The Fount of Useless Information
Your place for useless information that just might possibly be interesting.
1 in 3 U.S. adults have ‘debt in collections’
http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/29/pf/debt-collections/index.html?iid=HP_LN&hpt=hp_t2
Pretty scary stat, but that is what happens when our Great Government socializes risk while privatizing reward. The rich keep getting richer and the rest just take it in the …
How to survive in post-constitutional America
What happens when the executive branch can play judge, jury and executioner in the war on terror?
http://www.salon.com/2014/07/27/how_to_survive_in_post_constitutional_america_partner/
An interesting, if totally depressing read. It is about the ‘justification’ that our Great President used …
Fist bumping ‘may help reduce flu’
http://www.independent.ie/world-news/and-finally/fist-bumping-may-help-reduce-flu-30464146.html
Not terribly surprising to me, but it is nice to see it documented. At the bottom here I talk about the ‘dramatic’ benefit of simple hygiene to combat the spread of disease, this …
I found this on Bruce Schneier’s blog:
…Fingerprinting Computers By Making Them Draw Images
Here’s a new way to identify individual computers over the Internet. The page instructs the browser to draw an image. Because each computer draws the image
FedEx indicted for shipping drugs sold online
http://money.cnn.com/2014/07/17/news/companies/fedex-indictment-drugs/index.html?hpt=hp_t2
Since the government can’t do its job properly it decides to go after someone it can reach in its laziness. I like this quote from FedEx:
…“We continue to stand ready and
Why the GOP really wants to defund IRS
Hint: It’s not about punishing administrative incompetence.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2014/07/01/why-the-gop-really-wants-to-defund-irs/
Back from my week long ‘vacation’ (the bulk of which was 10-12 hours a day of back breaking work (in sauna-like temps) to get …
I have been readjusting to being a working stiff again (though that doesn’t explain why I was so quiet when I was on the dole) and haven’t been keeping up with news very much. I read an interesting (older) article …
After almost exactly 3 months on the dole and almost a month since I signed on the dotted line, I finally have a start date. The agency is nothing if not inefficient and cumbersome! They canceled my badge because I …
Meet the BAT, an airborne wind turbine
http://www.cnn.com/2014/05/12/tech/innovation/big-idea-airborne-wind-turbines/index.html?hpt=hp_c2
At first the idea of a lighter-than-air product to reach the higher energy winds at higher altitude makes a great deal of sense, but the use of helium makes it a really …
Augmenting the Genetic Alphabet
For the first time, synthetic DNA base pairs are replicated within living bacteria.
http://www.the-scientist.com//?articles.view/articleNo/39913/title/Augmenting-the-Genetic-Alphabet/
Scary? Perhaps, but going down this path opens up a revolution in biotech that makes what has come before look like the …