Posts from — November 2013

Remember, remember the fifth of November
Gunpowder, treason and plot.
I see no reason why gunpowder, treason
Should ever be forgot.

The British are celebrating the anniversary of the thwarting of the Gunpowder Plot.

A group of English Catholic conspirators including an explosives expert, Guy Fawkes, stashed 36 barrels of gunpowder in the basement of the Parliament building with the intent of blowing up the members of Parliament and King James I during the official opening of Parliament on November 5^th, 1605.

Bonfire Night is celebrated with bonfires and fireworks. Effigies of Guy Fawkes, and occasionally the Pope, are traditionally thrown on the fires. Effigies of modern politicians have made their appearances at the celebration.

As Robert Cecil was involved, I doubt anyone will ever know the truth about the plot.

I finally plugged the charger into the new phone after two weeks and it still had two of five bars left on the battery indicator. Now I’m going to have to leave myself reminders, because I will start forgetting to check it, at this rate.

This is the first battery powered device I have ever owned that actually exceeded its published stand-by duration.

The US media is firmly ignoring the 47 million people who just had their food budgets cut, while highlighting the fact that a small number of people might have to pay a little more than last year to receive a much better health insurance policy than they had.

Of course people in the media know someone who buys health insurance, but people who need food stamps aren’t part their circle of acquaintances, which makes them invisible.

Digby found a discussion on the 2012 income numbers which is as bad as I thought it would be, and confirms what people who are paying attention already know. The median wage was $27,519, which is $4 less than last year because of inflation, while the average wage is up to $42,498.

The median wage is the point at which half of workers make more, while the other half makes less. If the average wage increases and the median wage doesn’t, it means that all of the increase is going to the people at the top. Currently two-thirds of all workers make less than the average wage.

The median wage has dropped $980 since its peak in 2007, this is despite the fact that the Federal minimum wage has increased from $5.15/hour in July, 2007 to $7.25/hour in July, 2009. All of the money is going to the top.

So, we are on ‘Standard Time’ for only around 4 months of the year, and ‘Daylight Saving Time’ the other 8 months. Wouldn’t it make more sense to call the cold months ‘Dark Time’ and the rest of the year ‘Standard Time’?

The Congressional calendar for the House in 2013 was 126 days, but that was apparently too hard on the Republican Congresscritters, because the 2014 calendar only has them working 113 days.

We pay them $174K apiece, and cover the expenses of traveling to and from their districts, and they only have to work 113 days? They only passed 15 laws in 2013, and one of those was the continuing resolution. Hell, we require 60 days from the Florida legislature and only pay them about $30k apiece.

These are the people who think that teachers need performance reviews‽

If they want the job, they should do the job. Give them National holidays and two weeks of vacation, but only one tax-payer-paid round-trip ticket between their district and DC per year. The job is in Washington. If they want to campaign, they can use their vacation time.

PZ Myers hasn’t been engaging in the ACA web site debate, and then he found out about the Cover Oregon site.

He’s annoyed that they tell people that the ‘Submit’ button won’t work unless you are using IE. That also seems a hang-up with the main Federal site, it doesn’t seem to like anything but IE.

In comments someone noted that the site was probably using javascript that only worked with IE. That is very possible, as there are a lot of tools out there that generate code designed for IE and not verified on any of the other browsers. Such sites don’t comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act, which is a problem for government sites.

It was a long time before we were finally saved from the ‘BLINK’ text attribute by the HTML standards group, but some people refuse to let go and create sites that ‘sing and dance’ rather than providing you with the information you want, or allow you to fill out forms unaccompanied by back-up singers and a laser show.

Actually, I’m more annoyed by the media and Congressional reaction to problems with a web site, when compared to Defense Department disasters like the F-35 program. The problems of a web site that is a month or two behind schedule is a pittance compared to a program that cost hundreds of billions of dollars, that is constantly missing target dates, and keeps going up in price. With the rise of the drones, it isn’t even certain the things will ever be used.

How about some reasonable priorities for a change?

Daylight Savings Time ends in the US Sunday morning, November 3^rd at 2AM. It becomes 1AM and you get an extra hour of sleep, unless you work the “graveyard shift”.

Most devices make the change automatically, although many, like my clock radio, change under the old system and have to be ignored for a couple of weeks.

“Fall back – Spring ahead”

Steve Bates covers the latest absurdity from the wingnut judges on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in DC – businesses can have religions, and the government can’t make them act against their religion.

So, if the owner’s religion opposes blood transfusions [several religions do] you can exclude blood transfusions from your health insurance, and if the owner is a member of one of the religions that believe prayer is the only answer to health problems, the business is totally exempt from the law. If that isn’t how it works, then the Court ruled that Catholic doctrine is more important than the doctrine of other religions, and that view is blatantly unconstitutional.

Not that it is really important, but health insurance companies will usually either charge more for maternity coverage without contraceptive coverage, or refuse to cover maternity. From their point of view, contraceptives reduce the maternity costs.

In Australia the public broadcast company, ABC, actually commits journalism on a routine basis by fact checking the public statements of politicians and pundits.

Their latest Fact Check is on marriage:

The Prime Minister is known for his conservative stance on the issue, a position he recently said stems in part from his understanding of what marriage traditionally meant.

“From time immemorial, in every culture that’s been known, marriage or that kind of solemnised relationship has been between a man and a woman,” Mr Abbott said on October 25.

But have marriage, or marriage-like relationships, always followed that rule? The short answer is no.

The ABC went and talked to historians, classicists, sociologists, and anthropologists to find the answer. If you read the discussion you will begin to understand how narrow is the scope of history and culture held by many of the people in the First World.

This is not something we see happening in the US media.

Mini-Sox Rabbits

Go away!

[Editor: Mini-Sox has ventured out in daylight looking for some warmth.]

Friday Ark