Posts from — July 2009

Surprised Reprise

Why am I here?!

[Editor: Because of issues at my host, here’s Surprised Cat again. She has the annoying habit of only showing up in the evening when the light is bad, and you need good light and small pupils to appreciate her expression.]

Friday Ark

Steve Bates can’t post to his site and I’m not sure of FCB because of problems at our mutual host. The sites are visible and I can update mine through WordPress, but we are blocked from using FTP to enable the host to rebuild a problem server.

Hopefully this will be resolved soon, but comments are working at Steve’s place, so you can harass him.

From the official site, here are the results of stage 6:

After yesterday’s sleeper people started making some moves in the Spanish leg with Thor Hushovd (NOR/Cervelo) [27 overall at +2 min 59 secs] taking it at the very end. The climbing is beginning to alter the field, and the serious climbs start tomorrow.

Overall standings

1. Fabian Cancellara (CH/Saxo Bank) 19 hours 29 minutes 22 seconds [yellow jersey]
2. Lance Armstrong (US/Astana) same time
3. Alberto Contador (E/Astana) +19 secs
4. Andréas Klöden (D/Astana) +23 secs
5. Levi Leipheimer (US/Astana) +31 secs
6. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) +38 secs
7. Tony Martin (D/Team Columbia) +52 secs [white jersey]
8. Christian Vande Velde (US/Garmin) +1 min 16 secs
9. Gustav Larsson (S/Saxo Bank) +1 min 22 secs
10. Maxime Monfort (B/Team Columbia) +1 min 29 secs

20. David Millar (GB/Garmin) +2 min 28 secs [red number] His aggressiveness cost him 10 places as the final climb was too much.

38. Mark Cavendish (GB/Team Columbia) +3 minutes 33 secs [green jersey]

141. Stéphane Auge (FRA/Cofidis) +11 min 35 secs [polka dot jersey]

I missed 31. Rigoberto Uran (COL/Caisse) +3 min 12 secs when I was mentioning the nations involved.

Via Paul Krugman, the breakout of who pays for health care: government – 46%, insurance companies – 35%, and other sources the remaining 19%.

The other sources are the out-of-pocket payments people make, and the money from various private groups to pay for health care, i.e. charities and the change jars, bake sales, etc. to help people cover the costs.

The goal of all of the sound and fury in DC is supposed to be about everyone getting health care, but all they are talking about is health insurance. Unless you have been living in a cave somewhere, you know that having insurance is no guarantee of getting health care. Three-quarters of the people in this country who are filing for bankruptcy because of medical bills have insurance, but it didn’t pay for the health care they needed. Get a clue DC – you don’t pay for health insurance to receive another card for your wallet, you want health care. If the insurance doesn’t provide the health care you need, the money you paid was thrown away.

Stop wasting tax dollars talking about insurance, and start addressing the real issue: HEALTH CARE!

My host is doing some emergency maintenance and the site may be flaky while this happens. They have been cleaning up a problem related to some configuration issues with the data base servers, so periodic problems may occur.

They should have taken a bus and not bothered. OK, here’s the “exciting” news from the official site:

Thomas Voeckler of France won the stage which propelled him from 144 to 138 in the standings. There was no change for any of the 137 people in front of him in the overall standings, and no changes in jerseys.

Mikhail Ignatiev of Russia has won the right to wear the red numbers of the most combative rider. He is currently 39^th.

That’s it. It was windy and no one wanted a repeat of the problem on stage 3 where there was a break away in the wind, so Voeckler scored a stage win for France.

The BBC reports on an actual job opening: The witch job that earns £50,000

A Job Centre is advertising a “witch” vacancy with tourist site Wookey Hole, in Somerset, for £50,000 a year.

The witch, who has to live in the site’s caves, is expected to teach witchcraft and magic.

Wookey Hole staff say the role is straightforward: live in the cave, be a witch and do the things witches do.

The advert for the post, placed in the local press as well as job centres, says applicants must be able to cackle and cannot be allergic to cats.

The job has come up after the previous witch retired from the role.

“We are witchless as the moment so need to get the role filled as soon as possible,” said Daniel Medley from the tourist destination.

The catch is the £50K is the annual salary and you don’t work all year, just the summer and a couple of holidays, so you’re really looking at a little more than a quarter of that as an actual salary. Sounds like a good second job for a teacher.

The BBC reports that the ethnic violence is ongoing in Western China: Hu leaves G8 amid Chinese rioting

Chinese President Hu Jintao has cut short a visit to Italy for the G8 summit amid ongoing unrest in Xinjiang.

Troops are on the streets after a curfew in Urumqi, Xinjiang’s provincial capital, where ethnic riots on Sunday left 156 people dead.

A BBC correspondent in Urumqi says the security forces are now mounting a show of force after fresh clashes on Tuesday between Muslim Uighurs and Han Chinese.

More than 1,400 people have been arrested over Sunday’s violence.

State news agency Xinhua said Mr Hu had flown back to Beijing early on Wednesday, leaving officials to represent China at the G8 talks in Rome.

A state visit to Portugal has also been cancelled, Xinhua said.
…

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So Digby has a revelation in Packaging that Charles Pierce might be on to something in his “Part The Third”.

I’ve been telling people it was Griswold since 2006, but they don’t listen. I grew up with these people and live among them. They really aren’t that hard to figure out. They have a severe level of sexual hang-ups which is why porn sells so well, prostitution flourishes, and divorce is epidemic. They never learned how to deal with it, as they were taught it was the road to hell.

BBC Results Team event

1. Fabian Cancellara (CH/Saxo Bank) 10 hours 38 minutes 07 seconds [yellow jersey]
2. Lance Armstrong (US/Astana) same time
3. Alberto Contador (E/Astana) +19 secs
4. Andréas Klöden (D/Astana) +23 secs
5. Levi Leipheimer (US/Astana) +31 secs
6. Bradley Wiggins (GB/Garmin) +38 secs
7. Haimar Zubeldia (E/Astana) +51 secs
8. Tony Martin (D/Team Columbia) +52 secs [white jersey]
9. David Zabriskie (US/Garmin) +1 min 06 secs
10. David Millar (GB/Garmin) +1 min 07 secs

Selected others:

35. Cadel Evans (Aus/Silence) +2 min 59 secs
60. Mark Cavendish (GB/Team Columbia) +3 min 33 secs [green jersey]
106. Jussi Veikkanen (Fin/La Française des Jeux) +4 min 56 secs [polka dot jersey]

Team Astana now wears the black on yellow numbers of the leading team

Contador will probably have the yellow tomorrow as the climbing starts. Cancellara is good on the flat.

Below the fold I have the lead riders for countries not represented in the top ten.

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The CBC reports: Microsoft warns of serious security flaw in browser

Microsoft has warned of a serious security flaw in its Internet Explorer browser that could allow hackers to access a user’s system remotely.

The security hole was found in an Active X video control player that is used in the browser on Windows XP or Windows Server 2003 systems. The company’s older Internet Explorer 6 and 7.0 are both affected.
…

Users are advised to deactivate the video ActiveX control until the fix is available.

Those who are using Windows Vista or Windows Server 2008 are not affected by the advisory, Microsoft said.

If you don’t want to or can’t afford a Mac or a switch to Linux, Firefox 3.5, Opera, and others are available. Internet Explorer and ActiveX are a security flaws, and always have been. That Microsoft is announcing this indicates that they haven’t found a fix, and people are exploiting the problem. Normally problems are announced after patches have been shipped.

July 7^th, 2005, London

BBC In Depth and the Wikipedia articles on the bombing.

I realize that what with Michael Jackson still being dead, Sarah Palin doing something the Village doesn’t understand, and a wealthy faux cowboy complaining about being fired, the plate is pretty full, but the Chinese government is arresting, beating up, and killing its citizens again.

The BBC reports that Angry Uighurs defy Chinese police

New protests have flared in Urumqi, two days after 156 people died and 800 were injured in the western Chinese city.

At least 200 Uighurs faced off against police in Urumqi on Tuesday following news that 1,434 people were arrested in connection with Sunday’s riots.

Trouble also spread outside of Urumqi, capital of Xinjiang, with protests on Monday near a mosque in Kashgar.

Beijing blames ethnic Muslim Uighurs for the violence, but exiled Uighurs say police fired on students.
…

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon led the calls for restraint, a sentiment echoed by Britain and the US.

I doubt the UN will have an emergency session to complain about the Chinese government killing people. They do it so often that it has become accepted.

Have any of you guys read the Charter of the Organization of American States?

The reason I ask is that, being a glutton for punishment, I read it and saw:

Article 13

The political existence of the State is independent of recognition by other States. Even before being recognized, the State has the right to defend its integrity and independence, to provide for its preservation and prosperity, and consequently to organize itself as it sees fit, to legislate concerning its interests, to administer its services, and to determine the jurisdiction and competence of its courts. The exercise of these rights is limited only by the exercise of the rights of other States in accordance with international law.

This seems to be saying that a country gets to pass its own constitution, and have that constitution interpreted by its own courts, as long as it does not mess with other countries.

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