
Since campaign season is well upon us again, check out FactCheck.org. They are pretty good about cutting through a lot of the political bull, especially where numbers are thrown around.
Anybody heard about Constitution Day? It is on the anniversary of the day of adoption of the U.S. Constitution, September 17th. Specifically it is the day that all high schools and colleges receiving federal money (most schools, certainly all public ones) must teach about the constitution. Don't worry if you don't know about this. Apparently, neither do most students. It is new as of 2004. What ever happened to government class? I remember the Constitution being a pretty important issue back when I was in high school. I don't know anyone in college who wasn't well versed in it. What's happened since? Does Congress assume that since the current administration has apparently never read the Constitution, then probably nobody else is aware of it either. As a fun additional factoid, Constitution Day was proposed by Senator Robert Byrd of WV, who apparently always carries a copy of the document with him.
Google has launched "The Google" for older adults who may or may not be terribly internet-savvy. I originally thought of my parents when I read this article, but that's not really fair. Although they don't know beans about their actual computer, they are pretty good at finding their way around the internet. Which means they're probably reading this and know I'm making fun of them. Crap.
On a related note. For those unaware, RTFM means "Read The Freaking Manual." Or something like that.
Congress is finally standing up to the President and promoting real science again. Yay!
Did you know giraffes do this? I hardly ever even see them as active at all. I saw a film of one running once, but usually they're just slowing rambling around their pen at the zoo munching leaves or whatever.
Lastly, a little debate fodder for Franny's former coworkers.
In The Know: Is The Government Spying On Paranoid Schizophrenics Enough?
Tuesday, October 23, 2007
Long time, no blog
I'm not sure where I've been lately. Just not in a blogging mood I guess. Things have been happening though.
In case there's anyone reading this who doesn't also read Franny's blog, she's pregnant again. Yes, it was intentional. Thanks for asking. Not super far along yet, but she did decide to dig out the prego clothes this evening. Due next May, so there's still a bit of time to purchase naming rights. We certainly reserve editorial control over the final name, but there's probably a right price for just about anything.
Franny's folks were here last week, and we had a nice visit with them. The Mizz had a great time seeing Gran and Grandpapa. And I didn't have to cook for days. Mothers-in-law aren't that bad after all. Who knew?
The only down moment of their visit was our trip to the pumpkin patch. Actually the trip to it was fine. And the patch was fine too, as far as pumpkin patches go. The Mizz had a fun time trying to pick up pumpkins that weighed more than he did and finally settled on drumming on them. There were also tractors and a barn full of aneeemals, most of which he could name. He failed on the llama, but we'll check again next year.
JUST KIDDING!!!! There's no way in the world we'll be going back there again! At least not at pumpkin time anyway. Every person in Northwestern Oregon was apparently there. For those who don't know, Sauvie Island, as nice as it may be, has only a two lane bridge connecting it to the real world. At the end of that bridge is a light that lets maybe 10 cars out at a time before letting the main road pass you by for several minutes. Do a little math on the huge number of cars on the island for the pumpkins, and you get Dave and Franny and Gran and Grandpapa and the Mizz stuck in a car moving at just over 1 mile per hour for TWO STINKING HOURS! Then for kicks, add another half hour to get back home after the bridge, which would be expected. This apparently happens every year. You think they'd put a cop at the end of the bridge or retime the light or something.
To top it all off, why were we stuck in one car together when we had driven out in two? Because we found that our car was low on gas. This did not seem like a problem on the way in, as we were maybe 5 miles from a gas station. However, we did not count on idling for two hours and decided not to risk it. Franny and I ended up taking a couple gallons of gas back later and found that if we had just waited three more hours, the full round trip took just over an hour.
The only bonus was that we had taken two cars out there in the first place. We hadn't intended to do that, but there was a problem with our car. When we bought it a couple months ago, one of the rear seat belts was damaged and we had it replaced. However, Gran was the first person to try using it and found that the wrong latch had been installed. We now have a useless left rear seat belt until we can get it replaced again. Oh, joy.
Other than that little episode, the in-law visit was fine. They even agreed to keep an ear out for the sleeping Mizz one evening so Franny and I could have a little time out. We were tired and I still had to work in the morning, but we don't get time out together much, so we weren't about to say, "No." We spent a couple hours eating cake, drinking coffee and playing Scrabble at Palio's. We always enjoy their deserts. Plus I won the Scrabble game (but not by much). Don't tell Gran though, 'cuz she'll want to challenge me, and she will most assuredly kick my sorry butt. She's absolutely insane about that game. I don't know is she's the craziest Scrabble person in the world, but she's the craziest one I know.
It never really affected me, but Portland played host last week to a pretend real terrorist attack, which was then interrupted by a real false bomb scare.
We were one of the cities in the Topoff exercise this year. Supposedly, some terrorists blew up a dirty radiological bomb on a light rain train on the Steel Bridge, and the local, state, and federal authorities got to practice what they would do in that case. This ranged from first responders having to check out the scene and deal with "casualties" while wearing protective suits to a local animal shelter trotting out it's new emergency animal shelter trailer. Apparently they learned from Katrina and put together a way to deal with "evacuees" with "pets." In this case, some of the "pets" were "teddy bears," but they wanted to practice, so they logged them in and caged them just like the real animals that came in. Like all of these exercises so far, the responders tried out things learned from previous ones and exposed some gaping holes nobody had thought of. All in all, interesting goings on for a few days.
However, on the "wrap up" day of the exercise, there was a bomb scare when dogs checking out the hotel that Michael Chertoff was going to visit later indicated that they found something bad. Nothing was ever found, but it did close of several blocks for a few hours. In the end, the assumption was that there was some residue on one of the military or other government vehicles already at the hotel. Seems important to make sure, I would think.
In personal news, I was a little ill last Thursday and again yesterday. I don't know what that was about. Most likely, the Mizz had begun the season of bringing microbes home to me from daycare.
This weekend, we finally got up to see my folk's new place. Unfortunately, due to job stuff, we had to go up Saturday and come right back Sunday, but that's all we could do for now, and we had to see it. It's awesome. The house itself is fine I suppose, for a house that was last renovated in the 70's. Importantly though, someone had the foresight to put it on the western slope of Whidby Island, Washington overlooking the Olympic Mountains, Port Angeles, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Victoria, BC, and the San Juan Islands. It could be a teepee, for all it matters. I'm glad to report that Dad is getting excellent use out of the telescope we got him for retirement. We thought he might have a good time watching the ships going by into Seattle. We didn't know that both he and Mom would have a hard time doing anything else. From what I hear, they are forever running because one of them sees a cool ship or a whale or something. The scope even has a prominent place in their living room and appears to be permanently located for easy, and constant, use. I want to retire.
We also met up with my younger sister in Seattle on the way home. Younger, but she just turned 30 on Friday, so I don't know if that counts as young. I was definitely told that I was old at 30. Anyway, she's doing well. Plus she's pregnant too. We got an "official" announcement, so I suppose it's okay to share. Plus plus, she's due the same day as Franny. What're the chances?
To bring things completely up to date, I got to visit the dentist this afternoon. I think I mentioned a while back that I would need some crowns. Dental work from years ago finally giving up the ghost, or the teeth anyway. Well, now I have two temporary ones in place. I'm going to be eating like an invalid for a couple weeks until I can get the real ones. They don't look horrible, but they apparently can't handle things like biting. Joy. The experience was as good as it could have been, I suppose, but I can't say I enjoy being pumped on adrenaline for an hour and half while having to sit still. It's not like it hurt, what with the gallon of Novocaine, but I kept imagining it was about to start any minute. When a guy is drilling in your teeth, it's hard to think of much else.
This would have been easier in a few smaller posts.
In case there's anyone reading this who doesn't also read Franny's blog, she's pregnant again. Yes, it was intentional. Thanks for asking. Not super far along yet, but she did decide to dig out the prego clothes this evening. Due next May, so there's still a bit of time to purchase naming rights. We certainly reserve editorial control over the final name, but there's probably a right price for just about anything.
Franny's folks were here last week, and we had a nice visit with them. The Mizz had a great time seeing Gran and Grandpapa. And I didn't have to cook for days. Mothers-in-law aren't that bad after all. Who knew?
The only down moment of their visit was our trip to the pumpkin patch. Actually the trip to it was fine. And the patch was fine too, as far as pumpkin patches go. The Mizz had a fun time trying to pick up pumpkins that weighed more than he did and finally settled on drumming on them. There were also tractors and a barn full of aneeemals, most of which he could name. He failed on the llama, but we'll check again next year.
JUST KIDDING!!!! There's no way in the world we'll be going back there again! At least not at pumpkin time anyway. Every person in Northwestern Oregon was apparently there. For those who don't know, Sauvie Island, as nice as it may be, has only a two lane bridge connecting it to the real world. At the end of that bridge is a light that lets maybe 10 cars out at a time before letting the main road pass you by for several minutes. Do a little math on the huge number of cars on the island for the pumpkins, and you get Dave and Franny and Gran and Grandpapa and the Mizz stuck in a car moving at just over 1 mile per hour for TWO STINKING HOURS! Then for kicks, add another half hour to get back home after the bridge, which would be expected. This apparently happens every year. You think they'd put a cop at the end of the bridge or retime the light or something.
To top it all off, why were we stuck in one car together when we had driven out in two? Because we found that our car was low on gas. This did not seem like a problem on the way in, as we were maybe 5 miles from a gas station. However, we did not count on idling for two hours and decided not to risk it. Franny and I ended up taking a couple gallons of gas back later and found that if we had just waited three more hours, the full round trip took just over an hour.
The only bonus was that we had taken two cars out there in the first place. We hadn't intended to do that, but there was a problem with our car. When we bought it a couple months ago, one of the rear seat belts was damaged and we had it replaced. However, Gran was the first person to try using it and found that the wrong latch had been installed. We now have a useless left rear seat belt until we can get it replaced again. Oh, joy.
Other than that little episode, the in-law visit was fine. They even agreed to keep an ear out for the sleeping Mizz one evening so Franny and I could have a little time out. We were tired and I still had to work in the morning, but we don't get time out together much, so we weren't about to say, "No." We spent a couple hours eating cake, drinking coffee and playing Scrabble at Palio's. We always enjoy their deserts. Plus I won the Scrabble game (but not by much). Don't tell Gran though, 'cuz she'll want to challenge me, and she will most assuredly kick my sorry butt. She's absolutely insane about that game. I don't know is she's the craziest Scrabble person in the world, but she's the craziest one I know.
It never really affected me, but Portland played host last week to a pretend real terrorist attack, which was then interrupted by a real false bomb scare.
We were one of the cities in the Topoff exercise this year. Supposedly, some terrorists blew up a dirty radiological bomb on a light rain train on the Steel Bridge, and the local, state, and federal authorities got to practice what they would do in that case. This ranged from first responders having to check out the scene and deal with "casualties" while wearing protective suits to a local animal shelter trotting out it's new emergency animal shelter trailer. Apparently they learned from Katrina and put together a way to deal with "evacuees" with "pets." In this case, some of the "pets" were "teddy bears," but they wanted to practice, so they logged them in and caged them just like the real animals that came in. Like all of these exercises so far, the responders tried out things learned from previous ones and exposed some gaping holes nobody had thought of. All in all, interesting goings on for a few days.
However, on the "wrap up" day of the exercise, there was a bomb scare when dogs checking out the hotel that Michael Chertoff was going to visit later indicated that they found something bad. Nothing was ever found, but it did close of several blocks for a few hours. In the end, the assumption was that there was some residue on one of the military or other government vehicles already at the hotel. Seems important to make sure, I would think.
In personal news, I was a little ill last Thursday and again yesterday. I don't know what that was about. Most likely, the Mizz had begun the season of bringing microbes home to me from daycare.
This weekend, we finally got up to see my folk's new place. Unfortunately, due to job stuff, we had to go up Saturday and come right back Sunday, but that's all we could do for now, and we had to see it. It's awesome. The house itself is fine I suppose, for a house that was last renovated in the 70's. Importantly though, someone had the foresight to put it on the western slope of Whidby Island, Washington overlooking the Olympic Mountains, Port Angeles, the Straits of Juan de Fuca, Victoria, BC, and the San Juan Islands. It could be a teepee, for all it matters. I'm glad to report that Dad is getting excellent use out of the telescope we got him for retirement. We thought he might have a good time watching the ships going by into Seattle. We didn't know that both he and Mom would have a hard time doing anything else. From what I hear, they are forever running because one of them sees a cool ship or a whale or something. The scope even has a prominent place in their living room and appears to be permanently located for easy, and constant, use. I want to retire.
We also met up with my younger sister in Seattle on the way home. Younger, but she just turned 30 on Friday, so I don't know if that counts as young. I was definitely told that I was old at 30. Anyway, she's doing well. Plus she's pregnant too. We got an "official" announcement, so I suppose it's okay to share. Plus plus, she's due the same day as Franny. What're the chances?
To bring things completely up to date, I got to visit the dentist this afternoon. I think I mentioned a while back that I would need some crowns. Dental work from years ago finally giving up the ghost, or the teeth anyway. Well, now I have two temporary ones in place. I'm going to be eating like an invalid for a couple weeks until I can get the real ones. They don't look horrible, but they apparently can't handle things like biting. Joy. The experience was as good as it could have been, I suppose, but I can't say I enjoy being pumped on adrenaline for an hour and half while having to sit still. It's not like it hurt, what with the gallon of Novocaine, but I kept imagining it was about to start any minute. When a guy is drilling in your teeth, it's hard to think of much else.
This would have been easier in a few smaller posts.
Monday, October 15, 2007
And the Mother-of-the-Year Award Goes to...
...the woman in Oklahoma who decided to use her toddler as a shield when a bounty hunter tried to use a taser on her boyfriend. There are just so many wonderful parts to this story, I don't know where to begin.
Maybe this is why my sister decided to have so many kids. A little army of human shields. For like 9 years, she's had someone small enough to keep her out of harm's way. Heck, for most of that time, she's been able to have at least two of them at wearable age; a toddler in a backpack with a little one strapped on the front. A little drooling flak jacket. Good thinking Jenn. Maybe there's a method to your madness after all.
I'm not sure the Mizz would stop much. He's kind of a bean pole. His alarm scream is excellent though.
Maybe this is why my sister decided to have so many kids. A little army of human shields. For like 9 years, she's had someone small enough to keep her out of harm's way. Heck, for most of that time, she's been able to have at least two of them at wearable age; a toddler in a backpack with a little one strapped on the front. A little drooling flak jacket. Good thinking Jenn. Maybe there's a method to your madness after all.
I'm not sure the Mizz would stop much. He's kind of a bean pole. His alarm scream is excellent though.
Tuesday, August 14, 2007
News Caught my Attention Today
I'm not sure why, but news caught my attention today. I listen to what's going on in the world a lot, but for some reason, several things today made me feel like commenting.
First, somebody wants to replace this artwork with a Walgreens.
I'm not sure why. Drug stores are a dime a dozen, but cars on spikes are a little harder to come by. I only care about this random piece of weird art because I remember it from Wayne's World, which wasn't a great movie by any means, but I had fun with it at the time anyway.
Next there's the latest recall of toys from China, from Mattel again. Several recalls, some for lead paint, which are China's fault, but mostly for detaching magnets, which are Mattel's fault. China made the magnetic toys exactly like they were told to, but it turned out to be a bad design. This affects something like 9 million toys. For those keeping score, that's about 10 times as many as Mattel's recall from earlier in the month. China's not looking too good these days, but for perspective, most toys these days are made in China, so it's not unusual that most of the problems would come from that direction. We're still plenty capable of coming up with automobile parts and food made in America that need to be recalled. You can check this site to see if you have any of the affected toys around. The Mattel recalls are in the "Consumer Products" section. This is a good page for the paranoid to bookmark for future everybody-panic news stories.
Baltimore just announced plans to push for a gun offender registry. From what I understand, it would be similar to a sex offender registry, in that convicted gun offenders would have to notify the police of their whereabouts regularly. There is of course the question of whether it would actually be effective, seeing as the type of person who is going to commit multiple gun crimes might not be likely to keep his address updated on a bureaucratic government list. However, assume for a moment that it would actually deter some people and therefore save lives. In that case, is this a good idea? Any opinion is interesting, but I'm more interested for the moment in hearing the opinions of the more pro-gun side. From the gun-control advocate point of view, this is obviously a no-brainer, so it's not much of a jumping-off point for discussion. I'm not generally against guns, but I don't currently own one either. I understand the historical reasons for the existence of the 2nd amendment and I am well aware that for a large portion of the American population, the right to own a gun is non-negotiable. However, I also understand the "well regulated militia" part of the 2nd amendment and the fact that weapons have shown themselves to cause a lot of problems and therefore require some kind of control in a civil society. The fact is that the people on this list would be convicted of some kind of gun crime and therefore, by definition, would not be the "law-abiding citizens" always touted by the gun crowd. The question is, does this make a difference to the policy's acceptability, or does it still fall under the slippery-slope argument that tends to end discussions before they even get started? I'm actually curious what any of you might have to say about this. Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
I also read about the connection between waist size and heart trouble. So much for BMI. Now we have another number to obsess about. This issue has more meaning to me these days, as Franny and I have both dedicated ourselves to jumping back on the health bandwagon. We've gotten back into running, even getting new shoes, which hasn't happened in a while, but has made a world of difference. Apparently, 6 years is too long to depend on a pair of running shoes, even if you don't run that much. Good to know. Anyway, we're serious this time I think, even to the point of getting up early to do it. Good thing we got this itch now and not in February. Hopefully, by the time the weather gets bad again, we'll be into good habits already.
The last thing that caught my ear this afternoon was Portland's first-of-its-kind biodiesel requirement. All diesel sold in the city starting tomorrow will have to be at least 5% biodiesel, which can be used in any diesel engine. The only exception is the one truck stop in the city limits, which would likely lose all of it's business, since biodiesel is slightly more expensive and trucks could certainly make it another 10 miles to the next option. We have a biodiesel plant in the city that is more than capable of keeping up and is actually well situated to make far more as the need arises. 5% doesn't seem like much, but a 5% decrease in oil-dependence is a good start anyway. I'm guessing the rest of the state and country will be watching this experiment closely.
I'm not sure why I felt the need to expound on all that stuff. I just needed to run off at the mouth I guess (run off at the keyboard?). If you're still reading by this point, I guess you didn't have much better to do either. Sorry about that.
First, somebody wants to replace this artwork with a Walgreens.
I'm not sure why. Drug stores are a dime a dozen, but cars on spikes are a little harder to come by. I only care about this random piece of weird art because I remember it from Wayne's World, which wasn't a great movie by any means, but I had fun with it at the time anyway.
Next there's the latest recall of toys from China, from Mattel again. Several recalls, some for lead paint, which are China's fault, but mostly for detaching magnets, which are Mattel's fault. China made the magnetic toys exactly like they were told to, but it turned out to be a bad design. This affects something like 9 million toys. For those keeping score, that's about 10 times as many as Mattel's recall from earlier in the month. China's not looking too good these days, but for perspective, most toys these days are made in China, so it's not unusual that most of the problems would come from that direction. We're still plenty capable of coming up with automobile parts and food made in America that need to be recalled. You can check this site to see if you have any of the affected toys around. The Mattel recalls are in the "Consumer Products" section. This is a good page for the paranoid to bookmark for future everybody-panic news stories.
Baltimore just announced plans to push for a gun offender registry. From what I understand, it would be similar to a sex offender registry, in that convicted gun offenders would have to notify the police of their whereabouts regularly. There is of course the question of whether it would actually be effective, seeing as the type of person who is going to commit multiple gun crimes might not be likely to keep his address updated on a bureaucratic government list. However, assume for a moment that it would actually deter some people and therefore save lives. In that case, is this a good idea? Any opinion is interesting, but I'm more interested for the moment in hearing the opinions of the more pro-gun side. From the gun-control advocate point of view, this is obviously a no-brainer, so it's not much of a jumping-off point for discussion. I'm not generally against guns, but I don't currently own one either. I understand the historical reasons for the existence of the 2nd amendment and I am well aware that for a large portion of the American population, the right to own a gun is non-negotiable. However, I also understand the "well regulated militia" part of the 2nd amendment and the fact that weapons have shown themselves to cause a lot of problems and therefore require some kind of control in a civil society. The fact is that the people on this list would be convicted of some kind of gun crime and therefore, by definition, would not be the "law-abiding citizens" always touted by the gun crowd. The question is, does this make a difference to the policy's acceptability, or does it still fall under the slippery-slope argument that tends to end discussions before they even get started? I'm actually curious what any of you might have to say about this. Leave a comment if you have an opinion.
I also read about the connection between waist size and heart trouble. So much for BMI. Now we have another number to obsess about. This issue has more meaning to me these days, as Franny and I have both dedicated ourselves to jumping back on the health bandwagon. We've gotten back into running, even getting new shoes, which hasn't happened in a while, but has made a world of difference. Apparently, 6 years is too long to depend on a pair of running shoes, even if you don't run that much. Good to know. Anyway, we're serious this time I think, even to the point of getting up early to do it. Good thing we got this itch now and not in February. Hopefully, by the time the weather gets bad again, we'll be into good habits already.
The last thing that caught my ear this afternoon was Portland's first-of-its-kind biodiesel requirement. All diesel sold in the city starting tomorrow will have to be at least 5% biodiesel, which can be used in any diesel engine. The only exception is the one truck stop in the city limits, which would likely lose all of it's business, since biodiesel is slightly more expensive and trucks could certainly make it another 10 miles to the next option. We have a biodiesel plant in the city that is more than capable of keeping up and is actually well situated to make far more as the need arises. 5% doesn't seem like much, but a 5% decrease in oil-dependence is a good start anyway. I'm guessing the rest of the state and country will be watching this experiment closely.
I'm not sure why I felt the need to expound on all that stuff. I just needed to run off at the mouth I guess (run off at the keyboard?). If you're still reading by this point, I guess you didn't have much better to do either. Sorry about that.
Sunday, July 29, 2007
But Officer, I couldn't have been doing more than 25,000 mph
I'm sure by now, everyone's heard about NASA's drunken astronauts. I'm amused that the best an brightest pilots and scientists that the federal government can find need an explicit clarification that, yes, the 12-hour rule about drinking before flying does indeed apply to space flight as well. Oh, well, these are top gun style test pilots after all. And, as one caller mentioned on the radio, "I'd need a few drinks in me too before you got me into a rocket built by the lowest bidder."
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