Friday, January 28, 2005

Women in science, not at Harvard

If Bush referred to 'innate differences between men and women' people all over the country would be marching on Washington with tar and feathers! If Ashcroft said it about race or ethnicity or sexual orientation he would be lynched! But when the President of Harvard says it, he gets to weasel his way out of it by saying it was supposed to be provocative. He should be out of a job! God knows I would be.
http://www.boston.com/news/education/higher/articles/2005/01/17/summers_remarks_on_women_draw_fire/

Not to be outdone George Will (the twit with the bow tie) sounds off in defense of Larry Summers. One day George will realize the bow tie is for weddings and waiters.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A40073-2005Jan26.html

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Cream or sugar with your coliform coffee?

CNN... "The latest round of testing produced positive results for presence
of the bacteria coliform in 29 of 169 randomly selected passenger aircraft
carrying domestic and international passengers. The tests were done on water
from galley water taps and lavatory faucets on planes at 14 airports
throughout the United States."

So if the airframe is in good shape, and the pilot is not drunk, and there
are no bad guys on board - your still not safe - the water is bad so says
the EPA. Now I only drink bottled water, and don't sip watter in the potty
BUT the flight attendents wash their hands in it, and I bet they make coffee
with it - YUCK!

http://www.cnn.com/2005/TRAVEL/01/19/airline.water.ap/index.html

So exactly what is coliform ...
Coliform is a family of bacteria common in soils, plants and animals. The coliform family is made up of several groups, one of which is the fecal coliform group, which is found in the intestinal tracts of warm-blooded animals including humans.


Thursday, January 13, 2005

Prince Idiot

Centuries of inbreeding, years of the finest schools in the UK, Queen Grandma and this is the product! Third in line for the throne of England. This guy is a punk, a playboy, and a neir-do-well in the finest tradition of the crown! Maybe his free pass with the media is over.

He's always reminded me of one of the rednecks in the movie Deliverance.

His Bio
You be the judge (prince or redneck?).

Heard any good lawyer jokes lately?

On advice from my legal council - I'll refrain from a rant - but if you could read the bubble over my head you would see a quote from Shakespeare's Henry VI, and a bus joke ending with "its a good start".

Tell a lawyer joke, go to jail? on msnbc

Apparently these were the guys telling the jokes



Monday, January 10, 2005

If your a college freshman...

You were probably born around 1987, and you probably never...

  • popped popcorn in anything but a microwave
  • listened to an 8-track tape
  • watched a movie on betamax
  • bought a vinyl album new in a store
  • dialed a 7 digit phone number on a rotary dial phone
  • tasted 'old' coke
  • booted a pc in DOS off a 5.5 inch floppy

Your share the birth of IBM's OS/2 which you have luckily outlived and never had to use.


Thursday, January 06, 2005

Pouvoir vous dit, Designed in the UK?

The French have not done much right lately, but the Millau viaduct is a spetacular bridge. Funny that the new pride of France was designed by the UK firm Foster and Partners who also did the Millennium Bridge & Tower, .






Wednesday, January 05, 2005

Moments of Stupidity, Years of Regret

It never ceases to amaze me how people can screw-up their lives on the turn
of a dime by being stupid. The most recent examples are the Maryland
arsonists, and the Jersey laser guy.

In Maryland one pissed off guy who felt he was insensitively dealt with on
the death of a child, talked 5 friends into burning down 10 houses, and
damaging 16 others. Wish his company had been slightly more sensitive
towards his loss. Don't you know one of those guys was thinking - hum...
This isn't such a good idea, and then said oh what the heck I'll follow the
crowd. Now they will have 20 years to regret their stupid choice; what a
waste.

Not to be outdone, this dad in Jersey decides its fun to point his laser at
planes. Now besides the risk of blinding a pilot and causing a crash, it
must be close to painting a target for a SAM! Double bad choice to do it a
port authority police helicopter. I bet he's wishing he just stayed in that
night. He could end up in GITMO! In his case he need to be fined for
stupidity and have the heck scared out of him.

MD Fires - http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/12/10/terror/main660268.shtml


Signs of the end of the world - Clinton and GHWB teaming up

Gosh its just like the X-Presidents cartoon on Saturday Night Live. The X-presidents coming together to raise money for tsunami relief.

My sources say....

  • GWB said he'd take care of Ohio cause he won it big...
  • GHWB said, I'll take Texas, the Central US and Big OIL
  • Clinton volunteered for Hollywood, and any where else with lots of babes and rib joints
  • JEB said he take care of Florida (again!)
  • Cheney was going to fund raise for Halliburton from an undisclosed location
  • Carter mumbled something about going to Home Depot
  • Gore claims that he should be raising money in Florida
  • Kerry flip-flopped between relief funds

All joking aside - it is a horrible tragedy, by my estimation maybe the biggest natural disaster since the plague. http://www.google.com/tsunami_relief.html

Monday, January 03, 2005

The cure for Health Care - Cut the FAT

Before we federalize healthcare, mandate coverage, and punish the drug industry I have 2 ideas that would deliver a huge bang for our buck. CUT THE FAT - its killing us and driving our healthcare cost sky high!

  1. Federalize Fast Food - Let the Feds buy McDonalds, Burger King, and Wendys - the quality will decrease, and the price will increase and people will stop stuffing their faces with fast food.

    Seriously MCDs market cap is about 40Billion - so buy it federalize the menu. Its a drop in the bucket relative to what the high fat fast food diet costs us.

  2. Mandate 2 hours of exercise in the workplace per week (thats like 4 half hour breaks) - whatever activity people want - walking, running, stretching, any thing that gets them moving.

    The payoff is huge- i think the tradeoff of a more healthy workforce, and the promise of reduced healthcare costs (overtime) more than makes up for the 2 hours of weekly productivity loss.

Reality voting system for the open road

Lets add a simple voting scheme to the road - I'm sick of a few reckless drivers endangering us and raising our insurance rates. Here's my plan and yes it will take years to implement.

  • All cars get a close proximity reciever (20 Meters) and a directional transmitter wand.
  • Every driver gets 1 vote per day that they can cast against a bad driver
  • A car can only register one vote on another car (ever)
  • Both cars have to be moving for a vote to be registered
  • A car can only receive one vote per day
  • When your car is inspected, your car's tally is uploaded

Every month, the 2% of owners of cars with the most votes are warned. If next year that owner is in the top 2% they get to pay an additional reckless driver fee (or take away the car!)

The Tribe has spoken - you are a hazzard on the road, get a bike or ride the bus.

Lets vote after doing our taxes!

I'd think election day should be the day after Federal Income Tax Day - It would tie the funding of our government with the leadership selection process.