Archives for December 2004
This Internet thing is a lot better when I’m not on it all the time. Like now—I’m in Bryn Athyn, and I check my e-mail once or twice a day at the Tennis’. Good times. You can get in touch with me reasonably quickly via e-mail, but I’m not clicking “Refresh” at mail.yahoo.com every 35 seconds. I mean, this is seriously way better. I think it’s called “normal behavior.”
If “the house” could not guarantee a win in a long-run, it would never get into the gambling business. I am an educated and math-aware individual, and I firmly understand this concept. Therefore, I’ve always been highly cautious about gambling.
But imagine the irony when the government is “the house” too. They’re not getting into this gambling thing unless they can guarantee a win, and in this case, the customers from whom they are extracting are citizen. Simultaneous to administering the lottery, the government shoulders the responsibility of public education (to a greater degree even than we’d like), and in those schools I’d like to think that some basic precepts of probability are taught.
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Via The National Debate, it seems that the drug companies are on the lookout for Michael Moore.
“We ran a story in our online newspaper saying Moore is embarking on a documentary and if you see a scruffy guy in a baseball cap, you’ll know who it is,” said Stephen Lederer, a spokesman for Pfizer Global Research and Development.
I’m not sure that’s specific enough, Mr. Lederer. Your employees should be on the lookout for a babbling, Jabba the Hutt-esque man who smells faintly of urine and McNuggets—dressed in a baseball cap.
I hate the Apple thing. It’s a “cultural problem.” More specifically, the turtlenecked, Steve Jobs, thumb-up-the-ass, liberal-with-too-much-money “cultural problem.”
Annoying as all hell.
The computer reboots intermittently. No pattern. Programs shut down for no reason: IE, Firefox, Quintessential Player (try that one, it beats Winamp).
My mom’s computer was an absolute mess this break, and I couldn’t figure out how to fix it. Now, I think I finally have, and the answer was tickling my brain the whole time. Of course: the power supply.
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More from Coyote Blog. Man, this is a good blog. Anyway, here it is: Fisking the NEA’s Improvement Ideas.
Yow. Is there a special term in the blogosphere for an ass-whuppin’? If so, the NEA just got it.
Via Coyote Blog, via Mises Economics Blogs, a question: How was the gorgeous, new, privately funded Millau bridge in France constructed at one-tenth the cost of the Bay Bridge? A snippet:
As California politicians spar over the cost, timetable and aesthetics of a prosaic redesign plan for the Bay Bridge’s new eastern span, their French counterparts are crowing over their dazzling new Millau bridge — completed a month ahead of its three-year construction schedule and costing a relatively modest $522 million compared with the estimated $5 billion Bay Bridge price tag.
The clowns over at the Big Dig should take note.