Wasting your time
choofnagle | July 14, 2009You've probably heard that California is in trouble financially. No one wants to cut services and at the same time, no one wants to pay taxes. So what do you do? Ticket ticket ticket! And raise the fines for those tickets.
In the years I've lived in California, I've never seen so much traffic enforcement. They're radaring all over the highways. And check this out--those fancy new parking meters are capable of neat tricks. For instance, it's pretty easy to change the hours to 8 PM. 8 PM! In Oakland. Some ticket fines have more than doubled! The linkage to the financial crisis is…
choofnagle | June 23, 2009In Adam Sandler's 2008 masterpiece, You Don't Mess with the Zohan, the actor is offered a job at an electronics store called "Going Out of Business." This is a shady operation that constantly makes false claims about products and rips people off. Sandler was mocking a real phenomenon--the liquidation companies named "going out of business" or "total liquidation sale." The Journal has a fun article on the issue today, focusing on a rug salesman who has settled down in Texas for a permanent going out of business sale. Barry Newman reports:
Many localities do have rules against such claims.…
choofnagle | May 19, 2009San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom has proposed a $0.33 tax on cigarettes to address the problem of cleaning up butts! This follows an audit (PDF) of litter in the city that found cigarette butts to be a major problem (along with chewing gum, and unbranded napkins).
The cigarette companies are against it:
"Obviously we think people should follow the littering laws, in California and elsewhere," said Frank Lester, a spokesman for Reynolds American Inc., the nation's second-largest manufacturer of cigarettes. "But we oppose any additional taxation on smokers to pay for that."
But, isn't this…
choofnagle | March 28, 2009This is one to watch. We might all get to learn more about the Harvard-Industrial Complex.
The Times reports:
Federal prosecutors have issued a subpoena seeking information about the work and statements of three prominent Harvard researchers who have been the focus of a Congressional investigation into conflicts of interest in medicine.
The researchers -- Drs. Joseph Biederman, Thomas Spencer and Timothy E. Wilens -- are named in the subpoena, which was sent on Wednesday to Fletch Trammel, a lawyer who represents state attorneys general in lawsuits that claim makers of antipsychotic drugs…
choofnagle | March 28, 2009Does this article about the Pennsyltucky judge who was sending kids to jail to collect kickbacks from a private prison remind anyone of the Chevy Chase movie called Nothing But Trouble?
denialism | March 19, 2009In two hours I find out where I've matched and will spend my residency. It's a special day for medical students, and may be the one day a year they really, universally cut loose. Much more than graduation, match feels like the culmination of years of hard work.
I'll put up a post at around 12 saying where I ended up. If you're curious about the process see our other posts on the match Choosing a Medical Specialty I, II, III, and IV.
denialism | March 11, 2009Brought to us by The Onion San Francisco Historians Condemn 1906 Earthquake Deniers:
The 1906 Earthquake Deniers, a group reviled by Californians and scholars alike, held three days of lectures and roundtable discussions over what they call a "century-long hoax" of exaggerated seismic activity in the Bay area, and part of a conspiracy to bring the World's Fair to San Francisco in 1915. Historians protested the conference, saying the organization's statements denying any major seismic activity in 1906 are reprehensible and out of line with all available geologic data from the time.
...
"If an…
choofnagle | February 22, 2009Phillip Reese and Andrew McIntosh of the Sacramento Bee report:
If you give to a charity over the phone, there's a growing likelihood that most of your donation will go to the telemarketer instead, according to a Bee analysis of state records.
More than a third of California charity telemarketing campaigns sent less than 20 cents on the dollar to the charities during 2007, the most recent year on record. Those campaigns and a smaller number of charity auctions and concerts raised $93 million for commercial fundraisers, and just $3 million for the charities.
There are some eye-popping numbers…
choofnagle | February 4, 2009Obama has delayed am important political risk: he's pushed back the DTV transition. If the televisions stopped working on February 17th, we would probably have an impeachment trial (as soon as the televisions were back on again).
choofnagle | February 2, 2009The toy companies that moved their production to China in order to save money apparently didn't calculate the full costs of offshoring. Testing their products for lead is just too expensive, they argue. They have successfully lobbied to delay lead testing rules for children's toys. Joseph Pereira and Melanie Trottman of the Journal report:
Under pressure from manufacturers, federal regulators have postponed for one year certain testing requirements for lead and other toxic substances in toys and other children's products.
But unless Congress acts, retailers and manufacturers still won't be…
choofnagle | January 24, 2009In good Denialism blog form, the San Francisco Chronicle's C. W. Nevius has urged readers to just ignore this week's anti-abortion protest in San Francisco. He makes a good point:
This is the fifth year in San Francisco for the "Walk for Life." Bolstered by supporters who are bused in from all over - this year's bus schedule lists departures from Yuba City, Bakersfield, Fresno, Reno, Clovis and Chico, among other cities - the anti-abortion group stages a march in liberal San Francisco and then expresses shock and disappointment when they are jeered and booed.
It's a scam and a setup. Nothing…
choofnagle | January 11, 2009If you want to get an idea of how crazy the Wall Street Journal editorial board is, read Friday's oped by their senior economist, Stephen Moore. The title itself says a lot: 'Atlas Shrugged': From Fiction to Fact in 52 Years."
Some years ago when I worked at the libertarian Cato Institute, we used to label any new hire who had not yet read "Atlas Shrugged" a "virgin." Being conversant in Ayn Rand's classic novel about the economic carnage caused by big government run amok was practically a job requirement. If only "Atlas" were required reading for every member of Congress and political…
choofnagle | January 10, 2009
Farkitrol® for Missing White Girl Syndrome
Farkitrol® for Beach Depression / Shark Mania (BDSM)
Farkitrol® for Dangerous Playgrounditis (DP)
Farkitrol® for Mediastatial Germaphobia
denialism | January 6, 2009I couldn't be more thrilled to see that Rebecca Skloot has joined scienceblogs. I remember reading her article on HeLa cells and thinking it was the best science writing I'd ever read.
So, sorry for the late announcement and welcome to Rebecca!
sb admin | December 25, 2008As many of you may know, I'm not a Christian. That's right, the whole Jesus thing kinda passed my by. It's not that I have anything against your Lord, I just don't give him much thought.
Except now. This is the time of year when people wish me a Merry Christmas, then back peddle, embarrassed, as if they had just told me to perform some anatomically unlikely act on myself.
So, I'm telling you all right now:
It's OK to say "Merry Christmas" to this Jew. I realize that I'm a minority around here, and while there are certain things about being in a religiocultural minority that are…
sb admin | December 24, 2008OK, this is a meme that I've always wanted to do (at least since this morning). It will involve no tagging, no involuntary contributions, just some cool info sharing.
We all have favorite restaurants, places we can drop in for a favorite meal. What I'm interested in is not the best gourmet places, but the best everyday places. So, I'll share with you some of my local favorites from the NW Detroit metro area (leaving out some from earlier in my life, as I can't verify their continued existence).
1) Mr. Kabob, in Berkley, MI. This place rocks. It's in a damned gas station, but they cook up…
choofnagle | December 11, 2008Jeanne Whalen of the Journal reports that European officials are taking a step towards allowing drug marketing:
The European Commission proposed legislation Wednesday that would let drug companies give consumers "objective and nonpromotional" information about their medicines in print and online. Currently, drug companies can't provide any information to European consumers, except on leaflets found inside drug packaging. The legislative proposals must be approved by the European Parliament and Council of Ministers before becoming law, a process that could take years.
Meanwhile, in the US, it…
denialism | November 27, 2008Well, Nisbet has replied to Mike, Orac and me (not to mention PAL). However his reply leaves something wanting, like, intellectual honesty.
Nowhere in any of these reasoned replies is there "name-calling". What we are arguing is for the preservation of accurate labeling of arguments that fail to meet standards of honesty. There are arguments that are crap, and arguments that are useful and indicate the author is interested in exchange of ideas, fostering discussion, the truth etc. We believe it is useful not to just label these arguments but to teach people how to distinguish between…
sb admin | November 26, 2008This is my annual Thanksgiving post ("annual" because I wrote it last year and I'm reposting it this year. It's companion piece is over at my old place). --PalMD
It's easy to see what Christmas means to an atheist---another day off work. What about Thanksgiving? This nominally secular holiday is practiced throughout North America by people of most faiths and cultures, and by those of no faith at all. But to whom are we giving thanks? Can "thank" be an intransitive verb?
This question falls into the same category as many ethical questions about atheism, such as "where do atheists get…