2006-10-29

When it rains...

...you get wet. I know, it's been a long time since I've put anything on this blog. I mean, it's probably just easier to e-mail the 3 people who read this thing and send them what I want to send them. However, I am committed (and committable) so here I go...

There are two new Mac-related blogs that don't take themselves too seriously. The first is The Macalope - a ridiculous site with a odd take on current events in the Macintosh community. The second, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs is just plain ridiculous. So, give them both a whirl and let me know what you think.

--mike

It's been a while since...

...I ranted. Not that one needs anything in particular to rant about. It could be something innocuous like bitching about the weather or as button pushing as bitching about the lefty Democrats who are going to ruin this country through their inability to understand basic economics and their propensity to spew vitriol-laden rhetoric anytime someone tries to use, get this, logic.

Nothing in particular is coming to mind for today's rant, so maybe I'll just go through my rant closet and write a little about each...

Where to start...

Red Sox fans? Nah, too easy.

Democrats? Nah, don't feel like writing "War and Peace."

Democrats and Gas Prices? By George, I think he has a topic!

Last Wednesday or Thursday, the Wall Street Journal ran a short editorial piece about gas pricing and oil pricing and Democrats and taxing wind-fall profits.* The basic gist of the editorial was that Ms. Nancy Pelosi and some of her other Democratic ninny friends believe, at least as shown through their actions, that shareholders of companies like Exxon-Mobil should be over-regulated and taxed into oblivion when times are good and thrown to the side of the road when times are bad. This all stems from "windfall profits" taxes that were being bandied about because Exxon-Mobile made a shitload of money. In fact, they made a metric assload of money a few quarters in a row. You know what I say? Good for them. Nobody really cared much about them when oil was $20 a barrel and we were paying $0.79 a gallon for gas.

However, now that the price of oil is up and consumer consumption is also up, the Dems want to punish these companies to taking advantage of the market. They're not actually taking advantage of the market. The market is just favoring them now. However, if, and this is a really big if, there is stability in the OPEC states and oil goes a dropping to $30 a barrel, a lot of these profits the oil companies are making will become a whole lot more modest. If they drop even further than that, earnings will look crappy. I really feel for the Exxon-Mobile shareholder...now where did I put my shares...

I actually saw gas on 1A next to Suffolk Downs for $1.95/gal for the 87 octane stuff. Too bad my car take Premium, that was around $2.30/gal - a whole lot better than the $3.20/gal I was paying 7 months ago. That hurt, that added like $14 to each fill-up. Wait, it only added $14 to each fill up? How often do I fill up? 3 times every two months? Shit, gas prices really don't directly affect me much. Now where did I put that Suburban...

--mike

* I actually clipped this particular editorial and pinned it to my cubicle wall along with a couple of other gems from the WSJ. I even made one of our Northeastern Co-Op Students read it. No, not to make her head spin...she's a righty, the only one on a college campus in Boston.

2006-10-23

One-Man Stonehenge

This guy Wally has figured out ways to move Stonehenge-sized blocks by himself. There's a good 6-minute news item on it here. I'd say moving the barn was the thing that most impresssed me.

2006-10-03

Huh? The Onion couldn't even make this up...

Parent criticizes book 'Fahrenheit 451' and admits to not even having read it. Read the article, then read, at least, the first comment.

*thump* <<-- sound of my head hitting the desk.


*UPDATE* - The comments on the site are LIFO, so the first post I was referring to isn't there. Below is the full text of the comment:

Ban the Bible while you're at it; it's a terrible influence.
If the parents of this 15 year old girl find the Ray Bradbury book a bad influence, they might want to reconsider letting her read the Bible.

Think about it.

Fahrenheit 451 is a book that uses bad things to teach good lessons. These bad things are what the family is protesting. Here's a list of what they stated were bad about the book:

- Filthy words
- Discussion of being drunk
- Smoking
- Violence
- Dirty talk
- References to the Bible
- Using God's name in vain

Now, the Bible is another book that recounts terrible things to teach good lessons. Here's a list of a few of the things the Bible includes:

- Filthy words
- Discussion of being drunk
- Smoking
- Violence
- Dirty talk (among other explicit sexual themes)
- References to the Bible (the Bible has many cyclic references)
- Using God's name in vain
- Incest
- Rape
- Sex without marriage
- Sodomy
- Murder
- War
- Satanism
- Magic
- Idol Worship
- Gay behaviour
- Adultery
- Anti-Governmental behaviour
- Genocide
- The list goes on.

I must say, the Bible contains MUCH more dangerous material than Ray Bradbury's book Fahrenheit 451. I would recommend that the family ban the Bible as well, if they really wish to prevent their family from being exposed to bad things.

Just a thought.
Christopher Steffen, Euless, TX

A reason for a non-Democrat to vote in MA

Politics as usual in MA again. Didn't they bring out the same horsecrap when we won the right to buy booze 7 days a week here? The current law allows any single corporation to own only 3 liquor liceses state-wide. Who has the most to lose here? Not the consumer. Take a good, hard look at the statistics being bandied about in this article. While the 34 states that allow the consumer to buy wine in food stores have a higher drunk driving rate than MA, the 6 that have the same laws as MA have an EVEN HIGHER rate of drunk driving.

I'm going to the polls!

2006-10-02

What Graphics Are For

Check out this brief talk by Hans Rosling at TED. It'll give you quick insight into two things:

1) Economics and international development

2) What graphics and animation are meant for

Seriously. Rosling's visuals make up for any number of crappy, information-obscuring 3D ribbon graphs and pointless screen wipes.