January 31, 2007

The 2006 Stella Awards

Inpired by Stella Liebeck here are the:

The 2006 True Stella Awards

Issued 31 January 2007

(Click here to
confirm these are legitimate.)

#5: Marcy Meckler. While shopping at
a mall, Meckler stepped outside and was "attacked" by a squirrel that
lived among the trees and bushes. And "while frantically attempting
to escape from the squirrel and detach it from her leg, [Meckler]
fell and suffered severe injuries," her resulting lawsuit says.
That's the mall's fault, the lawsuit claims, demanding in excess of
$50,000, based on the mall's "failure to warn" her that squirrels
live outside.

#4: Ron and Kristie Simmons. The
couple's 4-year-old son, Justin, was killed in a tragic lawnmower
accident in a licensed daycare facility, and the death was clearly
the result of negligence by the daycare providers. The providers were
clearly deserving of being sued, yet when the Simmons's discovered
the daycare only had $100,000 in insurance, they dropped the case
against them and instead sued the manufacturer of the 16-year-old
lawn mower because the mower didn't have a safety device that 1) had
not been invented at the time of the mower's manufacture, and 2) no
safety agency had even suggested needed to be invented. A sympathetic
jury still awarded the family $2 million.

#3: Robert Clymer. An FBI agent
working a high-profile case in Las Vegas, Clymer allegedly created a
disturbance, lost the magazine from his pistol, then crashed his
pickup truck in a drunken stupor -- his blood-alcohol level was 0.306
percent, more than three times the legal limit for driving in Nevada.
He pled guilty to drunk driving because, his lawyer explained, "With
public officials, we expect them to own up to their mistakes and
correct them." Yet Clymer had the gall to sue the manufacturer of his
pickup truck, and the dealer he bought it from, because he "somehow
lost consciousness" and the truck "somehow produced a heavy smoke
that filled the passenger cab." Yep: the drunk-driving accident
wasn't his fault, but the truck's fault. Just the kind of guy you
want carrying a gun in the name of the law.

#2: #2: KinderStart.com. The
specialty search engine says Google should be forced to include the
KinderStart site in its listings, reveal how its "Page Rank" system
works, and pay them lots of money because they're a competitor. They
claim by not being ranked higher in Google, Google is somehow
infringing KinderStart's Constitutional right to free speech. Even if
by some stretch they were a competitor of Google, why in the world
would they think it's Google's responsibility to help them succeed?
And if Google's "review" of their site is negative, wouldn't a
government court order forcing them to change it infringe on Google's
Constitutional right to free speech?

And the winner of the 2006 True Stella
Award: Allen Ray Heckard. Even though Heckard is 3 inches
shorter, 25 pounds lighter, and 8 years older than former basketball
star Michael Jordan, the Portland, Oregon, man says he looks a lot
like Jordan, and is often confused for him -- and thus he deserves
$52 million "for defamation and permanent injury" -- plus $364
million in "punitive damage for emotional pain and suffering", plus
the SAME amount from Nike co-founder Phil Knight, for a grand total
of $832 million. He dropped the suit after Nike's lawyers chatted
with him, where they presumably explained how they'd counter-sue if
he pressed on.

©2007 by Randy Cassingham,
StellaAwards.com. Reprinted with permission.


Posted by Steve on January 31, 2007 | Comments (1)

January 30, 2007

Good Idea of the Day #1

From Radly Balko:

Congress needs to stop delegating so much lawmaking power to regulatory agencies. In fact, I don't think it would be such a bad idea to force Congress to vote on every measly federal regulation it expects the rest of us to abide by.

Yes, anything to reduce the growth of the federal legislative and administrative rules library!

Posted by Steve on January 30, 2007

January 29, 2007

Listen to the river sing sweet songs...

Greybeards and newbies alike will appreciate the music on Saturday, February 3, when David Gans hosts the annual KPFA Grateful Dead Marathon from 10 am to 1 am Pacific time:

KPFA webcasts all the time, and so does our simulcast station KFCF. For the Marathon, we'll also be carried by nugs.net for maximum global bandwidth.

Live music by The Waybacks (at around 4pm pst); other surprise guests may appear.

Music will include some classic unreleased live Grateful Dead (natch!); an April 1986 performance by Kingfish with Bob Weir; Bob Weir and Ratdog from the fall of 2006 (which we'll be offering as a premium for those who contribute to the station); musical highlights and interviews from the American Beauty Project, a tribute concert that took place in New York January 20 and 21; and various other rarities, interviews, etc.

We'll have a chat room, hosted by Marc Evans.

Many parties have contributed gifts for those who pledge support for KPFA, the nation's first listener-sponsored radio station. Featured premium will be Grateful Dead Live at the Cow Palace, New Year's Eve 1976, just released by Rhino Records.

For those who want even more: archives of Gans' weekly Dead to the World radio show are now available.

Posted by Steve on January 29, 2007 | Comments (1)

January 26, 2007

Friday Ark #123

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Birds

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 148th edition, 1/21, is up at Enrevanche. The 149th edition will be hosted by Mind of Mog on 1/28. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 1/27-28 by Kate in the Kitchen . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 41st edition is up and hosted by Snail's Eye View. The 42nd edition will be hosted on 2/2 by Neurophilosophy.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 16th edition is up at The force that through.... The 16th edition will be hosted at the end of January by The Voltage Gate.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on January 26, 2007 | Comments (6)

January 25, 2007

Snail on Birds

Snail is hosting I and the Bird #41 at A Snail's Eye View.

Fly on by!

Posted by Steve on January 25, 2007

January 21, 2007

Barry Has Kitties

Mister Gato welcomes you to the 148th Carnival of the Cats is up at Enrevenche

Posted by Steve on January 21, 2007

January 19, 2007

Friday Ark #122

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Birds

Dogs

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • Bad Kitty Cats: Baby Is Gone... Our Hearts Are Broken: Echo Baby Sauriol October 26, 1988 to January 15, 2007

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 147th edition, 1/14, is up at Pet's Garden Blog. The 148th edition will be hosted by Enrevanche on 1/21. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 1/20-21 by Cat Blogosphere . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 40th edition is up and hosted by Peregrine's Bird Blog. The 41st edition will be hosted on 1/25 by Snail's Eye View.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 16th edition is up at The force that through.... The 16th edition will be hosted at the end of January by The Voltage Gate.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on January 19, 2007 | Comments (6)

January 18, 2007

Donate Some of Your Computer's Spare Cycles

Your computer probably has a few billion spare cycles that you could use to assist in scientific research. For instance, there is the Rosetta@Home project:

As part of the process of giving these folks some cycles you will also find out how to participate in many other research efforts.

Via Pharyngula.

Posted by Steve on January 18, 2007

maria, Please Protect Us From the Fruit Price Gougers

senator maria cantwell in September 2005:

Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., is convinced that the oil companies have artificially increased prices and wants President Bush to have the power to cap gas prices if necessary. She likens the conditions to those that caused the Enron fraud of the electricity market in 2000 and 2001.
...
"My constituents are frustrated. Consumers want to know what we're going to do about this. Consumers definitely want to know what's going on."

Cantwell intends to introduce legislation on Thursday that would give Bush power to investigate price gouging and, if necessary, cap price increases. She discussed her proposal Tuesday at a Senate hearing on the hurricane's impact on rising energy prices.

From the Sacramento Union, January 17, 2007:
“We may adjust the prices as we discover the full extent of the damage next week, but for now, if you bought an orange at the supermarket for 50 cents, expect to pay a dollar to $1.49 for it,” said Todd Steel, owner of Royal Vista Marketing, which sells California citrus to markets throughout the country.
Ignoring for the moment the ill-conceived idea of giving bush the power to do anything, I wonder just how soon we will hear her complaining about price gouging by orange growers.

Hat tip: The Knowledge Problem

Posted by Steve on January 18, 2007

January 17, 2007

Trains, Planes, Roads and Ships

Kip calls senator lautenberg to task for calling for more subsidies for Amtrak:

How much more remedial can one make it: Amtrak loses money because people don't use it. People don't use it because people neither need nor want to use it. People are -- gasp! -- relying entirely on airplanes and roads.

......

So when Lautenberg says, "We cannot depend entirely on airplanes and roads," what he really means is "I get a warm fuzzy feeling from the thought of having Amtrak, and that's more important than any other use that you might have for your tax dollars."

Amtrak, roads, planes (airports), public transit and shipping are all heavily subsidized at the federal, state and local levels. Non-Amtrak trains have been historically heavily subsidized.

I don't pretend to know which mode(s) of transport would win out without tax subsidies but it is time to find out. Let's eliminate all the tax subsidies and put the mechanisms in place to assure that the folks using a particular transportation service are paying the full cost per use.

It will take time but I suspect that we will see dramatically different answers rise up than we have seen with the centralized planning of the last 150 years.

An Amtrak like service may or may not be one of the answers.

Posted by Steve on January 17, 2007 | Comments (2)

Oh My, Just Astounding!

An uplifting and totally fascinating example of human capability and potential.

It is not about the dolphin you see in the YouTube window rather it is about a 14 year blind boy who can, well, go see for yourself:

Via Catallarchy.

Posted by Steve on January 17, 2007

You Know, Bad Stuff Happens

Sooner or later we will all have to deal with stuff like bad news and brain death. In the mean time, there is probably someone you know just a thought away from tears.

Be aware. Be kind!

Via Grand Rounds at six until me.

Posted by Steve on January 17, 2007

January 16, 2007

Bumper Cars

...or fun on ice and snow. This took place in Portland and I suspect the Seattle area was not immune.

Via Bark Bark Woof Woof.

Posted by Steve on January 16, 2007 | Comments (1)

January 12, 2007

Friday Ark #121

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • x

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map.

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 146th edition, 1/7, is up at Leslie's Omnibus. The 147th edition will be hosted by Pets Garden Blog on 1/14. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 1/13 by What Did You Eat. Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 40th edition is up and hosted by Peregrine's Bird Blog. The 41st edition will be hosted on 1/25 by Snail's Eye View.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 16th edition is up at The force that through.... The 16th edition will be hosted at the end of January by The Voltage Gate.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on January 12, 2007 | Comments (12)

January 11, 2007

Flying in from Ireland

Peregrine's Bird Blog hosts I and the Bird #40.

Snuggle up and go have a bite with many fine feathered friends.

Posted by Steve on January 11, 2007

January 10, 2007

Here's One Good Reason Not to Buy Window's Vista

Microsoft can deactivate your Vista installation remotely. As Elliotte says:

He’s worried about piracy. I.e. what happens if somebody else “borrows” your key, so Microsoft cuts you off through no fault of your own. I’m wondering what happens when the U.S. Government leans on Microsoft to cut off the keys to the latest alleged seeker of Weapons of Mass Destruction.
...
Of course this attack isn’t just a threat to foreign countries. It’s a threat to anyone the U.S. Government or Microsoft doesn’t like. I figure it’s a tossup whether this power will be used first to go after child pornographers or copyright pirates. It probably depends on who fires first, private industry or the government.

Either way, look for this attack to be rapidly expanded to tax cheats, deadbeat dads, drug dealers, individual citzens who support unpopular^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^H^Hterrorist organizations, drunk drivers, individuals criticizing corporations, lawyers who defend these folks, and anyone else the government or a big company don’t like.

First, exactly when did our governments grant to Microsoft the roles of police, judge, jury and executor? Recovery of alleged stolen property should happen through a recognizable public process.

Second, if Microsoft can turn of your software remotely what else can they do remotely? You don't have to go far beyond Elliotte's rather mild paranoia to find an entire building in Redmond Washington, DC., full of MS contractors scurrying to do the bidding of fbi, dea or homeland security flunkies wanting to read keystrokes and hard drives remotely. I can already see these guys salivating

Unfortunately, many folks will have to succumb to the steamroller. Heck,I'll probably have at least one Vista machine at home though I plan to have Linux, Mac and ? as well. Computer diversity will be a really good thing!

I look forward to the independent side of the techie world coming up with many interesting and varied counters to this kind of potential nastiness.

Posted by Steve on January 10, 2007 | Comments (2)

January 8, 2007

Amazing Stuff At the Consumer Electronics Show?

Well, this stuff would be there if the folks at Woot! had their druthers. They held a little contest with this challenge:

Design a new electronic device that would really amaze us if we saw it at the Consumer Electronics Show
One of two items tied for first...a fetus carrier for the woman who...?
105-tgentry2fetuscarrier.jpg

Caption at will!

Posted by Steve on January 8, 2007

January 7, 2007

A Fine Turn of Phrase

It's been a perfect few days to read it, too, because since Friday, the sky over Pasadena has been the color of a television, tuned to a dead channel.

Wil Wheaten, October 16,2006

Posted by Steve on January 7, 2007

January 5, 2007

Friday Ark #120

We'll post links to sites that have Friday (plus or minus a few days) photos of their chosen animals (photoshops at our discretion and humans only in supporting roles). Watch the Exception category for rocks, beer, coffee cups, and....?

Do link to the Ark every week!

You can find out how to board the Friday Ark at the Arkive page.

Cats

Dogs

Birds

Other Vertebrates

Invertebrates

In Memoriam

  • Solidly Average: Caesar: Do Not Stand at My Grave and Weep; also here and here
  • Wolf's Den: Caesar: We’ll see you at the Rainbow Bridge.
  • Jelly Pizza: Sushi...

Didn't Make It

  • x

Exceptions (inclusion not guaranteed)

  • x

Extra, Extra: All Ark boarders are invited to shout out at the Friday Ark Frapper Map. (75 shouts as of 12/21)

Dog folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Dogs hosted by Mickey's Musings. Also, there are more doggies at Weekend Dog Blogging hosted this weekend by Sweetnicks.

Cat folks: remember to submit your links to the Carnival of the Cats which goes up every Sunday and the 145th edition, 12/31, is up at Watermark. The 146th edition will be hosted by Leslie's Omnibuson 1/7. There are more weekly cats at Weekend Cat Blogging hosted on 1/6 by TBD . Do go shout out at The Catbloggers Frappr Map.

Bird folks: I and the Bird: A Blog Carnival for Bird Lovers is published every 2 weeks. The 39th edition is up and hosted by the Natural Visions. The 40th edition will be hosted on 1/11 by Peregrine's Bird Blog.

For the spineless: Circus of the Spineless. A monthly celebration of Insects, Arachnids, Molluscs, Crustaceans, Worms and most anything else that wiggles. The 16th edition is up at The force that through.... The 16th edition will be hosted at the end of January by The Voltage Gate.

For other current carnivals check out The Conservative Cat's Carnival Page, The Blog Carnival and The TTLB Uber Carnival

Note for Haloscan Users:

Over the past month or so Haloscan started (the end of July) handling of trackbacks has improved though it is still pretty broken for carnival type posts. Now, instead of rejecting every attempt to ping it accepts single pings for a while and then will start rejecting them. I will keep trying to track back to Haloscan boarders but can make no guarantees for any particular week.

Note for Typepad Users:

Typepad continues to behave similar to Haloscan for trackbacks. I been able to get trackbacks to most, if not all, Typepad based boarders. I have to do it one at a time and wait a while in between pings but Typepad does not go into semi-permanent rejection mode like Haloscan.

Posted by Steve on January 5, 2007 | Comments (8)

January 3, 2007

Annotating bush

Kip provides some fine feedback to bush's opinion piece published in today's WSJ.

To whet your appetite here is the beginning:

My principles are no secret.

--Unlike so many of his Administration's practices.

Posted by Steve on January 3, 2007 | Comments (2)

Scale Down To Rather Than Up From Denmark

Matthew Yglesias wonders about scaling up Denmark's welfare state model to larger countries:

The thing to say in response to this is that the Scandinavian countries are really little and it might not work as well in a big country, but I don't understand what the causal mechanism for non-scalability is supposed to be. I'll happily grant that it's politically easier to put a Scandinavian-style system together in a small, homogeneous country, but that's different from saying it wouldn't work on the merits.
Tyler Cowan responds by noting a number of factors that might facilitate implementing Denmark scale programs that may not apply in larger countries, e.g.,
Perhaps the ability to dispense with federalism helps government efficiency in small countries. I favor federalism for larger units, such as the United States, but I think of it as a necessary evil. Singapore and New Zealand don't have much federalism, nor should they.
This factor points us in the right direction.

Leaving aside the question of whether we really want the Denmark like social welfare programs implemented in the US, the very first step toward making this a possibility is to dispense with federalism in the US. No, not by centralizing all government function into the federal governement. Rather, by completely eliminating the federal goverment.

Yep, break the US up: into the current states, into 54 Denmarks by population, or into 223 Denmarks by land mass. Pick your method but break up the country. Not only will you get many opportunities to recreate Denmark's social structure but you will also eliminate the many ills that result from the massive centralization of power and wealth in the current federal government.

Posted by Steve on January 3, 2007