Category: Touchy Subjects
The things that should never be discussed much less published by non-professionals.
Stay away from the software industry
No sane person should ever voluntarily enter into the software industry. We have mental institutions that haven’t experience crazy on this level.
The Ghost Bike
My sister-in-law’s brother was killed last week while riding his bicycle. I now have the unfortunate knowledge of the existence of “ghost bikes.” (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_bike)
This picture shows the shoulder where Mark was killed. This is not a death caused by poorly designed roads like those in Knoxville, TN which do not accommodate bicyclists and automobiles. This was caused by utter negligence by the automobile driver. Note the width of the shoulder. Note the rumble strip intended to alert the driver that the car is leaving the road.
Drivers, please, pay attention to the road. Give your complete attention to your driving. Watch for the unexpected. Expect a dog, a deer, a child to jump out in front of you. Share the road with the cyclists. Commuting is not a competition. It is a shared experience. Help each other get to their respective destinations unharmed by taking your commute seriously. Don’t text and drive. Don’t drink and drive. Put your make-up on at home. Read your newspaper somewhere other than the driver’s seat.
When I champion the end of private transportation as a mainstream mechanism to move people from one place to another, I do so because senseless deaths like Mark’s will cease. An autonomous, robotic, vehicle would not have done this.
If you wish to read Mark’s obituary, it can be found online at http://www.ymlfuneralhome.com/obituary/5238for
I’m not shopping there
While I would have to become a recluse living in a cave in the woods and buying nothing from any company to ride my moral high horse, I still don’t have to shop at Hobby Lobby who ships junk from China and resells it at a high markup. (just read this…search for one child per famliy and hypocrisy). Hobby Town sells model rocket engines cheaper than Hobby Lobby and Michaels, A.C. Moore, and Jo Anne’s have all the other stuff…cheaper. So, Hobby Lobby just go stand over there with Exxon and Chick-fil-a.
SCOTUS really screwed the pooch on this one. Sure hope they were wearing a condom. Wonder who paid for the condom?
The arts teach more than your standardized tests
Tennessee. Haslam. McIntyre. Knox County School Board. This video is for you.
Yo! Knox County Schools…how about stepping up and doing stuff like this with our students? Lessons? How about hand/eye coordination, team work, rhythm, did I mention team work?, leadership, technical production, composition, self-confidence, and most of all, accomplishment. Did you know that there is a mathematical side to music? And poetry (literature) in the lyrics? I’m sure I missed some.
Do you get any of that out of a standardized test?
Valley Wag Fails to Understand Coin in Neo-Luddism Fashion
Gawker’s Valley Wag misses the boat on Coin in a way that screams poor journalism. Why do I say poor journalism? Take this ValleyWag quote: "It’s also inherently riskier than carrying a few cards on you, as one lost Coin means everything is gone at once." Obviously ValleyWay did not even look at Coin’s FAQ or attempt to talk to someone at Coin.
- Coin can alert you in the event that you leave it somewhere.
- Coin will automatically deactivate if it loses contact with your phone for a period of time that you configure in the Coin mobile app.
My response to ValleyWag:
ValleyWag is completely missing the point. Not only is this a great solution to reduce the size of your wallet but it brings great security to your physical financial transactions. Imagine leaving your credit card at a restaurant. We’ve all done it. You know the fear of someone having access to your bank accounts while we rush back to the store, the hassle of being on hold with the credit card company to cancel the card, etc. With Coin, if it detects that it is away from your phone for a set amount of time, the card deactivates until you reactivate it. It becomes a useless piece of plastic! Also if you start to walk away from it, your phone beeps to warn you that the Coin has possibly been left behind. When we hand a card to a waiter, as they walk away from your table they could be texting your credit card number to a friend who could be making large purchases online before you even get to sign your check. With Coin, only the last 4 digits of the credit card number are ever shown so this type of theft becomes impossible.
ValleyWag also misses that this is not just a credit card, it is a programmable swipe card. If I get to my office only to realize I left my door entry card at the house, with Coin, I simply need to load my access card onto Coin from my cell phone and I’m back in the building for the day without having to run back home.
We collect loyalty card after loyalty card then get rid of them by using phone apps that are slow to open and only scan by the cashier half the time slowing down the line behind us. Coin will replace loyalty cards also.
This is a great product that everyone needs.
Read more about Coin at this post: One card to rule them all!
One card to rule them all!
Early adopters buy one now! Pre-orders are half price at $50 instead of $100.
Coin is basically a programmable swipe card. You store all your credit cards, building entry cards, loyalty cards, etc. (anything with a magnetic strip) in your smartphone. The physical Coin card can hold up to 8 cards in its memory. If you need to swap one out, you plug the Coin swipe device (think Square) into the headphones jack of your smartphone, select the card you need, and swipe the Coin and it is now programmed with the correct card.
Imagine leaving your credit card at a restaurant. We’ve all done it. You know the fear of someone having access to your bank accounts while we rush back to the store, the hassle of being on hold with the credit card company to cancel the card, etc. With Coin, if it detects that it is away from your phone for a set amount of time, the card deactivates until you reactivate it. It becomes a useless piece of plastic! Also if you start to walk away from it, your phone beeps to warn you that the Coin has possibly been left behind. When we hand a card to a waiter, they could write down the numbers on the card. With Coin, only the last 4 digits of the credit card number are ever shown.
Coin makes your wallet smaller and your transactions more secure. Buy yours today!.
Disclaimer: I’ve pre-ordered mine. Each of the links to Coin in this post includes my referral link. I receive a $5 credit from Coin for each referral that makes a purchase which means once ten people have purchased through my link, my Coin becomes free. If you are going to purchase one, please do it with one of these links. Thank you!
Post coitus
Do you remember?
What the Mars rover is doing during the government shutdown
[Source]
2016 is going to be weird
And no one pulled their guns out
A common argument I hear for concealed carry is that the armed citizenry will step up until the police can arrive. Walmart sells guns. Walmart has a clientele who love their guns and probably carry one or more guns with or without a concealed carry permit. But when a man walked into a South Carolina Walmart and killed his wife, no one intervened. Police only caught him after he wrecked his truck during the get-a-way.
Holiday shoppers at a South Carolina Walmart watched in horror as a man stabbed his wife to death in the store during a heated argument, authorities said.
[Source, NY Daily News, Cops: Man stabs wife to death at bank in South Carolina Walmart]
So these arguments for guns, are they invalid? No one tried to help despite the armory in sporting goods. And what about the concealed carry people? Where were they? I contend it is an invalid argument and that civilians will not take action. In this case, the murderer walked out of the store unopposed.
This NSA thing is old news
Can’t believe I forgot about this! I watched this story with great interest in the wayback. This started in 2003 and was publicly outed in 2006:
"the NSA built a special room to receive data streamed through an AT&T Internet room containing “peering links,” or major connections to other telecom providers. The largest of the links delivered 2.5 gigabits of data — the equivalent of one-quarter of the Encyclopedia Britannica’s text — per second,"
Google "Room 641A" for more information.
Doug’s Dictionary
Marriage – the longest funeral procession you’ll ever live through.
“Just one of those crazy accidents,” Mr White said.
No, it’s not just a crazy accident. No four/five year old should have a real gun!
A FIVE-year-old boy who was playing with a .22 caliber rifle he’d been given as a gift accidentally shot and killed his two-year-old sister in their Kentucky home
…
the children’s mother was cleaning the house at the time and had stepped outside onto the porch
…
The rifle had been given to the boy last year and was kept in the corner of a room. The parents didn’t realise a shell had been left in it.[Source, Herald Sun, US boy, 5, accidentally shoots and kills sister, 2]
Again, I use this as an example of why schools should remain gun free zones. Mistakes will be made. Lives will be lost. And mark my words, no armed teacher, staff member, or janitor will stop an active shooter…it just doesn’t happen that way.
