Neil deGrasse Tyson quote:

"State lotteries are a tax on all those who did not do well in mathematics in school"

Why some Republicans shouldn't be allowed on TV:


On the other hand, it's great entertainment.

Bits for September 2010

How to misuse quote marks
VERY cute animated short (about 3 min.) video about a falling meteorite.
So, you thought Minority Report was a science fiction movie? Guess again, because something similar is happening now and could happen to you.
Things are worsening in Afghanistan.
90SecondSummaries gives a snapshot summary of major pending legislation.
Yet more proof that house prices will be dropping a lot more.
Sadly, NASA has determined that the original recording of the first moonwalk is forever lost.
Those 20% of Americans who thought Obama was a Kenyan terrorist now think he's a cactus.
First was the housing mortgage bubble followed by the developing student loan debt bubble. Now we're on the verge of a pension fund bubble.
Today I learned about... witches.
Here's more proof that Teabaggers are just Republicans warmed over: A new attempt at illegal voter suppression in Wisconsin
Obama's plan to make the current tax cuts for the middle class permanent will reduce your taxes. See how much you'll save with this nifty tax calculator
Portland Press Herald apologizes to bigots and racists
Dude. Dude! DUDE!!
Fascinating (if not horrific) photos of atomic bombs
Truly awesome photos of our solar system
I guess this SnazzyNapper would be great to use if it wasn't so hideous looking.
France joins the knuckle-dragging islamophobia world.
Terrific collection of resources to help you be a better writer
Another epidemic in the making?
A media failure of epic proportions
I "refudiate" Sarah Palin.
Create your own hand symphony
The myth of HDTV display settings that you can change
What Obama could not say about Iraq
You know how you have to sometimes type in security codes that are shown as skewed word-images? They now make cartoons out of some of the best phrases.

Obama lectures Democrats:

"....It is inexcusable for any Democrat or progressive right now to stand on the sidelines in this midterm election. There may be complaints about us not having gotten certain things done, not fast enough, making certain legislative compromises. But right now, we've got a choice between a Republican Party that has moved to the right of George Bush and is looking to lock in the same policies that got us into these disasters in the first place, versus an administration that, with some admitted warts, has been the most successful administration in a generation in moving progressive agendas forward. "The idea that we've got a lack of enthusiasm in the Democratic base, that people are sitting on their hands complaining, is just irresponsible...It has been hard, and we've got some lumps to show for it. But if people now want to take their ball and go home, that tells me folks weren't serious in the first place...."

About time!

Quote for the day, regarding Christine O'Donnell:

"But even if O'Donnell doesn’t win this battle of the bands, she’s already won the battle of the BS. She’s shown that no matter what stupid things you’ve done, if you have a certain twinkle in your eye while you spout rightwing shibboleths, the media will find you bewitching."

Stolen (and slightly modified) from Daily Kos:

The provisions of the Affordable Care Act that go into effect tomorrow, six months after enactment of the law: Ban on discriminating against children with preexisting conditions: as of tomorrow, insurance companies can't deny coverage to children under age 19 for a pre-existing condition. The ban will go into effect for adults in 2014. Ban on rescission: insurers will be prohibited from dropping a customer when they get sick or to search for errors in customers' applications to use as a basis for rescinding coverage or denying payment for services. Ban on limiting coverage, lifetime caps: Insurers will no longer be able to impose lifetime dollar limits on benefits--particularly hospital stays or expensive treatments for chronic diseases, cancer, etc. By 2014, they will phase out annual caps. Ban on limiting doctor choice in new plans: insurers will have to allow primary care physician status for OB/GYNs and pediatricians so that patients don't have to get pre-authorization or referrals to see these providers. Ban on restrictions on emergency services: insurers will have to cover all emergency care, in or out of network. Guaranteed right to appeal insurer decisions to independent third party in new plans; Young adults can stay on their parents' plans til 26 unless they have access to coverage in their workplace; New plans will cover preventive care with no customer costs--well-baby, mammograms, colonoscopies, etc. will be covered with no co-pays or deductibles. Many of these changes will not apply to existing plans. Health plans that existed on March 23, 2010 are "grandfathered," meaning they are exempt from implementing these new provisions. So free preventive care, unrestricted provider choice, level charges for emergency care, and the right of appeal do not apply to existing plans. Additionally, the coverage for adult children on family plans can only be extended if an employer plan is not available to them.

Hard to admit, and yet even harder to ignore. Imperial America is in decline (snippet):

"....Here’s a simple reality: the U.S. is an imperial power in decline -- and not just the sort of decline which is going to affect your children or grandchildren someday. We’re talking about massive unemployment that’s going nowhere and an economy which shows no sign of ever returning good jobs to this country on a significant scale, even if “good times” do come back sooner or later. We’re talking about an aging, fraying infrastructure -- with its collapsing bridges and exploding gas pipelines -- that a little cosmetic surgery isn’t going to help. "And whatever the underlying historical trends, George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and company accelerated this process immeasurably. You can thank their two mad wars, their all-planet-all-the-time Global War on Terror, their dumping of almost unlimited taxpayer dollars into the Pentagon and war planning for the distant future, and their scheme to privatize the military and mind-meld it with a small group of crony capitalist privateers, not to speak of ramping up an already impressively over-muscled national security state into a national state of fear, while leaving the financial community to turn the country into a giant, mortgaged Ponzi scheme. It was the equivalent of driving a car in need of a major tune-up directly off the nearest cliff -- and the rest, including the economic meltdown of 2008, is, as they say, history, which we’re all now experiencing in real time. Then, thank the Obama administration for not having the nerve to reverse course while it might still have mattered...."

This summer I visited Florence, Oregon and took several photos with my Droid Incredible. This is my favorite.

Can't have it both ways:

"....Like so much else that plagues the U.S. economy, decay of the U.S. infrastructure has been building for decades. That's in part because policymakers at the local, state and federal levels have been more interested in building new stuff than in keeping the old stuff in good repair. It's also a product of the magical thinking known as out-of-sight, out-of-mind, or in budget-writers' parlance, deferred maintenance. Bridges don't fall down when the first rivet rusts through. Roads don't become unusable when the first pothole appears. A rotting rail bed merely slows trains down; it doesn't stop freight or passengers from moving altogether. But deterioration from deferred maintenance is cumulative. What starts out as an easily fixed, relatively cheap repair becomes a gigantic, hugely expensive rebuild, often sparked by a killer catastrophe that spurs a duh moment for the media and many citizens, who inquire: how could this have happened? There is, obviously, the short-sightedness of politicians and other civic leaders, but the anti-tax attitude that has permeated so much of the populace plays a large part. Examples of this myopia abound. Americans shudder at that poor education so many of our children receive, but the desire to get them out of schools that can only be described as ramshackle frequently collides with the attitude that no taxes should be raised to change the situation...."

Joan McCarter on Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center's announced plans to burn copies of the Quran on church grounds to mark the ninth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks (snippet):

"....But this time the threat is real. This action by the American extremists is most definitely providing a tremendous propaganda tool to the real Taliban. It is fomenting anger toward America and will endanger American troops. Ironic that the American Taliban, who accused the left of endangering the troops and national security just by opposing the Iraq debacle, is the real threat to our troops...."

Freedom of speech is one thing. Using freedom of speech to purposely insult and inflame the passions of friends is another. The moronic and childish tendencies of the American conservative movement never ceases to amaze me (and most rational-thinking people).

Our elitists continue to fuck us over (snippet):

The CEOs who cut the most jobs during the recession earned more than their peers, according to a study being released today by a liberal think tank in Washington. "When CEOs slash jobs they are often very richly rewarded," said Sarah Anderson, lead author of the Institute for Policy Studies' report, "CEO Pay and the Great Recession." Separately, the report estimated that the CEOs of the nation's largest publicly traded companies make an average of 263 times more the typical U.S. production worker. The institute used the Forbes.com layoff tracker to identify the 50 firms that laid off the most employees between November 2008 and April 2010. It then used the Associated Press online survey and company financial reports to arrive at 2009 compensation totals. The institute calculated that the 50 CEOs - who together cut 531,363 jobs - averaged $12 million in salary, bonuses, stock options and other perks, 42 percent more than the average compensation for all of the CEOs on the Standard & Poor's 500. The report said 7 out of 10 of these top job-cutters laid off workers even though their companies ended the year profitably....

When I started college, we still used slide rules. Before I graduated, I was using this "incredible" 4-function calculator with fixed decimal which I picked up for only $45 (probably $250 in today's dollars):

I've still got it, and it still works!

Bits for August 2010

Woo Hoo!!! California just extended the term for the carpool sticker on my 2002 Prius for 4 more years!
Two beers are now officially better than one
Donate rice to the needy while answering vocabulary questions (put that high school English class to good use!)
Artsy use for toilet paper rolls.
Even though it's still not primarily their fault, Democrats are going to get trounced in the November elections due to the increasingly bad economic news. But as each day passes, they own more of it.
Eating berries may activate the brain's natural housekeeper for healthy aging
Yet another blow to personal privacy.
Strange photo. Possible explanations.
"When Doctors Admit Their Mistakes"
Men: calculate your sex appeal. My score: 24.
A review of the Verizon/Google internet access proposal
An animated map showing the 2,053 nuclear explosions that took place around the world during the 20th century.
This year's hurricane forecast. Kinda scary.
Top 10 plays from the 2010 NBA Finals.
A hair salon for a part of your body that doesn't see the light of day.

Student loans have become a tremendous burden to the U.S. economy (snippet):

....Americans owe some $826.5 billion in revolving credit, according to June 2010 figures from the Federal Reserve. (Most of revolving credit is credit-card debt.) Student loans outstanding today — both federal and private — total some $829.785 billion, according to Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of FinAid.org and FastWeb.com. “The growth in education debt outstanding is like cooking a lobster,” Mr. Kantrowitz says. “The increase in total student debt occurs slowly but steadily, so by the time you notice that the water is boiling, you’re already cooked.” By his math, there is $605.6 billion in federal student loans outstanding and $167.8 billion in private student loans outstanding. He estimates that $300 billion in federal student loan debts have been incurred in the last four years....

At least Americans are still getting educated.

15 Reasons Housing Is Going From Bad To Worse

1. Record low home sales- New home sales are now at their lowest on record, and existing home sales began a steep decent in July. (And this is the busy time of year. Wait until winter.) 2. New home sale construction is also near record lows. There is already an excess of houses. (This is actually a good thing- but it does tell you how bad things are.) 3. Demand for mortgages is at a 13 year low. (Showing that low interest rates are insufficient to stimulate demand.) 4. Foreclosures are at record highs. (And getting worse.) 5. Repos are at an all time high. (See #4.) 6. Banks are writing off a massive amount of debt. (And they are going to be writing off a lot more before they are through.) 7. Record delinquencies- more than 10% of all Americans are behind on their mortgage. (Hence #4.) 8. Banks have significantly raised their lending standards. (Low interest rates aren’t useful to people who don’t qualify.) 9. Home prices are still too high and out of line with what people can afford. (Especially upper end real estate. With reduced income and no “wonky” financing, the McMansion market is being killed.) 10. With 28% of all households having one adult currently looking for employment, unemployment levels are high. (And unemployed people don’t buy homes.) 11. Bankruptcies are on the rise. (See #10 and #15) 12. Even Obama is bearish on housing. (Business Insider found a great “grumpy face” of the president for this one.) 13. Tax credits pulled home sales forward- shrinking current demand. (And future demand as well.) 14. Fannie and Freddie could be up to $5T in the hole. (You know, I doubt I’ve typed $XT more than a dozen times in my life. That’s a big number.) 15. U.S. economy is drowning in debt. (As well as many Americans.)

Thanks, George Bush. You definitely left a lasting impression on all of us.

Hold on to your hats. Real conservatives support legalization of pot: