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Monthly Archives: December 2008
The Third Rail
The third rail on electric railways carries the electrical current. Touching the rail will cause death. By extension, a number of topics in politics have been characterized as the third rail, in that they will cause an immediate political demise. … Continue reading
Charitable Giving
As I pay the last set of bills before the New Year, I also make final charitable contributions. There are some guidelines that I use to select to which charities to give. First, what will I support? I support life, … Continue reading
Slow Banking Day
Odd. All of the banking sites I use are slower than molasses in winter. The rest of the Internet is responding fine. I’m finding this intriguingly strange. I suspect something with my network link, since the sluggishness is impacting all … Continue reading
Posted in General
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Marshalls’ View of Over-Production
The Marshalls department store has a great advertisement playing now, on the subject of over-production, which I would re-post here for your enjoyment, if it were easily found on-line. They call it a shopportunity. Designers can’t sell their clothes, and … Continue reading
Posted in economics
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Now Where Did I Read That?
Dear Google, where did I read that thing I remember reading a few days ago? Can you find it for me? kthxbye. Google’s goal is to organize our information. One thing I have trouble with — though I suppose it’s … Continue reading
It All Averages Out in the End, Does It?
The law of large numbers does not invalidate garbage in, garbage out.
Deferred Consumption
I recently subscribed to a number of podcasts in an effort to drown out the unbearable background noise in the Fishkill office: Fox News. One of them was a program from WNYC and Public Radio International, The Takeaway. They’re running … Continue reading
Full vs. Abbreviated Feeds
It has been some matter of argument in what passes for the blogosphere for some time whether or not full-content feeds are better than partial-content. Some of this discussion was driven by the default behavior of competing publishing tools, but … Continue reading
Winnowing
The reduction in force has started. I wish I could see what the pattern is, but we’re kept in the dark.
Posted in Work
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Preview
The Poughkeepsie Journal accidentally delivered Sunday’s comics today. B.C. is so appropriate. Update: included link to the comic.
Expanded Horizons
I used to follow about 300 or so websites, but pruned that back to about 10 and my friends’ shared items in Google Reader around two years ago. My job responsibilities, and workload, had changed dramatically, and my leisure time … Continue reading
Interregnum
I’ve seen several references to this time between the election and the inauguration as an interregnum, and many writers expressing concern that President Bush is still, well, the President until January 20th. The thing is, we don’t have an interregnum … Continue reading
Breaking News: Entropy Exists!
The Economist reports that the broken windows theory of policing is correct. I think some theories are controversial only because the people who start the controversy have never maintained a household. Anyone who maintains a system, whether a computer or … Continue reading
Melamine
The Associated Press reported that the Food and Drug Administration has set a standard for the amount of melamine found in infant formula: one part per million. The development comes days after The Associated Press reported FDA tests found traces … Continue reading
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Coerced for My Own Good
H. W. Brands, in his biography of F.D.R., Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, writes, Many of the progressives, judging themselves lovers of peace, had assumed that they would be the wrong … Continue reading
Posted in politics
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