Fumesucker

Fumesucker's Journal

June 24, 2012

Insight from TBogg's commentariat..

http://tbogg.firedoglake.com/2012/06/22/rhode-island-blows-save-schilling-takes-loss/

Poster Crosstimbers at #28 nails it..

On almost every occasion, when I listen to what the ultra-conservatives or libertarians are complaining about, and let it stew and simmer down to it’s essence, it is that their freedom to dupe, cheat, destroy their fellow citizens is limited by government. Their concept of a nation is something like a fenced off Serengeti for social Darwinism. They squeal when they discover that they are just one of the wildebeests.

June 22, 2012

So there you sit with a bomb in your head..

http://driftglass.blogspot.com/2012/05/aint-gonna-let-nobody-turn-them-round.html

So there you sit with a bomb in your head.

It's a bomb which will detonate if you ever admit -- even for a moment, even to yourself -- that the Evil Libruls have ever been right about anything.

If detonated, this bomb will not only annihilate your identity, your ideals and your faith...not only destroy your standing in the community, the esteem of your friends, the respect of your spouse and children and, potentially, your livelihood...but it will also utterly humiliate you.

Should that bomb ever go off you would be forced to admit that you have gotten really, really important things terribly wrong for the last 10...20...30...40 years.

Read the rest of the piece at the link, it's really quite good .

June 21, 2012

Mandatory helmet wearing in cars would save many more lives than on motorcycles or bicycles..

2010 motorcycle deaths in the USA.. 3,615
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motorcycle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

2010 bicycle deaths in the USA.. 618
http://www.bicyclinginfo.org/facts/crash-facts.cfm

2010 automobile deaths in the USA.. 32,885 - 3,615 = 29,270
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_motor_vehicle_deaths_in_U.S._by_year

Assume for the sake of argument that half of all motorcycle/bicycle deaths in the US would be saved by a mandatory helmet law, that comes to a little over two thousand.. I think that estimate is a bit high myself..

Now assume that only ten percent of car crash victims would be saved by a mandatory auto helmet law, a number I think is at least fairly reasonable, over three thousand lives would have been saved in America during 2010.

If mandatory helmet laws make sense for bicycles and motorcycles (and by no means am I saying they don't) then those same laws make even more sense for automobiles in which far more Americans are killed and injured each year.

June 1, 2012

Portable computer; laptop, netbook, what have you for bicycle touring?

I'm planning on taking a two month or so bicycle tour in the fall and I'd like to stay connected online while I ride around the country. At the moment I only have a desktop so I will need to get some sort of portable computer.

In order of priority I will need reliable, lightweight, as big a screen as possible (it will be my entertainment while I'm tented up if it's raining; ebooks, videos, music), good battery longevity, compact size, largish hard drive for pictures and vids (I guess I could carry an external USB drive though).

I'd prefer Windows if at all possible and of course price is of some concern, I'd like to get something in the $200 - $250 range. Used isn't a problem, I was thinking of possibly some kind of used Apple laptop running Windows but my knowledge of that is just about nil..

Any suggestions, thoughts?

May 31, 2012

Jury foreman: Dr acquitted on leaving the scene after killing skateboarder because he "panicked"..

http://www.wgrz.com/news/article/169951/1/Corasanti-Jury-Foreman-Speaks-Out

... Nixon says they were not convinced with how the blood was drawn from the doctor. That test showed Dr. Corasanti's blood alcohol content was .10 five hours after the crash. He said the jury questioned whether the blood sample could have been contaminated, and added the Corasanti defense team did a "great job."

Nixon also said the jury did not convict Dr. Corasanti on the charge of leaving the scene of a fatal accident, not because they questioned whether he left the scene, but they feel he panicked.

Ultimately, Nixon said the jury felt defense effectively "poked holes" in the prosecutions case against Dr. Corasanti, but said prosecutors had a good case.

When asked about the victim of the accident, Alix Rice, he said "we had to put some of the fault on Alix." That statement was based on testimony from a defense accident reconstruction expert that questioned whether Alix was riding her longboard on the road or in the fog lane.

May 29, 2012

SoftBank Pantone 5 107SH hands-on: radiation detection comes to Android

http://www.theverge.com/2012/5/29/3049388/softbank-pantone-5-107sh-hands-on-radiation-detection

SoftBank's Pantone 5 107SH will make headlines in the global press for one reason and one reason only — it's the first phone in the world to come with a built-in radiation detector — but it'd be a big deal in Japan even without that headline feature. Indeed, SoftBank CEO Masayoshi Son introduced the Pantone 5 onstage today without even letting the audience know what that color-matched button was for, and showed off a new commercial that makes no mention of the functionality at all. The carrier's colorful range of Pantone phones has long been a hit in its home market, and a first smartphone entry for the series running Android 4.0 is almost guaranteed to make a splash.

The Pantone 5 is a fairly middling device on paper, with an 3.7-inch 854 x 480 LCD, a 4-megapixel camera, and a 1.4GHz processor, along with the obligatory 1seg TV tuner, waterproofing, and infrared data port. While it's a fairly unimpressive 12mm thick, it feels well-built and the design is very much in line with the pleasingly chunky nature of other Pantone phones. You can take your pick from eight colors, with the purple and teal being particularly fetching. As for software, by default it's running the same Sharp skin that we saw on KDDI's Aquos Phone Serie. We still can't say we're fans of the iOS-style approach to Android 4.0, but it does at least look a little more attractive on a smaller screen.

May 28, 2012

David Weber, absolute proof that very smart people can buy into wingnut bullshit..

I just finished Weber's "Shadow of Saganami" on the Baen free library, I was on chapter 39 and really getting into it, Weber was giving a terrifically sophisticated analysis of the various political entities involved in his story when from out of nowhere he dropped this amazing turd into the punchbowl.

http://www.baenebooks.com/10.1125/Baen/0743488520/0743488520.htm?blurb

"I think they believe that since the Star Kingdom requires its citizens to pay taxes before they're allowed to vote, they'll be able to control the situation. That the Manticoran system's set up to give the Star Kingdom's upper class control of the electorate while maintaining the fiction that the lower classes have any real political power," Van Dort said, and Terekhov barked a sharp laugh.
"That's because they don't understand how high a percentage of our people do pay taxes. Or maybe they think our tax codes are as complicated and buggered up as theirs are as a way to chisel people out of the franchise."
"Not all of our tax codes are that bad," Van Dort protested.
"Oh, please, Bernardus!" Terekhov shook his head in disgust. "Oh, I'll grant you Rembrandt isn't quite as bad as the others, but I've taken a look at the rat's nest of tax provisions some of you people have out here. I've seen hyper-space astrogation problems that were simpler! No wonder nobody knows what the hell is going on. But the Star Kingdom's personal tax provisions are a lot simpler—I filled out my entire tax return in less than ten minutes, on a single-page e-form, last year, even with the emergency war taxes. And all the Star Kingdom requires to vote is that a citizen pay at least one cent more in taxes than he receives in government transfer payments and subsidies.

Totally ruined my suspension of disbelief, it took me about three chapters to get back into the story again, thankfully I didn't see any more really obvious wingturds so I managed to get through the rest of the book without pounding my keyboard into scrap..

Anyone who can believe that a provision to keep anyone not paying net taxes from voting will not eventually be used by the upper classes to disenfranchise the lower ones is just deluded.

May 26, 2012

Betty Cracker: Corporate / Religious Slogan Mash-Ups

http://www.balloon-juice.com/2012/05/26/corporate-religious-slogan-mash-ups-a-turtle-dove-dilemma-and-open-thread/

Spotted on a service van:

There are so many possibilities here:

Customers for Christ
Downsizing the Devil with Jesus
Paradigm Shift to Salvation
Getting Granular in Gethsemane
Synergy, Not Sin

I feel certain I’m overlooking low-hanging fruit and that y’all will push the envelope with value-added propositions.

There's some pretty good ones in the comments to this post..

May 20, 2012

Space Battleship Yamato

I wonder if they're going to subtitle this in English?

May 19, 2012

Evidently Not Joe the Not Plumber is running his campaign like he did his plumbing business..

This is some seriously bizarre stuff, the liberal looks like Limbaugh and the conservative looks like a latte sipping, Prius driving lieberal.

My title came out of the comments, Not Joe should turn them off, he's getting royally flambeed in there.

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