31 Jan 2009
'Tax issues' emerge in Tom Daschle's nomination

No wonder Dems don't care about raising taxes: they don't pay'em anyhow!

AP - The White House acknowledged Friday that "some tax issues" had emerged in connection President Barack Obama's nomination of Tom Daschle as health secretary. But a spokesman says the president is confident the former Senate Democratic leader will be confirmed. White House officials confirmed a broadcast report Friday that Daschle failed to pay taxes on a car-and-driver service provided to him for three years after he left government.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

00:11 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

30 Jan 2009
Irony, Indeed

I can add nothing except directions: Irony.

19:19 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Pay cap proposed for Wall Street 'idiots'

What amazed me about this was Giuliani defending them:

"If you somehow take that bonus out of the economy, it really will create unemployment," he said on CNN's "American Morning." "It means less spending in restaurants, less spending in department stores, so everything has an impact."

OK, Rudy, so why is it OK to limit how government dole money is spent by welfare recipients but not investment banks? Wouldn't restaurant spending by welfare mothers at MacDonalds help maintain full employment as much as Richie Rich blowing his bonus at Chez Jean?

If you seek the genesis of class warfare, look no further.

One day after President Barack Obama ripped Wall Street executives for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008, Congress may finally have had enough.

(link) [CNN.com]

19:13 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

FDA panel recommends ban on the painkiller Darvon

My mom's taken Darvocet since the accident (1992). It's been the only painkiller that actually works for her - and she's 85 now. What do you suppose her doc will suggest as an alternative? Oxycontin?

This is the agency that whisked Vioxx through, yet it's been suggested many times that aspirin couldn't get approved today. Morons.

AP - Government advisers are recommending a ban on Darvon, a painkiller that's been around for 50 years. A Food and Drug Administration advisory panel voted 14-12 Friday to recommend withdrawing Darvon after a hearing on its risks and benefits. The drug was first approved in 1957, when there were few alternatives for pain except aspirin and powerful narcotics.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

18:49 /Politics | 1 comment | permanent link

29 Jan 2009
Cope Gave Terrible Towels a Wonderful Legacy

Sometimes, with the tomfoolery in Washington and scandals erupting everywhere, it's easy to forget that there are genuinely good people in this world. Consider this a reminder.

Longtime Pittsburgh broadcaster Myron Cope, who created the Steelers’ signature Towel in 1975, long ago decided proceeds would serve a worthy cause.

(link) [New York Times]

20:35 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

The End of Handmade

This is how government regulation fixes problems: punish everyone, not just the malefactors. Among the common folk, this kind of draconian lunacy went out of style in the sixth grade, or, at worst, carried over to boot camp.

Come to think of it both schools and the military are run by governments. Maybe that explains it.Morons.

Imagine a world where handmade children’s items are scarce and parents cannot buy used children’s clothing; where sellers of used children’s products are subject to fines of $100,000. In this world, entrepreneurs are forced out of business and lose their livelihoods. Imagine, therefore, a world in which the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 (CPSIA) is allowed to go into affect as written on February 10th.

(link) [Upscale Baby Blog]

Update:A better overview.

via Overlawyered

07:39 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Stimulus bill would fund stop-smoking programs

Well, that's stimulating, eh? No more pork, right Mr. President?

Smoking cessation programs make up $75 million of the economic stimulus bill making its way through the Senate, according to Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, who sponsored the funding.

(link) [CNN.com]

07:29 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

Frigid Nights for a Swath of States

When a storm in the Midwest makes the front page of the New York Times, you know it was a bad one. And it was. We got about a foot of new snow here - I couldn't make it in to Indy yesterday so I worked from home. It'll be a mess for a couple more days, to be sure The air temp right now is only 4°F, but at least we didn't get the ice (and power failures) that our southern neighbors picked up.

More than a million people in darkness after a storm could face a long wait for electricity, even as federal aid is promised to two states.

(link) [New York Times]

07:18 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

28 Jan 2009
House Defeats Delay on Digital TV

Two things really gt me about this. First, the day of the digital transition will be the last day we have access to broadcast TV for quite a while. I've not even bothered getting a converter box: we're so far out, we can barely get an analog signal, much less a weaker, digital one.

But that's really secondary: Hel, we don't watch enough TV to bother. What really gets me is the rank hypocrisy of Republicans, standing for a "free market", and then foisting the most intrusive technical change on the broadcast industry ever. Why? So they could sell excess spectrum that will be freed by the transition. Which, of course, acknowledges that the government "owns" the airwaves.

Except when it doesn't: just mention the Fairness Doctrine and watch Republican hackles rise. Why, how could you advocate dictating programming to our broadcasters? What are you, a Commie-symp? You wouldn't try this with newspapers, would you?

No, but then the government doesn't even pretend to own the newspapers - and it apparently does own the airwaves, by the Republicans own admission via this forced transition. And the last time I checked, owners of media get to dictate content.

Or as my mother used to remind me: what's good for the goose is good for the gander.

Two days after the Senate unanimously approved a four-month delay of the digital television transition, the House of Representatives rejected the same proposal on Wednesday, leaving the current Feb. 17 deadline intact for now.

(link) [New York Times]

19:35 /Politics | 0 comments | permanent link

27 Jan 2009
John Updike, Author, Dies at 76

Rabbit Has Croaked. RIP

John Updike, the Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist, prolific man of letters and erudite chronicler of sex, divorce and other adventures in the postwar prime of the American empire, died Tuesday at age 76.

(link) [New York Times]

16:12 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

Market for Used Wind Turbines

Interesting ... especially in combination with other technologies, like geothermal.

A growing number of new companies are snapping up the old turbines on the cheap, overhauling the systems and reselling them to farmers or other community wind developers at bargain prices.

(link) [New York Times]

07:55 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link

A Good Cause

Attention animal lovers: Help Allie Get New Hips!

Allie's "dad" is a co-worker. If you can't donate, spread the word - the operations needed are incredibly expensive, and consumer electronics isn't exactly a hot growth industry whose employees pull down megabucks right now ... trust me, I know that for a fact!

07:52 /Home | 0 comments | permanent link

More held in India women attack

Hinduism seems to be rapidly developing a fundamentalist streak - this is not good. Not good at all.

Ten more members of an Indian right-wing group are held in connection with beating up women for drinking in a bar.

(link) [BBC News]

07:43 /Home | 1 comment | permanent link

Apple Awarded Patent For iPhone Interface

What will this mean to other touch screen developers? It'll force them to waste money on lawyers so they can keep doing the things they've been doing for the past ten years...

This is a prime example of what's wrong with the patent system in this country - the sooner we get rid of patents on software (and, by extension, math), the better off we'll be.

Apple's 358-page patent application for their iPhone interface entitled Touch screen device, method, and graphical user interface for determining commands by applying heuristics has been approved after more than two years of review by the US Patent Office. Apple's claims include: 'A computer-implemented method for use in conjunction with a computing device with a touch screen display comprises: detecting one or more finger contacts with the touch screen display, applying one or more heuristics to the one or more finger contacts to determine a command for the device, and processing the command. The one or more heuristics comprise: a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a one-dimensional vertical screen scrolling command, a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a two-dimensional screen translation command, and a heuristic for determining that the one or more finger contacts correspond to a command to transition from displaying a respective item in a set of items to displaying a next item in the set of items.' As Apple seems eager to defend their intellectual property, what will this mean to other touch developers?

(link) [Slashdot]

07:39 /Copywrongs | 2 comments | permanent link

26 Jan 2009
Midnight Commander Development Revived

Midnight Commander is my favorite file manager - and not just on Unix. I use hacked copies on Windows at work and on my Mac's at home. Good to see it getting back on track.

Popular Unix console file manager Midnight Commander has experienced a stall for the last few years. Most distributions (including the conservative Slackware) shipped patched packages or snapshots. Despite that, everybody had a favorite bug or two — either inability to specify ssh connection port, or problems with interrupted FTP sessions. Or maybe copying of larger datasets. Or maybe the infamous 'shell is still active' message, which often brought unexpected changes of current directory with it. Whatever it was, we either cursed it every time, or learned to live with it. It seems that finally something many were waiting for has happened — there's some activity on mc development. Check out the new homepage, and let's hope revival is both healthy and lengthy.

(link) [Slashdot]

22:39 /Technology | 0 comments | permanent link