Jim the Cro-ster over at Physics is Phunnner than Phlatulance remarked today on the metric vs. english dichotomy of U.S. society and its implications for daily use. I agree with his main thrust, that in order for something to be useful, it must be used. i.e., to really grok a measurement, like the meter or …
Category Archives: Opinion
Reason Number 1032 that iTunes just Sucks
I think iTunes is a piece of crap. My reasons are legion. One of the main ones is the sever use of DRM through the iTunes Store. There are ways around that, but it’s still a pain. Likewise, if you rip a disc to your hard drive and don’t change any settings, the album is …
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Winter Solstice
Tomorrow, December 21, at 7:04 Eastern Standard Time (plus or minus a few for inaccurate clocks) is the winter solstice. This is the day when the sun, at noon local time, will be at 90° azimuth over the horizon (i.e. straight up) at the tropic of Cancer Capricorn [ed: whoops, got summer and winter confused]. …
Thought of the Day
So, you’re the Piqua, Ohio Human Resources manager (or City Manager). You come to work one day and find out that 6.4% of your workforce won’t be working for you anymore. My thought/question: In today’s budget crisis climate, is this a bad thing (reduced ability to provide services) or a good thing (layoffs without the …
Dogs and Trash Companies
The items in the title are not linked. They are two things that piqued my interest in this morning’s daily news email from the AJC. One: They’re using dogs to chase geese away from the City of Atlanta water reservoirs. Cool. Two: Two trash-collection firms in Gwinnett county are shutting down due to the County …
No Worse Person to Lead
Governor Sarah Palin has got to be the recent political world’s biggest scam artist. She has certainly risen to her level of incompetence. For example, I present a quote, concerning the Federal Bailout and her opposition to…something about it (I’m not sure exactly what she’s opposing). Palin said that a “bigger federal government and more …
Elections; Speeches; Moving On
Last night was the first time I stayed up until the polls closed and the election was called since 1988. The elections between that one and this one just didn’t have the draw for me. I was perfectly willing to go to bed and see who won in the morning (of course, I had a …
Polling Location Demographics
In an exhaustive survey of one polling location, this intrepid researcher notes that the poll worker average age was about half what it was the last few times he voted. There was an honest-to-god teenager working the poll when I voted this morning. The person who checked my ID was about 30. The person who …
Election Dungeoneering
McCain needs to roll a double zero today, according to FiveThirtyEight.
Letter to SF Chronicle
This went to C.W. Nevius of the San Francisco Chronicle in response to this story. An oblique response, really. Good day, I didn’t really feel like commenting on the story, because however I wrote this, it would come across as whiny. However, you might find some story fodder here: The Nike Women’s Marathon was my …