Posts filed under ‘Musings’
The FCC Fines Google the Equivalent of 68 Seconds in Profits
Wow. Did you hear? The FCC has fined Google for impeding an investigation. Cool. I mean, they’re really looking out for the little guy huh?
Not exactly. The whole thing might as well be a joke:
The Federal Communications Commission announced Friday it is slapping a fine on Google for deliberately impeding an investigation into the collection of sensitive wireless network data as part of the search giant’s Street View mapping project. The amount of the fine: $25,000.
That figure is, of course, barely a rounding error for the company. Google made $2.89 billion last quarter, or $25,000 in profits every 68 seconds.
Nevertheless, the FCC Enforcement Bureau report announcing the fine says that the $25,000 level is designed “to deter future misconduct in view of Google’s ability to pay.”
The FCC found that Google Street View cars — which were taking pictures for Google Maps — also collected passwords, emails, and medical records, among other data from residents’ WiFi networks. Google has apologized for collecting the data but maintains it was legal.
The report states that the FCC actually ramped up the fine. The base fine for the violations was $12,000.
The report notes that the Commission has elected to increase fines “[t]o ensure that a proposed forfeiture is not treated as simply a cost of doing business.”
If Google collected personal information off of WiFi networks while its Street View car drove around, that’s a big deal. And if it tried to impede an investigation into that, that’s a big deal too. This is serious stuff. So gee. The FCC said the “$25,000 level is designed to ‘deter future misconduct in view of Google’s ability to pay’?” Really? A fine equivalent to 68 seconds worth of profit is a deterrent?” Now that’s funny.
Oppose Abortion? Destroy Your Metal Coat Hangers
One way women abort fetuses when they don’t have access to safe and sterile abortions is to stick metal objects up their vagina:
(Via.)
Abortions won’t stop. What will happen is that women will die trying to rid themselves of pregnancies they don’t want and children they can’t afford to take care of.
Read more about the ways in which women self-induce abortions here.
No Lingerie Bowl This Year? Poor Neil Cavuto
Interviewing the “girls” of the Lingerie Bowl was one of the highlights of the year for Fox’s “business news anchor” Neil Cavuto. Poor guy. This is going to hit him hard:
The Lingerie Football League is hanging up its garters for the 2012 season.
League spokesman Jim Wallin announced Friday that the LFL will go on hiatus until April 2013 so it can get on a warm-weather schedule in the spring and summer. Until then, players will go on promotional tours in Australia and Asia.
The seven-on-seven female league was created in 2009. Eleven teams played in the 2011 season, which culminated in a third straight championship for the Los Angeles Temptation. But, there I go, acting like the league is about football and not bras and panties and unattached garter clips.
How Can This Happen With Obama’s Socialist Boot on the Neck of Business?
I thought capitalism was under attack: Facebook to Acquire Photo-Sharing Start-Up Instagram for $1 Billion.
Photo of the Day
This photo conjures up so many feelings for me. I can’t decide if it’s heartwarming, if it’s tragic, if it’s about love or about loss or loneliness or our need to connect. Maybe all of the above.
One this I do know: I love the look on the dog’s face.
(Via.)
Happy Easter
Nothing signifies Easter to me more than eggs and daffodils.
Happy Easter everyone. Happy spring. Happy hope for a better world.
Two Vietnamese Businessmen Buy Wyoming Town
Well, this should be interesting:
Vietnamese men Buy Wyoming Town
Two Vietnamese businessmen purchased a Wyoming town billed as the smallest in the United States with a bid of $900,000. The town has a population of one.
Tonjah Andrews, a real estate broker hired to represent the men, said they heard about Thursday’s auction for the town of Buford from media outlets and flew to the United States to participate, CNN reported Friday.
Andrews said she would not release the names of the businessmen.
The 10-acre town consists of a gas station, a three-bedroom house, a few other small buildings and a cellphone tower.
Don Sammons, the town’s sole resident, watched the auction but did not bid.
I Had a Father Like Lance Armstrong
Check out this video of Lance Armstrong finishing part of a half-Ironman distance triathlon yesterday in Galveston, Texas. Note his daughter who (Dad! Dad! Daaaaaaad!) he ignores:
That would be me. My dad was an egomaniac too. Some of his last words were, “I really screwed up my life.” Yes you did, and after 40 years of yelling Dad! Dad! Daaaaaaad! and you not turning around, you aren’t missed.
That would be my definition of living in Hell.
Heads up Lance.
Visa Has Me Wrapped Around Its Little Finger
Yesterday I went out to do some errands. I had a list of six stops I wanted to make, having saved them up so-to-speak to do in one trip “downtown” instead of making a trip for each one individually (saves gas, less pollution).
At my first stop (Sephora) I was able to make my purchase without a hitch. At my second stop the clerk swiped my Visa credit/debit card and got a message asking her to call my bank. I freaked because there shouldn’t have been any problem but I immediately thought of the “massive” security breach at Visa and Mastercard I heard about on Friday. Oh great, someone in Somalia just cleaned out my account.
Turns out all the lines were busy so the clerked helped a woman waiting behind me and then tried again. The lines were still busy but she swiped my card again, and (phew) it went through.
So I went to my next destination, Target. I only wanted/”needed” one thing but instead of turning right I turned left and wandered into the women’s clothing area (not good). I saw a cute pair of salmon-colored capris. I took three pair into the dressing room, all a different size because, well, you never know. I should have read the label. It turned out they were advertised as having something like “ample room” around the hip and thigh area (woo hoo fat America!) which made them look like they didn’t fit. Never mind. So I went off to the bedding area, found what I needed and went to stand in line in the checkout area.
When my turn came, the clerk informed me that they could not accept any — any! — credit/debit cards because their system was down. If I had cash or a check, fine. I had cash but not enough so hey, what could I do but leave?
I was ticked because I wanted to cross that chore off my list but I know shit happens.
Next stop was the grocery store. I needed three things, which I got but when I approached the checkout desk I immediately asked if their credit card system was working. The clerk said “sometimes.” I asked if she knew if the problem was area-wide, city-wide or country-wide and she said country-wide. Turns out, this was happening:
A technical problem affecting the Visa network barred some people around the United States from using their credit and debit cards for about 45 minutes on Sunday, the company said.
Aye yie yie.
The clerk swiped my card and swiped my card and swiped my card but alas, it didn’t go through but again, and I didn’t have enough cash to pay cash and I didn’t have my checkbook on me (who carries a checkbook around these days?).
So, I bagged it and went home. I laughed this morning when I read that the outage only lasted 45 minutes. Had I known I might have hung out and continued on. What I did come to know what how dependent I am on computers and electricity. The next time I read an article about cyberwars and how the U.S. is “defenseless against a cyberattack that could bring down our nation’s entire electronic infrastructure, including the power grid, banking and telecommunications, and even our military command system,” I’ll remember yesterday.
And maybe I’ll start taking my checkbook with me when I do errands or hey, maybe even cash! (Cash? What’s cash?)
USA: Building Prisons Instead of Schools
[The United States has] 760 prisoners per 100,000 people. Most European countries have one seventh that number (per capita, so it’s adjusted for population). Even those on the high end of the global spectrum – Brazil, Poland – have only a quarter the number we do.
[...]
In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education. In 2011, California spent $9.6 billion on prisons, versus $5.7 billion on higher education. Since 1980, California has built one college campus; it’s built 21 prisons. The state spends $8,667 per student per year. It spends about $50,000 per inmate per year.
Ass backward priorities or what?
Keith Olbermann Responds to Current TV
Keith Olbermann posted this about an hour ago (5:50 p.m. ET) regarding being fired by Current TV:
Via Current.com
My full statement:
I’d like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV.
Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I’ve been not publicizing my complaints, and keeping the show alive for the sake of its loyal viewers and even more loyal staff. Nevertheless, Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt, instead of abiding by their promises and obligations and investing in a quality news program, finally thought it was more economical to try to get out of my contract.
It goes almost without saying that the claims against me implied in Current’s statement are untrue and will be proved so in the legal actions I will be filing against them presently. To understand Mr. Hyatt’s “values of respect, openness, collegiality and loyalty,” I encourage you to read of a previous occasion Mr. Hyatt found himself in court for having unjustly fired an employee. That employee’s name was Clarence B. Cain. http://nyti.ms/HueZsa
In due course, the truth of the ethics of Mr. Gore and Mr. Hyatt will come out. For now, it is important only to again acknowledge that joining them was a sincere and well-intentioned gesture on my part, but in retrospect a foolish one. That lack of judgment is mine and mine alone, and I apologize again for it.
I haven’t watched Olbermann since he left MSNBC because in order to watch Current I would have had to “upgrade” my Comcast subscription and I didn’t think it was worth the money. (Yo, Comcast — why do I have to “upgrade” by buying access to four bazillion channels I don’t watch if I only want one?) I watched Olbermann online a few times when his Current show first debuted but I thought it was a formulaic transplant from MSNBC.
I don’t know if that’s the fault of Current management or of Olbermann but I won’t miss Keith’s show. What upsets me is that I think I’m watching the demise of the potential for a real “liberal” network because establishment liberals Al Gore and his co-owners at Current don’t get what that really means. I’m talking the likes of Amy Goodman, Noam Chomsky, Jeremy Scahill and Peter Hart with one or two hour-long shows.
Current TV Fires Keith Olbermann
I’ve heard rumors that Keith Olbermann has a hard time getting along with people. Seems those rumors might be true. Can’t wait to hear what happened from his perspective:
Photo: Wikipedia
To the Viewers of Current:
We created Current to give voice to those Americans who refuse to rely on corporate-controlled media and are seeking an authentic progressive outlet. We are more committed to those goals today than ever before.
Current was also founded on the values of respect, openness, collegiality, and loyalty to our viewers. Unfortunately these values are no longer reflected in our relationship with Keith Olbermann and we have ended it.
We are moving ahead by honoring Current’s values. Current has a fundamental obligation to deliver news programming with a progressive perspective that our viewers can count on being available daily — especially now, during the presidential election campaign. Current exists because our audience desires the kind of perspective, insight and commentary that is not easily found elsewhere in this time of big media consolidation.
As we move toward this summer’s political conventions and the general election in the fall, Current is making significant new additions to our broadcasts. We have just debuted six hours of new programming each weekday with Bill Press (“Full Court Press” at 6 am ET/3 am PT) and Stephanie Miller (“Talking Liberally” at 9 am ET/6 pm PT).
We’re very excited to announce that beginning tonight, former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer will host “Viewpoint with Eliot Spitzer,” at 8 pm ET/5 pm PT. Eliot is a veteran public servant and an astute observer of the issues of the day. He has important opinions and insights and he relishes the kind of constructive discourse that our viewers will appreciate this election year. We are confident that our viewers will be able to count on Gov. Spitzer to deliver critical information on a daily basis.
All of these additions to Current’s lineup are aimed at achieving one simple goal — the goal that has always been central to Current’s mission: To tell stories no one else will tell, to speak truth to power, and to influence the conversation of democracy on behalf of those whose voices are too seldom heard. We, and everyone at Current, want to thank our viewers for their continued steadfast support.
Sincerely,
Al Gore & Joel Hyatt
Current’s Founders
Etch A Sketch Says It’s Just Happy to be Talked About
AdWeek is out with details about Etch A Sketch’s new ad campaign which takes advantage of the Romney fiasco. It’s so cute:
More here.
Driving Through a Wildfire
Yesterday morning after the Lower North Fork wildfire erupted west of Denver, I put up a post about how, despite our warm, dry, windy weather, the highly populated front range of the Rocky Mountains is woefully unprepared for wildfires.
That said, check out this absolutely terrifying video recorded by Doug and Kimberly Gulick as “they dashed away from their home minutes after 5 p.m. Monday upon learning the flames from the Lower North Fork Fire were near their home.” Bear in mind, again, it was 5:00 p.m. and still light outside.
Wow. I can only imagine the relief they felt at getting out of there. Amazing.
Boogers Are Good For You
Hey, who knew?
To Eat or Not to Eat
There are so many people in the world that are in the closet booger eaters, although society may look at this a rude and nasty. It is like a medicine. Boogers are collected dead skin, germs, dirt, and much other debris that make it into your nose.
Our body is made to fight off this nasty little debris that we call snot. The debris will die and dry up and this is what is called boogers. Eating boogers can actually help our immune system, an amazing fact.
Not only is eating them good for you but also picking them out with your finger cleans out your nose better than just blowing it. However, this can be a bad thing if you dig too much and cut yourself inside your nose. So if you do use your finger. I would suggest to at least being gentle.
The nose is a filter which collects a lot of bacteria and germs. Our immune system is able to deal with all the different pathogens we have already encountered beforehand. So eating the same dried up dead bacteria is like a boost to the immune system. It serves as a medicine when it reaches the intestines. Some studies show that people who do eat their boogers do get fewer colds even when they are surrounded by sick people.
Why I’m Not Covering the Supreme Court Health Care Issue
This is why I’m not covering the Supreme Court health care arguments:
Predicting Supreme Court Outcomes is a Sucker’s Game
There’s enough speculation going on around here about who will be the Republican presidential nominee and then who will win in November. Enough already. I’m sick of speculation and faux predictions.
I Want to Be There, Now
A couple sit it what is expected to be confirmed as the world's largest deckchair on Bournemouth Beach. The deck chair measures eight and a half metres tall by five and a half metres wide, and weighs almost six tonnes. This has been commissioned by Pimm's in celebration of the official start of British Summer Time.Picture: Chris Ison/PA
(Via.)
WordPress Could Use Some Help
I just got this message from WordPress:
On Friday March 23, 2012 you surpassed your previous record of most likes in one day for your posts on Say It Ain’t So Already. That’s pretty awesome, well done!
Love you WordPress but far as I know, Friday, March 23 hasn’t happened yet.
Just sayin’.
Million Hoodie March in NYC Remembering Treyvon Martin
A “million hoodie march” in memory of Treyvon Martin is happening right now in NYC. I’m there in spirit:
Photo via dontbeaputz on yfrog
Watch live video here.
7.6 Magnitude Earthquake 115 Miles East of Acapulco, Mexico
Magnitude 7.6 – OAXACA, MEXICO
No U.S. aid until they learn English.
ESPN: Payton Manning Picks Broncos
ESPN is reporting that Payton Manning has picked the Denver Broncos and — this is big — Tim Tebow will be “on the trading block tomorrow.” Woohah.
(Photo: AP / Ross D. Franklin)
Bye-bye Tim. It must be “God’s will.”
Details here.
Morning Video
Good morning! I hope ya’ll had a great weekend.
Let’s start the week on a light note with another super-cute laughing baby video, co-starring a super-patient pupster:
The State of the Planet
The state of the planet folks…this is at the top of what’s trending worldwide on Twitter:
#TenAttractivePeopleIFollow
A tweet I saw earlier — I can’t find it now (it’s buried under thousands of them) — read: MeMeMeMeMeMeMeMeMeMe.
Suggestion: Find something to do other than gaze at your navel. We’ve got work to do people.
Kris Jenner — You’re Humiliating Yourself and Your Family
I came across this 25-year-old photo a few minutes ago of the now 56-year-old Kris Jenner (the “momager” of the Kardashian clan) and my instant reaction was: ugh, how sad. Poor thing. She seems absolutely obsessed about, and desperate for, attention.
It was fair few years before Demi Moore posed naked and pregnant for her infamous Vanity Fair cover.
But Kris Jenner was clearly ahead of the game back in 1987 while pregnant with son Rob Kardashian – yesterday she posted a photograph of herself showing her original take on the Demi-style pose.
The 56-year-old reality star matriarch posted the picture on her Celeb Buzz blog in honour of Rob’s 25th birthday.
Way to take the attention away from Rob’s birthday or what?
Again, so sad.
●●●
Remember how classy and dignified Jackie Kennedy was?
Peyton Manning Watch
Just got a tweet from the Denver Post:
Photo: AP / Ross D. Franklin
The Denver Broncos’ private jet has scheduled a flight to Raleigh-Durham International Airport today.
According to flight tracking data on FlightAware.com, the plane was scheduled to take off from the Centennial Airport at 8:31 a.m. Mountain Time, arriving in North Carolina at 1:20 p.m. Eastern Time.
Although details of the trip are not known, free-agent quarterback Peyton Manning has been working out at Duke University in Durham, N.C. this week.
Get a Restful Sleep (With Lunesta?)
I just saw an ad for Lunesta. It invited me to the “land of restful sleep.”
Restful sleep?
How am I supposed to get a “restful sleep” given these potential side effects?
Eszopiclone may cause side effects. Tell your doctor if any of these symptoms are severe or do not go away:
- headache
- pain
- daytime drowsiness
- lightheadedness
- dizziness
- loss of coordination
- nausea
- vomiting
- heartburn
- unpleasant taste
- dry mouth
- unusual dreams
- decreased sexual desire
- painful menstrual periods
- breast enlargement in males
Some side effects can be serious. If you experience any of the following symptoms, call your doctor immediately:
- hives
- rash
- itching
- swelling of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, throat, hands, feet, ankles, or lower legs
- difficulty breathing or swallowing
- feeling that the throat is closing
- hoarseness
Eszopiclone may cause other side effects. Call your doctor if you have any unusual problems while taking this medication.
No thanks. I’d rather be sleep-deprived (as I am right now) than have a potentially life-threatening loss of coordination or difficulty breathing or “swelling of the eyes, face, lips, tongue, throat, hands, feet, ankles, or lower legs.”
Is going to the “land of restful sleep” worth the risk? Really?
NYC Branch of Susan G. Komen Foundation Cancels Fundraising Event
Susan G. Komen: Where’s the Party?
“I am writing to inform you that we have cancelled the Annual Awards Gala that was originally scheduled for May 17, 2012,” Blythe Masters, the chair of the board of directors for the Greater New York City affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure, wrote in a letter dated yesterday.
[...]
Vern Calhoun, a spokesman for the affiliate, said: “After much discussion, the Board of Directors of the Greater New York City Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure decided to postpone our new spring event, the Awards Gala, to a later date because we were not certain about our ability to fundraise in the near term.”
Very interesting indeed.
Tide Detergent — The New Gold
This is bizarre:
Procter & Gamble’s (NYSE:PG) Tide detergent is experiencing a spike in theft. Some cities are actually creating task forces to track the number of bottles in various stores. Police believe thieves are stealing Tide in order to sell the soap on the black market. While gold (NYSEARCA:GLD) is often seen as an alternative currency for international trade, Tide is considered to be liquid gold on the street. The soap is one of the more expensive brands and retails for $10 to $20, but is sold for about 50 percent less on the black market in order to obtain cash or purchase drugs.
The amount of Tide theft is simply staggering in some cases. ABC News (NYSE:DIS) reports, “Near Minneapolis, cameras caught 53-year-old Patrick Costanzo stealing more than $25,000 worth of the product over the course of 15 months.” Costanzo would load up his cart with Tide and other products, then simply push the stolen goods right past workers. Now, stores such CVS (NYSE:CVS) and Walgreens (NYSE:WAG) are increasing security measures. Some locations even keep detergent in a locked container, requiring an employee to retrieve it for customers.
Jennifer Aniston: $8,000 a Month on Her Face and Body
I’m thinking about what the food bank where I volunteer could do — in a year — with half of what Jennifer Aniston spends in one month on creams and lotions.
Per the MailOnline, Aniston spends, $2,000 on the face and $6,000 on the body: Jennifer Aniston’s monthly beauty bill broken down.
$4,000 to a food bank over the course of a year — half of what “Jen” spend in one month — would be heaven sent.
