MORNING
Here’s a link to an English lady on welfare. With 8 children, she collects something like $3,450 USD per month. Her supporters say she is a model for scrimping by on so little. Which is roughly half again more what working class Brit taxpayers make. Yes, all eight are from the same father, if you look closely, you can tell. At least, I can tell. In England, the father does not have to pay child support. You do. Over here, we call it "welfare". (I am not a true redneck, because I would never prevent those from helping who want to help. It's the compelling of others who don't want to that I oppose.)
What shocked me was not this blatant abuse, but that this was NOT in Canada, where the taxpayers are numbed to such events--they see it so often, they think it is proper. I thought it was in Canada, and read the article because it could potentially be be a criminal offense (in Canada) to complain against this shit (by publishing a critical article, which is considered "hate speach"). Then I saw it was in England. If you follow the link, read the comments. What a thing to become famous for, Marie. Disgusting, really. Not just her, but the entire mechanism that allows such exploitation to exist. She is obviously unfit to accept the role of a responsible parent.
And while I’m even looking at this manipulative skritch, remind me go through my go through my contact folder and delete all the dismal women I met on that expensive “professional” site. The one that advertises in science magazines. All women guaranteed to be college level or better, they claim. Not any college I ever went to, and if they were actually there, it must have been in one of the jerkoff faculties. Education, PhysEd, Arts.
Obama signed a bill ending “Nazi” benefit checks. I’m okay with that as long as Liberals and Democrats are next. Note that I am not against political parties, but rather I generally dislike people whose outlooks are so narrow that they can be fitted into such categories. Myself? If the world was me, there would be no need for political parties in the first place.
Another urban legend still making the rounds is how bombs can wipe mankind off the fact of the Earth. And variations on that theme. It isn’t true, there will always be survivors. We’ll lose those who live in neat concentric rings around big cities and there are some who think that isn’t such a bad idea. The point is, no way could there ever be enough bombs to directly find and kill every human being, even those hidden deep in caves. So if the people who say things like that would quit doing so, that’d be okay.
So, to wrap up this morning of my day off this week, here’s a famous quotation. When told her revolution was a success and she was about to become the most powerful woman on Earth, said Catherine the Great, “Whatever shall I wear?”
NOON
Ah, such a perfect day. Precisely 76° and perfect humidity. I took another 20 mile scooter ride, maybe I’ll do that again this afternoon. The only matinee at the Paradiso is about some swami and the other movie, about Iranian women’s rights, doesn’t show until nearly midnight. Did you know that in Iran, women are banned from attending men’s sporting events? The women seem okay with that, really.
According to Rotten Tomatoes, the two lowest ranked films this week are Woody Allen’s “Magic In The Moonlight” and yet another “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles” release. I’m curious how the critics were able to tell them apart. Get it? Tell them apart? That’s what I think of Woody Allen as an artist. Cartoon turtles. He seems to make movies for people who like having interpersonal problems.
Now what’s this? Dynamic pricing? It’s the first time I heard of it today. This is not Wal*Mart undercutting prices, but a system that changes the price on-line automatically based on factors such as supply and demand, popularity, and time of day. Best known defense? What I’ve advised people long before computers came along—don’t tell salespeople anything about yourself, insist on getting a price up front based on nothing but your inquiry. And LEAVE when they try to goad or embarrass you. “S’matter, son, you got something to hide?” I do now.
However, dynamic pricing in real time is only a step away. I prefer to call it manipulative pricing and it will affect others more than me. I’ll wait until I see it, but I expect it will take the form of an LED readout on the store shelf rather than a price tag. And RFID will record the price at the moment you remove the item from the rack and charge you that at the till.
The pricing for now is on-line, so clear your cookies every day and if you know how, use different IP addresses. There is no easy or free way to do that, but it works. Beware that using on-line “proxy servers”, which let you log on through the hosts IP address instead of your won, still depend on you trusting the host. I don’t. Most everything you need to know is at WhatIsMyIPaddress.
And gift cards? Don’t. Newest scam is the bad guy copies the card numbers on the rack before they are sold. When you activate the card (by giving out personal information), he cleans out your bank account. You think it’s bad now, just you wait until they outlaw cash.
I watched a video of a robot building frying pans. Workers of the world, you are doomed. And take a minute to watch this wire-bending machine in action. This isn’t even a robot, but it is computer controlled.
[Author's note 2015-12-19: I created that last link to the wire-bending machine before the video was monetized. I would not normally send my readers to a site with stupid advertisements. Unless I was advocating nutting the a-holes who place those ads.]
EVENING
The finish on the gun is not what caught my eye, but the company’s promise that you have never seen anything like it. That’s a tall order. Oh, and they are sold out, but you can put your name on their 2015 list. They produce ten of these per year.
Other unique aspects of this weapon are that it looks “permanently wet”, requires 70 journeymen tool makers to produce each unit, and it is doubtful any of the guns made so far have ever been fired.
Cabot will engrave your signature on the gun barrel as “a lasting testament to history”. The history of your $10,000 maybe?
Here’s some trivia. Before bell-makers discovered how to cast gun tubes, the original European cannons were made out of metal staves bound together by hoops. These were the same type of hoops used to make wine
Have you noticed MicroSoft's on-board thesaurus leaves out synonyms for all words they don't like to be called? "Stupid". "Moron". Etc
Today’s Togla Treat
From a Yuba, California, mug shot folder, meet Togla's mom.
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