RANDOM THOUGHTS #9
Steve Cole muses:
Just thinking to himself.
1. I have been enjoying the CHASING MUMMIES show with Zahi Hawass, the biggest buffoon in archaeology. Oh well, he has total power over Egyptian archaeology, so I guess people have to put up with him. He's probably a pretty good scientist, or was, but he seem to have totally gone showbiz. His television series seems fake, scripted, and "set up" from the get-go, with all of the surprising events (girl trapped inside pyramid, rescued by Zahi, in full view of cameramen who got to her first) planned well in advance. His amazing revelations are all stuff that's been well known for years. His amazing adventures amount to going to a dig site to see what people working for his underlings found last week.
2. Arizona has notified state workers that their health insurance cost will go up 37% because of the new health care law.
3. Why is the government ignoring "sanctuary cities" that break the immigration laws while suing the state that is trying to enforce the immigration laws? You'd almost think they don't WANT to enforce the laws, not that the previous administration enforced them either. Why are American citizens (even those with a Hispanic hyphen) opposing the enforcement of immigration laws?
4. Zahi Hawass closed the Great Pyramid because the humidity inside had grown too high, and was damaging the inscriptions, the graffiti, and even the stones themselves. Zahi, my man, get some plastic dish pans and some ten pound sacks of that white "desiccant" stuff that comes packed in just about everything, have some strong young archaeologists carry it into the pyramid, spread the pans around, empty one sack into each pan, and the problem should be solved in a week, and stay solved.
5. If China can block everyone in China from reaching websites with anti-Chinese stuff (and, just recently, from reaching porn sites), why can't the US block anyone in US from reaching those foreign websites with pirated files or viruses, or from reaching file-sharing databases that contain copyrighted materials? For that matter, if the Great Firewall of China can keep Chinese from reaching such sites, why can't the US build a Great Firewall of its own to stop SPAM?
6. Apparently, the current plan is for the Dems to vote on November 1st to extend the Bush tax cuts. This will be a jolt to the economy (in a good way) and save enough Demo seats that they'll still have marginal control. After the election, Obama can veto the extension and pass cap-and-tax in a lame duck session. If the Dems lose the House and/or Senate, Obama will run against the "do nothing Congress" in 2012 and return to power with a new mandate, giving us the public option and cap-and-tax then. Either way, it looks like a race to see if the USA or I will die first.
7. Charlie Rangle is (again) calling for a wartime draft (which isn't needed and wouldn't accomplish anything good) but he also wants anyone not drafted to do two years of work (at military draftee pay) for the Federal government. Oh well, his ethics trial should be much more fun.
8. To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
9. NASA says that asteroid RQ36 will hit the Earth in 172 years, and that it's big enough to wipe out five or six US states or maybe three or four European countries. Well, shucks, there goes the neighborhood, the dinosaurs are still dead, and we still have 1993TB and Apophis to deal with before then.
10. A printing company in Philadelphia has sent me a pile of stuff marketing themselves as the "Game Publisher's Printer" with very nice die-cut counters, maps, books, magazines, and so forth. We're such a tiny niche I cannot believe they went to the bother (they even sent a guy to Origins to hand out business cards) but I do appreciate it and may well do business with them.
Just thinking to himself.
1. I have been enjoying the CHASING MUMMIES show with Zahi Hawass, the biggest buffoon in archaeology. Oh well, he has total power over Egyptian archaeology, so I guess people have to put up with him. He's probably a pretty good scientist, or was, but he seem to have totally gone showbiz. His television series seems fake, scripted, and "set up" from the get-go, with all of the surprising events (girl trapped inside pyramid, rescued by Zahi, in full view of cameramen who got to her first) planned well in advance. His amazing revelations are all stuff that's been well known for years. His amazing adventures amount to going to a dig site to see what people working for his underlings found last week.
2. Arizona has notified state workers that their health insurance cost will go up 37% because of the new health care law.
3. Why is the government ignoring "sanctuary cities" that break the immigration laws while suing the state that is trying to enforce the immigration laws? You'd almost think they don't WANT to enforce the laws, not that the previous administration enforced them either. Why are American citizens (even those with a Hispanic hyphen) opposing the enforcement of immigration laws?
4. Zahi Hawass closed the Great Pyramid because the humidity inside had grown too high, and was damaging the inscriptions, the graffiti, and even the stones themselves. Zahi, my man, get some plastic dish pans and some ten pound sacks of that white "desiccant" stuff that comes packed in just about everything, have some strong young archaeologists carry it into the pyramid, spread the pans around, empty one sack into each pan, and the problem should be solved in a week, and stay solved.
5. If China can block everyone in China from reaching websites with anti-Chinese stuff (and, just recently, from reaching porn sites), why can't the US block anyone in US from reaching those foreign websites with pirated files or viruses, or from reaching file-sharing databases that contain copyrighted materials? For that matter, if the Great Firewall of China can keep Chinese from reaching such sites, why can't the US build a Great Firewall of its own to stop SPAM?
6. Apparently, the current plan is for the Dems to vote on November 1st to extend the Bush tax cuts. This will be a jolt to the economy (in a good way) and save enough Demo seats that they'll still have marginal control. After the election, Obama can veto the extension and pass cap-and-tax in a lame duck session. If the Dems lose the House and/or Senate, Obama will run against the "do nothing Congress" in 2012 and return to power with a new mandate, giving us the public option and cap-and-tax then. Either way, it looks like a race to see if the USA or I will die first.
7. Charlie Rangle is (again) calling for a wartime draft (which isn't needed and wouldn't accomplish anything good) but he also wants anyone not drafted to do two years of work (at military draftee pay) for the Federal government. Oh well, his ethics trial should be much more fun.
8. To win without risk is to triumph without glory.
9. NASA says that asteroid RQ36 will hit the Earth in 172 years, and that it's big enough to wipe out five or six US states or maybe three or four European countries. Well, shucks, there goes the neighborhood, the dinosaurs are still dead, and we still have 1993TB and Apophis to deal with before then.
10. A printing company in Philadelphia has sent me a pile of stuff marketing themselves as the "Game Publisher's Printer" with very nice die-cut counters, maps, books, magazines, and so forth. We're such a tiny niche I cannot believe they went to the bother (they even sent a guy to Origins to hand out business cards) but I do appreciate it and may well do business with them.
posted by Federation Commander at 6:30 AM
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