Random Musings: Samoa’s dateline dance, Cutesy duet, Science videos, Sci-fi Mag, New Years kiss
Today does not exist, at least not to the people of Samoa. When their clocks hit midnight on Thursday night the country skipped straight into Saturday. This is because the South Pacific nation has decided to skip to the western side of the International Date Line to coordinate more closely to nearby nations it deals [...]
Who owns your followers?
Here’s an interesting case that should get more attention than it is currently getting: An Internet company is suing a former employee, saying he left the firm and took his 17,000 Twitter followers with him. PhoneDog LLC says Noah Kravitz owes them $340,000 because when Kravitz left to do freelance work, he changed his Twitter [...]
More fun with comment spam
I screen all comments for comment spam. I wish the spammers would learn that. However, they do occasionally provide some amusement in the efforts they will go to. Here’s a real gem: certainly like your website however you have to check the spelling on quite a few of your posts. Several of them are rife [...]
Christmas gratitude
I don’t want to go into the the Christmas weekend still grouchy about Congress. I’d much rather focus on the good things in life, because if I stop and think for even a moment I can come up with a considerable number of things to be grateful for: I live in a country where, as [...]
The questionable wisdom of crowds
The wisdom of crowds is very suspect when we keep electing these idiots to power. This latest payroll tax cut extension debacle is just another fine example of screwing the American people to win ideological battles. This article sums the issue up. Now in general I tend to favor the Republicans, but only just barely. [...]
Ninja Cow?
An entire town mesmerized by a cow on the lamb? I give you Ninja Cow! Wayward livestock can pose serious threats to human and other animals. Even a small deer can destroy a car, seriously injuring the occupants in a collision. Still, for months, the Ninja Cow eluded police and locals, making late night appearances [...]
Beware of Amazon
I like Amazon.com. I admit it. I do buy things from there. But they also worry me. They are trying to sell everything, and that means that if they succeed, they’re going to put other stores out of business. Some deserve it. Most don’t. I also like Jeff Bezos. On the whole he does a [...]
Statistics and journalism
My dad always had a saying, “Figures don’t lie, but liars will figure.” Or something like that. The other day on the radio I heard a news report that used a seemingly shocking statistic–shocking unless you actually thought about it. The claim was that online firearm sales have increased dramatically over the past 15 years. [...]
In defense of introverts
I am an introvert. I admit it with pride. It takes work to be an introvert, but not as much work as it would take for me to be an extrovert. I can be extroverted, but I’ll be wiped out for the rest of the day. CarlKingdom.com has a great post about the 10 Myths [...]
It’s easier to destroy than to create
John Stossel makes a very good point: Government doesn’t create jobs. It simply takes money that might have created a real job and gives it to someone to do work for the government that probably didn’t really need doing (if it had, the job would have already existed, no?). Private wealth-holders create jobs. Our investor [...]
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