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| In case there's anyone left who would be willing to pay any attention to me and still thinks HFCS is perfectly safe: Child diabetes blamed on food sweetener - "Over 10 weeks, 16 volunteers on a strictly controlled diet, including high levels of fructose, produced new fat cells around their heart, liver and other digestive organs. They also showed signs of food-processing abnormalities linked to diabetes and heart disease. Another group of volunteers on the same diet, but with glucose sugar replacing fructose, did not have these problems." Actual study is here. Okay, you can criticize this for being a small sample, for being fructose vs glucose and not involving sucrose, or probably other reasons. But it comes down to this yet again: if HFCS *might* be a health risk, proven or not but just *MIGHT* be one, why would you willingly eat it and serve it to your kids? Again, I don't mean the two-or-three-times-a-year indulgence. It's in the bread (even the bakery bread), the condiments, the soda, the fake juices, the deli meats, the yogurt, and yes even in some products with organic labels (it just has to be made with organic corn). If you buy normal US processed food products, you are eating this stuff at every meal. Canadians, it's crept into your supply too, so go back to checking labels (you're usually going to find it as something like "glucose-fructose syrup") and check known foods periodically to see if they've changed. We are never going to get this stuff legislated away. BPA is an actual poison and we can't get it legislated out of everything (some smarter countries like Canada are banning it from baby bottles, but not from food cans and bags), so there's no hope of battling the corn industry to get HFCS out of food. The only way it'll stop being added to everything is by consumer revolt. When HFCS-free foods outsell HFCS-laden ones, it becomes worth their while to take it out. It's already happening with some products, which is why the corn industry is spooked and putting out such stupid ads. | ||||||
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Blatherings
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December 17th, 2009
November 27th, 2009
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| Sick of BPA being in all of your food packaging and washable containers? Sign the petition to the FDA to ban it: http://act.credoaction.com/campaign/fda | ||||||
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November 8th, 2009
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| Another reason to not shop at Walmart...if they decide you've shoplifted (especially if you are part of a minority group that may make you more likely to be harassed) but then the security video shows that you were actually innocent, it won't matter to them and they'll still abuse you and your kids (including using language demeaning to your minority group) and try to fine you after the fact: http://consumerist.com/5399061/walm | ||||||
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November 6th, 2009
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| More drama on the disabled parking front today. Last week when I took Peo to her music class, as I pulled into the tiny lot of the music school, there was a great big truck in the middle, blocking everyone from getting around. It's a one-way driveway around, so it was keeping people from leaving at the end of the previous class, and it was completely blocking off all three disabled spots. I stuck my head out the window and shouted in case there was a driver there to hear me. There wasn't but another parent with a kid in the same class as Peo recognized me and knew about my walking problem, so she went and got the school's director. Long story short, the director took care of the problem, I was able to park, I spoke politely but firmly about the rights of the disabled versus the convenience of the production company doing the loading into the truck, and the director agreed and was apologetic. So today when I got there, two of the three disabled spots were taken, which was unusual. There was an SUV with a disabled plate and I've seen that before, but there was also a sedan without a disabled plate. As I parked I noticed it didn't have a hanging placard up either, and there was a woman sitting in there reading. I figured she's probably come to pick up her kid and figures she'll "only be there a few minutes" and therefore it's okay. As I got Peo out of our car, a man came up to the sedan with a wheeled table-trolley thing and started unloading things out of the sedan's trunk. I asked them if they had a disabled parking pass. The man said, "No, but I work here." I said, "Well that doesn't matter. It's not an unloading spot, it's a disabled spot." The woman opened the car door and said, "Oh, it's okay, I totally understand because my mom is an amputee. We're just here for a few minutes." I said, "Well then you should know that the spot is reserved for actual disabled people, not for unloading." She showed me that her foot was in a brace and said, "Oh believe me, I really do understand." I said, "Okay, then hang your disabled pass so there's no confusion." She said, "Well I don't have one." I said, "Then you can't park there." The guy repeated that he worked there and was just unloading some stuff for a few minutes. I sighed and said, "You have until I get into the lobby where I can sit down and get my cell phone out. Then I'm calling the police." Then the guy started getting uppity and telling me more about his right to be there, so I said over him, "Look, I'm getting really sick of constantly having to battle assholes who think they have the right to use these spots when they don't!" He flips out with, "WHOA WHOA WHOA! You can't talk like that!" I said, "Sure I can!" He points to Peo and says, "Not in front of her you can't!" I said, "I can swear in front of my own kid if I want to, and besides, she's smart enough to know that you're not supposed to be parking here!" Peo said in a very calm and eerily neutral tone, "Yeah." I repeated my warning about calling the police and started heading for the lobby. The guy said something else about working there so I shouted back, "Well then I'll go talk to your boss about it." As we were approaching the lobby, Peo said, "They're really really wrong. They can't park there." I told her she was right. Then she said, "That's bad behaviour. They're doing bad behaviour. That's not nice." I agreed again. As I went into the lobby, I could hear them peeling out of the lot fast enough to scatter gravel. Nice, given the number of kids in that lot at any given time! So I went right up to the desk and as soon as I started ranting about it, the director came out. We had a lengthy conversation about it including identifying the employee involved. She was extremely apologetic and understanding, even offering at one point to reimburse us the entire cost of Peo's class either for the one that's almost done or the one I've already signed her up for in January. I said I appreciated that but didn't want any money, that we had actually separately donated more than the cost of a class so that others without money could ensure their kids got to go to classes as well (because the school has a sliding scale for those who qualify). Of course, as soon as she realized I was donating beyond the class cost the apologies got bigger and more emphatic, which wasn't what I was after but now that I think about it, when I was doing non-profit work I'd have worried more about pleasing a donor too. Anyway, I said the point wasn't that I was personally inconvenienced either time, that my placard only has a month left on it so for the January class, I'll be parking in the back lot and walking around the long way as I did before my surgery. I reiterated what I'd said the previous week about it being less of an issue for me with a cane than for someone permanently in a wheelchair (last week I mentioned how I could cross the grass now to avoid the furniture being loaded on the truck, but that a month before I could not have walked on grass with just the cane). I said it was about wider disabled rights and ADA requirements, and that the staff need better education on why these are important issues of barriers and access. I said someone with a wheelchair doesn't have the option to step around stuff in the way or park in the unpaved back lot. She agreed and apologized more and promised to take care of it. So I took Peo back over to the kid area, read her part of a story, then took her to her class. When I came back into the lobby to knit and wait during her class, I saw the director's door closed, but through the window I could see the jerk employee standing in a shoulder-slumped kind of way in front of her desk, so I'm sure he was getting told. I must say, while I'd find it annoying if anyone did this sort of thing and I'm glad the employee got told off, the excuses of having an amputee mother and a foot brace really pissed me off more than anything else. It's like those people who think it's okay to say something racist because they've got a black friend. If you or someone you know is in the same situation, shouldn't you know BETTER? I had a leg brace much bigger than that woman's, and that whole time I parked in the back lot because I didn't have a disabled pass and therefore had no right to be parked in a disabled spot. Plus, her amputee mother was clearly not there, so even if she had a placard for her mother (which apparently she did not or I'm sure she would have whipped it out), she still had no right to be in that spot today. Even if her mother WAS there, if the mother doesn't have a plate or placard, then she too has no right to park in the spot. That's like saying that because someone turns 16 and could have a driver's license, it's okay for them to drive without one. Nope! It doesn't matter what your condition is or the condition of your passengers: you either have a pass or you don't, and if you don't, either get one or don't park in the disabled spot. It's usually free or very cheap to do it; in Austin it's free if you're permanently disabled, $5 for six months if you're temporarily disabled. So anyone who can afford to put gas in a car here can bloody well afford to get the pass. I'm also amused/irritated that apparently it's a much bigger crime to swear in front of my own kid than it is to actually break the law. Sheesh. Also, for a supposedly liberal town, Austin is far and away the worst city in which I've ever lived in terms of this attitude towards disabled parking. I'm increasingly appalled at the total lack of shame. It's pathetic that people in Las Vegas - a town whose slogan emphasizes a lack of personal responsibility - had far, far, far fewer people violating those reserved spaces than Austin. And for the record, over the last week or so I've been using them less myself at places like the library or other short-walk situations where there are wide spots where I'm unlikely to be boxed in. If I don't have the need, I don't use it despite having the legal right to do so. No more excuses, please. | ||||||
| comments: 5 comments or Leave a comment |
November 3rd, 2009
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| Consumer Reports' blog has now posted supplemental information to the December issue's article about BPA in canned foods: Testing for BPA: Concern over canned foods So a manufacturer who wants to go BPA-free has a hell of a time finding cans without it and gets legal run-arounds. Wow, what are we piddly little consumers supposed to do? *sigh* | ||||||
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November 1st, 2009
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| *whimper* After all of that hassle trying to get BPA banned from baby bottles, now I read in Consumer Reports that it's in the epoxy that lines most food cans too. As in, almost all canned food, sometimes in really high doses. It looks like this news started coming out shortly before my surgery and then some afterwards, all while I was too busy to notice. The article is in the December 2009 issue of CR. There's also gobs of info here: http://www.ewg.org/reports/bispheno It looks like there's legislation pending (http://markey.house.gov/index.php?opti The industry is running around screaming, of course, and doctoring up some studies to say it really is safe, really really, and please don't look at the studies in Japan where voluntary elimination of BPA in food containers almost a decade ago have reduced exposure significantly, no no no, don't look at that at all, instead look at our bogus studies that try to make it sound like the birth control pill is more dangerous and please continue to overlook the fact that nobody is feeding birth control pills to children but they are feeding canned foods to children... Gah. I want to write to the couple of companies left from which I actually buy canned foods (I wish there was a healthier, organic version of Campbell's cream of mushroom soup that tasted as good, but there isn't, and don't bother telling me about another brand because I've tried lots and nobody else comes close to that taste, not even Campbell's supposedly healthier versions) and tell them off about the BPA. I want to write to my elected representatives. But the nature of this sort of thing is that those who will pay attention to me already agree with me and are working to get it out, and those who disagree with me won't listen. Plus, I'm really exhausted right now and damn it, I shouldn't HAVE to go on letter-writing campaigns all the time to get poison out of the food supply! *more whimpering* At least a bunch of informed scientists are hassling the government for me. Thank you to them. And some states have started banning it in baby bottles/cups. Canada has already banned it as well, I believe. Makes me homesick for sensibility, yet again. | ||||||
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October 27th, 2009
October 14th, 2009
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| Holy crap. Tapwater Catches Fire After Gas Drillers Move In | ||||||
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October 7th, 2009
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| Dave Carrol of "United Breaks Guitars" fame has a great new song about how the cable industry hurts local programming in Canada: He's my new favourite activist singer! | ||||||
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September 28th, 2009
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| Time to post some articles about food I've had sitting in tabs forever... Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food - If you haven't read Michael Pollan's stuff, this is a good summary of the problem with artificially cheap food. Yes, I do get that not everyone can afford the organic/pastured stuff, although I do know lots of people who choose to spend money on things like high-cost cell phone plans and top-tier cable packages instead of better quality food. Not everyone has a choice (some areas don't even have pastured meat available), but more people have more of a choice than many would like to admit. If you choose HBO over organic apples, that's totally up to you, but please don't include yourself with the "I can't afford it" crowd because there are people out there who are highly frugal and still truly can't afford organic/pastured. For the record, Corran and I aren't purists on this stuff. We still do the occasional convenience/processed food when we could do scratch for the same sort of thing. But yeah, some nights, it's easier to pop a couple of Marie Callendar's frozen chicken pot pies in the oven (which is what we're doing tonight) than to get all-organic, all-pastured ingredients and make from scratch. The scratch one would be healthier and taste better but cost several times as much in money and time. We're realistic about it. It's just that when there's a choice to use the better stuff when we are doing real cooking, we've been trying to make that choice as often as possible (given that it's not like the regular grocery store even carries pastured meat). If everyone made a small effort, everyone would discover that the real stuff tastes better and sales would increase so the price would fall and availability would increase, creating a feedback loop for positive change. Those of us who can afford it need to help pave the way now so one day everyone else can too. It's not right that a poor mom can make food stamps go further with junk food than organic produce. Highlights from the article:
Consumers Devouring Nutrient-Spiked Foods - This one is about not falling for the bogus health claims all over food packaging these days. Chocolate bars will not cure your heart disease. Breakfast cereal is not going to make your kid athletic. We like Pollan's edict (from his book, not this article) that the more a processed food shouts about its health benefits, the more you should be skeptical because it's covering up for all of its unhealthy ingredients...and fruit and veg don't need to make those bogus claims for obvious reasons.
Read the labels, folks. "Whole grain" on the front might just mean a sprinkling of oats on top of something that's otherwise highly processed white flour and lots of sugar. Check for levels of bad fats, sodium (a big one in processed foods), and specific nasty ingredients like high fructose corn syrup, MSG, etc. Also, be aware that a sneaky trick used to hide the amount of sugar (especially in cereals, because they know mothers read the ingredients there) is to use several kinds of sugar so they're all further down the list, since ingredient lists are by highest amount first. So don't be fooled and think that a breakfast cereal isn't too sugary because flour or oats is the first ingredient; check for sugar, sucrose, dextrose, corn syrup, high-fructose corn syrup, and other sugar names. If it's got several, they're deliberately hiding the sugar content from you. Make your choice an informed one, so at least if you decide you're really craving that sugar cereal, you know what you're eating. After all of that unpleasant news, here's a pick-me-up that's totally unhealthy but fun: How to make cake and cookies look like a hamburger and fries meal - Yeah, I see the HFCS-and-other-ickies-laden foods there, which totally conflicts with what I've posted above, but here's the thing: if everyone only had this kind of processed stuff once a month or less, it wouldn't be a problem. So the next time you want to have a box mix, turn it into a super-cool and special activity you can do with your kids* instead of an every-night calorie binge. * For those who say they or their kids can't do fun/artistic stuff like this with food, PAH-LEEZE, Peo decorated her first cake before she was 3 and entered her first cake show shortly after. Yeah, each was a big sticky mess and far from sculpturally accurate, but that's not the point. She had fun. She valued that time with me and I with her. She learned stuff about cooking and construction. That's pretty big value for the investment of time and cleaning, and you get cake out of it, which tastes good even if the icing is lumpy. | ||||||
| comments: 11 comments or Leave a comment |
September 20th, 2009
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| Source on Daily Kos, which includes a PDF version for handy printing. The Teabagger Socialist-Free Purity Pledge by Laura Clawson I, ________________________, do solemnly swear to uphold the principles of a socialism-free society and heretofore pledge my word that I shall strictly adhere to the following: I will complain about the destruction of 1st Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 1st Amendment Rights. I will complain about the destruction of my 2nd Amendment Rights in this country, while I am duly being allowed to exercise my 2nd Amendment rights by legally but brazenly brandishing unconcealed firearms in public. I will foreswear the time-honored principles of fairness, decency, and respect by screaming unintelligible platitudes regarding tyranny, Nazi-ism, and socialism at public town halls. Also. I pledge to eliminate all government intervention in my life. I will abstain from the use of and participation in any socialist goods and services including but not limited to the following: * Social Security * Medicare/Medicaid * State Children’s Health Insurance Programs (SCHIP) * Police, Fire, and Emergency Services * US Postal Service * Roads and Highways * Air Travel (regulated by the socialist FAA) * The US Railway System * Public Subways and Metro Systems * Public Bus and Lightrail Systems * Rest Areas on Highways * Sidewalks * All Government-Funded Local/State Projects (e.g., see Iowa 2009 federal senate appropriations) * Public Water and Sewer Services (goodbye socialist toilet, shower, dishwasher, kitchen sink, outdoor hose!) * Public and State Universities and Colleges * Public Primary and Secondary Schools * Sesame Street * Publicly Funded Anti-Drug Use Education for Children * Public Museums * Libraries * Public Parks and Beaches * State and National Parks * Public Zoos * Unemployment Insurance * Municipal Garbage and Recycling Services * Treatment at Any Hospital or Clinic That Ever Received Funding From Local, State or Federal Government (pretty much all of them) * Medical Services and Medications That Were Created or Derived From Any Government Grant or Research Funding (again, pretty much all of them) * Socialist Byproducts of Government Investment Such as Duct Tape and Velcro (Nazi-NASA Inventions) * Use of the Internets, email, and networked computers, as the DoD's ARPANET was the basis for subsequent computer networking * Foodstuffs, Meats, Produce and Crops That Were Grown With, Fed With, Raised With or That Contain Inputs From Crops Grown With Government Subsidies * Clothing Made from Crops (e.g. cotton) That Were Grown With or That Contain Inputs From Government Subsidies If a veteran of the government-run socialist US military, I will forego my VA benefits and insist on paying for my own medical care I will not tour socialist government buildings like the Capitol in Washington, D.C. I pledge to never take myself, my family, or my children on a tour of the following types of socialist locations, including but not limited to: * Smithsonian Museums such as the Air and Space Museum or Museum of American History * The socialist Washington, Lincoln, and Jefferson Monuments * The government-operated Statue of Liberty * The Grand Canyon * The socialist World War II and Vietnam Veterans Memorials * The government-run socialist-propaganda location known as Arlington National Cemetery * All other public-funded socialist sites, whether it be in my state or in Washington, DC I will urge my Member of Congress and Senators to forego their government salary and government-provided healthcare. I will oppose and condemn the government-funded and therefore socialist military of the United States of America. I will boycott the products of socialist defense contractors such as GE, Lockheed-Martin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, General Dynamics, Raytheon, Humana, FedEx, General Motors, Honeywell, and hundreds of others that are paid by our socialist government to produce goods for our socialist army. I will protest socialist security departments such as the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, Department of Homeland Security, TSA, Department of Justice and their socialist employees. Upon reaching eligible retirement age, I will tear up my socialist Social Security checks. Upon reaching age 65, I will forego Medicare and pay for my own private health insurance until I die. SWORN ON A BIBLE AND SIGNED THIS DAY OF __________ IN THE YEAR ___. _____________ _________________________ Signed Printed Name/Town and State | ||||||
| comments: 1 comment or Leave a comment |
September 14th, 2009
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| I've been meaning to say for awhile now that Corran and I each read Michael Pollan's "The Omnivore's Dilemma" and "In Defense of Food" and highly recommend both. I could go on forever as to why, but the summed up version is this: agribusiness combined with government subsidies ensure that the unhealthiest food is the cheapest and easiest, and if you want to be healthy you need to get off of the idea of dieting by the nutrient and instead return to more basic, whole, unprocessed, unmaligned food. And that's not just eating more fruit and veg, which is obvious...it's doing things like switching to grass-fed beef (cows weren't made to eat corn, it makes them sick, which is why they need to be jammed up with meds, and the result of all that gastronomic abuse is corn-fed meat has higher saturated fat and less healthy fats like Omega 3), organic products, etc. See http://eatwild.com/ for where to buy pastured meats near you in the US. Anyway, I could go on, and I have several good articles sitting in tabs I've been meaning to post (and will eventually) but for now I wanted to link to a new editorial by Pollan in the New York Times that has several interesting things to say about how health care reform is currently ignoring the food problem but how it might force change in the future: Big Food vs. Big Insurance Seriously, go read the books. They're available at the Austin Library and probably any other library as well. And then go find a source of pastured chicken near you and do a taste test against regular chicken. You'll be AMAZED. The pastured stuff tastes like uber-yummy-chicken and the regular stuff tastes blank by comparison. It's absolutely worth the extra cost unless you are literally unable to pay for basic food. | ||||||
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August 30th, 2009
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| Attention parents: it's time to boycott Mattel. Mattel, Primary Reason For Toy Safety Law, Gets Exempted From It - "...the government has secretly exempted Mattel from the law's testing requirements—even though Mattel was responsible for 6 lead-tainted toy recalls in 2007." Not that we buy a lot of first-hand toys for Peo anyway, but as far as I'm concerned, we're in full boycott mode until Mattel starts playing nicely with others. This means: 1) We will not buy any Mattel or subsidiary products for Peo for her birthday or Christmas or any other occasion. 2) We are asking that anyone likely to buy Peo a toy (keeping in mind that her birthday party this year will be gift-optional, mostly because we'd like to stay with no gifts but we realize that older kids enjoy giving to their friends, so we're encouraging kid-made gifts but leaving it optional for busy parents) to please not buy any Mattel or subsidiary product. Which is even easier if you go with the kid-made gift option anyway. Or books. Peo likes books. That's an easy way to avoid it. Mattel's subsidiaries (from http://www.coopamerica.org/programs/res - American Girl LLC. (Subsidiary) - Middleton, WI - American Girl Place Inc. - Chicago, IL - Ensueno-Tyco (Mexico) S.A. de C.V. - Mexico, Mexico - Ensueno-Tyco (Mexico) S.A. de C.V. - Mexico, Mexico - Fisher-Price, Inc. - East Aurora, NY - Mattel (Malaysia) SDN. BHD. - Prai, Malaysia - Mattel (UK) Ltd. - Maidenhead, United Kingdom - Mattel Asia Ltd. - North Point, China (Hong Kong) - Mattel Australia Pty. Ltd. - Richmond, Australia - Mattel Australia Pty.Ltd. - Richmond, Australia - Mattel B.V. (Netherlands) - Amstelveen, Netherlands - Mattel Canada, Inc. - Mississauga, Canada - Mattel Chile S.A. - Santiago, Chile - Mattel de Mexico - Mexico, Mexico - Mattel Espana, S.A. - Barcelona, Spain - Mattel France S A S - Rungis, France - Mattel Games/Puzzles - El Segundo, CA - Mattel GmbH - Dreieich, Germany - Mattel GmbH - Wiener Neudorf, Austria - Mattel Holding, Inc. - El Segundo, CA - Mattel Overseas, Inc. - El Segundo, CA - Mattel Pty. Ltd. - Richmond, Australia - Mattel S.R.L. - Novara, Italy - Mattel Suisse AG - Bern, Switzerland - Mattel Toy Company Ltd. - Shau Kei Wan, China (Hong Kong) - Mattel Toys (H.K.) Ltd. - Shau Kei Wan, China (Hong Kong) - Mattel Toys Limited (New Zealand) - Auckland, New Zealand - Precision Moulds, Ltd. - Kowloon, China (Hong Kong) - Tyco Investment Corp. - Wilmington, DE - Tyco Playtime Inc. - New York, NY | ||||||
| comments: 10 comments or Leave a comment |
August 25th, 2009
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| Water Bottles Marketed To BPA-Fearing Parents Contained BPA All Along Fun. In related news, someone posted this video in the comments about plastic pollution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnUjTHB1 The music and text unfortunately give it a bit of a soppy feel, but "The Garbage Patch", as it's known, is a real and scary issue. I've posted about it before but I'm too lazy/tired/busy to go find the posts...but if you want to see how scary it is, do a Google image search on "The Garbage Patch". There are a couple of nicely scary photos and some more info on this blog post. I knew about the pellets but the nurdles term is new to me and would be a funny word if they weren't such a huge problem. | ||||||
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August 19th, 2009
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| There's a second installation in the United Breaks Guitars saga: Here's the first song, which I like best: Also...Dave Carroll Says No To Guitar Hush Money From United (includes link to video and a transcript) Looking forward to the promised third song! | ||||||
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August 5th, 2009
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| Petland Employees Drowned Rabbits, Posted Photos on Facebook Above link is to Consumerist coverage, which has a link to the nasty photos but does not show them. They strongly recommend NOT looking at the photos. I have not looked. But it's another good reason not to shop at Petland. The other reason, as linked in the story, is they use puppy mills. | ||||||
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July 24th, 2009
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| IKEA Sends Mother And Infant To Bathroom To Breastfeed What I just sent to IKEA via their US email form: I have just read that a woman at your Brooklyn store was banished to the washroom and otherwise harassed for breastfeeding: http://gothamist.com/2009/07/23/breastf I expect IKEA to be more sensible than this. As a store that seems otherwise to welcome families, having an employee treat a breastfeeding mother like this is quite damaging to your brand. It's also flat-out illegal in NY and in most other states. IKEA now has the opportunity to distance itself from this negative press by stepping forward and making clear, nation-wide announcements in support of breastfeeding moms. If IKEA does not do this, IKEA will look complacent in the illegal mistreatment of that mother and cause lactivist marches around the country in front of your stores. Such events are probably already being planned in some areas. We were all pretty quick to protest outside of Victoria's Secret and Applebee's in recent years when they had similar incidents. I strongly suggest you make a loud public announcement in support of breastfeeding. We're long-time customers, having had our entire kitchen redone through IKEA five months ago and about 90% of our furniture from your store; I would hate to have to boycott your store on the basis of being breastfeeding-unfriendly. | ||||||
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May 1st, 2009
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| When TWC released its first quarter financial results this week the hard numbers completely contradicted the company’s argument that it was being forced to go to a metered broadband model. In fact, the numbers showed that TWC was doing very, very well by every measure under its current, all-you-can-eat pricing structure. This is me not surprised. | ||||||
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April 30th, 2009
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| Infodump time again. I know that some of this stuff is probably already old news. Oh well, I share what I can when I can... Consumer Info/Activism Stop the Cap! Fight Back Against Usage Caps for Cable, DSL, and Fiber Optic Broadband - A blog tracking protesting activity against Time Warner and other cable companies who want to impose pay-by-the-byte style Internet access. If you live in North Carolina, PAY ATTENTION TO THIS (and anybody else interested in broadband access rights should as well): Save NC Broadband.com - A city in NC has a government-run broadband service (it still costs money (as opposed to being taxpayer-funded_, but is run more like a regulated utility) that's working quite nicely for subscribers, but Time Warner Cable is claiming they can't compete against it and is trying to force the state legislature to ban such services. There's a bill up for vote on May 6, so residents should be calling their elected representatives for support. Costco offer would fix hot fuel - If you didn't already know, temperature affects how much gas you get for your dollar. Fuel pumps are averaged, so if you buy gas when it's hot out, you get less than if you bought it when it was cold. Costco is going to change its pumps and its purchasing habits to stop this so consumers no longer bear the brunt of this. They're breaking away from other retailers and the oil industry to do this. Yay Costco! Going Against the Trend, Nevada Lawmakers Consider Easing the State’s Ban on Smoking - Soooooooo glad we moved out. This is just stupid. Of course revenues are down, you morons...it's a frickin' recession/depression out there! DUH! Here's What A Card Skimmer Looks Like On An ATM - Keep an eye out for these kinds of devices! Art/Craft/Entertainment Thanks to ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} kbpenguin for sending me this amusing link:Periodic Table of Knitting A clever YouTube video showing how Disney has reused templates over the years. Some people seem to be offended by this, but I think it's actually quite smart re-usage of old stuff in order to save time and production costs. Unless you've been living under a rock, this one's probably old news, but I'm posting it anyway because I actually cried when I first saw it: Susan Boyle - Singer - Britains Got Talent 2009 - I don't watch these kinds of shows because I loathe their revelation in misery and mockery. And sure enough, this woman - a perfectly lovely woman but not the kind of beauty the media wants us to love - gets mocked when she comes on stage, especially when she gives a little sexy hip-shake that would have been considered hot if she was underweight and younger. But when she sings, everyone who mocked her is rightfully put in their places. That's by far the best version of that song I've ever heard. I actually skip the version on my Broadway Les Miz album because I find the professional singer's voice irritating on some of the notes. I'd gladly buy a copy of Susan Boyle's version and insert it into my Les Miz playlist instead! Better still: I've read that she's been inundated with offers from cosmetic companies to do a makeover and she keeps saying no, as well she should, because there's nothing wrong with how she looks! Go Susan go! Science/Technology/Environment Zoombak Tracks Your Dog, Your Car, Even Your Children - I'm personally a little too antsy about the potential abuses of GPS tracking of individuals to ever want any kind of device on me or my loved ones all the time, but as a geek I'm interested in the technological aspects of this product, not to mention the fictional posibilities (let's just say that more than two years ago I had already planned political issues with this kind of technology about halfway through the Colony books). This is Your Brain on Facebook - interesting article about scientific examinations of brain plasticity related to Internet usage. How Green Is My Bottle? - Interesting article that lays out just how eco-friendly or not a reusable bottle can be. I do find it funny how people will jump on any eco-bandwagon these days without considering overall impact, and those type of people will frequently keep consuming anything with an eco-label well beyond their needs, thereby actually making things worse. As in, if you're buying a new metal water cup every few months to suit style changes or just because you love to shop, you are NOT saving the planet! Why Isn’t the Brain Green? - Examining why people rank environmental concerns so low on their lists of important issues. A reeeeeeeeeally long article. I haven't finished it myself yet, mostly because it's been hard to focus on it while on cold/flu medication. Study: Spammers scourge to inbox and environment - Guess that eliminates the argument that spam is eco-friendly because it doesn't waste paper. The Promise of a Better Light Bulb? - I'd consider buying one, if I could see it on in person to check it out. Astronomers Find Planet Closer to Size of Earth - Nifty. G.E.’s Breakthrough Can Put 100 DVDs on a Disc - So this means I can keep taking huge gobs of pics/vids of Peo, right? Parenting/Home Life/Food Scratch That: How cost-effective is it to make homemade pantry staples? - A really cool article about one woman's explorations of whether it's better to make or buy some foods. I love this. I don't generally read blogs out of lack of time but I'm bookmarking her blog in case she does any more experiments. Another Awkward Sex Talk: Respect and Violence - interesting article about raising kids in terms of gender-manners. Dark Sugar: The decline and fall of high-fructose corn syrup. - One can only hope. And it's not the same for anyone with diabetes or PCOS or any other health problem that super-stores fructose. Misc/Fun/Weird This Discount Store Enjoys Messing With Its Customers' Minds - warning: disengage mental logic circuits before looking. Bacon: the Other White Heat: You know bacon is delicious, but did you know it contains enough energy to melt metal? - Awesome. :D Ten Mistakes Writers Don’t See (But Can Easily Fix When They Do) - This is a good list. I'm guilty of a couple of them but I know I'm very good about most of the rest (I'm talking about my professional writing...no fair critiquing my informal blog posts, dig?). More writer-wannabes should read this. Most of the painful amateur prose I've had the misfortune to read suffered from all of these problems. | ||||||
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April 12th, 2009
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| Update: there are now stories around that a hacker is taking credit for this. There are counter-stories that no he didn't, he's just trying to get attention (which is why I'm not posting his info here). I don't know if he did or didn't, but even if he did, Amazon retains some level of culpability in allowing itself to be used like this, especially since the reviews and ratings system has been under fire for years for abuses. I've just sent this email to Amazon, based on what I've seen around various blogs and news articles today: ************* According to this LA Times blog article: http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/jacketc and elsewhere I've read online today, Amazon has possibly been engaging in anti-gay measures in terms of how it lists books with potential gay content, be that content direct or indirect. As a long-time customer, affiliate, reviewer, and listed author, I must tell you that I'm utterly horrified at the idea that you'd relegate any book, regardless of its content, to the digital equivalent of a hidden room in the store. I'm not gay, I usually do not buy gay books or any adult literature, but if I should want to, I would hate to think that I wouldn't be able to get as much information about such books as I could about any other subject matter. Furthermore, as a gay rights supporter, I am greatly concerned about the possible bigotry behind such a move. My extended family, in-laws, and close friends have spent thousands of dollars with your store over the years. You would be foolish to risk us all as customers over something so petty. Error or not, I expect this matter to be rectified immediately. Thank you. ************** I strongly urge other Amazon customers concerned with censorship of any kind to email them as well. Today it's any book having to do with anything homosexual, tomorrow it could be anything that criticizes a religion or any other hot-button issue. | ||||||
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Blatherings
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