We survived Mad Cow.
We survived Bird Flu.
We (might) survive Swine Flu.
Vegetarians cannot be forgiven for lording it over us meat-a-vores.
treehugger reports on the coming plague.
Click PLAY or watch the Modern Jackass Magazine report on YouTube. (bleeped profanity).
Related:
Jon Stewart on the Daily Show is getting tired. The guy’s a brilliant comedian. But he’s resorting increasingly to using profanity for cheap laughs. Something like the unnecessary profanity in this clip.
From frequent tryer, first time father Kelly Mock:
On Monday, May 4th at 6:16pm we said hello to Madelyn Kate Mock and good-bye to sleep.
Congratulations Kelly and Lexi.
Mihai Stoica at my gymnastics club is DUE for his first baby May 17th.
Is there a credit card debt problem?
To find out, click PLAY or watch the trailer to Maxed Out on YouTube.
… The main premises of the documentary and book are that banks and other creditors deliberately market to people who are more likely to have problems paying predatory lending and that the creditors benefit from connections to government, the debt collection industry, and from lawmaker apathy. …
New legislation in the USA, the Credit Cardholders’ Bill of Rights, just passed overwhelmingly.
From what I can see, it looks like rules in the States will be tightened. That’s a good thing.
People hopefully will be better protected from their own stupidity.
I can look down the stupid (at the moment) because I have no credit card debt. Certainly I have been stupid in the past. Once having over double the average credit card debt of Americans today.
The banks have between 9-12 months to adjust to the new regulations.
A NY Times blog notes that the banks are ratcheting up fees and interest before the Fed’s rules kick in.
Best advice. Pay off your credit card debt.
This is probably the vilest thing I’ve ever endured.
A People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals expose of commercial meat production.
The video that all meat-eaters should watch and every vegetarian should own, “Meet Your Meat”, narrated by Alec Baldwin, covers each stage of life of animals raised for food. No PETA videos are copyrighted, so copy them for everyone you know.
I recommend you do not click PLAY, not watch it on YouTube.
The latest in technology from the Times’s David Pogue …
Someday, we’ll tell our grandchildren how we had to drive around town looking for a coffee shop when we needed to get online, and they’ll laugh their heads off. Every building in America has running water, electricity and ventilation; what’s the holdup on universal wireless Internet?
Getting online isn’t impossible, but today’s options are deeply flawed. Most of them involve sitting rooted in one spot — in the coffee shop or library, for example. (Sadly, the days when cities were blanketed by free Wi-Fi signals leaking from people’s apartments are over; they all require passwords these days.)
If you want to get online while you’re on the move, in fact, you’ve had only one option: buy one of those $60-a-month cellular modems from Verizon, Sprint, T-Mobile or AT&T. The speed isn’t exactly cable-modem speed, but it’s close enough. You can get a card-slot version, which has a nasty little antenna protuberance, or a U.S.B.-stick version, which cries out to be snapped off by a passing flight attendant’s beverage cart.
A few laptops have this cellular modem built in, which is less awkward but still drains the battery with gusto.
But imagine if you could get online anywhere you liked — in a taxi, on the beach, in a hotel with disgustingly overpriced Wi-Fi — without messing around with cellular modems. What if you had a personal Wi-Fi bubble, a private hot spot, that followed you everywhere you go?
Incredibly, there is such a thing. It’s the Novatel MiFi 2200, available from Verizon starting in mid-May ($100 with two-year contract, after rebate). It’s a little wisp of a thing, like a triple-thick credit card. It has one power button, one status light and a swappable battery that looks like the one in a cellphone. When you turn on your MiFi and wait 30 seconds, it provides a personal, portable, powerful, password-protected wireless hot spot. …
AWESOME – US$60/month – details on NY Times – Wi-Fi to Go, No Cafe Needed
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
John Updike was one of our greatest living authors. He died in January.
Updike chose to write an important book on an important subject.
The central character is age-18, the son of an Egyptian exchange student who married a working-class Irish-American girl. The young man agrees to become a suicide bomber for Allah. He will blow up the Lincoln Tunnel under the Hudson River in New York.
Of course the novel is skillful. Insightful.
I learned more about Islam from this short novel than from anything else I’ve ever read.
I’d read other Updike books and expected not to enjoy this one.
Like most Updike novels, most other literature, this book is depressing. With a very negative world view.
American culture in the eyes of a devout Muslim is disgusting. (The terrorist has some very good arguments.)
The ending surprised me. It was not what I expected.
That surprise redeemed the book for me. Somewhat.
I still don’t recommend you read Terrorist, unless you want to better understand what might motivate an intelligent, thoughtful fellow human being … to want to kill you.
Are your air miles expiring on you?
Got this email May 5th.
Dear Rick,
Aeroplan® wants to keep you informed of your account status.
Aeroplan’s mileage expiry policy
In order to keep an Aeroplan account active and avoid the expiration of all miles in the account, members must make at least one qualifying transaction—either by earning or redeeming miles—every 12 months. Aeroplan will expire miles in the account if more than 12 months has passed from the date of the last qualifying activity.
According to our records, the miles in your account will expire on July 25, 2009 unless you make at least one qualifying transaction prior to this date. …
Stay Informed about the program, our policies and your account status
For more detailed information about these policies, other program information, as well as access to your Aeroplan account, please visit aeroplan.com.
This policy was begun July 1, 2007.
But this is the first I’ve heard of it.
I’ve given up on Air Miles on all airlines aside from Air Canada. After I use up my Aeroplan miles this year, I’ll give up Aeroplan as well.
Those programs are more trouble than they are worth in 2009 unless you are some kind of air commuter.
related post – Air Canada still sucks …
Katest latest.
Kate’s mocking her husband taking all the credit for the fantastic meals they prepare.
What a surprising twist on her usual comedic theme!
… It will be no ORDINARY main course. Men’s main courses are never ordinary. If they were, men would not cheapen themselves by preparing them. They would rather not participate in the dinner party at all than prepare something ordinary, or worst of all, vegetarian.
This extraordinary main course will require the death of an animal, perhaps the fiercest of animals. …
The Old Man and the Beef
flickr – ewanr – larger version
It’s been some months since I’ve had any interest at all in any music at all.
This collaboration is interesting and sophisticated.
Chris Cornell is one of those rare ‘90s rock gods who’s still inspired enough by music to take big chances. The rocker from legendary grunge bands Soundgarden and Audioslave recently released Scream, a collaboration with the superstar hiphop and R&B producer Timbaland (known for his work with Justin Timberlake, Aaliyah, Missy, and Jay-Z). Timbaland makes slick, futuristic tracks that don’t seem to have a clear fit into the musical world of Cornell, a man from Seattle who grew up intensely listening to the Beatles. But the two spent months in Miami collaborating on Scream which, Cornell says by phone from Detroit, “Is an ambitious album which is one hour of non-stop music, almost from a movie soundtrack.”
Click PLAY or watch it on DailyMotion.
… Scream is the third solo studio album by American musician Chris Cornell. Released on March 10, 2009, it marked a shift from Cornell’s previous musical efforts with the massive exclusion of guitars and rock elements that were replaced with producer Timbaland’s electronic pop soundscapes. The album was promoted with the release of five digital singles and three music videos, and was generally met with mixed to negative reviews. …
… Billboard noted that “Sometimes it’s good bizarre. Other times it’s bad bizarre.” …
Rick McCharles 