- Another unexpected consequence in the (very long) wake of Hurricane Sandy: the millionaires’ missing wine. A fascinating only-in-New-York kinda story.
- Now that’s one young lady you don’t want to trifle with.
- Economist, commentator, and actor (“Bueller?”) Ben Stein makes one of the wisest observations following the Martin/Zimmerman case. In this, his thinking is a lot like Martin Luther King, Jr.’s.
- SF/fantasy writer Larry Correia gives Stein some competition. Or at least gives Obama’s whiny, divisive speech (“I’m Trayvon and you’re all a bunch of racists”) its very best fisking. Followed by some voice-of-experience from being a big, dark, scary-looking guy who also knows firearms and self defense.
- Correia writes cool, fun, lively books, too. And scads of ’em. Read ’em if you haven’t! Read ’em again if you have.
- “Feets — I Got ‘Em.” Artificial ones, that is. A look at those prices gives greater appreciation of what desert hermit Joel goes through with a leg that … oh, will I go to hell for such an awful pun? … is on its last legs.
- Hm. Makes as much sense as anything else in religion. Except it’s funnier.
- From firearms instructor LarryA in a recent comment section. Too good to be left in obscurity: “Dying of Embarrassment.” Falling into peril because we’re conditioned not to step outside of social norms. Clearly the woman in the second link above got past that conditioning.
In reference to the second link, I guess No really means NO. Using a rifle is a great way to illustrate that particular point.
The comments on the wine story are pretty much what you’d expect. All about how evil those damn millionaires are for having so much expensive wine.
Here’s something for you Linux users that would like to get smart phones. I do wonder if the recent security stuff can help with these phones.
http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/ubuntu-edge
Interesting that it seems that you can make it more individualized and as secured as possible yourself more so than any other smart phones.
🙂 I saw that post about the guy’s prosthetic legs. Imagine! Multiple backups! When he bitched about the prices I wanted to go kick him – except that he’s got me outgunned.
My first ever leg, I hobbled into a smelly little shop, they took a bunch of measurements, made me a leg, and I laid $500 on the counter. The next one, less than two years later, was paid for by insurance and cost more than $2000. The prices have continued to skyrocket, mostly just because they can.
Seriously, sometime before I die I may end up carving my own like Long John Silver. I may shop for a parrot.
“Police say the woman stopped at the station to fill her car with gas”
Why I carry all the time v 23,064.
Thanks for raising up Kathy’s essay. Her corneredcat.com is another site well worth a day or three.
A class with Kathy is on my bucket list. 🙂
It’s not a link, but in other news, My F tooth still hurts!!!
You got any links about composite tooth stuff vs. gold?
When SHTF blackmarket dentists are going to clean house, imho.
Ouch!
Ouch!
Ouch!
Even cold watermelon hurts!
Watermelon!
I’d trade Every Thing – and the bucket list – to not hurt.
My 14 year old son was born missing most of his right leg and wears a prosthetic with the titanium knee, carbon fiber socket and foot. For the most part he gets along just fine and yes those things are expensive. He has a deformed left foot, that, after over 8 surgical procedures, still causes pain and restricts his activities. He is getting it amputated on July 30 and will be fitted with a below the knee prosthetic to increase his quality of life. The current generation of hardware is very impressive. His other option is to be on pain management the rest of his life and that isn’t a good choice.
Joel, you might appreciate this:
My son’s prosthesis technician has offered to make him a peg leg for Halloween this year for the above the knee side. He said to bring in a Louisville slugger bat, and he would turn it on the lathe and fit the adapter for the socket. Arrr.
EWB
I hit the NYT paywall when i hit the link about the missing wine. So what happened to it?
Ben Stein sounds a little naive: “It horrifies me that the media has tried to turn this sad case into an occasion to make black people hate white people.”
OF COURSE this is what the Ministry of Propaganda does. That is their job: “Divide and rule”.
http://strike-the-root.com/tools-for-tyrants-hatred-aka-divide-and-conquer
Correia makes essentially the same error in his otherwise excellent article. It’s not the job of the president to bring people together. His job is to divide them.
Thanks for that corneredcat.com link; it’s an excellent article.
[You got any links about composite tooth stuff vs. gold?]
As it happens I am getting a cap. I was faced by the same question. I asked the dentist (also my neighbor) what he would do in my position. He said in effect, “I’d go with form over function and pick gold, for a molar at least. Harder choice for a tooth up front…”
Sorry, I meant “function over form”. Typing too fast…
The Harris County grand jury should give her a medal-she may have saved the life of someone not so prepared.
Shame there’s not a way to pick up retired prostheses on eBay or something, but I guess they’re too custom fitted to be one-size-fits all. At $15-16k that’s practically like buying a new car.
@Joel: I fully expect the price of prosthetics to drop as 3D printing becomes more and more mainstream. Some people are already printing their own for themselves or for friends/family. Might be a couple more years, but then again it might not. It’s changing fast.
From the Cornered Cat article:
“Because social rules are so rarely spoken aloud, they have a power to compel us far out of proportion to their purpose. When we see another person violating those social rules, we are often alarmed or dismayed—and often with good reason!—but the taboo against talking about the rules often also prevents us from being able to articulate exactly what we find so threatening about their behavior. ”
And if you’re the sort of person who has trouble picking up on those unspoken rules, you can never get people to explain exactly why they got offended by whatever it was you just said or did. On the other hand, if you don’t realize that you’re “not supposed to” be the first one to leave when the fire alarm goes off or the bomb squad shows up, you have a better chance of survival. Maybe that’s why aspies are still around.
(Yes, personal experience.)
Somehow I’ve not had much trouble with social rules. Oh, I observe them plenty, but only as long as they make sense to me. I reflexively ask “Why?” The instant following them looks sub-optimal, I toss ’em. I guess social acceptance is not such a big deal for me.
This topic reminds me of the Milgram experiment. Don’t people constantly question their own actions? Apparently not.