Posts from — June 2007

A singular voice has been lost. Whether it was journalism, politics, military history, food, the Mets, or soccer – Steve went all out.

My deepest condolences to his friends and family.

Once again, the FDA waits until Friday to tells us the latest: FDA Advises Consumers to Avoid Toothpaste From China Containing Harmful Chemical

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today warned consumers to avoid using tubes of toothpaste labeled as made in China, and issued an import alert to prevent toothpaste containing the poisonous chemical diethylene glycol (DEG) from entering the United States.

DEG is used in antifreeze and as a solvent.

Consumers should examine toothpaste products for labeling that says the product is made in China. Out of an abundance of caution, FDA suggests that consumers throw away toothpaste with that labeling. FDA is concerned that these products may contain “diethylene glycol,” also known as “diglycol” or “diglycol stearate.”

[Read more →]

Xan of Corrente has a truly bizarre find, the Shrubbery’s agitprop corps thinks that his plunging poll numbers are because the MSM isn’t getting out the White House message. As Price Floyd, the retired PR head of the State Department points out, when what you say doesn’t match what you do, people stop listening.

In the real world, people compare what is said with reality, and most people accept reality. The 30% who refuse to accept reality, are the only people listening anymore, and it doesn’t make any difference what medium is used for the propaganda.

And if thou say in thine heart, How shall we know the word which the LORD hath not spoken?

When a prophet speaketh in the name of the LORD, if the thing follow not, nor come to pass, that is the thing which the LORD hath not spoken, but the prophet hath spoken it presumptuously: thou shalt not be afraid of him.

Deuteronomy 18:21-22 (King James Version)

Rook asks the question: Why Should We Listen To Them?

As I see it, we need some old time baseball play-by-play announcers to provide the individual statistics for the pundits. You know – “Coming to the mike is Ralph Smerdly. Smerdly hasn’t been right in 239 appearances, but the producers think he’s due.”

The same people keep writing op-ed pieces and appearing on the news shows, but the editors and producers aren’t telling their audience anything about these “experts.” If you are really an “expert” shouldn’t you have some successes to show for it? Shouldn’t you have a list of your “greatest hits”?

If your last accurate prediction was that Dick Nixon was a crook, why are you still on the air or editorial page giving opinions? Why don’t we get some people who are right, and not simply on the Right?

It looks like Tropical Storm Barry will stay a tropical storm until it makes landfall in Florida’s “armpit” and then continue though Georgia and the coastal Carolinas.

It should help with the many fires that are burning in the region and bring some rain for farmers who have been dealing with a drought.

Dr. Jeff Masters was caught off guard by Barry because it formed despite 20 knot wind shear.

The BBC has an article on the music you buy from iTunes. According to the article:

News site Ars Technica was among the first to discover that downloaded tracks free of Fairplay have embedded within them the full name and account information, including e-mail address, of who bought them.

Here’s the Ars Technica post: Apple hides account info in DRM-free music, too.

I guess they just can’t get over tracking all of that Tween file sharing. On the fortieth anniversary of the release of Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band I have some advice for the music industry – good music sells a lot of copies. There is a lot of good music out, why not try selling it, instead of the dreck you are pushing?

Nap Time

Zzz…Slrp…Zzz?

[Editor: While weaning has started, Income is a backslider, preferring Mom to kibble.]

Friday Ark

This is the first day of the 2007 Hurricane Season.

Jeff Masters has the forecast outlooks, which aren’t very nice.

The first name for the season was Andrea, with Barry the next name on the roster.

Now we can wait for the official end of the season on December 1^st.

[Read more →]