Category: Water Cooler

Libya

I hear about the fighting in Libya and of course the USA participation in the UN resolution.  However, I haven’t seen much on TV about what is happening there.  The following images changed that for me.

I went thought them partly to know what is going on there and to face the fact of what war is, regardless of the intent.  I know war is bloody and ugly, but sometimes I forget because I don’t what a lot of TV.  Not that TV is showing much of what is going on in any of our wars.  I also wanted to see pics to remind myself of how much better my life is, even if I am stuck behind a desk and computer screen all day.

It really is sad that a few people in this world can may the lives of so many quite miserable.  The suffering humans experience at the hand of other humans, is right up there with the worst nature sometime causes.

View at your own discretion.

Times They Are A Changing – Black Box For Vehicles

This is so crazy, if it ever where to happen, that I am just going to post as is from Slashdot.

Mandatory Automotive Black Boxes May Be On the Way

Posted by timothy on Tuesday May 24, @08:17AM
from the pesky-privacy-laws-be-damned dept.
Attila Dimedici writes “The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is expected to announce a new regulation requiring all vehicles to contain a ‘black box.’ Not only that, but the devices would be designed to make it difficult (possibly illegal) to modify what information these devices collect or to disbale them even though the courts have ruled that the owner of the vehicle owns the data. The courts have also ruled that authorities may access that data (to what degree and whether a warrant is necessary depends on the state).”

Bees Are Democratic And Better Politicians Than Humans

One thing we have in the US Congress, is the idea of a “filerbuster“.  You can read that for yourself, but here is a key part of it, “it is the right of an individual to extend debate, allowing a lone member to delay or entirely prevent a vote on a given proposal”.

So what about it?  It means quite simply, that regardless of how good, or even great, a bill is.  It can be stopped cold by a bull-headed, determined, misguided, passionate, … and so on individual.  That sucks, and it is frankly, stupid to have such a procedure.  Why would we allow such a silly thing that could derail a good bill?

So it was interesting to me, to listen to this story about how bees vote.   When deciding on where to build a new home, the bees involved in that process vote on their choice.  No one bee can hijack the voting no matter how passionate it is about a new home choice.  Amazingly, the simply solution to prevent any one bee from showing too much passion, limit how long they can vote.

Imagine that?  Just limit how long a person can make an argument and you don’t have to worry about the best orator, the most passionate, or  the person with the most stamina monipolizing the ‘floor’.  This is not a surprising solution, since we have term limits for the exact same reasons.  Just surprising we don’t apply a working pattern in other places.

The Loneliest Plant In The World

Suppose you had long life, but had to life that life alone?  I guess this is no different than some of our favorite vampires.  No, not a vampire fan?  OK, not a problem.

But what I am talking here is this plant, called a Cycads.  It is supposedly, the only one of it type alive.  It just happened to be a male, and since it doesn’t have a female, well…  This plant has been around for a very long time.

Education in 2020

Predicting the future is almost always a bad way to start out.  Only one thing needs to change to throw a lot of other things off course and there goes your prediction.  Who could have predicted the impact of social networks?

Anyway, I saw this article “21 Things That Will Be Obsolete by 2020” and I think many of the things here, however, seems like reasonable predictions.  Considering the trends of the past few years and what we have learned in education.

What do you think?  Add your own predictions using comments.

Get It Done By Saturday May 21, 2011

Whatever it is that you have to do, you better get it done now.  Or, you might want to scratch that list, and just get ‘saved’ if you were planning on doing so eventually.

According to some crazy nut guy and his followers, the rapture is this Saturday, as in only two (2) more days.  When all the Christians will be taking from the Earth, and the rest of us sinners will be left to punish until October.  Something else is suppose to happen a few months after the rapture.  Unfortunately, I haven’t keeping up with my holy damnation and so on.

There is no surprise however, that someone would seize on the moment to over ‘post-rapture’ care for Fido.  For as ‘little’ of $135, you can make arrangement for the post-apocalyptic care of your pet.  Come on, you really didn’t’ think that ‘all dogs goes to heaven’, did you?  Then where would the cats and other pets go?  Besides, who would want a pet in heaven when you awe of god?

May be I am looking at this all wrong.  This could be an opportunity to make some $$$.  Who knows, I might need $$$ for protection after the apocalypse anyway.

For The People – Senate Blocks Bill Repealing $2B In Oil Tax Breaks

I can only thing that the Senate did this for us, the people.  Really?  They block a bill repealing $2B in Oil tax breaks?   At a time when they  squabble over 30B in social and educational program, they have the nerves to block this bill.  $2B would help, especially when the oil companies are pulling in some serious profits and we are stuck with $4 a gallon for gas.  Talk about fiscal responsibility.  I don’t see how these guys have a moral leg to stand on.  I don’t know how they look at themselves in the mirror.

Black Women Are Less Attractive – Says Psychologist

Why don’t some people get that beauty is in the eye of the beholder?  An evolutionary psychologist caused a bit of a stir, to put it lightly, by saying that black women are less attractive than other women, due in part to them having more male hermone than other women.  Apparently, blacks in general, have higher level of testosterone than the other ethic groups.

You can find more details of the story is here, check it out if you like.  Let me cause a bit of a stir by asking what do psychologist do anyway?  What value do they add to our society?  🙂  Just kidding.

A Scientific Look At Why Certains Bugs Us

I heard this story on NPR about a book which examines some reasons why certain things bugs us.  Like a buzzing sound of a mosquito around our head, finger on a chalk board, hearing one side of a phone conversation, etc.

There are some simply things that annoy me too, but no need to let anyone know just how weird I am.  So I won’t say anything about my annoyances.  🙂