SOME IWV Health Care Video Contest Entries.
Archive for 2009
December 15, 2009
A 787 FLEW BY RY JONES’ WINDOW: He took pictures.
THE MATHEMATICS OF slicing pizza.
WAR AGAINST PHOTOGRAPHY, CONT’D: Photographer beaten, detained in London for being “cocky” to policeman who implies she is a terrorist. Tar. Feathers.
PHOTOSHOPPING Meryl Streep?
GENE HEALY: Making Criminals Out Of All Americans. “The Founders viewed the criminal sanction as a last resort, reserved for serious offenses, clearly defined, so ordinary citizens would know whether they were violating the law. Yet over the last 40 years, an unholy alliance of big-business-hating liberals and tough-on-crime conservatives has made criminalization the first line of attack — a way to demonstrate seriousness about the social problem of the month, whether it’s corporate scandals or e-mail spam. . . . There are now more than 4,000 federal crimes, spread out through some 27,000 pages of the U.S. Code. Some years ago, analysts at the Congressional Research Service tried to count the number of separate offenses on the books, and gave up, lacking the resources to get the job done. If teams of legal researchers can’t make sense of the federal criminal code, obviously, ordinary citizens don’t stand a chance.”
TOM MAGUIRE: Heck Of A Job, Barack! “Feel the gestalt shifting.”
PROSECUTORIAL MISCONDUCT: Backdating case against 2 ex-Broadcom executives tossed. “Carney found that prosecutors tried to prevent three key defense witnesses from testifying, improperly contacted attorneys for defense witnesses, and leaked information about grand jury proceedings to the media.”
MORE JOHN EDWARDS PROBLEMS: “Today, the Charlotte Observer reports that John Edwards has used the private jet of a potential witness in an investigation of misuse of campaign funds, and that could raise serious legal issues for the former Democratic VP nominee.”
The press, which covered for Edwards during and after the campaign, is still covering for him, instead of covering him.
SORRY, BUT NICE CLEAN NUKES JUST KEEP LOOKING BETTER: Two Major Geothermal Projects Abandoned Due to Induced Quake Risk.
SO I’M DOING AN FCC PANEL on their Open Internet proposals (I think you can stream it at the link), and my take is that I’m for it in principle, but wary in practice. Here’s a copy of my prepared statement, for those who are interested. Note the cautionary observations at the end. Ironically, I’m connecting via an outdated ISDN setup, which supports my point about regulators being stuck behind the technology curve, I guess . . . .
Reynolds FCC Statement On Open Internet –
UPDATE: Okay, now the ISDN isn’t working . . . .
ANOTHER UPDATE: Success! Not sure when I’ll be on, though.
MORE: Okay, they brought me on and the audio didn’t work. [Silenced by the FCC! — ed. Well, not deliberately, I’m pretty sure.] Trying again in a bit.
FINALLY: Okay, it all worked out in the end; just a few bugs along the way. I gotta say, ISDN felt so 1990s — iChat or SkypeHQ would have been so much better. And easier.
WORKS FOR ME: Toyota Promises an ‘Affordable’ Plug-In Prius in 2011. I was thinking of a Chevy Volt, but I don’t want a bailoutmobile.
HAPPY BILL OF RIGHTS DAY! More here.
IN THE MAIL: From Neal Knox, The Gun Rights War.
FEDERAL EMPLOYEES owe $3 billion in unpaid taxes. Try a cabinet appointment — that seems to get ’em to pay up.
TRUST: ‘Smart’ Electric Utility Meters, Intended to Create Savings, Instead Prompt Revolt. This story doesn’t even address the big problem — utilities turning down your thermostat without your consent. My take: Give consumers more control and they’ll like it. Give them less, and they won’t. Kinda like, well, most things.
CATHY YOUNG ON CLIMATEGATE: When Science Becomes A Casualty Of Politics. “Public trust is something scientists must work hard to maintain. When it comes to science and public policy, the average citizen usually has to trust scientists—whose word he or she has to take on faith almost as much as a religious believer takes the word of a priest. Once that trust is undermined, as it has been in recent years, science becomes a casualty of politics.”
MICHAEL BARONE: Are Democrats Exiting The Sinking Ship?
Don’t worry. They know what’s good for you. And soon they’ll have waiting lists to protect you from those deadly CT scans, too!
UPDATE: Ann Althouse: “The strategy for avoiding the label ‘death panel’ is: present the treatments as deadly. Voila: life panels! Now, here’s your blue pill.”
Plus, from the comments: “This is the problem with a giant political intrusion into healthcare: Now every single decision will be viewed as a political maneuver instead of a scientific or medical decision.”
LEAVING AMERICA: More Foreign-Born Professionals Are Finding Better Jobs, Lower Unemployment Abroad; ‘I’ve Had Headhunters Calling’. “And recruiters say in most cases, salaries will be equivalent to or better than what the employees were making in the U.S., although adjusted to the living costs in the new country.” Hope and Change!
REVIEWING THE REVIEWERS: A roundup of book reviews from all over.
THE MOST DANGEROUS ROAD in Germany.
CHARLIE MARTIN: ClimateGate: McIntyre and the Divergence Problem. “The ‘trick’ used to ‘hide the decline,’ which alarmists have claimed was taken out of context, is actually worse when the context is included.”