… of an Interface I ever heard:
“It knows what it wants to do, but you have to tell it how.”
Category: Uncategorized
Honest People Have Nothing to Hide
I’m getting better at not inviting confrontation, but sometimes it makes itself impossible to ignore.
Last week, someone whom, shall we say, I don’t consider a friend contacted me out of the blue to see if I’d be willing to loan out some fairly expensive (about $300 worth) equipment.
What made this a strange request is that she was planning to pass my property along to someone else – and consistently refused to give me his name or contact information.
She was also not willing to arrange a time/place for the three of us to meet, throwing up numerous obstacles that made no sense, like “he works during the day”.
The whole thing smelled like a scam, and I called her on it, not accusing her of dishonesty, but presumption.
I haven’t heard back from her, and just as well if I don’t.
The Insanity Defense
I’ve always had a problem with defendants who plead insanity, especially in murder trials.
This item from today’s Cape Cod Times made me feel a little better:
According to a study by the U.S. Department of Justice in 2003, an insanity defense is used in less than 1 percent of all homicide cases.
Of those cases in which an insanity defense is used, fewer than 12 percent result in a verdict of not guilty by reason of insanity.
12 percent of 1 percent is still too many, but thank goodness it isn’t more.
Income Disparity in NE
According to the Carsey Institute at UNH, the gap between rich and poor from 1989 to 2004 grew faster in New England than anywhere else in the country.
This is due to what the Institute’s researchers call the “hollowing out” of the middle class, a direct result of the offshoring of manufacturing jobs.
My Truck is Carbon Neutral
Yesterday, I bought a road TerraPass.
This program offsets the carbon dioxide emissions of vehicles, airplanes and home energy sources by funding alternative energy projects, like wind energy.
The TerraPass website calculates the emissions, then figures out the contribution needed to offset that amount of CO2 pollution. For my truck, it works out to about 12,000 pounds of CO2 a year, a pound per mile.
I found out about the TerraPass program at work: their hosting company is a corporate member.
A study published earlier this year estimated that servers, including cooling and auxiliary infrastructure, consume 1.2% of the total electricity in the US – about the same as color televisions.
Birthday Retrospective
Another year of adulthood, completed.
At least for the nonce, I’ve kept dementia at bay, and am still able to get up when I’ve fallen down.
I have not confused the accelerator with the brake pedal on my truck.
Liza Minnelli and I are exactly the same age.
We share a birthday with Jack Kerouac and the Girl Scouts.
I’m Glad My Granddaughter Plays Video Games
She also likes math. Maybe some day she’ll be a developer.
Percentage of women in the following professions:
Doctors: 25%
Lawyers: 24%
Programmers: 5%
Firefighters: 2%
Still Doesn’t “Get It”
I’m in the minority who didn’t vote for Deval Patrick and, given his track record in the first nine weeks in office, think my judgment was right.
Whether or not you agree with the finer points, Governor Patrick managed to stir up a lot of contention with a number of decisions to do with personal style: the lease of an expensive car, the hiring of a political supporter as his wife’s chief of staff, an “improper intervention” in a financial deal involving Ameriquest Mortgage, on whose board the governor served.
This week, he got involved in a federal matter concerning the arrest and possible deportation of some 300 illegal workers in New Bedford, people who worked under horrendous conditions but were nonetheless in violation of this country’s laws.
One cannot help but wonder if the governor would personally intervene in a case involving an ordinary citizen who was arrested for criminal activity and whose children were relegated to the not especially tender mercies of the DSS, especially if that citizen wasn’t represented by a powerful and well-funded lobby, as seems to be the case with illegal aliens.
Money Matters
I attended part of the town’s school committee meeting last night. Prior to the meeting, I got to chat with the elementary school principal and two members of the Finance Committee, including the chairman.
I knew that the elementary school has the lowest rate of absenteeism in the district, even though class sizes are probably double what they should be for early childhood education.
I learned that they also have the highest rates of volunteerism in the district.
Those are indications of a good administrator. Besides, she’s a fan of my youngest grandchild who, by the way, loves his school.
Wake-up Call Long Overdue
From this morning’s Boston Herald:
SALEM – A mother who prostituted her 8-year-old daughter to a man in exchange for crack cocaine was sentenced Friday to 15 to 18 years in state prison.
Mary Jean Armstrong, 38, was charged with seven counts each of child rape and indecent assault and battery, two counts of inducting a minor into prostitution and other child-abuse charges.
Armstong later told police her daughter had been molested as many as 50 times in a two-year period.
Police began investigating in 2004 after a rapist, Richard Lapham, showed photographs of him raping the victim to an acquaintance who later stole those photos and handed them over to police. Lapham is now serving a 15- to 18-year prison sentence.
When investigators searched Lapham