Still no internet. I paid for access to the wireless web at my place, borrowed a wireless network adapter, and then found out the adapter was so old it won’t work with my os (vista). . .
If anybody has a vista compatible usb wireless network adapter, let me know, please! I’m blogging from the library! AAAARGH!
Okay, so I got all my stuff moved into my place, got everything shoved away into a corner where I could deal with it later, and got around to setting up my computer.
. . .
When I looked around for the outlet so I could plug in my power bar, I realized that there was only one in the room. Okay, i thought, that’s an annoyance, but at least I can manage to fit all of my chargers and my computer power cables on my power bar, right?
Then I noticed the failing of this rather innocent premise: My computer’s power bar, like the actual power cable for the computer itself, is a three bar plug. The outlet is from the stone age, when cords used TWO.
AARRRGGGHHH!!!!
My landlady was kind enough to get an extension cord running up from the ground level (where the land of three bars begins, apparently) so I can now power my pc, but I still don’t have a wireless adapter or a viable internet connection, so for right now I’m reduced to giving you guys sporadic updates via (resigned, tolerant) friend’s computers. (Thank you guys again!)
More when I can!
I’m moving over the next few days, so I’ll be trying to keep you guys current, but it may be dicey. I’ll do my best. Thank you all for your very supportive words. take care, and I’ll be back as soon as I can!
Interesting article, and a reason why, as liberal as I am, I have no problem with keeping the Second amendment sacred ^^.
Japanese scientists recently figured out how to make a material that’s elastic, durable, and -get this- 95% water. It’s biodegradable, earth-friendly, and could be replacing some plastics. It even has potential applications in the health industry as a burn treatment!
Scary nifty COOOOL.
Scientists did a study recently, the largest of its kind yet (at least 100,000 people), to determine if ginkgo biloba actually helps improve your memory. World-shattering news: in over six years of faithfully taking the supplement at the recommended dosage, NO CHANGE. None.
I could have told you that. That needs to go up on the year’s most obvious study results. For future reference, these also don’t work. At all. Ever.
Or any number of other non-scientific, bogus methods for separating the gullible and desperate from their money.
Of course occasionally the bogus treatment coincides with the very real remission or recovery of a patient. The fact is, this has nothing to do with the treatment, and everything to do with the patient.
This is part of the reason why the recovery rate for most diseases is almost the same inside the waiting room as it is after you see the doctor. When you factor in the hypochondriacs, the people who were just reaching the end of a curable sickness before seeing the doctor, and those who are sick with, say, a virus, it’s obvious that some things are going to get better basically at random. The treatment of those things isn’t going to affect much chronologically, and if the treatment happens at just the right time, it’s gonna look like the treatment (whatever it is) is responsible. It isn’t.
But when it IS something curable, the cure rates go drastically up depending on whether the person who is infected has seen a (western style, science based, medical) doctor. By drastically I mean almost a 100% improvement. I guess random chance isn’t exactly good medicine, now is it?
Now there’s one argument left about naturopathy, homeopathy, et. al. – and that is the placebo effect. Many people have felt the placebo effect at one point in their lives. Hell, if the placebo effect were guaranteed in even 70% of the cases, I might say that these treatments were somewhat valid.
But since we can’t rely on the placebo effect to treat even 70% of the people, and we can’t expect the effects to last after being informed of the placebo’s nature, I’m thinking that it’s pretty much a wash.
Besides, if I’m gonna take a placebo, it’s gonna be a plain old sugar-pill, thank you very much, not some freaky new-age metaphysical bullshit that puts hundreds or thousands of my dollars in the hands of con men.
So I don’t know if you were aware of this, but back in February of last year, a couple of Pennsylvania judges went to jail. Wanna know why?
‘Course ya do.
An’ I’m gonna tell ya, too. Soon as I take a hit of whisky, so I don’t throttle my monitor for showing me this evil!
*Breaks the neck off of a bottle, gulps down half of the contents (including fragments of bottle) and sighs*
Okay. The reason that the damned judges got tossed in jail was for taking bribes to change the length and outcome of court cases. But that’s not all. No.
See, these cases weren’t mob cases. They were juvenile court cases. And the bribes weren’t to see that the little shits got out early, either. The bribes were to make sure that the kids stayed in longer.
That’s right. You heard me. The judges artificially inflated the sentences of kids coming before their court… and not on felony charges, either! We’re talking misdemeanor shit, the kind that a kind judge might give you a verbal warning for.
These judges were handing out long sentences to little kids out of greed!
Guess who was lining their pockets with 30 pieces? It wasn’t a mob boss, that’s for damned sure, oh no.
It was PA Child care, a private juvenile detention facility contractor. Basically, the way the scam worked out was this:
So…. yeah. these people are on my permanent shit list.
Here’s a link to the original reuters article.
Here’s a link to the PA Child care organization’s website.
And here are some things they can’t change as easily, if you feel like giving them a piece of your mind for what they did and may still be doing, for all we know.
Western PA Child Care PA Child Care
12 Dakota Drive 701 Sathers Drive
Emlenton, PA 16373 Pittston Township, PA 18640
PHONE NUMBER PHONE NUMBER
724- 867-0321 570-883-1803
FAX NUMBER FAX NUMBER
724-867-0108 570-883-1479
rational person: What’s it gonna take for you to believe the truth, that everything in this world developed from single-celled organisms over billions of years?
Creationist(flat tone): Flying monkeys, Pigs with wings, or a slug that eats algae and shits photosynthesis.
Well, I don’t think we’ve found any of the first two (yet) but… Meet the first slug to eat algae and shit photosynthesis!
It even looks like a leaf! Awesome!
Eat that, creationists.
Here’s the first one, and a link to the web site for the web-comic . . . I love this style, and the humor seems just off-kilter enough to grab my attention and make me giggle.
All in all, I don’t know if I’ll still love this comic in a year, but so far, so good. the first comic is after the bump. If you like it, please visit the site, there’s tons more to wade happily through! ^^
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