Dancing with Dogs

Compassionate or stupid? Here is an "interesting" story from BoinBoing about a lady who let some poor kids in India play with her IPod and her companion told her it was cruel to let the kids see something they will never have....I really have to ask - first of all, are we still talking about India where street vendors conduct their business over the cell phone? The same India where practically every one either owns or has access to TV and movies that show every single possible luxury available to mankind?

Climate Change and the Hackers By now, this is yesterday's headlines that hackers have been into a lot of emails and data relating to climate change research (Click the link and read on up for more and more information and explanation of some terms in the emails and data).

Women, the expendable species! Federal panel recommends reducing number of mammograms - washingtonpost.com

Good God! I just really cannot add much to what Dr. Violet Socks already said in this eloquent post about a disgustingly inhumane gang-rape of a 15-year-old! Yep, let that sink in slowly....gang-rape of a 15-year-old! Makes me worry about what kind of a society I am trying to bring my daughter up in!

Breast cancer, runway models and the body image Did you guys know it was Breast Cancer Awareness month? Me neither - none of the pinkity-pink-pink things around me and the constantly badgering ads about "saving the ta-tas" tipped me off..really! </snark>

Onion Headline Comes to Life! What else can you say when somebody is awarded a Nobel F***ing Peace Prize for the "Bestest Intentions Evah!"? 

Give the women a break! A new mommy tax

Mexico's drug problem I have been a big fan of the "Freakonomics" book and follow the "Freakonomics Blog" religiously. They sometimes put out loony theories, but are mostly pretty sane. This post today though, just blew my mind...

The increased domestic competition in Mexico has pushed prices down, resulting in a large increase in Mexican drug addiction and the violence associated with it. Sadly, I imagine that the new giant border fence will make shipping drugs to the U.S. even more difficult and result in still more addiction -- and violence -- in Mexico.

So...I mean... Fun little column that points out how pretty much all techies start their sentences with "so...". I am a techie-geek myself and I find me catching myself doing this all the time. Of course, the first time I noticed this was when I was getting annoyed by another colleague who always started his sentences with "so..." to an extreme extent. Meetings would start off with, "so...". LOL!

YSR is still dead! I mean, yeah - he died yesterday. Good riddance, for all I care. But here is some news for the "gimme a frigging break" section - "30 YSR fans die of shock". I almost died of shock upon hearing the fact YSR has fans, leave alone fans crazy enough to die of shock!

Farm labourer Chinna Velugondarao, 30, of Podili in Prakasam district ended his life at Kambalapadu. A note was found in his shirt pocket which said, I am dedicating my life to YSR. Another person committed suicide in Unguturu in West Godavari, while toddy-tapper Kagita Rasalu, 22, slashed his neck with a knife at Chintalapudi. 

Reality and Perceptions Apparently, some "journalist" just realized that there is no Santa Claus - I mean, he realized that the doctor dramas on TV are not really like real life! (via Reason) Stop the presses! What a horror! Seriously, when did movies or TV every realistically portray anything? You mean, not all computer engineers are dorky geeks who down 5 cups of coffee a day and hide behind coke-bottle glasses while typing super-fast on UI-for-dummies? Whatever!

President Barack Obama still may push through an overhaul of the American health care system, but political indicators point to a needed overhaul of his own tactics for selling reform.

...

Mixed into that equation are the so-called Blue Dog Democrats -- a conservative wing of the party that in many ways shares reform reservations with Republicans. The Blue Dogs oppose Obama's call for a government-run insurance option. Their votes against the Obama plan could negate the overall Democratic majority.

The president argues that a public option would embrace those now without coverage, give others a choice beyond private insurance and, in theory, bring down the cost for everyone through competition from a nonprofit government program.

As the health care argument swirls during the August congressional recess, Americans have witnessed ugly and offensive attacks on the motives of Obama and those who support changing the system, even though it is held responsible for a majority of private bankruptcies in the world's No. 1 economy.

Can you see my problem with the article? Dude starts off with a fine premise - how Obama needs to change his tactics if he wants to get a bill passed. The problem is, nothing in the article suggests Obama is anything but an unwitting victim of everybody else's bad deeds. I am at the point where I am tired of people making excuses for the President. It is his Presidency - he is the leader - he better stand up and show some leadership...What is journalism coming to these days?

Shut your Facebook? Alrighty, then! File this under the category of, "Please don't talk about things you don't get", Mr. Watson! Via the Infocult blog (who has a nice little entry on this subject) comes this article from the NewYork Times about the supposed demise of Facebook. Sometimes I wonder if people do this sort of thing just to get some buzz generated and get a few more clicking over to see how someone this dumb can manage to remember to breathe on their own.

Monsters and their enablers It was hard to read the story of the 11-year-old California girl kidnapped and forced to bear the children of her kidnapper. What was even harder to imagine is that while we focus on the male monsters who make this happen, there is always inevitably a female enabler lurking in the shadows. Take the case of the Joseph Fritzl, who kept his daughter locked up in a dungeon and had 7 children with her - apparently his wife who lived with him in the house above the dungeon was completely clueless - doncha just love that defense! Elizabeth Smart's kidnapper had Wanda Lee. Practically all cases of little children being killed by step father or mother's boyfriends have been with the mothers practically feet away from the scene of murder/abuse.

How call centers should be done Here is an article from Business Week discussing how an American company is doing call centers right...in America. Surprising, but definitely heartening to learn that even in the so-called dead-end career of being a call center employee, you could luck out and find a company like the one described - one that provides universal health care, well-defined career paths and salaries up to $100,000. I wish all businesses, not just call centers would take a few lessons from the company's success and hopefully emulate it...

Outrageous outrage! Lol! First of all, let me share with you guys this youtube video I had posted on my Facebook a couple of days ago - I found it hilarious!