Mon - July 6, 2009
Got kinda windy all of a sudden
Here
at Jalopnik we see a video taken from a locomotive as it, and the
train it is pulling, encounters a tornado.
Always bet on the tornado.
Posted at 07:36 PM
Thu - July 2, 2009
Your tax dollars at work
It appears our loon
Congressman-for-life-because-the-"progressives"-think-he's-peachy Jim McDermott
employs
loons on his staff, too.
In the real world, that woman would be removed
from her job.
Posted at 03:51 PM
New Death Train crushes another
In case you missed the news, the new Sound
Transit Link light rail line, currently in test runs -- not even running for
real yet, mind you -- just
totalled a car at Martin Luther King Way S and S Myrtle Street.
Fortunately, the motorist was only injured, and not killed.
As one of the people commenting on the linked
article said, "I'd hoped sound transit [sic] would be taking cars off of the
regions [sic] highways, but I didn't know they were going to do it one at a
time!"
As I have said before, the reason they took up the streetcar tracks in the old days was because trains kill people when they run among the pedestrians and cars. They knew what they were doing when they switched to buses -- buses can swerve and break suddenly, and trains cannot.
"Oh, but the driver of the car made an illegal turn," say the train apologists. Yes, the driver apparently did make an illegal turn -- as people do, every single day, without being crushed under the steel wheels of a massive implacable machine -- but now we have such a machine to kill illegal-turn-makers, a machine which exists only because our "progressive" citizens crave an emollient for their fevered psyches.
As I have said before, the reason they took up the streetcar tracks in the old days was because trains kill people when they run among the pedestrians and cars. They knew what they were doing when they switched to buses -- buses can swerve and break suddenly, and trains cannot.
"Oh, but the driver of the car made an illegal turn," say the train apologists. Yes, the driver apparently did make an illegal turn -- as people do, every single day, without being crushed under the steel wheels of a massive implacable machine -- but now we have such a machine to kill illegal-turn-makers, a machine which exists only because our "progressive" citizens crave an emollient for their fevered psyches.
Posted at 01:35 PM
The other side of the lap of luxury
You could buy me one
of these right now and make me a very happy man. While you're at it,
buy one for yourself. Man, that'd be livin', to use one of those every day.
(Every day, if your alimentary plumbing is working right.)
I had never heard of such a thing before I
read about them today in Dooce,
and it seems this is a giant product category that normal people have never
heard of before, so far being aimed at the infant market. Those marketers are
missing out.
Posted at 01:06 PM
Tue - June 16, 2009
Iran
See, the thing about election fraud is, (a) It
can be hard to detect while it is happening, and (b) Once it's been done, it is
very, very hard to reverse it.
Our Washington Secretary of State Sam Reed
always says, "We have no history of election fraud in this state," or something
like that. NO -- we have no history of FINDING election fraud in this state.
Because we have no history of LOOKING FOR IT in this state -- and it is almost
totally unguarded against in this
state.
You have to put mechanisms in place, many mechanisms, to block every possible avenue of fraud. You have to. The people who think our new all-vote-by-mail system is wonderful are gigantic naifs, and are too simple-minded to be entrusted with the running of our elections.
You have to put mechanisms in place, many mechanisms, to block every possible avenue of fraud. You have to. The people who think our new all-vote-by-mail system is wonderful are gigantic naifs, and are too simple-minded to be entrusted with the running of our elections.
Posted at 09:46 AM
Mon - June 15, 2009
Good old days
Here are a couple of sites devoted to
photographs of old-time Seattle: PaulDorpat.com and VintageSeattle.org.
Paul Dorpat has for many years written the
"Seattle Now and Then" page in the Sunday magazine supplement of the Seattle
Times. His web site offers
archives of those columns, and lots of new old
stuff.
VintageSeattle.org mostly just shows high resolution photos of bygone days in Seattle. For example, check out this entry, Seattle By Air, 1979. I point that one out because that's pretty much what Seattle looked like when moved here two years later -- the Seafirst Building (now the 1001 Fourth Avenue Building) was, at 40 stories, the tallest building in town, and there were few other tall buildings. They used to call the Seafirst Building, a glass and steel rectangular cube, "the box the Space Needle came in." I haven't heard THAT one for a long time.
VintageSeattle.org mostly just shows high resolution photos of bygone days in Seattle. For example, check out this entry, Seattle By Air, 1979. I point that one out because that's pretty much what Seattle looked like when moved here two years later -- the Seafirst Building (now the 1001 Fourth Avenue Building) was, at 40 stories, the tallest building in town, and there were few other tall buildings. They used to call the Seafirst Building, a glass and steel rectangular cube, "the box the Space Needle came in." I haven't heard THAT one for a long time.
Posted at 03:08 PM
Sun - June 14, 2009
"Everything's good when it sits on a Ritz."
Here is a doctor writing
in Slate.com that we would all be better off if we ate more
excrement.
He says it would be good for our immune
systems, that we would be better able to handle the really nasty infections if
our immune systems were regularly given a workout on some nice excrement in our
stomach. He's right, you know; studies have shown that kids who are heavily
protected from dirt are more prone to develop allergies, asthma, and
such.
He's right. You go first, and tell us how it works out for you. (Actually, those of you who are eating "organic" produce have probably already started this regimen.)
He's right. You go first, and tell us how it works out for you. (Actually, those of you who are eating "organic" produce have probably already started this regimen.)
Posted at 05:43 PM
Thu - June 11, 2009
The tax of crime, which we all pay
Here is a long
article in City Journal from several years ago detailing how the Mafia
got a stranglehold on New York City, and how the stranglehold was
broken.
Short story: Unions hired mobsters to use
violence to intimidate businesses that wouldn't give the unions what they
wanted. Businesses caved in and gave the unions what they wanted. Eventually
the mobsters controlled the unions. Control of the unions, and continued use of
violence, and threats of strikes, allowed them to control most of the business
that went on in New York City. Democratic Party politicians, both local and
national, dependent on the unions for votes and money and muscle, looked the
other way, and pretended the system was good for New York
City.
How was this stranglehold broken? Read the article -- you may be surprised, as I was, to find that William Ruckelshaus played a key role in it.
How was this stranglehold broken? Read the article -- you may be surprised, as I was, to find that William Ruckelshaus played a key role in it.
Posted at 08:57 PM
New survey finds people are somewhat aware, and very stupid
Found at the Los Angeles Times' Top
of the Ticket blog: A
new Harris survey finds that most Americans realize that talking on a
cell phone while driving is dangerous, but they don't care and do it
anyway.
Seventy-two percent of people who drive and
own a cell phone say they do both at the same time. The number is in the
eighties of percents for folks under
44.
Meanwhile, eighty-eight percent say it is dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving.
(Twenty-seven percent say they text-message and drive at the same time, at least occasionally. Which ought to scare the pants off you.)
It appears that the misguided state laws banning handheld phoning while driving but allowing hands-free phoning while driving have had the deleterious effect of making people think hands-free phoning is safer than handheld phoning, seventy-one percent of those polled by Harris. But, as several studies have shown, what makes talking on a cell phone while driving unsafe is not the use of a hand, it is the loss of mental focus on driving -- a loss of mental focus greater than that resulting from a .08 blood alcohol level. BUT, even in states having hands-free phoning laws, forty-nine percent of those polled hold the phone in their hands while phoning and driving.
Stop it. Just stop it. No phone call is so important you need to do the equivalent of drink and drive to make it.
Meanwhile, eighty-eight percent say it is dangerous to talk on a cell phone while driving.
(Twenty-seven percent say they text-message and drive at the same time, at least occasionally. Which ought to scare the pants off you.)
It appears that the misguided state laws banning handheld phoning while driving but allowing hands-free phoning while driving have had the deleterious effect of making people think hands-free phoning is safer than handheld phoning, seventy-one percent of those polled by Harris. But, as several studies have shown, what makes talking on a cell phone while driving unsafe is not the use of a hand, it is the loss of mental focus on driving -- a loss of mental focus greater than that resulting from a .08 blood alcohol level. BUT, even in states having hands-free phoning laws, forty-nine percent of those polled hold the phone in their hands while phoning and driving.
Stop it. Just stop it. No phone call is so important you need to do the equivalent of drink and drive to make it.
Posted at 03:49 PM
Thu - June 4, 2009
For your "Man and Woman" file
There have been a couple of interesting
studies in the news recently, about how men and women relate.
First, here is one from the Max Planck
Institute in Germany, as
reported by the London Telegraph: Men who marry younger women live
longer, and the greater the age differential, the greater the increase in life
span. They are not sure if it's because having a younger wife actually makes a
man live longer, or if it is the healthier older men, i.e., men who were going
to live longer anyway, who can get the younger women. Meanwhile, women get no
life-span benefit from marrying younger -- in fact, marrying a man significantly
younger OR older INCREASES a woman's chance of dying younger. Tough luck,
ladies. The study was not a controlled experiment, it was a statistical study
of all deaths in Denmark between 1990 and 2005, and the numbers are in the
linked article.
And then there is this study performed by psychologists at Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, who found that talking to a pretty woman makes a man stupid. And the prettier he thinks she is, the stupider the man gets. (In other news, water is wet.) They had men perform tests of cognitive ability, such as math puzzles, and then had them talk to pretty women, and then had them do the tests again, and the scores after talking to the women were lower. There was no effect on the men's cognitive ability after talking to other men between the tests, and women showed no degradation in cognitive ability after talking to either sex. Here, you can read about it in this report on TheLondonPaper.com.
I am reminded of this time at work, and, no, I won't tell you about it.
And then there is this study performed by psychologists at Radboud University of Nijmegen in the Netherlands, who found that talking to a pretty woman makes a man stupid. And the prettier he thinks she is, the stupider the man gets. (In other news, water is wet.) They had men perform tests of cognitive ability, such as math puzzles, and then had them talk to pretty women, and then had them do the tests again, and the scores after talking to the women were lower. There was no effect on the men's cognitive ability after talking to other men between the tests, and women showed no degradation in cognitive ability after talking to either sex. Here, you can read about it in this report on TheLondonPaper.com.
I am reminded of this time at work, and, no, I won't tell you about it.
Posted at 08:20 PM
Wed - June 3, 2009
Public works, yet again.
So, today they came and removed all the
pavement where yesterday they cut lines into the pavement.
I still have no idea what this is all about.
Posted at 04:26 PM
Quote of the day
George Dennison Prentice: "What
some call health, if purchased by perpetual anxiety about diet, isn't much
better than tedious disease."
I had not heard of George Dennison
Prentice until I read that quote. He was a newspaper
editor who founded the Louisville Journal and died in 1870. And he
was smart about health.
Posted at 04:19 PM
Tue - June 2, 2009
Political trickery in Seattle
I just got push-polled.
A push poll is when they call you up and ask
you to take part in a survey about the upcoming election, and eventually it gets
around to, "I'm going to say a few statements about some of the candidates and I
want you to tell me if that makes you more likely to vote for the candidate, or
less." And then the statements are all positive for one candidate, and negative
for the others. Or what they think you would think were positive statements,
and negative statements.
It's not really a poll at all; it's a trick.
This evening, I figured it out almost immediately. I even said to the guy, "Ohhhh, a PUSH poll! Keep going." And he did.
The candidate on whose behalf the push poll was done is our incumbent bloated-sack Mayor, Greg Nickels. It was obvious from the negative statements included in this "poll" that the candidates he fears most are Jan Drago and Joe Mallahan.
I wasn't planning on voting for Nickels anyway. Now, I am going to invite you to not vote for him, either.
It's not really a poll at all; it's a trick.
This evening, I figured it out almost immediately. I even said to the guy, "Ohhhh, a PUSH poll! Keep going." And he did.
The candidate on whose behalf the push poll was done is our incumbent bloated-sack Mayor, Greg Nickels. It was obvious from the negative statements included in this "poll" that the candidates he fears most are Jan Drago and Joe Mallahan.
I wasn't planning on voting for Nickels anyway. Now, I am going to invite you to not vote for him, either.
Posted at 08:06 PM
Further public works update
So, now that they have scraped the top layer
of asphalt off of Fourth Avenue, and installed little tar ramps around all the
manhole covers and gratings, and let the scraped street rest for several days,
now they are cutting into the exposed road surface.
See those patterns of white lines? All of those are places where they cut into the road with a radial saw. And there are lots more of those cuts elsewhere up and down the street. And, MAN is that cutting loud -- naturally, they do this on a day when it is over 80 degrees and we all have our windows open.
I wonder if they are going to install sensors in those cuts. They previously installed the bus stop concrete pads all up Fourth, consistent with the coming "Rapid Ride" bus service -- another feature of Rapid Ride is bus lanes that get a green light when all other lanes are red, and I can imagine that sensors in the road are necessary to trigger the light to turn green for the bus.
But I didn't think Rapid Ride was going up Fourth Avenue, I though it was on First.
In the Fullness of Time, all will be revealed.
Meanwhile, I forgot to mention, they planted saplings on Third Avenue, in the holes in the new sidewalk.
Posted at 03:20 PM
Thu - May 28, 2009
You do not have enough to read; here, have thousands of old magazines
Nobody told me that Sports Illustrated has all
its old articles online in the something they call the "SI Vault." Thanks a
lot, people; I have to find these things out by accident.
So, here, to try it out, read two of my
all-time favorite Sports Illustrated articles: "Bell
of the Ball Game," about the Wabash-DePauw college football rivalry,
from the September 10, 1973 issue, and "Nile
Kinnick," about the greatest Heisman Trophy winner, from the August
31, 1987 issue. (I actually have saved those two issues in paper form, and they
are around here somewhere, but who has the time to go find
them?)
Alas, it appears that the photos and artwork that accompanied the articles are not included. Oh, well.
Last night I read seven articles from the 1950s and 1960s about the Indianapolis 500. This SI Vault is an absolute boon to mankind!
Alas, it appears that the photos and artwork that accompanied the articles are not included. Oh, well.
Last night I read seven articles from the 1950s and 1960s about the Indianapolis 500. This SI Vault is an absolute boon to mankind!
Posted at 11:33 PM
Wed - May 27, 2009
Yet more public works around here
In case you were worried that the Seattle
Department of Transportation was not going to fulfill its
promises, yes, they are scraping all the asphalt off Fourth Avenue
tonight. And tomorrow night. And the night after that.
That's a pretty nifty asphalt scraping machine they've got there. Fortunately, I will get to watch it a lot, because they will be scraping until 6 a.m. every night.
I have no idea why they are doing this. I think Fourth Avenue is in pretty good shape, asphalt-wise.
Posted at 08:44 PM
Tue - May 26, 2009
Some days it doesn't pay to get out of bed
Here's a news item from
Nelson, California about a man who was fortunate enough to be able to
walk away from his vehicle when he rolled it over early Sunday
morning.
Unfortunately, he walked onto the railroad
tracks and into the path of an onrushing Amtrak train and was
killed.
Posted at 06:03 PM
Bumper man
Why do our local news providers not tell us
about such celebrities in our midst? Why do I have to read
about them in the London Daily Telegraph?
Seattle being a hotbed of ... diversity ...
you'd think this man would be on the City Council. At a minimum, I would expect
there to be a commission about preventing discrimination against his type, and
providing them with parking spaces.
Posted at 11:23 AM
To protect and serve, stylin'
Once again the
Washington State Patrol has been named the best-dressed state police force in
the USA. This year they tied with the Mississippi Highway
Patrol.
The public safety uniform awards are presented
annual by the North American Association
of Uniform Manufacturers and Distributors. Yes, there is a trade
association for
everything.
Fortunately, I have never had the chance to see a WSP uniform up close, so I cannot say whether I agree with the award. But they keep winning it.
When I used to live in Gary, the Gary Police Department had really cool uniforms, I thought: Dark blue shirts, medium blue-gray pants, blue-gray neckties, blue-gray topped officer hats. That was the only good thing about that particular police force.
The WSP uniforms are made by Blumenthal Uniforms, if you want to buy one for yourself.
Fortunately, I have never had the chance to see a WSP uniform up close, so I cannot say whether I agree with the award. But they keep winning it.
When I used to live in Gary, the Gary Police Department had really cool uniforms, I thought: Dark blue shirts, medium blue-gray pants, blue-gray neckties, blue-gray topped officer hats. That was the only good thing about that particular police force.
The WSP uniforms are made by Blumenthal Uniforms, if you want to buy one for yourself.
Posted at 11:17 AM
Sun - May 17, 2009
"When is a sidewalk fully dressed? When it's Waring Hudsucker!"
The
Sun-Times reports that Sears Tower in Chicago is having installed
extensions jutting 4.3 feet out from the west side of its 103rd-floor
observation platform.
These extensions will have all-glass walls,
and and an all-glass ceiling. And an all-glass floor. So it will seem you are
standing out there in mid-air, 1353 feet up. Like Dumbo, or
something.
They are only doing it on the west side because, due to the stepped-back construction of the Tower, the west side is the only side where a person four feet out from the building would be able to look down and see all the way to the sidewalk. The hard, hard sidewalk, upon which your body would make a thin, wide puddle.
They are only doing it on the west side because, due to the stepped-back construction of the Tower, the west side is the only side where a person four feet out from the building would be able to look down and see all the way to the sidewalk. The hard, hard sidewalk, upon which your body would make a thin, wide puddle.
Posted at 03:16 PM
Tue - May 12, 2009
Sun - May 10, 2009
Probably not wearing pants, either
I do not know the weekend news anchors at
WGN-TV in Chicago, and I have never seen them on the air, but they seem to enjoy
their jobs.
Gravitas, it's all about
gravitas.
Posted at 04:51 PM
Quote of the Day
"Speech is conveniently
located midway between thought and action, where it often substitutes for
both." -- John Andrew Holmes
I never heard of Dr Holmes until today, but he
was pretty wise. In that sentence he has captured several people I know, and
many public figures, including our current Vice President.
Posted at 04:46 PM
Sat - May 9, 2009
The Dog Prince, as in "smells like"
This is by his own admission. It could be
true -- he wears his hair in a short, spiky 'do, where anything is
possible.
I recall reading an interview with Christopher Walken where he said he did not use soap or shampoo on his hair, but merely rinsed it with water every day.
They say that if you don't wash your hair, the scalp-oil output will actually decrease, and your hair will reach an equilibrium of natural cleanliness. They say. I have heard different figures for how long it takes to reach this equilibrium, varying from one week to four weeks. I tried it once for four days and couldn't stand it any more.
I recall reading an interview with Christopher Walken where he said he did not use soap or shampoo on his hair, but merely rinsed it with water every day.
They say that if you don't wash your hair, the scalp-oil output will actually decrease, and your hair will reach an equilibrium of natural cleanliness. They say. I have heard different figures for how long it takes to reach this equilibrium, varying from one week to four weeks. I tried it once for four days and couldn't stand it any more.
Posted at 06:17 PM
You are being played
Here
the dog-owning Chicago Tribune columnist Eric Zorn discusses the fact that your
dog does NOT love you, despite what you may wish.
Your dog just finds itself a beta in a pack
with you, and exhibits behaviors necessary to get the alpha (you) to let it have
some of the food. Not love. Get over yourself.
Posted at 02:55 PM
Greetings from Seattle
Ads by Google
Calendar
| Sun | Mon | Tue | Wed | Thu | Fri | Sat |
Categories
XML/RSS Feed
Archives
Word of the Day
iChat/AIM status
Blogs I read
and sometimes
Site Meter Web Counter
I ping Technorati
Comments powered by
Twitter Updates
Wanted by the FBI
Statistics
Total entries in this blog:
Published On: Jul 06, 2009 07:36 PM
Published On: Jul 06, 2009 07:36 PM