LameList!

Put any variation of the word lame in a headline and I can’t pass it up:  ‘Tumblarity’ A Metric to Measure Lameness on Tumblr

Microblogging platform and lazy book deal factory Tumblr introduced a “feature” yesterday called Tumblarity, a single convenient number that lets users know exactly how many terrible blogs are better than theirs.

Alas, my interest in the story tumbled lamely thenceforth.

Five players on the University of Oregon Ultimate Frisbee team played without pants and underwear. Now their season has been cancelled by a five-member student board.

Team co-captain was only slightly apologetic:

Speeding, drinking, nudity — they’re not bad things. They’re things a big portion of the community doesn’t think are wrong.

To run around naked is just kind of a hippie, ultimate thing. We didn’t think there was anything wrong at the time.

“We put on the longest shirts we had,” pleaded one player.

I didn’t even know that Ultimate Frisbee was an intercollegiate sport.

Something is dreadfully wrong when I can use the internet to easily order all sorts of prescription medications, including tightly controlled substances, as well as the human growth hormones and such stuff (if email and comment spam is to be believed).

Yet I cannot easily order prescription medicine my cat takes daily. My vet writes the prescription and fills it. One vet acts as prescriber and pharmacy and I am unable to get a copy of that prescription. All online vets that I have checked require a faxed copy of the prescription.  No cheap Canadian meds for my kitty.

(kitten photo from Flikr via Creative Commons license)

Look at those photos of tax day protests — those anti-Obama “tea party” events to protest taxes, government bailouts and big spending budget proposals.

Did you ever notice how the faces in the crowds are mostly retirees who are the benefactors of the biggest government entitlements ever: Social Security and Medicare?

 
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Another meal at the “Irony Café:”   we went to a huge steak fry on Good Friday. Heathens have more fun.

I’m a sucker for a story that uses the words “spies,” “hackers,” “Chinese” and “Russian” in the same article.

The WSJ ran an interesting article about cyberspies penetrating our electrical grid (despite the fact that the article did not live up to its alarmist headline “Electricity Grid in U.S. Penetrated by Spies.”

Cyberspies have penetrated the U.S. electrical grid and left behind software programs that could be used to disrupt the system, according to current and former national-security officials.

The spies came from China, Russia and other countries, these officials said, and were believed to be on a mission to navigate the U.S. electrical system and its controls. 

Several hours after reading this I took my 5-year old to Safeway. Unfortunately, the store was closed because the computers were down and would not come back up, we were told.  We could not even  use cash to purchase the dozen eggs we came to buy so we could color Easter eggs.  

Amazing.  The entire store was down because of computer problems.  Stores can no longer do cash transactions without computers.  

Though my son told the Safeway lady that I could fix it, I was more intrigued by the notion of cyperspies penetrating retail computer systems and the resulting impact.

For further related reading about the electrical grid, there’s also Wired magazine:  the informative “China and Russia vs. US Grid!”  and an extensive article  ”Power to the People: 7 Ways to Fix the Grid, Now“

Why is a local upscale grocery store still selling products that are on the FDA’s expanded list of recalled products for salmonella?  Even after I pointed out the problem? 

Likely not grubbing for profits.  I’m guessing it is confusion over the list of recalled products. That list grew fast and kept changing as supply chains were unraveled. 

The store clerk dutifully and sincerely checked the store’s printout of recalled products as though the list was the official gospel.  

Sure, the store office had a printed list.   List got old.  But the printout was etched in stone to store employees. 

Yo, FDA!  Get a better system of notifying retailers and consumers.  That bad food is still out there.

Hurray for  Jon Stewart, comedian who has emarged as the best journalist around after taking on CNBC business cable channel. 

Traditionally trained journalists have been throwing “fat pitches” — easy to hit baseballs served up to a batter to blast out of the park for a home run.  Stewart, thank goodness, asked tough questions.

I like the U.K. Guardian’s take on it:

His assault on Wall Street began in earnest with a classic Daily Show technique: a series of juxtaposed clips revealing incompetence and hypocrisy

He accused CNBC hosts and pundits of abandoning their journalistic duties and acting like cheerleaders for the market.

The interview was one of those classic television moments that crystallised the public mood in the credit crisis. Stewart articulated the anger and bewilderment of millions of Americans who now feel ripped off and afraid. He framed the question everyone wanted asked: how were the financial masters of the universe allowed to pursue their ruinous behaviour unchallenged for so long?

It caught the attention of the White House, prompted a frenzy among bloggers and soul-searching in the media, which failed to spot the biggest story of a lifetime or warn the public until it was too late. Indeed, CNBC and other supposedly objective journalists stood accused of complicity with big business, belonging to a cosy coterie that egged on company chief executives and fanned the flames of excess.

CNBC is a parade CEOs as talking press releases (in other words, our future is so bright, buy my stock and pump up the share price) as well as an “Entertainment Tonight” style of egocentric commentators whose motivation is to get their faces on TV and enable CNBC to sell ads.

Girl Scout cookie season is upon us.  Last year I wrote that I was disgusted that the cookies still contained partially hydrogenated oils, yet the Girl Scout HQ folks proudly proclaim the cookies to be trans fat free because each unrealistic serving size is below the FDA lame definition that .5g per miniscule serving equals 0 grams transfat.  

So, instead of buying cookies , I simply donated cash and said to please keep the cookies so as not to punish the kids.

This year, same lame story.   Again, I’ll donate cash and tell them to keep the cookies.  I’ll also promote recipes for homemade Girl Scout cookies from BakingBites.com who expresses thoughts I share:

The other day, I expressed some concern over the fact that (a) Girl Scout cookies still have trans fats in them because they are made with hydrogenated shortening instead of, say, butter and (b) Girl Scout cookies don’t taste all that great any more – especially considering that the price per box has gone up and the size of the cookies seems to have gone down. I mentioned that I wanted to make my own Girl Scout Cookies and decided that I would go for it! This week, I’ll be featuring recipes for three of my favorites – these, Samoas and Tagalongs - and (if you’re lucky) I might throw in a bonus recipe, as well, though you can find a Thin Mint recipe in the archives if you want even more. 

Microsoft overpaid severance to some of the workers it recently laid off.  Now it wants the extra money back.

This letter is to inform you that an inadvertent administrative error occurred that resulted in an overpayment of severance pay by Microsoft. We ask that you repay the overpayment and sincerely apologize for any inconvenience to you

Some laid off workers may have beeen underpaid.

Is this a feature or a bug?  Get your copy of  MS Payroll 2009 (requires Vista).