Another Korean War? Let's hope not.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shelling_of_Yeonpyeong

As if there isn't enough strife and violence in the world today.

Google, Android, Verizon, the US wireless market, and Net Neutrality

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/btl/google-raises-the-white-flag-on-transforming-the-us-wireless-industry/41996?tag=nl.e539

So the dream of having a European-style wireless market in the US was dealt a big blow by Google and it's new Nexus S phone.

This commenter sums it up best -

The only force that can transform consumer markets... is consumers. When consumers become educated and stop accepting crap from vendors for their money, things may change. Unfortunately the consumer has been conditioned to believe that they have no say and no power. This is made abundantly clear when you look at any number of vertical markets...software and airlines spring immediately to mind.

Consumers have been led to believe that they have no alternative but to accept whatever level of treatment the industry deems appropriate. They don't understand that "market-driven economy" doesn't mean "business-driven economy". Consumers are the market, business is the entity that serves the market.

Google, in developing Android, provided a tool for business to serve the market. It is ultimately up to the consumer to vote with their pocketbook which vendors are serving the consumer best.

I fear that this venture will further erode the possibility of Net Neutrality ever becoming a viable reality in the United States. Till people come to fully understand and realize the implications of what's going on and respond, I see the Internet going the way of network television - another controlled corporate product distribution system.

TSA's and their new 'scanners'.

http://johnnyedge.blogspot.com/2010/11/these-events-took-place-roughly-between.html

Mr. Tyner is brave guy. I applaud him for refusing to let the TSA search him or be subjected to Joe Lieberman’s scanners. I certainly won't let them use that technology or grope me or my family.

That means people like me and my family will avoid flying. I doubt I'm the only person who feels that way. I wonder if the travel industry is paying attention, just before the holiday season?

I wonder if there are any exemptions for government employees/officials, or people who enter the airport via the VIP entrance?

So why is the TSA pushing a technology on the public that would violate an individual's civil liberties, plus result in having their privacy violated, on a technology that doesn't work (or the simply be groped)?

Could it be that one of the people involved with the scanner company happens to be former Homeland Security head Michael Chertoff?

Seems to me the group benefiting from all this is the Rapiscan Systems with a guarantee of profits and future upgrades courtesy from the TSA.

(h/t here, and here)

If you ever wondered why people in the United States continually vote against their better interests ...

... like for example not putting up much of a real fight on things like, health care, perhaps it's because a percentage of them are conditioned to believe it's not important.

Conditioned you (may) say - how?

Well ...

Often times, the organizations that conduct such operations can be traced back to the very health care insurance companies that want to keep things as they are.

Case in point -

http://www.prwatch.org/node/9591
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/wendell-potter/why-i-will-stay-far-away_b_780961.html

"Few Americans know what a central role the health-insurance industry played in the fear-mongering and anger-mongering campaign against the Democrats' original vision of reform, which included a "public option" that would have competed against private insurance companies and which President Obama said early in the debate was necessary to "keep insurers honest."


Insurers were able to kill the public option and weaken the reform bill, but it couldn't kill it. Despite conventional wisdom, insurers didn't want to kill it because the requirement that all Americans buy private coverage if they're not eligible for a public program like Medicare and Medicaid will ensure their profitability for years to come.

They do, however, want to weaken the bill further, which is why the industry funneled millions of policyholders' premiums this year into the campaigns of Republican candidates and round-the-clock advertising based on lies about the new reform law. "

And it's not like there isn't socialized healthcare in the US? The VA? When you hear some politician railing about the evils of socialized medicine (usually reading the insurance talking points) in the US, remember, that person has their health coverages handled and paid for the by the taxpayer.

Seriously, unless one has lived in a country where healthcare isn't tied your employer or the healthcare provider itself, people in the US have truly no idea how they are fucking themselves repeatedly out of something every person should have - good quality healthcare.

CBC asks: Who's the best NHL coach ever?

Process of elimination is the answer here.

First – eliminate people who weren’t good coaches. That's an obvious point, though it's no surprise that person is on there, considering the CBC is his fucking employer.

Second, eliminate any active coaches (because their careers are still a work in progress). Babcock is out.

Third, eliminate any coach who didn’t win a Stanley Cup. Gone are Neilson, Reay, and Quinn.

Fourth, I rule out any coaches who didn’t win at least four cups (i.e. repeated success). That leaves Irvin, Arbour, Bowman, Blake, Sather, and Imlach. Arbour, Imlach, and Sather’s success were with one team, so they are out. I would’ve eliminated Blake here, but his successes span more than ten years (plus he did win some cups as a player).

That leaves Irvin, Blake and Bowman. Irwin and Bowman both have long coaching careers, but Bowman has a better record of success, and Blake has won more cups. Since Irvin doesn’t match up to either individually, he’s out.

Finally we have Blake and Bowman. While Blake’s success is phenomenal, it was part of a dynasty, and all with one team. Bowman is really the guy who demonstrated repeated success over a long term, across many teams.

Scotty Bowman is the winner.

The coolest organizational chart, predating the 1980's!

Whenever I watched The Godfather, Part II, I always tried to pause it here to see this chart. I'm glad someone out there was able to find it.

On this day, Sesame Street debuted 41 years ago.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sesame_Street

Original run	November 10, 1969 – present

It largely died sometime in the 1990's sometime after Jim Henson's death.

It's amazing to me how a show I grew up on has changed so drastically in the last 20 years to become something I don't even recognize.

All the humor, wittiness, and sense of enjoyment is lost today on idiot characters like Elmo, Abby Cadabby, and Zoe, largely in a effort to market and Elmo's world is turning current toddlers into future morons.