04 Sep 2005
Evidence Dinosaurs Are Like Giant Chicks

Feathered DinosaurThis is pretty old news: the image at the left comes from this press release dated April, 2001.

But it's still pretty scary to anybody who knows anything about poultry. I've seen my hens gang up on a barn cat with a kill, and take the kill away from it to eat for themselves! Most people are under the impression that chickens are vegetarians: this simply is not true. They're omnivores, and they can, and will, eat nearly anything.

Imagining a six foot chicken with an appetite and an attitude is the stuff my nightmares are made out of...

timesonline reports the new "irrefutable" fossil evidence of dino's resembling "giant chicks" more then reptiles as formerly accepted. Gareth Dyke: "The way these creatures are depicted can no longer be considered scientifically accurate," he said. "All the evidence is that they looked more like birds than reptiles. Tyrannosaurs might have resembled giant chicks."

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Agriculture | 0 comments | permanent link

Katrina In Indiana, Part Zero

According to this article, our own Mitch Daniels (now the Governor of Indiana) played a significant role in insuring that the Corps of Engineers got their budget cut deep enough to essentially stop work on levee maintenance in New Orleans, and was instrumental in getting the head of the Corps canned for "distancing [himself] actively from the administration" ... which is a euphemism for political disloyalty. Which seems as though it counts for more in this administration than other values, such, oh, say "truth".

As levees burst and floods continued to spread across areas hit by Hurricane Katrina yesterday, a former chief of the Army Corps of Engineers disparaged senior White House officials for "not understanding" that key elements of the region's infrastructure needed repair and rebuilding.

(link) [GovExec.com]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

FEMA Directing Donations to Rev. Pat Robertson

It was bound to happen ... faith-based hurricane relief. "Operation Blessing" is a "charity" (at least according to it's corporate charter) whose board is dominated by the Robertson family personally, and which has been investigated several times in the past, both for outright fraud and for stealth evangelism - using the cover of disaster/poor relief to do religious work.

FEMA has released to the media and on its Web site a list of suggested charities to help the storm’s hundreds of thousands of victims. The Red Cross is first on the list. The Rev. Pat Robertson’s “Operation Blessing” is next on the list.

(link) [sploid.com]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Car Insurance Rates Shift

I'd love to see the actuaries explain the connection between a credit rating and driving. Methinks they've slipped into the "correlation = causation" trap.

Drivers are being pigeonholed into more categories of risk as dozens of rating variables are expanded into hundreds, with insurers arriving at a premium by commingling such factors as age, traffic violations, past accidents, miles driven, residence, and even credit ratings.

(link) [U.S. News & World Report]

00:00 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Microsoft Lashes out at Massachusetts IT Decision

Imagine, for a moment, if the documents in question weren't digital, but created the old fashioned way, with typewriters. Now imagine that everyone who wanted to read a document created with a Microsoft typewriter had to either buy a Microsoft typewriter, or get a "free" pair of glasses from Microsoft, which will only work in a house built by Microsoft, to read the document.

I don't think M$ would sell too many of those typewriters! Yet this is essentially the analog version of what they're trying to pull with their word processing software.

Kudos to Massachusetts (for once) for calling "Bullshit!" on this scheme.

Infoweek is reporting that the plan to eliminate the use of Office by the Massachusetts state government has not gone over well with Microsoft.

(link) [Slashdot]

00:00 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link