My Headache

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

For reasons surpassing explanation, I have a Twitter account.  I don't know why — I'm not a big Twitter fan.  But there it is.

When I created it several months ago, I realized there was a way to make my Twitter status automatically become my Facebook status.  So I rigged that.

Of course, it didn't make any difference, because I hardly ever updated my Twitter status. 

I do, however, update my Facebook status from time to time.

So last evening I thought, wouldn't it be great if my Facebook status can update my Twitter status?

So I scoured the Internet for a way to do that.  And there is a way — it's rather involved so I won't explain it (you can venture here if you are curious).  But I did it.

Unfortunately, I forgot that when I created my Twitter account, I had set it so that it updates Facebook.

So what's happening?  At periodic intervals, Twitter reads my Facebook status, and that becomes my Twitter status.  But THEN, Twitter automatically updates Facebook.  Then, at periodic intervals, Twitter reads my Facebook status, and so on, and so on….

Hence, I am caught in a loop.  And overnight, my Facebook status appeared over and over and over again (each time with the word "Ken" added to the front, so it's like "Ken Ken Ken Ken Ken Ken Ken finally saw the movie 'Music & Lyrics'….")

Anyway, I THINK I have fixed the problem.

And all the while, I'm wondering, who gives a shit what I am doing anyway?  I mean, *I* don't, and I'm me.

How To Land A Plane In An Emergency

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

I'm glad this information is out there (and yes, I have envisioned this scenario happening to me), but still, it's a bit too much information to grasp.  Plus, I doubt I'll have access to Wikihow.

So I'm just going to remember the following:

(1)  Make sure the wings are on that middle line on that dial thingee

(2)  AFS or AP is the autopilot button.  Push the hell out of that.

(3)  "Mayday, mayday, mayday", being sure to take my finger off the mike button so I can hear a response.

Hopefully, that will be enough to take me out of immediate danger, and be able to speak to someone who can talk me through the rest of it.

Not Fooled

Ken AshfordRandom MusingsLeave a Comment

Nice try, Guardian:

Twitter switch for Guardian, after 188 years of ink

Consolidating its position at the cutting edge of new media technology, the Guardian today announces that it will become the first newspaper in the world to be published exclusively via Twitter, the sensationally popular social networking service that has transformed online communication.

The move, described as "epochal" by media commentators, will see all Guardian content tailored to fit the format of Twitter's brief text messages, known as "tweets", which are limited to 140 characters each. Boosted by the involvement of celebrity "twitterers", such as Madonna, Britney Spears and Stephen Fry, Twitter's profile has surged in recent months, attracting more than 5m users who send, read and reply to tweets via the web or their mobile phones.

I'm not fooled, but it's nice to see the media get into the spirit of things….

On the other hand, this appears to be true, if somewhat murky.

And the Simpsons on a U.S. postage stamp story?  Also (apparently) true.

ALSO:  Here's a slideshow of pranks by Google from 2000-2008.  Wonder what they will be up to this year.  UPDATE: Ah, hereit is.  A Gmail add-on which scans your incoming email and then automatically sends the "perfect reply"

BUT WAIT, THERE'S MORE:  The Taipei Times gets into the act, with a story about the discovery that the Taipei Zoo's prize giant pandas are actually "brown forest bears that had been dyed to create the panda’s distinctive black-and-white appearance".

AND:  YouTube is upside down today, reportedly.  But it looks fine to me.  (Maybe you have to sign in to see the effect).

And Expedia.

Why Michelle Malkin Should Never Be Listened To

Ken AshfordEconomy & Jobs & Deficit, Right Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

From her site:

The soul-fixer-in-chief is here to dry your tears

By Michelle Malkin  •  March 31, 2009 12:44 AM

Reuters is running a story on the Obama administration’s new federally subsidized counseling services/referrals for those suffering from depression related to the economy. As usual, the government’s prescription for pain is…more government. The economic psychology guide was developed with help from the Departments of Labor, HUD, Treasury, and GSA.

Let's unpack this, shall we?

1.  "Reuters is running a story on the Obama administration's new federally subsidized counseling services/referrals…."

Here's the Reuter's story that Malkin links to.

Is there anything in the story which suggest the counselling services/referrals are "new"?  Nope.  And why not?  Because Malkin, to put it charitably, made it up.

In fact, the Substance Abuse & Mental Health Administration has been around for quite some time.  And they have been making referrals and providing consumer information for quite some time as well, long before Obama came along.

And is this referral service "federally subsidized"?  Well, yes, I suppose.  The website, like all government (.gov) websites, is paid through taxpayer dollars.  Presumably the research and information done on this site was done with public dollars as well.

But again, this is nothing new.  This government agency is only doing what it is supposed to be doing pursuant to the rules and regulations…. not to mention executive orders signed by people like George W. Bush.

2.  "As usual, the government’s prescription for pain is…more government."

Uh, no.  Again, Malkin is pulling this out of her ass.  The SAMHA government website to which she links actually says something else:

Even with these coping techniques, however, sometimes these problems can seem overwhelming and you may need additional help to get through "rough patches." Fortunately, there are many people and services that can provide help. These include your:

  • Healthcare provider
  • Spiritual leader
  • School counselor
  • Community health clinic

So the prescription for pain includes private institutions, including religious ones, as well as a variety of public and private mental health centers.

******

While Malkin and Matt Drudge snicker and snark at the suggestion that tough economic times lead to emotional and mental difficulties, we all know otherwise.

Losing one's job is no joking matter and it does lead to suicide, murders, and other issues.  It's no laughing matter.  And certainly not a matter to be lied about in order to score cheap political points.

Why Many People Can’t Take Congress Seriously

Ken AshfordCongress, Environment & Global Warming & Energy, Godstuff, RepublicansLeave a Comment

Exhibit A.

This is Representative John Shimkus, Republican from Illinois.  He serves on the U.S. House Subcommittee on Energy and Environment, a body which considers, among other things, global warming and climate change.

Below is a clip of Representative Shimkus speaking on March 25 in the Energy and Environment Subcommittee.  He is expressing his view that global warming is not happening because….. wait for it… the Bible says so. 

That's right.  God had declared in the Bible that He would not destroy the Earth again in a flood, therefore there was no threat of worldwide flood from global warming.

Look, I'm not knocking God or the Bible.  But I do think we run into serious trouble when biblical interpretation dictates environmental policy…. or any policy coming out of Washington, for that matter.

Shimkus also believe, contra scientific evidence, that limiting CO2 in the atmosphere is a bad thing because plant life thrives on CO2.  Therefore, he says, capping Co2 emissions will kill plants.  Nice theory, but not true.

Shimkus, by the way, was aware of the Mark Foley scandal (where House Representative Mark Foley was making advances to teenage male congressional pages) years before the story broke.  He knew of it, but didn't inform anyone of it.

UPDATE:  On Republican Senator James Inhofe gets the runner-up award, for saying today on the Senate floor that global warming can't exist because his home state of Oklahoma just got a snowstorm.

I loved how he prefaced his remarks about "not getting into the science".  Yeah.

Oliver Twisted

Ken AshfordRight Wing Punditry/IdiocyLeave a Comment

Big Hollywood's S.T. Karnick:

The latest PBS adaptation  of Charles Dickens’s classic novel Oliver Twist demonstrates the urgent need for reform of the taxpayer-supported broadcasting service–or an end to taxpayer funding for it.

Among PBS's crimes, according to Karnick?  Casting a black woman as Nancy:

Clearly the producers are imposing an ideal of a colorblind society on a story where it adds nothing, is unnecessary, and is quite a distraction for those who know the original novel. The character, however, is as complex and benevolent as in the original story, which is all to the good.

Yes, clearly that was their intention.

About That Alien Invasion

Ken AshfordScience & TechnologyLeave a Comment

That strange light and boom that appeared over North Carolina (including one observation in High Point), Virginia, and Maryland?  The one that I blogged about yesterday?

It was the Russkies, not aliens:

The mysterious boom and flash of light seen over parts of Virginia Sunday night was not a meteor, but actually exploding space junk from the second stage of a Russian Soyuz rocket falling back to Earth, according to an official with the U.S. Naval Observatory.

"I'm pretty convinced that what these folks saw was the second stage of the Soyuz rocket that launched the crew up to the space station," said Jeff Chester of the Naval Observatory in Washington, D.C.

NC Nursing Home Shooting And Other Mass Killings

Ken AshfordCrimeLeave a Comment

Somehow, this possible motive doesn't make the killings any less senseless.

Speaking of senseless killing, I'm not looking forward to next month.

On April 19, 1993, following a 51-day standoff, federal agents raided the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas. A fire, later determined to have been set by the Davidians, destroyed the compound and killed 57 of its residents.

On April 19, 1995, a bomb inside a rental truck exploded at the Murrah Federal Building in downtown Oklahoma City, killing 168 people in what was then the worst terrorist attack on U.S. soil.  The killer turned out to be 27-year-old Timothy McVeigh. McVeigh’s ex-Army buddy, Terry Nichols, was also charged in the crime.

Columbine_shooters_486594711 On April 20, 1999, two armed highschool seniors, Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris, walked through Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo. In the end, 12 students, one teacher and the two murderers were dead.

And on April 16, 2007, a 23-year-old South Korean student killed 32 people at Virginia Tech.

The first three are all connected.  McVeigh picked the April 19 date as a symbolic protest against what had happened at Waco two years earlier.  And Kelbold and Harris picked April 20 (the first school day after the 19th) to conduct the Columbine massacre — although they had no political angle, it was their hope and desire to "outdo" McVeigh.

It doesn't appear that Sueng-Hui Cho, the Virginia Tech killer, picked his date in relation to any of the prior outrages.

Still, with next April 20 being the tenth anniversary of Columbine, who knows what some unhinged elements of our society might do.  In England, they've already thwarted one attempt to do a school bombing on April 20.

There's obviously been a lot of public programs designed to prevent another such occurence.  And that's a good thing.

But still…. if I were a high school student, I would seriously consider staying home on April 20.

Unsportmanlike Tweeting?

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

This Twitter phenomenon is getting out-of-hand and just plain silly:

The National Basketball Association has fined Dallas Mavericks' owner Mark Cuban $25,000 for unsportsmanlike Twittering for his online comment about referees, The Dallas Morning News reports.

After Friday's game with the Nuggets, Cuban used the interactive site to question why a technical foul wasn't called on a Nugget player for taunting.

What, pray tell, is "sportsmanlike Twittering"?  In fact, is Twitter a sport at all?

President Bartlet, Toby Ziegler, and Josh Lymon To Go To Capital Hill Tomorrow

Ken AshfordCongressLeave a Comment

Yes, they are fictional, but they're still doing good work:

If there was ever any doubt that fictional President Jed Bartlet's administration was pro-labor, the answer is now clear.

Actors Martin Sheen, Bradley Whitford, and Richard Schiff — all of the fictional NBC presidential drama "The West Wing — will appear at an event in Congress on Tuesday seeking to bolster support for the Employee Free Choice Act ("card check").

Sheen (President Jed Bartlet), Whitford (Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Lyman), and Schiff (Communications Director Toby Ziegler) will meet with Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and other lawmakers in meetings on the Hill.

The event is being coordinated by organized labor groups, including American Rights at Work, AFL-CIO, and Change to Win.

Redoubt

Ken AshfordDisastersLeave a Comment

The Anchorage Daily has a nice photo set of the volcanic eruptions last week of Mt. Redoubt.

562-HomerRedoubt.standalone.prod_affiliate.7 

288-SatelliteAsia.standalone.prod_affiliate.7 

The volcano's continued eruptions have resulted in a whole new round of criticism of Governor Bobby Jindal:

Thanks to "something called volcano monitoring," to use the denigrating language of Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, passenger jets did not fly into ash clouds when Alaska's Mount Redoubt erupted earlier this week.

Volcanic ash creates conditions akin to flying into a sand blaster. A KLM flight lost power in all four engines after it flew into the cloud created by a 1989 eruption of Redoubt.

The plane dropped by more than two vertical miles before its crew could restart the engines and land in Anchorage. No wonder Alaska Airlines canceled 19 in-state flights…. after Redoubt sent an ash plume 60,000 feet into the sky.

The eruptions of Redoubt carry a lesson that Jindal did not learn back when he was a Rhodes Scholar: Don't sneer at science.

MySpace Is Now Half The Size Of Facebook

Ken AshfordPopular CultureLeave a Comment

Poor Rupert Murdoch:

MySpace had 124 million monthly unique visitors last month, a decline of 2%, according to the marketing research company comScore. Facebook, by contrast, racked up 276 million unique visitors, an increase of 16.6%.

Michael Arrington, co-editor of the influential industry blog TechCrunch, posted: "What was a bad situation in November 2008 is starting to turn outright ugly – Facebook is now well over twice the size of MySpace … It was less than a year ago that MySpace and Facebook were the same size."

That's because MySpace has evolved into the Nickelodeon of social interaction websites.