The Spiderbite Song ... is Wrong?

I happened upon a question at The Straight Dope (a terrific resource, by the way -- everyone should read it religiously) about spider bites. Knowing nothing whatsoever about spider bites or their results, and inhabiting a home with at least 6 varieties of spiders (none of which I can name; I simply describe them by what they look like to me: "little yellowish spider on the wall of the basement stairs," "small round black spider that sits in the center of it's web in the laundry room," etc.), I was interested. Was I, perhaps, in danger of being harmed by a spider bite?

Apparently not. According to Rick Vetter at the University of California - Riverside Department of Entomology, the vast majority of "spider bites" resulting in necrotic wounds are misdiagnoses, and are more frequently caused by bacterial infections and the like.

So, although one of my favorite songs from the Flaming Lips' album The Soft Bulletin is The Spiderbite Song, what almost caused the breakup of the band probably wasn't a spider bite at all.

A great idea that will never be adopted

The tyranny of the QWERTY keyboard is a relic of the mechanical shortcomings of the 19th century, when it was invented to slow down typists so that typewriter keys wouldn't collide and jam. Now, following in a long tradition of attempting to improve keyboard layouts -- the result of which has been almost zero adoption -- an electrical engineer named John Parkinson is introducing a new keyboard that puts the first half of the alphabet on the left side of the keyboard and the second half on the right side, separated by directional and punctuation keys (picture here). It will be demonstrated at the February 2006 Consumer Electronics show. Retail price is expected to be $70.

Of course, the first barrier to entry here for me is prying $70 out of my cheap little fingers. Then there is the time-cost of getting comfortable with a new keyboard layout. Two major barriers that likely will spell doom for yet another potential efficiency improvement in my life ...

Dell Hell, Redux

Megan McArdle writes of her troubles with Dell, which would be funny if they were not so close to the experiences many of us have with poor customer service from any number of big-name companies. The writeup is similar to the well-publicized dustup Jeff Jarvis had with Dell. These aren't the only two bloggers who have written up their customer service issues with Dell, but Jarvis is well-known in the blogosphere while McArdle is known among economics bloggers. In each case, Dell suffers from the broad audience that bloggers can reach, so that instead of telling their sad tales to a few friends and family members, Jarvis and McArdle are reaching thousands of people with their stories of customer service woe. Apparently, there is even a white paper on the impact of bloggers' "Dell Hell" stories.

The real question, though, is whether any of these stories cause customer service to improve, or whether they are just, as they say, pissing into the wind.

Bandow Canned Now

Following up a previous post, the conservative think-tank slimeball who got paid by Jack Abramoff to write op-eds favorable to his clients was suspended by Copley News Service, who distributed his column. One take, from Editor and Publisher:

Bandow has admitted that he took thousands of dollars from idnicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff to write columns favorable to his clients. He resigned from the Cato Institute yesterday and apologized for his "lapse of judgment."

National Society of Newspaper Columnists President Suzette Martinez Standring told E&P that what Bandow did "isn't a lapse in judgment, it’s soul-selling." She added, "With so much practice at tweaking copy for others, I’m sure the advertising industry will welcome him."

Cafferty Calls It

Better than I could. Jack Cafferty on The Situation Room:

Who cares about whether the Patriot Act gets renewed? Want to abuse our civil liberties? Just do it.

Who cares about the Geneva Conventions. Want to torture prisoners? Just do it.

Who cares about rules concerning the identity of CIA agents. Want to reveal the name of a covert operative? Just do it.

Who cares about whether the intelligence concerning WMDS is accurate. Want to invade Iraq? Just do it.

Who cares about qualifications to serve on the nation's highest court. Want to nominate a personal friend with no qualifications? Just do it.

And the latest outrage, which I read about in "The New York Times" this morning, who cares about needing a court order to eavesdrop on American citizens. Want to wiretap their phone conversations? Just do it. What a joke. A very cruel, very sad joke.

(link from Atrios)

No End to the Madness

Atrios links to a post at Washington Monthly that takes direct aim at GWB concerning his secret executive order allowing NSA spying on Americans:

According to the Times, "the Bush administration views the operation as necessary so that the agency can move quickly to monitor communications that may disclose threats to the United States." But this is just wrong. As I noted above, the law specifically allows for warrantless surveillance in emergencies, when the government needs to start surveillance before it can get a warrant. It explains exactly what the government needs to do under those circumstances. It therefore provides the flexibility the administration claims it needed.

They had no need to go around the law. They could easily have obeyed it. They just didn't want to.

It goes on and on.

Barbara Bush, Redux

Rereading the post below on Barbara Bush's jaw-dropper of 2005, I recalled that she had issued another (in)famous quote. Take your mind back all the way to March 18, 2003 (quote from www.snopes.com):

The remark in question occurred early in the three-way conversation, following a line of query directed at Mrs. Bush regarding whether she found herself studying her son for verbal or visual signs of how well he was holding up under the pressure. (Sawyer: "As a mother, do you watch for strain on him?") Mrs. Bush replied that she looked for such indications in all five of her children and remarked on the family's propensity for having hair that turns white earlier than is the norm. An additional query about whether the senior Bushes, who do not normally watch a great deal of television, found themselves watching more TV during this period than was their usual custom fetched from Mrs. Bush the quote that has since earned a measure of notoriety:

I watch none. He [former President Bush] sits and listens and I read books, because I know perfectly well that, don't take offense, that 90 percent of what I hear on television is supposition, when we're talking about the news. And he's not, not as understanding of my pettiness about that. But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many, what day it's gonna happen, and how many this or what do you suppose? Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? And watch him suffer.

(Emphasis added.)

Smoking Anti-Smoking

The city I live in recently adopted a smoking ban in all bars and restaurants. Pro-clean air (a/k/a "anti-smoking") advocates have rallied 'round the decision, while restaurant and bar owners have worked tirelessly to overturn the ban (if they haven't closed their establishments already).

Here's a person who is working to subvert Edmonton's similar ban, via parked smoking bus. Hat tip to Hit and Run for the link.

"Usually the way it works is people prostitute themselves after they become reporters."

That's a quote from the infamous Jeff Gannon. Turns out it not only applies to reporters, it also applies to op-ed writers from conservative think tanks. Not to mention Armstrong Williams, et al. Not to mention military authors of articles in Iraqi papers. Has there ever been an administration (and its "friends," like Jack Abramoff) that has gone to these lengths (and crossed this many ethcal boundaries) to control the message?

They've even got this guy at a conservative think tank who has no problem with it:

Bandow isn't the only think-tanker to have received payments from Abramoff for writing articles. Peter Ferrara, a senior policy adviser at the conservative Institute for Policy Innovation, says he, too, took money from Abramoff to write op-ed pieces boosting the lobbyist's clients. "I do that all the time," Ferrara says. "I've done that in the past, and I'll do it in the future."

Unbelievable.

Bush Wins!

Barbara Bush, that is. She has the #1 dumbest quote of 2005, according to Daniel Kurtzman at About.com. Just to refresh your memory (and mine):

"What I'm hearing which is sort of scary is that they all want to stay in Texas. Everybody is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway so this (chuckle) – this is working very well for them." --Former First Lady Barbara Bush, on the hurricane evacuees at the Astrodome in Houston, Sept. 5, 2005

Read 'em all.

Donald Rumsfeld Connect-the-Dots

USA Today reported on 12/14/05 that “[f]lu vaccine makers would be shielded from lawsuits under sweeping language Senate Republicans hope to slip into a bill before Congress adjourns for the year, a move that has sparked outrage from Democrats and consumer advocates.”

Here’s more:

Details of the vaccine liability plan were still being worked on Wednesday. One version would allow patients harmed by flu vaccines to sue drug companies and distributors for damages only if they can prove willful misconduct.

Sen. Edward Kennedy, D-Mass., and watchdog groups such as Public Citizen say that standard is too high and would effectively bar compensation to victims. They say the measure is so broad that it could apply to virtually any drug used to treat "epidemics," which could include such conditions as diabetes.

They contend that the federal government already has the power to protect drug companies and that patients harmed by flu vaccines should be treated the same as those injured by vaccines for measles, chicken pox and other childhood diseases. A federal "no-fault" program that went into effect in 1988 offers compensation for patients injured by childhood vaccines and is funded by a tax on every dose of the covered vaccines that are purchased.

Jillian Aldebron, a spokeswoman for Public Citizen, said that if the vaccine liability proposal had been law in 1976, 4,000 people who became ill after taking the swine flu vaccine would have had no recourse to seek compensation. Neither would military personnel and first responders who suffered heart attacks and other problems after taking smallpox vaccine in 2003, she said.

How is Donald Rumsfeld connected to any of this? Well, as it turns out, this provision could apply to any flu vaccine, depending upon the final language. Including Tamiflu, the influenza vaccine that is being dispensed right now all around the US to protect against seasonal flu. Who holds the patent on Tamiflu, you might wonder? That would be Gilead Sciences, Inc., whose Chairman from 1997 until 2001 was none other than current Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld. According to today's Roll Call (sub. req.), Rumsfeld remains a large shareholder of Gilead Sciences stock.

Elsewhere the USA Today article notes that “[a] vote could come as early as Friday, said Amy Call, a spokeswoman for Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., the plan's chief supporter. Frist hopes to insert the provision into a must-pass defense bill.” Clever! We must pass this defense bill, that (not-so-) coincidentally provides a liability shield to, among others, a company whose board was formerly chaired (and whose stock is still held in large quantity) by our current Secretary of Defense.

Sen. Frist seems to have a way with conflicts of interest involving stock holdings, doesn’t he?

"[P]eople who are late are often so much jollier than the people who have to wait for them." -- E. V. Lucas, 1868-1938

New Forms: I am very strongly considering changing the scope of this blog to be more like James Lileks' Bleats. I took a couple of weeks to check out a small but representative chunk of the blogosphere, and it turns out there are thousands of blogs out there that are better than mine for news, updates, etc. Plus, the Radio software (apparently) has a pretty good content aggregator that will allow me to stay plugged in to lots of resources much better than my own hasty scrounging around. So the thinking is that rather than aggregating some content here, I'll just provide my own commentary on whatever is the bee in my bonnet at the time. (Plus, as I've written before, ultimately this thing is a brain repository for me -- a place to put notes and commentary on things that interest me and that I might wish to return to some day in the near or distant future.) So there.

"Insanity is doing the same thing in the same way and expecting a different outcome." -- Chinese Proverb

Wireless number portability: Isn't it about way past time for this? And for keeping your number no matter which wireless carrier you use?

"The true division of humanity is between those who live in light and those who live in darkness. Our aim must be to diminish the number of the latter and increase the number of the former. That is why we demand education and knowledge." -- Victor Hugo

Bloggies voting still open: I'm late on this, but the nominations are in and the voting is open for the Bloggies, the third annual weblog awards.

A politician with a heart: Sen. Bob Graham of Florida was going to throw his hat into the ring, but instead will have surgeons throw out a piece of his heart (he will have aortic valve replacement). Your host, fkaJames, is also facing this surgery at some not-too-distant point in the future (though the projected date keeps slipping by a couple years with each visit to the cardiologist -- apparently the ol' ticker is able to compensate for its shortcomings better than anticipated). I don''t know what Sen. Graham is planning, but I've always felt that there were two songs that would be appropriate for the operating room during this surgery -- All of Me, and Piece of My Heart. Yes, I've given it some thought.

"We have a Bill of Rights. What we need is a Bill of Responsibilities." -- Bill Maher

McDonald's wins this one ... maybe: The judge threw out the "McDonald's food made me fat and sick" lawsuit, but said it could be reinstated under certain circumstances. This one should just go away.

Forget flat taxes -- let's make 'em progressive again: According to this Slate piece, taxes (in total, i.e., federal, state, local, etc.) are basically the same percentage of income, no matter how rich or poor you are. Back atcha, Steve Forbes.

Eldred FAQ: Here's a good idea to stem the tide of troubles emanating from the Supremes' ruling that copyright can continue for ridiculous periods (Volokh Conspiracy has a good overview of the outcome), courtesy of Larry Lessig, who argued Eldred.

This is brilliant: David Post argues that abortion is a local issue, like civil unions. How about like gun control? Let the municipalities decide what they want to do with abortions, with civil unions, and with guns -- don't make it an issue of national import. Sadly, the NRA has used the 2nd Amendment to keep the issue national in scope, thus making the debate, to take Post as my text, "completely unreasonable, on both sides, with otherwise sensible and decent people heaping contempt and hate upon those on the other side."

That Sen. Collins gets around: Another investigation instigated by Sen. Collins (R-Maine) turns up fake schools generating fraudulent requests for student financial aid.

The toothbrush?: Yes, the toothbrush has been designated the most indispensible invention among these 5: toothbrush, automobile, PC, cell phone and microwave. Not the most stellar crop of indispensible inventions (consider vaccines, electric light, the printing press, invasive surgery, pasteurization, and many others). Interesting to see both what MIT folks and CNN readers think is important.

"Hold yourself responsible for a higher standard than anybody else expects of you, never excuse yourself." -- Henry Ward Beecher (1813-1887)

Bush administration = in pockets of corporate lobbyists?: This sounds pretty mundane, but even the appearance of conflict of interest is just stupid. Plus, Ms. Victory comes off, at best, sounding like a cheapskate (i.e., a corporate attorney who can't afford to pay for her own party?) and a nincompoop (you know you're headed for a public position with disclosure requirements; why risk the appearance that you're in the pocket of lobbyists?).

Will the Segway fly?: Business Week says maybe not, joining a rising chorus.

Diplomas and transcripts are for framing & display only: This is not the most amazing piece of hoohah I have ever seen, but it's close. Here's what the index page says:

Avoid Phony Diplomas and Fake Degrees

Get a real college degree in 7 days, based on your life and work experience. Three years experience in a field qualifies you for a degree.

Our diplomas are printed on parchment paper. Both the transcripts and the diplomas carry an embossed seal.

Then, click on the link and you're taken to an order page, where it appears you can make up a diploma. You can even "[c]hoose the field of study and year for your Bachelors diploma." You can also add honors, if you're feeling really smart. In addition, you can purchase up to 8 semesters of transcript, complete with GPA! Then, way at the bottom, here's the disclaimer:

Diplomas and transcripts are for framing & display only

These college diplomas are being distributed to boost your confidence and esteem. By ordering a diploma or transcripts, you are certifying that you will not misuse the diploma, the listing in the Universities records or any other improper use. The Inter-Collegiate Joint Committee on Academic Standards and the accrediting agencies listed on the transcript forms are controlled by College Services Corp.

Please carefully review the information that you have entered, to make certain that there are no errors. When approved, this order form will be the source document that is used for the preparation of your diploma and other documents. We will E-Mail confirmation of receipt of your deposit within eight hours of receiving it. The E-Mail will confirm the total price and the amount to be paid upon delivery.

Degrees may not be obtained by residents in states where prohibited by law, including the states of MO and NV.

Turns out Senator Susan Collins doesn't agree that diploma mills should be in business and asked the GAO to investigate. Here's what the GAO had to say about degree mills. [via Volokh Conspiracy]

Now, it's personal: Verizon was ordered to turn over personal information about a file-sharer on its network who allegedly downloaded 600 songs in a single day. Score another one for the bad guys. (That means you, Hilary Rosen.) Will they ever get it? Also, I'm sick of all this "piracy" mumbo-jumbo spouted by the RIAA. You're a "pirate" if you buy a CD, burn copies, and sell them on eBay. If you buy the CD and "trade" what you have through a file-sharing network, you may be a swapper, but you're no pirate -- you gain no financial advantage from the swap. There may be an opportunity cost to the recording industry (I doubt it, as I personally have purchased more CDs in the past year than in any of the previous ten and -- not coincidentally -- I began using file-sharing services in the past year or so), but there is no definitive financial cost.

"Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity." -- Martin Luther King Jr.

"I was in shock": This story of the messed up mastectomy is pathetic -- a ridiculous mistake that should never, ever happen. The pathologist who made the mistake should face disciplinary action and have his or her work regularly checked. However, I'm troubled by the implicit idea of the woman's attorney, Chris Messerly, that some unlimited amount of damages should be in play. What are two breasts worth? What is brain damage worth? What is death of a spouse or loved one worth? Well, for starters, if your anticipated lifetime income is, say, $1,367,750 (that is, the national average annual income times your number of years worked, in this case 50, indicating you start working at 17 and retire at 67), I would think that would be the maximum amount you could sue for. Why should a medical mistake (admittedly, a terrible, stupid mistake, but not one that renders you incapacitated or in a vegetative state) be a financial boon beyond what you otherwise would have likely earned?

Further, I posit that the average annual lifetime earnings test would be reasonable no matter who is involved in a medical malpractice case like this. If Bill Gates went in for laser eye surgery and came out blind, he should be able to sue for up to $1,367,750 -- not $56 billion, or whatever his lifetime earnings will be. The award shouldn't be different based on the individual's income; rather, it should be based on the average person's income. Otherwise, the wealthy have the opportunity to sue for more based on their income than a lifetime McDonald's employee with exactly the same medical malpractice claim. I'll go farther with this another time.

Social Security fix: Nobel laureate and famed security market line guru Franco Modigliani has a better solution in the Sloan Management Review than any coming from the Bush administration.

Make it with an avocado: Here is more than you wanted to know about avocados. And here's still more.

"Since a politician never believes what he says, he is quite surprised to be taken at his word." -- Charles De Gaulle (1890 - 1970)

This one gets it: Ruben Navarrette Jr. gets the conscription proposal of Charles Rangel. Caspar Weinberger's take on it is so disingenuous as to be laughable.

Heard it for myself: This Rumsfeld atrocity is a couple days old, but I just heard it this morning on NPR. Completely amazing! Here are some opinions on it from local Minneapolis-St. Paul readers of the Strib, as published today:

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld says that the lack of evidence found by weapons inspectors in Iraq means "they could be hiding something." Does that logic then also dictate that the obstructionist nondisclosure of the participants and agenda of Vice President Dick Cheney's secret energy plan meetings could mean that an orgy of oil company executives met to plot the military domination of the world's supply of oil instead of coming up with a comprehensive plan to wean our nation of its dangerous oil addiction? -- Dan Brown, St. Paul.

Before weapons inspectors were sent into Iraq, the White House promised to go to war as soon as weapons of mass destruction were discovered in that country. Lately though, the talk has changed. The White House now promises war if Iraq cannot prove that it is weapons-free. Guilty until proven innocent. Just what would it take for Iraq to unequivocally prove its innocence? -- C. Turner, Mounds View.

Here's one last one, with a terrific conspiracy theory:

I'm surprised our leaders in the intelligence community haven't been able to put two and two together. Fact: U.N. weapons inspectors have been unable to uncover evidence of weapons of mass destruction. Fact: There is a mysterious hole in the ice of North Long Lake north of Brainerd. Surely these two phenomena are connected. Any true-blooded American with a minimal level of cultural literacy knows that cartoon villains such as the Joker, Lex Luther and Saddam Hussein possess a diabolical genius capable of carrying out such an evil plan. Where better to hide military contraband than in our own back yard? Perhaps our leaders will mistakenly assume they are part of our own arsenal. Why then, one might ask, have the divers been unable to locate this hoard? Clearly this further illustrates the level of Saddam's cunning. The only other explanation for the mystery at North Long Lake is that Dick Cheney's hideout is about to be revealed. -- Chuck Viren, Minneapolis.

Miss Drunk: This is stupid on so many levels I don't even know what to say.

The Bush Administration gets Boing-Boinged: Courtesy of a mysterious scarlet pimpernel, a fun way to catch up on stuff you didn't know (or maybe you did) about our pals in the highest levels of the current administration.

"All virtue is summed up in dealing justly." -- Aristotle

"Wait, it is rocket science!": This is another reason why I'll always be a satellite TV subscriber. Of course, the primary reason is that I acquired a deep distrust of cable companies when I worked (long ago) for a premium subscriber satellite provider now merged into the largest U.S. satellite television provider.

Doc Searls hits it on the head (as does John LeCarre): This juxtaposition of Bush's value system vis-a-vis human life is spot on. And LeCarre's article has already raised a "blogstorm" (that's my coining for a ruckus on blogs). What will the fallout be?

Thank you, may I have another?: Here's another great juxtaposition: Bush's stance on affirmative action vs. the way he became an Eli. Joe Conason is all over it.

"Patriotism is the willingness to kill and be killed for trivial reasons." -- Bertrand Russell (1872 - 1970)

Slate's BS-o-meter: Nice job in calling out both U.S. Education Secretary Rod Paige and the Bush Administration as a whole on the Bush tax plan.

This is cool: Dave Winer (the Radio Userland guy) is going to Harvard to be, essentially, Harvard's "blogger-in-residence" (coined by Glenn Reynolds at Instapundit). He also links to a cool paper on Personal Knowledge Publishing. Blogging becomes a realm of (formal) academic attention.

"Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?" -- Edgar Bergen (1903 - 1978)

Another Dem in the ring: Lieberman jumps in.