riddler

http://www.denverpost.com/breakingnews/ci_12015787 Why didn't they take her gun away after the first incident? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I've noticed two things myself: 1. Right-wingers are prone to put a label on everyone and classify people based on deep-seated predjudices. 2. Left-wingers are prone to saying "hey, I wouldn't want someone to judge me, so I'll just take another hit (whiffffff)" Personally, I think there's too much regulation of both guns and drugs and not enough law enforcement of the criminal element in both categories. And I consider myself a liberal. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Psst - that graph timeline ended two months ago. The latest polls show less traction than in January, although a 60% approval rating is still pretty good, considering all the financial-management missteps of late. Naked CDS - makes those "whales" in Vegas look like minnows. Gambling trillions of dollars with zero risk - how many people in the world get to do that? BTW - AIG is refusing to say who benefitted from the the bailout, but Congress has stated that it's mostly European corporations and investors, paid for by US taxpayers. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Damn, now that we've been called out, I guess we're going to have to cancel the weekly meetings where we chant and plan the downfall of the other races. I really enjoyed the hors devours at those meetings! Here he is on video: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7967546.stm Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Long-line current induction is a subject studied in great detail by electical power engineers (usually at the graduate level). There are safety stopgaps in place to prevent the collapse of the entire grid, but portions of it can go out from any Solar Storm. It won't cause the entire system to collapse. Portions that do can be brought back online in a timeframe of a few milliseconds, to a few days, depending on the damage. If you have any doubt that the author is trying to promote a poor understanding of technology by underscoring it with a panaphobic topos, then I will refer you to the first paragraph where it fictionally depicts a disaster scenario starting with "IT IS midnight on 22 September 2012 ..." Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I always smirk when conservatives that support corporate greed blame the liberals for taking away the jobs. Why don't you ask the heads of the corporations who are taking away the jobs - they are the only people with the power to hire and fire people. Now pardon me while I rant about how gun manufacturers are killing people Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

If you use Meebo, you can tie into every IM, not just one or two, and if you use Firefox, there is a Meebo plugin to make it a tab in the browser, which automatically opens every time you start Firefox. All you gotta do is turn on your computer and start Firefox (and leave it running), and you have web-based, multiple account IM (complete with message logging). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I thought it was science that distorted religion Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

You are all free to run for President yourself on the platform that you will raise taxes Some things you can change, others you never will. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The only reason they're making a stink is that the guy got sex for a quarter. Had he paid $100 for the vacuum, it would have been socially acceptable. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Based on your recommendation, I watched the first episode, and found it to be a very good television program. The writing is extremely well done. The acting is mixed - the older actors definitely do a better job. This is the first time I've seen Ian McShane (I rarely watch television), and I find him a very compelling "king". I also really like Eamonn Walker as the modern religious figurehead who counsels the heads of state. In most scenes, he demonstrates his faith, but he also encourages the young Private that he likes to enjoy the alcohol and women that are competing for him, something that old-school spiritual leaders would vilify as encouraging sin. Idealism gives way to amoral cronyism for this character, and demonstrates the hypocrisy of human fallibility that many religious leaders characterize. I look forward to watching future episodes, and that's unusual for me, since I don't even have television or cable reception. The last television show that I watched on DVD was HBO's Rome, and it's been a couple of years. Edit for spelling Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Not sure I agree with this - all people, including reporters have a skewed view of the world. Ensuring truthfulness would only ensure one person or group's opinion of what the truth is. What is the truth, anyway? It's hard to say about any issue. Video helps What's to say that the judges that decide a network is untruthful are all left or right-leaning and have a different view of things? I do believe the government owes the public a high degree of truthfulness in reporting facts. I'm not sure it would be good for the private sector. Edit to add - I consider Fox News fictional anyway. Like watching a comedy spoof of reality. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I guess that depends on how generally you use the word generally I would have to see figures that prove your statement before believing that. Well, he's been in office two months, and got a lot done from his original agenda in that time. I'll have to see how he does over the next four years (or at least a couple) before I make judgement about this. In general, I don't trust politicians, and I am not totally supportive of Obama and his promises - I'm not sure anyone could keep them all, and there are a lot. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Who was the last elected President that promised to increase taxes? I don't think anyone believed Obama or McCain when they promised to lower taxes, just like they didn't believe Bush or Kerry or Gore or Clinton or ..... the best you can hope for is a Bush Sr that promises not to raise taxes (and then does anyway). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Obama is reducing the deficit over the next five years, from the > $1 trillion annual debt he inherited from Bush, down to $500 billion. Whether or not you believe it will balloon after that is dependent on how you think the economy will fair in general. If you go by the Congressional Budget Office figures, with a conservative growth, and you think the budget won't change in five years, then we can expect an increase after five years. If you go by the White House figures, which assume a moderate growth, and yo thin the budget won't change in five years, we can expect a continued decrease in the deficit, as happened under Clinton. If you expect the budget won't change in the next five years, you probably haven't paid too much attention to it so far. Personally, I believe Obama. I think, as he does, that by restructuring government, at the same time that we are reducing overall costs for the first five years, the results of the improvements to Health Care, etc, will result in a long term growth of the economy. Investment in a broken government now will pay off in the long term. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Ground drivers have to purchase and outfit their trucks - more than just maintenance. They have to buy it on a mortgage, just like everyone else does with a business vehicle, very few of them can afford to purchase outright - it typically takes a few years to pay off a vehicle. About 100 FedEx divers nationwide have started such subsidies within FedEx that gross over $1 million - the only problem is that it's against the rules (technically) - they really don't want too many eggs in one basket. FedEx tolerates it now, but they can yank those drivers that are not following their contract legalese at any time. The multiple-truck subsidies are tolerated because they help FedEx argue their case about independent contractor status in court. Whether you can call FedEx Ground delivery people "independent contractors" depends on if you listen to FedEx, or to the judges. In Dec 2007, the IRS ordered FedEx to pay $300 million in back taxes for misrepresenting employees as "independent contractors" (same thing happened to Microsoft a few years earlier). FedEx has extremely tight guidelines for the drivers, so it's arguable if they are really independent, even if FedEx says they are. There are more than 30 lawsuits pending that say that drivers really aren't independent. Should they be? Sure, I think it's a great idea. But they don't currently fit the definition of an independent contractor, and FedEx escapes employee benefits (and half of social security tax) by calling them such. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I mis-read read dz.com a lot in the real world too. Just another indicator that I spend too much time here Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I read their statement that they thought it was shipping error as well, but I don't believe it was an accident at the dock. After adhering to Bio-Safety level 3 procedures during culture, they put both samples in leaky cardboard boxes on the shipping dock, one on top of the other, like lettuce? The BSL-3 procedures for shipping are somwehat specific: Followed by this: There are several checkpoints in the BSL specifications to ensure this doesn't happen. Were they all ignored? More importantly, would a manufacturer of flu vaccines have anything to gain by introducing a flu pandemic to the world? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The only people I know that like the Storm are the people that just bought it. Anyone I talk to that's had it longer than a month starts to whine about it. I kinda did the same with my iPhone, I liked it at first, but now the battery dies a lot (after a year of use), and it has lots of problems - I still use it, it's OK, but I prefer my BB Curve. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Subtle, but there. Polls showed that during the 2008 presidential election, the Dems won favor with the public by quoting Republicans that said the economy was strong. The majority of people at the time didn't believe the economy was strong, and felt that the Republicans that said that were out of touch with the average American. So, Fox, who is definitely right-leaning (IMO), shows a misrepresented quote showing Biden as saying the economy is strong. Even fewer people believe that now than a year ago. If people thought that McCain was out of touch for saying it a year ago, they will certainly think Biden is out of touch for saying it now (even though he didn't). Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

FedEx was originally an Express-only company called FDX, doing air business for a premium. But they wanted Ground service to compete with UPS. So they purchased several companies to fill out their market offering. RPS merged with FDX, and became FedEx Ground, Robert's Express became FedEx Custom Critical (super-fast, for things like heart transplants), and Viking Freight became FedEx Freight. At the time, acquisitions were all the rage, and FedEx looked good with all the new offerings. As far as FedEx Ground drivers making a million dollars a year, I doubt it. The very good few can make a six-figure income, but most of them are busy paying off their trucks, uniforms, etc. FedEx has contributed significantly to policitians, both Dem and Rep. Which makes the likelyhood of this bill passing very small. However, they lean toward the political right, and so it's not unexpected that a democratic-controlled congress might allow a bill like this to get to the floor before they realize all the money they've taken from FedEx, and kill it on the spot. It's political posturing from both FedEx and a few democrats in Congress. My bet is that the bill will not become law, and FedEx won't buy the jets anyway, because they can't afford them (due to the current economy). Oh yeah, and the Teamsters have been gunning for FedEx for years, but the FedEx employees usually tell them to shove it. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The mentality of needing to have "bad guys" is probably what started the "war on drugs". After the fall of communism, there weren't any "bad guys", so the Reagans started the "war on drugs". The problem with the war on drugs is that the American public didn't buy into it. Everyone in America has either used drugs or knows family or close friends that do. If you're that close to the situation, you can see it isn't usually as bad as they make it out to be - sometimes it is (I can name a few friends that ruined their lives with Meth, for instance), but most of the time, it's fine (I can name dozens of friends that smoke Marijuana, and they are doing just fine). So, since the war on drugs was such a dismal failure at fear-mongering, now we have the "war on terrorism". This makes much more sense, since most Americans know no terrorists. And they can kill you. Of course, you're neighbor with the assault rifle in his house can kill you, too, but you know him, he's a good guy, and nothing to be frightened of, right? Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

The corrupted virus samples had been earmarked to be used in a human flu vaccine. In other words, if the error had not been discovered (by independent research), the virus combination would have ended up in flu shots, and distributed world-wide. The company that made the error (Baxter International) is a maker of flu vaccinations. Their error would have resulted in the injection of avian bird flu, and potentially a recombined bird-human flu virus, into many thousands of people getting a flu shot. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

I didn't read in the article that legalization would fix the problem - I read that it is the least bad solution (in the opinion of the writer). Countries that have decriminalized certain drugs still have drug problems. The writer asserts that we would have fewer problems with legalization, not none. Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD

Baxter International, a U.S. pharm, which makes flu vaccines, accidently distributed a live avian flu virus to a handful of European countries (primarily Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, and Slovenia). It has since been proven that not only were the human and bird flu viruses mixed, but the bird flu virus was live. Theoretically, this should never happen at a bio-safety level 3 facility. Thankfully no one has been infected, the bird flu was not released into the country, and the problem was identified at a Czech facility before any spreading occurred. Mixing viruses can result in a pandemic scenario, through a reassortment of the two viruses, and this was an extremely dangerous scenario for humans. The fact that one virus was a human flu virus and the other was bird flu meant that if any reassortment happened, it would have resulted in a "bird flu for humans". Baxter has been tight-lipped about the entire affair. http://www.google.com/hostednews/canadianpress/article/ALeqM5iV_RT6oBK3tOhtsWf5pnu5OIby9w Trapped on the surface of a sphere. XKCD