Month: January 2014

Indy says….

“It belongs in a museum!”

 

Regrettably not my original picture. Some pics were lost in a server upgrade. It still says “museum model,” trust me.

See, says so right there on the side: “MUSEUM MODEL”.

This little lovely is at the National Atomic Testing Museum. Worth visiting, don’t bring small children, don’t pay extra for the Area 51 exhibit. These are my opinions, your mileage might vary, driver carries no cash.

In Closing: original Porsche electric car; more than one in four American families had trouble paying medical bills in 2012; turns out the safety argument is bogus; your usual assortment of NSA, spying, privacy, terror, blah blah and related links; fox would like job guarding henhouse; still might be worth laying in some extra supplies; “oh, gee, maybe that factory sealed bottle from the duty free store isn’t a flight risk after all”; yeah, I think I’ll skip the “wearable tech,” which is somehow mostly about sex and food. I think the Twitter Bra is the most ridiculous item.

And Happy End of January.

Shorties’ Due

Enjoy some pre-SOTU appetizers.

Keeping an eye on us all: So, here’s the latest links on the NSA, privacy, spying, Snowden, the legality of anything the NSA is up to, and related issues. This just keeps getting messier.

No, the fact that it’s cold outside does not prove that global warming is a hoax: seriously, people.

Check the weather anyway, I think hell froze over: Ben Stein veers away from the party line and says that if the national debt is a problem, higher taxes is the answer.

Stuck in [what’s left of] the middle: on income inequality, the middle class, and related issues.

Afghanistan: I guess there will be no true peace unless everyone agrees to it.

Uh, what?: Some public school in Louisiana thinks that they are a Christian school, apparently. And the sad part is that they will “blame” the non-Christian family for making them teach in accordance with the First Amendment and the Law.

More relevant than he thinks: Religious extremism is dangerous, no matter what the religion is. See also, last two paragraphs.

Same as it ever was: Americans are not happy with their government. However, don’t expect anybody to “vote the bums out” anytime soon.

What, you want accurate facts too??: Rand Paul.

Anti-Abortion and Pro-Life are different things: Amen to that.

Why?: Why, exactly, was personal information about 74,000 on a laptop computer for any reason?

And finally: Budget Bourbon. My current brand of choice is represented, so I may yet try the others.

I know you’re out there somewhere.

I’m talking to the guy who decided to shoot at another motorist at a busy Vegas intersection during rush hour.

What the heck were you thinking? The cops still think it was probably a road rage thing: did he forget to signal? Maybe you were riding his freaking blind spot and he accidentally cut you off?

Maybe you thought you would just scare him. Well, he’ll never be scared again, because you killed him! Worse than that, he had two small children in the back seat. Thankfully, they were not hurt by your bullets — for pity sake, how many shots did you fire?? — nor by the subsequent crash into two other vehicles. That 2 year old boy and 3 year old girl got to watch their Daddy die. Somebody had to explain to their Mommy what had happened.

You gave no care to the fact that your bullets could have killed innocent people.

Those aren’t the only people you hurt that night either.  Thousands of motorists were detoured or otherwise delayed. Businesses were closed, their employees unpaid for hours they couldn’t work. Small sacrifices by comparison, but still.

You, sir, are a disgrace to gun owners. You obviously have anger management issues and no grasp of even the most basic gun safety rules. Asshats like you give ammunition to those who think we need more gun control laws, even though I think it’s a coin-flip whether you have yours legally. I don’t like the fact that people with as little judgement as you are in my community, perhaps even on the same road as me.

I know they’re going to find you. I don’t know where they’re going to find an unbiased jury.

In Closing: full of hot air and bacteria; and their kids pay the price; I’m only linking it because it’s correct; a variety of items on poverty, safety net programs and their impact, income inequality, corporate money stupidity; etc.; some bonus NSA links; they’ve got this backwards — Medicare [for All] can save the Affordable Care Act; everybody wins when kids can learn at their own pace; and the unsung hero of the medical device world.

Quiz Time

As I return to classes, I would like to share an item that got lost in the holiday shuffle: a recent study “showed that giving brief online quizzes at every class meeting in an introductory psychology class boosted student performance.” I have no doubt that this will translate to many other classes.

Allow me to explain some of the obvious reasons this is so. First, by having a graded event every class period, the expectation is set that students must show up every day. You can’t just read on your own, show up for exams, and expect to get a good grade. Showing up in class gives students the chance to hear a different explanation than is in the textbook, the chance to ask questions and hear other questions answered, and additional exposure to sometimes complex subjects.

Second, not only does each student know he or she must show up to class, he or she must show up prepared! It is understood that you’ve got to read and study and make an honest attempt to understand what’s actually been covered so you can do well on that quiz. That’s a different mindset than rolling out of bed and slouching through class.

And finally, it gives the professor valuable feedback on what students understand — while the coverage puts this onus on the student, I feel it’s a two-way street. If the majority of students miss one question, the instructor can and should re-teach the material while it is fresh. A new angle on how to present the topic can be explored. Students then have a fighting chance of understanding the material before finals. In many disciplines, harder concepts rest on top of previously learned ones, so this step is vital towards keeping everyone on track.

So yeah, no surprise that daily quizzes are good for learning outcomes.

NSA: Going Away or Here to Stay?

Ok, so the President made his big presentation on NSA reforms today. For your convenience, here’s the actual transcript of what he said. If that’s too wordy for you, here’s a summary with commentary, and the EFF kindly provides a short version. Today I have just a little round-up of what people are saying. And what better way to start a round-up than with another round-up?

Seriously though, from where I sit, it looks like “Meh, better than nothing but it’s still a fig leaf.”

Just a reminder, many of our “elected” officials don’t think we need any reform at all.

In the meantime, more and more information about what the NSA is really up to continues to dribble out. Here we have an official who concedes that they haven’t caught any terrorists, but they might someday so we need to spy on everybody. I am unsure how they plan to catch terrorists if they are too busy learning about Comrade Misfit’s lunch plans and the fact that I’m cooking meatloaf for dinner. You can’t find a needle in a haystack by building bigger haystacks. Although I am told that part of learning to search for something specific involves sifting a lot of data to see what it looks like, that phase should be temporary and shouldn’t involve storing the data forever.

Oh, and I wouldn’t dream of leaving out the thoughts of security guru Bruce Schneier, who thinks that encryption is the key to keeping data private.

It’s time to fight back.

In Closing: maybe real school reform starts with the schedule; black widow; not better off; the last Imperial soldier; pens; even skywriters doodle when they are bored; don’t forget to remind your Congressmice that TPP is a bad idea; make then talk; and no, “fit but fat” isn’t a thing.

I saw the news today, oh boy.

I made the mistake of watching my local noontime newscast. Here were the items covered before breaking for weather:

  • Yesterday’s school shooting!!! Complete with interview of distraught parents!!!
  • Benghazi!!! No, nothing new to report. Just Benghazi!!!
  • Firefighter pointing out what he thought was a deceased victim before the fire truck ran over her…. last year!!! New footage!!!
  • Identification of a snowboarder who unfortunately died on Mount Charleston (yesterday)
  • Kids set fire in vacant house (yesterday).
  • Late night shooting in North Las Vegas.
  • Sentencing delayed for the alleged pimp (who allegedly shot another pimp, causing him to crash into a taxi and burst into flames) on [unrelated] sexual assault charges. This is one of those cases that would make a better CSI script than the stuff they film sometimes.

Apparently, it is not newsworthy that:

  • Congress is working on an important budget bill (and congrats to the feds for having a $53,000,000,000 surplus in December!).
  • Germany may or may not be trying to negotiate a “no-spy” treaty with the United States.
  • 75 leading economists think our minimum wage workers deserve a raise.
  • Some men in Congress want to make women pay out of pocket for abortions regardless of whether they are medically necessary.
  • Anything whatsoever is going on about the NSA, the promised list of upcoming “reforms,” and the court cases involved.
  • There are stalled bills to restore food stamps and extended unemployment benefits.

I could go on this way for a while, but there’s no point. Apparently I’ve been watching News Lite: 25% less relevance. I wonder how it compares to original News as far as facts.

In Closing: antibacterial soap, West Virginia chemical, and just maybe if either of the political parties actually tried representing We The People, there wouldn’t be a record level of “independents“.

Music Monday: Billie Jean

Perhaps the essence of a play in 3-5 minutes is Billie Jean. Paired with an iconic video, it solidified Michael Jackson as an adult pop singer whose color did not matter. And it turns out there was just as much drama in the recording studio as in the actual song:

 

Oh, one more thing. It’s kind of important. If you don’t like the idea of random people being able to contact you through G+, you’d better read and follow the instructions in this article.

In Closing: the official excuse is to prevent unauthorized export; hero; Pope Francis continues to preach common sense along with lovingkindness and compassion; NSA scandal junkies need to be aware that Bruce Schneier is planning to post an “exploit a day” (yes, he has a working RSS feed); on college; on employment; on the Fed; the Japanese appear to be getting serious about whiskey; and just a little round up of some of the smarter things I’ve seen on other people’s blogs this week.

Go ahead, buy premium. You know you want it.

IMG_20130424_144230

I realize this one is subtle. But if you look at the directions, the hand is pushing the middle button. The middle button on this pump just happens to be the expensive stuff.

In Closing: ok, you’ve done without your NSA, privacy, government spying, Ed Snowden, cover-ups, terrorism over-reach, and related stuff links for far too long; a nice collection of health, health care, health insurance, Affordable Care Act, and hospital issues links; the magic of adjusting portion sizes (did you notice that 2 Oreos is now a serving when it used to be 3?); race, school discipline, and getting arrested; it turns out most people work because they want to get paid; and burgers.