August 15, 2010 by mike.

Why didn’t I think of that?

clipped from laptopburka.com Laptop Burka, Inc., is an owner-operator company in the Pacific Northwest. Inventor and entrepreneur Marc Johnson devised Laptop Burka after he grew frustrated with ineffective methods of reducing glare on laptop screens. Nothing lived up to the potential claimed by the latest hype from operating systems or clumsy external devices. Laptop Burka does the hard work other antiglare devices just can’t do. And it works with any laptop computer, and with any ordinary hat. Since it’s made from high-quality, breathable, lightweight fabric –you take it anywhere, anytime.

Posted in Defies Categories, Small Foot Print | Print | 1 Comment »

July 27, 2010 by mike.

What is wrong with this picture?

I guess freedom of religion means you can be baptist, episcopalian, lutheran, even catholic, but muslim?

Sharia law, that’s what the US should be worried about?

clipped from slatest.slate.com Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Says Religious Freedoms May Not Apply to Muslims At a recent event, Tennessee Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey questioned whether the Constitution’s guarantees of freedom of religion applies to Muslims, reports�Talking Points Memo. When he was asked about the “threat that’s invading our country from the Muslims,” Ramsey expressed support for Constitutional protections of religious expression�but questioned whether Islam could really be considered a religion. “Now, you could even argue whether being a Muslim is actually a religion, or is it a nationality, way of life, cult whatever yo want to call it,” he said. “Now certainly we do protect our religions, but at the same time this is something we are going to have to face.” The questioner was likely referring to a controversy over a new Muslim community center, and Ramsey used the opportunity to drum up fear that it would send the United States one step closer to accepting Sharia law.

Posted in Defies Categories, News, Politics | Print | 1 Comment »

July 20, 2010 by mike.

Good news and bad news. Good news is that BP may have a plan to address the eco-disaster they have created, the bad news is that the BP plan may rely on Photo Shop.

clipped from www.americablog.com clipped from www.americablog.com Monday, July 19, 2010 BP photoshops fake photo of crisis command center, posts on main BP site by John Aravosis (DC)  on 7/19/2010 10:37:00 PM   Bumped UPDATE: 11:14PM Eastern: BP has now posted the “original” photo, they claim. Except - surprise - they are refusing to post the high-resolution version of the new “original” photo. They posted the high-res version of the altered photo earlier, and in fact, that version is still live via a link below the new photo. Why not post the high-res version of the new “original” photo? Afraid someone is going to enlarge it and find out it’s fake too? UPDATE 10:37PM Eastern: The Washington Post has the story now. Oddly, BP is now claiming that the photo is real - but it showed blank screens, and rather than show blank screens at AP’s crisis center, they instead put fake content-filled screens in the photo. Uh, a few questions. 1) Why were the screens in the crisis center blank in the middle of the crisis? Coffee break? 2) The BP spokesman claims that the photographer photoshopped the changes. Really? A professional photographer hired by BP Photoshops so poorly that a 12 year old kid could do a better job. Really? Let me show you what BP said exactly, and then the photo that supposedly this “professional” edited: Scott Dean, a spokesman for BP, said that there was nothing sinister in the photo alteration and provided the original unaltered version. He said that a photographer working for the company had inserted the three images in spots where the video screens were blank. Now here is the Photoshop job that the “professional” photographer did - this is just one part of the photo that he screwed up:

Posted in Defies Categories, Eco Criminals, News, Politics, Small Foot Print, Connect the Dots, Global Warming | Print | 1 Comment »

July 22, 2009 by mike.

I have a theory about police work and social work.  Here it is:  if you want to be a police officer, you have to train as a social worker and work as a social worker for five years before you can become a police officer.

In order to balance the job market, anyone interested in becoming a social worker would have to work as a police officer for five years after completing their MSW.

That would mean that a lot of us would end dealing with an authoritarian social worker who would yell at us, threaten to knock us down and rough us up if we did not make change quickly.  That might not be an altogether bad thing.

It might also mean we would end up with cops who would pull us over for speeding, or not using our blinkers, or making too many lane changes and they would sit down in the car with us and say things like:  I am worried about you, I think what you did back there was dangerous.   What were you thinking about?   Let’s talk about the important people in your life, how would they do if you were killed in an auto accident?  Do you have anything important that you need to say to your friends and family?  Have you said it?   because I am worried about you, you are driving like a person with a death wish.   If a miracle happened and everything was just the way you want it, what would the speed limit be?

And then, I guess, hey, our time is up for now.  You want to meet here again next week?  Great, let’s think about this situation.  I am not going to write you up this time.  Give me a hug, big guy.  Take care of yourself now.  Don’t hurt anybody, including yourself.

Posted in Defies Categories, Humor, Connect the Dots | Print | 1 Comment »

June 20, 2009 by mike.

They don’t know they’re dumb. They’re everywhere.

Well, that’s a little uncharitable, but also a bit funny.

What is also funny is that there is a study that explains how dumb people can’t figure out they are dumb. It’s known as the Dunning Kruger effect.

I think this explains so much about trickle down economics and the foreign policy expertise that has the US fighting wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan today.

clipped from en.wikipedia.org The Dunning-Kruger effect is an example of cognitive bias in which “…people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it”[1]. They therefore suffer an illusory superiority, rating their own ability as above average. This leads to a perverse result where people with less competence will rate their ability more highly than people with relatively more competence. Across four studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. They won Ig Nobel Prizes in Psychology in 2000 with their report Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One’s Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments.

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