10.24.2009
And best of all, no extra charge
MINNEAPOLIS – The first officer of the Northwest Airlines jet that missed its destination by 150 miles says there was no fight in the cockpit, neither he nor the captain had fallen asleep and the passengers were never in any danger.
link: Pilot that overshot airport: Crew wasn't napping - Yahoo! News
10.23.2009
What does that "for real" part mean?
Friends and associates are encouraging Fox News chief Roger Ailes to jump into the political arena for real by running for president in 2012, top sources tell POLITICO.
link: POLITICO CLICK: Friends push Ailes for president - Mike Allen
Around town 1
Tradition said the peak of the color season was two weeks ago; the experts said it was last weekend. I say it's right about now. (Although I doubt if it'll last too long. All it will take is one good wind to blow most of it away.)
Elizabeth Warren on consumer financial protection
You can't buy a toaster in America that has a one in five chance of exploding. But you can buy a mortgage that has a one in five chance of exploding, and they don't even have to tell you about it... We have consumer protection for everything you touch, taste, smell, feel... But there is no equivalent for credit cards, for mortgages; there's nothing.
link: Elizabeth Warren Speaks With Michael Moore (VIDEO): Exclusive Footage
Much more, with video, at the link.
No mention of what it showed Wednesday
WASHINGTON — Men who voted for Republican John McCain in last year's US presidential election saw their testosterone levels fall significantly when they learned he had lost to Barack Obama, a study showed Thursday.
link: Men who voted for McCain saw testosterone drop: study | Raw Story
Blah blah. I've seen references to similar results after sporting events: winners up, losers down. But with, in this case, only 163 subjects involved and, apparently, no long-term history on any of them it all sounds like a Freshman project to me.
Anyway, it was probably Palin's fault.
10.22.2009
Nobody's perfect
The pilots of a Northwest Airlines jet failed to make radio contact with ground controllers for more than an hour and overflew their Minneapolis destination by 150 miles before discovering the mistake and turning around.
link: Airline Crew Overshoots Minn. Airport By 150 Miles : NPR
10.21.2009
10.20.2009
Just FYI...
Unemployment in Massachusetts has reached its highest level since the 1970s, officials said yesterday as they also disclosed that the state will exhaust a fund that helps laid-off workers pay for health insurance by the end of next month.
link: Unemployment at 33-year high; insurance fund running dry - The Boston Globe
...this is the plan, the Romney plan (and yes, it was backed by Kennedy too) that's often cited as a model for some federal "public option" which is, of course, no public option at all but rather state-mandated health insurance which, don't worry, if you can't afford it the state will help you pay for it except, of course, it turns out, when it does not.
With friends like this...
DERA ISMAIL KHAN, Pakistan – Pakistan's army, in the midst of a major new offensive against Taliban militants, has struck deals to keep two powerful, anti-U.S. tribal chiefs from joining the battle against the government, officials said Monday.
link: Pakistan cuts deal with anti-American militants - Yahoo! News
Skeptics rock
THINK THE BEST SKEPTICISM is the kind you can rock to? We’re pleased to offer you this selection of songs of science and skepticism — completely free!
link: Skeptic » Junior Skeptic » Skeptics Mix Tape 2009
Legally clean
A $4.4-billion cleanup transformed Fernald [Ohio] from a dangerously contaminated factory complex into an environmental showcase. But it is "clean" only by the terms of a legal agreement. Its soils contain many times the natural amounts of radioactivity, and a plume of tainted water extends underground about a mile.
Nobody can ever safely live here, federal scientists say, and the site will have to be closely monitored essentially forever.
link: Toxic legacy of the Cold War - latimes.com
10.19.2009
Blah
The picture was taken this afternoon on a street near here. You see the problem, right? There's just not much autumn in the autumn, this year.
That's been happening, recently, too often. When I came here in the early 90's Columbus Day weekend was the traditional peak of the autumn color season but in recent years, not so much. Here we are, a week after Columbus Day, and there's not much peak around.
Partly that's because we've had a couple of very windy days and there are quite a few colored leaves on the ground. But look how much green's still there.
No doubt there's more color in the countryside than there is here in town, and certainly there's more color up on the hill than down here in the valley. But still. There's not much to get excited about this year yet, and I'm guessing if there ever is, it won't last long.
10.18.2009
OK, maybe I shouldn't say it, but...
...this makes me giggle:
American and Afghan scholars and diplomats say it is worth recalling four decades in the country’s recent history, from the 1930s to the 1970s, when there was a semblance of a national government and Kabul was known as “the Paris of Central Asia.”
Also it makes me wonder, what would be the Paris of Iowa?
(The quote is from the NYTimes piece,Remembering Afghanistan's Golden Age.)
But...but...
Jonathan Turley - President Barack Obama, the world's newest Nobel peace laureate, is again expanding on the policies of former President George Bush and fighting to conceal evidence of U.S. torture and abuse. As did the Bush Administration, the Obama Administration is seeking to change the law after courts rejected its absurd argument that the President can withhold photos of detainee abuse simply because they are embarrassing to the United States. Democrats in Congress are assisting in the effort...
Had Bush done such a thing...Democrats would have been in the streets.
link: UNDERNEWS: OBAMA FIGHTING TO CONCEAL TORTURE EVIDENCE
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