Random Gnus
Anything in the news
Now relegated to Blogblivion...Saturday, January 08, 2005
Workin’ on my weather knowledge…
So when it’s raining those little ice pellets too small to properly be called hail (which is, itself, properly a summer thing, no?), you call it sleet, yes?
Ugh.
Friday, January 07, 2005
No, I’m not literally ROFLMAO, which is good because I need somewhere to sit.
But this is damned funny anyway:
The Top 10 Signs the UN Has Gotten Involved in the Clean-Up from a Natural Disaster
Thursday, January 06, 2005
Ohio Flooding
These are some impressive pictures my my brother took, showing before and after the high river water in his neck of Ohio.
This is one reason why many people have a violent hatred of politicians.
They have this awful habit of trying to fix bad legislation with additional bad legislation. It never occurs to them that the original law might have been a lousy idea.
Via Laurence, of course.
Wednesday, January 05, 2005
Now take your pill like a good girl…
Best of the Web Today points out a puzzling item in the WaPo:
At a time when the medical community has been heartened by a decline in risky sexual behavior by teenagers, a different problem has crept up: More adult women are forgoing birth control, a trend that has experts puzzled—and alarmed about a potential rise in unintended pregnancies.
Oh, right:
It is possible, said Paul Blumenthal, that many more women are trying to conceive and thus have stopped using contraception. But the Johns Hopkins University professor said it is more likely that more women have found the cost of birth control burdensome.
It’s simply not considered likely that a grown woman could be capable of making her own choices. What a crazy idea--that she could look at the risks and benefits and decide against what Paul Blumenthal thinks makes sense. Why, next thing you know she’ll want to take Vioxx!
All snark aside, the issue is more complex than these agenda-driven, er, individuals make it out to be. There’s a reason that the Pill is not an over-the-counter drug, and it isn’t that the drug companies are greedy--it’s that the thing is riskier than it’s generally given credit for. There’s a reason a lot of women aren’t interested in an IUD, and it has nothing to do with the Dalkon Shield. There are problems with each method, and I have to say that I understand and sympathize with the decision to leave them all behind. There is a case for doing without--not to mention that not everyone views an unintended pregnancy as a tragedy.
Of course, if you figure that the only way to deal with an unintended pregnancy is to end it, maybe you’re more likely to see it that way. Abortion isn’t addressed in the article, but I the set of folks who are anti-abortion rarely overlaps with the set that have problems with abstinence education. I don’t know about the set who think that insurance companies determine whether we get pregnant, but I have my suspicions. The assumption that every woman wants to avoid pregnancy at any cost except abstinence or paying for her own pills really chaps my ass.
In any case, it really shouldn’t blow my mind that there are folks out there who think that my possible pregnancy constitutes a public health problem, but it does. It really, really does.
Asshats.
Tuesday, January 04, 2005
I hadn’t seen that one, but it stands to reason, really.
Worrying about hyponatremia? Don’t.
Saturday, January 01, 2005
Best.Resolution.Ever.
Friday, December 31, 2004
Tsunami Update of Sorts
A couple more tsunami items. I haven’t gone out of my way to cover it, apart from being one of the first blogs to note the event initially, courtesy of having been sleepless at the right time. Too many others are doing far more than I ever could. But still…
First, it doesn’t surprise me that Burma would be hiding the true scope. The government is of the irrational, hyper control freak variety. They’re in the right place to have damage and casualties as massive as some of the other countries.
With pictures like the top ones here, it would be no surprise if the deaths exceed 400,000 in just that one region. I’ve been surprised at how low the figures were running, at the risk of sounding morbid or unhopeful.
It’s interesting seeing this firsthand report from Helmut Kohl, who was in Sri Lanka when it hit.
For those who weren’t turned off completely from donating anything beyond tax dollars by Sri Lanka’s rejection of Israelis, Command Post continues to be as good a source as anywhere of links on how to help. They’re keeping that post locked at the top of the page. For other news and links, go to the main page and scroll past it. McGehee has a similar post, much briefer, that points to the Amazon donation page. That has just been amazing.
But then, Chuck can tell you in great detail how stingy Americans are not. Pay no attention to any daft pricks at the UN or in the communist organs somewhat left-biased major media.
Update:
There are some excellent on-site stories from the affected areas at India Uncut. I’m not surprised about the problem with excess clothing donations. That always happens in disasters. Usually the best thing is cash, unless there is a specific, requested need (from a source “on the ground” in the know), not stuff.
Amazing!
Via Steven Taylor, something almost right out of Lucifer’s Hammer. A British surfer caught out on the water when the tsunami came in surfed the initial rush, survived, and escaped to safety with his family.
Wednesday, December 29, 2004
Rest In Peace Jerry Orbach
Sad news via Jen. Jerry Orbach has left us. Acidman’s prostate cancer list will need an update of the worst kind.
I never warmed to him in Dirty Dancing, but perhaps that was the nature of the character. At the same time, it took many episodes of Law and Order before I saw him as smartass Lennie, rather than the father in Dirty Dancing. I thought he did a fantastic job as Lumiere in Beauty and the Beast, which is arguably my favorite Disney animated film.
Saturday, April 17, 2004
Mayflower and Other Ramblings on a Sunny Saturday
What a great day!
We had breakfast with my father as planned, though I forgot both the asparagus I’d intended to give him, and the digital camera I need to return to him. That was nice. Then we turned in some accumulated soda cans for almost $20. Mmmm… money.
Since it was such a gorgeous day, we didn’t want to simply return home. After all, there’s enough time to do some cleaning this evening before the landlord stops by tomorrow.
The water department is changing out the meter in the cellar, which may also involve some pipe repair. When the landlord’s sister called to let me know the water would be out for an hour, she asked if anything needed attention. So when he’s here he’s going to check a couple plumbing issues and a possible shorting switch that controls the hall light. Plus they’ll be able to see what can be purged from the cellar to make more room for me to store things there.
They also are rather dismayed by Slacker Dude and the rest of the Company of Three upstairs. I wasn’t going to complain - yet - but she actually asked about the smell in the back stairwell, and whether he was doing the tasks for which he gets a break on the rent. He’s supposed to take the rubbish barrels to the curb each Wednesday. He last did that a month ago. I did it last week because they were too full for it not to get done. He’s supposed to clean the common areas. I laughed when she said that! When we got the washer and dryer hooked up in the cellar, I knocked down the cobwebs and swept thoroughly in the back hall to the foot of their stairs, down the stairs to the cellar entryway, the entryway, and into the cellar itself. Looked like it had been a year easy. He’s also supposed to change bulbs, but I think the bulb in the front hall keeps being out due to an electrical issue. Apparently they have been known to block the back (emergency/fire) exit with rubbish or whatever, and the landlord somehow is aware there is an almost unbearable stench back there at times.
This is their first apartment, and it feels like they’re testing their boundaries. Thus the appropriateness of Deb’s “the kids upstairs” expression. After a few rounds of them expressing concern they were too loud and us assuring them they were fine, they seem to have cut unabashedly loose from any recognition that there are other people in the building. Our living room, which is going to become our bedroom, has a thin wall against the entry hall, where Slacker Dude and friends (but not the girls who live up there) go in and out, or even hang out, talking loudly and pounding noisily up and down the stairs at all hours. Someone has taken to playing movies or whatnot so loud above that room that it would not be possible to sleep there. Up from barely being able to tell anyone lived up there, originally.
For all that, they aren’t that bad and we’d worry about getting someone worse. We just haven’t had a chance to let them know yet their volume level has finally exceeded maximum expectations.
But I digress.
I knew Deb would want to see water again, and before she even said it I started heading that way from Bridgewater. I showed her where I used to live in Plympton, and then we got to see that there was some serious progress on the new stretch of route 44 they are building. In the fifties or sixties a factory I once worked at was built near where the road is going through, in anticipation of the road. The company went through its entire heyday and life cycle through being obsoleted by competition from other companies, cheaper labor and more modern equipment elsewhere, was closed, was vacant, used, vacant, used by someone else, and appears to be vacant again. The road still isn’t there that will put it almost directly on a highway. But it’s getting there! I think it has been about seven years since all obstacles were out of the way. The plan was in place. The funding was there. The turtles were safe.
There will soon be an efficient east-west route linking to Plymouth. Perhaps someday it will even be a four lane, divided highway all the way from the Middleboro Rotary to the Plymouth border or so. That was the plan.
We proceeded to Water Street in Plymouth; the proverbial waterfront where the mythical-construct Plymouth Rock is, along with the Mayflower replica. It was a nice day, but not totally mobbed with tourists yet. I need the walking exercise. We walked along the waterfront, then down toward the Mayflower. We decided we could handle $8 each to go on it, which I last did when I was in 4th grade. Augh… that was 1971! *Sigh*
It was worth it. They have much improved the info displayed, though I could swear less of the ship is accessible now. Or maybe it felt bigger then. I enjoyed seeing Deb’s enjoyment of being onboard as much as I did the rest of the experience. One thing I learned is that the Whites, part of my ancestry, came from Nottinghamshire. I didn’t notice Howland on the location breakdown, but the internet says he came from Essex, so it must be true.
Anyway, we walked on down and giggled at Plymouth Rock, then crossed the street to the shops side and walked back. Went in Peaceful Meadows for ice cream. Mmmm… ice cream. It was really time for lunch, but we survived, and I had to introduce Deb to Peaceful Meadows eventually. She approved.
The primary urge to enjoy the amazing weather sated, I drove out via route 44 without detouring, to show her the twisty, windy country road part of it the highway construction needed to supercede decades ago. Stayed on 44 all the way to Wal-Mart Super Center in Raynham, detouring only to show her where the new client is. We decided to take the risk of crowds to check out the place and get a couple of “we don’t need no steenkin’ carriage” necessities. Oh. My. God. Now wonder she is so in love with super Wal-Marts! There is no question most of our shopping for groceries and sundries will happen there henceforth.
It was a wonderful day to drive around. What a shame tomorrow will only be 64. Heh. I think after we finish dealing with the landlord tomorrow I will go to the office and get all I can done so I can take Monday off, or largely off, but for monitoring things remotely. It’s supposed to be 82. Woohoo! Adequate warmth!
We ought to start taking a camera so when we go on these little jaunts to the waterfront or tourist attractions, we can post pictures. They couldn’t be as boring as my rambling descriptions…