Fumesucker
Fumesucker's JournalHmm... One Minute MBA - Avoiding Projects Pursued By Morons 101
Smart words, me likey.
Too bad our elites are getting progressively worse at all these things..
http://www.wordforge.net/showthread.php?t=66997
The secret to every analysis I've ever done of contemporary politics has been, more or less, my expensive business school education (I would write a book entitled "Everything I Know I Learned At A Very Expensive University", but I doubt it would sell). About half of what they say about business schools and their graduates is probably true, and they do often feel like the most collossal waste of time and money, but they occasionally teach you the odd thing which is very useful indeed. Here's a few of the ones I learned which I considered relevant to judging the advisability of the Second Iraq War.
Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance. I was first made aware of this during an accounting class. We were discussing the subject of accounting for stock options at technology companies. There was a live debate on this subject at the time. One side (mainly technology companies and their lobbyists) held that stock option grants should not be treated as an expense on public policy grounds; treating them as an expense would discourage companies from granting them, and stock options were a vital compensation tool that incentivised performance, rewarded dynamism and innovation and created vast amounts of value for America and the world. The other side (mainly people like Warren Buffet) held that stock options looked awfully like a massive blag carried out my management at the expense of shareholders, and that the proper place to record such blags was the P&L account.
<snip>
Fibbers' forecasts are worthless. Case after miserable case after bloody case we went through, I tell you, all of which had this moral. Not only that people who want a project will tend to make innacurate projections about the possible outcomes of that project, but about the futility of attempts to "shade" downward a fundamentally dishonest set of predictions. If you have doubts about the integrity of a forecaster, you can't use their forecasts at all. Not even as a "starting point". By the way, I would just love to get hold of a few of the quantitative numbers from documents prepared to support the war and give them a quick run through Benford's Law.
<snip>
The Vital Importance of Audit. Emphasised over and over again. Brealey and Myers has a section on this, in which they remind callow students that like backing-up one's computer files, this is a lesson that everyone seems to have to learn the hard way. Basically, it's been shown time and again and again; companies which do not audit completed projects in order to see how accurate the original projections were, tend to get exactly the forecasts and projects that they deserve. Companies which have a culture where there are no consequences for making dishonest forecasts, get the projects they deserve. Companies which allocate blank cheques to management teams with a proven record of failure and mendacity, get what they deserve.
<snip>
Read the rest of the post at the link..
So I'm walking around the flea market with a magnet, looking for cookware..
I just ordered a new induction cooktop to replace my very old and pathetically inadequate two burner electric unit, of course all my old cookware is aluminum and not suitable for induction heating. It turns out that if a magnet will stick to a piece of cookware then it's good for an induction hob. My old resistance heating unit is so low powered that it takes approximately forever just to boil water which turns out to be very inefficient and heats up my tiny place too much in the summer. I really only use a single burner more than 90% of the time anyway and I found quite a good deal on a modern and much more powerful and efficient induction single hob.
Induction hobs don't get hot themselves, they heat the cooking utensil directly through electromagnetic induction, you can actually put a piece of paper between the cooktop and the utensil and fry bacon without burning the paper.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Induction_cooking
When I started looking at the price of specifically designed induction cookware I nearly passed out from sticker shock so it was off to one of my favorite places for bargains, the flea market.
My first magnetic cookware find at the flea market was a vintage enameled steel teakettle, I drink coffee when I'm out but I prefer hot tea at home so a teakettle is an essential for me. This kettle is unique, remarkably well made and I got it for only $3, I got a kick out of the design and I thought perhaps someone else would get a chuckle out of it too.
I also got a Nordicware Tender Cooker microwave pressure cooker in brand new shape for $5, now I can make those slow-cooker meals in a half hour instead of a half-day, saving both time and electricity..
Oh.. And Nordicware is made in the USA.. 
http://www.amazon.com/Nordic-Ware-Microwave-Tender-Cooker/dp/B0007LC55A
Create colored 3D models with nothing but your camera and an internet connection..
http://my3dscanner.com/I've been needing 3D models for something I've been doing lately, all the solutions I've seen so far require a significant investment in hardware and/or software until I found My3DScanner, it's like magic and all you really need is a digital camera and an internet connection to get a both a point cloud and a triangle mesh of the object you want to model.
Here's a couple of images of a digital model of a small ivory statuette I have, I picked ivory because it's one of the more difficult surfaces to model due to its light color and specularly reflective nature.
Here's one actual photo I used for the digitizing process, it takes quite a few to do a good job on something like this..
And here's my setup, I made a random digital backdrop by printing out an image of digital noise on regular paper and gluing it to a sheet of particle board and several small pieces of the same that I can position behind the model as necessary. You can make a 3D model with My3DScanner without something like this but for the stuff I was trying to do it wasn't working very well.
The flashes are triggered by my on camera flash which I have turned down as far as it will go, the slave trigger for the left flash is on the board behind the setup held with green tape and the other flash triggers from the first one.. I let the light reflect off the ceiling for a relatively shadowless image.
"I tell people don't kill all the liberals" -Limbaugh..
"I tell people don't kill all the liberals, leave enough around so we can have two on every campus; living fossils, so we will never forget what these people stood for." -Rush Limbaughhttp://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,163548,00.html#ixzz1o4iCiboO
Anyone else remember the 2008 Republican National Convention?
You know, the one where they put an unwed pregnant teenager and her boyfriend up on the stage and shone a spotlight on them?
I didn't know you could do *that* on a Gold Wing..
The scraping floorboards and whimpering tires only add to teh awsum..
I rode the Tail of the Dragon many years ago on a hot rodded RD350, I wouldn't have wanted to try and keep up with these guys.
How to hurt Rush, perspective from a radio insider.
Commenter Jager in post #97 lays it out..
http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/03/02/the-tale-of-the-tape/#comments
As a retired radio group VP with years of station management on my resume, here is a better suggestion. Go after the local advertisers on his show. There are very few local advertising availabilities on Rush’s show and they sell at a premium. Monitor the Rush station, make a list of the local advertisers and do the following:
1. Call the advertiser, be polite.
2. Write a letter to the advertiser, be polite.
3. Copy the station and the FCC with the advertiser letter.
4. Politely call the General Manager of the station,tell the GM what you are doing and why, tell them you have contacted the advertiser and copied the FCC.
5. If the local advertiser uses an agency, contact the agency, as well.Just ask the local business, if they use an agency.
It won’t take many letters and phone calls to get their attention and remind the station that the letters need to be placed in the station’s public file. (the public file is an FCC requirement)
Local stations don’t get many local avails in Rush’s show and many pay a huge fee to Premire to run the show.If they start losing business because of that asshole, they will raise hell with Premire.
If KFI in LA got a hundred letters with follow up phone calls it would get their attention very quickly. The key is to put on the pressure through the local advertisers.
Rush isn’t going anywhere, he isn’t going to apologize. The local station will blink and get very nervous, very quickly.
Naval Railgun prototype undergoes first tests...
http://www.gizmag.com/em-railgun-commences-firing/21644/?utm_source=Gizmag+Subscribers&utm_campaign=e3ab4a473c-UA-2235360-4&utm_medium=emailThe electromagnetic (EM) railgun prototype launcher that was recently installed at the Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC) in Dahlgren, Virginia, has commenced firing, kicking off a two-month-long series of full-energy tests. Predictably, the first full energy shots make for some pretty impressive video.
Following its delivery by BAE Systems on January 30, the first prototype demonstrator was installed and outfitted with a suite of sensors, high-speed cameras and measuring devices to allow for evaluation of the 32-megajoule weapon.
Following a series of low-energy test shots, evaluation of the launcher is now underway and will see tests conducted at 20 megajoules to 32 megajoules - one megajoule is equivalent to a 1-ton object being thrust at 100 mph (161 km/h). Test projectiles similar to those previously fired from NSWC Dahlgren's laboratory launcher will be fired at speeds of 4,500 to 5,600 mph (7,242 to 9,012 km/h) using electricity instead of chemical propellants.
The U.S. Navy hopes the evaluation will help it reach its near-term goal of a 20- to 32-megajoule weapon for surface ships capable of shooting a distance of 50 to 100 nautical miles (57 to 115 miles/93 to 185 km).
Evidently the Chardon OH shooter had a Facebook post up...
http://www.bellenews.com/2012/02/28/education/chardon-high-school-shooting-a-second-student-died-after-police-identified-tj-lane-as-the-shooter/“In a time long since, a time of repent, The Renaissance. In a quaint lonely town, sits a man with a frown. No job. No family. No crown. His luck had run out. Lost and alone.
The streets were his home. His thoughts would solely consist of “why do we exist?” His only company to confide in was the vermin in the street. He longed for only one thing, the world to bow at his feet.
They too should feel his secret fear. The dismal drear. His pain had made him sincere.
He was better than the rest, all those ones he detests, within their castles, so vain. Selfish and conceited.
They couldn’t care less about the peasents they mistreated. They were in their own world, it was a joyous one too. That castle, she stood just to do all she could to keep the peasents at bay, not the enemy away.
They had no enemies in their filthy orgy. And in her, the castles every story, was just another chamber of Lucifer’s Laboratory. The world is a sandbox for all the wretched sinners.
They simply create what they want and make themselves the winners. But the true winner, he has nothing at all. Enduring the pain of waiting for that castle to fall. Through his good deeds, the rats and the fleas.
He will have for what he pleads, through the eradication of disease. So, to the castle he proceeds, like an ominous breeze through the trees. “Stay back!” The Guards screamed as they were thrown to their knees. “Oh God, have mercy, please!”
The castle, she gasped and then so imprisoned her breath, to the shallow confines of her fragile chest. I’m on the lamb but I ain’t no sheep. I am Death. And you have always been the sod. So repulsive and so odd.
You never even deserved the presence of God, and yet, I am here. Around your cradle I plod. Came on foot, without shod. How improper, how rude. However, they shall not mind the mud on my feet if there is blood on your sheet.
Now! Feel death, not just mocking you. Not just stalking you but inside of you. Wriggle and writhe. Feel smaller beneath my might. Seizure in the Pestilence that is my scythe. Die, all of you.”
Read more: http://www.bellenews.com/2012/02/28/education/chardon-high-school-shooting-a-second-student-died-after-police-identified-tj-lane-as-the-shooter/#ixzz1nhSKh0Yl
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