Am I the only one who’s sick and tired of Olympia Snowe? I mean, fer chrissakes, what’s the goddamn fascination with kissing her ass? Just to get one Republican vote? Screw ’em; the fewer Republicans that vote for a bill, the more I think it must be a good one. First off – and I hate to be shallow and superficial, but – they’ve been plastering her photo all over every website I go to (often in rather large size), and, let’s face it, she’s got a face only Ladybird Johnson could love. Secondly, if she thinks Max Baucus’ (he’s a creepy-looking bastard, too) “reform” bill is great, then she must be just as deep in the pockets of the insurance and drug companies as he is. Who the frack elected her queen of the Senate anyway? I mean, the entire population of the State of Maine is about half the population of the borough of Brooklyn alone. Speaking of pissant states (no offense; Maine is really quite beautiful – though it makes Syracuse look like Miami in the winter – and has really friendly people) getting to decide how the rest of us will live, Baucus’ state (Montana) has about half a million people less than Maine. Let’s not forget that other great DINO, Ben Nelson of Nebraska. Nebraska (a state that looks like a parking lot with a shitload of corn planted in it) has a measly half million more people than Maine. So, three states with combined population of less than 4 million people, and they get to rule my world? It just aint right.
Speaking of shit that aint right, the NYS Department of Health has decreed that all health care workers must give up sovereignty over their bodies and undergo forced medical treatment in the form of the seasonal flu shot, and the untested, experimental, rushed to market H1N1 flu vaccine (a series of two innoculations) when it becomes available from the drug companies, who have been absolved of all legal liability should the vaccine kill more people than the flu itself (as was the case in 1976 with the much hyped “swine flu” shots). When the State declares that it owns your body, something is terribly wrong (particularly when the orders come in the form of a fiat from some faceless, unelected, and unaccountable government agency headed by a commissioner – Richard Davies, MD – who was a Mormon missionary; I wonder whether Dr. Dick is gonna get a flu shot, or if he’ll be relying on his magic underpants). I believe we saw this sort of thing 60 years ago in Germany (well, not the Mormon part). Talk about fascism. What’s next? Subcutaneous RFID chips? Bedroom video monitoring to deter aberrant behavior? Death panels? Mandatory abortions? Human/Animal hybrids!? Time to get Glenn Beck on the job, to organize (if not actually attend) a march on Albany.
OK, so, you Apple fanboys (and gals) out there. Is there no such thing as a delete key (no, I’m not talking about the backspace key labeled “delete”) on a Mac, or am I just missing something here? I finally reach out to the Mac evangelists, and you shun me. I may have to join the Syracuse Mac User’s Group, known better by its rather apt acronym, SMUG.
Oh well, time to get this rather long week the hell over with.
Tyrannosaurus rex — the most fearsome predator ever to have trod the Earth — had a pint-sized precursor, remarkably similar in appearance but no heavier than a human being, according to a new report from a team of scientists. The creature was what Austin Powers might call T. rex’s Mini-Me.
The new animal, based on a single fossil smuggled out of China and eventually sold to a private collector, has been named raptorex. It lived 125 million years ago in a lake-dotted region of northern China.
Raptorex had a big head, tiny forelimbs, and a body built for sprinting, just like T. rex. But this fossil is of a young adult dinosaur, nearly full-grown, that at maturity would have been only about 9 feet long, compared with about 40 feet for an adult T. rex, according to a paper published Thursday in the online edition of the journal Science. It would have weighed only 150 pounds. An adult T. rex could reach 13,000 pounds.
This scrambles the picture of mega-predator evolution and raises the question of whether other jumbo dinosaurs also materialized in a pipsqueak version.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091702573.html
The 265,000-member hotel and restaurant employees union Unite Here announced Thursday that it is rejoining the AFL-CIO four years after it and several other unions broke away to form a rival coalition.
The return of Unite Here is another blow to the effort of that coalition, Change to Win, to chart a separate course for organized labor. It also marks the latest sign of how labor’s internal divisions are distracting attention and resources at a moment when it could be capitalizing on the Democratic ascendance in Washington.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/09/17/AR2009091703063.html
Now you know how we women have felt for years.
***
I use a bunch of keyboard strokes on my macbook pro, pj. Like command x to delete (command = apple logo thing). Your command key can do all kinds of stuff.
One of my favorite features on my macbook is the active corners on the screen. System preferences to Expose. I activate my top left window to desktop and bottom left to all windows, etc. You can easily access your desktop and all opened windows. For someone like me who has multiple programs running, it is a seamless way to navigate.
Amen, OKat!
High school students in OK were given ten questions from the test for prospective US citizens. They were woefully ignorant. Of course they could all READ the test, but they had no information. I’m sure, by Bushie standards, their schools are all doing well.
http://www.news9.com/global/story.asp?s=11141949.
Isn’t that pitiful? And the thugs don’t give a damn.
Oh, pj, at home I use the apple wireless mouse and keyboard. the apple wireless mouse has a right click….
My biggest Apple complaint: they do not make a docking station for this puppy. I have to connect a bazillion wires to use my cinematic screen and speakers. Pain in the arse for something that is supposed to be elegantly designed.
Yeah, command is like the control key on a PC. Most of the keyboard shortcuts in the apps I use are the same except with the command key. The double-finger tap works fine for the right-click. I tend to not both with a mouse, since I despise using them in the first place (I’m a trackball fan), and typically don’t have a convenient mousing surface whilst using a laptop.
I have to say, I do like the thing overall, though it’s a tad on the slow side for certain things, even compared to my ancient Dell, and despite having a VPN and remote desktop client installed, was unable to connect to my work computer to solve a crisis last night.
As long as you only do what Apple allows, though, it’s pretty nice. Not all that much different from a PC though, except I like the two finger scroll. I’ve been reading that Mac snobs look down on the 13″ Macbook Pro, because it doesn’t have an independent graphics processor, and therefore shouldn’t be called a “pro.” But I really wouldn’t want anything bigger.
FK, can’t you get a USB or Firewire port replicator for it? Here’s one.
Who do you think the majority of health care workers who will be mandated to get flu shots are?
Of course, they’re not all women, any more than all women believe in a woman’s right to have a safe, legal abortion. From the polling I’ve seen, men and women are pretty much evenly divided on the subject.
For instance, in this 2003 CBS/NYT poll, for women, 37% thought it should be generally available, 37% available with stricter limits than there are currently, and 24% said it should never be available.
For men, it was 40%/40%/20%.
Irving Kristol, Architect of Neoconservatism, Dies at 89
Novak gets company
Jack Herer, Emperor of Hemp, marijuana hero, dead
:bong: 🙁 :gate:
Great news. #11 was typical Examiner bullshit.
Not true.
For now Jack is still alive. I usually have a pretty firm resistance to using the BS Examiner (Washington Times trite) as a source. Lesson learned.
I only wish I could celebrate Jack’s resurrection with a :bong:
Guess I’ll just have to settle for :40:
I wish Jack could celebrate his resurrection with a :bong: and a :40: .
Hey, looks like we’re on the short list for building these in the United States.
This would be really nice. We could use the jobs (and I’d love to own one – though maybe not that particular color).
Surely they will make an orange edition for SF Giants fans.
My favorite thing is being able to squeeze the buttons on the side of the mouse and all your windows that are open appear simultaneously making going from window to window visually easy. But I guess the laptop must have another way of doing it. You’ll also save a lot of money not having to buy anti virus softwares and renewing them and other security soft ware.
But I need to find out how to delete things off the hard drive. I can delete files from what ever application like iphoto but it still shows up when I use other applications either online or on my computer.
I don’t spend money on AV software. Plenty of freeware stuff, and if you practice safe computing, it really isn’t a problem (more hype than anything else). So far, I like this thing, but the price difference and lack of available freeware is a drawback.
New Rule: You Can’t Complain About Health Care Reform If You’re Not Willing to Reform Your Own Health
:rofl2: President Arugula! :rofl2: